Hi friends, welcome back to the Zestful Zen Wellbeing Wednesday newsletter. 💖
I hope you’ll find these resources a helpful self-care support and an opportunity to pause as we hit “hump day” again. 🐪
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Inspire
“If it’s out of your hands, it deserves freedom from your mind too.”
– Ivan Nuru
Look
For a dose of nature plus quirky art, check out this selection of fallen leaf cut-outs by Japanese artist @lito_leafart リト@葉っぱ切り絵 🍃🍂
His delicate, intricate carvings are gently absorbing, with miniature landscapes and whimsical, adorable animal scenes. 💖
Listen
Take a minute’s pause to listen to “Hold On”, a heartfelt poem by Substack writer .
Watch
Do you know what you really, truly, want from life? If you struggle to ask yourself this question, why not ask instead, “If I could want something, what would that be?”
Rita Wilson shares the inspiring story of how asking herself this question changed her life - and how her parents’ intuitive understanding of what they wanted motivated them each to make daring, dangerous escapes in Europe that led them to meet in New York.
Read
“Morning is a metaphor for waking up. I do the pages whenever I want to wake up from an unconscious way of being…Morning, afternoon, right after a nap, at 8 PM - I have done morning pages at all times of the day.”
Raju Tai’s Birthday Special: 7 Realisations on 7 Years of Writing Morning Pages is a mesmerising reflection on the benefits of writing morning pages. I love her phrase, “mental bath”, for the purge that comes from getting your unfiltered thoughts down on paper, out of your churning mind.
She describes morning pages as “a new kind of mental agriculture where seeds of ideas were sowed into the privacy of the journal, mixed with the manure of emotions, and poems appeared on the page like fresh, green shoots. I had no idea that I could go in so many directions with one practice.”
Ask
In Saturday’s personal essay, I wrote about how taking a step back and looking at challenges from a different perspective helped me to think more imaginatively and spot an obvious way forward that I’d overlooked.
You can read the full post here:
Some questions you could reflect on:
Which parts of your life are in competition?
What’s holding you back from making the changes you want to?
Can you take a different perspective to spot an unrealised solution?
Can you think more imaginatively about your situation?
Are there some simple swaps you can make to find a win-win solution?
Do
Send a surprise postcard to a friend. 💖
Make the whole experience a bit of a treat - pick up a beautiful art card from a gallery, act like a tourist and get one of a famous local landmark, or choose something funny that you know will make your friend laugh.
Find somewhere cosy and comfy, settle in with a nice pen and a tasty drink and take five minutes to compose a thoughtful message from the heart to your friend.
Imagine the smile on their face as they receive your unexpected missive in the post! 💌
Snail mail is a rare pleasure these days and they’ll feel special that you took the time to send them something personal - maybe they’ll even treasure this keepsake for years.
(PS - After my Dad passed away, I discovered that he’d kept years of birthday and Father’s Day cards hidden away. I wish I’d known how much these meant to him and I would have sent him random postcards too. 💔)
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Wishing you all a wonderful Wellbeing Wednesday! 💖
I’d love your feedback on this Wellbeing Wednesday post: Did you enjoy it? Do you like the bitesize format? What would make it better? 🌸
If you enjoyed this post, it would mean the world to me if you’d comment, hit the heart button, share with others, or subscribe to Zestful Zen for free! Thank you lovely people ✨
I adore the idea of a surprise postcard, what a way to brighten someone’s day
Hi Holly,
Your newsletter is fantastic! I love the format (easy to read), and the content is golden.
Thanks so much for your great work.