Why We Need Summer Resolutions
Cannonballing into summer with hutzpah instead of anxiety
A former boyfriend texted me out of the blue last week, and we ended up talking for a bit. I could be cute and call it a ‘haunting’, but I have resigned myself to the fact that his ghost is still floating listlessly around the chambers of my heart, whether we actually talk or not. “I can’t get over how different your voice sounds”, he said. He went on to say that anxiety was ever present in my voice, but he didn’t realize it, having known only that version of me.
Well, when you have decades of accumulated monkeys on your back, to the point where they have their own little specialty monkey colonies, a person is going to sound anxious. In sharing my journal entries from my first year sober here on Substack, I have been witnessing the changes in me along with anyone reading it. It’s pretty cool to see my neural pathways breaking and reorganizing by doing life differently, then my beliefs about what was true and false changing, which in turn changed how I experienced people, places, and things. Ultimately, I upturned my life and reassembled it to align with my beliefs and how I wanted to experience life on a day to day basis.
But that is not what I want to write about today, although it is related to change. I want to write about Summer Resolutions, which psychologists believe are more helpful to our well-being than the New Year’s variety. They really should be a bigger thing, especially for those of us who live in Seattle, when the Big Dark and its little sister Juneuary are finally gone and the days are gloriously long. It is hard to get motivated in January when there are days the sun seems to have completely forgotten to do its job and come out. Summer seems like the perfect time for me to set some resolutions, while I have more hours of daylight, less paraphernalia needed just to go outside, and more hutzpah.
Big shout out for the hutzpah part. I mean, I am no stranger to the Struggle Bus, but now I am on the Holiday schedule as opposed to the every 10 minute Monday - Friday schedule. And last summer I was still getting used to life without Ye Olde taketh-the-edge-offeth thou cure, alcohol, while this summer I have established coping tools and have learned that feelings are not actually scary monsters out to kill me.
My Summer 2024 Resolution List:
Go to the Farmer’s Market more often without my dog (sorry, baby). Why set myself up to be anxious that she will get huffy with some random Labradoodle who doesn’t respect an Akita’s personal space requirement? A busy market is just not her jam and I get to choose my fruits and veggies and bouquet of flowers in peace. See the pic of the bouquet I purchased yesterday ( a la Miley Cyrus).
No dogs were harmed in the procurement of this bouquet! Credit to my artist daughter Emma Aiello for the paintings in the background. More frequent strength training workouts. Something about the summer just makes me want to channel an actress getting ready to star in an action hero movie. Plus, I know that we start losing muscle mass as we get older, and I am not okay with that because I need muscle to garden, keep up with my dog, and move without fear of injury.. Instead of 1-2/week, I will do 3/week workouts with weights.
Be still in nature. Oh my, this one is sooooo hard for me. My astrological birth chart is ~90% fire, and I do not like being still. However, even in the brief moments I practice this, something wonderful comes to my heart or mind or both.
Write some fiction. My astrological makeup also tends toward a love of mystery (heavy Scorpio placements) and puzzle solving (prominent Mercury), and I have been inspired lately by writer
’s thoughtful and varied Substack nook, Thyme, Place, & Story, which scratches my mystery itch and more. She has been posting serialized short works, along with some behind the scenes notes on the hows and whys of the stories. And she shares about herbs (<3), which nicely complements my herbalist program coursework.
I think that’s enough, don’t you? It is Summer, after all, and time to be chill and not get all Hermione Granger about things.