Part 1. Welcome or Welcome Back to Saguaro Sunday

Saguaro Sunday is our weekly opportunity to slow down. It’s a chance to practice gratitude, celebrate what went well, acknowledge where we can grow, and reflect on what we learned. It’s also a time to look ahead and ask ourselves: 

What do I want to learn this week? How do I want to bloom a little more?

My hope is that as you read, you’ll also reflect on your own week. You can open up your Notes app on your phone, or better yet, open up a physical notebook/journal!

If you’re comfortable, I’d also love for you to share your reflections in the comments so we can continue learning from one another!

Part 2: This Week’s Gratitude

As always, I am grateful for my family, friends, home, health, and Coco.

My car has been at the dealership for over a week to get the AC fixed. Normally, I wouldn’t take it there, but it has an extended warranty that should cover part of the repair. Anyway, so this week I am grateful that I get to work from home, because if I didn’t, this would have been highly inconvenient. After taking forever to order the (correct) part and then not having a technician to start the work, they finally gave me a rental car for free yesterday…but again, I am grateful that I get to work from home and that my friends had helped me stock up on groceries last weekend.

Part 3: This Week’s Bloom: Rest or Restlessness? 🤷

I’ve been in a bit of a funk this week.

Last week, I told myself I wanted to slow down. I wanted to rest and avoid burning myself out now that work is starting to get busier.

But I think it backfired.

Instead of feeling rested, I felt…understimulated.

Bored.

Just…off.

I’ve never been very comfortable with too much stillness. I’m so used to having multiple things going on that when I intentionally pulled back from Blooming Saguaro this week and mostly focused on work, something felt missing.

Not having a car probably didn’t help either. All week I kept thinking, “I just want to get out of the house.” It didn’t even have to be anything exciting. I wanted to go get froyo, walk around a bookstore, or simply have somewhere to go.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about John Cleese’s idea of the open mode versus the closed mode. The open mode is where creativity, curiosity, and play happen. The closed mode is where we execute, solve problems, and get things done.

This week, I think I drifted back into the closed mode. I spent most of my energy thinking about work. And while work can absolutely be meaningful, I realized I also need novelty.

Whenever I feel like this, I think, “I need more data. I need more input.”

I need more ideas to mull over. New conversations. New music. New books. Something to feed my curiosity.

At the same time…I can’t tell if what I actually need is to become more comfortable with rest. Maybe I’m so accustomed to feeling busy that quiet feels uncomfortable, even when it’s good for me.

I don’t know the answer yet. Maybe that’s this week’s lesson. Not every Sunday has to end with a tidy conclusion. This week, I think it’s enough to say, “I’m still figuring this one out.”

Part 4: This Week’s Wonder – Rapid-fire Edition! 

A few random things I learned this week:

• RIP Salad and Go
• How dopamine stacking (doing multiple tasks at once) can help people with ADHD
• I was going to make a dopamine menu this week, and then I realized I need to do more research because they are not what I thought they were. I’ll explain more next week, probably…
• One of the content creators I had been enjoying has stolen the work of other creators. I am sad.
• I learned from a linguist how to spot text that was probably written by AI
• I learned how to be more aware of when smear campaigns or hate trains might be happening

Part 5: Next Week’s Growth 

This week, I will keep trying to figure out the balance between resting and doing enough things that are mentally stimulating so I don’t get the saddies. I also need to very quickly try to finish a book for an upcoming book club meeting. Tomorrow, I will return to making my New Music Monday short videos.

Now it’s your turn!

🌵What are you grateful for this week?

🌵 What did you learn?

🌵 What’s something you’ve been wondering about lately?

🌵 How do you want to bloom a little more this week?

🌵 Question of the Week: How do you know when you truly need rest…and when what you really need is novelty, purpose, or connection?

I’d genuinely love to hear your reflections. Thank you again for spending part of your Sunday (or whatever day it is when you’re reading this) with me.

I’ll see you tomorrow for Motivation Monday over on my socials!

Until then…

Learn a bit each day. Bloom a little more. 🌵