Fungi, the newest member of the family of energy manipulators.

Like the flora and the fauna, fungi is a kingdom classification that feeds in our various environments. It’s beautiful to see their organic cycle support the completion of another process. This seems to be the space to look further into correlations between the mind, body, and the soul.

Necessary to the ecosystem of the environment, this trifecta of teams help move the cycles through:

• Like the plants, our mind gives out energy; it creates sentences and art that is inspirational.

• Our body-represented by fauna, uses foods from around to build and repair cells, always searching for another thing to bring our attention one step closer to surviving the next moment (aka, we need food).

• Like the mushrooms, our soul is one to know the end of a story, and move through to the next moment, only carrying what we need, and breaking down the rest.

Decomposition within our human experience lead by our soul, takes information, memories, feelings, and helps to shake away things that are too heavy. When we move, exercise, and sometimes accidentally “lash out,” we are emotionally moving past a feeling. With intention, movement after recognizing a “big feeling,” we can honor our ability to move. We are not just fungi composting our surroundings, we are not even just the fauna eating our way through our tasks, and without expression of our experiences we are not honoring our flora gifts of sharing and shining bright. We are a beautiful combination of all three.

Decomposition is in our inherent cyclical design. We can let it run us, or we can guide what goes and what grows.

If we are each a reflection of health, we have multiple dimensions of what we can measure to be on a scale of health and “un-health.” While we should not be fretting all dimensions of health all the time, there are seasons to focus on different dimensions while putting other on the back burner. In this blog series,” decomposition,” I hope to shine light on various habits related to dimensions of health not to burden your opportunities of growth, but to provide ideas of habits to try on. If it seems like something you can take on, or adopt into your routines, do it, and use your personal interest in the activity to accomplish it!

On tap this week:

• Academic:

  • Grows-Plug in an academic podcast while doing household chores, laundry, dishes, pulling weeds/watering the plant. my favorite is The Huberman Lab- where he thanks us for our interest in science. <3 Here is a playlist of some of his episodes I’ve found that really resonate with a cycle of awareness, for any moment of our journey. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/12ZULFQrP3auuAfV1dhrpN?si=Drr-xCW-To2cdw0VKFAE6g&utm_source=copy-link&pi=k7DqJ0i7TpyMS

    • no goes- eliminate any self talk that limits your ability to understand a new topic. ex: “im just not a XYZ person..” “it’s never been my thing..” expose yourself to it, and you can be!

• Creative:

  • Grows: spend 5 minutes drawing patterns or an object on a post-it note.

    • No goes: buying a blank white canvas, huge piece of white printer paper to draw on. starting small on a creative practice with no-stakes of “wasting new,” is helpful to not tie the “perfect outcome,” to a quality resource.

• Emotional:

  • Grows: Tell someone what they did that made you happy, grateful, or excited. “that made me happy when…” “I’m grateful that you..” send the text, make the call, leave a post-it note.

    • no goes: drink a whole cup of water when you wake up. being dehydrated is the worst thing* we can do for our emotions. Start the day strong.

• Environmental:

  • Grows: Tidy your desk space at the end of each work day.

    • No goes: Throw away your own trash at the end of a movie, stadium game/event. The bleachers are not your garbage. not even for the peanut shells, it all has to be picked up by someone, as that someone also has a family to go home to at the end of the day, at least you got to be there with yours. Pick up your own trash!

• Financial:

  • Grows: Swap and trade gifts and talents with your friends for your birthday/celebrations. Buying a new item is overrated. A kind letter is worth a 100 new bags/candles/mugs.

    • No goes: Staying blind to your checking account and bills. Be in the know, it’s empowering.

• Intellectual:

  • Grows: Being aware of thinking patters- “Metacognition.” and other mental habits. Check out “habits of mind”

    • No goes: Distracting yourself on your pone when something on your computer isn’t loading/working.. stick with the problem, or patiently wait to have the screen loaded. keep your mind on track towards your goal of accomplishment. “Grit,” is the golden ticket.

• Physical:

  • Grows: Being grateful that we have a body is the best, first place to start in any health and fitness journey. From love and gratitude, we grow. Practice saying things like,”im grateful my legs can walk me to the store from my car,” “im grateful my eyes can see color..”

    • No goes: alcohol. It’s a poison. be in charge of when/if you use it.

• Social:

  • Grows: After being with someone, send them a text, “made it home!,” “i had fun!” “i laughed so hard when..”

    • no goes: feeling lonely. Be okay with being alone, or call/text someone. read a book, watch a movie, go for a walk, be in nature. There are too many emotions to feel, and senses to experience, loneliness is not worth it. 988 is a phone number to call if loneliness had taken over, and no one comes to mind.

• Spiritual:

  • Grows: Recognize the power of “awe.” Nature and skylines are a place to start for a moment of “PAUSE.” “Please, Allow a, Useful, Silent, Experience.”

    • no Goes: Hate. The word, the action, Eliminate this word from your vocabulary.