Tag: self care

A photo of a dog on a leash on some pavement with a snowbank nearby Signs of Spring
ADHD · fitness · motivation · season transitions · Seasonal sadness · self care

Signs of Spring

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

I actually like winter quite a bit.

I like snow. I like cosy evenings. I like the way the air smells. I like bundling up to go outside. I’m a big fan of sweaters. I like seeing light on the snow. I even like shovelling snow (up to a certain point!)

And even on the most basic level, I just like the variation from other seasons of the year.

But by the time February comes, it is wearing on me.

It really starts at the end of January when time seems to both stretch and contract so I have really long days but really short weeks and then I somehow get unceremoniously dumped into February.

February takes forever and it is always a big struggle for me. I have extra trouble figuring out my time, my projects, and my capacity. It’s almost like my ADHD meds don’t fully work that month and everything is especially difficult and frustrating.

For example, this year I had a plan to do two small things in February. I was going to do a wall set for one minute a day and I was going to add more vegetables to my lunch

I did pretty well with the lunch vegetables but the wall sit? That just went wrong.

The wall set was somehow both too big a task and two smaller task at once. It felt like I could fit it in anywhere in my day., That sounds like an upside but if I can fit it in anywhere in my day then I’ll end arguing with myself all day about when to do it.

I realized that it’s hard to do a wall sit when I have socks on because I end up, slipping on both the flooring and the carpet while trying to hold the position.

But I could never convince myself to put on my sneakers to do a one minute exercise.

In fact, February fills up my brain so much that the sneaker idea didn’t occur to me until more than halfway through the month.

And I never did convince myself to put the sneakers on.

I noticed this February pattern a few years ago, and I have tried a variety of solutions to cope with this annual bewilderment. Things have improved, but there is still a ways to go and I am hampered by the fact that I often can’t see things are going sideways until they have reached an annoying level of sideways-ness.

Anyway, as you can, imagine, I was really glad to see March.

I’m not saying that March 1 is magic but I’m not NOT saying that.

Once we switch to March, it feels like my brain takes a deep breath and suddenly there’s a bit more space to figure things out.

A photo of a few evergreens that are between the viewer and a fence in the background, the ground is all covered with snow
You can’t tell now, of course, but this is where a single spring flower grows and blooms each year. I love watching for it as spring goes on. Image description, a photo of the back of someone’s fence with snow on the ground and a few evergreen trees about halfway between the viewer and the fence.

And once the clocks change, I see even more of an improvement in my perspective, my overall mood, and in my capacity to make useful plans and to follow through on them.

So, I was thinking about all of those things last week and then I overheard a conversation some friends of mine were having at TKD.

(This had nothing to do with martial arts, it had to do with spring.)

One of my friends is a farmer (she also runs a farm-tech company) and she said that there had been signs of spring for weeks

She said that we probably hadn’t even noticed, but the signs are there – more birds are singing, there are probably more bugs showing up in our houses, and that there are lots of things going on underground that we won’t see for ages.

And when she said that I realized that not only had I heard more birds and seen more bugs, but the sun was feeling a bit warmer and the ground felt somehow different than it had two weeks before.

Recognizing all those things felt so great that I started looking for more signs.

And I noticed that the tips of the branches of the trees were looking a little thicker, like growth has started.

A photo of a few bare branches with the suggestion of buds at the tip
Doesn’t that kind of look like buds at the tip of those branches? I’m not sure at what point a bud can be officially called a bud but something is going on right there.. Image description: A photo of a couple of the branches of the lilac tree in my front yard. At the tips of the branches are the suggestion of buds, even if they’re not buds yet. The branches are in the very foreground and in the background, you can See snow on lawns a few people’s driveways and some of my neighbours houses in the background.

And something about how the snow is sitting on the ground has changed. Even though we had more snow over the weekend, there’s something different and somewhat spring-y about it.

See:

A photo of a dog on a leash on some pavement with a snowbank nearby
It felt so good and so cheering to take a stroll today. A photo of my dog Khalee on our street on a sunny somewhat springlike day. The sun is behind us and she is standing where she can be seen in the photo. You can only see me as a shadow, and you can see the shadow of the leash that I’m holding that she is on the other end of. Her shadow was visible too, of course. There’s a small snowbank nearby and she’s standing on some greyish asphalt. She is a light brown, medium size dog. She’s mostly facing away from the camera, but she’s turned back a bit probably wondering why I stopped walking.

