It happens. Wednesday morning brushing your teeth, you realize you don’t recognize the face reflected in the mirror. Questions pour through the opened floodgate. Who are you? How did I get here? What have I become? How is this my life? Some people perceive deep feelings of emptiness and a sense of surreal dissociation. Others experience debilitating depression, which threatens to consume the remains of a shattered soul. What do I do now? How do I fix this?

There are no simple answers. One size doesn’t fit everyone. I know we possess the unlimited capacity and remarkable creativity to identify the root issues and devise brilliant solutions. For me, conflict often arises from real-world necessities that feed our dreaded “should” lists. The word “should” has been responsible for condemning me to countless thoughts and actions which didn’t align with my core beliefs. It requires courage to examine the pile, choosing whether to keep or discard the attached command.

It is a time-consuming, soul-searching process, and deciding which principles matter doesn’t happen overnight. Karen Moning says, “The most confused we ever get is when we try to convince our heads of something that we know in our hearts is a lie.” We must press past fear, stop avoiding the tough questions, and answer them from our hearts. No matter how scared we are, moving forward means heeding our intuition, trusting we will recognize our truth.

How do you find your authentic self?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I have a ritual I invoke at the start of each month. I assess my progress, review my accomplishments, and congratulate myself on what worked. That’s the simple part. Next, I determine where I fell short and devise ways to fix underperforming areas. Then I sweep it away.

Turning the calendar means a clean slate and an opportunity to start again. But a do-over isn’t a free pass, and I hold myself accountable by rescheduling unfinished tasks. Learning from my failures, I let them guide me, and they have taught me valuable lessons. My mistakes point out miscalculations, errors, and places for improvement.

Dissecting my shortcomings allows me to make course corrections, adjust my workflow, and I get another chance to be better. The one thing I keep in mind as I establish my new schedule is my past performance is not an indicator of future outcomes. Instead, I do my best to set myself up to outperform last month’s wins.

How do you approach a new month?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I only dream of my workday beginning at 11 am. Unfortunately, my weekday schedule starts early. I have people who count on me, and sleeping late is not an option. Each evening I set my alarm for the crack of a sparrow’s fart and set the contraption across the room. It is a trick I learned a long time ago to ensure that I can’t hit the snooze button and fall back asleep. It takes a while for the buzzing to seep around the sandman’s tenacious hold. I stumble and lurch with flaying arms. Somehow, I manage to silence the noisy thing. No matter what the clock says, I cannot spring from my bed bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as they say. No. Forced from my bed, my eyes open, and I fumble for the wake-up juice.

After my first cup, I feel capable of extricating my brain from the primordial goo. Downing cup number two, rudimentary speech returns. My third cup renders me semi-coherent, and the ability to hold a non-demanding conversation becomes possible. I don’t need coffee to start my day. But the process is easier on everyone else. I have scared small children and alienated family members when not properly caffeinated. They say I’m not a pleasant person without a swift kick to ease me into my functional humanoid disguise. They have learned their lessons, approaching with caution to press a steaming mug into my hand. They keep a safe distance until the “More Coffee” mantra fades.

What is your morning ritual?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The weather has turned. It is almost imperceptible, but the nighttime temperatures are near freezing, and fog and frost shroud the early morning hours. The sun struggles to bring us bright mornings under crystalline blue skies. Dawn arrives later, dusk descends earlier, and it encourages me to snuggle under my covers where it is warm. I try to resist since it leads to missing out on the sunlight, falling asleep past my regular bedtime, and perpetuates the desire to ignore my alarm.

My appetite has also changed with the season, and I yearn for comfort foods. Two large pots of chili materialized from my kitchen recently, but today my taste buds are demanding Borsch. I haven’t met a beet I didn’t love. Pickled with pearl onion, roasted and served with goat cheese and nuts, boiled, or steamed and tossed into salads, couscous, or quinoa, and even raw, beets are one of my favorite veggies. The bonus is folklore tells us they are a medicinal plant, and Brosch allows me to combine a lengthy list of superfoods into a single delectable bowl.

Besides the beetroot, I include the beet tops, onions, kale, or spinach, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, quinoa or white cannellini beans, and bay leaves into a steaming stockpot of aromatic homemade chicken stock. Brosch is a magical dish that lets me purge whatever is languishing in the fridge or pantry, and it always tastes fantastic. If there is a stray clove of garlic, it gets added to the pot. A little leftover tomato paste? I stir it in. And now science says these ingredients will help keep me healthy, ready to take on the world. I pass it on and serve a bowl of love.

What favorite food keeps you feeling well?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer