July 2020

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This month has flown by sooooo fast–this whole year! It’s now been one year since starting PlanetMegan again since July of 2019. A lot has changed since then. And more change is obviously coming… I’m so thankful for the generosity of baby shower gifts coming in from friends & family already. ???

I think the quote to the right is dead-on. That unexpected guest can be one of your friends or family… but it can also be a baby. I think “Nesting” has kicked in, but not as much as I would like! I want to feel the frenzy, the uncontrollable cleaning craze! But with no air conditioning in our home, and pregnant feet that hurt when standing on them, it’s hard to want to.?

Did you know why pregnant women get sore feet? (It isn’t from extra weight.) It’s due to a special hormone called “relaxin,” which relaxes the ligaments in the body. This is why I’m SO thankful I still have my crocs from my house-cleaning days. If I stand barefoot in the kitchen, my feet hurt! Getting out of bed first thing in the morning they hurt! Just standing in the tub for a quick shower, they hurt! BUT if I put on these crocs, it’s almost total relief!

Want inspiration to get off your butt and clean? Watch YouTube videos of a British television show called “Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners,” where OCD individuals take it upon themselves to clean the dirty homes of hoarders. The show offers the best inspiration by juxtaposing spotless minimalism with the grimiest accumulations.

(I should be a paid spokesperson for Crocs shoes because I’ve recommended them to women for many years—especially in the cleaning industry.) I used to turn my nose at them because of their ugly design, but now they have more fashionable options and come in many colors/prints. They make you feel like you’re bouncing as you walk as they absorb shock. If you stand in the shower to scrub the tiles, your socks & feet stay dry. If you kick your foot into something, your toes remain un-stubbed. If you step in dog poop, it’s totally fine, it washes right off! (Yes—one time as I entered into a client’s home, but just before I could put on my shoes…I stepped onto a wonderful dog turd. The parents were on vacation & the teenage kids stayed home, but those kids still left us trails of scattered turds down the fancy marble hallways.? Wish I had my crocs on in that moment.) Fabric flats get smelly over time and eventually your toes will wear a hole through the front. If you’re on your feet all day at work, I highly recommend these shoes.

In 2006, I began keeping a little pocket sized notebook on me. So whenever I had an idea, profound thought, prayer, anguish, wonder, quote, song lyric, list of favorite things to remember for later, pressed leaves from a special adventure, fortune cookie message, movie stub… I’d put it in there. It was a place I could sort out my world view & developing philosophies, where I could look back on someday as an old women and decipher my writings, or in case of my tragic death—words & memories someone might find one day. So while I did pour my heart out at times, it wasn’t a “journal” or “diary,” but a collection place, where little things & life are not lost or taken for granted.

It’s something that fits in your coat or back pocket and you can take it anywhere—because you never know when there’s a memory to keep. Now I have about 35 since I started. I know I’d have much more if I hadn’t let the practice dwindle away, and I think the main reason I have stopped much of this is due to smart phones.

 

A couple tips for staying cool! When Travis and I lived in our first apartment, it was a furnace in the summer time!  We had a small air conditioning unit, but it didn’t reach the bedrooms. It was way too hot to sleep at night. We got out our camping tent out and set it up right in front of the AC unit and slept inside. (Just like on the Simpsons) It worked like a dream! (Literally & figuratively!) ? Another tip from my mom is to simply sleep under a sheet and spray it damp with a spray bottle. We don’t have AC at home, so when it’s hot out this time of year, we sleep in our basement.

 

See, when I started keeping a pocket notebook it was a time before the smart phone, before the endlessness of Instagram scrolls, Netflix shows, etc…. The same sized phone now replaces the space in my back pocket. Sure, it’s a device for lists, saves, pins, & likes, but it misses the hands-on & aesthetic experience. I think the distraction of smart phones has stolen the mind away from its freedom to think.

My theory is that information is always either coming in, or going out of the brain. When you stop inputting constant information into your brain, it starts to generate ideas of its own instead.

Do you ever wonder why you suddenly have your next idea, lyric, or list of things you want to do in your mind while you are in the shower, driving, or lying in bed at night when incoming information has ceased? In those moments, your brain is actually in a different wavelength. It’s a relaxed Alpha brainwave state allows you to finally generate your own inward information and insights. I think having a journal available, helps to encourage this generation. Keeping a journal can really help you process thoughts, emotions and creative ideas. (And may be a good practice to start during quarantine.) What I discovered was, that when I started keeping a pocket-sized notebook on me, I found that the more I used it, the MORE my brain generated ideas and deep thoughts!

The problem we face today is that while we are constantly distracted, we remain too often in a beta wave state (the brainwaves that we mostly live in to focus, read, write, socialize & be on our smart phones with), which can lower our energy, and lower emotional awareness and creativity. Google search says “the average modern person is exposed to around 5,000 ads per day.” While our brains input info, it’s not in the state to output info.

I certainly get hijacked by my phone. If a person has trouble shifting from this beta state to the relaxed alpha state, it can lead to anxiety & stress. Travis and I have put our phones in a basket on the shelf before for an entire day to find it helped our relationship & quality time. Smart phones really do make us less smart, less creative & inventive, less independent & others-focused, less aware.

“The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”

—Henry Miller (A quote I kept in my first book.)

 

I’m just as screen-sucked as anyone else, but writing on this (after having a really hard time to know what to write about) and reminiscing on my small notebooks of the past, it convicts me to remedy it.

This is why I hope my readers value getting the old-fashioned hand-held version of PlanetMegan. ?

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