My word for this year is WHOLE. It feels so much more abstract than my past words. Whole what? Whole personal life? Whole business life? The "Whole-y" Grail a.k.a the impossible "balance" between the two? Whole body? Whole grains? Whole house decorated?
Yes, please. All of the above. I am not sure where this word is headed, but in January I implemented two new habits (okay three if you count the mornings project) in an attempt to bring in more WHOLE (or maybe a better term is complete) living.
The first habit is public and it is my weekend links series.
I decided to make this part of my blogging routine because while I cannot keep the negativity off the Internet, I can focus on the positive stuff. It's easy to be anonymous and attack or nit-pick existing content. It's hard to be authentic and generate new content. I'm celebrating the hard.
I've learned through years of reading blogs and writing my own that competition online is more imagined than real. There is not a limit to the amount of great content that can be shared with the Internet. In fact, there is always plenty of room for thoughtful, honest and unique content. The "better" one blog does, the better the whole community does. This past month I have been actively seeking out more good stuff and, perhaps surprisingly, it's making me feel less competitive.
The second habit is personal and pretty much the opposite.
I am working on not taking my iPad or iPhone to bed. I've realized that reading blogs, looking at Instagram or scrolling Pinterest before I go to sleep makes my mind whirl. And not in the good way. There is a noticeable difference in how long it takes me to fall asleep on the nights that I read a book (on paper not my kindle app) and the nights that I read online content.
After the constant online refresh and continuous waterfall of all so many images and ideas, I find myself totally hyped up and tend to toss and turn. After paging through an actual book, I feel calmer and am generally asleep within minutes after I put it down. Obviously, good, restful sleep is a huge priority and this habit switch (which has been embarassingly hard to break!) is for the best. What I really need is an alarm clock that is not an app on my phone. Then I'll be able to keep the devices out of my bedroom completely.
So that's my progress on WHOLE so far and my attempt to make this abstract concept a little more literal. I am celebrating the content generators by day and eliminating the noise at night.
enJOY it 
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