At My Age, I'm Happy To Just Be Doing These Things!

Yesterday, Sunday, was a great day. I was thinking about it all day. How I was having fun, I was relaxed, and the day seemed to last forever. This led me to think to myself why did I enjoy my day so much and why not have every day like this one?

I came to the conclusion that I’m at an age where I’m absolutely blissed out if I just do all the things I love and I thought I would share some of them with you today. 

I want to grow, prepare, and eat delicious plant-based whole food. This means having my hands in the dirt tending to my garden, watching it grow, pulling weeds, and watching the birds making families around me while I’m out there. I can spend 8 hours doing that and be very content and happy. Making the food. I love cooking and especially love plant-based cooking. Learning how to preserve and use the food from my garden is a new learning experience every year. The eating part. Well, we all love eating, don’t we? I think my goal this year is to make it not just delicious but also beautiful. Also, to expand my knowledge of how to use new veggies. This year the new veggies I’m growing are bok choy, fennel, and edamame, so stay tuned. 

I want to hang out with my dogs and pretty much talk to them and treat them like people. Let’s face it, my dogs were my A team during the pandemic and I’m eternally grateful for their companionship. Also, they can be so much nicer than people, and lastly, they love me unconditionally. I believe there is no more explanation needed and my people understand this and agree with me 100%.

I love reading and could also do this all day. I remember when I was a kid I would leave for school in the morning and my mom would wave goodbye to us in her PJs while reading a book then I would come home and she would be in the same position still reading. Yes, queen, that's what I’m talking about. For those of you who are automatically judging my mom, just stop. Firstly, good for her for doing something she loves all day. We should all do this. Secondly, my mom was the bomb. I’m talking home-cooked meals, snacks, and sweets. She made my clothes, canned, made preserves, taught ceramics,  and about a million other amazing things that are too long to list. As an adult, I get this love for reading and if I could label anything I do as obsessive it would be reading.

I just want to play outside all day. The sun shining on my face, so hypnotic. I want to hike, walk, run, and ride my bike. Depending on my mood and the weather, I do one of these things every day and if I don’t, I feel like I’m sick. I’m a literal plant, I need dirt, sun, water, and food to feel happy and healthy. Running for me is therapeutic, It’s something that really helps me when I’m angry or frustrated about something and I need to release that energy. I always say, if you see me do a 10-mile run, there is most likely something wrong in my world but no worries, I worked that shit out. Walking and hiking are more relaxing, social, and playful for me. So outside is my favorite place.

I love making stuff. Whether its food, a garden, sewing, painting, writing,  or a program for my business, I just love to create. I believe it is human nature to want to create or to be creative but I know a lot of you would disagree and say, “I’m not creative at all.” but I think at our core we are all creative, it’s the way we express ourselves. We lose this creativity, when we are taught as young children to do things by the book, color inside the lines, your doing this or that wrong, be quiet, sit still, and so on. As we get older it takes sometimes bravery and the willingness to be judged by society to be creative and put ourselves and the things we create out into the world. But I just don’t give a shit if anyone likes what I create, it's fun, relaxing, and makes me feel alive, so I just do it!

I love everything about music. I also love most types of music although some of the negative stuff gets on my nerves. I love listening to live music, have it playing in the background while I work…sometimes, and recently picking up my guitar again after many many years. It’s very much related to being creative but also helps me express and release emotions. It’s very therapeutic. 

I love helping people. This is mainly what I do as a career. But I would do it whether I got paid for it or not. I love watching, leading, sharing, and helping people heal and step into their power, their true authentic selves. This is what I do for myself everyday and I continue to learn more and more about how to live fully everyday and will continue to share this with all the people around me until the day I die. 

Lastly, but most importantly. I love my family and friends. I love spending time with them and sharing all of the above things with them. I love watching my kids become amazing adults, I love connecting with friends that have like-minded core values like mine and traveling to all the places to spend time with all these people. 

So what about you? What do you love and are you spending most of your time doing these things? If not spend this week making some shifts. 

As I said, at my age at this moment, this is all I want to do and I’m making the decision, a vow to myself to do these things 100% of the time. If I notice I stray off course, I feel like I’m not aligned with myself, this is when I know I will have to make some adjustments myself. 

I have to add, we all need to constantly make adjustments in our life to feel in alignment and balanced. 

Being aligned, and balanced is not an endpoint we reach. It’s a lifestyle. 

Life is kinda like riding a bicycle, we don’t hop on and get balanced, and then that's it, we stay balanced. We hop on, get balanced, and then have to pay attention to how we feel in that space, we have to constantly shift our weight, and move our arms, head, and bodies to stay upright on the bike in order to not fall. When we do fall, we might get all scratched up. But we heal, get back on, and keep riding.

Life is the same way, we have to pay attention to how we feel, and we have to make adjustments in our life to stay happy and healthy. Sometimes we fall down, we get sick, but then we get back up, make adjustments, heal, and keep going. 

This week’s self-care practice is to be mindful of the way you spend your time now. If you're not happy and thriving, think about the adjustments you could make to feel better, and happier. Then start to slowly, with baby steps, add some of that magic back into your life. 

Pick yourself up, wipe off your scraped knees, get on the bike of life, and start riding again! Isn’t this what life is all about? 

Happy biking.

Lots of love and care.

Xo, T