It’s Theme Time!
Apparently I completely forgot to do a summer theme review, so I’ll bundle summer and Fall up together. Summer’s theme was Joy, and it was deeply successful. Every moment a decision came up, I thought, “what will give me joy?” and boy did I experience a lot of it. I spent lots of time outside, enjoyed lots of events, got to go to events where I could perform in my masks, went BOWLING, went sailing on a tall ship, had many visitors, and just basked in my new home. The one downside of the Joy theme was the answer to the question of “should I get ice cream” was always “yes.” I REGRET NOTHING.
Moving into Fall, I decided I wanted to become more in tune with my body, listen to it more, and just be more physically present. Thus theme was “physical presence.” This was an interesting one, because it manifested in ways I didn’t expect. I expected it to get me to exercise more, and while there was a bit of that (I was more apt to get up and go for a walk because I realized I my body needed it), the biggest new habit to come out of this theme was…peeing when I actually needed to instead of holding it for a more convenient time. Honestly, it’s probably a habit I needed to develop anyway now that I’m getting older! It’s the little things.
The other big one was that I started taking a dance class. I wanted to improve my internal sense of rhythm, and it’s something I’ve always meant to do. It’s a beginner class for adults and lots of fun, and I feel like I might actually be getting a better internal metronome!
On to Winter. My last set of themes have been all about what I want more of in my life, but this time I want to work on something I want less of. I want to try and do more screenless activities. Winter is a time where I tend to give my brain a huge rest and spend a lot of time disassociating into the phone and playing Elden Ring. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, I want to try and find more ways to use that time up in non-screen activities. To start off, I brainstormed a big list of potential screenless activities that I could engage in, and bring it up whenever I’m at a decision point of what to do next with my free time. They are:
1. Cookie decorating! I picked it up as a new hobby since I had a bunch of icing supplies from decorating sugar skulls for Día de Muertos
2. Working more on my slough journal, where I’ve been experimenting with different physical media
3. Arts and crafts
4. Wrapping presents
5. Writing physical things (like the postcards I occasionally send out to all my friends’ kids)
6. Going outside more in spite of the cold and wet
7. Reading
8. Recording more mask tiktoks
9. Mending broken things
That’s just a small brainstorm, but my hope is that I’ll find more ways to fill up little moments with more screen-free activities.