intentional living

THOUGHTS AFTER A TRIP TO PORTLAND

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I mentioned in a previous post that our son Luke just graduated from The University of Texas and will be moving to Portland, Oregon at the end of the summer for his first job out of college. We went to visit to help him find where he wanted to live before moving out there. We actually used to live in Portland prior to moving to Austin, so it was fun to go back and show him around! After that trip I was definitely pondering some things about life and I wanted to share those things with you for this Thoughtful Thursday post.

The most important things in life are not things at all. We work hard, we hustle, we keep up pace on that treadmill of life and for what? Physical stuff comes and goes in our lives. But in the end we lose it all. There is a Bible passage that addresses this idea: Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Of course we need stuff to live, but our focus should not be on stuff as it isn’t lasting. The memories we make with people and the experiences we have are what’s important.

Like I mentioned, our son Luke will be moving to Portland at the end of the summer. We have two other adult children, but they are currently living with us so this is the first child we are really launching fully into the “real world.” Of course there is part of me that is a little sad, but I am so excited for him. And this is what we do as parents – we prepare them to live on their own, to be productive members of society. But one thing you face as your children begin growing up and moving out is regret. Sometimes I think of all of the time I spent taking care of and managing stuff, leaving less time to spend with my kids. But I also look back and realize how much time and energy I was afforded to pour into and spend with them as a SAHM and I’m forever grateful for those opportunities! It can be easy to be hard on yourself and feel like maybe you didn’t do enough for them, but likely if you care enough to think about that – you were an amazing parent!

But, reflecting back reminds me that moving forward in life I would like to be intentional with how I spend my time, energy, and money. I know I have shared these ideas before in different capacities, but today I wanted to remind you that focusing on experiences and relationships has brought so much more fulfillment, joy, and excitement than any physical items! I’m so thankful I came across the idea of minimalism several years ago. I feel like this way of life has really changed my priorities and outlook. Decluttering and then being intentional with what comes into my home has afforded me the time and money to pursue other things that are far more meaningful!

Admittedly, it’s not always easy to prioritize experiences and relationships. It can feel so comfy sitting on the sofa, watching Netflix or scrolling on the phone, but it is so worth it to get out there and live life and enjoy experiences! One of the reasons my son was interested in the job in Portland was the quality of life there. He is an active person and loves outdoor activities and living in this city will definitely allow him to pursue those things! I know sometimes I may sound redundant on these Thoughtful Thursday posts, but if you’re anything like me you need the reminders! I hope this was encouraging to you!

Here is the video I created in conjunction with this post if you would like to see more of our trip to Portland, Oregon!

EMBRACING TRANSITIONS

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to talk about embracing transitions in life. I’m sure many of you are experiencing transitions in life as we head into a new season and end another school year. For me I am experiencing a big change as one of our children just graduated from college and we are launching him into the world!

I don’t know how you are, but I really struggle with change. I thrive on routine and consistency. Although admittedly I’m a weird one because I also really like to try new things and spontaneity. But, there is this part of me that has a hard time transitioning into a new season. I have learned over the years that I must lean into the transition instead of fighting it. I’m learning to embrace these seasons of change and go with the flow of the change. This has helped me to have a different perspective and to actually enjoy the process of transitions.

So often I miss the journey by focusing on the destination. Have you ever done that? Once you see a change coming on the horizon – like a child graduating, it can be easy to wish away the transition time to get to the next stage. But I find there are some beautiful things in the transition time, or the journey, not just the destination.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned from experiencing a lot of transitions in life is that it is okay and healthy to grieve the loss of the life you once had. It can be difficult to let go of a season of life, particularly if we have fond memories of that season. But change is a part of life, so we might as well embrace it! Grieve the loss of the life you once had, but live in your present and enjoy the moments you have now. I like to try to focus on all the positives of each life stage because it can be all too easy to look backwards and miss what you had or to look forwards and long for whatever you think that future looks like.

