Flourishing in Daily Habits and Routines – Flourish Friday

A while back I was noticing that some of my favourite bloggers were involved in the Flourish linkup with The Kardia Blog, which I also read and love! So I decided to look more into it.

When I saw their mission statement, I was sold. It meshes so completely with what I want this blog to be about, which is living purposefully and deliberately. Here’s what it’s all about:

This month’s flourish theme is daily habits and routines!

 

I’m getting married in 16 days (AAAH!!), so I know that as soon as I get married everything that’s “typical” for me now is going to be turned on its head. That’s just life–when you have a big change, you’ve got to be willing to adapt and compromise in order to reap the benefits.

I’m a perfectionist, and I am constantly having to remind myself to actually sit down and be in the moment. So before I focus on what I want to change, I’m going to tell you about 10 things I’m grateful for this month!

10 Things I was Grateful For in June

1. The amazing weather. It’s snowy a lot here in the winter and I hate it, but in the summers it’s gorgeous in Ottawa.
2. Picnics at the beach with my fiancé.
3. An amazing bridal party who threw me the best bachelorette ever, and all of the friends who came.
4. Parents who have stood by me in my relationship with Connor for the ups and the downs, and even take his side over mine when he’s right!
5. How God has provided for me and Connor as we’re dealing with all of the stresses that come with wedding things
6. My Honours Thesis research is going quite well even though I’m extremely busy.
7. Our amazing church and what an amazing place it is to get involved in! Connor and I have both found places where we can really minister there, and it’s been amazing.
8. The joy that getting back into blogging has brought me!
9. My sister getting accepted into the same school as me for the fall
10. Our apartment and how beautiful it is becoming as I slowly transition my stuff from where I’m living now to where we will both be living when we’re married

How I will Flourish in my Daily Habits and Routines

Lately I’ve noticed how much I crave and need routine. Gina Alyse’s post on why having a schedule is good for creativity was the thing that turned the light switch on in my brain to realize “Wow! maybe the reason I’m getting nothing done is because my brain can’t really function without a set agenda!” And let me tell you, it’s so true. So here are some ways I want to flourish in my daily habits/routines this month:

Begin every day with a fresh start

Honestly, what you do in the morning sets the tone for the entire day. The month of July, I want to start every morning with a smoothie or fresh fruit for breakfast and reading a chapter of the Bible. I did this during the school year and it helped me stay motivated to work out, do my school, and still have lots of time to spend with Connor, out with friends, at church, or on writing papers.

Lower the amount of sensory stimulation I am exposed to

Sorry, I’m a psych student, so that’s actually how I think.

Often if you look at my computer you can see netflix, pinterest, twitter, facebook, a couple of blogs, buzzfeed, and youtube all open in tabs. Then behind that there’s an ebook or two that I’m trying to read, and a few thousand unfinished craft projects on my desk. I constantly have 200 things going on, and this month I want to work on simplifying what I do every day.

The way I will do that is by tackling one thing at a time. For instance, Mondays will be for my honours thesis research, Tuesdays are when I’ll do all of my twitter scheduling for the entire week, and on Wednesdays I’ll write all of my blog posts for the week. This is how I work best during the school year, and I think it’ll help give me more time for the 1000 craft projects I really want to finish this summer while also freeing my mind to focus on the task at hand rather than scramble to multi-task, which I’m really not very good at (ENTJ probs).

Take time to get ready in the morning

Honestly, since I’m not going to school every day, I don’t think I’ve straightened my hair or curled it for non-wedding-related-purposes since April. I mean, I’ve kept it clean–there’s not a personal hygiene issue here, it’s just that I’m not putting in effort to make myself feel attractive and pretty. And I don’t want that to continue into my marriage, since I think that looking attractive for your husband is a way of showing him love.

So I want to actually make myself all prettied up more often than not. I’m going to say 4x a week. Sometimes it’s just really hot, and makeup runs and hair gets frizzy, but I’m more productive when I feel that I look professional, and it makes Connor happy to see me put in effort, too, so I don’t see any downside to this one. :) It also helps me feel more confident and just in a better mood when I take extra time to take care of myself.

What Flourish Means to Me

Since this is my first flourish linkup, I don’t have a last month to reflect on, so instead I get to talk about what flourishing actually means to me personally.

To me, to flourish is to live in such a way that you are ready to get up every morning. It’s that simple. When I’m in a really good place and I’m productive, even if I’m not the happiest, waking up isn’t a chore. I just get up, because it’s time to get up and I have lots that I have to get done today. For the last few months, though, I’ve been struggling to get out of bed in the morning because I’ve allowed my routine to get out of control (netflix until 1AM anybody?), so I’ve been wasting time and not feeling like I’m getting much done.

When I’m doing well in life, when I feel that I’m living purposefully, I am ready to get up every morning (psych nerds: yes, that is a characteristic of self-actualizing people according to Maslow). I’m excited to face the day and I’m motivated to get stuff done because when you live deliberately you see results. I’m tired of drifting along like I have been this summer, so I think this is the perfect flourish linkup to start on. :)

Are you interested in getting involved with this linkup or reading more posts like this? Click on the image below to go see some more great posts and catch up with people you read last month!

That’s all I have for this month. What is one way you can flourish when it comes to your daily routine?