A Year of Manifesting Wellness
In the first newsletter of each month, I'll be doing a review of the previous month's theme in my year of Manifesting Wellness. I’ll also share a little bit about the project overall and what I plan to do in the current month to manifest wellness.
April Wrap up
April’s theme was Outer Order, Inner Calm. I planned to get some work done on a massive scanning and document organization project I want to do and to get some broader organizational tasks done.
April was a roller coaster physically - which falls over to how I also feel mentally and emotionally. Gayle and I returned from our trip to Florida and I had a “cold”. I seemed to get a little better and then all of a sudden, I definitely wasn’t better. I ended up at my primary care physician (PCP) on April 11 with the nebulous diagnosis of a sinus infection and the pat on the head prescription of an antibiotic. I took the antibiotic as directed and whether through time or medication, I seemed to feel better. Unfortunately, as of this moment, I’m sick again and I will be back at my PCP today likely headed to another diagnosis of sinus infection and another antibiotic. I also finally got scheduled for radiation and started radiation in April with one week done as we start May.
I didn’t make much visible progress on the scanning project, but I did make progress in terms of figuring out workflows and testing those out. When starting a really big project like this, doing some analysis and testing is important to avoid heading down a path doing something in a way that won’t actually work in the long run. I’ve also been working on some ways to stay organized in the project so that I don’t get lost in the middle of the project and losing track of what has been done.
Something that has brought a great deal of wellness this month is journaling more often as well as using the Dwell bible app during my drive to radiation each day. I’ve been practicing breath prayer while I am laying on the radiation table as an addition to simply using the time to pray and meditate on family and friends. I needed to give my brain a positive assignment while the radiation machine travels around me rather than leaving it to its own devices. Prayer and meditation is about the only option I have during that 10 - 15 minutes a day.
May’s Focus
Let’s review the monthly themes as they currently stand:
January - FinancesFebruary - SpiritMarch - EnergyApril - Outer Order ← Tax time is always a good time to get things in orderMay -
PlayCreativity←Cancer treatment should be OVER!!June -
Body???←My body has been through a lot. Time to give it some focus. Since Cancer treatment is not yet done as of May, I’m going to move Body to August and will pick a different theme for June. Not sure what that will be yet. I welcome your thoughts!July - Family & Friends ← I’m headed out on vacation with the family at the beginning of the month and Gayle and I may host some friends in July.
August -
HealthBody← This is the normal time I do my “project health” month, so I’m going to focus on my body.September - Work ← Labor Day is a nice reminder to focus on work
October - Celebration ← I’ve got a big birthday this month
November - Awe and Wonder
December - Onward
What's Planned for May?
One of the things I like to demonstrate with this whole year long project is that it’s not set in stone. It’s a project plan that has to adjust to real life. And, real life is that cancer treatment won’t be done in May as I had anticipated in January when I made the plan. The medical establishment in America exemplifies the idea of “hurry up and wait”.
So, I am going to focus on creativity for May. It’s a big form of “play” for me so I’m not deviating too far from the original plan. However, I’d hoped to go to a bungee fitness class in May during my focus on play and that’s just not going to happen. So, I’ll try to get back into writing and other creative endeavors in May while my body still needs a great deal of gentleness as I navigate another “cold” or “infection” and deal with radiation throughout the whole month.
How is your year going so far?
Some Things You Might Find Interesting
What I published: I’m going to strike this section unless I do have something I published. I hope I do during this month of focusing on creativity - but I’m also not going to put as much pressure on myself.
Keep Up With My Cancer Journey: Radiation is underway although I’ve not written much about it. If you’d like to follow along in more detail on this journey, you can request access to my Cancer Journey website at https://www.mylifeline.org/invitation/Monroe4702670/c4d9a0945939697870a9267ec2cd951230b25b0e9f023ca466233659967b5e46
Kona’s Big Week: Those who are also Facebook friends may have already seen part of this, but you all get a little something extra. Kona, my three year old miniature double doodle had a very big week this past week. He and I are going to Michigan with family in July. Being the overprotective dog mom I am, I wanted to see how he reacted to water. You get to see both his first and last swim below - from loud flailing and splashing to quiet doggy paddling - even grabbing the toy the trainer threw in the water. Additionally, Gayle and I go to the same dentist and ended up having cleaning appointments on the same day so we finally made a video of Kona’s nightly dental ritual. Our dentist office team loved it.
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I think June should be all about FUN! And loved the Kona video!!!