I have some big changes up ahead, so I feel like I really have to practice these principles! My son Luke just graduated from the University of Texas Chemical Engineering School. He has always been a really hard worker, and it paid off. He got multiple job offers for after graduation and he was able to accept his first choice! But that happens to be across the country in the Pacific Northwest. So this summer my husband and I will be moving him to Portland, OR. Of course I am so excited for him and this next chapter of life, but it will be an adjustment for me that he lives so far away as he was only 20 minutes from our house while living on UT’s campus!

It’s okay and healthy to grieve what once was, but I wanted to encourage you today if you are in a season of transition to embrace it! Find the beauty in the change. Look for what this season of life is teaching you, and then accept the new season with open arms!

Here is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post.

MAKING CHANGES

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to talk about making changes in life. Lately I have been thinking about this because I feel like I have not been as disciplined as I would like to be in several areas in life. Often I feel like once we start compromising in one area of life it seems to seep over into other areas. I am all for self care and rest, but lately I have had a lot on my plate emotionally and I think I have used that as an excuse to be more lax with myself. It’s never easy to change habits, but sometimes it’s necessary.

I think one of the most important life skills is to learn to intentionally challenge yourself. Intentionally find ways to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. It can be easy to fall into some lazy habits, and for me lately I feel like I’ve fallen into some lazy habits. Choosing to intentionally challenge yourself can get you out of that rut. Maybe there is some sort of morning routine challenge you could do, or diet challenge, or workout challenge. I’m going to be leaving soon to go on another trip and I have decided for the next 10 days I’m focusing on eating more whole foods, less processed food and sugar, and cutting alcohol out of my diet. My diet is one area where I do feel like I have become more lax, so this is a way to reset my habits. When we intentionally challenge ourselves it also keeps life more interesting and breaks up the mundane.

You might not even be aware of what needs to change in your life. That is why I find self awareness and self reflection to be such important habits to cultivate in your life. You don’t know what to change if you aren’t self aware. It can be easy to just go through the motions in life instead of being present and conscious of your habits. Set aside time in your day, even if it’s for 10 minutes, for self reflection. Journaling is a great practice to help facilitate self reflection. Self awareness is the first step towards making changes and becoming a better version of yourself!

We should want to continuously seek ways to become the best versions of ourselves. In this process, giving yourself grace is so important! When you are on a journey towards being the best person you can be, you need to accept that there are days where you will backslide. It is human nature to take two steps forward and one step back. Don’t beat yourself up if you have a bad day or a few bad days, or even a few bad weeks! As long as you are slowly progressing towards better, that is all that matters. Every day is a new opportunity to do the next right thing!

In my opinion, we become our best selves by ever evolving and ever changing. We become our best selves through personal growth. Growth is not easy, but it is rewarding! We must continue to remind ourselves of that truth, and that will help us to keep pushing forward!

Here is the YouTube video I created in conjunction with this blog post.

REFLECTIONS FROM A SOLO ROAD TRIP

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Hey friends, I just returned from a two week solo road trip through Arizona! It was a bit scary to do this trip, but it was so amazing and I definitely had thoughtful take aways that I wanted to share for today’s Thoughtful Thursday post! Part of why I drove through Arizona was to meet a few YouTube friends who I met online and have gotten to know online over the past few years. It was amazing to see them in person! If you want to see the YouTube video I created in conjunction with this post, I will have it linked at the end of this post!

The first thought I wanted to share with you today that I had during this trip is that nature speaks to me. I’ve always known I’m an outdoors type person and that I love nature, but this trip reminded me how important it is for me to experience nature daily for my soul. I can’t tell you how many times I teared up just taking in the nature around me. I had never been to Arizona, so it was all new to me. I honestly didn’t realize how beautiful Arizona would be. Tumamoc Hill in Tucson in particular really had me in awe! At the top I just enjoyed time up there. I took off my shoes to do some grounding and listened to worship music and I’m telling you this was feeding my soul!!!

