How To Overwinter Your Garden & Maintain Crops Throughout The Year
Hey guys and gals! So, it’s the end of October already and that means a few things. One…winter is coming!! And two, it’s just about time to overwinter your garden!! Are you ready to learn more about how to do so and maintain some bonus crops throughout the year? I’m hearing yes…let’s go! Finding Balance Through Gardening Overwintering simply means prepping your garden for the cold season ahead. It is also about preparing what you can for the seasons to come. In my neck of the woods, I’m just starting to see the effects of the first frost on the leaves and plants around my property. It’s blissful and beautiful. But also time to start really getting more done outside before it gets too chilly! One of the things that we like to do ahead of the cold season is to pull out any remaining plants that will get frosted over and die. If you can do this before that happens, then great! If you’re like us and have a hectic schedule, try and get out there this weekend and do what you can. Remember life is all about balance my friends! We’ll be tearing up the remainder of the black plastic that we put down in spring for weed control. Then we will look at removing anything that can’t take the cold season. (Basically meaning for us this year, anything besides garlic and spinach!) We will however be leaving the established broccoli plants a while longer to ensure they’ve reached their maximum potential before we pull them out. Cole crops like this one can withstand the cold a little longer, so let’s give them their best chance, shall we?! Some of the plants and crops that can be moved indoors should be done so if you’re able to before the first frost. Obviously this day can come sooner for some people, so make sure to check up on which zone you’re in to ensure you’ve got enough time to do so! Related: Fall Into New Crops For Your Garden Winter is Coming…. A few years back, (well maybe actually a lot of years back)…we built a cute little cold frame next to our house. At this time, it’s definitely seen better days and may need some upgrading next spring, but for now it still works wonderfully to enclose any crops that will be okay through the chilly season and hold off the snow or ice from crushing them! If you’re looking to build a cold frame of your own, check out your local hardware store for some material or try using what you have around the house! You’d be surprised what you may have on hand that would work well for a make-shift cold frame. However, if you’d like to take the quicker route, check out this affordable one I found on Amazon that could be shipped to your door before the winter sets in! Cold Frames and Root Cellars If you don’t have a cold frame and don’t particularly care for one, don’t worry, there are plenty of other options! Something else we’ve done in the past is block up our window under the staircase. This is so that the space under our stairs was no longer just storage, but a canning closet and food storage area! The best rootcellars are underground of course so that they stay nice and cool throughout the years. However, this option has worked great for us to keep things just cool enough to last the time we’ve needed them for. We’ve stored potatoes, carrots, onions, herbs, seeds, garlic, and several other dried crops there for months at a time with no problem. Related: Dive Into Our Autumn Gardening Like a Pile of Scattered Leaves Do you have a storage space going unused that could be repurposed?? If you’re interested in learning more about how to start a root cellar, this Kindle option is on sale for just $4! How to Overwinter Herbs are something we use *all* the time in our home. Cooking, cleaning, medicinal, you name it. We love learning about these wonderful and incredible little plants. We also have acquired a handful of knowledge regarding them over the years. Cooking is something I currently have the most experience in with herbs however, so I tend to keep those nearby the most. My favorite herb of all time has got to be Oregano. It smells fantastic and goes good on basically anything. We also like to keep sage, thyme, basil, parsley, chives, cilantro, dill, chamomile, spearmint and lavender. Some of these will die out over the cold season, so feel free to dig them up (or start them in pots!) and bring them inside over the winter. Challenge yourself to keep them alive until they’re ready to be put back out there in spring! Some of these you can dry, but we’ve found that others are best frozen. For example, we now make room in our freezer for things like basil, dill, and parsley. We dry the rest either by hanging in a dark space for a little while or in our dehydrator. You can even make use of those pesky ice cube trays by freezing some in there for use in soups and cooking! Pruning for Winter Crops Although herbs thrive over most of the year, it’s best to keep in mind that you need to continue to prune them properly so that they don’t die off when the frost comes. If you see a woody stem starting, be sure to leave that on the plant and cut above it! This is the plant’s way of “hunkering down” for the season ahead. Allow the plant to go into its dormant state instead of harvesting too late in the season and encouraging it to work on new growth. What is Your Current Plan to Overwinter? So, what’re your plans to overwinter your garden? Have you done something similar in the past, or is this a new adventure for you?! Let us hear
Dive Into Our Autumn Gardening Like a Pile of Scattered Leaves
Hey all! As we turn over some leaves heading into Fall, (both literally and physically!), we’ve been spending a lot of time doing some Autumn gardening again as you may have heard from our previous October posts! It’s starting to really cool down during the days and especially during the nights. That means it’s that time again to start turning over our garden for the season! This personally is one of my favorite times of the year, so I can’t complain! Let me tell you why! What Autumn Gardening in Western PA looks like First of all, I can’t stand the heat, so I really prefer that sweater weather any day with jeans and boots. Especially over a tank top and shorts sticking to me with sweat. Ick! So I genuinely look forward to the best season of the year so that I can sweat less. I also encounter fewer nagging bugs and enjoy being outdoors with the cooler, crisp air. Whether or not you’re familiar with turning over your garden, one thing is for sure, and that is that it’s going to look different for everyone, based on your location or climate. We’re located in western PA, so we have a pretty steady 4-season kind of year. I like it. What’s yours? That means we start to experience the Fall weather during the last