Issue #9  //  Make a Gentle Restart ⏰

“Activity and rest are two vital aspects of life. To find a balance in them is a skill in itself. ” 

- Ravi Shankar

From Gill:

I got home yesterday after a very fun (if not very restful) vacation, and already I feel like my Get It Togethers are far outpacing my Got It Togethers.

Laundry, emails, errands, and work tasks are competing for my attention. Jet lag is making me sluggish and cranky. My Fitbit is about to file a missing persons report. I yelled at a soft-boiled egg this morning for not following directions. I’m not exactly my best self right now.

Melia recently introduced me to the concept of “Gentle Mondays” from the You’re Welcome with Hilary Rushford podcast:

"Ever get the Sunday Sads in anticipation of the Monday hustle? Why not choose something else? Who said Mondays need to be so aggressive? Januarys need to be when you try [to] be your most productive all year? Why not choose to ease into your week, month, year to create more space and joy? "

I love this idea for Mondays or really any transition. This week, I’m applying it to my post-vacation turmoil. Call it a “Gentle Restart.” So even though I feel internal pressure to hit the ground running and immediately knock out all the things on my to-do list, I’m trying to ease gently back into real life with:

• Rest: I can spot the early warning signs, and I’ll get sick if I don’t catch up on sleep soon. My goal is to be in bed by 11 p.m. (much earlier than my normal night owl bedtime). 
• Focus: I won’t accomplish much if I try to do everything at once. I’m focusing on just a few of my most important work and home priorities every day. Once I’ve completed those tasks, I can call it quits until tomorrow. 
• Self-Care: I had a packed social calendar on my trip, and while I loved eating, drinking, and being merry with friends and family, I’m looking forward to not making any plans for a little while. I’ll feel more like myself when I have unscheduled alone time to exercise, read, journal, and cook meals with vegetables in them. It’s good to be home.  

🎙 Latest Episode: #21 - Personality Types in Relationships & Life, with The Dudes

We recorded this episode in person when we were in New Orleans earlier this month. Our husbands, Darren and Brian, joined us for their second guest appearance on the podcast, to talk about how personality types inform our relationships and lives.

• Listen to the episode and read the show notes 

👉 Steal This Tip: Assess yourself.

Take the excellent personality assessment at 16personalities.com. Frameworks like this one can help you capitalize on your strengths, manage your challenges, and make decisions about your work, lifestyle, and relationships.

👋 ICYMI

Episode #17: Balancing the Past, Present, and Future🎙

Do you tend to long for the past, wish for the future, or appreciate the present? Research shows that balancing how you perceive the past, present, and future can help you be happier, healthier, and more satisfied in life.

We share how we tend to look at time – and offer five strategies for developing a balanced time perspective.

Listen to the episode for more details.

😄 Things We Text Each Other

If swearing bugs you, scroll on through!

See the video from the chat below:

via Ruth's List

😍 Stuff We Love Right Now

On the Interwebs  🖥

• Healing Among the Whooping Cranes
  Our friend Katie shared this beautiful essay, The Crane Wife, that begins: “Ten days after I called off my engagement I was supposed to go on a scientific expedition to study the whooping crane on the gulf coast of Texas.” CJ Hauser goes along on the trip to do research for a novel but comes away with more than she expected.
• Move Over, Myers-Briggs
  Are you a Bert or an Ernie? A Kermit or a Miss Piggy? In this oldie but goodie, Slate's Dahlia Lithwick describes the intricacies of “Muppet Theory, a little-known, poorly understood philosophy that holds that every living human can be classified according to one simple metric: Every one of us is either a Chaos Muppet or an Order Muppet.”

In Our Ears  🎧

From Melia: 

• Surprisingly Deep for a Comedy Podcast
  Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend: I’ve mentioned before how much I love this podcast. Conan says on the podcast that he’s been surprised to be having such a good time with it, because it lets him go deeper with his interviews than their short TV appearances allow. His chats with Lin-Manuel Miranda (with impressions of the vocals from “Under Pressure”) and Kumail Nanjiani (with an alternative take on Ferris Bueller). 
• Teenage Me is Fangirling
  I hadn’t known much about The Jonas Brothers until I saw them on SNL and found my inner 15-year-old loving the songs Sucker and Cool from their new album. You know how Gill and I love creative sibling collaborations, as well as Jimmy Fallon’s Classroom Instruments performances and James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke (I love the lie detector test he puts them through, but not the jokes about the therapy they did to reunite the band after splitting six years ago).

On Our Plates  🍽 

• 1-Minute Lentil Salad 
  From Gill: My sister-in-law Meg makes this as an appetizer, served with chips or crackers, and it’s addictive. If you live near a Trader Joe’s, all you need to do is combine 1 package each of TJ’s cooked lentils, feta cheese, and bruschetta sauce. Since we don’t have my beloved Trader Joe in Barcelona, I’m still working on perfecting a homemade version.

• Chocolate Caramel Oatmeal Bars
  From Melia: If I had to sum up my favorite foods to make in two words, they would be “easy crowdpleasers.” This dessert fits the bill, and someone nearly always asks for the recipe. Sweet, salty, chewy, chocolatey – it hits all the right notes and makes a large volume for parties or teacher gifts.

Until next time! 

Love,

Melia & Gill 😘😘

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