Hey 👋🏽,

I woke up this morning with Monday thoughts. Luckily, I was rescued from myself minutes later by the sound of padding feet in the hallway.

A sliver of daylight beamed into our cave. 5yo’s big eyes squinted as he scooted for the bed.

I dreamed I was Spiderman.

he announced.

Snuggle me!

Future thoughts about work have been a welcome distraction from an unfamiliar and unstable present. They fill the space left by life before now; 6am workouts, 8am school dropoffs, 12P errand runs…

They also prevent you from ever really being “here” so this week, I set out to layer myself-not-at-work back into my routine.

How do you retrain work brain? By letting go of an old habit loop:

⏰Cue: wakeup
👀Craving: get on hamster wheel/be productive
🕺Response: swim for phone/laptop and commence productivity
🎉Reward: feel productive and stressed AF

And building a new one (from no. 22): new one:

⏰Cue: wakeup
👀Craving: be present
🧠Response: still the mind then spend 30m reading
💡Reward: start the day calm and fully charged

This morning, it worked. Snuggles commenced and continued until he broke free.

MOM. I can’t breathe! And I need to go watch Garfield!

Fearful, we spend more of our minds living in the past or future as this present stretches out indefinitely. Hopeful, we allow our minds to experience whatever is happening now by building new habits (or getting help from Spiderman), and let that be enough.

Here are a few things I enjoyed this week:

🧠 burnout and the brain Association for Psychological Science, 14m

A recurring theme in conversations this week has been guilt over feeling blessed but stressed from people who still have their health and their jobs. I’m not sure if I’ve seen an actual increase in articles on covid related burnout over the last couple of weeks or am actively seeking them out more, but appreciated this piece filled with studies and stats about the neurological impact of burnout and how to mitigate it. More on this:

I have given up: parenting in quarantine NYT oped
to avoid burnout, work less and avoid productivity propoganda Bloomberg | Quint

❤️some good news Youtube, 18m

John Krasinski wins quarantine
If you are an Office fan and/or need a pick me up and/or haven’t seen this yet, enjoy all the feels of this Office wedding reunion (starting at 7:18).

things I learned getting punched in the face Human Parts, 13m

🚶🏽‍♀️stop forgetting what you learned My Student Voices, 9m

Instead of taking notes or rephrasing the author’s words into your own words, ask yourself questions that will help you practice recalling information.

I miss you, I love you, g2g 5yo is playing Uptown Funk for the 33rd time this weekend,

P.S. Come workout and raise money for a good cause during Monday night HIIT + Stretch classes.

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