Category: advice

A small painting of a shiny gold star Go Team 2026: Forge Ahead, Pivot, Restart!
advice · fitness · Go Team · goals · habits · motivation · self care

Go Team 2026: Forge Ahead, Pivot, Restart!

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hey Team,

Here’s your semi-regular reminder that you are the boss of you.

Soooooo, it is up to you how to proceed with your plans. 

If your current plans feel good and you are getting where you want to go, then forge ahead. 

I mean, it’s good to check in every now and then but you are under no obligation to examine every single detail of your fitness plans over and over. 

And you certainly don’t have to keep changing them to match trends or to prove a point. 

Basically, if your current plan is working for you then… FORGE AHEAD!

But what about if your plan sort of works but there are stil rough spots, friction, and/or you often find it hard to get going.

In that case, it may be time to make a few changes.

You may want to switch up your plans a bit, change the exercises you’re doing, find some company, take on a different challenge, put in some extra effort or maybe dial things back a bit. 

Basically, if your initial plan is getting on your nerves you don’t have to keep frustrating yourself (and you definitely shouldn’t be hard on yourself), instead, you can… PIVOT!

But what about if you started out strong but your enthusiasm waned? 

Or if you hated your plan from step one?

Or if you love the plan but life got in the way and now you just can’t?

Or if your plan worked when you made it but then your schedule changed?

Well, in that case, the only thing you *can’t* do is be mean to yourself about it. (Ok, I guess you can but I will give you a stern look about being mean to my friend.)

After all, finding a fitness plan that works for you isn’t about doing the perfect thing as your perfect self on your most perfect day.

Instead, it’s is about finding ways to keep doing things that you want to do (or achieving things that you want to achieve) so it only makes to make your plans appeal to the most important person in the equation – YOU.

Basically, if you aren’t doing the things you want/need to be doing then change your plans and …RESTART.

And yes, I know there is great value in starting something new on a significant date (New Years, your birthday, September 1) but there is also value in starting wherever and whenever you happen to be. 

(In fact, with a little imagination you can turn anything into a significant date. If nothing occurs to you, feel free to post in the comments and I’ll wrangle any ordinary day into an auspicious occasion for restarting you project.)

So, Team, the key information here is that it is ok for you to do the things you want to do, in the way you want to do them, on a schedule that works for you.

You can work hard or proceed gently or do anything in between. As long as you match your expectations to your efforts, your intensity is up to you.

You can have a strict schedule or something a bit more loose and responsive to your day to day plans. As long as it works for you, it’s a good way to proceed.

Basically, as I said at the beginning, you are the boss of you.

AND your needs are the most important factors in your fitness plans. 

So, whether we’re going to forge ahead, pivot, or restart, let’s do all what we need to do to help us stick with the things that help us feel the way we want to feel. 

Oh, and please collect your gold star for your efforts below.

Go Team Us!

a small drawing of a gold star with a happy face on it Go Team 2026: A Gentle Reminder To Give Yourself What You Need (When You Can, Of Course)
advice · fitness · Go Team · meditation · motivation · rest

Go Team 2026: A Gentle Reminder To Give Yourself What You Need (When You Can, Of Course)

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hey Team, 

Here’s the short version of this post: It’s ok to give yourself the movement, the peace of mind, and the rest that you need.

I know this is not the first time I have given you (or myself) this advice but since I always need reminders about this stuff then I assume you do, too.

So, to reiterate:

Whenever you can, please, please, please, give yourself the things you need. 

If you need rest, then please get some rest

And please do that in a way that lets you meet your needs the best way you can in your current situation.

Resting doesn’t have to mean taking a nap (but a nap is great if you are able to take one!) It can mean resting in small increments, taking some deep breaths, pausing between tasks, choosing to limit the scope of some tasks, doing some yoga or stretching, or picking a restorative activity.

If your thoughts are feeling tangled and you need to meditate or journal then please meditate or journal. 

And please do those things in the way that meets your needs. 

Journaling doesn’t have to be pen on paper, it can be typing on a screen or drawing on an envelope or using voice to text or creating a collage or anything else that makes your thoughts more tangible and organizable for you. 

Meditation doesn’t have to mean sitting still (but that type of mindfulness is totally cool.) It can mean colouring, or doing walking meditation, or drawing a series of small lines, or doing a task with great care. It’s more about the nature of your attention than the specific activities involved.

If you need to get moving, then please get moving.

And please do that in the way that meets your needs.

