Head & Heart – February – April 2016

Writing these posts is something that I’ve thought about often, but haven’t prioritised time to do over the last 3 months, so I’m playing catch-up with this Head & Heart post…

What I’ve been doing

• Facilitating a workshop at the For Purpose Summer School on producing engaging events.
• Starting, and then not getting very far with, the 8 week I Quit Sugar program. One of my main motivations for signing up was to help with meal planning and to add some more variety to the meals I eat, so instead of looking at it as a failure, I’ll focus on the success in trying some new dishes (including the Paleo Veggie Bread which is now a regular staple in our house).
• Walking the 25km event in the CBR 100.

  

  This was tough, but I was really pleased to have done it. The walk itself and the longer walks I did in the months prior to prepare have really reignited my love of bushwalking and made me realise how important walking in nature is for my mental health.

• I headed up to Sydney to go to All About Women which was worthwhile. I went to the panel session on What Needs To Change and Anne-Marie Slaughter’s talk. Next year I’ll try to attend more sessions and select sessions featuring women/topics that I haven’t heard before or that I wouldn’t normally select.
• Jason and I had a belated 5-year anniversary getaway to Paperbark Camp at Jervis Bay – amazing!
• My brother Neale and I have received a small grant from Screen ACT to develop a treatment for a feature film, ‘Fyshwick’, which tells the story of how Canberra became the porn capital of the country in the late 80s/early 90s and some of the characters behind the industry. So over the last few months I’ve been learning lots about the history of Australian porn and film censorship and the people involved in the Canberra porn industry circa 1985-1995!
• Trying to figure out Snapchat – I’m clareaconroy if you want to connect!

I’m grateful for

I try to practice gratitude on a daily basis, so often these things feel insignificant when I try to aggregate my gratitude for the month, but some of the things I’ve been grateful for are:

• Having two new staff join the YWCA Canberra She Leads team. I like working with and managing a team and there’s no way that I would have been able to deliver on the program initiatives by myself, so I’m grateful for the extra support and excited about what we have and can continue to achieve together.
• My brother Neale coming to stay for 2 weeks while Jason was overseas to help with kid-wrangling! Doorstep Dinners were also a life-saver during this time!
• An April that was full of beautiful warm sunny days (although a couple of days of rain would have been nice)

I’ve been thinking about

Key things that have continued to occupy my thinking over the last few months:

• Paying attention to the little things that make me healthier and happier and putting in place strategies to try to build healthier habits. I have been using Way of Life, but on reflection I think I had way too many habits that I was trying to build at once and I wasn’t really committed to achieving them all. So, I’ve recently cut the habits back to three – moving (30 active minutes), meditating (for 5+ minutes) and sleeping (bed before 10.30pm) – and this is working so much better. With just three habits, I’m more focused and it feels far more achievable. So my plan is to build a habit for 30 consecutive days before I add another new habit to track.
• Writing and why I don’t do more of it. Listening to the Longform podcast has also got me thinking about the writing processes of other people and I’m beginning to realise very few people (established writers included) find the actual act of writing enjoyable or painless!
• Learning, creating and teaching. My signature strength is love of learning, so I’ve been thinking about how I can use creation and teaching as productive opportunities to learn rather than just consuming content.

I’ve been reading

• I’m a bit behind on my 2016 reading challenge to read 25 books, but I did manage to get a few completed over the last few months – Unfinished Business, Overwhelmed and The Killing Season Uncut (amazing!).
• This piece on what happens inside the minds of teenage girls was so informative I’ve scheduled it to be emailed to myself in 10 years time!

I’ve been listening to/watching

• Lots of great Longform episodes – particularly Carol Loomis and Tavi Gevinson.
• Interviews with Cate McGregor and Mary Coustas on No Filter.
• Tim Ferriss’ interview with Cal Fussman was fantastic.

My monthly Head & Heart posts were inspired by Helen @ Lime Tree Bower. If you want to get involved, simply write your own version and please add a link to it in the comments as I’d love to read it!