Small Changes - Food-Wine-Travel

My experiment with gratitude

Do a quick google search on gratitude and you will find an abundance of articles all promoting its power. Entire libraries of books have been written on the effects that gratitude can have on one’s life, and the research studies to back it up seem endless.

With all this supporting evidence why is it that I had not been making this a priority for my daily routines? I suspect it is a combination of several things, but three stand out to me as the basis for my procrastination. First, Like most everyone else, I’m busy! You know the drill – career, family, chores. Second, we humans have a tendency to focus on the negative. It is called Negative Bias – we’re hard-wired that way. And Last, honestly, I am generally skeptical of any “magic fix” that doesn’t require a ton of hard work.

Then I heard something from Tony Robbins during an interview that changed my mind. He was sharing his morning routine, how he spends 10 minutes to be grateful and prepared for the day, and he said…

“If you don’t have 10 f—ing minutes for your life, you don’t have a life,”

WOW!!! Ok – that actually made a TON of sense to me. I decided to commit a few minutes each morning and try this out as an experiment.

All I needed was a timer – a quiet spot – and a commitment to do it. My practice was this:

The first 3 minutes: I think of all the things I have to be grateful for. Once this ball starts rolling it is amazing how much we really have that we take for granted. A hot shower, food in the fridge, freedom.
The next 3 minutes: A prayer to God/the Universe/Your higher-self asking for help with one thing that day. This can be a prayer for yourself or a prayer for someone else.
The final 3 minutes: Set your intention for the day. What one thing do you want to accomplish.

I started this practice 2 years ago and found it to be life-changing. Starting the day off with a focus on gratitude sets my mind in a positive state. And spending a few minutes to set my intention for the day helps me to clear out the “noise” and focus on what matters most at the moment.

You can try my routine, try the Tony Robbins 10 minute morning routine, or make up your own. What is important is to follow through with the commitment – set aside the time – and focus on the things you are grateful for. Try it for 30 days and I am certain you will also see the difference in your life.

_{Featured photo by unsplash.com/@aloragriffiths}

Decisions can be exhausting

Did you know that there may be a reason you exhausted at the end of the day which has nothing to do with your sleep patterns, exercise, or nutrition. It may simply be a matter of how many decisions you are making!

It’s called Decision Fatigue…and yes…it’s a real thing. Why did Steve Jobs wear the iconic black turtleneck? Turns out he wasn’t necessarily trying to make a fashion statement. He recognized that he had a determinate capacity for making decisions each day. And he’s not the only one to take this approach. Mark Zuckerberg and Barack Obama have been known to do the exact same thing.

We want options. But the paradox is that, when presented with too many, we are stressed and driven to make less optimal decisions.

Photo by Victoriano Izquierdo on Unsplash

Here are a few ways you can combat decision fatigue:

(1) Plan out your work wardrobe for the week on Sunday night – or follow in the footsteps of Jobs and Zuckerberg by simplifying your wardrobe to just a few key pieces.

(2) Pre-make or purchase pre-made breakfasts and lunches to reduce decisions around meals.

(3) Make daily routine to follow such as exercising at the same time each day.

(4) Make the big important decisions in the morning.

These are just a few ideas to start with. Then, look for more ways to reduce the number of decisions you need to make each day – there are probably hundreds of decisions you could eliminate. For example, I am a project manager – the definition of a decision maker! I literally spend my entire day making decisions, which explains why I was feeling exhausted at the end of each day. So I delegated some of these to a junior project manager that I trusted. This gave her more responsibility which will help her grow her career AND helped me combat decision fatigue, leaving more energy and focus to tackle the tougher more critical decisions.

Did this article resonate with you? Leave a comment – I want to hear your thoughts on tackling decision fatigue!

SUP and Sunsets

The desert of Tri-Cities, WA offers up some of the most spectacular sunsets, and that twilight time of day is absolutely perfect in summer time. The temperature drops from the daytime blistering heat to a comfortable cool breeze, the crickets step up to their stage and begin their chorus, and everything seems to just take a long slow exhale into a restful state.

Often I will take in this perfect moment of the day on my porch with a glass of wine from one of our local Red Mountain AVA wineries. But recently I tried a new way to enjoy these sunsets – a new experience, and one that I enjoyed so much I plan to add to my inventory of “go to” summer activities. A moonlight SUP tour with Northwest Paddleboarding.

The tour begins right before sunset at the east end of Columbia Park .

