Monday Brainstorming

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.

This is the time of the waning crescent "balsamic moon" - the final yin phase, a pause that marks the end point in this cycle. Now we can ease off a bit on actively pursuing goals, slow down, go within, and attend to inner work, renewal, and self-care.

Agenda:

1. Renewal brainstorm

2. Read "Tiny Habits"

3. New habits ideas

4. Healthy snack habit

5. Giving each thing a home

1. Renewal brainstorm:

Every month before the New Moon, I take some time to think about self-care, renewal, and "sharpening the saw"; that is, I look at my whole Being, and how I can live with more balance and resilience.

I try to renew all four dimensions of my life (body, mind, heart, and spirit), as Stephen Covey taught: I spend about an hour each day on a combination of physical, mental, and spiritual regeneration activities, plus work to improve my social skills and relationships. Today I will review how I'm doing, and make note of new ideas for the month ahead.

My ideas for September:

Body & Discipline: 

• Stand Strong work out every morning; 
• Plan and prepare healthy lunches, snacks, dinners;
• Drink 4 glasses of water daily.
• Daily hygiene, including moisturizing
• Dentist appointment
• Better budgeting and saving

Mind & Vision: 

• Research and write about Nature-Culture;
• Study qualities of curiosity, courage, renunciation, kindness and ease.
• Habit-building (for flow, health habits, equanimity skills, beingness, finishing things, and preparedness);
• Practice watercolor skills;
• Teaching - painting skills, reading...

Spirit & Ethics: 

• Enjoy nature daily with photos and grubbing; 
• Beingness routine + Flow routine
• Weekly "New narrative" for creative shifts in awareness;
• Receptivity theme: Practice being open and available, and caring for what comes. 

Heart and passion: 

• Anger and calm journal and exercises from book.
• Be in the moment with my grandsons;
• Continue to understand neurodiversity
• Kindness practices
• Clearing stuff as a love practice

2. Read "Tiny Habits":

I'm reading this book by BJ Fogg (2020), with the subtitle of "The Small Changes That Change Everything". This is the scripting process introduced in Sweet Spot, expanded on.

Chapter Four is Prompts are the Invisible Drivers of Our Lives, because no behavior occurs without one. The world is filled with them - and it's time to take the power of prompts back. "...motivation and ability exist on a continuum, but prompts are black-and-white." You either notice it or you don't.

Inner prompts and person prompts are sometimes useful, but action prompts are Anchors for new habits, because they are already built in to my day. I just need to find the right sequencing in which to insert a new habit.

In order to create a successful recipe I need to match the anchor prompt moment with the physical location, the frequency, and the theme/ purpose of the new habit, so that the two become hard to separate, and then be sure that the new habit is so tint it won't be hard to follow through with.

3. New habit brainstorm:

Last week I made a list of ideas for new habits and steps, and today I will add to them:

• Exercising: Always start with some gentle neck and back stretches. On days I backslide I can all least do those.
• Healthy snack habit: Choose to learn and make one new healthy snack each week - plan a new snack on Monday and make it on Tuesday.
• Clearing the studio: Anchor it to right after morning hygiene as part of Art Prep routine: Make coffee, gather supplies, go to studio, then clear 10 things.
• Afternoon flow routine: Stick to 5 things, done within 1 hour following my nap.

4. Healthy snack habit:

This month I've set my diet as a priority, with the top row being vegetables, healthy snacks, and N-R-G drinks. I made a weekly schedule, and Monday is my day to plan my snacks and lunches for the week, including some healthy baking. (Tuesday I will prepare the snacks).

To make this habit easy, I've decided to learn and make one new healthy snack each week, and add it to my Favorite Healthy Snack List. A healthy snack includes a fruit or a veggie:

• Grapes, peaches,
• Sweet fruit yogurt
• Crackers and hummus
• Bagels, goat cheese, and tomato or avocado
• Carrot sticks with lemon juice
• Tomatoes and cottage cheese
• Apples and peanut butter
• Lightly pickled beets

This week: Pickled beet sticks

1. Remove the stems from the beets. 
2. Bring the beets to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until they’re fork-tender. 
3. Create the brine: 1/4 c. white vinegar, 1/4 c.water, 2-3 tsp.sugar, a pinch of salt and pepper -  bring it to a boil, then remove from heat. 
4. Peel the beets and slice them into sticks and place in a jar. 
5. Pour the brine over the beets, and place the lid on the jar. 
6. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

5. Giving Each Thing a Home:

I'm still working to find a zen balance of order that feels good. I have asked myself "Why am I holding on to so much stuff - how can I make letting go super easy? How can I make sorting fun again?"

My current clearing plan is to tackle one room-clearing task, one outdoor-clearing task and one studio task each week. This week I plan to:

• Sell some books 
• Organize shed shelves
• Studio: Give away some canvases (clear big shelf)

My weekly rhythm + extras is:

• M: Recycling + studio
• T: Garbages 
• W: Sort clothes and give some away  Studio                                   
• Th: In-basket, papers, books                                   
• F: Organize shed shelves
• Sat: Sell books + give away canvases          
• Sun: Zen tidy in living room