Hi readers, For what it’s worth, I’ve had a challenging month. I packed my life up into some suitcases, moved to a new country where I don’t speak the language, found a new apartment and started a new job. The changes have left my head spinning at the end of most days and given a new depth to those all-important 3 little words: emotional roller coaster. I am generally a very happy person. This month has tested my ability to stay happy in the face of massive, decisive life changes. I have never been so uncertain about my direction, my ability to succeed and the general strength of my…
New Job Anxiety and How to Overcome It
New things are scary. Just think about the last time you moved or switched hair stylists or the first hipster outfit you bought…scary scary scary. But at the top of the scary list for any fearless, fabulous, modern woman is starting a new job. Let’s talk about new job anxiety and how to overcome it. Because to have an exciting life, you need to grab scary for a high school make-out session and live out of your comfort zone. A new job is the ultimate scary/exciting experience By definition you must put your comfortable, fuzzy-blanket past behind you, step on some professional stiletto-clad toes, and unequivocally start over. There…
Seeking a Purpose
Lately, I have been pondering the importance of seeking a purpose. It started because I was considering my blog. I realized I have felt a little lost lately because my writing here has lacked purpose. I don’t know who I want my audience to be or why I want them to read. Thoughts about ex-boyfriends? Advice on the larger purpose of life? Useful topographic maps of major international department stores? It’s just so hard to whittle down a focus!! Thankfully, the internet exists to help answer such questions. I checked out The Mimialists “How to Start a Successful Blog” and felt immediately inspired and rejuvenated. After several page redirects…
Secrets of Effective Communication
I don’t speak Spanish. Until recently, this never effected my ability for effective communication. Then, about 2 weeks ago, I moved to Spain. All of a sudden, my lack of Spanish was quite a relevant and important part of my day-to-day life. I am working in an American setting here and could honestly probably get by without learning much of the language, but my interactions with shop-keepers, waiters and cute boys in bars classy museums now center around my very minimal command of a foreign language. Like every time I travel, I was immediately reminded of the other ways that exist for friendly and effective communication. Get your mind…
How to Practice Self-Reflection
August brings up a lot of thoughts about how to practice self-reflection. Here’s why: the other activity options are terrible. 1. Gazing at my gelato-cellulite dappled pale thighs in the sunlight. 2. Sweating profusely into my flip flops. 3. Squinting adorably in the bright, burning sunlight. In contrast to these practices, learning how to practice self-reflection sounds great. To make it more appealing, self-reflection can be completed in air-conditioned rooms. Hence my month of deep and mindful thinking. The Practice of Self-Reflection Here’s the thing about self-reflection-its difficult. If done correctly it’s an intense, creative process akin to art or music. (I suck at art and music.) It’s time…
Addicted to stuff
As I packed for my move to Spain, I realized I have too much stuff. Stuff I should keep, stuff I should throw away, stuff I should plan to keep in storage, stuff that can be reused or recycled, stuff I should plan to buy in Europe. All this talk has kept me up at night, wondering: When is enough too much? What would we have time to do if we spent less time buying/organizing/admiring/rolling around in/getting buried by all our stuff? There is simply too much stuff in the world. The volume of material that is created, recycled, passed around and thrown away on this planet…
Inspiration
Inspiration: the lifeblood of creativity. Newsflash–creativity is hard work! Original thoughts isn’t just laying around out there with the empty 16 Handles containers on the sticky summer sidewalks of Manhattan. I’ve spent a lot of time this summer considering where my inspiration comes from and I’ve had some surprising results. Though I love my forever home of New York City and most people consider it to be a hotbed of creative thought, I realized this summer that I feel most inspired in nature. I find fire to be a tremendous source of inspiration. Just to be contradictory and confusing, I also find a wellspring of creativity (especially for writing) during…
Best Summer Activities
It is that time of year when we get to think about the best possible summer activities! We are officially in the land of the long and luxurious afternoon sunshine. The race to find an activity worthy of a summer Friday has begun. Let your imagination wash up along the shores of the Long Island coastline and dance on the rock beaches of Rhode Island. Summer is the time to crawl out of the skin of reality and celebrate the freedom with lobster rolls and ice-cold beer. Here are some wonderful summer activity ideas to inspire your inner child. 1) Summer Lake Adventure. Having lived in the land-locked Rocky Mountain…
Great (Self) Expectations
I expect a lot from myself and I spend a fair amount of time thinking about why. Here is some of what I have come up with: I think on some primal level, people hunger for validation. Hence the 5 year plans, the well-scheduled days, the constant, twitching check marks on the ever-present to do list. We like to think we will look back and say, “Oh, yes–this all went exactly as I planned it.” Riddle me this, June Cleaver: When was the last time something in your life went exactly as you planned it? It’s important to set expectations mostly so that we can macerate them in the endless,…
Dating in New York City
As a reminder, my New Year’s Resolution was to start dating in New York City. I know. Yikes. But now that we are easing into March, I feel have some helpful observations about dating in New York (spoiler alert: people don’t love it)Here’s what I think: Dating in New York City is hilarious. Here are my favorite new things about dating in NYC: 1) It’s a casualhookup.com world. It is totally socially acceptable, and almost expected, that 20s and 30s New Yorkers meet strangers on internet dating sites and then text them while intoxicated to meet up. Dinner and a movie? Not going to happen. Like NEITHER OF THOSE THINGS WILL…