Even the colour of the sky seems deeper recently. it’s not quite a spring or summer sky, but it’s getting there.

A photo of leafless trees in late winter
I love seeing that blue get stronger. A photo of several leafless trees and a couple of evergreens next to a fence with snow on the ground. The sky behind the trees is an almost spring colour of blue with a few long white clouds

So with things getting ready to shift outside, it’s no wonder that things are also shifting in my brain.

In the last week or so, I’ve noticed myself thinking a bit more long-term about exercise plans again.

And it feels far easier to get myself to go for a walk, to do some yoga, or to just move around in general.

I was on a writing retreat this past weekend and instead of sitting at a table to work I was motivated to sit on my yoga mat on the floor instead, working on my lap, on a low table, or on the floor itself. That felt like a huge improvement because I know how much more likely I am to move and stretch and take good care of myself while I’m working if I’m seated on the floor.

No, I’m not saying that I couldn’t do any of these things three weeks ago, but now that first step, the initiation of that task, is decidedly easier.

And I think THAT’S my favourite sign of spring.





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 HenneburyLeave a comment

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.
A photo of the moon shining on the snow on my patio and a fence one very early morning Mindful March? Sounds Good To Me!
ADHD · fitness · mindfulness

Mindful March? Sounds Good To Me!

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

I’m sure I have mentioned it before but when I first started taking my ADHD meds, I immediately noticed an increase in my ability to pause before doing something.

Previous to that I didn’t exactly jump into every single task, but I would often find myself in the middle of doing something without having thought it through clearly.

After 10 years on medication, I am used to a certain capacity to pause and choose a response.

But I have noticed an increase in that capacity when I am practising mindfulness on a regular basis.

And, of course, I have also noticed that it is really tricky for me to practice consistently. (It’s like I have ADHD or something. 😉 )

Small, daily activities like the ones on the ‘Mindful March’ calendar from Action for Happiness really help me to keep practicing and to keep seeking that extra mental space.

Here’s what the calendar looks like. (You can also download your own copy from the website or add it to your own Google Calendar.)

An image of the mindful March calendar
The calendar for Mindful March from Action for Happiness. Image description: each block of the calendar is brightly coloured in shades of green or yellow, and there is a type written mindfulness tip in each one. The edges of the calendar are decorated with cartoon images of things related to the tips like someone playing with a dog or waiting for the kettle to boil to have a cup of tea.

And here’s a YouTube video about Mindful March from Vanessa King, Head of Psychology from Action for Happiness.

Finally, I took the photo below after a mindful experience I had one morning when the dog decided we were getting up at 5:30. I was annoyed at being up before I was ready and at having to open the door and let cold air in. But when I looked out at the moon and how it was shining on the snow and just felt how crisp everything was, I actually took a couple of deep breaths of that cold air and felt pretty good.

Paying attention to where I was, actually being there instead of moving on to the next thing, made a big difference to that moment, to the overall feeling of the start of my day, and to my day as a whole.

Every mindful moment doesn’t reverberate that way but that one certainly did.

Now, I’m not necessarily recommending getting up too early and being quite chilly as a mindfulness practice but you could do worse.

A photo of the moon shining on the snow on my patio and a fence one very early morning
A photo taken of the corner of my patio, my neighbor’s fence and our leafless tree, one very early dark morning when the moon was bright. In front of me, the moon is shining on the snow and casting shadows of the trees and the fence and light from a streetlight is adding to the glow. Everything looks crisp and still and peaceful.
a decorative artwork with a photo of a woman surrounded by a variety of patterned sections Sick Day(s): How Christine Spent The Weekend
fitness · rest · self care

Sick Day(s): How Christine Spent The Weekend

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

I had a few “off” days at the end of last week.  I couldn’t really tell if I was just tired, if my allergies were acting up, or if I was getting a migraine. 

It didn’t even occur to me that I might actually be sick until Saturday afternoon when my head suddenly weighed about ten thousand pounds, my throat was sore, and I started sneezing.

Luckily, I didn’t have many plans this weekend and I could easily shift things around to make room to rest.*

Here’s what that looked like:

I wasn’t quite in ‘lie-around-and-read’ mode so I spent a long time playing with paints and markers and paint markers.

