Return From Summer Vacation

Sep 1

Hello friend,

How have you been? How was your summer? This time of year reminds me of the nervous excitement of reconnecting with friends after a summer apart, while also carrying a certain heaviness with my seasonal sadness creeping in.

One of my longtime coping mechanisms for my seasonal affective disorder is to travel for work. What I have planned feels exciting, but in true “back to school” form, let me fill you in on what’s been going on around here, and what’s coming up!

🫶🏽 Since we spoke last, I taught at the Omega Institute for a Ted Lasso retreat. It was a blast! The feeling was apparently mutual because La Sarmiento and I will be returning to Omega to co-teach (along with Sebene Selassie and Kate Johnson) next June 2023 and I’m already looking forward to it.

🥳 I had a birthday, which I actually enjoyed celebrating for once! Thanks in large part to my sweet boo gathering some of my dearest friends and organizing something fun — daytime dance party and dinner with enough to have a quiet movie night.

😵‍💫 At the end of July, I (finally) got COVID which mostly manifested as extreme exhaustion (I was sleeping 16-20 hours a day at its height), which plunged me deeper into my reflection on rest and the way I’m spending my time. Without wanting to sound like a broken record, why is it so hard to prioritize rest!? I suspect this is what I’ll write my manifesto on someday, if I ever write one (but first, I should rest).

🎙 I’m also really excited that the next season of my podcast is launching soon. There was a slight delay with the recording studio but it’s coming soon! If you haven’t already checked out the first two seasons, they’re available wherever you get your podcasts.

I don’t want to consider summer over before it’s over, but knowing that the Equinox will have taken place before my next newsletter, I’ll wish you all a really beautiful end of the summer season and a peaceful transition into Fall.

Until the next one!

Dawned on me.

As a verb, dawn can mean “become clear” or “enter one's consciousness or emotions.” It’s in this spirit that I share with you some of the things that help me get clear in various ways. May it be the same for you, too.

Click through.
99 Mindful Conversation Topics for Deeper Connection
This time of year will always and forever feel like back to school season for me, and for me that season came with the excitement of reconnecting with friends. As an adult, I’m not big on small talk, I like to get right into the meat of a conversation, when it’s appropriate. Conversation decks have had a bit of a rise in popularity these last few years. I’ve “played” with friends and loved ones, and I find it really fun to see where these kinds of non-sequitur conversation prompts can take us.

Support.
How we Feel: Mood Tracker app
Tracking your mood is helpful for lots of different reasons. For me, apps like How We Feel have helped me identify the right words to describe the moods I’m in which has helped me understand myself and communicate my needs to others a lot more clearly. As the season shifts again, I find it nice to have this kind of tool to support me in understanding what I’m feeling.

Try.
4 Ways to Practice Self-Care When You Feel Anxious
If your anxiety is kicking up this month like mine is, it can be really helpful to have some go-to strategies for managing that anxiety in acute moments. Here are four simple tips.

Learn.
The Spice Trail
There are so many things that are part of our daily lives that we know nothing about. In the spirit of back-to-school time, here is a fascinating look at something I knew literally nothing about! Many of the most commonly used spices were sources of global conflict in their early years. The reporting in this series is excellent and thought provoking and I loved listening.

Take In.

"Learning and freedom go together, freedom bringing its own discipline; not a discipline imposed by the mind in order to achieve a certain result. These two things are essential: freedom and the act of learning. One cannot learn about oneself unless one is free, free so that one can observe, not according to any pattern, formula, or concept, but actually observe oneself as one is. That observation, that perception, that seeing, brings about its own discipline and learning; in that there is not conformity, imitation, suppression or control whatsoever – and in that there is great beauty."
- Krishnamurti, Flight of the Eagle