Hello, my darlings! The title for this blog is from my man’s song or whatever. If you know you know.  Yeah, he talented. Hahaha, y’all. I am me like the crew from ABDC. Again if you know you know. Truly I’m stalling because I don’t know how to start this blog. With that being said let’s get it.

Cabin fever has been kicking my behind lately. I am daydreaming about future trips and reminiscing about old trips.  FOMO (fear of missing out) has hands too.  I mean, I AM A CUTE 24 yet here I am locked up like Rapunzel daydreaming about when my life will begin. Honestly, what does that even mean? Because life is happening right now. Whether I am spending the unpromised time I have on this earth working, traveling, or sleeping it away, it is happening now.

I can’t lie, these days I’m often mentally somewhere in Tulum, Italy, or Greece with a drink in hand, getting kissed by the sun and listening to the ocean. Or sometimes my mind is in LA spending money I don’t have. Daydreaming is great until it robs you of the time you are in now. I need to embrace and start practicing being present here in Austin. But that is so much easier said than done. Because we are still very much in a panoramic.

Staying in has been a trip and will continue to be a trip because only God knows when this end. Last winter was long, the sun is being wishy washy (like are you staying or not), which can trigger seasonal  depression. My personal favorite. Then there is the overthinking of where my future is heading. Wondering how many times I will hear the word “unprecedented.” Dealing with change and trying to love like Jesus when there are people in this world who are just difficult to love. All that and then some- I blinked and it’s been a year of quarantine. So I asked myself, how can I appreciate  living in the present when it’s not giving  what it was supposed to be gave?

Watching the movie Soul helped me answer this question. If you have not seen it, please go see it. The character “22” helped me see that we often get so focused about achieving our goals, waiting for the future to happen which causes us to let the present pass us by.  There is so much more to the film but that is what I will be focused on today.

Remember the little things we did when we were growing up that helped us slow down time and experience joy at the same time. Activities like coloring, playing outside, making wishy washy water slides, cloud watching, etc. Why did we stop doing those things? Because we had grown up. Adulthood has its peaks but darlings it’s is a scammm. Also why can’t we still do activities like that and be adults too. Or are these activites out here and I just can’t see them. Maybe I am not looking. There is so much more to life than living to work, working to fund your dream job, drinking to escape your reality and paying bills. There just has to be.

I don’t need to be overseas to enjoy my life. I believe enjoyment starts with appreciating what you already have around you. Having things to look forward to is great.  My issue with looking forward to things is that I will build up all these expectations about the experience. Then when I am in the moment I overanalyze if it lived up to my expectation versus actual living being in the moment. Therefore robbing myself of that experience.

With that being said join me for my “Embracing  22” exercise. I have put together activities that will hopefully help you and I become more intentional about being in the moment. I am hoping these activities will help with slowing down time, and might help in producing some much-needed serotonin. I think practicing living in the present now can help us to fully live in those moments that we are waiting for when they come around. Also, I think it will be fun. I want to start taking Peter Pan’s advice about never growing up. With a twist tho because your good sis has bills. Lastly, I think it will help me with my cabin fever and FOMO.

Until next time,

SOMS.

This blog was edited by Audra Beaty.

The ”Embracing 22″ graphic was created by Tolu Oyebode.