While drinking approximately 1.5 million cups of tea, of course. **

a tea mug
My favourite Tarot card – The Empress – on a mug sprinkled with gold stars. You probably could have guessed this was mine. 🙂 Image description: My mug is sitting on a folded red cloth napkin and both are resting on my worn wooden kitchen table. The mug is white with a black handle and black interior. The white parts are sprinkled with gold stars and in the middle is a black and white image of The Empress, a woman in a crown and flowing robes with a scepter in her right hand.

I had a lot of fun with this video from Art Therapy with Sana

A video from Art Therapy with Sana called ‘Feeling Overwhelmed? Try this Klimt Pattern Art Practice. Still image shows a patterned painting in shades of red, brown, and gold. On the left side of the image is a woman in red robes, the woman’s face is cut from a magazine. The rest of the image is made up of vertical sections framed in wavy lines and each section is filled with a different pattern – spirals, ovals. dots. Behind the first artwork is another work that features a collaged image of a woman with patterns drawn around her in gold and black.

Here’s what mine turned out like:

a small painting that's fairly abstract except for a drawing of a woman's face between two sections of the drawing that kind of look like a robe.
My version of the first painting from the art therapy video posted above. The colours are shades of red, purple, yellow, pink and gold that work well together (I hope!) Near the centre of the painting I have drawn a woman’s face looking out between two sections that form a robe. The rest of the painting is formed from wavy lines that mark off different sections that contain different patterns of squares, circles, dots, lines and spirals.
a decorative artwork with a photo of a woman surrounded by a variety of patterned sections
My version of the second painting from the video. I cut out a picture of a woman in a blue and green patterned dress – you can see her from the waist up- she is leaning towards her right shoulder and looking down. The rest of the painting is divided into sections filled with patterns – squares, spirals, grids, circles, and squiggles, all patterned in green, yellow, and blue.

And since I like to listen to podcasts while I draw, today I chose Old Gods of Appalachia – a horror anthology show with incredibly strong writing, world-building, and performances. (Yes, I do like spooky stuff!)

When my head got too heavy I tried the exercises in this video. They helped a lot.

One Move to Quickly Relieve Sinus Congestion – YouTube

And I borrowed some moves from Joelle here:

Yoga for Sinus & Cold Relief – Feel Better in 10 minutes!

When I needed a nap on Saturday, I did Yoga Nidra: Yoga Nidra For Sleep & Rest | The StillPoint

And on Sunday, I fell asleep to some ghost stories from the Classic Ghost Stories Sleep Compilations.

My husband thinks it’s pretty funny to fall asleep to ghost stories but the stories on Classic Ghost Stories are more ‘creeping dread’ than ‘scar them with the horrors’ kind of tales and Tony Walker is an excellent narrator.

My weekend wasn’t all art and ghost stories though, I also did my usual stuff – walking the dog, making meals, puttering around, but at a much slower pace than usual. 

It is no fun to be sick but being ‘too sick to go out’ and ‘not up to doing much at home either’ was a great reason to prioritize rest, creativity, and taking good care of myself. 

What are your go-to activities when you are feeling under the weather?

*As I write this on Monday afternoon, I am feeling better than I was on the weekend but still not great. I actually ended up having to reschedule a dentist appointment AND a mammogram so I could keep my germs at home instead of taking them on tour to various medical facilities.

** Don’t worry, it wasn’t all caffeinated. I alternated between Cold 911 from David’s Tea, Ginger Peach, Chocolatey Chai, Wild Sweet Orange, (no caffeine so far!) and black tea (there’s the caffeine!) with the occasional foray into boiled water with lemon, candied ginger, and honey. I also drank regular old cold water.

A black and white tarot card – the three of cups – depicting three women in long dresses holding wine glasses in the air Adding a little woo to my fitness journaling
ADHD · fitness · habits · self care

Adding a little woo to my fitness journaling

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hmm, if I were to pull a Tarot card before I started exercising would that mean I was doing a woo-kout?

Yes, I do find myself funny. Your mileage may vary.

As a writer, a storyteller, and someone who is intrigued by mysteries, magic, and ghost stories, I love Tarot cards, Oracle cards, story dice, and all of that kind of stuff.

Six rectangular tiles on a green cloth. Each tile has an image on it that will be used to interpret answers to a question.
A few tiles from a set of oracle tiles I created for myself out of wooden tiles, drawings, stickers, and collage items. Image description: six small rectangular tiles on a wrinkled green cloth. One tile has three candles and a striped background, one has a gold star against a background of black lines, one has a window or maybe a French door against a green background and there are flowers in a vase in front of the door/window, another has the word wonder cut from a magazine against a black background with gold polkadots, another shows a green puzzle piece against a background of gold and black alternating lines, and the final one shows a sticker of a snail moving up a green hill that I drew on the tile.

