I have to be honest: summer is my least favorite season.
And it’s mostly because of the heat.
I’m really not a 90-degrees-outside kind of person.
But summer comes every year, and part of mindfulness is learning to accept what you can’t change.
So I’m trying to find happiness in the heat. The silver lining of the it’s-so-hot-my-brain-is-melting cloud.
It’s Independence Day, where Americans across the country go nuts celebrating our independence from Britain.
We might be independent from Britain, but we sure aren’t independent from our stuff.
Our homes are getting bigger (but are housing fewer people per unit), our consumer debt is rising, and almost 10% of us use our hard-earned money to pay for storage for our extra stuff.
Just in my own neighborhood, a self-storage company recently bought a big plot of land that had previously held six different stores — so they could build another storage building catty-corner to their current one.
And not only is all this stuff costing us money — it’s also harming the environment. It takes a lot of resources to harvest, refine, make, package, ship, sell, and store the latest and greatest thing.
So this Independence Day, let’s talk about freedom from stuff.
Living in season with allergies is tough.
One key tenet of a lot of mindful practices, hygge living guides, and so on is living in season — that is, celebrating the now and the joyful parts of each season.
In the spring, this often looks like getting outside into nature, eating what’s growing locally, and throwing the windows open and getting fresh air now that the weather’s warming up.
All of this is great! …But slightly less doable when you’re allergic to the outdoors.
So how do those of us with allergies live in season when the season brings uncontrollable sneezing?
I admit: my mom was my motivation in writing this article. (Hi, Mom!)
She’s been pretty stressed over the last couple years, what with the virus, family stuff, politics, and so on. (I’m sure most of you can relate.)
I’ve suggested mindfulness to her and she said she didn’t really know where to start and that she felt like she needed a simple, beginner’s guide to mindfulness. This is that guide. I hope it will help her — and you! — find your way to a less-stressful and happier life.
I was fortunate enough to have a teacher and guide when I started my mindfulness journey. He had decades of experience in mindful practice and had studied overseas with experts in the subject. As a clinical psychologist, he was also a strong proponent of the health benefits of mindful meditation. I was skeptical at first but he won me over, and I’m very glad he did.
Because I learned from him, a lot of the advice I’m going to share with you is based on what he told me — tips, tricks, books, and so on.
I was thinking about my hopes and goals for this year and how I plan to reach them.
I wanted to come up with a simple routine that I could do every day. But also something that would, over time, have a big impact. And something easy to remember!
I read a couple articles about “ten minutes a day of X” or “do Y three times every day,” and I liked the idea, but none of those fit quite right.
So I thought: let’s combine some of these.
For me, part of being mindful and living in the moment is taking time to find the good parts of the season I’m in — in this case, to celebrate the winter of 2022. (Well, 2022-2023. I’ve never been quite sure how to refer to the winter months!)
I like to come up with a sort of “punch list” or “bucket list” of things to do each season. They’re not exactly the same each year — this current winter will have a few new things compared to last winter’s. Some of them are projects I’d like to do, some are just fun activities.
I also like to pick something off my homestead skills list to learn each season. This helps me keep on track for my homestead goals, and also gives me a deadline to help keep me from procrastinating!
The point is to help me be grateful and present, recognize how lucky I am to be able to experience life and this season, and make my days more intentional. Especially during winter, when the nights are long and sometimes things feel kinda heavy, focusing on the good is good for your health!
Here’s how I plan to celebrate…
