the lake outside my house has begun to freeze over and i'm starting to brace
myself every time i open the door of my cottage and the biting wind pushes through
consequently it was time to stock up my pantry and pick out some new teas to use over the winter i
remember reading the line from emerson there is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a
cup of tea and i really like that saying i think it is very true for me brewing a cup of tea along
with breakfast is a simple and wholesome form of self-care i begin the day with the accomplishment
of nourishing my body and in my case small achievements like this need to be celebrated
one way i take care of myself in winter is that i welcome my most comfortable clothes
particularly sweaters and my favorite cozy skirts which are very warm which is unnecessary here
dresses and i also wear leggings in connection to my last video one way that i've tried to feel
more comfortable in my skin has been through finding clothes that have a comforting texture
and making sure they fit me well with room for movement if i'm at all self-conscious
or uncomfortable my attention is drawn inward and my general enjoyment of the day is affected
an important part of improving my own mental health is to practice seeing the world
truly seeing it instead of constantly being in my own head more than i want to one way i do
this is by making sure i feel comfortable it is definitely easy to dress for others instead of
ourselves and that is one reason i began to embrace the styles of clothes i truly enjoy
i remember when i was a little girl my abuela lived with us for several years
i begged her to sew me a very long old-fashioned looking dress so that i could wear it to school
i was in love with beatrix potter at the time and i apparently wanted to emulate a person
that had not been alive for over 70 years while i studied at home for the most part i did take a
few science classes at a local middle school and on my first day i wore that dress with boots i'd
found at the salvation army i definitely looked a little strange and i find it hilarious that
i was willing to walk into that school looking like i had stepped out of 1901 i've definitely
modernized my fashion since then and i now enjoy dresses along with jeans and leggings and all the
lovely modern clothes i own i do however love how confident i was in my wardrobe as a 13 year old
even if i was not always confident in myself i still take inspiration from her to this day
i have made a change in my life recently that has proved quite helpful
especially in the winter when i'm indoors more and in the quiet company of my own thoughts
and that has been to distance myself from a constant onslaught of tragic and negative news
i tend to listen to audiobooks now while i drive instead of the radio and this has helped a lot
of course it's so important to stay informed and understand what's going on in our world
and i believe that i also think we need to take breaks when it is necessary and also balance
negative news with positive with only a couple quick searches i'm able to find so many forces for
good in the world right now which are often not being talked about nearly as much as they should
it is a good reminder that while we should honor our feelings associated with tragic news
we can then also spend energy going out and sharing love and kindness with someone and being
part of something just as worthy of being on the news this practice has been so healing for me it's
amazing how you don't realize the impact media has on you until you step away from it in order to
find a balance between consuming it and going out into the world to be the change you want to see
hello everyone i hope you're all having a wonderful day it's been just a really great
week over here i started at the bookstore and i'm just enjoying it so much this time of year all the
little shops in town put up their christmas lights and then it snows and it's just so
magical walking through it it really feels like a thomas kincaid painting you know like
one of those paintings of the little idyllic little towns it's really cute i just love
walking around after it snowed and all the holiday decorations are up so i'm really excited it's been
so much fun and working at the bookstore has made me realize
how important it was for me to put a little more balance in my life between
home life and work life and working in town it's it's been really positive even though i've only
just started working there i really realized i kind of wasn't in balance with the amount of time
i was spending at home working and going out and being in a different environment and interacting
with people is really really helpful so i've been really enjoying it in last week's video i got some
amazing comments and emails and letters from all of you explaining your own personal journeys with
body image and disorders and addiction and it was really meaningful to read my fiance he put it very
well once he said that to make room for new things in our life and good things in our life we often
have to take out other things to make space for it and i think in so many cases that's very true you
know for me there was a lot of bad habits i really had to replace with much healthier ways to spend
my time and also for me personally as a artist and lover of stories and fairy tales and you
know all types of art for me replacing unhealthy escapism with healthy forms of escapism was just
absolutely crucial for my journey of health and recovery and that is something that i still do
a lot today for example you know creating art getting a job in town when i felt like i was
at home and in my own head a little bit too much really finding that harmony and balance
definitely working at the bookstore has really helped because i have become even more passionate
about books in such a short amount of time it's so exciting to talk to people about books and get
book recommendations since it's one of my favorite forms of healthy escapism you know i love to just
step into another story another reality for a little while it is so you know therapeutic to do
this time of year i always for some reason get attracted to mythology and folk tales
and looking into the stories of other cultures and also my own and especially the ancient stories
that have been passed on through generations and that is something i've been doing recently i have
been reading some books on native american myths and legends which are fascinating and also some
polynesian myths and folk tales and it's been really interesting the book of polynesian stories
is kind of a word for word translation so i have sometimes really gotten lost while reading it
but it's been really fun to just you know look into it and get to learn about the stories of
other cultures and to see also the similarities so many different stories from around the world
all kind of have as well so many similarities and a lot of the same topics that are being examined
such as what is honor what does family mean how do we face our fears how can we have courage
when we're scared of the world or we're scared of something and i find those stories very comforting
because it makes me feel like my ancestors who lived a thousand years ago are still you know
asking the same questions and still experiencing the world in a way that i can still relate to on
some levels and i just i've absolutely loved getting back into some old myths and legends
i have a book on stories of the taino people from puerto rico and i was reading it last night and
one of the stories was about the chupacabra and if you are hispanic you've probably heard of the
legend of the chupacabra it's very popular in some areas it is a legendary monster and the
story i was reading was really really scary so i just felt like i was such a baby i could it took
me a long time to sleep that night it was it was really spooky so if you're looking into the old
myths and legends of your people i highly encourage you
but um be careful because they really didn't mess around in those stories some of them can
be really really spooky so after reading some stories from puerto rico i was really
motivated to revisit some of my favorite puerto rican recipes and i've been having a lot of fun
especially because my mom has a really great book on traditional puerto rican recipes that i've been
looking at some of my favorite recipes from the book are arroz con pollo pao coquito i really love
coquito it's kind of like puerto rican eggnog it's made with coconut milk it's really really good so
i thought that i would share some of those traditional recipes during this winter when i
make them for my family because they are delicious and i've been really motivated recently to
try old recipes but also new recipes and really get involved more in my cultural traditional foods
on my mother's side so i've been very excited about that anyway i hope you all have a wonderful
day or night thank you again for reaching out to me with your very personal and kind messages
and it has been so appreciated some of them were really really touching this week and
yeah and and i wanted to say thank you i know i'm not always able to respond to everyone and know
that i read them and i do appreciate them i always put a blurb in the description bar of my videos
but do let me know that if you have been expecting a postcard from me and you haven't received it
please send me an email i have my email in the description bar because the us postal system
and just the mail system in general in the u.s is just going insane it has been going crazy all year
it has been really hard to manage and it's been very unpredictable when things are delivered and i
have noticed a couple postcards and even a couple packages have been lost in the mail this year
and it's it's been it's been a wild ride so please email me if you're expecting something for me
and you haven't received it because i really want to do my best to make sure that everyone
gets what they were expecting and and that's very important to me so so please do let me know don't
be shy you know i really i really want to get things to you if if you are expecting
them so i hope you have a wonderful day or night and i will see you next week take care
what are you doing what are you doing what are you doing
you