A post about this and that

I just realized that while I have done tons of writing in the past two weeks, I haven’t done a blog post at all this month. Most of my writing has either been for work or personal notes and was not appropriate for sharing. However, I’d like to spill a few thoughts here based on what is going on in my mind.

I continually try to implement new “best practices” in my lifestyle and here are the most recent ones that I am working on.

- Being dairy-free (of course). Even my daughter knows this term and can explain what it means. She sometimes asks me to prepare a paneer dish for her and to make potatoes for myself on the side since I don’t eat dairy.
- Sunlight – I like getting some mid-day sun and find that it helps my mood quite a bit
- Being aware of planetary and seasonal influences – the changing seasons, time change, full moon cycle and maybe even Mercury retrograde (something I don’t usually worry about) seem to affect all of us. I know that my headache and tinnitus are often affected by changes in pressure, weather and even the lunar cycle, as is my mood and mind. Sometimes, it is best to chalk up my feeling “some sort of way” to all of that and let it ride itself out.
- Daily gratitude journal (general and work), affirmations and “3 things” to do about my career. I have been doing this for a couple of weeks now and while it is time consuming, it also helps me feel grounded
- Zero waste natural beauty products. This summer, I started adopting a new line of skin care and beauty products for my daily routine. They consist mostly of bar soaps and organic oils (obtained from a farm in France, a local organic farmers market and some products from Amazon). I am quite far along in the natural products journey, but am not all the way there yet with the zero waste part. My skin care routing largely consists of soap and jojoba oil after showering. But, awareness is the first step and it does not have to be an all-or-nothing deal, so any progress is definitely good.
- Enjoying music, and really enjoying it. – Shoegaze continues to enthrall me. My husband called it music for when you are down/sad. But I see it as happy music – it evokes a sense of peaceful bliss while being in the throes of chaos and I somehow see that as a beautiful thing. An added bonus is my toddler son is hooked to it too, and some of our favorite moments of the day are spent dancing together with him in my arms to Slowdive.
- Singing. I am a singer and my big problem has been in finding people with the same taste in music as me. I have sung with groups who have had very different tastes in music (makes me cringe when I listen to those styles these days), as well as to audiences who are interested in popular music to dance to (makes me feel like even more of a sellout), but the other side of the coin is not finding any opportunities to sing at all. I feel that singing helps us in our overall wellbeing, especially if we are or once were singers. For one, all the practices that help in training and maintaining our voices are good ones for our overall health (our diet, warm teas, breathing exercises, and the overall feel-good emotions that come with singing). I am going to do more of car-singing and family-room-singing and work on training my voice again.
- Wardrobe and style – Argh. I really do hate shopping. I’m also trying to avoid spending money in whatever way I can. This combination works really well and has for many years. However I would like to have a few new items since it may help me feel better and have more confidence to do bigger things. Getting dressed in frayed and old clothes and torn footwear somehow does not seem to make that cut. So I’ll probably have to find a way to make some small changes here and chalk up the money spent to investing in myself (to hopefully yield better returns in some way?)
- Reading – I started reading Villette by Charlotte Bronte. Goal is to finish it by the end of the year! Why so long? Because I haven’t read in a really really long time (probably since having kids) and this is not who I used to be. Reading on my phone is something I do a lot but I need to get back to books somehow, this is more my comfort zone.
- Books – In the same vein, I have been to two bookstores recently and found that when I am out in shopping centers or downtown areas, this is my safe haven and I need to do more of it to feel better. This is what minimalism is about, isn’t it? Cutting out on all the extraneous activities and things around us, leaving more time for the ones we like and thrive in.
- Outings with daughter – The poor girl misses dedicated time with me a lot and really enjoyed our two recent outings together. I’d like to do more of that
- Regular mom stuff – I’m taking a week off work the week after Thanksgiving, giving me a total of 11 days at home with the kiddos. No agenda, no traveling and no plan! I know that this time will fly by, but maybe I’ll try not to be a Grinch this holiday season and do some (dare I say) crafts, baking and holiday activities with them? Wow – I almost don’t recognize myself as I type these words.
- I know there are other things I should focus on such as yoga and exercise and being diligent about drinking water. I am mostly okay on these areas and fall off the bandwagon at times, but these are just items I need to incorporate into my routine.
- Word of the day. I would like to build on my vocabulary and language skills. Everyone can improve on themselves regardless of the level they are already at. In my case, I have a good enough grasp on English to stand out among the better communicators at my job. However, I am often faced with words that I know the meaning of very vaguely or that I have heard of but do not know the meaning of. And these are words that I would like to make a conscious effort to learn, so that I may be better positioned to understand and use them when needed. Today’s word of the day is idempotent, and yesterday’s was ineffable.
Idempotent – an operation that remains unchanged, every time it is applied
Ineffable – to great to be expressed