Hi, I’m Emily! I’m the Emily behind Words by Emily. Every so often, I like to pop in and say hello and share some things I’m working on personally.
1. Noticing my effectiveness. I’ve started keeping one of those One Line a Day journals. I’ve tried a few different things with my one line, and the one that’s really shifted things for me is to write down one way I was effective in a given day. I feel like most of my life is doing things that need to be done again pretty much right away (see: laundry) or things that I just feel like I’m constantly failing at (see: most of my experience parenting). It’s so refreshing for me to notice (and take some pride in) specific things I did effectively. For instance, last night I wrote down “Helped my kid see how he was able to be flexible when he didn’t think he could be.”
2. Cutting my losses on books I don’t like. I was very excited to download the audiobook for How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan this summer. I’ve really enjoyed his other books. But unlike his others, the more I read this particular book, the less interested I became in the subject. Basically, it was boring to me. I have been limping through this book for months, and yesterday I finally I let myself return it. Life is too short to read bad (to me) books.
3. Moisturizer. I live in Minnesota. It’s winter. I’ve gotta treat my hands better. I’ve been catching way too many cuts and scratches due to dry skin. To help, I’ve replenished my tubes of Skin Food by each sink in my house and next to my bed, so no excuses.
*What about you? What’s something you’re working on right now?*
Photo credit: Hannah Pettersen Photography
I’m trying to identify specific reasons why I feel depression creeping into my life. Whether it’s the holiday season (not a huge fan of Christmas), my new job as a crisis counselor and the learning curve that entails, or maybe it’s seeing clients who are at bad point in their life, all of this continues to be a quagmire for me.
That sounds like a really worthwhile thing to examine, Mark. It does sound like there’s a lot going on in your life right now. I’m hoping this depression decides to creep back away from you soon.