August Growth Dose
Happy August, Dear Friends.
Can you believe it is August? I can’t! I’m still processing that we only have two more months as Colorado residents before we start our adventure in Asheville in October. It is an exciting time full of change. How has summer been for you? I am feeling energized with the promise of a new place and a new start, but also sad to leave the place I’ve known as home for most of my life. It feels good to try somewhere new though. The world is a big place, and I look forward to experiencing a different part of it with my husband and of course our pup, Rider!
For whatever change you might be experiencing this summer, here is your monthly dose of personal growth resources, guidance and inspiration:
Read
Wherever You Go, There You Are
By Jon Kabat-Zinn
This is a classic mindfulness guide that I am sure many of you are familiar with. I bought it years ago, but just cracked it open last week and have been enjoying it so much. Meditation and mindful breathing are practices that often get booted out of my busy schedule, to be honest. When I do make time to breathe consciously and sit in stillness, it is amazing how impactful it is for my energy, and how much it helps me be with whatever is present in a non-reactive way.
As Kabat-Zinn writes about the benefits of mindfulness: It is also enlightening and liberating work. It is enlightening in that it literally allows us to see more clearly, and therefore come to understand more deeply, areas in our lives that we were out of touch with or unwilling to look at. This may include encountering deep emotions — such as grief, sadness, woundedness, anger, and fear — that we might not ordinarily allow ourselves to hold in awareness or express consciously. Mindfulness can also help us to appreciate feeling such as joy, peacefulness, and happiness which often go by fleetingly and unacknowledged. It is liberating in that it leads to new ways of being in our own skin and in the world, which can free us from the ruts we so often fall into. It is empowering as well, because paying attention in this way opens channels to deep reservoirs of creativity, intelligence, imagination, clarity determination, choice, and wisdom within us (page 8-9).
Listen
Glennon Doyle’s Podcast, We Can Do Hard Things
Episode: SELF CARE: How do we identify our real needs and finally get them met?
This podcast is wonderful, and I particularly loved this episode about what real, deep self care is and how we address our needs beyond the commercialized version of self care of manicures and bubble baths.
Write
Journal about what you still want to do this summer. Fall will be here before we know it, but let’s not let summer pass by. What do you want to do personally, socially, creatively and professionally with the remainder of the season?
Do
Clear space in your home to make a personal sanctuary for reading/writing/meditating/movement/whatever makes you feel connected with yourself. This can be a whole room, a corner of a room, or a closet. Fill it with a writing space or a cushion, books you love, pictures that inspire you, and candles or a diffuser. Having a physical space to go to that nurtures us can help engrain the practice of taking that time for ourselves regularly to regroup.
Ponder
What is giving you energy right now? How can you make more space for that in your life?
Wishing you a growth-filled August!