Everything is provided, including these absolutely awesome LED lit paddles! And at this time of day most everyone has left the water for the evening leaving it smooth as glass and a perfect medium to reflect the sunset and the rising moon.

You will follow the shoreline down to Clover Island where the Cable Bridge lights offer another dramatic view which can only be experienced and appreciated from the water.

As you round the island into the marina, be prepared for the night life of the boat house parties – I had no idea how alive and festive the marina was at night!

When you finish the tour, walk over to Ice Harbor Brewer to enjoy some local brewed beer and great food. Or if you would like something simpler and lighter – try the blue food truck – Rollin, which serves fresh ice cream.

Finding Joy at the Farmer’s Market

Happiness, or rather the pursuit of it, is at the height of popularity for topics of books, documentaries, and research. And for good reason. According to the World Happiness Report of 2019 the United States of America is nowhere close to the top of the list. In fact, we continue to decline in happiness ranking – landing in 19th place.

The reasons for this are many, and complicated. But there are small things that you can do every day to bring joy back into your life. One way is by reconnecting with nature. Research confirms that even short interactions with nature can boost your mood. And with summer in full swing, your local Farmer’s Market provides a great opportunity to do exactly that.

Research also supports that changing your routine contributes to the boost in happiness. I decided to combine these both into an exercise that you could try this week.

Take a break and visit your local Farmer’s Market – pick up a few Roma and Heirloom tomatoes to try using the bruschetta recipe below. While you are there, savor the moments – enjoy the bright colors and the smell of the fresh fruits and vegetables. This is your chance to connect with nature and change up your routine a bit.

I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on this. Did you give it a try? Did you find a boost in your happiness?

Bruschetta (4 pieces)

1 Roma tomato
1 heirloom tomato
1 tsp olive oil
salt
balsamic glaze
5 basil leaves
4 slices of sour dough baquette

Preheat oven to 415 degrees.

Core the Roma and the heirloom, then dice into small pieces. Spread the tomatoes evenly over the sour dough bread. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and 1 tsp olive oil.

Put aluminum foil on a cookie sheet and place pieces of bruschetta on top. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

While the bread is baking, thinly slice the basil leaves.

Remove bruschetta from the oven. Top with the basil leaves and a drizzle of balsamic glaze.

A travel mindset

Writing about travel is, at its core, writing about new experiences. I have been discovered that I can investigate new places and write about these new experiences without traveling far. In fact, this week I visited a place right in my own home town that I had never been to before, a beautiful spot that I had been missing out on.

Located along the Yakima river is the Chamna Natural Preserve – a park of over 276 acres with miles of trails zig zagging their way through native plants and tunnels of trees. Walking through the River Path trail is like standing in the middle of a choir of birds. It’s a perfect way to ease into the weekend.

In the late afternoon, with the sun setting low in the sky, the beams shining through the leaves and onto the river provide the perfect backdrop – a place to rest and release all the stress of the day.

If you are ever in Richland, Washington and are looking for a short hike into nature check out this park. But there is a secret to this experience – you must follow the River Path trail – any other path will bring you through the middle of sagebrush and you’ll wonder why I ever suggested this hike! Follow the entrance closest to the river, then take a right at every fork on the trail. You won’t be disappointed!

Continue reading A travel mindset

Freedom to Write

I’m not a writer. That’s what I told myself whenever I would think about writing an article, blogging, anything like that. And then I’d push it out of my mind and go back to my tasks, because there is always some task that needs to be done – cupcakes for a bake sale, girl scout cookie booths, sports uniforms that need to be washed. But now I find myself in a season of life where the youngest child has just left home, I have time now to slow down, except I can’t. It is my personality, I’m a driver, always have been. And part of it is the fact that I’ve been running full speed ahead raising children, building a career, going to college, for 30 years – and I really don’t know how to slow down, even though I really WANT to.

Recently I came across a travel and food blog and as I browsed it I thought how amazing that life would be. Traveling to different places and experiencing different foods – and then sharing that experience with the world. And suddenly, I had an epiphany, there is no reason I could not write about my experiences now – just for me – because somehow, writing about it gives me permission to slow down and experience it. That’s it – I just needed a reason to slow down – I needed to give myself permission.

And so this blog was born. And if someone else finds benefit in reading these articles, a bonus! But if not – it’s ok, because it has already served its intended purpose – it gave me the permission I needed to savor these experiences