Tag: a to z blogging challenge

#AtoZChallenge | N is for New Experiences and moving my bucket list virtual.

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I’ve posted a few annual bucket lists to this blog in the past. However, I didn’t for 2020. I needed to step back and think about what my goals were around my bucket list as typically we’d only cross a few entries off each year. That didn’t make me happy. I’m the kind of person who gets giddy when she finishes a to-do list.

Maybe that was the problem. Had I set them up to be just another thing to cross off?

I’ve read the headlines telling us it is better to invest in experiences rather than things. That it will bring us more joy. I don’t need to be convinced. I definitely would pick an experience over a purchase any day.

Why do new experiences bring bliss into my life? Below are five reasons that I love new experiences:

People. Typically, new experiences involve other people. After years of believing myself to be an introvert, I read Quiet by Susan Cain and realized I’m actually a shy extrovert. Being around other people gives me energy. Often new experiences are something that I do with other people which makes it that much sweeter.

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#AtoZChallenge | M is for Making a pegboard jewelry organizer.

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I always have a craft project in the works. Some fail spectacularly. Others succeed, although often much differently than they originally appeared in my head. Either way, it doesn’t stop me. I love the creative process and enjoy trying new skills. Having something you made yourself is so satisfying.

It is no surprise to me that my daughters both decided on creative career paths. One is a visual artist, the other a creative writer. In the “could have, would have, and should have” of lost opportunities, I would have gotten an art degree. Not that it matters. The beauty of art is you can create it however and whenever you choose. It’s deeply personal.

And there are so many ways to express creativity. Making crafts that I can use in my home is one of the ways that I do.

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#AtoZChallenge | L is for Lobster and a delicious attempt at a how to video tutorial.

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I have eaten lobster longer than my memory goes back. Probably not a good metric, since my memory seems to only go back a decade or so. It may be more accurate to say that I’ve been eating lobster for over a half a century, but it freaks me out a bit to think that I’ve been alive that long. So I’m just going to say that I’ve been eating lobster for a long, long time.

It’s my favorite food.

I recognize that if you did not grow up eating lobster it can be intimidating. Lobsters are strange looking with a few too many legs and those large, menacing front claws, held closed with rubber bands. They have a hard outer shell that you have to navigate before you get to eat the delicious meat inside. You have to do a little work before you get to enjoy them and that may not be for everyone.

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#AtoZChallenge | K is for Kindness and other random acts with GISH.

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When the list of over 200 challenges is released early Saturday morning, my family usually displays it on the TV so we can all read it together. It takes several hours to read through and process it all. Only a few of the challenges actually seem doable, and many of them require multiple readings to be sure we understand them correctly. However, by the end of the week we’re staging epic battles between zombies and vampires and finding creative ways to complete impossible tasks.

That’s what Gish, the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt, does to you. The brainchild of actor Misha Collins, this week long hunt inspires creativity, amazing acts of kindness and pushes you to do things you never thought you could.

What has Gish taught me?

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#AtoZChallenge | J is for Juggling thoughts and calming my monkey mind.

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Monkey mind is a real thing. “According to Buddhist principles, the “monkey mind” is a term that refers to being unsettled, restless, or confused.” (Raab, 2017)

I may know shockingly little about Buddhist principles but the monkey mind is something to which I can easily relate, at least the restless part. My mind flutters through to-do-list tasks, random snippets of memories and various unrelated passing thoughts with a disconnected, accelerated pace most of my waking hours.

I’m ready to make peace with it. I’ve handed my monkey mind an olive branch and asked it to pull up a chair and slow down to enjoy a quiet moment with me.

I started practicing meditation every day in an attempt to quiet my mind. Let me be clear: I’ve been practicing quite poorly, but I am practicing.

I am reading “Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World” and following their well laid out meditation plan. There are many other meditation practices available. It’s definitely a trending topic these days. I’m sure this is in part because of the unprecedented level of distraction we all live with each day.

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