Thanks for dropping by!
We made it out of COVID quarantine, the kids are back in school, and for the first time in weeks it feels like I can finally stop to take a breath. Actually, I’m trying to take a lot of breaths very intentionally.
Let’s hop into this week’s links for more about that before we get into the newsletter…
* * *
How to Breathe: 25 Simple Practices for Calm, Joy, and Resilience
It may sound silly to read a book about “how to breath,” but I’ve now read several books arguing that we need to pay more attention to our breath, and I think they’re on to something. We can even help regulate our emotions and health by bringing our breath under control.
One option in contemplative prayer is to release your thoughts through paying attention to your breath, so I’m interested in what this book can teach me.
An Expert in Authoritarianism Is Worried about America
Last week foreign affairs and autocracy expert Anne Applebaum shared a link to a brief video called A Coup in Plain Sight about the January 6th coup as a warning that America is in real trouble right now with potential political violence and voter suppression. I read quite a lot of history in my spare time, and the trends I’m seeing right now have left me quite concerned.
Why My Favorite Planner Is Out of Stock
In less dire news, last year I mentioned that I love the Hardback Paperage daily and weekly planner. When I went to purchase the planner this year, I saw a ton of 1-star reviews. It turns out they made a mistake on the dates for the weekly calendars, so they had to pull ALL of them from stores.
And here I thought that my endorsement resulted in a rush on them! I’ll have to settle for the Moleskine Planner until next year.
And now, on to the newsletter!
------------------------------------------------
The word “drift” has been on my mind lately, as in a gradual shift that often isn’t perceived.
“Drift” came to mind in a negative sense about “creative drift,” which I’ll talk about more in a moment. Unfortunately, I have recently had a very concrete and personal experience of drift that has helped me understand what it is and how it happens.
The other day I went to see my psychiatrist and the nurse weighed me before the appointment. She kept sliding the little metal thing along the scale, giving it big pushes, sending it along and pushing it again, and again.
It felt like she tapped that thing a dozen times. It was more like three or four taps.
When I had a virtual doctor’s appointment a few days later, I shared my updated weight with the nurse. I thought I was pretty clever to have such an accurate number handy!
Later that day, I read over the notes from the visit looking for the results of my COVID test (negative, Booyah!), and a word caught my attention:
“Overweight.”
Uh oh.
Then I looked up my height and weight on the body mass index.
Big uh oh.
I’m not a fitness nut, but I’ve always prided myself in being just on the edge of “normal weight” without tipping the scales into overweight. That is no longer the case.
I started to ponder what I’ve been doing differently for the past year or two during the pandemic, and it was really obvious once I stopped to think about it.
I work at home a lot more now. It is very easy to pick up an extra piece of fruit, to make some extra toast (whole wheat bread of course!), or to cobble together “healthy snacks” whenever I pass through the kitchen.
I had drifted into a very robust habit of snacking all day.
Also? This pandemic has been stressful. While I’ve had enough work for the most part, my income sources have radically changed. We homeschooled our kids last year, and that was really, really hard.
How have I coped?
A bit of chocolate here, a cookie there, some Cheezits while cooking dinner, etc.
I drifted into a habit of eating more sweets each day. It’s hardly noticeable from one day to another, but as I drifted along, it grew more frequent.
My snacks have never been a full on binge. Nothing feels out of control in the moment, but when you start adding up all of the calories I’ve been consuming outside of meals… well, there you have it.
Of course I’ve been working on addressing the stress-eating aspect of things, considering what I can do instead of sneaking an Oreo from the kids lunch stock
Things like pushing myself a bit harder when I exercise, getting out in the sunshine, and making sure I journal daily have been in the mix.
Yet, there remains the other issue: the unhealthy habits that I’d never noticed as I drifted into them.
I’m a system and rule guy. I don’t have willpower in the moment. If you put a donut in front of me, I won’t ask questions. I’ll just make it disappear, period.
But if I have a system in place to help me know when I can have a cheat day or which times of day I’m eating and which times of day I’m not, I tend to have a bit more willpower. Just to be clear, I haven’t given up on our family’s Sundae Sunday tradition.
This isn’t some crazy crash diet. Rather, I’m in a health reset, putting boundaries around my snacks and treats after drifting into some unsustainable habits.
Ideally my only big meal each day is breakfast or lunch, and dinner should be a smaller meal. That means no seconds, no finishing the kids half-eaten food, etc.
I’m also not snacking during the day, and I just never realized how easy it is to slice an apple for a snack or to stick a piece of toast into the toaster oven when a bit of hunger hits. If I drink a glass of water, the urge to eat usually passes. The weekends are open for a few cheats.
The thing I can’t get over is just how entrenched some new habits became over the course of the pandemic. I just never second-guessed my choices, even as my calorie intake shot through the roof while working at home so often.
I suppose it was just a lot easier to resist the $4 pastry at the café before COVID kept me at home with a stocked pantry and fridge.
You also better believe I’m asking other questions now about where else I’ve been drifting.
Are there any other unhealthy habits I’ve developed and haven’t noticed?
What do I assume to be “normal” that shouldn’t be normal?
Journaling has been on my mind lately as a major drift risk. It takes so much focus and dedicated time to journal, I find it all too easy to conveniently forget to do it or to tell myself I don’t have enough time.
My morning pages are such a big part of a having a productive day on my creative writing projects, but on plenty of occasions I’ve forgotten them. Even the creative practice of writing early drafts on paper in order to enhance my focus has been forgotten at times, and I’ve wondered why it’s been so hard to start anything new!
I can drift in my prayer practices, accepting the times when I’m less attentive as just normal instead of asking what could be at the root of my distraction.
I’ve been revisiting some of the books on my shelf just to reinforce some of my practices because I feel the subtle drift into distraction far more often.
I’m curious where you’ve seen drift at play in your life. Have you ever looked back at a situation and realized you’d drifted far beyond where you want to be?
The tricky thing about drift is that you don’t always notice it when you’re in the midst of it.
Thanks for reading!
Ed
WordPress.com
