checking in

photo by Cody Chan

“It is never the wrong moment to ask, what am I feeling? and /or what do I need? Checking in with ourselves is never the wrong call.” – Dr. Glenn Patrick Doyle

Ah good morning. Happy first day of school to some of you out there and to the rest of you, happy day! I woke up to an alarm and once downstairs, to the sight of animal barf, some of which was in my daughter’s Birkenstock. Sounds like the beginning of a Mary Oliver poem, doesn’t it?

But, alas here we are, the dawn of a new school year, the promise of fresh starts and new beginnings. These transitions, these bridges from one chapter to the next, can feel a bit jarring to the system. I will miss sleeping in but am looking forward to more of a routine again (really, I am, I swear). Boring and less spontaneity certainly, but good for my mental and emotional health.

Speaking of which, I watched the Simone Biles documentary on Netflix and while I know this is shocking to no one, she is such a bad ass! And not because she is one of the best athletes of all time, I mean that too obviously, but I am most wowed by what an absolute champion for mental health she is. The fact that she took time off to heal and go to therapy after Tokyo, that she meditates and prioritizes her mental and emotional health daily and discusses it openly. She is my kind of shero!

She’s been though a lot and still she rises.

When I think about how I prioritize my mental and emotional health, at the top of my list is: having fun, connecting with people I love, sleep, exercise, deep breaths, taking medication, not engaging in political debates, time to create, write, and read, and space to simply be.

Yesterday morning, I stared at the lilies on the kitchen counter for a few minutes. It was like a mini meditation, or a total daze and it may have been alarming if you happened to walk into the kitchen and see me staring wistfully off into space. But really, I was appreciating the various hues of violets and whites on the petals and the delicate sweet smell wafting in the air.  It was much more appealing than the aroma of sleeping sardines in a can which are often present in my kitchen.

I heard Ina Garten on The Wiser Than Me podcast with Julia Louis-Dreyfus about switching careers because she wasn’t having fun anymore and she’s motivated by fun. Aren’t we all?

That’s what I’m thinking about today; how to keep having fun now that the summer is shifting to fall (I know, I know lucky Northeasterners and Europeans that you aren’t there yet but in Fl, we put up decorative leaves and pumpkins in August) and how to prioritize mine as well as my family’s mental and emotional health. One way I do this, actually, is by not putting up fall décor until it is actually fall.

 

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