Favourite Things – Page 4

How to Do Morning Pages

September 30, 2014

This week on Guinea Pigging Green, Laura and I are talking all about morning pages! If you’re not familiar with them, the idea is to do 3 pages of stream-of-consciousness writing first thing in the morning, by hand in a notebook. The purpose is to get rid of your internal judging voice, and get all the junk and insecurities and worries in your head down on paper before you start your day. I’ve done this before, for several months back in 2012 around the time when I did NaNoWriMo for the first time! Back then I was going through some things personally and I found the process incredibly helpful in working out some of the stuff in my head at the time.

About a month ago, Laura sent me an article she’d seen on the Daily Muse about morning pages and asked if I’d like to do them together for a month to see what would happen. I was definitely interested and happily recommitted to this practice I’d let slip out of my life nearly 2 full years ago. I’m happy to report that I love doing the pages more than ever.

So, how can you do morning pages yourself? It’s very, very simple. The official definition specifically says:

There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages—they are not high art. They are not even ‘writing.’ They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind—and they are for your eyes only. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page.

Previously, I’d been using 750words.com, an awesome site based on the idea of morning pages which tracks your progress and saves your words every day. It’s an awesome way to ease into it if you’re new to the idea and want to give it a try. That being said, I think my experience writing it by hand in my notebook this time around has been a thousand times more enjoyable and helpful. As Laura put it, it’s just so much more cozy to write your pages by hand each morning in a nice notebook with a nice pen. I also love that that means I’m doing my morning writing before opening my computer. It has been so refreshing to take that time for myself before checking in with all the distractions my computer brings.

I’m also delighted that doing my morning pages has been an anchor for my morning, giving me something to do before I get swept up in the day and distracted by other things. It’s led to a bit of a domino effect lately too where I have begun meditating right after finishing my pages using the Headspace app. Then after that, I’ll have breakfast and do my 7 minute workout. And voila! A productive morning where one good thing flows into another. I find that no matter what else I do all day, I’m always so grateful to have taken that time to check in with myself before I start the day.

You can find out more about my experience with morning pages by tuning into the podcast here, and you can learn much more about the pages themselves on Julia Cameron’s blog here.

Twenty Questions!

August 19, 2014

Over on Guinea Pigging Green today, I’m answering 10 very random questions about myself and asking Laura 10 of my own (very random) questions. We love recording the podcast together, but for the past few weeks our schedules have not aligned because of vacations and my summer work schedule and of course, the 13 hour time difference between us. So I had this totally wacky idea for us to record the episode separately, answering questions we’d sent each other in advance.

In the end, I think it worked out pretty well, all things considered! One of the best parts of having this podcast is being able to have fun and try new things. We are the ones running the (very small) show, so we get to try out different ideas and be silly and experiment and see what happens. More often than not, we end up learning more about each other and the world, learning how to collaborate better, meeting amazing new people, improving ourselves and hopefully doing our small part to inspire others to lead happier healthier lives. The podcast is definitely sometimes a lot of work, or a hassle to develop ideas and record every few weeks, but I am absurdly grateful for this tiny fun creative venture. I know I’m building skills that will help me in the future and I’m so glad I get to do so in a way that’s positive and which inspires me.

We asked each other some pretty fun questions and got some pretty funny and interesting responses. You can find out more about the episode by reading the shownotes over on our blog or of course by tuning into the show at the link here or by subscribing on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

My Favourite Mantras

July 22, 2014

Over on the podcast today, Laura and I are discussing our favourite mantras, perspectives and life philosophies. We shared them with each other for the first time while recording, but it was awesome to see that we had so many similar ideas that went hand-in-hand. I definitely came away with some awesome new perspectives and a bit more peace.

There’s a little bit of overlap with my post about my favourite quotes, but surprisingly most of the ones I shared with Laura on the podcast are never-bef0re-shared on the blog (but shared about a million times with myself in my own brain). Here are a few of them:

Sit with it: I read a Tony Robbins quote a while ago that said “The quality of your life is in direct proportion with the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably live with.” It reminds me of doing cross country running in high school when my coach told me that it’s normal to be a little uncomfortable, that you shouldn’t be running in a way that gets rid of every ounce of discomfort. I think in every situation, we rail against uncertainty and annoyance and pain, but this mantra reminds me that we don’t have to believe everything we think and feel. We don’t have to try to change and control every little thing that happens to us. We can try and sit with it, accept that it’s not ideal, and breathe through it.

Big deal or little deal?: This has always been a favourite of my mother’s and it always instantly puts things in perspective for me. It reminds me that a good 95% of the things I get stressed out about aren’t very big deals – they might be stressful, but not much is at stake. I often think to myself, in a year’s time, will I remember being stressed about this? Usually the answer is that I probably won’t even remember it in a month’s time, and sometimes even less time than that.

Abundance: My wonderful word of the year has served me well so far. It’s amazing how many times it’s come up for me, and how many times it’s been helpful when things have been stressful or confusing. Sometimes I’m just repeating the word itself over and over in my head to remind me to think big and not scarce and small. Again, instant perspective shift.