If you need intense exercise, then push yourself hard in whichever ways are available to you right now. 

If you need slow movement, then take your time. 

If you need to lift heavy, lift heavy. If you need to lift light, lift light. 

And please don’t feel like you need to limit yourself to doing some sort of established routine. It’s totally ok to put on some music and flail around like a fish that got washed up on the beach. It’s totally ok to head to the playground and swing on the swings. It’s totally ok to do squats while you watch TV.  And it’s totally ok to stretch while you talk to a friend. 

As long as your movement meets your needs, then forge ahead.

If you need something, then please do what you can to meet that need. 

Even if you feel you *shouldn’t* (I still hate that word!) need it.

In fact, ESPECIALLY if you feel you shouldn’t need it. 

Your needs matter. 

You matter. 

And if you need some sort of permission before meeting those needs – in whatever way you are able to meet them at the moment – then consider that permission granted. 

I may not be the boss of you but I am perfectly willing to boss you into being kind to yourself. 

(Yes, I *am* the oldest sister, how did you guess?)

So, Team, please, please, please take good care of yourselves out there. 

And here is your gold star for your efforts to meet your needs – whatever they happen to look like right now. 

Go Team Us!

a small drawing of a gold star with a happy face on it
This little gold star cheered me right up. If you have a minute, draw yourself a gold star – you won’t regret it!

Image description: a drawing of a cartoonish gold star with a happy face on it. The drawing is on a piece of white index card and the background behind the star includes a bunch of small marks (some dots and some are a little more like lines) and five short lines that are near each point on the star like it is either glistening or in motion. The piece of index card is propped up between the keys on my computer keyboard which is black with white letters.

advice · fitness · habits · mindfulness

Positive is Practice – Sam’s 3 Good Things

elan.paulson1 Comment

I interviewed Sam about her regular habit of sharing “3 good things” from her days on her personal social media feed.

EP: You often post “3 good things” on your personal socials along with photos. How long have you been doing this, and has your reason for still doing it changed since you started?

SB: I started six years ago in November. November is gratitude month, and it’s also my least favourite month of the year, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to look around and find things to be grateful for.

I’m not sure exactly when I started doing it year-round, maybe two or three years ago? I liked it so much I didn’t want to stop when November was over.

Why do I keep it up? I like the way it makes me feel. But also, and I notice this more these days, the practice itself trains me to start looking around for good things.

EP: This tracks with something I heard on a recent podcast about negativity bias. We’re wired to overfocus on the bad (to the point where we overlook the good), but intentionally practising the positive can help us rebalance. The researcher called it gain-framing, seeing experiences through a positive lens or treating setbacks as opportunities to learn. Does that match your practice?

SB: Yes, that definitely matches my experience. I do a bit of only good things and a bit of reframing. I’ve got a close family member in the hospital. Not good. But good that they’re getting the excellent medical care they need.

A woman in glasses looks through her fingers Ina square frame shape

I also share bad news. I’m one of those academics, for example, who posts about rejections. It’s not just good news. Junior scholars need to see that rejection is part of the process. I also share when I stop doing things, so it doesn’t always look like I’m doing more new things without stopping others.

EP: The podcast researcher talked about the value of sharing positive experiences with others, which reinforce them and connect us to others through that sharing. Do you think about how others receive your posts? How do you feel sharing them?

SB: I do worry sometimes that people think it’s all good things all the time, but there’s a lot of bad at work that I can’t share on social media for a whole host of reasons. Ditto bad personal news, which often involves other people, and sometimes it’s their story to tell, not mine. Sometimes I find it hard to get the valence right.

EP: It sounds like you are aware of thr bad, but it’s not always shareable. So that’s another reason why you just choose to focus on the good. And maybe that you don’t want the terrible to stop your from seeing the good?

SB: I find that seeing the good helps me understand what we’re struggling for, why it all matters. The world is a beautiful place.

We were canoe camping this past weekend and I loved the light on the water, the sounds of the birds, watching a hummingbird on the flowers, swimming with loons, basking on warm rocks after swimming in a cold lake, the taste of hot tea and cookies, swaying in a hammock and napping. So many good things.

EP: How would you recommend that others try out sharing “3 good things,” and what to do on the days when thry feel negativity bias creeping in?

SB: To be honest, I’ve skipped 3 or 4 days over the years where things were too bleak to do it. I think that’s okay. That’s life.

