Inspirations of Well-Being {11}

8 Experiences That Inspired My Well-Being This Week

1. Grounding

I made another of my favorite fall dishes this week – roasted root vegetables and beans. It’s super delicious (a reason I love it), super nutritious (yet another reason I love it) and very easy (and yet again another reason I love it). I took carrots, beets, and Jerusalem artichokes, cut them into big cubes, and put them in a roasting pan. I added a can of rinsed garbanzo beans and a few cloves of fresh garlic. I mixed in some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and cooked the mélange at 375F for about 50 minutes. This recipe can be readily adapted for whatever type of root vegetables you have on hand. For example, it works equally as well with sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, and onions, et al. If you’re looking for heartening nourishment, give it a try.

2. Decluttering

A month or so ago I cleaned my garage. Or so I told myself. What I had done was separate out the recycling, from the valuables, from the I-don’t-need-those-anymore’s. And yet everything was still in the garage, taking up space–and so it wasn’t really cleaned.

That is until yesterday, when I finally committed to taking action to complete the decluttering. What did this look like? Taking two truckloads of stuff to GoodWill and one truckload to the dump (or Transfer Station as it’s so nicely put in Seattle).

The results of this action was incredible. The excitement that someone will enjoy something that no longer has value to me is really inspiring. (This includes the Thonet chairs I was holding onto to sell one day…but since one day never came I thought it much better to finally donate them.) The fact that when I go into my garage now I am not weighed down by a sense of “ugh” and the visual cacophony of stuff is really wonderful.

Not only is my garage not cluttered anymore, but my mind feels less cluttered. According to Feng Shui, my garage is in the Helpful People part of the bagua. I already am blessed by having so many wonderful people in my life who assist me in making it really special. I can’t even imagine what it will be like now that there will be  even greater openness and possibility in the area of my life related to my community. Thrilling!

3. Sweetness

After we went to the Transfer Station (itself an intense Plutonian experience), I treated LB and I to some ice cream. Normally this wouldn’t be my sweet of choice given that cow’s milk and I don’t really get along swimmingly. But a local ice cream shop, Full Tilt, has wonderful hemp milk ice cream. So while LB enjoyed a salted caramel ice cream, I got to indulge in chocolate mint vegan/hemp cream. Yum!

4. Letting go

Meditation can bring immeasurable benefits. One that I realized again this week was the acceptance of the old-age tenet “this too shall pass.” I saw again through meditation that nothing really sticks, nothing is permanent, everything comes and goes – just like the breath. And so, as I found myself in a bit of a mood dip earlier in the week – wouldn’t you know it, right as the Sun and Mercury were connecting in with the intense Uranus/Pluto square – I was able to catch myself sooner than later and realize that whatever I was feeling at that point wouldn’t be with me forever. Just remembering that helped to lift the cloud of heaviness and gave me so much more levity freedom of self-expression, and had the thought lose its intransigence. As I had this experience I became again so thrilled about my Take 5! community project and how through inspiring more people to meditate, many more can have peace-invoking experiences in their lives as I just had. [More details next week on the Take 5! project and its evolution.]

5. Nature

This week I used two of the Libra elixirs that Karyn Schwartz of SugarPill Apothecary formulated for Planetary Apothecary. These were the Libra New Moon Bath Salt and the Libra Season Tea. I awoke on the New Moon and took an early morning soak, something I usually don’t do. Yet, I felt called to do so in order to ritualize the moment. The bath helped to center me and fortify my ability to move forward into a day where I had to make some decisions and wanted to do so with as much clarity and grace as possible. I have been drinking the Libra Season tea all week. I love the taste of it (the way I’d describe it is that it taste like corn, basil and “yellow”) and I have definitely found that it helps to fortify my nerves, which was part of Karyn’s intention in formulating it.

6. Choosing

The article featured on PlanetWaves about the Libra New Moon really inspired me. It galvanized my sense of empowerment by reminding me that our personal power comes through our birthright of being able to make choices in our lives. If you’re interested in the article (which is still of so much value even though the New Moon has passed), you can read it here.

7. Femininity

I am so proud of my friend Heidi L, who over the past few years has stepped out into the world fully expressing and sharing yet another of her numerous creative skills–this one her being able to capture grace and beauty through the camera lens. This week she unveiled her new series She Can Leap Tall Buildings, an ode to women that honors their numerous roles and expressions. It’s super creative, semi-quirky, ultra beautiful, and very innovative. It’s a wonderful dedication to women by one of the most wonderful women I know. Have a look and see if it inspires you as it did me.

8. Managing time

I have the “I don’t have enough time” story. Do you?

I’ve decided that instead of just resigning myself to it that I would really investigate its validity. I knew in my heart of hearts it’s not because of the lack of time but because of the way I relate to it.

As a means to this, this week I decided to experiment by really engaging myself with my calendar, scheduling out my days with all the things large and small I want to and need to do.

Since I’ve thought that I “know” what I need to do, I wasn’t in the habit of writing everything down. But given that approach hadn’t been uber-effective as a means to getting everything done, I decided to go granular/Virgo and block out several days at a time on the calendar with all of my goals. While I’m only two days into it, I can say that it’s actually worked really well so far. I don’t feel constrained or pressured by it. Alternatively, it’s really liberating to name what I want to accomplish, to see it “in paper” (in quotes since it’s on my ICal), and then see that I’ve achieved it.

I’m really focused on and inspired by tips and trick to help me be as fluidly creative in my life as possible. If you have any to share with me and other Readers, I encourage you to do so. We’d be greatly appreciative.

What inspired your well-being this week? I encourage you to share your experiences and insights in the Comments section.

*** To learn more about the inspiration for Inspirations of Well-Being, see this post.