featured,  musings,  winter

what’s saving my life right now [february 2018]

What is saving your life right now? I love this question, originally posed by Barbara Taylor Bradford. I’m jumping on the Modern Mrs. Darcy train and sharing what is saving my life right now at this, the halfway point of winter.

  1. A therapy lamp. I bought myself one of these in December after always wondering if I should. Grant gets up before me to make the kids’ lunches, and I have always had trouble getting my butt out of bed, but since I bought this lamp, I’ve given myself fifteen minutes of lamp therapy/reading time in the morning before the hustle and bustle of the day. I don’t know if the light is actually doing anything that it purports to do, or if the slower start to the day is what makes the difference. I don’t really care because I am loving this new practice.
  2. Tea. I did a little Whole30ish reset in January, and in doing so, I got fully back on the tea train. Grant and I have been experimenting with different blends nearly every night, and it has become such a relaxing ritual that I can see it sticking around long past January. We’ve been drinking lots of echinacea from our garden (or I like MountainRoseHerbs if you want to order some). I am also completely obsessed with this blend. It tastes like dessert!
  3. Poldark. Grant and I are addicted. Masterpiece has never really steered us wrong, but this might be favorite yet. Also, Cornwall is at now at the top of my travel bucket list.
  4. More sleep. As I mentioned in my January living seasonally post, we typically go to sleep earlier in the winter. The dark nights make 8pm feel like 10pm, and I am (finally) perfectly okay with listening to my body and heading to bed when it tells me to. Sleep is one of those “keystone habits” for me (and, I would wager, for you too) that impacts EVERY thing else.
  5. Moving. For the past few months, I’ve tried to trade in the word “movement” for “working out.” Movement is what is important (and lacking for many of us), and even simply changing how I talk to myself about it has made a difference in how I feel about “exercise” and finding time for a little movement versus that all-or-nothing attitude that I’m prone to.
  6. Winter sunsetsI’m biased, but I really don’t think anywhere can beat Indiana winter sunsets. It has been clearer than usual in January, and we have had some really spectacular sunsets.

I would love to hear what is saving YOUR life right now – please share!

10 Comments

    • sxtwo

      You’ll have to come report back if you watch Poldark! I want to spread the word, so I can talk to people about it! Happy midwinter to you too!

    • sxtwo

      Irene! I should have made the link more obvious. It is this one: http://amzn.to/2DUIK84. I love it because it has a timer, so I can easily set it for myself in the morning, knowing I won’t read too long 🙂 It also has a blue light, which is supposed to have great benefits too.

    • sxtwo

      Hi Tanya! You’ll have to come back and let me know what you think of Poldark. I was so sad this week because we all got ready early to see the lunar eclipse on Wednesday, but it was too cloudy. Boo! I’m glad to know that you’ve been enjoying this crazy year of moons so far 🙂

  • miriampauline

    Great list! Cornwall was one of my favourite trips we made when living in England…standing at Land’s End was pretty amazing and the slate mines and the coast line and …. I hope you get to go someday.