Long time, no see! Sorry for the weeks of quiet (again). I have been living life and working hard in grad school, which has been so wonderful. I feel so lucky to have this opportunity to learn for a living for the next 5 years! In one of my courses, the professor assigned us this Ted Talk on mindfulness. Surprisingly, I had not seen this one yet, but I absolutely loved it! It might be my favorite mindfulness-focused Ted Talk to date.
I hope you enjoy this talk as much as I did!
I’ve missed blogging so much over the past few months! I had not realized how much joy, reflection, and connection it brought my until I stopped writing. These past few months have flown by. I moved away from the Bay Area to Louisville, KY to begin a PhD program in Counseling Psychology at the University of Louisville. I transitioned from being with my partner all the time to making it work long-distance (plus a three hour time difference). I’ve started building a new community virtually from scratch (again). I also spent a few weeks fostering some ADORABLE kittens to help me feel a little less lonely…
The kittens were certainly a handful, but they brought me so much joy! 🙂
All of these changes have been challenging, but I’m surprised by how well I’m doing. I’m an anxious, change-averse person by nature, so I was expecting the first few months in Louisville to be an emotional rollercoaster of stressors. Shockingly enough, I’ve taken most challenges in stride and feel unexpectedly calm and well-balanced. During my four years in college, I was overcommitted, overworked, and overstressed. I chose that lifestyle and it took me all four years to understand the powerful toll it took on my mental and physical health. I was so burnt out by the time I graduated.
I learned a lot about letting go and cutting myself slack during my time in the business world. I worked interdependently and oftentimes I had to let go of issues of problems that arose because they were simply out of my control. Working at startups, I also learned that there is always more that can be done, but that should not mean it should be done. The most helpful piece of advice I received from my first boss (a female CEO and mother to a newborn at the time) was, “why do today what you can do tomorrow.” I remember how strange this sounded to me at the time, but I quickly started to see the wisdom. There is always so much to do, but we also have to decide when to let ourselves take a break and enjoy life a little bit. Even if you absolutely love everything about what you do, we all need time to unwind or do something a little different.
While my PhD program will certainly be more demanding than undergrad or my past jobs, I can also be more demanding of myself to set boundaries, know my limits, and learn when to say no. Sadly, I’ve said no to writing on this blog for the past few months. I’ve devoted more of my time to reading journal articles, meeting new friends, and FaceTiming with my boyfriend.
That’s what I’ve needed these past few months and it is more than ok. I am excited to get back into writing here! I have a few new recipes to share, some Ted Talks to post about, and many more ideas to explore with you.
Thanks for sticking around!
My mom send me an article from brainpickings that featured this cool Ted Talk. It’s easy to get caught up in life and forget about the magic that is happening around us in nature. I loved this short Ted Talk that describes that hidden, and highly intricate, world of trees. I hope this talk gives you the chance to take a moment and appreciate the complexity of Mother Nature.
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Did you know about the hidden communication network that trees have?
I’m not usually in the loop with trending memes, but when my boyfriend started watching this Ted Talk I was immediately intrigued. This man has become a key star in some of the most popular memes around the world and hearing his take on his experience, and his attitude was so interesting! Watch on to learn more about “Hide the Pain Harold” aka Andras Arato.
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Were you surprised to hear his story? Did you expect him to be a professional stock photo model?
I decided to drive down to Southern California with my boyfriend this Fourth of July! We live in San Francisco so it’s about seven hours to get to the Los Angeles area. My aunt lives in Redlands, CA so we decided to spend some quality time with her over the holiday. We drove down around 8am on July 4th and made just a few pit stops on the way. I had been dying to try the Taco Bell-exclusive Mt. Dew flavor since I heard about it so (shamefully) we stopped on the way.
I kept hearing how good it was on social media and I must say it lived up to its (artificial) expectations! I don’t drink soda too often, but it is fun to indulge during a summer road trip.
After an early dinner at my Aunt’s house, we went to a local ice cream shop before heading off to the Fourth of July festivities. This was not an ordinary ice cream shop…check out the flavors: Chocolate Lavender, Olive Oil Vanilla Bean, Beet & Goat Cheese, Avocado!
We were so torn on what to order, but ended up splitting the chocolate lavender flavor. It had honey and cacao nibs on top and the ice cream was delicious!
If you’re in Redlands, you must visit A La Minute! Next up, we headed to the fireworks show!
We did not know what to expect, but I think we were both surprised by how amazing the show was. It started out with skydivers and a live band, and the finale (the fireworks) was incredible and lasted for about thirty minutes!
We got home and promptly fell asleep. I worked for part of the next day, but was excited to spend time with my aunt. She is an EXPERT thrift store shopper and knows all the best spots. By the end of the day, I had accumulated some amazing items! A new swimsuit, 4+ shirts for my boyfriend, silver plated spoons for crafting, and this:
After our afternoon of thrifting we threw together a delicious, colorful dinner.
We finished up around 8pm and my aunt and I went for a nice walk. Upon our return, my uncle told us there had been a 7.1 magnitude earthquake just minutes after we had left for our walk. We had felt nothing! I was a bit bummed I missed the experience, but glad it meant I was completely unscathed.
We had a very lazy Saturday morning; my aunt and I indulged in season 2 of the show “Big Little Lies” and we enjoyed every minute of the first four episodes. I met up with one of my amazing college friends that afternoon and we made the drive into LA. We went shopping in so many cute stores on York Street and found so many cool things. We ended our shopping spree with a stop at Donut Friend:
So beautiful, delicious, and vegan! After our donut stop, we began the 6 hour trek home.
All in all, we had a pretty amazing (and eventful) Southern California holiday!
Working in tech, I feel there is so much I don’t know about basic technology. I was talking with my coworker about a major internet gateway in New York and I suddenly realized that I did not realize that there were gateways like this. I immediately wanted to learn more to understand how these gateways work; of course, there’s a ted talk for that! I hope you enjoy and learn something new.
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Did you know about this hidden network? Did you learn something new with this talk?