bit of September and the full month of October…maybe even a little in November if it gets that far. But my favorite remains October, and that’s because it’s before the snow flies but after the leaves turn. It’s a beautiful and refreshing site to see. During this month, we typically spend a lot of it doing clean up work in the garden, and usually a little tidying up in the yard as well, such as splitting wood, gathering leaves, or putting things away for the winter that shouldn’t sit out in the elements. (Lawn mowers, patio furniture, etc). Over the weekend we spent a good bit of time doing a bit of all of those things! Allow me to elaborate. Related: How Gardening is Good For Your Soul Gardening as a Team We split the tasks this time to ensure efficiency, meaning that the hubs took on the woodpile and yours truly headed towards the garden. I left my best gloves outside too long by mistake which was a total bummer, meaning I was going to have to pull out the slimy and rotting plants with bare hands! Don’t get me wrong, I love digging in the dirt but I don’t get all that excited about getting rotting plants and veggies on me. (Don’t lose your gloves, friends! Speaking of which, here are some super cute and durable ones on sale right now!) To Root or Not to Root It was a blast though, time flew by as I moved from row to row picking out which crops were okay to leave for now and which needed to be uprooted. This is what we choose to do just to ensure the rotting roots don’t collect any unwanted bacteria over the years, but a lot of folks like to leave the roots in the ground as well for those nice little worms that do a good job. The choice is yours! Deciding to leave the kale, broccoli, beets and swiss chard, I headed towards the sunflowers first. They’re super giant which means their stalks are very thick. I prefer using clippers for these and cut them above the ground. They’re the only thing I leave the root in the ground on, since they’re so hard to pull out! After that I decided to try my hand at preserving more seeds than usual this year. Which meant taking a little more time to move through everything. I snipped off the tops of the lettuce and radishes and tossed a few decent looking green beans into the bucket. Once the seeds were collected, (which we’ll take into the garage to dry before harvesting!), I started pulling out each plant by its roots to ensure everything was cleaned up and taken down to the burnpile. We’ll wait a little longer before burning since they’ll need to dry out some first. (Hooray for Fall bonfires!) Tending to Peppers and Tomatoes Before Cold Sets In The last bit of cleanup involved removing the stakes and twine from the tomatoes. Then pulling out those plants as well. My boots got squishy quickly after stomping on the rotting tomatoes underneath! (We’ll likely run a rake over the top of the black plastic before picking it up for the season…or we may leave it down to plant some spinach! Stay tuned for an update next week!) Once the tomatoes were handled, I moved onto the pepper plants. They were still flowering! Crazy, but they likely won’t produce much longer with the cold setting in. I picked off all of the non-worm eaten peppers and left the plants to try for additional peppers for another week or two. If they don’t follow through I’ll remove them before the frost sets in. Related: Fall Into New Crops for Your Garden Prepping for Winter Gardening Taking care of a garden can be tricky! I’m still learning but am hopeful that providing my journey along the way will invoke a sense excitement in taking care of (or starting!) one of your own! With each year comes a little more knowledge and a little more experience. Thus leading to increasingly better crops and better care systems. We do our best to work as a team with all chores, but have learned to lean into what each one of us is best at and let the other take care of their favorite tasks. It’s going well! Soon we’ll begin to plant some crops that will grow over the winter, so make sure to subscribe to follow along with what we’re up to! We’d love to hear about your journey as well if you’re up for sharing! Happy Fall! Thank you
Fall Into New Crops For Your Garden
Hey ladies and gents! If you’re wondering how to implement more in-season veggies into your life, I’d like to give you a hand! As we move into Fall and out of the Summer heat here in the Northeast, fewer things become available to harvest. There is still a lot of options for you though! Let’s check some of them out, shall we? What Are Cole Crops Again? We talked a little bit about “cole crops” in the last post, but I’ll provide a quick refresher if you missed it! Cole crops are perfect to plant when the Summer growing season is winding down and the cool, crisp air is picking up. They provide a great option to keep your gardening hands busy and to embrace some serious sweater weather! Cole crop are those which are in the Cruciferous family, such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, brussel sprouts, kolhrabi, and kale. When I first started gardening several years ago, I didn’t like most of these. I “icked” at them as a teen and a child, and definitely didn’t feel like going anywhere near them as an adult. But then as I found out how fun they were to grow, (especially during my favorite time of year!), and how little work they required unlike other crops, I began to fall in love with tending to them and with finding new recipes to make them delicious. Even though I’ve gone through a ton of recipes over the years however with adjusting tastes and trying new cooking methods with these veggies, one thing has stuck true. They’re best, in my opinion, with plain old extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper, baked in the oven. Try it sometime! It’s super easy to throw them in a baking dish, toss some oil on them and pop them in. Less is more, people! Related: How Gardening Is Good For Your Soul What Garden Zone Do You Fall In? Of course your location will play a big part in knowing when is best to plant these crops. Check out which Zone you’re in to determine a best date! This website will let you simply plug in your zip code and find out within seconds! Hooray for the internet! Once you find out which Zone you’re in, you can then determine which seeds or seedlings, or starter plants to invest in. I recommend going to local farmer markets to find some quality ones or if you’d like to stay home and enjoy your newest crocheted sweater indoors, then check out this top list of 2023 online to have them shipped to your door! After you have what you need from shopping online or locally, you can dig in. Literally! You can head outdoors with your gardening tools and your new plants or seeds and get ready. From