Monday for New Habits

Monday is my day to reset for the week and get my ducks in a row - make some plans for health and home, and how I will step up for the Natural Living Challenge.

Agenda:

1. Read "How to Keep House While Drowning"

2. Giving Each Thing a Home

3. Self-care

1. Read "How to Keep House While Drowning":

I got this little book by KC Davis (2020) from the library a couple of years ago and thought I'd like to review it this month. It covers all kinds of care tasks - cooking, cleaning, laundry, dishes, and hygiene - and explains how overwhelm and energy fatigue can so easily stop you from carrying them out successfully, and why that failure brings such a baggage of shame.

Her philosophy is "You don't exist to serve your space; your space exists to serve you. ... There is a big difference between being on a journey of worthiness and being on a journey of care."

Chapter 5 is Gentle Self Talk. Keeping in mind that care tasks are morally neutral, I can choose how to feel about doing them or not doing them. Instead of saying to myself, "I'll never get this in any kind of order" I can choose to say "What a gloriously abundant stockpile!"; "This table looks like it belongs a creative person."

2. Giving Each Thing a Home:

My house care theme for the month is Basic Care and Zen Order. This means do the basics each week (sweeping, dusting, etc.) and find a zen balance of order that feels good.

I've developed a new 2-step Order Plan:

1. Each day before my nap take 10 minutes to tidy one area or box; gather all Homeless Items on the kitchen table. Make a quick list of places these items should or might live.
2. Each afternoon, find spots for Homeless Items  - make sure to leave abundant roominess!

This week I plan to:

• Sort through miscellaneous box on the ironing board. 
• Gather all the cardboard boxes and store in the shed or recycle.
• Sort through the papers in the crate shelf and refile or toss.
• Sort the paper plate box, and shrink down.

3. Self-care:

I need some gentle self-talk around self-care too. As I age, and my body thickens and weakens, I feel myself being pretty hard on myself.

I've got a solid habit for daily exercise with my Stand Strong routine, and good mental health habits - gardening, and plenty of time for writing. Now if I could only regulate my intake of water and better snacks. Ideas:

• Snacks: Get my favorite hummus, fig bars, cottage cheese, sweet yogurt, egg salad, and roasted almonds.
• Build in 3 water breaks each day.
• Plan better lunches: Quiche, tuna, avocado...