Happy Saturday!
I'm trying this new thing where I always have 3 sections to the newsletter so that you can expect a little more what's-a-comin' down the newlsetter choo choo train. 🚂
Did that train analogy make any sense? Almost certainly not, but I'm in a total late night work flow sprint and it's 2:30am, so that's what you get.
Here we go!
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Behold! The mighty sticky note! (2 min)
As you should know as a reader of this newsletter, for 2018 I am exploring a daily practice in relaxation — of mind, body, spirit and whatever else I deem it to mean.
What's been keeping me going? In large part, this singular sticky note:
Simple? Yes. Effective? Yes!
This little note has given me a surprising amount of encouragement over the past 10 weeks already. If I had to quantify...at least 20x it's helped me catch tension in my body when making my coffee or doing the dishes. And at least 15x it's helped me to chill out and shut my mind off when I notice I'm in a funk in the kitchen. One time, it even helped me to avoid a fight with Bridge. Pretty good for a lowly sticky note!
Related 3 min read: Learning through visual cues
See what you might put on your own sticky note this month :)
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The life-changing magic of "gezellig"
When I was 24, I lived in Amsterdam for about 6 months. It was there that I learned the word "gezellig" -- a sort of Dutch take on "hygge". Here's my friend Catherine's explanation on it:
There is no English equivalent, but definitions include: anything that’s quaint cozy friendly and homey, a warm atmosphere enjoying the simple things in life, and my personal favorite, “the essence that lights up our soul”. Yes. THAT feeling.
Maybe I was thinking of Catherine, who not too long ago wrote about gezellig and these acts of small joy, but something this week inspired me to bring a little gezellig into my life: for the first time in who knows how long, I bought myself a $6 bouquet of flowers just because. And it honestly brought me so much joy all week I can't figure out why I don't do it more often. :) :)
Catherine's 4 min read: The Life Changing Magic of "Gezellig"
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I don't think we set the bar high enough for ourselves on feeling chill. (3 min)
What do I mean by that? I believe that we suffer from a lack of great, chill role models. And no, "the Dude" isn't enough.
This idea came to me during an email convo with a friend this week trying to diagnose a bout with teeth grinding.
My thought was that teeth grinding seems pretty stress related...but he said he didn't feel that stressed. Who knows whether he is or isn't, but it threw out the idea that maybe we're all WAY more stressed than we realize because our baseline is off.
Image you've got two groups:
- 100 New Yorkers during rush hour
- 100 Hawaiians living on the big island
If you had to rank each ground from least to most stressed — one line for the New Yorkers, and one line for the Hawaiians — do you think that the average stressed New Yorker would be the same as the average stressed Hawaiian?
I do not.
My point: it's really easy to compare yourself to whoever is closest around you, but our society is most definitely pretty bonkers and insane-selfie-taking-comparative machines these days, so we should look harder for a better baseline instead.
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WRAP UP! + maria's stray thoughts
If you're curious about my relaxed mindset aspiration, it's to become the personification of the Dalai Lama's twitter feed. Good good stuff there, my friends.
Hope this email brightened your day a little! Go buy yourself some flowers :)
xxx maria 🙋
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