The YAY 4: Valentines, Tiny Anchors, & More

Your mid-week dose of cheer + distraction.

Happy Wednesday! 

If you’re new here, every other week, I share a handful of good things, linked distractions and tiny victories making me smile. A little departure from Friday’s deeper, coffee chat-style essays. 

Here are four things brightening my week:

1.) Spreading the Valentine’s Day Love

I’ve never been the biggest fan of Valentine’s Day, but I recently discovered that you can send fun valentines to kids at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). You fill the cards out online on the CHLA website, and then their team prints and distributes them to the children stuck there over the holiday. (They also do something similar around Halloween!)

If you have a few minutes, I encourage you to hop over to their website and check it out — even one card is sure to brighten a little one’s day. It’s free and literally takes seconds, and they even have pre-written draft text you can use if you aren’t sure what to write.

While Valentine’s Day may be little more than a Hallmark holiday most years, I think we can all agree this year deserve all the extra sparkle and love we can muster. Plus, when else do you have an excuse to tell people they’re “dino-mite?”

2.) Reading Through Anonymous Secrets

I follow author and pyschotherapist Sarah Crosby on Instagram (@MindGeek), based out of Ireland. I have no idea how or when I initially discovered her account, but I’d started following because of the bright-colored mental health reminders she posts (like this one). Last week, I noticed she’d asked her followers to submit one thing (confession/secret/proclamation) they’d want to anonymously share if they knew no one would try to solve it or judge them. She received so many incredibly vulnerable, soul-baring responses, and reading through them was like peering into someone else’s heart.

Flipping through them created this unexpected sense of community and connection for me, and it was sort of…cathartic? In a way I didn’t even know I needed, to be honest. She has them saved on her Instagram Stories, labeled with the thought bubble emoji ( 💭), and you can read the latest ones here and here.

3.) Seeking Out the Relatable

Alright friends, this is a more random one, but I was taking a spin class yesterday morning (at home… because where else can I go these days 😹), and early on in the class, the instructor’s bun started to come undone. Without missing a beat, she grabbed what appeared to be spare bobby pins from a little counter near her bike — as if she’d anticipated her hair becoming unruly in the middle of class, when she wouldn’t be able to get up and head over to a restroom or mirror — and proceeded to fix her hair while continuing to teach and pedal. And then, it happened again… and again… and again. So many times during this 45 minute class! This woman, who has very long hair and was sweating alongside everyone else she was instructing, proceeded to teach and pedal and keep herself 100% composed despite this thing outside of her control, and not once did she mention it until making a joke at the very end of class.

The reason I mention this here, and the reason it stuck with me well after the workout was over, is because it felt like a metaphor for life. I was so impressed with this instructor’s ability to stay focused and not let this ongoing struggle distract her — and, she tried to ensure it was not distracting to anyone else. (That’s one of the keys of a great teacher, if you ask me, and something I learned ages ago in yoga teacher training — that practice of keeping emotional space for your students, no matter what storm is brewing within your own life.)

Her hair situation was also unexpectedly relatable, and not just specifically within the context of a workout class. Across the broader strokes of life — in work meetings, during interviews, in the middle of a run, in Zoom events — when something (your hair, or whatever) is just not cooperating, and you have to choose to keep your eyes on your goal rather than having a breakdown in response to the universe deciding to provide you an extra serving of challenges that day. And also, perhaps, to the innate struggle so many of us have felt (particularly women) to be taken seriously in the world; generating that laser focus to make sure nothing — not even a misbehaving messy bun — gets in the way of our value or expertise being communicated.

**Peloton friends, it was Tunde’s 45 intervals and arms class from 2/2/21, if you’re interested!

4.) Securing Your Tiny Anchors

Last fall, I read a lovely article from Cup of Jo about establishing and identifying the “tiny anchors” in your life, and it’s one of those concepts that has stayed with me long after I finished reading about it. In a nutshell, tiny anchors are the small, daily habits and pieces of your routine that you return to for a sense of grounding and comfort. I was thinking about it randomly earlier this week, and it feels as important as ever as we continue to float along this sea of uncertainty (though surely getting close to shore, it seems/I hope).

When I think of my tiny anchors, I think of reading the newspaper on Sundays (print forever, baby). My daily ritual of running or moving my body in some way in the mornings. Making coffee and picking a fun mug to enjoy it in each day. The little things, you know?

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That’s it for this week! Let me know in the comments what’s bringing you joy this week, or share your tiny anchors!

See you Friday,

Joelle

*Disclaimer: All links and recommendations shared here are based on personal experience and interest, and do not represent any affiliations, sponsors, or professional connections unless otherwise stated.