Hey 👋🏽

Yesterday, we gave Alexa a break and asked our eyes to tell us the weather.

Is it windy?

asked almost 5. I pointed at the skyline.

Are the trees dancing?

His eyes fixated on a row of tiny trees right across the street. They rocked in the breeze.

Oh man. It’s pretty bad out there!
Is it? Look further.

I gestured to help him change his perspective. His gaze shifted from foreground to middle ground, landing at last on a forest of big branches shielding suburban houses.

I don’t need a jacket! They’re dancing just a little.

He started to shake his hips in unison.

When I grow up, I think I’m going to be a ballerina. Cuz I can twirl really good and stuff.

I watched my tiny tree dance and dream and smiled, seeing the last 5 years and the right now and the what’s next all at once. Sunshine beamed down.

Here are a few things I enjoyed this week:

🧠 forcing functions

A forcing function is a catalyst that changes your default behavior by aligning your short term incentives with your long term goals. The next time you’re starting a project, ask yourself:
- what do you have at stake?
- what’s incentivizing you to take action?

❤️ the beauty of nothingness YouTube, 4m

My Dad shared this clip from Alan Watts, a British author and speaker credited with making “the way of zen” more accessible in the west in the early 20th century.

All the idea of your being scared and put out and worried and so on is just nothing, it’s a dream, because you’re really nothing. But this is the most incredible nothing.

🚶🏽‍♀️ask (yourself) questions

Last week, I wrote about questions to ask (significant) others and your parents. This week, I’ve been thinking about questions to ask myself. I made time to sit with my questions for an hour last night and felt a 2 hour tension headache start to slide away. A few thinking/journaling prompts:

How are you feeling? What’s contributing to that?
What questions have come up within you that you’ve avoided/ignored? Why? Can you choose one question to work through?
How would you explain what you do to a 5 year old?

I miss you, I love you, how is it already May,

P.S. Come workout and raise money for a good cause during Monday night HIIT + Stretch classes.