Wednesdays are hard. Today my first meeting was 8am and my last meeting ended at 8pm. In the middle there, I had to go get groceries, put them all away, cook some food for the week and now it’s 8:37 and I feel beat.
I noticed this last Wednesday so this week I chose to exercise in the morning instead and now I am tired but I am grateful for the decision I made this morning to get out of bed and exercise.
The evening me is thanking the morning me.
I think paying attention to the flow of the days, hours, weeks and months is something I haven’t done enough of and when I do I see benefits pretty quickly. There’s so much good in going with the flow vs trying to swim upstream.
Yes to paying attention and yes to working with what is.
To ensure I can keep my word close all year, I take @aliedwards One Little Word class. It’s a class that has monthly prompts to help keep your word front and center.
The February prompt is one of my favorites. It’s to make a vision board and this month is led by the magical @lucrecer who is so inspiring.
I used to do this project by hand but I don’t own any magazines and it is challenging for me to find images so a few years ago I decided to use pinterest to collect images and quotes that are meaningful for me and then use them to make a digital collage.
I love doing this process each year and a huge side benefit is that I can then print it and glue it to my journals throughout the year. But the best part, for me, is that I also make it the background and screensaver for my computers. Since I am on the computer all the time for work, I get to see and be inspired by my word all day long.
I love having all the layers and discovering some detail each time I look.
Yes to being inspired. Yes to creating tangible reminders of my word. Yes to connecting with why I wanted yes as my word and what I want to say yes to in my life!
Some awesome positive steps today! First of all, still doing the meditation first thing in bed and that’s working so far.
Second, this morning I attempted to exercise in the AM and managed to finish the 4 classes and shower and journaling all before my 9am meeting. Which made me feel like a rock star so I plan to keep trying that for as long as I can pull it off. Getting the hard part done makes the day feel so much better every time.
Grateful to be journaling again too. It never ever fails to be immediately useful. And grounding. The opera continues to fill me up.
So today was a positive day, this project still feels ambitious and we’ll see how sustainable it is but I am feeling grateful so far. Learning a lot about what works and what’s hard.
Also learning that stacking a bunch of 10-min tasks feels exponentially easier for me than commiting to a 45-minute task. Likely psychological but still.
Today was the second day of my 100 day project. Since I am already doing year of yes here, I started @karenikadoeswellness just to track that particular project which is more about focusing on different types of what I consider to be wellness for the next 100 days.
I looked over my list yesterday as I was asking my friend Kelly for more ideas on things to feed my soul. And she suggested listening to more classical music or opera and lighting candles. So this morning I put on some Pavarotti, lit a delicious candle, and journaled.
It was the most excellent way to start my day. It filled my soul up all the way.
Yes to music, yes to journaling and yes to focusing on wellness. Thank you Kelly!
I helped kickstart the meditation today by doing it first thing when I woke up. which then helped me get on a good cycle and I was able to do journaling and listening to some wonderful opera. Continuing on that good cycle I managed to do art, All before work started.
So soul work went well today. So did nutrition and exercise. I did wonder if there’s a way I can slowly move more of my exercise to the morning too but for now I’m really enjoying getting to lie in bed early in the morning instead of feeling the urgency to get up and exercise. A slow start is good for my soul.
So far so good with this project, it’s managing to encourage me to do more of what I want without making me feel pressured.
Weekly Intention: Ok my weekly intention this week is to journal more, be more present to where I am and what I crave.
This month’s intention is:February: Yes to the Unknown: Be open to new things this month. Listen more, watch others. Be willing to take some steps into the unknown and assume the best. Be brave. Well new things are happening at work whether I am open to it or not, so I might as well lean in and listen and learn.
One way I will leap this week: The 100-days of radical wellness is going to continue to be a leap.
One boundary I will set this week: I am going to do a better job with my mornings and I will not even look at my phone until I’ve meditated.
One area where I will go deeper this week: journaling
What do I need to sit with this week? the stories I am telling myself. I want to write them down.
I am looking forward to: starting to journal
Focus onCore Desired Feelings (lighter, kinder, enough, magic, wild): i love my new inspiration board. Isn’t it lovely?
This week’s challenges: This is my first week being the only one at work to support both, we’ll see how it works.
Top Goals:
Work: talk to L, help kickstart NBU, make a plan for L/D.
Personal: continue to tinker with and edit plan
Family: take walks with J. do one thing with N and do one thing with D.