our experience, we’ve had the best luck with rototilling in the Fall again, before planting our new cold season crops. This allows the ground to be broken up a little more after pulling all of the old crops out, and also gets anything leftover mixed into the soil again. (Here’s where we find our free tomatoes the year after! From mixing up the garden, many seeds that dropped along the way will find their way back upwards next season. Replant those suckers! Save their little plant lives and save some moolah at the same time! Related: Working Through Self Expectations & Limitations How to Plant and Grow Garlic In-Season Another popular crop to plant in the Fall, and particularly one of my favorites, happens to be garlic from the Allium family. Garlic is one of the simplest crops to grow as a “set it and forget it” type plant. This is something we’ll be working on quite soon since our best time is to plant in the September/October time frame! If you have garlic bulbs leftover from the year before, simply break those bulbs into cloves. Someone long ago taught me that using the bottom of the palm of your hand on the head of garlic can crush it just enough to make the cloves come off way easier. I still use that trick and highly recommend it! Keep the papery covering on the garlic cloves and then follow these instructions! Make sure your cloves are planted approximately 3-4″ deep. Always ensure that the pointy end is facing upwards! You’ll want to water just enough to let the soil settle around the cloves, then simply cover them up with 4-6″ of leftover Fall leaves or straw from your Halloween haybales! There are lots of ways people go about caring for and harvesting garlic, but we like to keep it simple and usually come out on top with a pretty hefty harvest. After planting, we just wait. When the garlic is ready, it’ll tell you! Side Note! Snip of the heads when they get curly, use these as garlic as well for an extra helping! After it’s wilted and died down, feel free to bust out your shovel again to dig those new beautiful bulbs! Related: Introducing Habitual Balance Implement More In-Season Veggies This Fall Between pulling old crops, rototilling, and planting new ones again, we know we’ll have a busy next few weeks! How do you plan your Fall planting? Do you prefer to end after Summer and look forward to next year? Or do you prefer to maximize your growing season with cole crops?! Let us hear about your gardening journey in the comments below! Happy planting! Thank you for reading “Fall Into New Crops For Your Garden – Implement More In-Season Veggies”! Thank you for reading today’s post about how to implement more in-season veggies! Let me know what resonates with you or if you have a suggestions for our next post by commenting below. Don’t forget to check out our sister site Rooted Drawers.
How Gardening Is Good For Your Soul
Hello friends of the online realm! Today we’re starting out a new month in Fall and a new topic for the next few weeks! October will be all about gardening. How we got started, what we do to maintain, resources that we hold near and dear, and finally anything that you may (or may not!) need to get started! Which leaves us today to talk all about how we first got into gardening in the first place, and how far we’ve come thus far. Yay for growth! The Gardening Girl Ten years ago (or so), I met my husband. That’s when I really started taking this whole “gardening” concept seriously. Before that though, I grew up gardening and didn’t even realize it. Until of course I recently reflected on it all while writing this post for you! Back in the day, I was a hardcore bug-smooshing, garden growing teeny bopper. Today, I’m still a hardcore garden growing lady, with much less of the bug-smooshing, since any harm to mother nature now pulls those good ol’ heart strings. When I was little, I used to garden quite frequently with both of my grandfathers. They had pretty decent sized gardens, and I got to be a big *little* part of it. I picked tomatoes, weeded around them, watered what I could, and watched and learned whatever it was that my tiny brain could absorb. Funny isn’t it? How much we learn as young children that we don’t even coherently remember. We take it all in, learn each new intricacy, but never fully embrace it until one day as a thirty-something year old it hits us just how exactly it is best to tie those darned old tomatoes up properly. An “Aha” moment, if you will. Weird. Being human, is weird. Related: Developing Routines & What is Sleep Hygiene Down on the Farm In the last decade though, I’ve actually had the honor of working on a farm nearby my home. It was such a beautiful time in my life. Right before my last big job, but right after the first “green light” of my working career. I had just quit a different day job (none of them ever felt quite right), and had been dreaming of being outdoors more often and in the bright sunshine and in the not so bright office light much less. I welcomed new feelings of freedom once I stepped out onto the gravel into dirt driveways that I would drive the old trucks on and felt right back at home when getting my hands in the good smelling fresh soil. At first, it was blissful. I could do this every day, all day, I thought. But then it sank in after the second season that I wasn’t cut out to do this as a full-time job. I hated the cold, hated the hot, and needed that Goldilocks kind of “just right” feeling. So, yet another job bit the dust. Starting Gardening at Home Once I had my home that we still reside in today, it was clear to me that gardening was going to be a big part of it. I loved it and still do. We rototill when necessary, put black plastic down instead of weed til the cows come home, and have learned oodles of tips and tricks that we will dive more into as the month goes on! Before working on the farm however, I never knew that “cole crops” were a thing. Did you?! Here’s a tidbit on its meaning if you’re still unsure: “Broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower are known as cole crops. Several other vegetables belong to this group, including Brussels sprouts, Chinese cabbage, and kohlrabi, but these are considered minor vegetables. Cole crops are cool season vegetables that grow best at temperatures between 60 F and 68F.” This is what we’ll be diving into soon enough during the month of October, since planting these bad boys will soon be in season for us here in western PA. They’re the coolest. See what I did there…They give you a second chance of sorts to continue eating in season, even during the Fall and Winter months of the year when the frost hits and the snow flies! What a wonderful opportunity! The best part about it all (in my opinion) is that there is SIGNIFICANTLY