Week 1 I Tweak 1: Mindfulness Journaling
Commit to writing 12 minutes each day about a single moment that stirred emotion — joy, frustration, gratitude, or anything in between. The focus isn’t on perfect prose, but on noticing, naming, and exploring the feelings that rise up in everyday life.
I wouldn’t call myself anal, per se — but I do like my coffee in a specific mug, my wine in a specific glass, and writing doesn't feel "right" if I'm not using a specific brand of pen. Even the lines on the paper need to be a certain distance apart. Ahem...now that I’ve typed all that out, I realize I am in fact anal — you and I just discovered that together in real time. What a bonding moment.
Considering I didn’t even know I was starting this journey until 24 hours before I created this site and began typing, it feels like either fate or dumb luck that I’d just ordered a stack of plain brown journals and stocked up on my favorite pens (BiC Round Stick, fine, blue — never black, never red, and absolutely never medium). Good thing, too, because now I can focus on tuning out life’s background noise: the hum of the dryer, sending my son to school in something inexplicably snowman‑related, and that cute little wrench light that popped up on my dashboard like, “Surprise! You’re not enlightened, you just need an oil change.”
But first — why a blog?
I think the super moon stirred something in me. What might a journey toward enlightenment look like for a 39‑year‑old woman moving steadily through suburban life?
As Siddhartha reminds us, true wisdom cannot be inherited from texts or borrowed from others. It isn’t handed down — it’s discovered within, realized independently through lived experience and the quiet awakening of one’s own spirit.
I believe I’m seeking that kind of self‑growth — a journey that’s self‑guided, though far less rugged than Siddhartha’s. His path was jungle and dusty trails; mine involves paved roads and the occasional Starbucks.
As always, I write to hold myself accountable — to both this commitment and to my reader(s). My journey begins here: twelve weeks shaped by twelve simple, practical tweaks. I invite you to follow along, or at least tune in and laugh as I explore personal growth with my unwavering commitment to humor. I’ll write, challenge myself, challenge you, and do my best not to slip back into the very habits that inspired me to google, “What did Siddhartha say about enlightenment again?”
