Hello!
I’ve sat down to write this newsletter many times over the past few months. I have the half-shells of many an essay to prove it! But a similar phenomenon has happened here that I’ve noticed occurring with friends I hold very dear – we have so many things to communicate about our lives, what we’re thinking about, or what we’re going through that we can’t fit it in a single text, email, or phone call. So it gets bottled up and stocked away for the next time until too much time has passed and we’re bursting with things to share but the space is now too small to hold it.
The alternative to bottling it up is letting it shoot out like a firehose of human experience – which can feel sometimes cathartic, but mostly incredibly exhausting.
I will not subject you to a firehose.
Instead, I will turn the tap on.
In my head, I’m thinking of this newsletter as a little appetizer. Something to tide us over before the main course arrives (or maybe we’ll just keep on snacking). In the meantime, I’ll share 5 favorite things of the moment and an invitation.
5 Favorite Things
We spotted some elders using these contraptions to pick up garbage on a sunny weekend morning and Andrew instantly ordered one from Amazon. We gave it a try the other day while on a walk and I think it’s one of the only times I’ve seen Seattleites spark conversation with a stranger without a dog present. It elicited so many more emotions than I thought possible from something so simple: pride in my neighborhood, care for the planet, connection to my neighbors, and the simple satisfaction you can only get from cleaning something up.
A visualization of the book 4000 Weeks.
I highly, highly recommend reading the book, but this visualization will help gift you some of the ideas held within it in a shorter period of time. The first part is a bit of a slap in the face, but I think it’s a necessary one. These teachings have shaped the way I’ve been living my life lately and will be good groundwork for future explorations we may embark on together.The 5-minute journal (or the app version)
Journaling had been a consistent practice of mine for years until I tried to “optimize” it by doing it on my laptop so I could type MORE and FASTER. Turns out that was a bad idea and it totally killed my desire to journal. I received the 5-minute journal for Christmas and after doing it for about a month consistently, I’m now journaling again. Starting with something small (much like this newsletter) helped me turn the tap on again. If you want to start journaling, get back into it, or bring a small, intentional habit into your life, I highly recommend getting the journal or downloading the (free!) app to take that first tiny step.
I’ve been working with a naturopath for the past 5+ months to get my hormonal health back on track and one area I really needed to up the ante in was my veggie intake. I know veggies are good for you in many ways, but I didn’t realize just how important the minerals are for keeping your hormones happy (and apparently they also really help minimize puffiness if you get a puffy face around your period). Getting 5-7 servings of fresh fruits + veggies per day can be kind of a lot, so one easy way to get at least 2 servings of veggies is by drinking a green smoothie. My naturopath shared this one with me which I’ve adapted to look like this:
A handful of frozen mango
3-4 handfuls of mixed greens
1/3 of a cucumber
1-2 stalks of celery
A handful of cilantro or parsley (I swear you can’t really taste it)
A 1-inch piece of ginger (or the frozen ginger cubes)
1-2 scoops of ground flax or chia seeds (I prefer the flax because the chia seeds stick to everything)
1 scoop of protein powder (I don’t know much about protein powder, but I like this one and I’m now testing this one)
1-2 cups of water (I think?? I just fill it up to like the 1st or 2nd line in my blender)
You can throw in whatever else you’d like! Fish oil, seaweed, extra fruit, etc.
This recipe serves 2, so you can give one to your partner or roommate, or save the extra for yourself and get double the veggies. I feel like an annoying smoothie girl, but I honestly notice such a difference in my energy and overall well-being on the days I don’t drink a smoothie vs. the days that I do!
For when it’s freezing: I’ve recently gotten into making miso soup for breakfast and adding baby bok choy, mushrooms, carrots, or tofu to beef it up. Here’s the recipe I’ve been using.A Seattle Events Google Calendar
Okay, this one is for my Seattleites, but I’d highly recommend making one for yourself wherever you live! I was tired of always missing the cool events and concerts I wanted to go to and none of the local event platforms have reminder or add-to-calendar features, so I went and created my own Gcal with all the events I want to keep on my radar. I update it at the end of every month and it is by no means comprehensive because it’s mostly just things I think are interesting (but it’s going to be part of a bigger project I’m working on down the road 👀). If you use Gcal, you can use this link to add it to your calendar or this link to view the web browser version. If neither of those work, let me know! I haven’t shared it with too many people yet.
An invitation
As you might know, I work for a startup called Flow Club as their Community + Marketing Lead. It’s a virtual coworking platform, but I spend multiple hours a day in Flow Club sessions doing all kinds of things (both work-related and personal).
For the next two weeks I’m hosting “Morning Routine” sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays from 8-9 am PT and I’d love to invite you to join me!
After trying and failing many times to create and stick to a morning routine, scheduling an 8 am Flow Club before I begin my workday has been the most successful practice I’ve ever implemented. I don’t need it all the time anymore, but it’s a tool I can rely on whenever I know I’m going to need a little help getting my day started on the right foot.
For more details, you can check out the event page here. These events are free and limited to 9 people each, so make sure to reserve your spot! My teammates are hosting some other interesting events which you can check out here as well.
Looking forward to spending a morning or two with you 🙃