Editor's Letter: June
We are really happy to be collaborating with the good people over at Mama’s at the Railway Garden to curate a delicious wellbeing space as part of their new venue in London Bridge.
Mama’s is all about community, creativity, and sustainability and we are working hard to bring you a space to reflect those values. On offer will be daily yoga classes, holistic events and workshops, and an opportunity to connect with yourselves and others. We’ll be opening our doors on later this month (date TBC) and would love you to come and see us!
A full timetable of classes will be released very soon, so watch this space- you can choose to be notified by signing up here
In other news, as Balance Garden continues to flourish and grow, we are both proud and humbled by the literary offerings that our writing community are offering up, and we love having your feedback and engagement. We hope that you are finding the tips and advice easy to implement and that you are learning new things about caring for yourself and finding balance in this hectic world.
As summer approaches and the social calendar fills up, it is VITALY important that you actively create time for the practices and rituals that keep you grounded and sane. Schedule them in as non-negotiable time slots, otherwise, it will be October before you know it and you won’t have had a moment to yourself to just breathe and be.
I’ve certainly been feeling the pressure with this new venture and have fallen into the ‘not enough time in the day’ trap over and over again. What I’m realising though, is that the hours in the day are finite, and rather than stressing unproductively about how few of them there are, it’s better to just crack on with what I can do and realise that the world isn’t going to end if something gets put off until tomorrow. I learnt an amazing tip from a coach a couple of years ago that I use in particularly busy times which I want to share with you:
1. Make a to-do list for your day
2. Go through the list and note down a “U” for urgent, or “I” for important next to each thing. ("Urgent" things are the things on the list that are time sensitive, that will cause the rest of life to grind to a halt if they don’t get done; paying your bills, sending your job application, completing a project etc. "Important" things are the items on the list that don’t necessarily have a cut off date but are important to you; calling your parents to check in, booking a massage because you know you need one, your meditation or yoga practice etc.
3. Do at least one, but preferably ALL the items on the list marked “I” first.
4. This may seem counterintuitive, but the thinking is that the urgent things will get done regardless of how many things you do before them, they have to get done and you know it. The Important items, on the other hand, end up bumped down the list and shunted never-endingly into tomorrow territory. You run out of energy and motivation for them after all the “urgents”. Luckily the "urgents" carry their own motivating force, so take care of what's important to you first and foremost, and trust that everything that needs to get done will get done in good time.
This month expect more delicious recipes, a yin yoga sequence, natural health tips and practices and much more.
If there's something you want to see more of...you know what to do.
Blue Skies
Jasmine xXx