You’re an adult, which means you’re most likely tired, achy, overwhelmed and stressed out. You want to start taking steps to feel better but you feel like you don’t have another minute to spare. So what do you do?
I’m with you. We’re all with you. All that means is it’s time to start small.
Here’s one simple step you can take to feel better each day that requires less than a minute.
Make your bed every morning.
I don’t mean to sound like your Mom here, so just bear with me. Making your bed is just the kind of small step that can begin your adulting recovery and here’s why:
I am working on this post much later than I wanted to, because I was too busy setting up my very first bullet journal, including starting a section on blog post topics:
The verdict is still out on this bullet journaling thing. So far, my impression is that it’s primarily crack for creative and organizational types but not actually a sustainable practice.
But that’s not really what we’re here to talk about today.
No, today, I want to talk about dinner.
Specifically, cooking dinner.
Did you know that eating home cooked meals is a REALLY good thing you can do for yourself?
I realize when I wrote my blogs in advance, that I should have included a blog for the week I returned from Japan.
Rookie mistake.
I failed to account for the jetlag.
In spite of this, let’s see if I can bring some DIY Adulting wisdom through the fog that is my 14-hour-time-change-up-at-two-in-the-morning-all-week addled brain.
Today is a big day. Best Friend: Partner in Crime is moving into her own condo. Her own, picked and paid for all by herself condo. Talk about peak adulting here.
So in honor of her big move, here are SEVEN tips for moving with some semblance of sanity.
Oh man, fingers crossed, right now I am at the Robot Restaurant in Tokyo trying not to have a seizure
My Japan trip should be just about coming to an end and even though that’s literally two+ weeks away as I am writing this, I’m sad just thinking about it!
Japan has been a part of life in various forms since I was about 13. What started with a dubbed anime I caught on Cartoon Network turned into an incredible relationship with a country and a community that will forever be a part of me.
More than *cough*ten*cough, I lived in Japan (which is where I met Best Friend: Partner in Crime!). Fresh out of college it was my first, real adulting experience.
I had a full time (and then some) job teaching English to students. And I had my very own apartment. Sure it was a one room apartment but as a burgeoning adult that was more than enough for me to handle.
Living abroad when you’re new to adulting is a great way to get a crash course because you don’t have any of the normal support systems like family, friends or, oh yeah, language. It really forces you to take charge of your life and force me it did.
So today, I’d like to share an adulting skill I learned in Japan. I would categorize this as Adulting 2.0 since it is a little more high level. But once you get going, you’ll find it’s actually pretty easy.
If all goes as planned, when this goes up I should be somewhere in Osaka, hopefully eating my weight in Okonomiyaki. In honor of my upcoming travel plans, I want to talk about aduling your suitcase.
Now, I’m not going to try to tell you what to pack. Because, despite my extensive experience traveling (I even run a group called Girls Who Travel!), I can’t control myself when it comes time to choose what to wear. I give in to every “what if” and before you know it, I’ve packed half my closet for a three day trip. (Ok, because seriously, WHAT IF)
Or maybe you’re like Mr. Juris Doctor who packs in – no literally – five minutes. I don’t understand it.
I don’t care if you’re a messy packer or an organized packer or a last minute packer or a two weeks before packer. No matter your style, I want to talk to you about how you pack. And all I have for you is two words (plus the rest of this blog): packing cubes.
Well, we don’t have one (yet) but if we had one, it would be…something, something, yeah, yeah, increase happiness and decrease stress. Woo!
(Can you tell I was never on the cheerleading squad? Or any kind of squad?).
Well guess what? Houseplants are an adulting-er’s best friend. Because studies show they increase happiness and decrease stress. And some other awesome stuff too like help with concentration, improve productivity and remove toxins from the air.
Bottom line is, houseplants are awesome.
Oh wait. Except if you’re anything like me, YOU KILL THEM. And that is the worst kind of stress of all. Is there, honestly, anything more depressing than throwing out another plant that you failed to care for even though you really tried, you really really tried?
So how did I overcome my black thumb and start filling my home with stress relieving plants?
You like being on their list because you enjoy seeing their latest stuff and you especially want to be alerted to their sales.
You don’t like that when you look away from your e-mail for two seconds, you get back and you’ve got so many marketing e-mails that your inbox looks like
This is an actual screenshot from my phone earlier this year. Don’t ask how this happened. I don’t want to talk about it.