I keep a Google doc on my phone, called Three Good Things, for myself. But I also share on social media for the habit and the accountability. For a time I thought about starting a blog just focused on tracking workouts and sharing good things. You could do that too.

Listen to “Stepping Out of the Shadows” from Hidden Brain, hosted by Shankar Vedantam, with psychologist Alison Ledgerwood (University of California Davis).,who explores negativity bias, the deeply human tendency to hold on to what went wrong and overlook what went right. In the episode, Ledgerwood unpacks why our minds are drawn to losses and threats, and what can be done to rebalance our attention. 

a photo of the author telling a story on stage. Christine hopes to follow her own advice
ADHD · advice · self care · stretching · traveling

Christine hopes to follow her own advice

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

By the time this post goes live, I’ll be on a plane on my way to BC for the Storytellers of Canada- Conteurs du Canada conference.

I’m looking forward to the conference and to seeing my friends and telling/talking about stories for DAYS but I always feel apprehensive before I travel.

I’m not afraid to fly or anything like that. It’s the disrupted schedule, the lack of control over my day, the eating at weird times, the crowds of people, the change in time zones…that’s what gets me.

And all of that is fairly unavoidable.

BUT

Then I remembered that the last time the conference was in BC my travel schedule was waaaaaaaay worse and I was miserable on the way up but I actually did ok on the way home.

And, sure, part of it was the fact that I was on my way home but, after the frustrating trip on the way there, I had decided to take really good care of myself on the return trip and it made a huge difference.

So, what did ‘taking really good care of myself’ mean in that context?

  1. I brought some really filling snacks so I had a bit more control over when I ate.
  2. I made sure to keep my water bottle full.
  3. I did stretches and yoga frequently and did some walking in each airport.*
  4. I meditated a fair bit on the plane (and listened to my favourite cello music)
  5. I planned something to do for each hour of the trip (I didn’t have to do it but having a plan made me less fidgety and irritated.)

And that plan seems really appealing to me right now.

In fact, once I thought about it, I immediately started feeling better about the long trip and I could focus more on the fun that awaits me on the other end.

So, let’s see how my plan works out, hey?

I’ll update you later tomorrow.

*Yes, I always *could* stretch or walk at any point but this was me being proactively deliberate about it.

A drawing of a shiny gold star against a green background that is decorated with black spirals Go Team 2026: Be kind to yourself about frustration, please.
ADHD · advice · Go Team · goals · habits · motivation · self care

Go Team 2026: Be kind to yourself about frustration, please.

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

Hey Team,

I am solidly in the messy, frustrating middle of so many projects right now – fitness and otherwise.

And it is taking a lot of effort to keep working away at stuff instead of ditching everything and starting over.

The middle of any project is rarely fun but it can be especially dreadful for those of us with ADHD. The novelty has worn off, there’s a lot of trial and error, and everything seems very, very dull.

My brain really wants me to

  • start some new stories instead of working on ones that need revising.
  • try some new exercises instead of sticking with my walking/yoga/mobility routine.
  • buy new containers to store stuff instead of decluttering (decluttering = so many choices to make -ugh!)
  • try some new drawing techniques instead of improving my current skills.
  • invent different workshops and projects instead of finishing and promoting the ones I am already working on. 
  •  (don’t even get me started on my volunteer projects!)

But despite the noise my brain is making about this, I know that starting something new – in any category- will only be temporarily fun.

Pretty soon that new, fun thing will be at the messy middle stage and I’ll be annoyed all over again.

And, even though my brain has doubts, I know that I will REALLY enjoy when I finally finish something, when I can feel a difference in my body or my mind, and when I can see some of the progress I have made.

The only way to get to that real enjoyment is to keep inching everything forward, to add fun and novelty where I can, and to keep reminding myself that it is extra fun to actually finish something – even if that time feels very far away at the moment.

So, Team, even allowing for ADHD-related intensity, I’m pretty sure that ‘Why is the middle so annoying?’ is a pretty common feeling.

In fact, being annoyed with any part of any process seems pretty common.

You might be annoyed with the details required to get started or the details required to finish up.

You might find the middle incredibly tedious.

The unknowns at the beginning might get on your nerves.

Figuring out the last few steps might be frustrating.

All of it makes sense and it is all perfectly ok.

Sure, your frustration might lead you to use a slightly different approach or it could mean you need a little break or need a little more support.

