Hello gorgeous people!
I often get asked how I went from “11/10 I hate myself” to being a functioning, even sometimes JOYFUL, confident, self-loving, adult, and my answer is pretty simple: I wanted to change. So I did. I didn’t (and don’t) just think about the ways I want to change, I go out and act differently in the physical world. And so this week I want to highlight something that seems dumb but which, no joke, has up-leveled my entire life.
Clean the bathroom sink every day
EVERY DAY? Yes. Every day. You deserve to look into a bathroom sink free of gunk. It’s wild, but cleaning the sink every day is a daily reminder to myself that I matter and that I can choose to have a lovely life experience. There are so few things in my control, the world is a big, scary mess, AND, every single day I can choose to live in a clean environment that makes me proud of myself.
Here’s what I do:
At night, after I wash my face and brush my teeth, I spritz, baby, spritz!
It takes like ten seconds. I’m not a maniac. There’s no extra credit for “going hard” at this.
In the morning, I wake up to a nice smell and a clean sink.
It’s SUCH a nice way to start your day.
These days I’m using Supernatural products because they are plastic-free, come in beautiful bottles, and smell delicious. Honestly, I feel kinda sexy when I use them. They’re more expensive than my golden oldie, Mrs. Meyers, but did you read the sentence where I said I felt sexy while cleaning?! Worth it.
Here’s the thing: you can shell out beaucoup dollars on a baller trip to Hawaii, you can drop $$$ on a spa day, you could buy yourself your dream handbag, car, or whatever material object you’re lusting after and call it self-care. I would disagree with your definition but you could.
But what if you just up-leveled one, tiny thing, every single day? What if you stopped waiting for someone else to treat you well and did it yourself? What if you physically manifested your intent to treat yourself better with a tangible ritual like cleaning the sink? Or making the bed? Or not leaving a weird pile of mail on the kitchen table? Or by rooting the ratty underwear out of your closet (this is really a reminder for me)? Whatever it is - big life changes are made of a million tiny decisions.
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a million times: the basics are the luxuries. Treat the mundane tasks in your day like opportunities for beauty and watch your whole life turn magical.
Meditation Opportunities!
If you read my chapter on meditation in my book, Glow in The F*cking Dark and wondered what in the f*ck Jewish Meditation was, or were at all interested, the organization I (still) study under and describe in the book is having a meditation retreat June 3-9! The teacher, Rav James, is brilliant. He is one of the wisest, smartest, warm-hearted people I’ve encountered and I’m probably under-selling him. If you’re interested, just click here. I also do his donation-based, online meditation class almost every Wednesday if you want to join me.
To get back into my meditation routine, I’m doing Jack Kornfeld and Tara Brach’s “Mindfulness Daily.” It’s free and a good primer or reset for mindfulness meditation. If you want a longer sit: I set a timer for twenty to thirty minutes before I hit “play” on the lesson, and then keep meditating after the lesson. My timer tells me when to stop.
PS!
I was on Hannah Brown’s pod and I really loved our conversation. I didn’t know what to expect but she was very vulnerable about her own struggles. It was inspiring.
LOVE this. Thank you <3
Love the sentiment of this post, Tara. Better yet, this idea is simple, practical, and actionable. Plus doing something like this everyday removes the resistance you have to overcome for every cleaning session if you clean your surroundings more sporadically.