Something else I decided to do while on this trip is to get my first tattoo! I thought I would share with you a little about that experience! At first I was a bit hesitant to go get a tattoo by myself, especially my first tattoo, but I decided it was apropos for this trip and because of the tattoo that I got. I got the word “enough” tattooed on my wrist so every time I’m feeling down on myself or like I need validation, I can look down and be reminded that I am enough. I am enough just as I am. I am enough on my own. I don’t need external validation to feel enough. So getting this tattoo on my own made sense! As far as getting the tattoo itself – honestly I didn’t think it hurt that bad. Granted this is a small tattoo. It felt more like buzzing, like an electric toothbrush or something. It was sore afterwards, but it healed quickly and nicely. There was a point where she had to stop for a few minutes. She told me to eat a good breakfast and hydrate. I was nervous so all I could do was drink a protein shake. I think I was using a lot of energy talking to her, because that’s what I do when I’m nervous. I started feeling a little light headed, so she stopped and ended up giving me a glucose tablet! I guess this is common since she was prepared! I’m so happy with the results and I have no regrets! I have wanted this tattoo for over 10 years, so this was not a spur of the moment decision. I thought for a long time about it, and honestly one of the reasons I had not gotten it was because of my people pleasing tendencies and I didn’t want to be judged for having a tattoo. But at this point in life I’m letting go of being a people pleaser! 

Something else I learned from this trip was to really problem solve on my own. I have been married since I was 21 years old and so I feel like I’ve always had that partner there to help me solve any problems. It was good to learn to just figure things out on my own! I definitely had a few snafus with getting into AirBnB’s, and issues with the AirBmB’s in general, but in the end I was always able to figure it out!

Along with problem solving, I learned to not allow my anxiety to drive my life. In those moments when things would go wrong, I would just take a deep breath and remind myself that I am an intelligent woman and I can figure things out! Being alone in general taught me to calm myself down when I felt that anxiety rising for any reason! So many people said to me things like they were worried for me traveling on my own or they could never do a trip like this. But I realized it just takes standing up to your anxiety! I truly think anyone COULD do this, but maybe they are just too afraid.

Another thing I learned on this trip is to be okay by myself. Enjoying my own thoughts and my own company. Sometimes this was a bit rough admittedly, like the one time I went to a restaurant by myself and sat and ate alone. I wasn’t a fan and can now cross this off my bucket list, but I’m glad I experienced it. I got my tattoo by myself, and visited the Grand Canyon for the first time ever and I went alone! Another thing that was really tough is the cabin I stayed at in Sedona didn’t have wifi! I actually didn’t realize this, live and learn – next time I will read the entire listing! But I really thought all AirBnB’s had wifi!! But it was good to be alone in the woods with my thoughts and it did force me to do some reading.

The last thing I took away from this trip that I wanted to share is the importance of doing the scary or hard thing in order to live life to the fullest! I really wanted to do another hike in Sedona before I left. I went on a hike with my friend Jacque and her husband and it definitely feels less scary hiking with others. It was outside of my comfort zone to do a solo hike because I am not directionally oriented. I can easily get lost. I carefully studied the map before I left and took notes to remember which directions I needed to go. I was so proud of myself for accomplishing this hike and I only asked for directions once!

I hope this post maybe inspired you to do something outside of your comfort zone! There were certainly moments that we scary, but overall I am so glad I took this trip! I highly recommend solo travel to anyone!

The YouTube video I created in conjunction with this blog post.

MINDSET SHIFT ON REGRET

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to talk about regret. We all to a certain degree have regrets in life. I am someone who truly tries to not live with regret. If I have those thoughts of regret pop up, I remind myself of a principle I believe in: that things happen for a reason. As you age, it gets easier to see the big picture of life. You may question why you made the decisions you made that you regret, or worse yet why things have happened to you because of chance or other people’s choices. But I truly think there is a big picture story happening in our lives that is hard to understand.

Another thing I do when I have feelings of regret is shift my mindset around it because regret can be a great learning experience for us. If we evaluate the regretful decisions we made, they can inform decisions we make moving into our future. Unfortunately time machines have not been invented, so we are not able to go back and make different choices. All we can do is make better choices moving forward. When we embrace this mindset shift, we can learn to forgive ourselves for past mistakes, and to give ourselves grace for not being perfect. It can be hard to forgive ourselves, but it’s necessary so we can move forward in life and view these regrets as lessons instead of dwelling on them.

