Eeeeek! I’ve been a bit MIA for a couple of weeks! I’m the managing editor of a lit magazine for the press that I work for and we were deep into production the past few weeks. I was still in WordPressland, just not my own personal WordPressland. I also had both my niece and my mom visit, then the water line into my house froze, and then A and I were contending with major ice dams (that have been rectified by putting pantyhose filled with ice melt on them. THANKS PANTYHOSE YOU ARE STILL GOOD FOR SOMETHING!)
Sadly I got behind on my blog. I took this afternoon to delve into my blog and my planner since it is now March and I got to add the new calendar!
An underdeveloped section of my planner has continuously been the Health section – I was having a hard time deciding what exactly should go in it. Health encompasses so many things (both physical and mental!) so I made a list (shocking) of things I wanted to include in it:
- An exercise diary
- Meal planning
- Grocery lists of each week
- Self Care ideas
I’ve been reading Imagine the Life You’d Love to Live, Then Live It: 52 Inspired Habits and Playful Prompts by  Peg Conley. At first I was a bit skeptical – I’ve never been into better living-type books or even really non-fiction, but as I’ve gotten into my late-20s and have begun talking about things like composting, roof rakes, farm shares, deadlines, and how productive I was this past weekend – suddenly books about unwinding appeal to me and taking care of myself appeal to me. STRONGLY. Hence self care being included in my Health section.Â
What I like best about this book is you don’t have to read it cover to cover. You can flip to any chapter you want and just read that section and take its advice. Like many people I know, I often have a hard time taking a time out from my work obligations (it’s especially hard when you love your workplace as much as I do!) and I realized that recently I was often went to work in the morning, came home, worked from home for a while on projects, ate dinner, zoned out to a TV show with phone in hand, and then went to bed. This is not how I typically live. Nor want to live. But let’s be honest – New England winters manage to suck almost every ounce of will from your body, and this last one has been particularly awful. (Snowstorm Sundays were a thing. FOR WEEKS.)
Once I got back into blogging, found the planner and penpal communities, established a yoga home practice, and started cooking and playing games with A – I felt so much more like myself. But I needed that reminder to carve out that time, and this book certainly helped me along the way!
One chapter in particular Imagine the Life You’d Love to Live, Then Live It: 52 Inspired Habits and Playful Prompts called “Unplug to recharge,” I took to heart recently. I’m a gadget geek. I always have been – so my iPhone is never far away. This week I decided to cut Facebook out of my life for a period of time. How many times have you found yourself aimlessly scrolling Facebook when you could devote that time to something, ANYTHING else? I know I have. I deleted the app from my phone and haven’t used it on my computer and it’s actually really nice. There’s something wonderful about not knowing what everyone I know is doing, thinking, or feeling. And I find that my time on my phone and computer is cut short and more purposeful, which is also refreshing. I’m not sure how long I’ll be on hiatus – I aim for at least 30 days – but already these days unplugged from just a bit of social media feel good.
This whole reflection on self care and taking time out for myself to “unplug” led me to create my very own printable – a weekly self care planner page!
It’s sized for A5 but can easily fit on a half page (I suggest scaling it down to 94%). The PDF has both left and right margins for printing double-sided. Here’s what it looks like:
Download it, use it in your planner, and let me know what you think! I have other printables in the works that I’ll be sharing soon. And be sure to check out Imagine the Life You’d Love to Live, Then Live It: 52 Inspired Habits and Playful Prompts if you’re looking for inspiration!
