ISSUE 44: do yourself a favour
the magical power of committing to something for 40 days, podcasts that are making me think, a mood board (naturally) and a story
The Debrief is a weekly newsletter - because the post life event chats are (almost) always better than the event itself. Forever honest and aesthetic driven.
Do yourself a favour:
01 | & commit to something for 40 straight days. Be flexible in the time of day but rigid in the fact that it is happening. Do it when you feel like it. Do it when you’re exhausted after your second straight 5am to 10pm day living the dance mom life and you feel like your energy stores are completely depleted. Do it. Do it when you’re kind of sick but telling yourself you’re not actually sick. Do it when you do in fact have a fever (well I’m no doctor so perhaps take that into consideration). Do it when there is chaos outside your closed door (just turn the mantra up a little). Enlist your cat for support. Tell people you’re doing it. Write it in a newsletter. Public accountability has always been a great motivating factor for me. Miss the fact that you’ve surpassed the 40th day, figure it out two days later when you count the days on your calendar. Revel in the fact that it feels light and easy now. That your legs no longer scream at you. That you’re in a rhythm and you don’t want it to end. Savour it.
— filed under notes of a devoted meditator after surpassing her second 40 day practice.
— also filed under “perhaps I will go for 90 days this time…”
If you want to join me, I am still doing this meditation usually between the hours of 7:30 and 9:30 pm.
02 | & listen to this podcast episode for some woo woo filled goodness in the best way. My favourite way to listen is while walking with a purpose (as in make it count dammit and be out of breath when you voice message someone to tell them how much you loved that episode whilst still walking with a purpose).
03 | & listen to this podcast to be reminded of how far you’ve come - cue me reflecting on my podcast interview I did with Ruby in 2022 when I was running 3 businesses and had myself convinced that more = better.
04 | & explore outside of an algorithm. For me, that came in the form of a new mood in a mood board. I will admit to taking issue with the format of this board. It’s rough and thrown together with a pretty little bow on top (in the form of an overlay I seem to always reuse in photoshop). But sometimes the rush of pulling inspiration together for a new project, trumps the actual format of said inspiration, and in this case I spent a couple of hours lost outside of the algorithm, exploring saved accounts, seeing who they followed who seemed interesting, and diving just a little deeper. I love starting out new projects this way - in a completely free & entirely unforced exploration.
05 | & read this interview that photographer Amanda Thirkill published of me (okay okay you would be doing me a favour in this case, but the whole series is so inspiring). I had the pleasure of collaborating with Amanda by answering some pretty challenging questions about my story and journey to this point as a small business owner / entrepreneur for this special project celebrating International Women’s Week. She also set up an incredible shoot space at the NAC with an amazing team of contributors. I am so thrilled to be included in her series celebrating 5 Ottawa female entrepreneurs. Check it out here.
happy weekend!
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Thank you for reading. I used to write a lot so this feels good. — Ashley.
Loved this post! It came at the right time and the right space. Thank you for always sharing your authentic self!
This post is so fun, Ash! Love.