As my business grows, my time becomes more of a precious commodity. If I don't continue to live slow down and stay mindful, I may fall into the trap of forgetting why I started doing this in the first place. The whole point of knitting for most people is stress relief. It's a hobby that brings joy. I want to inject that joy into everything I do for the benefit of my customers and students. If I'm not making products or teaching classes that I'm excited about, then why am I doing it? It's like having a kid because you want to then fearing that you will "lose your sense of self". Which, by the way, is totally not true if you don't let it be. It takes work to stay true to yourself and I'm fully prepared to put in that effort because happiness is the most important thing to me.
Also, it's a sort of experiment. I'm always up for a reasonable or worth it challenge. Even if something seems hard, I'll do it if I think I have something valuable to gain. Summitting that mountain is an amazing feeling. Just like binding off a giant project. Did you enjoy every second? Probably not. But look what you made!! That sense of accomplishment is addicting.
Mental and emotional health is so important to productivity and creativity. If I want Happiness Yarn Co. to keep growing, I need to be prepared to support it. I hope to remain calm and happy, and discover new ways to feel positive emotions. If people can learn from my experiment, too, then great!
Here's my Official Rules:
1. Meditate for 5 minutes every day. No specified time.
2. Eat only whole, unprocessed foods. No dairy, alcohol, legumes, or grains. (Whole30)
3. Write a blog entry every day exploring mindfulness practices and self-improvement.
I will elaborate on these rules in my next three posts and explain why they are important to me.
I wanted to make more rules but I think 3 is enough and is a good number.
RV Park Work Day:
I woke up at 8:30 with the sun glaring into the bay window.
I made coffee in the french press. Awesome. I went outside to enjoy the view since it was too dark to see it last night.
I journaled in my Whole30 Day by Day book and got mentally prepared for the day.
My first time turning on a propane stove was intimidating but I did it without much fuss. I cracked 4 eggs into the frying pan and began to cook them. I looked for the salt and pepper
that I THOUGHT was in here. It wasn't. I really wanted those eggs so I needed to season them in some way. I grabbed some pork (my dinner) and some stir fry sauce from the fridge and cooked it in with the eggs. I'm eating it right now and it's really not that bad. The stir fry sauce is a recipe from nomnompaleo.com and is good on pretty much everything. In fact, the pork is an instant pot recipe from nomnompaleo.com as well and is the most tender meat I've ever made.
The rest of my day consisted of knitting by the river, listening to the fish catch bugs off the surface of the water and wondering what type of bird was making which calls. When it got too hot, I made my way back inside but then it started raining so I opened up the screen door to watch and smell the rain. It was nice.
It took me a while to go to bed despite drinking 2 cups of chamomile tea. I knitted until I fell asleep with my shawl sitting on top of my chest around 12.
It was relaxing and I made a big dent in the shawl I'm trying to finish before the end of the week. I'll keep you updated on how that turns out!
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