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rsadelleThis year, uh, obviously did not go to plan. And yet there were still a lot of good things about it, and many of those good things came from or connected to the goals and intentions I set for the year.
Writing. I didn't write a lot this year, but I'm pleased with the experience of the writing I did. All of the fic I wrote this year was fic I wrote just because I wanted to write it. I started a weekly journaling practice that has been an interesting experience. I wrote some posts about things I'd read or watched, which reminded me again how much I love writing pop culture commentary. I entertained myself by writing tweets and Facebook posts that frequently entertained me if no one else. Since what I wanted from this goal was the experience of writing, I think this was a success.
Strengthen connections. This obviously took a different shape than I envisioned when I set this goal last year. However, I was really happy to fill out my goals tracking spreadsheets at the end of each week and month and note down how many ways I connected with people. I sent mail and texted and had Zoom lunches and emailed. My list goes on, and I'm really happy about it. I also got into more of a habit of taking pictures to share with people, although I did laugh about that one a bit since being at home all the time means most of my pictures were of food or my face. I'm just starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of texting conversations here at the end of the year.
Connect to God/the divine. I tried to notice when I was doing this more often and made a conscious effort to do the guided meditations that give me a good God-connection feeling. In the second half of the year, I found my way back to Judaism (again) and started a partial Shabbat practice. This has been so lovely. I've been attending a virtual service or doing my own candles/singing/prayer practice on Friday nights and then observing Shabbat in a way that involves staying away from the internet on Saturday mornings at least. Friday night services are probably the template for my idea of spiritual practice, and I always love them when I return to them. I'm finding my Shabbat practice really valuable too, in terms of giving me defined time to be quiet by myself, do at least a little bit of reflection, and remember that the internet is not that urgent.
Be more weird. Weirdly (ha!), the way I experienced this most was to be a lot less bland in terms of what I posted on Facebook. I did a whole series of selfies with run-on sentences that began, "Today's hairstyle is," which were hilarious to me if not to anyone else. I reposted things I said on Twitter (where I have a different audience and therefore tend to post different things). I made a lot more jokes that, again, were at least funny to me if not to anyone else. It was interesting how much this made me feel a real sense of freedom and unleashing of myself.
Yoga study and practice. This one did not go quite the way I anticipated. I did a lot of yoga! I had already started being deliberate about doing more of a full practice at home, so I was doing that early in the year. After I was laid off, I remembered how nice it was to do yoga twice a day when I went on a yoga retreat with women from my yoga class, so I made myself a daily schedule (uh, I am a person who functions best with structure) that had designated times for morning and afternoon yoga, and have stuck with that with very few exceptions. I tried out some yoga videos and learned some new to me yoga poses. I listened to the Yoga Is Dead podcast. On the flip side, I became increasingly skeptical about how much I agree with yoga philosophy and how it can - or can't - be translated from its cultural background into our culture.
Writing. I didn't write a lot this year, but I'm pleased with the experience of the writing I did. All of the fic I wrote this year was fic I wrote just because I wanted to write it. I started a weekly journaling practice that has been an interesting experience. I wrote some posts about things I'd read or watched, which reminded me again how much I love writing pop culture commentary. I entertained myself by writing tweets and Facebook posts that frequently entertained me if no one else. Since what I wanted from this goal was the experience of writing, I think this was a success.
Strengthen connections. This obviously took a different shape than I envisioned when I set this goal last year. However, I was really happy to fill out my goals tracking spreadsheets at the end of each week and month and note down how many ways I connected with people. I sent mail and texted and had Zoom lunches and emailed. My list goes on, and I'm really happy about it. I also got into more of a habit of taking pictures to share with people, although I did laugh about that one a bit since being at home all the time means most of my pictures were of food or my face. I'm just starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of texting conversations here at the end of the year.
Connect to God/the divine. I tried to notice when I was doing this more often and made a conscious effort to do the guided meditations that give me a good God-connection feeling. In the second half of the year, I found my way back to Judaism (again) and started a partial Shabbat practice. This has been so lovely. I've been attending a virtual service or doing my own candles/singing/prayer practice on Friday nights and then observing Shabbat in a way that involves staying away from the internet on Saturday mornings at least. Friday night services are probably the template for my idea of spiritual practice, and I always love them when I return to them. I'm finding my Shabbat practice really valuable too, in terms of giving me defined time to be quiet by myself, do at least a little bit of reflection, and remember that the internet is not that urgent.
Be more weird. Weirdly (ha!), the way I experienced this most was to be a lot less bland in terms of what I posted on Facebook. I did a whole series of selfies with run-on sentences that began, "Today's hairstyle is," which were hilarious to me if not to anyone else. I reposted things I said on Twitter (where I have a different audience and therefore tend to post different things). I made a lot more jokes that, again, were at least funny to me if not to anyone else. It was interesting how much this made me feel a real sense of freedom and unleashing of myself.
Yoga study and practice. This one did not go quite the way I anticipated. I did a lot of yoga! I had already started being deliberate about doing more of a full practice at home, so I was doing that early in the year. After I was laid off, I remembered how nice it was to do yoga twice a day when I went on a yoga retreat with women from my yoga class, so I made myself a daily schedule (uh, I am a person who functions best with structure) that had designated times for morning and afternoon yoga, and have stuck with that with very few exceptions. I tried out some yoga videos and learned some new to me yoga poses. I listened to the Yoga Is Dead podcast. On the flip side, I became increasingly skeptical about how much I agree with yoga philosophy and how it can - or can't - be translated from its cultural background into our culture.