less bugs, heat, and little annoyances of such. I’m more comfortable in a sweatshirt and muck boots, not sweating buckets while breaking my back! Speaking of which, instead of bending over, I highly recommend investing in a nice kneeling mat. Don’t bother with knee pads. Those are MUCH more uncomfortable than you’d think after needing to bend up and down a zillion times in jeans. Related: Why I Chose Courage & It’s Endless Reservations What are Cole Crops? Do you know anything about cole crops? How has your summer been? Did you harvest a lot or just a little? This year we did great in the start of the season, but as life happened we began to slack off some. Our lettuce is now seeding along with most of our herbs, and the kale has basically taken over whatever it could by now. Our sunflowers are drooping and the broccoli looks more like broccolini these days. The good news is is that we’re coming to the change of season. Soon, it’ll be time to harvest the seeds and pull out the old plants to make space for new crops. The garden is ever-changing once you get the hang of it, kind of like life itself. We’re always going to go through changes and seasons in our lives, learning each day what is best to hold on to and what can be thrown to the outside of the fence. As we grow, we learn which battles are worth fighting and which tomato plants should just be pulled out before they cause a disease to travel to the rest of the plants. Keep working toward your goals and add just
Looking Internally – Rediscovering Your Why & Why It’s So Important To Growth
Greetings fellow humans! Today I’m coming at you from a quaint little spot in the heart of town. It’s quiet, it’s peaceful, it’s the old timey gives you good vibes feeling kind of place. Stumbling upon this tiny gem of a restaurant got me thinking, a lot more than what I thought I actually went in there for. Let me tell you about it…and how it’s affected my mindset behind why I do what I do, and the importance of rediscovering your why too! Related: Introducing Habitual Balance Why I Needed to Change My Mindset Today I had a doctors appointment. Just a checkup but it was frustrating nonetheless. I had to take off work, (yes, I still call it that even though I work for myself!), and drive way out of my way to get to the cold and white box of a doctors office instead of my own comfy couch with the pups. Irritated most of the way there, I decided to try and change my mindset on the way back. After all, I’d be making another stop to thrift and that was bringing some feel good vibes in itself! Side Note: If you don’t already know, we have a sister site that talks all about thrifting and how to break out into the reselling biz! Check out Rooted Drawers! On the way home though, I decided to stop and grab a bite to eat. I don’t mind eating alone. It’s become obvious to me though that over the years of meeting others, not a lot of people enjoy doing so. To me, it’s rewarding in so many ways. It gives you a chance to actually develop a relationship with yourself, and learn how to become more independent, outgoing, and attentive. I googled the restaurants on the way home that I’d pass, and discovered a Greek restaurant along the way. Now, I was actually craving some Pizza Hut, but as I’ve been trying to do better this year with my eating habits as I get older, I thought it may be best to opt for something a bit more Mediterranean. So, off I went. Related: Looking for a new side hustle? Finding Clarity in a Dim Room The parking was a hassle in itself. Everything was jam packed on the street, there was construction and detours due to an event happening that night in the city. The parking garage was my only hope. Great, I thought. Those always give me anxiety. I thought about saying never mind and going somewhere right off the road instead that would have been easier to get to. But I found a spot and backed in, (back in my friends! best to be prepared to pull out in case of emergency!) Then I found the elevator, but decided on the stairs instead. Why not get a little cardio in, eh? Little things add up, so implement them when you can! Using GPS again to find my restaurant, I walked towards the little dots on the map in that direction. I went under more construction, only to miss the place I was seeking out! I backed up, and realized it was tucked inside just a bit. The door was open and the sign said so too, so in I went! It was quiet, empty, and dim. The lights were turned down like the old Italian restaurant I worked at as a teen. It was homey, with black and white pictures all over the wall, Greek symbolism everywhere and vintage mirrors between each set of tables. The smell was wonderful, and the setting was just right. The perfect setting for rediscovering your why accidentally. I walked up to the counter and rang the bell, once…twice…three times. I was about to walk out when a man came around the corner. So, I inquired about some lunch and grabbed a menu. Just then, an older man walked out to greet me, making a great sales pitch about everything that was delicious in his restaurant. After choosing 3 more things that I originally wanted from the menu online, he sat me down at a table nearby. It was so cool. What a great experience I thought to myself. Customer service has really gone by the wayside these days, and here I was, getting top notch care in a little tiny restaurant that I never knew existed. It was so refreshing. Related: Practicing Gratitude in 2023 Rediscovering Your Why Through Outside Experiences The old man brought out his homemade red wine that he talked me into on his great grandmothers copper serving tray. It was 250 years old. TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY. Then he brought my meal and set it down as well. He asked if I needed anything else then left me to be for the most part. It was great. Just enough, I thought. Being a waitress for most of my life, I really value a good customer service experience when dining out, especially alone. Since I now am one of those people that bring a laptop everywhere, I often get quick service because I’m “just another person with a laptop.” The wine was impeccable. So great in fact that I bought a bottle for my husband and I to share. The food was delicious, and made me realize that yes, I do in fact love hummus. The chocolate cake was just as good, with whipped cream and chocolate sauce topping it off. My quick stop for lunch turned into an experience. This is what moves me. What sparks the passion behind working for myself, behind writing for others, and behind understanding more of my why. Getting Lost in the Shuffle For a while now, I feel like I’ve started to lose that. I kept reaching for the stars and following the trends, finding the new niches and hopping on the bandwagon. And then I kept stumbling. Why in the world was this happening? How was it so difficult to continue on this path? Rediscovering your
