Tag: NewMooninReview

Anxiety strikes again…but managed to edge into the stretch zone: Gemini Goals in Review

The moon will be transitioning through the Cancer constellation tomorrow (or maybe tonight—depending on where you are in the world), which means its time to look back at the goals I set for the Gemini new moon and see how I did with each of them.

So, what were my Gemini New Moon goals? They included:

  1. The creation of a multi-prong personal/professional development plans (including health/fitness, finances, spirituality, career, and hobbies/crafts), as I’m confident in the direction I want to pivot in, and I’m not getting any younger. This will also tie in with my personal/professional development game (creating different types of content based on the ‘square’ I landed on).
  2. Continue with my daily intentional movements and nightly meditations/sitting quietly moments.
  3. Start getting out of my comfort zone and interacting more on different sites (LinkedIn for example). I’m great at ‘lurking’, but need to start trying to interact and comment on what others post; and possibly start trying to do more ‘zoom coffee chats’
  4. As always—reading, reading, and more reading.

So how did I do with each of them?

In terms of the personal/professional development plan:

I started creating my multi-prong personal/professional development plan…and had an anxiety attack.

A day or so later, I realized what I did ‘wrong’—I basically was throwing everything down onto paper (again)…

So how am I getting around that problem (of throwing everything onto paper)?

I’m making a list of goals (initially without dates attached), and then will be breaking those down into action items or smaller goals…I know everyone states you need to have a ‘deadline’ in order to meet the goal—well when I try to set a deadline…it gives me anxiety (because I either set it too soon or so far into the future that I forget about it).

In terms of daily intentional movement and nightly mediations/sitting quietly moments

Summer is here…and I’m sure you’re rolling your eyes and saying…’Uh, yeah it’s June’…well—it also means that I’m indoors more often than not these days due to high temperatures and moderate humidity (which makes it even hotter)…

Therefore, my intentional movements/exercise routines have been somewhat nonexistent lately…Still trying to help the other two dogs develop a ‘normal’ routine after we lost Rolex last month, which means that it is difficult to do a workout in the bedroom, when there is a 100 pound dog sprawled on the floor.

I need to get back to trying to sit quietly in the evenings…the past few days I haven’t mainly because I’ve been in a really irritable mood…

In terms of getting out of my comfort zone:

I am slowly getting out of my comfort zone and interacting more on LinkedIn…I’ve been participating in different social Saturday threads, and growing my network. I’ve been posting daily (usually trying to post three-to-four times a day), and interacting with other people’s posts.

One thing I’m still working on—is setting up more ‘coffee/water’ Zoom or Google chats.

In terms of reading:

Reading is never a ‘problem’—except when it comes to reading non-fiction. While I have a ‘huge’ to-be read digital pile of nonfiction books, and I fully admit to bouncing between books (fiction and nonfiction)—some are easier to read than others…

The ones I find easiest to read: are on topics I find of interest (anthropology, archaeology, paleontology, and so forth), ones that aren’t ‘badgering’ or ‘harping’ on things that you ‘have to change’ to be successful, and ones that are written in a more conversational manner.

Does this mean I’ve bought books I might not finish reading…. yep, though I may try to finish them—it may just take several months (if not years) to get through them.

Take home message: read what you enjoy, and when reading for personal/professional development—don’t be hard on yourself if it takes longer to read one of those books than it does to read a fiction book.

So, I managed to meet probably about seventy percent of my goals (reading, interacting more on LinkedIn, sitting quietly, and starting the personal/professional development plan).

Have things been perfect? Nope…not even close, the anxiety levels have been hovering around a EF2 level (tornado level 2) while at times peaking at a EF5 level (which was last Friday).

I’m trying to get better at controlling how I react to situations…such as Friday when the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade allowing states to decide on whether or not abortion is legal—which FYI: it’s the woman’s choice (and it isn’t an ‘easy’ choice for anyone to make)…abortion care = women’s health care =basic human rights. But that is a rant for another day…

Tomorrow is another new moon—which means another chance to look at an area of life and try to set some goals, and also realize that it’s time to figure out how to become a little more active in politics (without actually running for office)…

Namaste…

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Pisces New Moon in Review: Reflections and a Writing Goal

So the moon has transitioned into its fourth new moon phase last night—so I’m going to be a day or so late in posting the April New Moon goals. I talked about how the first quarter of the year was my ‘testing’ quarter—hopefully will get back into some type of consistent posting this month.