Nobody cares about almost: I recently read this idea on Elise’s blog and it just kind of stuck with me. It reminds me that in the end, you can’t tell stories about the things you considered doing but decided not to. People want to know what decisions you made, what things you actually did. You can make your decisions based on who you are as a person and what you need – and then own those decisions – but you have to decide. You can’t just let life happen to you. Elise also shared this awesome quote from Amy Poehler: “Great people do things before they’re ready. They do things before they know they can do it. Doing what you’re afraid of, getting out of your comfort zone, taking risks like that – that is what life is. You might be really good. You might find out something about yourself that’s really special and if you’re not good, who cares? You tried something. Now you know something about yourself.” – Amy Poehler

Those are most of mine, but there are some real gems in what Laura shares as well. We also talk a lot more about what these mantras mean to us and how they’ve shaped our decisions and lives so far.

You can listen to the episode right here or by subscribing on iTunes. Happy Tuesday!

Vision Board 2014 | My Lovely Life

May 29, 2014

A couple months ago I listened to an episode of After The Jump about living the life you want to live. If you’ve read this blog for any time at all, you’ll know that I really love these kinds of topics. I love learning more about living intentionally, designing your life, being proactive rather than passive and making the most of each moment.

I once dated a guy who lived in a very sparse apartment and always talked about how that time in his life didn’t really “count”, but that he was going to be really happy one day when he was richer/working his dream job/fill in the blank. If you’re like me, that kind of thinking makes you queasy. I haven’t spoken to him in years, but I hope he’s figured out by now that this is it. If you don’t learn how to be happy in this imperfect moment, you definitely won’t know how to be happy when you get to that “promised land” moment you’ve been waiting for.

That said, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with collecting inspiration and actively shaping your present and future into the life you want to have. As long as you’re not always waiting for some unspecified tomorrow, I think it’s awesome to take stock of how you want your future life to look and then work towards it starting from today.

On the episode I mentioned, they discussed the power of vision boards. The thought of a vision board, as cheesy as it might sound to some, immediately lit me up. The hosts were encouraging people to use magazines and just rip out anything that called to you without thinking too much about it. The key was to not place judgements on anything that attracted you for whatever reason.

I didn’t have magazines, but I did have Pinterest. So six weeks ago, I created a board and started adding photos to it that inspired me, made me feel happy, or evoked the kinds of feelings I wanted from my life. In order to let myself just go with it without judgement or holding myself back, I made the board secret. This helped because 1. I didn’t have to worry about other people’s judgements of what I was picking, and 2. when you pin to a secret board, it doesn’t come up on your own feed, so I would quickly forget what I’d chosen. I almost wanted to keep it a secret from myself, so that I wouldn’t be influenced by anything other than my immediate reactions to different pictures.

I looked at it this morning for the first time and basically just felt like saying “yep, exactly”. I’d forgotten most of the individual pictures, but collectively it all made complete sense to me. There are really no surprises, but it all adds up to what I personally would consider a good life. Here’s what my vision board says to me:

I want to eat good food. Freshly baked bread, soft serve ice cream, homemade chocolate chip cookies. I want to bake cakes for the people I love. I want a weekly pizza night.

I want to eat outside, al fresco, all the time. Food just tastes better that way.

I want to throw dinner parties outside that involve lots of fairy lights.

I want to watch a lot of sunsets. I want lots of happy hours.

I want to keep travelling the world and seeing beautiful places. I want road trips and boat rides and lots of laying on the beach reading books in exotic locales. I want to go to cottages on the lake and I want to learn how to surf in the ocean.

I want to live in a beautiful home. I don’t care that much about clothes – simple and classic will do, but it’s really not a priority. I want to be surrounded by colour and flowers and books.

I want simple traditions like pancakes on Sunday mornings and running around like crazy people in the backyard with a dog. I want a dog or two. Maybe a cat as well.

I want a partner, of course, and some babies. Not now, no way, but eventually. I want to be surrounded by friends and the people I love.

I want to live near the water and be in it as much as possible.

Like I said, nothing too surprising and nothing too original. I think a lot of people would be attracted to these same images and want some of the same things for their own lives. It’s kind of cool though what doesn’t show up here: expensive cars, jewelry or clothes, dinners at posh restaurants, dressing up for fancy parties, high heels of any kind. In a way it’s almost surprising to me how simple the life I want seems to be. It’s obtainable. It won’t cost me a lot of money. I can get there.

Of course, there also isn’t a lot in there about my career or creativity (there’s basically only a picture of a girl on a couch on her laptop, which sounds about right to me!). Maybe that’s because I don’t know yet what I want to do, or maybe it’s because I feel like my career isn’t the most important part of having a good life. It’s probably a little of both.

In any case, it was a good exercise. It’s a visual example of what my priorities are for living well and happily! Of course my life will never be as picture-perfect as this Pinterest board, but that’s not the point. It’s just a good reminder that there’s a lot that I can focus on incorporating more of in my life and continue to work towards every day.

Even if vision boards sound a little new-agey to you, I think that they can be a really helpful tool for determing what your own personal version of a good life looks like. Give it a try and see what comes up!

If you’re interested, you can see my whole vision board here.