But none of those feelings of frustration automatically suggest that this project isn’t for you.*

And when they arise, you can remind yourself that they are part of your process and then find a way to forge ahead – perhaps slowly, perhaps after a break, perhaps with a little more fun added to the mix.

I’m not saying that it is easy to do that, just that it is possible. 

And your effort will be worth it. 

In fact, speaking of effort, here’s our gold star for our efforts today – no matter which part of the process we are in right now. 

Go Team Us!

PS – Be kind to yourself out there, pretty please.  

*Meanwhile, if every part of the project is frustrating every single time, then it may be time to consider whether the project is a good fit overall.

Go Team 2026: Be Even Kinder To Yourself
advice · fitness · Go Team · habits · motivation · self care

Go Team 2026: Be Even Kinder To Yourself

Christine Hennebury

Hey Team,

I didn’t realize it had been so long since I wrote a Go Team post.

Sure, it has only been since January but I always find February to be such a slog that it feels like it has been aaaaaaages since I offered up some encouragement for us all.

So, Team, today I am inviting you to find ways to be even kinder to yourself.

Maybe that means giving yourself a break.

Maybe it means taking an extra rest day.

Maybe it means giving yourself a pep talk – or seeking someone else to give you one.

Maybe it means giving yourself as much time as possible to work out.

Maybe it means speeding things up a little today.

Perhaps it means using the punching bag instead of going to Zumba… or vice versa.

Perhaps it looks like more time meditating or journaling or listening to calming music.

Perhaps it looks like exercising on your own or maybe it looks like finding company.

Maybe it looks like packing your gym bag in the evening or rolling out your yoga mat before you go to bed.

Perhaps it means going to bed early or staying in bed a little longer in the morning and maybe it looks like the opposite of that.

Look, I know that there are a lot of terrible things going on in the world and that you are probably also facing a lot of challenges in your own life. In the face of all of that, it can seem pretty insignificant to bother trying to be kinder to yourself.

After all, what difference does it make if you journal or go to Zumba or take a bit of extra time with your tea?

It makes a BIG difference.

Sure, it’s not going to address all of the challenges you are facing and it’s not going to fix all of the problems in the world but it sure as hell is going to make it a little easier for you to do what you can to face those challenges and to help out in the world.

(And you can be damn sure that being less kind to yourself won’t make anything better.)

Choosing to be kind to yourself, to give your body and brain the things that you need, will not only be helpful to you in the moment but it will also leave you with more energy and more capacity to engage with others, to seek solutions, to be who you want to be in the world.

And sure, my examples above are all related to fitness and well-being but that’s because this is a fitness blog.

I hope you will apply the same ideas in every facet of your life.

Self-kindness is not self-indulgence, it is self-support.

It is not wasteful. It is not harmful. It is not pointless.

You matter.

Your efforts matter.

Being kind to yourself matters.

Please give it a whirl at your next possible opportunity.

And, as always, here is your gold star for your efforts.

Wishing you ease, my friends.

Be kind to yourselves out there. Pretty please.

A drawing of a gold star
A star I made during a ‘Relaxing Creativity’ workshop I was leading on Monday night. Image description: a gold star drawn in shiny gold ‘art crayon’ against a pink background that is decorated with black lines that follow the same curves as the edges of the star. The drawing and the star are trimmed in black.

Bonus:

This video cheers me up every time I encounter it on Instagram. I thought it might do the same for you.

An Instagram post from addytok2022 with a closeup view of a little girl’s face. She has blonde hair in a topknot, and she is wearing pink glasses, and she is looking intently at the nail polish bottle she is trying to open. Her nails are painted bright pink and she is wearing a black sweatshirt with the Grinch on it.
To do lists
advice · challenge · fitness · goals · habits · planning

To do lists

elan.paulson

If, like me, you’re a habitual maker of lists, you know how enjoyable it can be to make one. I want to tell you about the two kinds of lists I tend to make.

The first type is a detailed, four-quadrant list that is legibly handwritten in a spiral notebook. It’s a strategy I learned from leadership training years ago: draw two lines bifurcating the left and right, top and bottom of the page. Top left: IMMEDIATE to-dos. Top right: TODAY to-dos. Bottom left: TOMORROW to-dos. Bottom right: LATER THIS WEEK. Now there’s four lists! 🤩

This 4-list system has helped me triage competing demands and deadlines in a busy life schedule. As the top half got completed by the end of the day, I’d feel that little list-hit of dopamine. More satisfaction would come when tomorrow’s items were ALL scratched off and became today’s.

