The Present: February
“If we open up about what we want and need, if we shout it out to everyone we love and trust, something magical can happen.” - Kendra Scott
Hello, and welcome to The Present, the 2023 Flourish Integral Health newsletter. If you find what I am sharing about intentions, joy, and being true to yourself helpful, please join and share.
The most important ideas gathered from my experiences this month are:
Sharing your goals openly makes a difference.
Shifting your attention to what gives you energy is healing.
Doing less opens up space for more.
Journaling is truly effective.
Listening to what interesting people share is inspiring.
Reflecting helps you see movement.
If this is your initial reading, my intention is to share how I’m using Flourish, A 365-Day Guided Path Towards Love to heal, grow, and be where I want to be. Here are my categorized 2023 intentions, intended energy transformations, and the February movement:
No. 01 Desired Goal: A flourishing home base. I put self-care, a romantic relationship, seeing my children more, and landscaping here. My energy transformation is to release overworking/depleted and gain a sense of flourishing. This intention gets a Month in Review reflection YES because in the month of February I planned to focus on adjusting my work hours, my diet, day time exercise, and sleep. I kept this focus and feel movement towards flourishing.
A client suggested looking at the spoon theory to manage my energy. If you haven’t heard the theory, spoons are an analogy for the amount of energy you wake up with when you have a chronic illness. The idea can help anyone who routinely lacks energy. I bought a joyful pink notebook at Blicks and started morning journaling about how many spoons of energy I woke with, what I wanted to do for the day, and guessed how many spoons each activity would consume. I began to reduce the amount of tasks on my plate, and worked less hours. In the Flourish February No. 01 calendar a heart was drawn if I had energy at the end of the day and a down arrow if I was going to sleep depleted.
I continued to focus on my diet and sleep more, like in January. Weekday day time exercise doesn't fit in well yet. To try and better understand the source of my chronic fatigue and achy symptoms, I saw a specialist. March will include hearing about test results and Dr. recommendations.
For March, my intention is to keep the same self-care focus including spoon-journaling, diet, exercise, and sleep. I’m also going to work on plans to see my kids more. I have an idea to send them a picture each day of the month corresponding to their age.
No. 02 Desired Goal: Grow my income. My energy transformation is to release control and gain faith/freedom. This intention gets a Month in Review YES because in the month of February I planned to do a visioning exercise from Month 2, expand on my bricks and mortar shop forecasting, and stay open to other ideas. I did these steps and I have more faith.
Using the spoon theory, energy gain and loss awareness has grown. My attention has become more focused. While working on a Month 2 visioning exercise, I remembered reading about an artist in Sheridan Road magazine and feeling inspired by her art, writing, and reading regiment. I found Lisa Solberg’s feature and created a time formula for jewelry, writing, reading, and energy work that feels good.
The Alchemist will be featured as a classic staple for the Soulful Reads July/August column; so I re-listened. I found inspiration to keep on working towards my “personal treasures.” I enjoy signs from the Universe so I’m watching the “omens” - another theme in the fable.
I received three signs that opening a bricks and mortar store is not a good step at the moment: I met with the bank, expanded on my previous shop p&l spreadsheet, and read Born to Shine by Kendra Scott. After closing the shop door for now, I started researching participating in art fairs. So far, it seems the application deadlines for a majority of summer shows have passed. I emailed the designer who previously did Flourish display designs and asked for help with 10x10 art show booth ideas.
A new custom commission mala idea materialized. The concept is to capture the energy of vacations - in meditation you can relax and connect to a favorite location.
I finished Angel Wealth Magic and continue to think about the teachings. The author, Corrin Grillo, and I did a fun Q&A that I’ll share in May. I received the biggest Amazon order by far this month and sales for January and February are up more than 50% from last year.
My intention for March is to continue to focus on my new work formula, and go further with art show planning. In Month 3 there is a fear exercise that I will work through related to art shows. I bought a pink typewriter and plan to promote Flourish visually similar to how Octavia Raheem did with Pause, Rest, Be on social media sharing lines from the book. The idea is to type inspirational sentences onto sketch paper from Paris and take photos with a flower vibe.
No. 03 Desired Goal: Enjoy living a creative/artistic life that includes travel. I put painting, cello playing, and traveling here. My energy transformation is to release overworking/depleted into feeling energetic. This intention gets a YES in the Month in Review because for the month of February my goal was to practice the cello at least three days a week and paint 2 days a week. I am doing this consistently and gaining energy in creativity. I wrote my first poem too. I submitted the poem, titled The Gift of Illumination, an Eiffel Tower photo, and the above picture (unusual, yes, but it falls into the call description!) to East on Central, A Journal of Arts and Letters from Highland Park, Illinois for publication consideration in the creative exchange section of the journal themed Illumination.
Positive Flourish feedback brings me so much joy…
One reader emailed me to share that she has been writing in the book daily, has worked through fear, and returned to spending time in her joy of theater.
Two readers sent me pictures of their inspiring and creative Month 2 visioning work.
Flourish received this summary: Empathetic and rational, Flourish is a robust self-help tool with space to journal toward personal growth. - Foreword Clarion Reviews
One more joy - Starbucks was excited about the What is your JOY? sticker placed at their drive thru alongside the You Are Beautiful inspiration.
Holding space for your joy, your intentions, and being true to yourself.
Best,
Allison