Developing Routines & What is Sleep Hygiene
Routines are not for everyone. But I’m here today to argue that they probably should be. Creating routines that work well for you each day will help to stay on track and aligned with the people you connect with most often. That could be your significant other, your kids, your boss or your co-workers. Whatever the case, we’re going to dive in more about why routines are a healthy way to make things happen! Let’s take a look a developing routines and what is sleep hygiene. Why, Why, Why? Discovering Your Why Let’s first talk about our “why.” Discovering your “why” can come in many different shapes. You may have several “whys” in your life, but right now let’s just turn our focus to your “why” when it comes to developing routines. So, why did I decide to start implementing a morning and evening routine into my schedule? It’s mainly because I lack discipline when it comes to consistently doing something each day. Sure, I’ll make time for less important things, but so often we all put self-care on the back-burner. Routines in the AM and PM help us to become more stable in our day overall. They give us structure, a beginning and end time, and allow us the time necessary to get ready for our day, but to wind down from it as well. It is likely that you’ll have some trouble at first trying to get the best routine under way, but eventually, it will just make sense. Become second nature even. The best part about it all though is figuring out what works right for you. Then all you have to do is simply stick to it. Get Outta Bed Girl Are you a morning person? I never used to be. I hated early mornings and often went to bed at this time rather than getting up. Then I met someone that had the completely opposite schedule of mine. It made me realize that if I wanted to spend any time with my person that I better start doing some adjusting! It was difficult at first. I’d have trouble going to sleep so early and getting up before it was light out. I thought about napping a hundred times throughout the day and staying up late to binge watch my favorite shows. But then something just clicked. It was like a new world had shown itself to me in the darkness of the morning. There was a certain peace I hadn’t noticed before that was in the silence of the pre-dawn hours. No birds chirping, no incoming notifications, no distractions from lawn mowers or kids coming off the school bus. Just silence. I started loving it. Morning Routine…My Way My morning routine these days follows a pretty similar path after waking up. However, I’m not one of those “jump out of bed immediately when the alarm goes off” kind of gals. (I’m looking at you Mel Robbins with your 5 Second Rule!) There is no way, no how, I’m leaving the comfy, warm but cool at the same time, good-smelling sheets that I’m wrapped up in with my dogs cuddling on both sides. I soak that in. For like, a solid 3-5 minutes…then I get myself into Go mode. Once I’m out of bed, I’m pretty groggy until I get my eyeballs in. (That’s why I call my contacts). So I’ll wear my glasses to make sure I don’t add some new bruises while making my way to the bathroom. I wash my face with my favorite face wash, splash some cool water on, then wipe my face and neck down with a cold rag. I really enjoy turning on a meditation or two, (I have a really great lightbulb that is also a speaker! So once I turn my lights on to set the chill mode, this plays through it). I’ll sit down and do some stretching after, then open up my journals to keep up with my gratitude and affirmations. After that, I like to brew some green tea, and while the water boils I will throw a load of dishes and laundry in, to save time later on when I’m not so eager to do so. I recommend a light breakfast before returning to your zen space, (this is where I veg out for 10 minutes before getting into work). The Challenge of Prioritizing Your Daily Routine Prioritizing your daily routine above all else is challenging. Especially when you’re either always on the go or have a packed full schedule. I try not to let anxiety get to me when I don’t get everything finished at the end of the day. When I’m journaling in the morning, I’ll write down 3 sets of 3 goals I want to accomplish that day. Here’s what they looked like for today: Self Meditate once Stretch once Run 1/2 mile outside with dogs Home Vacuum Do laundry Do dishes Work Create weekly content that’s due (videos/post) Reach 2900 listings Crosslist 5 listings to each platform Of course, I did not get all of these finished, which is pretty common. I always strive to complete them all, but most often I’ll fall short by one or two. If this happens to you, just remember not to be too hard on yourself. We’re only human and things come up that push us behind a little. Which is totally okay! I plan on being here tomorrow, and I’m okay with putting my mental health first so that I can pump out those goals a little bit better as I forge ahead. Saying No Was the Best Thing I Started to Ever Do Isn’t it weird that nightly routines are a thing? As a teen, that seems to go out the window because of sports or schoolwork, family functions or friend dates. But if you think about it, we all start out with routines as children…we just forget that we have to keep up with them as adults. My
Acknowledging Burnout & Learning Where To Find The Lightbulbs
Many moons ago, I thought about listening to the audiobook “Green Lights,” by Matthew McConaughey. I don’t know you, and therefore I don’t know your opinion on this man, but regardless, this is how my story started. Would you like to listen? Alright, Alright, Alright We all have those times in life where we want to just shut the door to the world and move into our bed full time. I’ve had some of those times recently. In my opinion, this was me starting to experience burnout again, but in a new way. Burnout comes in many forms and can attack us from multiple angles. It’s frustrating how much of a grip it can have on us, pulling in directions we didn’t even know previously existed. It is hella annoying, and I’m sure like most of you, I dislike it very much. How do you know when burnout arises? You’ll feel it, I’m sure…but you won’t act on it. You’ll keep pushing back and sending all of your neurons into overdrive even though they’ve already hit maximum capacity. Why do we do this to ourselves? Dazed and Confused – Burnout When we face burnout head-on, it takes a toll on the rest of our body as well. We notice it, then we continue to try to dismiss it or say it isn’t real. We continue to grind, hustle, double down on