And I use those tools regularly for writing, storytelling, journaling, and reflecting.

I’m not particularly mystical about using them. I know that some people are very engaged with the rituals around Tarot but I generally think of myself as in conversation with my subconscious rather than with an unknown force. (The woo in my title is more about playing with perceptions than about my approach to engaging with these tools.*)

I like the way that Tarot or Oracle cards give me a container for examining my thoughts, feelings, and reactions to a situation.

And given the speed at which my ADHD brain seeks context, generates ideas, and weaves a web of connecting thoughts, it can be a relief to have a structure I can borrow to organize my thinking.

So, when I found myself planning to journal on the question, “What could make it easier for me to exercise?, it made sense for me to turn to my Tarot cards for some guidance.

 I drew the Three of Cups.

A tarot card for the three of cups
This particular three of cups card is from the Phantomwise Tarot by Erin Morgenstern and the images are related to her book The Night Circus. Image description: A tarot card is propped up between the keys of my black computer keyboard. The card depicts three feminine presenting figures in long dresses and black opera gloves lifting glasses high in the air towards each other in a ‘Cheers’ sort of gesture. The occurred itself is black, and all of the images are in black white and grey.

The interpretation of this card seems pretty straightforward (although there are ways to dive deeply into the meanings of any card, of course.)

This card is about friendship, joy, support, and connection and it resonated with me in terms of my exercise practice.

I know that all of those things can be helpful for any ongoing practice but I hadn’t really thought about whether I needed to include them in my fitness plans.

But ensuring that friendship, joy, support, and connection are part of the plan seems like a pretty good place to start making my exercise easier to do.

So I changed the nature of the questions I was asking myself.

Instead of just ‘What could make it easier to exercise?’ I asked myself:

How can I make the exercise process more fun?

How can I make exercise a more social activity?

What kind of support do I need to make it easier for me to exercise?

Now, I know that all of these questions have come up for me before.

They’ll probably come up again.

But since the initial question occurred to me now and those other questions arose as a result, they’re worth exploring.

I don’t think I would’ve thought along these lines without drawing that card.

I probably wouldn’t have considered whether I needed a social element or more moral support right now.

But since the themes of that card resonated with me, I’m going to explore how they might be helpful to me.

A different card may or may not have resonated but, at the very least, it would have guided me to different questions to consider.

And journalling without pulling a card would have probably been helpful but my thoughts may not have been focused and they likely have sent me off in a whole different direction.

So, just as I had hoped, pulling a Tarot card gave me a container for my thoughts, a way to direct my inquiries that felt purposeful.

And even if the card hadn’t resonated, I would have been able to journal about why that definitely wasn’t what I needed – a helpful piece of information in itself.

Anyway, I’ll let you know about any useful answers that arise from my journalling in response to these questions.

And now I have a few questions for you:

Do you ever use Tarot as a way to guide or contain your thinking on a given topic?

Have you ever found Tarot useful for your fitness practices?

Would you like me to pull a card to help guide your thinking about a fitness question?

If so, please let me know in the comments!

*If you have a more mystical or esoteric approach to using divination tools, please don’t think I am dismissing you here. I am aiming for a clear description of my approach not a dismissal of yours.

Book Reviews · fitness

Food, Feminism, and Fury

Diane HarperLeave a comment

Someone, somewhere, recommended I read the book If You Can’t Take the Heat, by Geraldine DeRuiter. I put it on my TBR list and forgot about it until I was looking for something from the library and picked it up. I’m glad I did.

Geraldine DeRuiter (everywhereist.com) is known as a food writer, but this isn’t exactly a food book. It’s mostly a biography, but filled with both biting feminist commentary and hilarious turns of phrase. I don’t mark up books, or use bookmarks to remember particularly interesting bits in books I’m reading, but this one is full of sticky notes. Here are a few of my favourite lines:

