When I wrote about being mindful of my need for breaks, I mentioned that responding to my body’s cues while gardening would be a more advanced challenge. I think I’ve found a simple way to manage it. What’s been working pretty well, injury-avoidance-wise, is to pay attention to my body the way I would in [...]

My back and neck give me hints when it’s time to take a break. A lot of the time, I don’t listen. I’m quick to take a (long, long) break when I’m creatively stuck. But when my body needs a breather, I keep pushing. It puzzles me, how I won’t pause and rest when I’m [...]

When I get stuck on a creative project—any project, really—it’s often because my emotions are shouting so loudly that I mistake them for objective reality. “It FEELS like this writing assignment is impossible, therefore it IS impossible. I FEEL uncertain about how to design this workshop, therefore I will fail. I FEEL frustrated because I [...]

One of the best things about vacation is that I get to structure my day the way I’d like to structure it at home—while free of the temptations and distractions and longstanding habits that, at home, get in the way of that ideal structure. I’m recently back from a mini-vacation in Western Sonoma County. Ahhhh—a [...]

I like the quiet slow week that eases me from Christmas into New Year’s. I spent a day and a half in Sebastopol, one of my favorite places. It’s an environment conducive to slowing down—to the degree that I found myself doing things like setting my wallet on the bakery counter and then wandering away. [...]