I’m trying something new: this is a LIVE blog post – that means I’ll publish five parts per day for 10 days. If you haven’t already, start by checking out my original COVID-19 post then follow along with me on Instagram for daily updates! Comments are SO welcome, what are you all doing these days? Let’s brain pool.
31. Meditate
I think if there’s one thing I’d like to stress here it is that you can make meditation work for you. It doesn’t have to be first thing when you wake up or a certain amount of time. There are all kinds of meditation because we have all kinds of needs!
Meditation can be done seated or lying down with nothing but your body and your breath. It can also be assisted by apps (I like Insight Timer) or done in a group setting (I love to attend these and my friend Arta has been leading FREE sessions each week or two on Zoom). But meditation can also be watching the birds or the clouds. It can be a focal practice like cooking or baking and it can be easily incorporated into your daily routine in whatever way is easiest for you.
32. Call your family
Or take the time to sit down and write a letter or send a holiday card (or very on trend COVID card). There’s a certain joy in receiving something in the mail and a personal aspect in handwriting that just can’t be replicated over the airwaves.
33. Call a friend
Small talk asks about the weather. Deep talk transcends judgements and assumptions: it asks why we feel, act, think, fear, or dream like we do.
Ask better questions.
- Who’s someone you really admire?
- What do you miss about being a kid?
- What’s your favorite family tradition?
- What’s your favorite quote?
- What’s something you want to do in the next year that you’ve never done before?
- What are the top three things on your bucket list?
- What was the first thing you bought with your own money?
- What’s your earliest memory?
- What would you do on your “perfect” day?
- When do you feel most creatively inspired?
- Tell me about a day you had that you’ll never forget.
- Where was your favorite place to go as a child and why did you love it there?
- Where are the top three places you want to travel to some day and why?
- Where are the top three places you’ve ever traveled to and why?
- Why do you do the work that you do?
- How do you want to be remembered? (What do you want your legacy to be?)
- If someone gave you enough money to start a business – no strings attached – what kind of business would you want to start and why?
- If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to your 16-year-old self?
- If you could take a year-long paid sabbatical what would you do?
+ Questions by YOU (thanks to responses on Instagram – I am loving this collaboration)
- What are you looking forward to the most right now?
- What motivated you this morning?
- What are you feeling super grateful for today?
- Any great recipes to share?
- What made you smile this week?
- What has you worried?
34. Read one chapter of a book every day
Start small. Make it easy to succeed. Add more, little by little, over time. Make it manageable, then, make it a habit.
Another option: cheat!
So here’s my story: I went through a Global Humanities and Religions B.A. degree reading every single assigned book from start to finish. I was, no joke, assigned 50 books in one semester! This mean I read in the car when I found five extra minutes in a parking lot or stopped to read during a road trip. It meant I woke up to and fell asleep to extensive non-fiction and sat beside by grandmother in a hospital bed reading Dante’s Inferno. Finally, my last semester, it was revealed to me that most of my peers had been skimming the readings! This felt like an outrage and honestly I went cold turkey on reading after graduation. Problem is, I want to be a reader. But with more and more to read online + a surge of commitments in work/social life, I lost the habit of reading and have struggled in the last years to get it back. Part of owning my struggle and easing back into a reading routine is allowing myself to cheat. I must have 100 previews stored on my Kindle and imagining the hours those would require is daunting. I use Blinkist like a detailed preview and follow up by reading those selections which stand out most to me chapter-by-chapter. It’s like a podcast leading you to a new thought leader, but for books.
35. Read a poem every morning
Poetry is not a luxury. — Audre Lorde
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