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 take a moment to reflect on your own week. You can open up your Notes app on your phone, or better yet, grab a physical notebook or 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, job, and Coco.

This week, I’m grateful that our bodies and minds are adaptable. After not being super consistent with all of my usual habits over the past couple of weeks, this week I was able to get back to some of the healthy habits that help me feel my best, like yoga and journaling.

My back had been feeling sore, and my mind had felt scattered. Bringing these habits back into my routine made a noticeable difference, and I think that’s pretty amazing.

Sometimes we just need to get back to the things that help us feel like ourselves again!

Part 3: This Week’s Bloom: Getting Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable

“Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” – Matthew 6:27

If you know me or have been keeping up with my writing, at this point you’re probably already aware that anxiety is one of the things I struggle with the most.

I mean, I’m sure we all experience anxiety to some extent, and I know some people struggle with it much more than I do. For me, anxiety can look like overfunctioning, being “type-A,” being a high achiever, needing a lot of reassurance, and needing to be especially mindful of my sleep hygiene or risking a bout of insomnia.

Basically, my brain thinks it’s a boy scout and really likes to feel prepared.

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry” – Robert Burns

There is so much uncertainty in our lives, and lately I’ve been thinking about what my anxiety is actually trying to accomplish.

For me, a lot of it seems connected to control.

I want to feel like I can control things that I actually can’t control. So I overthink, overplan, and try to anticipate every possible outcome. 

Ironically, all of that planning rarely makes me feel more secure. If anything, anxiety can keep me stuck in a negative loop.

At the end of the day, there is only so much planning we can do. Unexpected things might still happen. And then what? You worried about something before it happened, and then if it actually happens, you worry again in the moment.

So why not save some of that worrying for the present moment, when we can actually do something about whatever is happening?

And this is where I’ve been learning something that feels very counterintuitive:

Sometimes, the way through anxiety is to stop fighting the feeling.

Not to let anxiety take over, or ignore it, and definitely not to pretend everything is fine when it isn’t.

But to acknowledge it.

I try to tell my anxiety:

“I hear ya! This is uncomfortable. We don’t know what’s going to happen. We could sit here and imagine the worst, or even the best, but either way, we just don’t know! And uncertainty feels icky, but it’s okay. This feeling won’t last forever.”

The more often I practice this, the easier it becomes to catch myself before I start spiraling and instead I can ground myself in the present.

There are so many grounding techniques out there, but for me, anything that helps me get into my body and out of my head can help.

Sometimes that looks like washing the dishes with warm water and paying attention to how it feels.

Other times it’s getting on my walking pad for a few minutes.

Or it can be more gentle, like petting my dog, Coco, or taking her for a walk.

Often it means allowing myself to cry if I need to because, yes, I’m a crybaby, and I’m ok with that!

And in more intense moments, grounding means taking an extra shower to wash away the anxiety and reset my system.

None of these things make the uncertainty disappear, but they just help bring me back to where I actually am: here, right now.

Another thing that has helped me is remembering that our thoughts are just thoughts.

We don’t have to listen to every thought that pops into our heads. Sometimes I like to imagine my anxious thoughts as an annoying person who keeps trying to get my attention.

And I can just say:

“Cool story, bro.”

…and then go on with my day.

If any of this resonates with you, I hope you know that you’re not alone.

You might also want to look into different grounding techniques and find a few that work for you. Think of them as tools you can keep in your back pocket for those moments when you need them!

And if anxiety is significantly affecting your life, there is absolutely no shame in seeking mental health support. Different kinds of support work for different people, and for some people, medication can be part of that support too, and that’s ok!

For me, getting comfortable with being uncomfortable doesn’t mean that I will never feel anxious again. It means learning that I can feel anxious without immediately needing to fix the feeling.

I can acknowledge anxiety, ground myself, and remind myself that I don’t know what is going to happen. I can keep going anyway.

Uncertainty is uncomfortable. But little by little, we can become more comfortable with being uncomfortable.

We got this!

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” – Matthew 6:34

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

I guess I didn’t learn all that much on the internet this week and I can’t think of anything that I learned from others this week… So today I only have a couple quick facts for you:

• Some scenes in Titanic had to be mirrored and the actors wore clothes with writing that was backwards because filmmakers built only the starboard (right) side of the full-scale ship set to save money.
• Patacones, or Tostones, are twice-fried green plantain slices popular in Latin American and Caribbean cuisine.

Part 5: Next Week’s Growth 

I still haven’t made any Reels/TikToks in almost a month! My goal is to get back to making videos this week.

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: What helps you come back to the present when your thoughts start spiraling?

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. 🌵