our goals and break through the next chapter of whatever comes next. Here’s the deal though, break throughs can come in many forms. They can come when you’re burnt out and pushing, providing you with a little more productivity. Or, you could take a break, rejuvenate your mind and body, and then experience a break through like never before. Which one do you think would be more successful? The Sea of Trees – Green Lights When I recently started to experience this feeling again, I decided to stop listening to music and start listening to audiobooks once more. I’ve noticed that I go through stages. Podcasts, newly discovered music, audiobooks…podcasts, newly discovered music, audiobooks. It’s a whole thing. I’m not certain as to why this is, but it does seem to occur the same way over and over, every few months. Since I had hit my limit of listening to music, I decided to go back into Audible and find a book that had been on my mind, “Green Lights,” by Matthew McConaughey. This book has been out now for several years, and even though I’d planned to read it when it came out, I suppose it was just never the right time…I often think about that. How it’s so strange that you put certain things off for a specific period of time, only to come back around to them when the timing is just right. Weird, isn’t it? “Green Lights” talks about how we experience these moments in life where they either make sense to continue on or to stop what you’re doing. In my interpretation of the book thus far, I relate a green light to being a lightbulb moment. And do you know what? I had once recently regarding my burnout situation. Let me tell you about it. I was standing in the gym, talking to someone about not being as active in my recovery lately and how it’s been frustrating me that I’ve spent more time doing other tasks instead of taking care of myself properly…by actively making time to fully recover. “Fully recover…” not something most of us ever even think about doing. Why? Related: Why I Chose Courage Fools Gold…Always Healing Most often we’re never “fully recovered.” That’s because we push push push until we hit a wall. Then we run out of time to “actively recover,” therefore eventually leading to that all too well known burnout feeling. Which is frustrating af. After I had talked to them about “not having enough time” to recover enough, I started telling them about how I’ve been napping more often. Then it hit me. A lightbulb. My body had gone into the caveman mode and taken over. It was forcing me to take more naps because the advanced part of my brain was actively seeking work 110% of the time instead of finding the time to actively recover. Surfer Dude – Blue Mind Theory While naps are part of a great recovery routine as well, they are that exactly, just a part. We need to implement more time in our hectic lives to include relaxing things for our minds and bodies such as sauna time, cold showers/cold plunges, reading a good book, taking a long walk or hike, visiting the beach when you just know you need some blue mind theory time. Blue Mind Theory: Blue Mind is the mildly meditative state people fall into when they are near, in, under or on water. Water positively affects the mind and body, and the Blue Mind Theory provides ways people can use water to improve their well-being. Blue Mind is the term used to describe the state of water-associated peace. The thing is, to prevent our all too common burnouts, we need to find these suttle ways to enact this peace feeling more often. Slowing down our momentum to calm our minds and bodies as a whole. By engaging in more activities that induce that sleepy feeling, such as the tasks mentioned above, we can use these stressors to force ourselves into a more calm state, therefore sending us into nap or sleep mode to fully recover. Related: Working through self expectations Tip Toes – The Recovery 2 Step You see, you simply cannot use one or the other. Fully recovering takes both steps in using active recovery, (stretching, light swimming, sauna or steam room time, etc.), as well as sleeping your best during naps and at night. Our minds and bodies need both to make that full recovery from the feeling of burnout, and making time for these things should be one of our most
Why I Chose Courage & It’s Endless Reservations
To be courageous is so many things within itself. Let’s talk about those feelings and reservations that come along with building confidence in yourself and the courageousness that comes in behind it for the win. A Call to the Sea Many months ago I had this longing, urging, pulling feeling to go to the ocean. Or, so I thought. Ocean, ocean, ocean was all that I could think about. I wanted to book the next flight to Fort Lauderdale and drag my husband along with me. (Despite all of our actual commitments and responsibilities. Screw those, I thought. The time is now for us to embrace this nature of heading to the coastline and leaving the rest behind. Long ago that’s exactly what I thought I would do. Leave all and everything behind me and head to the coast. I didn’t care which one, I figured I’d start out in Florida somewhere. It was where I was born, after all. I thought about how I’d sail with crazy sailboaters and see all the seagulls up close. I thought about how I’d wait on celebrities from my bar/grill on the shoreline and who I’d meet and the stories I’d hear about. Then something changed. I met the man of my dreams by literal chance during one of the last days I was contemplating this all. He encouraged me to keep my roots and not be a gypsy wandering around the countryside. However, those feelings still reside deep down. (I’m sure many of you may feel the same!) Many days I ponder about how many places I could see or where I could still end up. The bright part of my life though now is that I have an amazing partner to share those feelings and experiences with, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Resetting for Self Growth To take the step into settling down instead of branching out took a ton of courage on my end. I’m not sure about him, since I’ve never really sat down and asked about that. I didn’t really think of these things until recently, when I was having a sense of self identity crisis. Courage is knowing who you are and who you’ve become, and realizing the difference in who you used to be and how far you’ve grown. I needed a really hard hit to my soul to understand that. So, I finally went to the beach. Today I woke up and called into my day job. I took a nap, and woke up with beach vibes on my mind. This is the freedom that I long for and want you all to have, the feeling that nothing in the world matters more than your self-growth, and the knowingness that you, all by yourself, can accomplish those