Happy Monday!

Did you miss me last week? I’m sorry — I was down bad and not in the fun Taylor Swift alien-abduction way. I usually write this newsletter on Sunday evening and I just didn’t have it in me last week thanks to a stomach bug.

I’m gonna work on getting ahead by at least a week, but the important thing is that we’re back on track this week and ready to have another best week ever!

This week I’m curious about what kind of friend you are, but before we get into that let’s complete our Best Week Basics. Grab your notebook and spend the next 20 minutes laying the groundwork for having your best week ever.

🦋 Following the "Best Week Basics" is essential to having your best week ever. Use this time to really plan for the week ahead and think about what needs to happen for you to feel like you had a productive, fulfilling week.

  1. 🪞 Reflection: Reflect on last week. What went wrong? What went right? What can you celebrate? What can you try to do better this week? 

  2. Intention: Set your intentions for this week. What needs to happen to ensure you have the absolute best week ever? Take a few minutes to do a brain dump and organize your to-do list if you feel overwhelmed.

  3. 📆 Time block: Review your calendar and make sure you have time blocked off to complete your most important and urgent tasks.

🔮 Every week I pull a tarot card to give us guidance for the week. Take what resonates and leave what doesn’t. 

Week of June 3, 2024: King of Cups (reversed)

Delve into your emotional world with the insights from the reversed King of Cups.

Take time to explore your innermost feelings and subconscious patterns, aiming for a deeper understanding of how emotions shape your life.

Engage in activities like journaling, seeking therapy, or reading self-help materials to gain clarity and control over your emotional well-being.

Be mindful of emotional triggers that may lead to upset or overwhelm, and practice self-compassion in moments of difficulty. Strive to maintain emotional balance and resilience, acknowledging that your feelings are valid and worthy of attention.

By nurturing a healthy relationship with your emotions, set the intention to approach the week with greater emotional awareness, control, and compassion for yourself and others.

Affirmation: I honor my emotions and approach each day with compassion and resilience.

☕️ Monday Musings are thoughts and stories from my own entrepreneurial and personal-growth journeys. I hope to eventually share more of your stories here, too. Grab your favorite beverage while you read, and please hit ‘reply’ to share your thoughts!

Monday Musings: Would you be friends with you?

Do you ever get stuck in a negative thought loop? Replaying every word you've ever said, every decision you've ever made, and every encounter you've ever had?

No? Just me?

Okay, I've had this conversation with enough folks to know that's not true.

We've probably all been there.

Some of you might be there right now.

I was there so badly last year that I had to go on antidepressants. I was incessantly beating myself up. I had a bully, but that bully was my own negative self-talk, and no matter what I did, I just couldn't get it to stop. No amount of meditating or journaling could get me out of the hole I was in. My racing thoughts made it nearly impossible to sleep, and they'd usually pick right back up where they left off as soon as my eyes opened.

Now, obviously, this was an extreme instance. Years' worth of build-up that finally just bubbled up all at once.

The medicine did its job. It allowed me to find some reprieve from those thoughts and start working on the root of what was causing me to have these feelings.

I'm not ready to fully dive into that journey, but I do want to share one tool that's really helped me not backslide since going off of that medicine in January.

When I feel those negative thoughts start to creep back in, I ask myself, would you talk to your friends like that?

Would I reassure them that they are, in fact, a failure?

Absolutely not.

Would I ever agree with them that they're an imposter and don't deserve the success they've had?

Never in a million years.

In fact, I genuinely want to be my friends' #1 cheerleader. I want to celebrate every single thing about them.

I wholeheartedly LOVE to see my friends win.

So if I wouldn't speak negatively or validate negative feelings for my friends, why am I so comfortable doing it to myself?

I'm not sure why, but that outlook really helped me reduce those negative thoughts. I think it highlighted that those thoughts are just that -- thoughts. They hold no truth. I can think, "the grass is purple," but that doesn't make the grass purple.

So, the next time you find yourself beating yourself up, wondering if you said the wrong thing, or made the right decision, ask yourself if you'd talk to your friends like that.

And if the answer is no, let that thought go just as easily as it came.

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👯‍♀️ Are we following each other on Instagram yet? If not, let’s fix that.

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