  • From page 11 of the first chapter, entitled “the First Taste of Defiance”: I wouldn’t touch hot dogs, but consumed pig’s feet and boiled cow’s tongue with all the restraint of an underfed hyena, delighting in my cousins’ and brother’s horror. (This was when I knew I would love the book).
  • It’s a hard thing to learn: that we can ask things of other people, that we can order food how we want it. That our bodies deserve to be nourishing and loved and fed the way we want them to be.
  • On being trapped in the kitchen preparing Thanksgiving dinner with the other women of her family: Growing up, I had plenty of examples of men cooking…In my ruthless assessment, when someone could not cook, they’d failed at adulthood. But I found myself judging women slightly more harshly than I judged me when I discovered they were inept in the kitchen. I simply expected lore of them, at least culinarily, which was unfair to everyone…I’ve accepted the feminist notion that women can do everything, but the idea that we don’t have to do certain things is taking a bit longer to sink in.
  • On paying at restaurants: By not endeavouring to imagine that [women] might be the ones picking up the bill, the staff is not regarding them as legitimate patrons of the restaurant. They are there as accessories for the male guests. Given the transactional role that biting a woman dinner has historically carried in Western society, the entire situation becomes even more fraught.
  • On coping with anxiety by amassing food in case of disaster: My favourite part of any survival story is the acquisition of food and water…I love when the befriend a dog, which people in disaster stories almost always do, because it adds dimension to the story, but also because dogs are edible!
  • The contents of my pantry would not stop my father from getting cancer, would not prevent my mother from forgetting a portion the stove and burning down the house she had lived in for twenty-five years. I was ignoring the first precious word in the phrase “comfort food” – that in order to comfort, the grief and pain have already arrived. The casserole delivered in the wake of a tragedy does not reach back and undo the devastation. But…it reminds us, at a time when we so desperately need it, that we are loved.
  • According to the psychologist Sandra Thomas, a leading researcher in the field of gender and anger, anger is often perceived as a distinctly masculine trait….In that same vein, women are taught that anger is undermined, and to suppress, it, until one day we drop dead from a lifetime of biting our own tongues.
  • On body image: I had very distinct dietary goals. I wanted to outlive all of these assholes and be healthy enough to dance on their graves.

It’s not all snappy one-liners and fury. Her struggles as a child in a chaotic and sometimes abusive household, her complicated feelings about her mostly-absent father, the misogyny and hate she has faced for daring to have opinions in the public sphere are all laid bare. But she has great tenderness for her parents, her friends, and most of all, her husband.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book. But I’m very glad I did.

My library copy of If you Can’t Take the Heat. It has a pink cover with a woman’s hand crushing a frosted pastry. A whole bunch of blue sticky notes are hanging out the side.
a photo of a collaged heart with text reading February to the bottom right Christine’s Two Experiments For February
ADHD · goals · habits · health · self care

Christine’s Two Experiments For February

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

After last week’s post about January’s experiments, my plan was to just explore the questions I was asking myself and then carry on with the same activities throughout February.

But then, on Sunday morning, I woke up with the idea that I wanted to add two things to my plans for February.*

a small drawing of the number 2
Sure, this 2 is a little wonky but it’s grand that way. Same could be said for many of us, hey? 😉 image description: the number two drawn in red with gold trim against a background of red dots. The card the drawing is on is also trimmed in gold and it is resting on my black computer keyboard. I borrowed this drawing from my Dec 2 post.

My first instinct was to talk myself out of it – I’m already working on several things and I don’t want to overload myself – but then I realized that these two small things fit in quite nicely with the ways I am trying to establish practices and processes overall for myself in 2026.

So, that’s why I am going ahead with adding at least a 1 minute wall-sit and adding 1 more serving of veggies to my lunch this month.

These practices both feel like a good way to work on trying something imperfectly (which was the topic of one of my questions in last week’s post!) and they will be beneficial to me even if I don’t get to them every single day.

Both of these things can be helpful for my blood pressure (I’m on BP meds already and just keeping an eye on my numbers.)

I really want to eat more veggies anyway so the structure of ‘1 more at lunch’ is a straightforward way to start.

The wall-sits will take very little time, they feel doable and they are good for my glutes and my knees – both of which need some attention.

So, even though these things are ‘extra’ they will help me with my big picture goals., they have lots of potential benefits with minimal effort, and if they don’t work out?

No big deal!

These are experiments – if they don’t work, I can try something else.

But if they do work I will have practiced more practices, strengthened my legs, eaten more veggies, had more satisfying lunches, taken good care of myself, and maybe even done something good for my blood pressure.

Let’s see how it goes!

*Convenient, hey? 2 things for the second month? Sometimes my brain is so TIDY!)

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 HenneburyLeave a comment

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 HenneburyLeave a comment

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 HenneburyLeave a comment

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.