Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Musing on 2013




The New Year brings fresh possibilities. Are you looking for some inspiration to map out 2013 and set your intentions? Then you should take a look at this very cool free offering from Susannah Conway.

Her "Unravelling the Year Ahead" workbook and calendar sheets are a great resource for figuring out what you want 2013 to be all about. She recommends you carve out an hour of your time with a favorite beverage and some good music and then dig in. I'll be working through this activity with either a glass of wine or a cup of coffee and some Bing Crosby Christmas music.

I have also printed out a workbook for Bob. We will be filling these out individually and then sharing our goals with each other. It will be fun to see  where our goals for 2013 overlap and differ.

There is something very powerful about writing things out. The format of the Unravelling the Year Ahead workbook is very approachable, plus there is plenty of blank space for doodling and making notes to yourself. 

I am excited to map out 2013 for both my professional and personal life. I know that once I write things down, I find they are more apt to happen. 

Ready to get started? Click here to download the workbook and calendar sheets.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

A Daily Practice

Do you have a daily practice? A ritual? Something that you do each day.

Something that I do each morning is make my coffee. Bob does not drink coffee, so I just make a cup for me. It's the same every morning, grinding the beans. boiling the water, letting it brew, pressing it out, and finally, drinking it.

I recently took an online course that emphasized photography as a tool for slowing down and being present. We were encouraged to do was to take a daily photo. To make it a practice. I chose to photograph some part of my daily coffee. All my images are captured with my iPhone and processed them through Instagram with the Early Bird filter for a consistent tone or modified with Snapseed.



I've been at it for a few months and have quite a collection going. I've included a tab on the right navigation bar if you want to see all the images to date.

So, why do something like this? Here are a few reasons:

Bringing New Awareness
One reason is that it makes you aware of something that you probably do by rote each day. By slowing down and really observing how I make my coffee, I can capture things like the steam from the press pot, the contrast of shiny beans before I grind them, or capture an image of my breakfast along with my cup. I find that this awareness then transfers over into other things that I do.


Creative Outlet
I am not one who naturally feels the need to create things, but when I do, I always have a sense of accomplishment. It's nice to be able to say "hey, I made that", or "look at this fun image I took." My daily coffee photos provide that little outlet for me. Even if you are super busy, this is something that you can do in just a few minutes each day.


"Less autopilot. Less loops. More life."
This quote is taken from a short essay over on Medium that was written by Dustin Senos. He takes a different walking route to work each day to captures photos along the way. He says " embarking on these journeys with the goal to capture photos forces me to be present. I can't let my mind wander or I will walk by a great opportunity." I encourage you to read his essay.

Do you have a daily photo practice? What images are you capturing?

If you want to keep up with my daily coffee photos, you can follow me on Instagram.