But before I look ahead to the April new moon, I should look back at the goals I had set for the Pisces new moon, and see how I did with each of them.

So what were my Pisces new moon goals?

Well, they included:

  1. Work on indulging in more creative work during the day
  2. Spend at least part of the day mind-mapping different ideas (creative writing projects plus expanding the writing portfolio)
  3. Create an intentional movement board game (include weight lifting, yoga, Pilates, cardio, dancing, walking, and so forth)
  4. Continue with an evening meditation routine and also try to meditate in the morning as well.

So, how did I do with each of them?

I would like to state, that only two (creating mind maps and the board game) are ‘one-and-done’ goals, while the other two are ‘continuous’ goals.

Therefore, I would say that the only two that I was semi-consistent were the evening ‘meditation’ (which is currently just sitting quietly for a few minutes at night), and managing some photography throughout the month (though it wasn’t on a day-to-day basis).

While I like my personal/professional development board game, I decided that trying to d a fitness one wasn’t really going to work. I couldn’t decide on how many squares—did I do one for each type of lifting workout, how spaced should they be (one square, three, or more?), and how many of the other workouts (yoga, Pilates, cardio, walking, and say dancing) should be added?

Therefore, I decided I’d copy down (and modify) the tracking sheets from a fitness program I’ve done a couple of times (leaving off the pushups and lunges). I could dedicate several pages within the journal to the tracking sheets, and then I’ll make a list of different cardio, yoga, Pilates workouts that I can choose from for the non-lifting days.

Then I will simply charge the iPod, put it on shuffle and do a workout each day (also taking into account rest days and ‘active’ recovery days [yoga and Pilates]).

I have at least one mind-map completed for a rather large ‘omic’ writing project that I’m going to start on this coming month—in addition to the other large writing project that I’m toying with (melding the ‘troubleshooting tips for molecular cloning’ with the topics of GMOs, biofuels, and vaccines).

I’m still debating on the oncology topic(s) that I’m going to write on (currently I’m thinking focusing on pathways that are ‘disregulated’ by different cancers), and work on the mind map for those topics.

So, I can possibly say I ‘managed’ possibly half the goals? There was time sitting quietly, and there was some craft time, and some mind mapping—just not always constantly or consistently.

As I mentioned last night in my ‘March in Review’ post—I’d let my inner critic/imposter syndrome drive the ‘fear’ train during the first quarter of the year. Changing directions is difficult, and when you live in the ‘analytical’ side of your head for years—its slightly difficult to move into the ‘creative’ side and get things up and going (such as writing, photography, crafts, and learning).

One thing I’m going to do is write everyday. Whether or not I ‘publish’ what I write daily—well, that is a whole other question (and will depend on what I’m writing). But currently I’m thinking of at least a biweekly (possibly weekly) photography page with its accompany blog post (currently would be focused on birds), and then possibly a biweekly travel page with its accompany blog post (currently would be focused on ‘throwback’ vacations, though may add in ‘wish list’ travel blog posts [places I’d like to travel to and things I’d like to see]).

When it comes to my ‘why’—I think I’ve figured them out: I want to help improve science communications between the general public and the science community, I want to help improve science education (show that it isn’t boring or dull), and share my story as I’m rediscovering my enjoyment of learning, writing, and sharing it with others.

So, I will be also be starting a weekly science series within the next few weeks—I just need to make sure that I have enough written ‘before’ hitting ‘publish’. The current two ‘large’ series I’ve already mentioned above (the ‘omic’ project and the molecular cloning/GMO/biofuel/vaccine project).

So, I digressed a little on the topic—but that is the ‘joy’ of free flow writing—you just write, and possibly go back and edit out what doesn’t make sense. Since this is a post on goals and reflections—I think I’ll leave the few meandering paragraphs on how I’m going to work on improving things.

Therefore, I can say that I’ve been embracing the phrase ‘progress over perfection’.

The Pisces ‘new moon season’ has come to an end, and it is now time to embrace the Aries season–which is also the ‘start’ of the astrological year. This means, that I can ‘reset’ my long-term, yearly, monthly, and weekly goals to match the ‘new future’.

What is that future: A future where I’m a both a content creator and a copywriter all rolled into one.

What are some of your tricks for dealing with your inner critic when it gets totally out of hand?

Namaste….

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