This week, I want to remember: how grateful I feel in this moment
After taking almost all of January off, hubby and I went climbing again today. The rock we usually climb on has three faces (at least if you don’t want to be near anyone, which we don’t). One face is super easy, and we did it many times last year, the other one is our most recent route that we’ve done 3-4 times and the third we’d never done before today.
When we got there, others were already doing the route we usually do, so we got adventurous and did the third face we’d never done. This required taking our shoes off and crossing a small river. Very cold water.
It also required just going for it and seeing what we could do since we had no idea what the rating was and if we would be able to climb it.
But we did. Several times.
It was hard, refreshing, invigorating. On the way home, we got to see an incredible sunset and I was feeling a deep sense of contentment and joy.
Fresh air, new adventures, exercise, and time with my husband. A perfect afternoon.
Yes to adventures. Yes to trying new things and taking chances. Yes to time together. Yes to nature.
And here we go! Day one of the 100 day project. I really wasn’t sure what I was going to do this year but then this idea of radical wellness came and wouldn’t let go.
So I did some journaling I did some testing and here we are.
My plan is here is to focus on five areas to help me walk towards practicing radical wellness: movement, nutrition, mind, body and soul.
I have a list of items in each area that I track daily in a spreadsheet but really the goal is to move at least 45 mins a day, eat more veggies+protein+fiber and drink more water, take care of my skin and teeth and spend time reflecting, learning, connecting and being creative.
The goal is not to do everything every day, it’s to do more of these things each week. So the tracking is to help me get a variety and have discipline but it’s not there to make me feel shame or blame.
We’ll see how it feels a few weeks in and I know it might be too complicated but I am super excited about it and that’s all that matters to me!
The Best Part of this Week: The best part of this week was sitting through the parent teacher conferences on Friday and hearing all the wonderful things my kids are doing.
I celebrate: one of my co-workers left this week, which was very sad, but we celebrated him with an impromptu chat on video and it was fantastic.
I am grateful for: going climbing after taking a long break and getting back on the bike too!
This week, I exercised: I did so much exercise this week! 50 mins of core exercises, 50 mins of arms exercises, 40 mins of other strength classes, 60 minutes on the bike, 35 minutes of yoga, 15 minutes of HIIT, 50 minutes of stretching, 2 hours of walking, and 3 hours of climbing!
This week, I said yes to: going climbing!
I said no to: going harder on the bike so I could make sure to heal.
I honored my values (love, learn, peace, service, gratitude): my 100 days of radical wellness plan is helping here. Thinking about these more.
Top Goals Review:
Work: started changing cal, wrote down what to talk to L, started next steps for NBU.
Personal: started new plan
Family: took walks with J. spent time with kids each day just listening but I need more here.
My mood this week was: present.
I am proud of: all the exercise I did this week.
I release: all the work i didn’t manage to finish this week
Here’s what I learned this week: that I can trust myself.
“Here is my thesis, and it will not be the last time that I tell you this: You are going to die. I will, too. We have to make choices about time because we have the nite gift of one existence. You should make your art.”
This book is written for artists. Even though the author does an excellent job defining what an artist, I couldn’t decide if I was one or not (which maybe means I am not), but I decided to put that aside and just enjoy her solid advice.
“The more you give time and resources to your art, the more you’ll understand paid employment as something that supports your art and life. We get this backward, thinking that we are on the planet to work and earn money. Let’s ip it—we earn a living to pay for our lives.”
The book is divided into different sections that cover different areas of worry: time, work, asking, money, fear, grief, other people, education, thinking+feeling, isolation, marketing, death+god. Each section dives deep into that area and explores what is holding the artist back and gives ways to shift that thinking.
“It is said that we are not responsible for our first thought. We are responsible for our second thought and our first action…Our first thought could be steeped in fear, judgment, old thought patterns, and stories; perhaps it’s distinctly someone else’s voice—an ex, a family member, an authority figure from long ago. We’re not responsible for that first bullshit thought. We are responsible for our next thought, the second thought, which we consciously conjure in response to that first thought. Then, we’re responsible for our first action.”
There is so much gold in this book. Regardless of if you’re artist or not, I am convinced you will get solid value out of this book. And if you’re an artist, you might get even more. Above all, the author makes this excellent reminder (you can substitute “your art” with anything else that’s meaningful to you):
“Your life is finite, and you should make your art. Things will get in the way and you should still make your art.”
with gratitude to netgalley and chronicle books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
