A special friend of mine is hosting virtual Yoga on Wednesday morning, April 1st.

9 AM Eastern Standard Time.

What’s a Monday Letter without me reminding you to get active?

Dani believes “that moving into difficulty shapes you into being resilient. Resilience is a trait that I aspire to be defined by; Learning how to find ease in the difficulties. Softness in the raw parts of challenge. The ability to rise up from struggle.

I am motivated by the edge between challenge and comfort. I lean into the uncomfortabilites that shape me into my highest self. The beauty is in learning how to breathe amidst that pressure, and shedding the layers of previous self in the process.”

JOIN ME AND DANI ON WEDNESDAY FOR SOME YOGA.
THE ZOOM LINK WILL BE IN HER INSTAGRAM BIO AND I WILL SEND OUT A MIDWEEK MOTIVATION WITH DETAILS 🙂

Be Silly

I have been entertaining myself by discovering all this incredible music from the 50’s and 60’s.

Want to make your underwhelming day or boring work much more enjoyable? Play this playlist in the background.

Sweeping, cleaning the dishes, entering data, organizing papers or aimlessly pacing around the house- the playlist shows no bias.

I swear it makes any activity fun.

It’s also inevitable to bounce to the beat when you’re listening to Runaround Sue (or if you’re like me, put on a full out performance like you’re one of the extras in Grease during the high school National Dance Off scene where they play Born to Hand-Jive).

And do you know what you get when you mix good music and dancing? Happiness.

Accompanied by another inevitable- smiles and laughs so deeply rooted you’ll be one of those people that say, “I was born in the wrong generation. I belong in the 60’s.”

Be silly and dance to the music.

The music itself is kind of silly. I laugh when I listen to the lyrics and the melodies of the songs and compare them to the times nowadays. Oh, times have changed. Rapidly. (Just like the coronavirus has rapidly mutated – here’s your reminder that this virus exists and you better wash your freakin’ hands today.

Anyway, I love this kind of music and it’s all I’ve been listening to the last week. I think it’s been good for my headspace. And I think it might be good for yours too.

Enjoy.

How to Improve Your Reading Comprehension and Reading Confidence

I was never a reader and it took me up until last year to get to a point in my life where I enjoy, understand and appreciate reading as an activity/hobby, and even use it as a source of clarity and sanity. And that’s ok. I’m glad I finally figured it out.

So here I am encouraging you to read – I know you have some extra time right now.

Enjoy.

You don’t have to read Socrates, Rumi, or any of these profound authors.

You just have to open up the page to a story and surrender your mind to a new world for a little while.

I’m not even good at reading. Never was.

In the third grade, I was removed from class a few times a week for BSI (Basic Skills Instruction) for extra tutoring.

The reading comprehension section of the SATs was always the worst, most dreadful part of the 4-hour standardized test.

In high school, I almost always used spark notes for books assigned by my English teachers, and therefore today I fall flat on discussions over “those books everyone read in high school.”

To Kill a Mockingbird and Animal Farm.

They’re classics. I should read them. Blah, I know.

But even with the shortcomings, short attention span and large stack of unread books near my nightstand, I now try to read daily & regularly. And more often you’ll find me encouraging you to read. 

I read books with simple language.

Digestible stories that have multiple layers and debatable dimensions.

I’ve tried to force myself to read those books with heavy language and extensive vocabulary.

And guess what? I can’t understand a damn thing.

I’m confused. Bored and frustrated.

And I don’t want to read anymore.

I now turn the pages and read 50 flips at a time.

(Truly a lot for me) – How? Because I started small. I worked on my reading confidence with ~no pressure~ which helped with my reading comprehension and ENJOYMENT!

Short stories about traveling in Italy or a future on Mars. Short stories are fun and intimidating.

Remember you don’t have to be reading something so mind-bending or character building. Read things that are imaginative, fun and paint a story in your brain.

Simple stories, great authors and captivating voices that will make you say, “Why didn’t they have us read stories like THIS in high school!?”

Once you have mastered the habits and trained your mind to read, you can build to bigger stories and explosive vocabularies.

But until then, sit down with a simple book. And allow yourself to learn and feel why it’s so liberating and cleansing to read.

Get excited to read & be proud of yourself no matter how many pages, what genre or how “groundbreaking” the book.

Tip: I keep my phone near me when I read ONLY to look up words I don’t fully know the definition for. Sometimes I write in the books… sometimes I just make a mental note of the definition.

Have the self-discipline to turn no your phone and scroll on Instagram.

WHAT’S COMING?

I was thinking the other day.

While laying on the ground. Full anatomic position.

I felt the gravity pulling my ears and the fluid inside of them moving towards the floor. This is a sensation I feel fully and deeply whenever I lay. It’s something I always tune into.

My back felt aligned and decompressed. The relaxed pressure expelled the tension rotting between each of my vertebrae in the form of deep breaths and cracking joints. It feels good.

I thought about #MondaysAreGoodDays.

How every Monday I say hello to you and I try my best to offer positive, uplifting energy into the world…

And I thought some more:

Just because I am producing, and producing consistently, doesn’t necessarily mean I’m actually progressing.

Am I getting better at this? Or am I just practicing the movements.

There’s some optimistic quote about doing something over and over again will inevitably make you better at the craft – like, practice makes purpose.

There’s also that pessimistic quote: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. — Anyway, not important.

Getting good, truly and admirably good, at something is not just repeating the activity over and over again.

Part of the journey is correcting our learned behavior that might be holding us back. Part of the journey is reflecting and determining where we need to push ourselves and what behaviors we must fix.

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These thoughts and writing comes from a place where, despite consistently posting, putting it out there, and promoting it, I often question what I’m actually putting out there.

I’m regimented and committed, yes – and these are good qualities to have.

And I know that the simple act of creating something is always a good thing.

But sometimes I fear that I am just writing happy words. My fingers typing energetic words simply because they know exactly where the keys land.

Is Mondays Are Good Days just a simple habit of mine?

Like washing your face before bed and in the morning- a positive and important daily routine. Anytime you wash your face, it’s good. It will make you feel good, increase your happiness for the day no problem.

(Can you tell I’m encouraging you to wash your face?)

But sometimes you wash, simply making sure all your inches are scrubbed and loved.

And other times, you wash deeply. And you spend hours with the process of the project. You fine tune, correct and focus.

I want to make sure I am always pushing #MondaysAreGoodDays forward; I want to be proud and focused. And I want to understand what it is I truly want for #MondaysAreGoodDays. I want to think about it deeply. Exfoliate the superficial layer of uncertainty and reveal golden clarity.

It’s good to feel good. It’s cool to want to be improving and want good things for yourself.

And I want good things for you and for #MondaysAreGoodDays.

So with that being said,

(if you are still here reading, you are a REAL ONE. Wow- be sure to leave a comment or send me an email at helloeverydayvictoria@gmail.com to let me know you stayed for this long, I have something for you! )

Be on the look out for upcoming #MAGD movements, collaboration, merchandise and accessories as we start to push this forward!

Stay tuned. Until then,

Happy Monday & have a powerful rest of your week.

Much Love,

Victoria