The Tuesday-est week ever
When you feel blah, what do you do?
Ugh. This week, if I may be so bold, was trash.
I thought we’d all escaped April’s month-long Mercury Retrograde and were sailing toward greener pastures, but for me this week felt like one long series of shitty Tuesdays. I just couldn’t get into a rhythm. I’m sure you’ve felt that before. Work was stressful, I didn’t sleep well, the to-do list just grew and grew. And I had to battle a bug the size of a station wagon who was just chilling in my kitchen one afternoon.
Oddly enough, I always feel shifty and irritated when spring comes along. I’ve said before, it’s my least favorite season—a merging of things I don’t appreciate: bugs, allergies, and rain.
For me, spring carries an odd sense of listlessness. The cozy vibes of winter are long gone, there’s none of fall’s freshness and that feeling of entering the holiday blitz, and certainly we’re not yet swathed in the slow, glowy vibes of summer. Spring feels like pent up energy to me. Like stale humid air. It feels like standing on a diving board while everyone stares waiting for you to jump. And before you say it, the blooming flowers do nothing for me. Pollen, people, pollen!
For the record I think it’s perfectly fine to wallow in a bad week once in a while but I was not enjoying the wallow this week. I tried to shift my focus to finding motivation amidst the mess and it worked to a degree.
Whenever I started feeling grumbly, I made an effort to mentally catalog the things that are currently motivating me and producing positive momentum rather than letting myself sit in that stale spring energy. I thought I’d share them in case your last several days haven’t been the best. We’ve discussed my complete lack of desire to ever keep a gratitude journal (though I know that helps a lot of people turn their mood around) so instead let’s call the following my little motivation memos. Some small thoughts and actions I relied on to get me through this week.
Thinking about….
This book. If you’ve been here a while, you know that Peter Attia’s book, Outlive, had a big effect on me. I can’t recommend it enough. I changed the way I eat and exercise after reading it and sticking to that new routine has been hard but incredibly motivating. I took a minute this week to pat myself on the back for investing in my health.
Rae. In my vocal coaching session this week my teacher, Rae, laid some real knowledge on me as she so often does. We were working on improving some of my vowels during vocal exercises (harder than it sounds, I promise) and I was getting frustrated. She stopped me and said, “You have to realize that you’re making the smallest adjustments on the inside but the effect outside of you is huge.” How does she do it? I actually had her repeat what she’d said because it felt so relevant to so much that I’m currently going through. Small changes inside can have enormous ripple effects but you’ve got to pay attention to see the impact.
Doing…..
Changing something that’s not working. Our littles ones have been having a tough time sleeping lately and early this week when I was feeling the funk set in I suggested we completely change their evening routine. It’s been a nice switch up and it’s seemed to shake us out of some of our stagnant feelings.
Indulging. I promised myself I’d start my next book club book this week but instead I’ve stayed up late reading the Throne of Glass series and I can’t get enough. Despite being a tiny little treat, it’s made me excited to wind down at night and let the stressful days slip away. We also ditched our normal night routine and took the girls straight from daycare to ice cream one evening which boosted the mood all around.
Moving. Stress shows up in a really physical way for me and this week I paid extra attention to my body’s hints. I got up and stretched, I put a heating pad on my sore back, I walked outside during meetings to get some sun on my ghostly skin. This week when my body said, “Jump,” I said, “How high?”
That’s all for now, keeping it short and sweet this time. Cheers to a better week next week!
Still thing about…..
I need to replace all my basic tees. Testing these to see how they feel.
Considering this tote for my summer travels.
Loved this interview with Chris Pine. Who knew he was so deep?!
Mindy was my pick for best-dressed at the Met Gala with Elle is a close second
Brining chicken in sweet tea sounds incredible.