Monday, 2/13/23: Talking about small kindness and a fun quiz

Happy Monday!

It’s a new week, which means it’s time for your next Monday motivation newsletter.

Read on below for some steps to a happier Monday, a short story and a roundup of positive thoughts to get your week started.

Three Steps to a Happier Monday

Each newsletter starts with three prompts to inspire gratitude and simple intention setting. Take a moment and jot down answers to these three questions. To give an example, I share my answers below.  

Step 1: What are three things I appreciated from the weekend? 

Step 2: What is one thing I can be excited about today?

Step 3: What is my intention for this week? 

GRATITUDE: I’m thankful for a time spent catching up and relaxing in Indianapolis, the beautiful weather on Sunday and watching the Super Bowl last night. 

TODAY: I’m most excited for my run outside this morning.

INTENTION: Not going to lie, I love this week with Valentine’s Day festivities 🙂 So, my intention is to send love to someone every day this week. 

Okay, your turn! And if you want to share your three steps, I am all ears. 🙂

Meaningful Musings: The Power of Small

Wanted to share one of my favorite poems this morning and a quote I recently came across this morning. Both – in my opinion- very timely with Valentine’s Day tomorrow. 🙂

The poem is titled “Small Kindness.” I can’t remember the first time I read this poem, but I came across it again last week and it moved me just as much. Here it is –

Small Kindnesses by Danusha Laméris

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”

I just love the sentiment of that. It makes me think, of course, about how I can be better at extending ‘small kindness’ toward others. But it also makes me think about those times when I haven’t been as present and missed and/or ignored the small kindness someone else was extending to me.

This is my reminder to myself to pay attention.

And speaking of paying attention: I came across this quote last week, at a time when I really needed the reminder:  

“You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you.” – Author Robert Anton Wilson

Makes you think, right?

Small is powerful – re-discovering the poem and coming across that quote last week reminded me of this.

It’s so easy to focus on and giving energy to the small things going wrong. But that’s not the kind of small I want to champion.

The small I want to champion is doing the smallest right, and doing it all for love (in the wise, wise words of St. Thérèse Lisieux). In this, I believe we discover small, kind things add up to have a big impact.

Wishing you a wonderful week and a Happy Early Valentine’s Day! Show someone some small kindness today 🙂

On My Monday Radar

Sometimes we just aren’t ready to jump into our Monday to-do list right away. In case you want some content to procrastinate with, here is a roundup of a few positive things on my radar:  

• It’s just devastating to see the news of Turkey and Syria – so incredibly sad. Thought this article did a good job of clearly summarizing ways to help.
• I love a personality quiz and I love reading, so when I saw there was a personality quiz about reading, I had to take it. My result? “Bookish Personality” (sounds about right!). If you take it, you’ll have to let me know what you get. So interested in the other archetypes.
• One of the simplest secrets to maintaining daily joy in a relationship: celebrate good news together. Good reminder for this week!
• Happy Galentine’s Day! Hope you are indulging yourself and doing something fun to celebrate 🙂

Picture of the Week

That’s all for today! I hope you found something in today’s newsletter that sparked motivation, made you smile or inspired a positive Monday thought. Don’t underestimate the power of starting small… a fulfilling week starts with just one fulfilling day. You’ve got this! 

Let’s make it a great Monday!
Megan