Hey Y’all- hope the summer has been treating you well!
Sorry I disappeared for a while there, I started back at work and have been doing training and working on hiring/doing on campus interviews for one of our open positions. This is most definitely the busiest time of the year in my field. We’re working on getting everything ready for the incoming students and preparing to train our student leaders, exciting stuff- I know!
My mind had gotten so used to relaxing and traveling from my month off, so jumping back into things was definitely tough. I feel like I’ve finally got my feet a little bit back on the ground and am getting excited for the school year to start! In the eye before the storm of August, I’ve been trying to keep myself calm and collected by taking time for myself.
Here is what I’ve been doing:
1.) PAINTING! As you can see from my wannabe art (pictured above), that has been one of my “chill out and breathe” methods this month. Tom also loves hanging out with me while I Picasso it up. I’m in a dandelion phase and it’s slightly addicting. I got a lot of good ideas from Pinterest on how to actually paint free-hand. So to answer the question I know you’ve all been itching to know…that is free handed. Haha!
2.) READING! I’ve also been reading to help my brain turn off after work. One book I just finished is called The Nightingale. It’s by Kristin Hannah and it made me cry so hard that I’ll never be able to sell or even donate it because it looks like it has water damage… :O No shame-it’s a book that definitely deserves a good cry, or 6. It’s about two sisters and their relationship during World War II, with a lot of other plots throughout that are also super intense and heart wrenching. What I’m trying to say is, I highly recommend it. Even if you aren’t typically someone who enjoys reading about history-there is SO much more to it than that. Love. Loss. Girl power. Family dynamics. Friendships. Hatred.
I’ve also started reading a book called Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect. I know, that sounds SUPER intense. It was actually something my brother recommended to me and he usually makes good recommendations, so I had to give it a try. I remember getting it in the mail and skimming through it finding these worksheets and a word bank in the back and thinking to myself, “What the hell have I gotten myself into.” But, it has been a pretty eye opening book to say the least. I never ever thought of myself as a person who experienced childhood neglect and probably would have never picked this book out had it not been for my brother. It has helped me to see things from other perspectives and even to think about my relationship with my nephews and nieces. It has opened my eyes to things my mom may have gone through in her childhood or reasons behind why she chose to raise my siblings and me the way she did. It’s even helped me to see a glimpse of what some of my siblings may have gone through in their lives (I am the youngest of 4). It is a much denser read than the suggested book above and I find myself having to re-read sections because I want to make sure I’m grasping what the author is saying, but it is worth it.
3.) BULLET JOURNALING! Okay, so if I’m being honest-I haven’t technically started this one yet. But, I have spent a good 5 hours (okay...maybe closer to 10) in the past week watching “how to” youtube videos. I am slightly in love with this idea of bullet journaling. It’s meant to be a way for you to condense the clutter and chaos of your life and put it all into one journal, at least that was my takeaway. This is also one of my goals for the year (to find a better way to keep myself organized). A lot of people buy grid or completely blank journals and start with that, but some people buy the dot-grid journals as to have a bit more freedom without the gridlines but not so much freedom that you can’t keep anything straight. I admire those that can rock it with a blank journal though! So, what did I do? I went on Amazon and bought 3 dot-grid journals, fine-tipped colored pens and a protractor! They had so many awesome covers for the journals and I couldn’t decide on one so naturally, I bought 3. They should arrive in the mail tomorrow and I’m on the verge of puking excited...is that too much to share with the newness of our relationship, Steemians? Well, I guess it’s better for me to show you the true me in the beginning rather than surprise you later :) haha!
I was going to add a youtube video here of a good bullet journaling tutorial but then I just wasted another hour watching videos and forgot the reason I went to look for one… Yes, that is how addicting those videos are. I also couldn’t pick one because they’re all so entrancing and then I would never get this blog post posted :O
But really, go youtube it! I promise you will get lost in this bullet journaling world and will then come back to yell at me about how you spent the last few hours watching people make their own!
I could go on for days about this so I will stop myself here, for you sake! (I will definitely post pics when I get my new journals though)
We can never have enough ways to destress and learn more about ourselves though. So, I want to know what you do when you’re stressed and need to get out of your head for a hot minute? The more ideas the merrier-introduce me to your life!
Cheers to breathing and new goals-steem on!