It’s only May 1st and I am having my first cup of tea on the front steps.

May this bode well for the summer ahead.

My title is a pun. Or maybe a play on words. I get those things tangled sometimes.

Since I always have so much going on in September, I tend to lose time and find myself dumped unceremoniously into October before I even realize it.

Then, of course, we get into birthday season (I swear, half the people I know were born in October or November) and then I find myself bewildered in December wondering how I got there.

I’m taking a couple of measures to make sure that September goes a bit more slowly this year. I’m basically putting some time ‘anchors’ in my day so I notice that time is passing and one day doesn’t spill into the next.

One of those anchors is the yoga I was talking about in my last post. Another, is a drawing project about an octopus.

Every day, I have been drawing a little ‘note to self’ in the form of a quick sketch of an octopus named Octavia who is learning to take better care of herself.

It might be twee but I’ve never let that stop me before. AND, besides, drawing octopi is fun.

I set some rules for myself – a quick sketch in pencil, not very detailed, minimal erasing, and while I can go back after this month and correct errors, for right now, I am just leaving the drawing however it landed in the first place.

See?

I’ve been doing yoga every day for 10 days now since I decided that September is for yoga.

I’m really enjoying the daily practice and I love how much ease I can feel in my body already.

Those things are to be expected really, even though, somehow, the fact that exercises makes my body feel good surprises me every time.*

The thing that has really surprised me though is how this daily practice has made yoga more available to me all the time.

Now when my shoulders feel tight or if my hips are wonky, it occurs to me to do a few yoga poses to help find ease.

Usually, I might try a quick stretch but I don’t do it with the deliberate breaths and movement that I associate with yoga.

And usually I wouldn’t think to do yoga or yoga-like movements because they weren’t part of a longer or ‘proper’ practice.

But once I have done yoga in the morning, it now stays top-of-mind and available to me to use all day. It has become ‘OK’ to do just one pose at a time.

Obviously, it was always ‘OK’ but now my mind is reminding me that yoga is available to me. So instead of my brain saying ‘You don’t have time for yoga.’ it says ‘Why not try some cat-cow?’

And that is marvellous!

Another yoga bonus, I’ve been making a little monster drawing to celebrate each day for my online yoga group.

*My ADHD-related challenges with task initiation always make it seem like exercise is going to be more trouble than it’s worth.

Much like that famous quote about hating to write but loving having written, I love to have data about my life but I hate recording it.

I think it’s fun to look back on lists and charts of things I’ve done, books I’ve read, tea that I’ve tried and see how I got from there to here.

I’ve tried all kinds of spreadsheets and charts and the like but I always stop keeping track.

My ADHD brain gets twitchy about getting so detailed and I get bored with recording the info*.

Or at least I have up until now.

I’m currently working my way through a cool book by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec and I think that DRAWING my data might be just be quirky enough to keep me coming back to it.

What does it mean to draw your data?

Have fun with this ‘data selfie’ exercise by Giorgia Lupi and see what I mean.

https://ideas.ted.com/how-to-draw-your-own-selfie-using-your-personal-data/

Here’s what my ‘selfie’ looks like:

Looks just like me, hey?

*Especially if it is in a spreadsheet – those things hate me.