Panda bears,
I’ve been churning out a bunch of big, intensive blog posts of late. And I’m bloody THRILLED with them. And so excited they are finally out in the world.
AND also feeling like I can’t pump out super intensive stuff everyday… because that way leads to blogging burnout. So I thought I’d just spend some time today and just… write to you. Like a penpal. How this all began back in December. And tell you what I’m thinking of today.
I also recorded this a podcast…
Just hit play above, or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PocketCast (or wherever else you listen to podcasts!)
Last night I was journalling and meditating, wondering why I’ve had a vague sense of soul-itchiness the last week or so. And I realised there are some changes that I’ve been holding off on making because I had planned for them to be 21 day challenges… but it turns out… I just want and need and crave doing them now.
So here’s what I currently do daily:
- Journaling (this started organically at the start of the year because my assistant bought me the most beautiful journal for Christmas… and it’s in my journal that I came up with the idea of 21 day challenges!)
- Meditating (current challenge)
- Blogging (current challenge)
- No social media & no internet browsing (last 2 challenges that I’ve loved so much I’ve kept doing)
- Yoga (this is a recent uprising that I’m doing for pain management reasons. My hypermobile shoulders have been fucked lately, and it’s the only thing that keeps pain levels down).
And these things are forming into actual HABITS, you know? Like: I am starting to feel like they are essential elements of my day.
Which is completely surprising to me, because I have tried for YEARS to develop great daily habits like this, and nothing has worked like these 21 day challenges.
I think 21 day challenges work for me for two reasons:
- I’m a sprinter, not a marathon runner. If you tell me I have to meditate everyday for the rest of my life, it would be too much pressure, and I’d run screaming. But 21 days? That’s manageable! I can do that sprint!
- Once I’ve done the 21 days though… it’s enough time for it to be a habit and me to experience the benefits of it… so I don’t really wean off from doing it!
But there’s more habits that I am craving right now!
And I don’t want to wait until that challenge to do them.
It’s funny that I felt like I was having to hold myself back in order to wait for them.
And then I remembered when I started these challenges I made a bunch of freedom-honouring promises to myself:
These are NOT in order, and none are compulsory. They are merely a menu of options!
I might always log my challenges as I go, I might not. I might always announce what challenge I’m undertaking, I might not.
I may even do more than one challenge at a time!
I also give myself complete freedom & permission to abandon any challenge (or the whole lot of them!) if they don’t end up being helpful to my mental health.
One thing I realised last year is this:
The Leonie of Today Is Not The Expert of the Leonie of Tomorrow.
Last year I had a bunch of goals in mind for the year, but by 3/4 of the way through the year, I realised they weren’t the right fit anymore. But I still felt hemmed in by my original goals. I don’t want to do that this time. I am making this optional on every level.
I can change my damn mind anytime I want!
I needed to remind myself that I had complete permission & freedom to take on challenges – as many or as little – or none – as I wished.
And honestly… the more I have changed my habits, the more I feel confident and powerful that I can make other changes too!
So, what changes do I want to make?
I need to make some healthful lifestyle changes. Nothing feels majorly off – my body just feels uncomfortable. So I know it’s time for a reset. I’m not interested in doing the Fast800 again – it was wayyyy too fucking hard. Plus I don’t think I need a full lifestyle overhaul, I just need to make gradual good changes.
Changes I’d like to incorporate:
- Daily walking
- Continue with daily yoga
- Move back to more nutritious foods – specifically, stop eating ice-cream, bread & bakery food, and start eating more nutritionally dense foods.
I’m also booked in to see a naturopath in 3 weeks. It’s funny, I was looking through my papers and realised I’ve worked with a naturopath for a reset every 10 years – once when I was 18, then when I was 28, and now I’m 38!
Until I see her, I’m going to keep:
- a daily hormone diary
- a daily food & exercise diary.
(I found them as handouts on her website before I even booked in & promptly printed them out & made a study folder. I AM GOING TO BE AN A+ CLIENT I TELL YOU! HA!)
What today looked like:
- Woke up at 7.45am (stayed up late last night reading this adorable book last night)
- Breakfast of chai tea + Larabar
- Shoulder yoga & meditation
- Organised some appointments & talked to our property manager about our investment property
- Went for an hour-long bushwalk through the eucalyptus forest at the end of our street. It’s rained so much that the lakes and rivers have overflowed onto the walking paths so I had to take my Birks off a few times to wade my way through. There were red, green and blue dragonflies everywhere, tiny fish and miniscule frogs. It was the greatest thing ever.
- Lunch: steamed veges on rice. Usually I do 1 TBSP peanut butter, 1 TBSP sweet chilli sauce and a squeeze of lime juice to make the fucking NOMMMEST satay sauce on the planet. I decided to just be a basic beetch today and put plain peanut butter on the veges instead. Lazy Person’s Peanut Satay, if you will.
- Hauled out all my cookbooks and got some healthy cooking inspo.
- Organised our pantry to see what we had and what I needed to get. Moved all my pizza and bread-baking supplies to the top shelf. Put the quinoa and chia seeds and other healthy cooking supplies centre stage.
- Talked to Chris for a while. Watched the kids bounce on the trampoline.
- Toddled off to bed to do a wee bit of work before dinner.
And now I’m here.
I’m off to make dinner…
Thank you for listening. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being you.
Big love,