things. Since I’m nowhere close to an actual beach with an ocean, I decided to opt for the next best thing. It’s where I went as a child, it’s where I went last year when my favorite dog passed away, and it’s where I am right here and now. It’s only a lake, but I can see far and wide and I’m not able to see the other side, which makes it feel 90% like the ocean. It’s beautiful, serene, peaceful, and exactly what I needed. I needed the smell of the water and the feel of the wind and the sound of the seagulls from my younger years. I’ve been craving the touch of the sand and the softness of laying down on it before dipping my legs into the lukewarm water. I needed these moments in sync with one another. More Habitual Balance: Practicing Gratitude in 2023 Why I Chose Courage Today I think it’s hard to overcome the realization that you’re at a self-growth crossroads. I’ve been more tuned into it this year than I ever have before, and I chalk that up to a plethora of things. The fact the my spouse is super supportive of my goals and journey, knowing that I am on a different path than his, releasing expectations that we should be following the same one. The fact that I had several health issues that I didn’t realize were even going to pop up at all, let alone in my early thirties. The fact that I’ve waited in some areas of life until I have the chance to be at my best and most accomplished in knowing my true self. But here I am, learning, absorbing, and just being. Every single day. This trip is approximately 2 hours for me, and by doing so today, I’ve decided that I will make this trip at least once every other week, if not every week. Treating myself to lunch and to relishing in the nature that surrounds me, in all seasons. It’s hard to get to know yourself, but I feel like so many of us struggle with it. We seek others approval on nearly everything, and never give ourselves the opportunity to really understand our own beings. Why? Why I Chose Courage Over All of Them I had the word “Courage” tattooed on me several years ago. Right on my wrist so that I could always look down and it and be reminded to keep pushing through the hard things. It has helped me a lot since then, especially during our hike up Angel’s Landing in Zion. It reminded me to breathe, to embrace, to feel all of my surroundings and be entirely present in my situation. Now, I’m not saying everyone needs to go out and get a tattoo, after all, it’s not for everyone. But, it is for me, and it’s helped me a lot. I went back and forth with my endless decision making between words that were similar. Want to know why I chose Courage over all of them? Courage takes perseverance. Perseverance takes patience, and patience takes strength. They’re all related, and they were all options. However, courage is what was needed
Working Through Self Expectations & Limitations
Not long ago I realized something important to my personal growth. It came with both a sense of accomplishment and also a sense of relief. However, it didn’t fail to come with some reservations about how I lived my life up until this point. Was I keeping expectations that were realistic? Or did they continue to fail me over the years as I continued to rely on them to keep showing up? Let’s talk about the real expectations that we hold, why that is, and ways to start being in a better mindset. Let’s take a look at working through self expectations and limitations. When Self Expectations are Too High When you hold high expectations for yourself, it tends to put a damper on nearly everything and everyone around you. Nothing seems quite good enough, even when you or others have the best of intentions. That can suck the life out of your mindset as well as your relationships, so why is it something that we’re all so good at? Maybe you don’t feel up to par in a specific sport or activity that you used to crush in the good old days. Or perhaps it’s more internal, the parts of you that you know can be performing better and more effectively, but you just can’t quite find the right workout routine, the right nutrition regimen, or the best stretching routine. Whatever it is, it’s eating away at you. I know first hand how you feel. This is because high expectations is something I’ve dealt with forever and still is something that I’m working through as an adult! So, don’t discount your shit, my friend. Find ways to mend the inner bitterness and work around the eagerness to hear that “good job” or “you go girl.” You may be waiting for a while… Share the Love External validation is something we all crave in one way or another. Most times we do it without even noticing it. I’m asking you right here, right now, to start taking stock in noticing. Start rushing to your inner aid and realizing that what we seek is just another way to get let down. We’ll talk more in the next section about what it is exactly that you’re missing and how you can gain more of it as you grow. Did your spouse tell you that you looked beautiful today? When you first met? On your birthday? Here’s another question… Did they tell you thanks for picking up the kids, or maybe did the dishes without you asking? Are they providing companionship and conquering the world with you as a life partner? Sometimes we can overlook these everyday mundane things and lose focus on the fact that we didn’t get called pretty today. The point is that we all need to lose focus of the high expectations of hunting for new gains and start understanding new ways to grasp a little bit of gratitude through even the toughest of situations. We’re all in this growth cycle together, so we may as well trust each other in wanting to make the best of it. Related: Need help with Gratitude? Working through Self-Confidence In my opinion, confidence comes in three forms. Over-confidence, under-confidence, and just right. Just right is clearly the option we’re shooting for here. Let’s talk more about each one, shall we? Under-confidence is something most of us probably suffer from. It sucks, but it’s the real deal. We can exude awesomeness for days but extroverted introverts such as myself then just come home drained and crash for more days. To gain real confidence in yourself and others can take years and even decades. And just so you know, that is completely normal and okay. Keep doing it. Gaining this new skill takes practice and learning, as does any skill. By obtaining and utilizing this new skill in your everyday interactions, you can start to piece together what expectations you can let go of, and what ones are actually relevant to your life and to the lives around you. However, when we are over-confident, we tend to exude a different kind of awesomeness…the annoying kind. No one appreciates hearing all about your trials and