I need to put forth a better effort in mindful eating when it’s so easy to mindlessly snack.

One practice I try to make into a ritual is acts of self care. Right now I use a randomizer with lots of little things that I don’t take time for myself and do two or three a day.

More praying, less complaining.
More movement, less sitting.

I am lightening my load by choosing to refrain. I am a “fixer” by nature. I want to help everyone that I see suffering whether it is asked for or not. By refraining or waiting to be asked, I’m keeping myself from picking up a burden that isn’t mine, but still showing that I care.

It’s more a thing where I need to learn that it’s okay not to know what will happen. I have issues with loss of control in situations. I am trying to remind myself of the things that I do have control over instead of what ifs, but it is a work in progress.

I have been practicing meditation through the Headspace app with my husband. It’s been helping us tap into our creativity and give us strategies for dealing with our depression and anxiety, which has really helped us being present for each other. We know more about our triggers and how our disorders manifest. It’s been one of the gifts of this quarantine.

I looked at two butterflies I had never seen before, and saw a bobolink up close. My eyes saw a bird struggling in a landscaping mesh and helped free it. I looked within at my thoughts upon the human condition to see how I can do right by the most people possible.

My body feels better when I listen to it. Eat when I’m hungry, drink when I’m thirsty, remembering to stretch. Learning and accomplishing floods my cells with dopamine and oxytocin.

I live in Northwest Indiana. I am blessed to be living near one of the Great Lakes and a landscape shaped by the last Ice Age. Close enough to the big cities to be connected to civilization and close enough to nature to see farms and protected wilderness.

To say what I feel when I feel it and have no regrets.

My husband is one of the kindest people I know. He’s devoted to family and just causes. He thrives in feeding birds and other critters. He is very patient with me when I am having an anxiety or depression episode.

I don’t think I’d change my days. All my moments even the cringy ones helped me be who I am today.

Being able to connect with my God, myself, and my husband.

Instead of saying I don’t have time to, I should say I have time to. Removing the don’t. I wonder if a shift like that will make me less stressed when I worry about deadlines?

We are weathering the same storms, but in different boats. “Me” is when you are aware of your own boat, see its leaks, and fix it. “We” is when you recognize that other boats are different but no less than yours. You may help fix their leaks, and they may help with yours. Trouble for me personally is to let others see my leaks and accepting their help to fix them.

Same here, Lioness. Sometimes I get the feeling that when I join the “we” I am entering a school of fish. I’m a gold fish and the rest are piranhas. Something I have to work on.