Oftentimes with regret, it FEELS regretful because it is pricking some value we have and that decision didn’t align with that life value. I believe we will live more fulfilling lives when we make decisions that are truly in line with what we say we value. Sometimes we just give lip service to certain values, but our behavior and choices don’t reflect that value. So, if you have a regret, really evaluate why you feel regretful and what value it’s pricking. What can you do today in the present, and moving forward to better align with those values?

Regrets can be a great teacher to us, but also those decisions you made, while they may have been wrong they are leading you towards something better. Sometimes I can sit and think about the butterfly effect and it can really boggle my mind! I’m sure many of you know what this concept is, but basically it is the idea that the world is deeply interconnected and one small occurrence can affect a much larger complex system. This term was originally coined by meteorologist and mathematician, Edward Lorenz in the 1960s. In his scientific findings, he learned that weather predictions are often not accurate because of this idea. He suggested that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings represented the tiny change in the atmospheric condition that could change the trajectory of the weather. In the same way, some small change or different decision in our lives could cause a totally different outcome.

Hopefully I’m not getting too far off track here, basically I bring up this idea of the butterfly effect to demonstrate that perhaps we all have a path that was supposed to happen, so we should not live with those regrets. This idea reminds me of that Jim Carrey movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Have you ever seen that movie? It’s an older movie, but it is so good! There are a lot of psychological ideas around relationships explored in this movie, but one is this idea of what is meant to happen will happen in the end. The basic premise of this sci-fi type movie is a couple faces struggles and they decide to go through this procedure of erasing their minds in order to deal with the pain of the relationship so they will forget about one another. But somehow they keep returning to each other and falling in love all over again.

I hope this chat today encouraged you to look at regret differently. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments! What are your thoughts on regret?

Here is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this post!

51% SURE

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to talk about something that has been on my mind lately. I have shared recently how I have been struggling a bit lately. Some of that has been trying to figure out what exactly I’m doing with my life. I have really enjoyed sharing creative content on my YouTube channel the last four years, but I’ll be honest, I have been feeling a bit burnt out with it lately and struggling to know what to share as I have been feeling like I have exhausted a lot of the ideas I had when I started my channel. I had a lot of spaces in my home that I was working on getting decluttered and organized and I shared that process throughout the years on my channel, but now I have gotten to maintenance mode, which affords me more time and margin in my life. I’m trying to figure out what exactly I want to do with that time. 

As someone who overthinks things, and struggles to make decisions, I am struggling to know what to do moving forward. I still really enjoy creating content and I would like to continue to share in some capacity on my YouTube channel, and other media platforms, but I am pondering other ideas I would like to pursue in life. And I wanted to share with you an inspiring principle I learned about on a podcast I recently listened to where Mel Robbins was interviewing Steven Bartlett, who is a British entrepreneur and podcaster. He talked about this idea of taking risks when making decisions. He explained that so many people want 100% (or near 100%) certainty that the decision they are making is the right decision. He suggested that we really only need to be 51% sure about something to go for it. He said oftentimes when we make these decisions we need to recognize that most of the time they are reversible so we might as well try! This perspective really inspired me! Because I overthink things, I am definitely the type of person who wants more certainty than just 51%, but if we don’t take risks we likely won’t be successful! Taking more risks leads to more likelihood of success, which makes sense just from a statistics standpoint!

One thing that can be challenging when we want to pursue something new or change direction in life is motivation. It is much easier, and more comfortable to continue doing what we are doing. We can end up on autopilot, which is beneficial in some ways. It requires less decisions and is predictable. On the other hand, autopilot causes us to kind of float through life and may prevent us from being intentional. Living on autopilot doesn’t allow room for growth. We grow outside of our comfort zone. But, back to this idea of needing motivation to grow and change and get outside of our comfort zone… Maybe instead of doing some big thing to make a change, we start with something small. We can’t make a change until we take a step towards change, and that step can be a small one.