tribulations day in and day out, especially when it keeps playing on repeat for months and even years. Touch base with yourself on where you are in your journey and why you keep worrying so much about confidence being your number one go-to. Try meditating or find a way to talk to your inner self and see what you can work on to really hone in on new limitations to set for yourself when you’re around others. Finding Balance in Self Expectations Although we humans find it hard to believe, finding the right amount of confidence can be incredibly helpful for balancing out the amount of expectations and limitations that we set for ourselves and for those around us. Challenge yourself to be less judgmental and more understanding of how people come across within their conversations to you. Do you have a personal story that relates? Please feel free to share in the comment section a high expectation that you held for either yourself or your loved ones that you’re working on shedding or have shed in the past. Being human is hard. Learning about our feelings and not feeling bad about learning about them is a weird thing in itself. Don’t set unnecessary expectations for learning, but please don’t limit yourself either on what your true potential can be. You can continue to grow in every second of every day, and I one hundred percent encourage you to keep doing so. Thank you for reading today’s post Working Through Self Expectations and Limitations! See my last post Practicing Gratitude in 2023. Check out our sister site Rooted in Reselling
Practicing Gratitude in 2023
Have you ever stopped to watch the clouds roll by on a cool Summer evening after listening to the storm all day? That’s what I’m doing right now. Practicing Gratitude in 2023 doesn’t take as much as you think. Go get you some. I’ll wait. Did you go check out the clouds today? We’ve all got some. Whether they be in the sky or in your mind, check on those bad boys and watch them roll away. Take this time to absorb all things nature. The cows mooing across the pasture, the birds chirping in the air, perched on their place of choice. Maybe you hear the sounds far off in the distance of the wind rolling in. Take exactly one minute to close your eyes and embrace that wind brushing against you without sight. I guarantee you that one minute will go by much slower than you think. Every day in this fast-paced world, we argue, we conquer, we obtain, we object, we brutalize one another with our words and our actions, instead of harmonizing more often with nature and within ourselves. If only more of us strange humans would embody this feeling more frequently, perhaps we wouldn’t be so frazzled by red lights and construction, or classmates calling us names, or ladies at the grocery store arguing about literal spilled milk. Shake that shit to the curb, my friends. Why do we all find ourselves actually having to practice being grateful?? Why is it that we have these high expectations of what abundance is, of what happiness is, and of what true wealth is? Gratitude is something that almost all of us crazies lack just enough to set us into a downward spiral. And you know the best part? It’s basically the easiest out of all of these things to obtain. Absorb the feelings that wash over you when you’re driving or walking down the street. Feel them the whole way through and understand them. Take time to be grateful for the bad and the good, for those both are what makes you, you. When will being grateful come easier to you? Have you practiced this in the past, only to let it slip by on a busy day, promising yourself that you’ll come back to it, “someday.” Why someday? When will that day be right to start up again? Perhaps you’ll find time after a loved one has passed, or when you’ve hit the lottery or maybe when you find the new perfect puppy. These are the times that gratitude floods over us with such ease that we don’t even realize it’s present. The best kind of gratitude is the kind that you are fully present for. When you’re actually being mindful about how wonderful this thing called life really is, and what it is you’ve been put here to help others do. Maybe it’s writing a blog and reaching to the far corners of the web, or perhaps it’s a small gesture like taking out the trash for a loved one after they’ve had a difficult week. Maybe it’s just speaking to yourself with love and confidence in the mirror every night, or every morning before you start your trek into the world of the unknown. Whatever it is, be there for it. Be fully and completely there. It can be hard practicing gratitude in 2023 at times. Many days we are stuck in overdrive or on some annoying loop that we can’t close. Day in and day out we hit go before the light even turns green, and we end up face planting into our pillow only to wish away the next day before it even gets here. So, how do you practice gratitude correctly? Well, for starters, there is no right or wrong way. There’s only your way. That’s right, each way of being grateful on our journeys will be different. Each day will bring new obstacles that we think we’ll never jump over. Every morning will bring new challenges and each night will let in more demons. The choice is yours in what you choose to bring with you into Day Number Two of your journey into your new practice of gratitude. Will you say hello to the birds more often? Will you say thank you and hello to more strangers that cross your path? Would you think more clearly knowing that you have been the best human being you could be? Most likely. So why don’t more of us do that more often? Taking advantage of feeling good more frequently seems like a no brainer. But alas, here we are talking about it more than ever. I challenge you to take one full and complete deep breath every single morning. This takes less than 10 seconds. You can do anything for 10 seconds. So, make it a good one. Think clearly and completely within those 10 seconds and stay grateful the entire time by thinking about one new thing each morning that you are grateful for. Maybe it’s about something that happened yesterday, or last week. Or maybe it’s about an upcoming event that you feel entirely blessed about. Perhaps it’s just one large beautiful flock of birds passing over you and embracing the swoosh that they make as a flock. Whatever it is, let’s talk about it. Feel fully okay with sharing your experiences by joining in on the community of others doing the same. Leave a sentence below encapsulating that feeling and let us embark further together on what it means to you. You are appreciated. Stay grateful, my friends. Thank you for reading today’s post Practicing Gratitude in 2023! See my last post Introducing Habitual Balance. Check out our sister site Rooted in Reselling