I’m so glad this week is over! it was hectic and stressful. I shut down my computer at 5:30pm and don’t plan to open it again until Monday 8:30am! 😀 Loving this new COMPLETE SHUT DOWN routine. Just finger crossed nobody texts me over the weekend.
Despite the lengthy and dense to-do list this week, I managed to finish this book by reading 1 or 2 chapters every morning before I started to work. I would say this is an easy and fast book to read but actually better to be read few pages a day as it brings calmness to the day in small doses, and because the concepts in this book need time to pause and reflect. I haven’t done the meditation program as I wanted to read the whole concept to see if it worths the effort.
There is an exercise in the book to list activities that I do in a typical day, and classify them as nourishing or depleting me. Nourishing means it brings me joy, calms my mind, things that add. Depleting activities are the opposite. Some activities could be nourishing or depleting depending on the specifics, such as work or tasks for the households.
When I wrote them down, I realised my nourishing list is way longer than depleting list, which is comforting to see and actually explains how I’ve managed to keep calm and mindfulness despite so many things in my plate. The other day my friend whose family is going to Boracay with us told me that her husband asked her if I was doing everything (booking the hotel, flights, covid, etc.) because I’m the busiest person in the office. I was glad to hear to be acknowledged, I wish it was my husband who realises it thought 🙂
I think part of the reason I can manage both work and family tasks without getting stressed because I’m constantly taking care of myself, knowing what activities i need to do EVERYDAY to keep stress at the bay, and not thinking those activities (exercise, read, yoga, sleep early, journal) are wasteful or selfish. I need them for everything else I do for work and for my family.
I came home rather late yesterday from work but still managed to cook a dinner to chat with husband my day, and then we stayed at the room chatting more while the girls played lego. We both felt how lucky they are to have each other. We are both only child and grew up alone not having anyone to play with ALL THE TIME. Lizzy follows Sofia most of the time, so we were wondering if Lizzy has the potential to be a leader. Husband said: well… we can make another baby so she has someone to order around. I was like…. (i) leadership is not about ordering people around; (ii) I am done making babies! I want to enjoy them before they abandon us! 😆
Our New Journey 
I was the younger sister too, just like your girls. (My older sister is a little over 2 years older than me). I always used to follow her around too. I remember one time we were on vacation and we played a game…we were going to “switch” roles. I remember so distinctly that as we played, I suddenly had to be the one to “decide” when we were done with whatever we were doing and I just got up and walked away so that my sister would follow me instead ( since SHE was normally always the one who would do that and I would always follow her.) I still remember this, to this day, how funny and different it felt. I was just so used to following her all the time that I never really thought about it before then! I will say…to this day I don’t feel that I am a strong, confident leader. I don’t know if it’s related to my childhood/ birth order though or not- maybe it’s just my personality. I’ve never been very comfortable bossing people around, making big decisions that impact others, etc. Just interesting to think about! I wish sometimes that I were better at that, but it’s quite hard for me.
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thanks for sharing that. I will have to think more about it and encourage Lizzy to stand up for her more.
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