My second style of list is a scrawl of half-expressed ideas onto the back of a mail envelope, program flyer, or receipt. These lists get folded and stuffed into my pockets or become bookmarks, only to be discovered later, partly deciphered partly forgotten.

Over the past few months I have not had the discipline of a tidy schedule. My flâneuse-style wandering has reflected in my list-making. I tried to make a type 1 list, but items didn’t easily sort when my “today” and “tomorrow” have been so fluid. Instead, the type 2 lists catch my daily thoughts before they dissolve, little messy scraps that reveal how I am figuring out what shape my life takes next.

A handwritten list on the back of a Saje sales receipt: CAAT, 4-piece snaps, unemployment (CHECK!), City of London, MOI.
List Type 2: A handwritten list on the back of a Saje sales receipt: CAAT, 4-piece snaps, unemployment (CHECK!), City of London, MOI. What does it all mean? I hardly know myself.

Adam Grant has a WorkLife episode on procrastination where he suggests writing a to don’t list to make visible what’s might be delaying one’s progress and help get yourself out of your own way. That’s not a bad idea, especially when big life transitions mean the work of processing hard feelings, managing stress, and trying to find small wins.

So I’m giving a type 3 list a try. Moving into my next life phase, which doesn’t yet have neat time-bound quadrants, I write neatly down the centre of the page:

  • Don’t be hard on yourself.
  • Don’t fail to appreciate what you have.
  • Don’t seek certainty at the expense of your joy.
  • Don’t not trust yourself. (Double negative, but you get it.)

This third type of list has turned out to be important, not because it tells me what I need to do but because it reminds me who I want to be.

A drawing of a large gold star with smaller stars inside it Go Team 2026: Keep Going (at your own pace)
ADHD · advice · fitness · Go Team · goals · habits · motivation · self care

Go Team 2026: Keep Going (at your own pace)

Christine Hennebury

Hey Team,

Here we are at the end of January!

I am so grateful for the opportunity to write to you every day throughout this month.

I love the way that this daily writing practice helps to shape the beginning of my year and I appreciate the time and energy you put into reading my posts.

It’s always hard to figure out what to say in these final posts each January because I want to be profound and encouraging and really sum things up…

And then I realize that in focusing so much on the results that I’m at risk of letting perfection get in the way of actually doing my practice.

So, after reminding myself that done beats perfect I usually just forge ahead and trust (once again) that I can let my routine carry me towards something useful to share. *

Today, my routine brought me to the reminder to keep going.

That doesn’t mean to just keep barreling down the path the initially set – unless that feels right to us.

It means to keep returning to the project of moving towards the life we want, no matter how much the details of our practices or our projects have changed since we first set them.

We don’t have to be in a hurry.

In fact, as long as we manage our expectations, we can go at any pace that works for us.

We don’t have to work by someone else’s rules.

We can change our minds on any and all details of the project.

We can go big or work piece by piece.

We can make it fun (or at least add some fun.)

It’s ok if things are easy, it’s ok if things are hard and it’s ok if that changes from day to day.

We are are all doing the best we can with the resources we have and if we are kind to ourselves, if we get curious about our challenges, if we get the rest we need, if we measure something that matters to us, and if we take the time to celebrate ourselves and our hard work, we will be successful on our own terms.

Note: Yes, I have included A LOT of links rights but I didn’t link all 31 posts from this month so if you want to see them all you can find them under the tag Go Team 2026 (or look under Go Team for all of the Go Team posts from previous years.)

So, Team, today I invite you to celebrate your efforts so far and to consider how you want to keep making things better/easier/kinder for future you.

Your efforts matter.

You matter.

Keep being kind to yourself, pretty please.

May you have ease, may you have fun, and may you find satisfaction in your practices.

Go Team Us!

PS – I will be writing more Go Team 2026 posts this year, usually around once per month.

*Yes, my posts are just as much notes-to-self as they are messages for you. 🙂

A drawing of gold stars sprinkled over a dark blue background Go Team 2026: Go YOU!
advice · fitness · Go Team · goals · habits · motivation · self care

Go Team 2026: Go YOU!

Christine Hennebury

Hey Team,

For my last Go Team 2025 post, I reminded you that I was (am!) incredibly proud of you for everything you did for yourself throughout the year and I thought now would be a good time for me to remind that I am incredibly proud of you and of your efforts so far this year.

The short version of this would be the title of this post:

GO YOU!