Today I was listening to another podcast by Mel Robbins, obviously I’m a big fan of hers so I highly recommend checking out her YouTube channel. I linked that interview with Steven Bartlett above. In the podcast today she was talking about this very idea of the importance of just getting started. She was sharing this analogy of how when you put tulips in a vase, they will begin to bend to the direction of the sunlight. She suggested we need to “bend towards the light” – bend towards whatever change we are trying to make in life. If we just stay where we are, we will not grow or thrive!

I hope this post encouraged or inspired you in some way today! Leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts!

Here is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post.

GET UNCOMFORTABLE

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to talk about something I shared a little bit about in an Instagram Reel and a YouTube short earlier this week, but I wanted to take some time to elaborate on this topic. I shared how it is human nature to fight for what is comfortable. To fight for the path of least resistance. To fight for the familiar. But just because that feels natural, doesn’t mean that’s what’s best for us. Sometimes in the comfortable we become robotic. We stop being present. We stop engaging with our lives. What if the fulfilling life you want happens when you get uncomfortable?

You might have heard that it is common for people who were abused as children to gravitate towards those types of abusive relationships as an adult. I don’t think it’s because they are sadistic, I think it’s because as humans we tend to gravitate towards what we know, what feels normal, or what feels safe. This can be true even if that may be toxic. We must fight against the toxic narratives that were programmed into us.

It’s not easy to change behavior or thought patterns. A great analogy is likening our thought patterns to creating a pathway, like a roadway in our minds. When we keep traveling down the same path over and over – that route becomes like a highway. It is so much easier to travel on that highway than to take side roads or back ways. But as you work to change your thought patterns and go down the new way, the healthier way of thinking, THAT pathway over time becomes the predominant thought process instead.

We must be patient with ourselves. In order to stop fighting for what is familiar and do something different, it takes time and work. Retraining our minds is not easy and it doesn’t happen overnight. Most people don’t like to hear the truth that we grow and change slowly, organically over time. Especially in our fast paced culture where everything is a click away, we are impatient and want quick fixes. We must learn to submit to the fact that personal growth just doesn’t work that way. 

It’s not easy to be uncomfortable. It’s not easy to change and grow. There is a reason when children grow and have physical pain we call it “growing pains.” It hurts to grow, and no one likes pain. But that pain should remind you that you are making progress! When we workout our muscles get sore. That is a sign that our muscles are growing. They are sore because they were stretched and pushed to the limit, but the outcome is we are stronger!

As I look back over my life, I am reminded time and time again that when I have stepped out of my comfort zone and did something scary that has led to the most fulfilling experiences in my life! I know it’s hard to do something uncomfortable or scary, but it’s also hard living a passive life where you feel like you’re just on a treadmill going nowhere! You choose your hard!

Well friends, I hope what I shared with you today was encouraging or maybe challenged you! As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on my thoughts down in the comments!

Here is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post!

INTENTIONAL LIVING, VALUING EXPERIENCES OVER THINGS

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Hey friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to talk about part of my life ethos with regard to intentional living. Part of choosing to live intentionally for me is valuing experiences over things. Some people may say that when you spend money on an experience, it is over after that experience is over, whereas with things you will have it for as long as you would like. But I would argue that experiences actually last you a lifetime. You will always have the memories you make. I think now more than ever it’s important to be intentional about spending time with family and friends, or even by yourself off of screens!

This year I am turning 50 years old. I was joking with some friends that some people celebrate their birthday week or even their birthday month, but Joy is going to celebrate her birthday year! I plan to do lots of traveling in 2024 as I am focusing on this principle of experiences over stuff!

We recently returned from a family ski vacation in the mountains. The mountains are for sure my happy place! I love skiing for lots of reasons, one being the peace I feel on top of a mountain and as I ski down. There is nothing like the sound of silence in the mountains. The mountains are a place that also moves me emotionally and spiritually. There were several times where I just started crying because of my awe of the beauty and majesty of the mountains. That feeling really can’t be replicated.

