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.
May Wrap up
May was ROUGH. Radiation was hard. Thankfully, it was only hard because the most noticeable side effect was fatigue. The fatigue I’ve battled through all of my cancer treatment was nothing compared to what May brought. It was a nap or two a day kind of fatigue - and even then, I still needed to go to bed at 8 p.m.
That said, while I didn’t take on any insane creative endeavors in May, I did prepare myself for some more creativity in the coming months. While I wish I would have gotten to more creativity in May, I needed to prioritize rest.
One thing I did do was get back to Creative Work Hour - my daily group online checkin. I wasn’t there every day, but I did get back for a few sessions. You often don’t realize how much you needed something until you get back to it a few times.
Cooking is one of my primary areas of creativity. Gayle and I are both trying to reinstall some healthful habits around eating and moving. As the head chef in the Bestie Bungalow, it’s primarily my responsibility to see to our overall nutritional needs. So, as I’ve begun planning meals for June, I’ve been finding good ways to add in more veggies, more fiber, and leaner proteins. With my last external radiation session being today, I’ll add in more fiber for myself as well. Salads - here we come!
I also signed up for an online painting and drawing class from one of my favorite artists. The difference with this one is she’s running it with several online zoom sessions. I hope this helps me build confidence and have fun with art again by meeting other people and taking a pass at some fun summer themed drawings/paintings. The class doesn’t start until June but I made sure I could block time for the sessions and the practice needed to do the assignments right after I paid for the class.
June’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 - Rest
Body???←My body has been through a lot. Time to give it some focus.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 June?
While active treatment will FINALLY be over in June, I’ll likely experience further dips in energy until the end of the month as all of the radiation finishes doing its thing in my body over the next few weeks. So, I’m going to prioritize rest. This has been a challenge for me. I would rather go and do. However, I have some big work projects, we have a big outing during the month, and I’m gearing up toward a very busy July. So, I need to listen to my body and prioritize what it needs right now which is the space and freedom to continue to heal through rest.
How is your year going so far? What’s your favorite way to rest? I’m thinking a nap outdoors on the back porch may be in store for me at some point.
Some Things You Might Find Interesting
What I published: Maybe next week!
Keep Up With My Cancer Journey: Tomorrow, I plan to post a full update on the impact of external radiation and the next steps in treatment on my Cancer Journey site. 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
Nike’s Big Bet: We are an Olympics household. More than that, we’re big fans of track and field, swimming, and gymnastics even during non-Olympic years. This past week, we watched the documentary, Nike’s Big Bet. (It’s available on Peacock). The documentary was good, but our conversation after about the ethics of sport and ethics in general was excellent. I love when media of any kind causes you to think more deeply about weighty, meaty topics. I highly recommend - especially if you can watch with a buddy and have a good conversation about many of the ethical questions raised in the show.
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