A Perfect Friday is Always Welcomed!

On this past Friday, I did another one of my life check-ins. It was such a beautiful day that it made the session even better than some of my prior ones. I also read a great book.

In this post, I will be talking more about this check-in and what I got out of it this time.

What a life check-in is

If you haven’t seen my post about life check-ins and you don’t know what I am talking about, I will give an explanation.

Life check-ins are simply just times where you focus on aspects of your life and self. You can ask yourself questions such as:

• How do I feel about my job/career?
• Do I feel fulfilled in life?
• Am I satisfied in my relationship?
• How is my mental state?

There are many more questions that you can ask yourself. When you answer them, it is important to be specific and add in some detail. It may be useful to use a notebook/journal for this.

Once you have answered the questions, think about what you may need to change or keep doing in your life to keep everything in balance. When things are in balance, happiness and forward progression can occur.

A successful check-in session should also include a comforting environment. This could look like the following:

• In your room with no children or partner present and a glass of wine next to you on a food tray.
• In your living room with soft music playing while your partner and children are away.
• In your bathtub with candles lit around you.
• On your deck on a beautiful day.
• In your garden on a beautiful day.

Life check-ins are good to do every once in a while. How many you need to do is solely up to you.

My life check-in for June

Things haven’t been going the way I have wanted them to over the past three or so years. It has mainly been due to financial/career reasons but I have also had health issues.

Because of this, I have been doing check-ins with myself. It is important for me to have a life that I am as happy as possible with and I feel that these will help me get on that path.

My sessions usually includes a hot drink in my favorite mug (usually a turmeric drink or Starbucks Medium Roast), sitting in my comfortable reading chair, an ambience video on the TV and my journal with me. I make sure to do these while my son is sleeping and my husband is at work otherwise it won’t be a good experience.

This most recent session was a little different though. Instead of sitting in my reading chair, I decided to sit outside in a chair on the grass (husband was taking care of our son inside). I kicked off my flip-flops to feel the earth at my feet. As cliché as it sounds- I felt so grounded. I love feeling this way.

With me outside I also took my turmeric drink , phone, ear buds, journal/pen and a book (to read afterwards).

Since I obviously didn’t have a TV outside, I thought that putting an ambience video on my phone and listening to it with my ear buds would be a good choice. As it turns out, it was. The music was closer to my ear and I could hear it better which made me all the more relaxed. Here is the ambience video I used:

I have put this video on several times before. The Bossa Nova music in it seemed perfect for this particular day.

My check-in began with me thinking about what I want to be doing when it comes to making money. I visualized the perfect work day for me-what my tasks would be, my hours, the amount I would want to make and more.

I also mulled over whether my son should be put into in-person school this coming fall or not. This decision and my employment relate to each other so it was necessary to think about.

In terms of other things about life (and me!), there wasn’t much thinking/decision making I felt needed to be done. I have a good idea already of what else I need to work on/do.

After doing all of this introspection, I came up with the following takeaways:

• To be fulfilled, I want a career that involves administrative and writing/editing work.
• My son will not be in in-person school until things are more figured out regarding COVID vaccines, treatments and deadly variants.
• I need to get better sleep. This is important for my immune system, mental health and more.
• I really want my skin to get better.

Here are the solutions to the takeaways:

• I will continue to apply for legitimate remote jobs that involve some of the tasks I am good at and like. This also means that I need to spend time on cover letters and change up my resume if need be.
• I already have my son’s first grade curriculum stuff so we are good there. The hard thing I am going to have to do is explain to family members why he will not be in public schools for at least the first semester of the next school year. I will have to figure out what to say if they ask about it and be okay with the opposition I am sure to receive. Also, I need to look for safe socialization opportunities in the community for him.
• I will be following tips and guides to get better sleep.
• I will continue to use the products I have in my current routine and also have other ones on deck. I am 99.9999% sure that the products I am using now won’t make my skin issues budge but I do want to give them some more time. I will be making lists of new products to try and go from there.

This check-in was great. It ended with me feeling renewed and motivated for the future.

A mini book review

After my life check-in, I read a wonderful new book. It is called, The Last Apothecary by Sarah Penner.

It weaves the present and the past in a masterful way. The present involves a woman who is in a rocky place with her husband and learns about an old apothecary on her trip to London. The past involves a woman who runs a secret apothecary shop that provides poisons to women who want to harm/kill the men in their lives.

The story includes some twists and turns that keep you on your toes along with providing some well researched bits of information on ancient apothecary. It all comes together to be intriguing, unique and a breath of fresh air in the fiction genre.

This book was so fun to read and I could not put it down. While I was deep diving into its story, I was thinking how cool of a show or movie it would make. I guess other people thought so as well because it is being made into a series!

I highly recommend it if you are looking for a new fiction book to read.

That’s it for this one!

Friday was a perfect day for me. Although I didn’t have any groundbreaking discoveries and solutions to things, it was good to check-in with myself.

You should consider doing a life check-in once in a while, too!

Thanks for reading!

#life #mentalhealth #employment #parenting #homeschoolcurriculum #skincare #sleep #sarahpenner