I also wanted to share a little story about some of the things that went wrong on our trip. This seems to be a theme for our ski trips! I shared a ski vlog a couple of years ago on my YouTube channel, which I can link below, and you can listen to the stories I told from the adventures of that ski trip! But I wanted to throw in here this idea that it’s okay when things go wrong or we endure hardships when we prioritize experiences. I’m learning that just goes along with the territory and it can teach us lessons as well!

So, it was snowing when we entered the resort. Our condo was at the top of a hill on a small road which had not been plowed. AND we don’t have four wheel drive… you can probably tell where this story is going. We tried getting up the hill from two different entrances AND we tried helping push the vehicle up the hill while my husband hit the gas, to no avail! So, we decided we would park in the parking lot of the resort and walk our stuff the 400 yards or so up the hill to the condo! I have never experienced altitude sickness, but I think between working hard carrying bags up a hill immediately upon entering the mountains, and also not really getting enough to eat or hydration for the day since we were driving all day, made me more susceptible to getting sick. That night, in the middle of the night I got a text from my son saying he felt really sick too. I was then wide awake, not feeling well myself but also worried about him. I tried to get up to go to the bathroom, but took two steps before I passed out. I called for my husband to help me and I was trying to stand up again and passed out again! I woke up to him standing over me asking if I was okay. I was like, no I can’t stay conscious haha! He helped me get back into bed, gave me electrolytes, and a trash can cuz I was feeling nauseous. Sorry for the TMI, I did end up throwing up, but felt better after that. I thought for sure I wouldn’t be  able to ski the next day but surprisingly I was able to rally! Unfortunately my son felt sick for most of the trip and was only able to ski one half day of the three we were skiing!

Also, the morning we were supposed to leave it was predicted to accumulate close to 11 inches of snow, so we tried to get out as quickly as possible! It was a little precarious, but we did in fact make it out of the resort and down the mountain and then home safely!

One other thing I wanted to share with regards to valuing experiences: look for opportunities to experience whimsy. I find that I basically turn into a five year old child who is enamored with whimsy when I’m in the snow! Maybe this is a result of living in a climate where I rarely get to see snow, but nevertheless, it reminds me of the importance of finding joy in the little things in life. Look for moments or opportunities to experience playfulness. Sometimes we need to just stop taking ourselves so seriously!

Here is the YouTube video I posted in conjunction with this blog post.

DO YOU WANT OPTIONS OR FREEDOM

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday I wanted to talk about something that I have been thinking about with regards to minimalism. I have talked frequently about my quest to simplify my life. I’m sure many of you who have been around for a while know that I have spent several years decluttering our home. I’m finally getting to a point where I have reached maintenance mode.

One big lesson I have learned from this process is the idea that we have a choice between options or freedom. What I mean by this, is we can have a lot of options in any given personal possessions category, or we can have freedom from those items. Take clothing as an example. We can have a closet full of clothes, which offers us lots of options, but it comes at the expense of freedom – of time, choosing what to wear can be more difficult with more options, and it also takes more time to maintain a larger wardrobe.

You might have heard people talking about how paralyzing making decisions can be these days because of our options. The internet offers us so many options – from different types of jeans to purchase, to job opportunities, to dating partners. Having endless options can be overwhelming and take up a lot of mental capacity to sift through all of the information presented to us to make a decision on any given thing.

I have been thinking about how as we pursue minimalism, we must decide which categories are important for us personally to have options and which it’s important to have freedom. This will be different for each person since we all have different interests and passions. Maybe you don’t cook or bake much, so you can have far less kitchen and pantry inventory on hand – giving you more freedom to spend time on other things. There are some people who find that freedom is more important than options in most categories of possessions. But we must each decide what works best for us and for our families.

For me, I used to have lots of extra decor on hand. I loved decorating for each season and rotating out different decor, but as I age I’m realizing I would rather own a smaller collection of items I truly really love and rotate them less frequently. I choose the freedom of not switching out decor often and having that time to pursue other things.

