Intuition

The radio silence here has been due to a combination of stomach flu, busy work schedule and the little old task of BUYING A NEW HOUSE!    Yep... about 30 days from now, all things remaining equal, our little family will be moving to what I will proudly call my personal dream come true.

I saw this house come on the market back in December.  I immediately showed it to anyone willing to look and drove by it that very night.  I saved pictures of it to my computer, thinking although this house will never be mine, maybe some day I can try to make my house more like it.   There is something hard to articulate about why I fall in love with the houses that I do.  It's an energy, a feeling, a vibe.  I had the exact same feeling when we purchased our current home in 2005.   It wasn't a neighborhood I was familiar with or really saw myself in...  but when I saw the house I knew it was for me.   Nine years later, that lovely little house holds the most near and dear spot to me.   It has made so much of what we've done possible...  

So, as I thought more about house #2, I realized maybe it didn't need to be a pipe-dream.  Sure, I had never anticipated moving back to my hometown but it was an amazing place to grow up, a wonderful community of like-minded people, excellent proximity to my parents....maybe the pros far outweighed the cons.  Just like that I tried to let go and surrender to what felt right.   Everything about raising our family in this house spoke to me in a resounding, yes!

We set up a showing and made an offer that day.  We've had the house thoroughly inspected, got going on the financing process and have been moving quickly ever since.  I am jumping out of my seat with excitement and so eager for this next chapter!!

Meanwhile, my Brene Brown e-course continues.  I devoured her book The Gifts of Imperfection.  I'll probably write more about it here but in the meantime there's a chapter on intuition that simply could not be overlooked.   She writes, "Intuition is not independent of any reasoning process.  In fact, psychologists believe that intuition is a rapid-fire, unconscious associating process - like a mental puzzle.  The brain makes an observation, scans its files, and matches the observation with existing memories, knowledge and experiences.  Once it puts together a series of matches, we get a "gut" on what we've observed."  (page 87-88)

A timely chapter, for sure.

Art

The e-course has an art component.   I've always steered away from art because it doesn't come easily...  But in an effort to push myself, I grabbed a sketch book and some supplies and followed the first weekly assignment.   ....and it felt good!   I had underestimated the relaxing power of a set of colored pencils!   As Brene says, "unused creativity is not benign"    It felt good to release some of the tension in my mind through this outlet.    Looking forward to more....

(inspiration) 

Connection via Brene Brown

Don't you love these words on Connection.  Sometimes it's hard to articulate what or why a friendship or relationship is significant, special, or important.  I think this sums it up in a way I haven't seen before.   

(and yes, I'm taking the e-course.  More on that later....)

33

The sun is the same in a relative way and I'm older.   Yes, that's a Dark Side of the Moon reference for those paying attention.   Today I welcome a new year.   Thirty-three.   I had a fantastic birthday weekend with some family time, some friend time and some date time with my husband.  Honestly, my heart is so full and I feel surrounded by so much love and goodness.

At thirty-three, I'm proud of what I've been able to accomplish and excited about what is yet to come.

  We've got a trip to London on our minds...

And a trip to Rio in the works.


There is nothing that makes me feel happier to be alive than traveling.  I'm 33 and I know that to be for sure.  Cheers.

(images) 

What I learned....

Often times I'll turn on a TED talk on my drive home.  It's a nice way to decompress from the day, change gears in my mind and the talks, generally, provoke some inner sense of optimism.   I don't discriminate on topics --- and will tune into anything and everything from economics, psychology, social science, neurology, innovation etc.   Compelling research, regardless of the topic, fascinates me.

However, my brain is a bit of a haphazard mess these days.  I've got thoughts on what needs to be done at work, notes to remember to buy Joseph swim diapers, recipes to try for dinner and too many emails I need to send.   So, while I enjoy the TED talks immensely, I wish I retained a bit more of the fascinating statistics and theories.

Enter, What I learned.   This is just a post to summarize a few bullet points from an interesting TED talk.  Maybe you will find it interesting but more importantly it's an exercise to help me remember some of the information I found relevant and worth remembering.   Bear with me, as I said the topics I listen to on any given ride home are random.  As will be these posts.

Sandra Aamodt: Why Dieting Doesn't Usually Work 
Psychologists classify eaters into two groups, those who rely on their hunger and those who try to control their eating through willpower, like most dieters. Let's call them intuitive eaters and controlled eaters. The interesting thing is that intuitive eaters are less likely to be overweight, and they spend less time thinking about food.

Diets don't have very much reliability. Five years after a diet, most people have regained the weight. Forty percent of them have gained even more. If you think about this, the typical outcome of dieting is that you're more likely to gain weight in the long run than to lose it.

Let's face it: If diets worked, we'd all be thin already. 

Change

Fresh....

No word better describes the way I feel today, the first workday of the new year, than fresh.   I've shed the skin and the ugly residue of yesterday is gone.   I started the day with a workout, with water, with punctuality...  

The possibilities are endless and I feel refreshed.

(image)

Welcome, 2014

I took a look back at my January 1, 2013 post from this time last year.  On it, I resolved to get to a Boston museum ----- hoorah, Museum of Fine Arts and The Children's Museum!    Travel more ---- we made it on a solo overnight to Brooklyn where we checked out the Brooklyn Smorgasburg and some fun neighborhoods.  For having a 1 year old, I'm content with sticking with my "life rule" of a minimum of one new place per year.   Those were the two tangible goals for 2013, so I'm happy to report to self that I did them.   And since goals, dreams, visions etc. are easier to achieve when written and accounted for here are a few of mine for 2014.

1.  Continue with art and culture.   More museum visits again this year....

2.  Get to pre-pregnancy weight.  You don't hear me talk much about weight and body image here but the time has come to get a little more serious with my exercise and diet regime.   It's important to my physical and mental well being.

3.  Systems.  Create some organized processes for the way things get done...   bills get paid, papers get filed, stuff gets sorted.   Organization is tough for me but with the busyness of life, I've never felt it more crucial.  Even simple things like leaving my keys/phone/bag in the same place every day will help me feel less frazzled.

4. Family.  Be more kind & more patient with those that mean the most to me.  It's easy to give the rest of the world something better than you give them.   I'm not sure why this is the case but I'd like to resolve to tilt the scales to something more in their favor.

5.  Simplify.  Less stuff.  Purge.  Resist. Condense.   Ughhhh --- the sheer volume of stuff that we accumulate starts to make me feel gross.

I'll stop there.   Of course, I could go on and on... but I think this is a challenging yet achievable list that would help make 2014 a better year.

Wishing you all a year of peace and health.  With peace and health, all else is achievable.

(and a lovely living space because what's the point of resolutions if not to help you reach your dreams)

(image)