But the longer version goes like this:

I am so very proud of you and of all your hard work.

You have made decisions to try something new, to add things to your life, to step away from things that no longer serve you, to try to make your life easier, to try and challenge yourself, to make things calmer in your life, to make yourself stronger in body/mind/spirit.

Isn’t that incredible?

You made a conscious choice to seek out a different version of your life AND you committed to the effort that will require.

You have recognized that there will be challenges and setbacks but you have decided to acknowledge them as part of the process.

You know that there is work involved but that the work will be worth it.

What a wonderful gift you have given yourself.

What a great commitment to self-care and to future you.

I am so PROUD of you!

You have realized that taking care of yourself is not selfish and that you deserve care just as much as the next person does.

AND that taking care of yourself in this way not only benefits you, but it benefits people who look up to you, people who depend on you, and it ensures that you have the capacity to work with others to create the changes we need in the world.

After all, the version of you that is worn out or burnt out wouldn’t be able to help anyone until you recover.

The version of you that takes care of themselves can decide when and how to respond to the needs of those around them.

Are you starting to get why I am so proud of you for undertaking this work, for putting in this effort?

Can you declare your own pride in your efforts or at least consider the possibility that your pride may develop over time?

You don’t need to be finished or to have results to be proud of yourself, you can choose to take pride in your efforts.

Today, I invite you to enjoy the fact that I am so very proud of you and to explore the idea of being proud of your own efforts.

And I invite you to collect your gold stars in recognition of your work.

Your efforts matter.

You matter.

Go Team Us

And

GO YOU!

A drawing of gold stars sprinkled over a dark blue background
I had a lot of fun making this one. I started with some wavy lines for the background and they didn’t feel right so I got a few watercolour pencils and played around with them until the background made me happy. Image description: A small painting of a bunch of gold stars ranging in size from quite small to about the size of a thumbprint. The background has a series of wavy lines running horizontally. I drew the lines with marker, and then I went over them with blue, black, and purple, watercolour pencils until I got the right kind of look – a bit like the night sky reflected in water. Then I drew a bunch of stars and small dots and outlined them with black.

A drawing of a bowl of tiny gold stars Go Team 2026: It all adds up
ADHD · advice · fitness · Go Team · goals · habits · motivation · self care

Go Team 2026: It all adds up

Christine Hennebury

Hey Team,

Warning: I am in full pep talk mode today. You may want to sit down.

In every post, I remind you that your efforts matter.

All of your efforts count toward the practice you are trying to develop.

Today, I want to underline that point, highlight it, put it in bold, and draw your attention to it.

Your Efforts count!

ALL of the work you do – the thinking, the planning, the deciding, the actions, the resting, that is all adding up and moving you toward the life you want.

Even if it takes you a long time.

Even if you’re only moving a millimetre at a time.

You’re still moving in the direction that you want to go.

Even your mistakes, the things you changed your mind about, and your backtracking all count because they are part of the process.

You can’t get where you want to go without figuring out at least some of the places that you DON’T want to go.

You will grow and change between making the decision to do something, figuring out how to do it, doing that thing, and then seeing how it turns out.

The person you are becoming throughout that process may have different ideas, goals, and priorities than the person you were when you started – even if the process is short.

And that’s ok.

It’s GOOD even.

Learning as you go and making changes in your plan based on new information makes far more sense than sticking to a plan for the sake of the plan.

I mean, who does that help?

The plan doesn’t care if you do it.

This is all about YOU not about some plan.

Do what makes sense for you right now and feel free to change in the future.

Take time to notice how far you have come, not just how much is left to go.

And celebrate every single thing you have done to support yourself in the practice you are developing.

So Team, as always, here are your tiny, shiny stars for today.

Each one represents a small effort you made to move toward the life you want.

They represent momentum, choices, actions, rest, decisions, repetition, self-kindness, finding support, choosing done over perfect, focusing energy, and all of the other things you have done – some so small you didn’t even notice them – to incorporate your new practices into your life.

Those efforts all add up.

They all count.

They all matter.

And so do you.

Be kind to yourself out there, pretty please.

Go Team Us!

A drawing of a bowl of tiny gold stars
OK, I’ll admit this looks a little bit like a bowl of breakfast cereal but it’s totally a bowl of stars I swear. Image description: a green bowl of tiny stars sitting on a blue surface. The blue surface has light gold lines in it and the background behind the bowl for the top 2/3 of the paper consists of thin, horizontal black lines.