Just like me, my nephew is enamored with fish. Particularly the ones in “Hooray For Fish” by Lucy Cousins, his favorite book.
We spent the day at the OdySea Aquarium and Butterfly Wonderland and marveled at all the beautiful creatures.
I recently started writing morning pages, which is a meditative practice of writing anything and everything you’re thinking about for 15 minutes and pouring out all your thoughts on paper so you get it out of your system and maybe get clarity from it.
I know it seems counterintuitive to start a challenge while you’re in a creative slump, but it’s a good way to push yourself to do something, anything creative – even if it’s following a challenge prompt. At least you’re making something. For me, I’ve tried a minimalism challenge which really helped to get me thinking outside of the box, and a daily drawing challenge which made me feel good about myself just because I’m making something.
Do you work best in the morning or evening? What does your morning/night routine look like? When I’m in a funky mood, I try to make sure I get myself in a good mood first thing in the morning. I wake up early and do easy yoga stretches in bed to wake my mind and body up, then quickly write my morning pages, put on tunes while I pick out what to wear, eat breakfast while glancing at my phone notifications, then make a to-do list for the day and work my way through them. I stick to this routine as much as I can so that I don’t have to think about how to get started, I just do it.
I love YouTube. Lately I’ve been watching a lot of creative vlogs, and it’s really making me want to start vlogging too. So I watch these when I’m in the dumps. But it’s important to limit yourself so you don’t get lost in random videos. I suggest you find something you’re interested in, or check your ‘watch later’ playlist. And then once that’s done, exit out of YouTube, or put on some lofi/chillhop music to get you groovin’ for the day.
It’s almost impossible to always be motivated and inspired. Some days I’m thriving with motivation and ideas, and other days I feel like I’m just barely surviving. Go over your goals, reevaluate them, and commit commit commit. If you can power through a day in the dumps, you can do anything.
Here’s are some pics I took of myself on one of those meh days.
It’s been a hot minute since I last posted.
I’ve been busy getting back into the groove of things since coming back from California, and if you haven’t yet noticed, I changed up my website layout a bit!
It’s still a work in progress…
I originally planned to work in drafts only and then change it all up in one go, but that turned out to be rather intimidating so instead I’ve been slowly making changes here and there.
Just playing around to see what I like and don’t like.
What do you think of it? Yay or nay?
I’ve been in a creative rut, and feeling unimpressed with myself lately.
So I’m working on getting my motivation up while setting my mind to power through the slumps.
I’m also writing a blog post about pushing myself to stay creative even when I’m feeling low.
My zero waste kit, as you might remember (from this post) featured a wooden fork I got in Bali. Unfortunately that broke, so I’m now carrying around my regular stainless steel fork from home.
I also received a “cannibal fork” from a friend who came back from Fiji and I was obsessed with that thing. It’s a 4-pronged wooden utensil with the prongs in a square so you can dig into what you’re eating pretty easily. It worked awesome with fried chicken, let me just say. But unfortunately, that broke too. So if anyone is coming back from Fiji, please get me a cannibal fork!
Also, I’m sorry I never continued with #PlasticFreeJuly updates. I had daily notes which I was going to use for my blog post, but in the spirit of vacation I took a break from being behind the screen so much and just lived life ya know?
I will say however that #PlasticFreeJuly was a great opportunity for me to take stock of my plastic consumption. There were quite a few fails (aka learning lessons) but overall, I greatly decreased the amount of single-use plastics like straws, plastic bags, and take out containers, and I’m very happy about that.
Connor Jackson is a friend of a friend crossed the South Pacific on a 31′ Hunter named Sea Casa. Our mutual friend Michele, who used to live here in American Samoa and worked with Ian at the National Park, told us he was coming in and we were stoked to hang out with him and a few friends this weekend for a day sail on the southern Tutuila coast.
It was dumping rain most of the morning but we motored out of the harbor anyway and our good attitudes were rewarded with a little wind and a lot of sun for a glorious arvo.
Needless to say, I got seasick and prepared myself for this with a thumb of ginger I bought just before we hopped on the boat. I was just gnawing away at it and burped a bunch, and then puked my perfect bacon and egg open sammich breakfast not once but thrice in the 5 hours we were out. It was still a blast!
Connor and Ian had the good sense to jump off the boat when we got over the shallow part of the Taema banks, and we all quickly followed in. It felt so so so good to get off the rocking boat for a bit. It was a super calm day and the water was the perfect temperature. I wish I felt well enough to take more photos, but no complaints because Ian took most of these pics and it turned out to be an awesome day!
