I took Friday off (first in a long time) and spent 3 hrs in the morning to plan October in my journal. I even did some artistic drawing!!! To be perfectly honest, I have zero artistic skills, or that I thought about myself. But since I made that flower following the youtube video, I realised that there is artistic skill in each of us if we want to. I think it came from being Chinese in the generation of 1980s. Art was not appreciated nor valued in our society. Art was perceived as useless activity, waste of time, that won’t translate into any economic outcome/payoff. Therefore, the whole society didn’t encourage it, and obviously as a child, I was not exposed to it nor experienced it.
Even as an adult during my 20s and early 30s, art or spending time in any artistic work seems waste of time to me. Everything I did could be traced to an outcome beyond the activity itself.
Until recently. I started to appreciate books that are fiction, crafting the requires hours of my precious time, or drawing that its only outcome is my own appreciation to the final product. I started to enjoy the process itself, or its effect on me, the calmness, the flow in it, and satisfaction when it is completed. This is a major shift. I’m purely rational being to a human being. hahaha… or my best friend would say.
Anyway… a long intro for what I did in my journal. I really enjoyed those three hours. The art, the planning, and knowing that I get to look at it several times a day. I followed this video for the cover page. I really like the floral theme of the channel. very soothing and girly
Next are my goals, focus and fun plans for the month. One of my goals is do more art, either in the form of drawing/painting or crafting. The way it takes my mind of my thoughts is magical.
Also trying a new way to track habits. Before I had it in each day journal entry and then I’d summarise it in the monthly cover. The new way means I need to track it once and I can see it in a month view. Things I will track this month:
- Meditate (5-10 min)
- Mindful eating: no devise/book, just my mind and food
- Walk with the girls
- Read
- Craft/Art
- Steps, screen time, work hrs
I also track sleep, mood and lovely moments with hubby (either it’s a heart-to-heart conversation, a cuddle time for a movie, or a trip to groceries store).
On the right, I’ll log in best podcasts/movies, quotes, and gratitudes of the month
Finally, lists of projects, books to read, recipes to make. I’ll also track digestive wellness as i’d like to find a pattern between hormones, digestion, food, and mood.
For my daily log, I plan to include:
- work to do list
- life tasks
- meals
- journal form of thoughts and reflections
Let’s see how October goes. Last night I felt a sense of new beginning. For the first time since the pandemic I feel we are entering to the normal life, a better one though, one that is more mindful, calm, centered, and more gratitude to everything we have and can do.
Our New Journey 