What I’ve Been Up To!

It was February the last time I wrote, in the wake of a Femworking meeting after which two members challenged me to think about what success means to me.

Things have been moving a lot since then! I was also getting some coaching and working with a therapist, both of which helped me to integrate and move forward with what was set in motion at that meeting.

I wanted to share with those influential women what I had been up to and found that it was a very helpful exercise to write about it. And to put out there what is next for some accountability!

In the past few months, I

-decided to step down from leadership with Holistic Moms this summer, 8 years after I started working to found the Arlington/Alexandria chapter

-decided not to participate in an event-planning committee at my kids’ school (while still pursuing volunteer efforts that are in alignment with my core values)

-in collaboration with other volunteers, created a survey that got lots of community engagement and that I hope will lead to new county and school policies regarding vehicle idling at schools and environmental health in general

-decided to disband the “team” of contributors for my website (Mindful Healthy Life) to focus my efforts on doing the work of the site rather than trying to manage people who weren’t able to fulfill their commitments, at least not without me being super present and available in a way I couldn’t be

-started working on and then just recently launched my first set of collaboration packages toward monetizing the site

-set the intention to create an e-book this fall, a guide to holistic family living in Metro DC that will put my directory listings and other resources into one place for subscribers to my site

-made steps to organize the many contacts I’ve amassed over the years

-connected with another mom blogger who has helped me with that organization and is going to help with outreach to potential partners and collaborators

-enlisted the help of a lawyer to discuss business liability and site terms & conditions

-set up the beginnings of an invoicing system

-registered to exhibit at MommyCon DC on July 23

-asked for and got a pass to the large Mindful Life conference in April, where I gained a lot personally and professionally

-established a partnership between Mindful Healthy Life and Natural Awakenings magazine and got a newsbrief about my site into the June issue

-auditioned for and attended Listen to Your Mother

-registered for BlogU and have started participating in the online community of attendees and submitted three pieces to its “term paper” submissions call

-registered for and attended a writing conference where I got terrific feedback on my novel from three different editors

-registered for The Extreme Novelist class at the Writer’s Center to help me get into a habit that will support finishing the book this calendar year

-decided to apply for a fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (due September 15 after I wimped out on the May 15 deadline)

-continued to prioritize my health and to support the health of my child who has lots of sensitivities with lots of treatments and acute care efforts before and during spring allergy season and appointments for further testing. To that end, I learned more about being a doTERRA wellness advocate and decided if I was using the oils that it would not hurt to share the information and finally invite people over for a class to try them out and learn more

There are some other small wins. One friend and health coach helped me organize all my health records & papers. Another who is starting a gardening coaching business helped me organize my seeds and get started on transforming my garden. I went to Ease Yoga & Café to see Brigid Schulte speak about her book Overwhelmed, and in so doing I activated the 50 days for $50 pass I had bought nearly a year ago! In the past month, I’ve been to four yoga classes, which is a huge improvement for me. And before that I took up a friend on the offer of a free Pilates class to try out her studio. I know the literal movement is helping the other kinds!

And there are also some personal things that have not made it to my list – like organizing my photos and attending to some personal relationships. Some people I’ve shown up for, and others not so much. There is room for improvement!

In my house, I have gotten a lot of stuff ready to give away but some of it is still sitting in my guest room waiting to be featured on Freecycle.

I have the structure in place to reach out to people for collaboration, but now there are tons of emails to write and then I hope to reply to. I am getting some help with that but also need to do a lot of it myself, which will take a while! It’s a little daunting and I want to not miss anyone, but I have to trust that this is a journey, not a one-time destination.

I have a meeting to lead today with people from school health that I still need to prep for. I haven’t taken many photos in a while or done a whole lot with the concept of beauty, beyond thinking about my novel and taking walks in the woods. My mindfulness practice needs some attention and I know will serve me better once I set that intention.

But overall I am feeling pretty good about the movement I’ve seen in the past few months and am hopeful for the future.