Everything we own will cost us. It will of course cost us the initial monetary price, but then it will cost us time and energy to clean, maintain, organize, and store these items. It will also cost us the mental energy of one day perhaps deciding to declutter that item. 

I was especially thinking about this as I put away my Christmas decor this year. I realized it really was quite simple to put everything away because of how much I have pared down my holiday decor. And I have several transitional pieces that can stay up through the winter.

Stuff can own us, or we can own the stuff. I have learned that it is a balance trying to decide what’s important enough to have options and where I want freedom instead. The longer I pursue minimalism and simple living, the more I become drawn to freedom over options! Each of us must decide what works best for us, our lifestyles, and our families!

The YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post.

CONSTANT STIMULATION + DIGITAL DETOX

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Okay friends, for this week’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to talk about something I have been thinking about recently. I have been thinking about how easy it is for us these days to be overstimulated. We are exposed to constant stimulation and therefore are prone to frequently multi-tasking. I know for me, when I have a day where I am doing multiple things at once all day my brain gets more easily tired. In addition to that, sometimes I feel like I’m not as efficient or producing quality work when I multitask.

For me, my anxiety causes me to easily get overstimulated. As a mom of three, I got used to constantly multitasking to make sure everyone’s needs were met in a timely way. Over time this took a toll on my mind. I can still multitask, but I feel like I have residual effects from that time period in my life when my kids were younger and I was trying to do so many things at once.

I recognize that we sometimes need to multitask, especially as moms. But I have been thinking about some intentional things I wanted to start implementing into my life in order to live at a slower pace and train my brain to focus on one thing at a time, and really enjoy what I’m working on and being present in the moment. If you have been around for a while, you may have heard me say don’t wait until the new year to make a resolution towards change. As we approach the new year, it could be easy for me to just wait until January to implement these new habits, but I am choosing to start today. I encourage others not to wait, but to start once you realize a new habit needs to be incorporated into your routines. So, that is what I am doing today.

I have talked before about how I use Sunday as a true Sabbath – a day off of work. I don’t do housework, or YouTube work. I mostly stay off social media on this day (with the exception of talking to people in Instagram chat). I really think this social media detox, or digital detox one day a week has been beneficial for me. I want to continue this practice of getting on social media apps very minimally on Sundays. I would like to incorporate more prolonged periods of staying off social media, which I do plan to do in the new year. I’m still in the process of figuring out how that could look as someone who shares creative content.

Something I implemented today is to sometimes eliminate background noise. I have this habit of constantly putting in my ear buds – watching Marco Polo videos, watching YouTube videos, listening to podcasts, or listening to music. I do these things as a passive activity while I’m doing some other somewhat passive activity – like cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, checking email, or even some parts of editing a YouTube video. This week I have started to take out my ear buds more and experience the thing I’m doing. Even if it is a “boring” thing, I want to learn to enjoy these boring mundane tasks that need to get done. Also, when I’m constantly ingesting input, it’s hard to process everything fully. I’m doing everything in a passive way, not fully experiencing it. I have found that when my mind is not overstimulated it has time for creativity, meditation, presence, and processing.

Something else I plan to implement is a night time routine that doesn’t include my phone. I have always had a night time routine, but I want to focus more on slowing down and unwinding. Putting my phone down, taking a hot shower or bath, drinking some herbal tea, reading or journaling, and applying all of my nighttime facial products! I think it helps to get better sleep if we slow down at night, don’t expose ourselves to blue light, and do activities that are calming and don’t overstimulate us.

Moving into the new year I definitely want to be intentional with my time and energy. I don’t want to just go through my days on autopilot, but I want to enjoy the everyday things that need to get done. Let me know if any of this resonates with you and what are your ideas to prevent constant overstimulation? There are certainly more things I could do to prevent constant stimulation, but I want to focus on just a couple things right now to make the habits lasting!

Here is the video I posted in conjunction with this blog post!