Experiment courageously is the phrase I chose recently to guide my last couple of weeks. And honestly, I forgot all about it almost immediately. But occasionally I’m reminded when I flip through the pages of my bullet journal. And it’s definitely been a theme in my decision making, guiding me when I’ve had big choices to make.
Table of Contents
Another week, another poetry workshop, another selfie 💅🏿
The Art of Studying
I’m studying Information, Advice and Guidance at Lambeth College. There are all sorts of free online courses and I would recommend it. (Note: There’s a fee to pay if you don’t complete the course once you’ve enrolled.)
This week, I submitted my first assessment, a day ahead of the deadline. 🙌🏿
Looking forward to submitting with even more time to spare next time!
I love how studying is helping me learn how to study, which is helping my friend learn how to study, which is helping me to learn how to study. We had a super chilled, super productive Saturday; and I loved it.
By the end of next week, I’ll have all the time for whatever I choose to prioritise. Which may well be studying an intro to counselling.
My friend recommended a bunch of books to me. I’m looking forward to reading Steve Chalke’s Managing Your Time. Another friend’s going to lend me adrienne maree brown’s Pleasure Activism. And, of course, there’s still The Artist’s Way…
What 3 books would you buy?
I realised that I had an audiobook subscription, with Audiobooks UK, which I want to pause. But I have 3 credits to buy books before doing that, otherwise I’ll lose them.
So far, I’ve bought:
- The Bullet Journal Method, by Ryder Carroll
I wanted to get The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, and Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown, so that I can finish reading them faster. But they weren’t on there.
What would you have bought?
Learning to break bread together (gluten-free)
I’ve been staying at my friends’ house more lately. And it’s nice. Home from home.
I feel like I’m experiencing and learning a lot about sharing and communal living that is unfamiliar. It’s really nice. I realised it when one of my friends announced that they’re making tacos, and another friend asked, ‘Are they communal?’, and the first friend said, ‘Of course!’ It hadn’t even occurred to me that the meal might be shared. Even though I’ve been here many times before and the meals are usually shared.
Lots of things to unlearn.
One of my friends said she’s heard,
‘You teach best the things you most need [to learn]’.
And, honestly, that makes sense of so many things in my life. 😅
Stuff I’m teaching/learning:
- Wellbeing, recovering from burnout
- Counselling
- Handling money & finances
- Bullet journalling – being more ‘productive’ / effective & being more present, together
- The Artist’s Way and being more creative
- Liberating Structures
- Scrum Mastery
Recovering a sense of abundance
Was last week’s theme for The Artist Way, but I’m behind so I’m noticing a lot of examples of abundance now. Like my friend’s plants that are so prolific in the heatwaves.
Also, it was International Non-Binary People’s Day. Woo! Celebrate by checking out Travis Alabanza’s article: Non-Binary People Aren’t A New Phenomenon – We’ve Been Here As Long As Humans Have Existed, 2018, HuffPost.
Get ugly: On synchronicity
Lots of synchronicity around the word ugly last week, and looks like it’s continuing into this week with my friend introducing me to Ugly by Bubba Sparxxx.
And then my friend pulls Warsan Shire’s Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth off the shelf. (The collection which contains her poem, Ugly.) And I realise, I have a copy of this book at home. She reads it to me. And we’ve come full circle.
What next?
I start my sabbatical on Friday, 19th July. Blessed to have 2 months to spend as I please. And I’m excited to come up with some great routines for myself.
I’m already looking forward to playing with:
- Wednesday evenings at my writing group in North London
- Thursday daytimes at a writing space in South London
- more studying
- movement and body work
- Uber Frugal Month Challenge
- Artist Dates (ooh, there’s a video too)
- rest, rest, rest
Dream big, and enchant yourself. ✨