degan walters

What I’ve been up to:

Really just more of the same – work, study, dance, walk the dogs – and it’s unlikely to change until mid-April, but we did have a lot of visitors over the weekend and that was fun.

What was beautiful:

First buds and blossoms of spring and the equinox full moon

What I’m reading and listening to:

Alain de Botton at Brain Pickings

Bluets, by Maggie Nelson

Erin’s Merrihew’s pep talk email this month

Zen Habit’s Method to Deal with Tiredness, Loneliness and Stress

Survive a Mid-life Crisis with Dancing and Drugs

The Psychopath Test at This American Life

Seth Godin asks How Big is Your Unfillable Hole?

How to find a volunteer gig that makes a difference

It’s not enough to be right, you also have to be Kind

What I’ve been up to:

Flamenco dancing, visiting with so many friends, trying to hang out in the sunshine as much as possible.

What was beautiful:

Hella gorgeous weekend, Seattle!

This elephant

What I’m reading and listening to:

Kids who spend time in nature are happier adults

Travel less

This orangutan fighting off a bulldozer

What I’ve been up to:

Still studying and painting.

Plus booking trips to White Rock and Wales for important people’s life events

What was beautiful:

The sliver of moon

What I’m reading and listening to:

Trove of Mayan artifacts found

Happiness really is just a state of mind

and why that’s a hard place to get to

Shaking things up at work by inspiring the black sheep

What it’s like to have an ADHD brain

Extreme Athleticism is the New Midlife Crisis

and not nearly enough of my psych materials…need to hit the books this weekend

What I’ve been up to:

Still studying, working, dancing but I have now made it back to yoga and running (hooray!) and working on painting the basement in my downtime. I think I’ve been holding it together ok without turning into too much of a stress case (although I am still pretty behind) but this morning my dog walked under my desk and got tangled in the power cable, pulled my computer into my coffee mug and dumped coffee all over my notes, notebook, art supplies, and leg. I jumped up and yelled, causing her to run into the cat, who then attacked my leg and much crying ensued. The irony of this is that I was writing an article on the benefits of pet ownership, which is now going to be even more late. I hope my tutor gets the joke.

What was beautiful:

The Spellbinding Swedish Song That Calls Cows Home

What I’m reading and listening to:

Maria Popova on On Being

Fleetwood Mac and the rest of the “Have a Great Day!” playlist on Spotify. Fingers crossed.

Indigenous Women Chiefs Protecting the Amazon

Posts about orca deaths – Kayla and Tillicum – at Sea World. I thought everyone knew they were evil but it seems like I stepped down from my soapbox too soon.

What I’ve been up to:

So much! I started school so am now busy cramming all kinds of psych knowledge into my brain and basically jettisoning anything I don’t need.

but then I also went to Cuba and Mexico City with my sister, checked off several life list items, chilled out on the beach and ate many tacos.

I saw enough of the snow to love playing with the dogs but then swapped to turquoise waters and sunshine – and am loving the winter sunshine in Seattle these days as well.

What was beautiful:

What I’m reading and listening to:

The 4 Pillars of a fulfilling career

How to Stay Sharp

Puppy pictures help

Maybe Why You’re Always Apologizing

Body Shape and First Impressions

The Psychology of Supermarkets

Communication over Compromise

Unconscious Bias Favors Men at Work

Microdosing

The Deadly Truth About a World Built for Men

We’re Optimizing Ourselves to Death.  What happens when tech gives us more leisure time? We work.

And then some more ways to be hyper productive.

What I’ve been up to:

Had a great time taking the train to Portland for a few days…shopping, wine-tasting, eating and wandering.

And then I painted the top floor of the house, went to Vancouver to check out Adler University and got back into running, yoga, flamenco, and eating well.

What was beautiful:

Murals, street art and old neon in Portland.

An updated description for “degan” in the Urban Dictionary prompted a bit of a deeper search that sounds like a poem:

After 2 years of not being able to wear my wedding ring after I broke my hand, we got my stone set into a new setting and it is so pretty.

What I’m reading and listing to:

How you do anything is how you do everything

Society’s problem with patience

How to be more resilient

Why the 15 Hour work week never happened

The Art of Intimacy

A pill for loneliness. This is not the right way to go, but it is interesting.

Attachment as a response to perceived threats.

Existential therapy

A therapist in therapy

Plus a STACK of psychology books and e-texts, poetry books and travel guides for Cuba and Mexico City. Busy!