Onward to this week’s resources featuring real talk for navigating these times by Brené, vulnerable and valuable insights from my friend Samaria and fabulous fashion for family dogs from my friend Mona:

1. Brené Brown on Comparative Suffering, the 50/50 myth and Settling the Ball
2. Mama Fuel: How Can We Make This Moment Meaningful? Samaria Williams on grace & writing your own narrative
3. Small Business Feature: Flowerchild – In the interests of lifting up creative people and supporting small business owners, check out Flowerchild’s dog jackets below. You can custom order or Mona might just have a design that fits your pup. You can check her out her site or Instagram and send her a DM or email her at mkhashoggi@mac.com

Here’s how you can help this week:

1. *Quick request: I have done this weekly experiment for 3 months now and I’m analyzing whether to keep it weekly or move to monthly. Please let me know if you still want this weekly or if switching to monthly makes more sense. You can comment or shoot me an email that simply says “weekly” or “monthly” at rebeccainspiresnow@gmail.com
2. Navigating Grief and Joy at the same time: If you or someone you know is struggling, check out my resources page for help.
3. Dream a little and share your wishes with the Secret Whisper Tree.
4. Practice taking a nap this week–even if you don’t sleep, rest your body for 10 minutes straight–or even 5.
5. Take a break from the news for one day. Notice how your mind, heart and body feel. Write 1-3 sentences about what you notice. 
6. Tell someone that you love them. Remember that I love you.

That’s all for this week! 

Look for the magic in the everyday. There are clues everywhere!

Greetings from my magical writing lab,

It’s Thursday, March 26 at 12:30pm PT.

Join me now for 60-90 minutes or whenever you find this to jumpstart your writing today – link below

I’m on Zoom transcribing my novel. I won’t be talking much. If you want focus and company while writing, let’s go.

At the end of the hour, we might chat a bit to share what we got done. That’s totally optional.

Click here to join.

Cucalacas!

Greetings from #CampFTC,

Looking for some magical distraction? Watch and listen to me read Chapter 1 of The Amazing Adventures of Selma Calderon:

Stay tuned to my Instagram account where I’ll keep you posted on my next chapter reading.

I have a lot of fun resources for you this week and in case you missed last week’s edition, do check out some of the nourishing resources here.

I hope you’ll join me at #CampFTC by using the hashtag to share creative ideas on staying home for those with non-essential jobs, as well as going out into nature for a breath of fresh air. I also want to acknowledge small business owners who are doing what they can to stay in business and to stay careful during this difficult time. If you’re wondering what FTC stands for, it’s Flatten the Curve. You can read Flattening a Pandemic’s Curve: Why Staying Home can Save Lives and this message from concerned physicians to gain a deeper understanding into the importance of our collective choices. These articles are particularly helpful for individuals who are still in denial about the pandemic. We have a chance to significantly slow down the community spread. And if nothing else, this interview with Michael Osterholm, an internationally recognized expert on infectious disease epidemiology will give you the scientific details needed to convince anyone who is doubting the value of social distancing and washing hands as demonstrated in this video.

And most of all here is a List of Personal Things You Can Do to Stay Well.

So let us all know what you are doing with the hashtag #CampFTC — no idea is too small:

1. Organizing your spice rack
2. Dance alone in the living room
3. Dress your cat in fine attire
4. Cook something you’ve never tried before
5. Write a poem
6. Use the telephone to have a live conversation with someone
7. Sing at the top of your lungs
8. Hike in nature

Here are this week’s resources:

1. What’s your one truest dream? This and many more questions are asked in Marie Forleo’s interview of Glennon Doyle Melton regarding her new book, Untamed.

2. Inspiration from Sir Isaac Newton – he was homebound for a similar reason and guess what he did.

3. Armchair exploration – Here’s a link to virtual tours at museums around the world. And here are virtual field trips. And you can enjoy an epic 12-hour mix charting the history of spiritual jazz here.

4. The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker – how can we take the approaches by Parker and apply them to a virtual space? Let’s get creative! You can listen to a wonderful podcast interview with her, titled “Gathering as a Form of Leadership” here and here. Or look on your favorite podcast app and search for the Sounds True podcast to find it.

There’s always more to share, but for now, I invite you to stay close to home, let’s bring our globe back to a level of health and think most about those with compromised immune systems. 

Here’s how you can help:

1. Share the resources in this post.
2. Create anything.
3. Sleep and rest as much as possible.
4. LAUGH LAUGH LAUGH.
5. Try to stay nourished with nutrient-rich foods.
6. Practice social distancing (6 feet or more between people), stay home and get out in nature — and wash your hands thoroughly.

And remember, look for the magic in the everyday — there are STILL clues everywhere.

Hello Hungry Hungry People,

We are hungry for food, hugs, love, naps and why not be hungry for inspiration? I’m hoping that this week’s edition of Rebecca’s Magical Mondays fills up your hearts, bellies and minds.

I’ve fallen into a big rabbit hole following Samin Nosrat, author of Salt Fat Acid Heat thanks to an unexpected delightful stop on the way home from the Nahko and Medicine for the People concert at Plenty on Bell in Los Alamos, CA where I had a delicious pulled pork sandwich, perfectly strong iced tea (and I’m picky about that) and THE BEST peanut butter cookies of my entire life — think nutter butter for adults! Photos are below.

And amazing news! You are invited to a monthly mastermind that I’m co-facilitating with Ho’omalalama Brown of WholisticFit.com — our next online gathering is Saturday, March 21st at 11am Pacific Time. (You can calculate your time zone here.) She is an amazing and inspiring multi-passionate entrepreneur who always brings new, creative and practical resources as well as deep roots in Hawaiian culture.

Here’s how it works: a group of entrepreneurs, writers, artists and creatives gather online for 90 minutes. During the first 20 minutes, we state our goals for the session. Then we stay online together and at least start on those goals, then come back for the last 25 minutes and share what we accomplished. We get feedback and ideas from the facilitators and participants if we need help solving for something or advice on next steps. It has been so motivating for me. And get this: you can drop in monthly for only $20. You can click on my PayPal link or Venmo if you would like to join us! It is so energizing to know that I can count on a monthly gathering to kick start me to get that project done–be it transcribing my novel, crafting a production schedule, revisiting and getting clear on my goals or organize my finances.

Here are this week’s resources:

A. Samin Nosrat interviews I love: For simplicity’s sake, I’ve shared links that work no matter your device, but you can find these interviews on your favorite podcast app:

1. How to Fail with Elizabeth Day
2. Keep Calm and Cook On with Julia Turshen

These are two of my favorites–but I’ve listened to at least six interviews because I am a complete Salt Fat Acid Heat nerd.

B. Alexis Saloutos of Chakredy is offering a free webinar on March 11 at 11am PT on Energetic Grounding for Collective Anxiety. I like the way Alexis shows up in the world and believe that she will offer helpful approaches to navigating these times.

C.  Booklists at Social Justice Books – A Teaching for Change Project – Explore!

I hope you explore this! I loved learning about all of the American Indians in Children’s Literature books. In case you didn’t know it, since the publication of The Amazing Adventures of Selma Calderon in 2015, I have donated 5% of all net profits to Teaching for Change.

D. Slow Food – Plant a Seed Kit – I thought that if you haven’t already explored Slow Food, you might like to learn more about it. Either way, their plant a seed kit is just the hope some of us need right now. The links provided are for the U.S. but there are Slow Food groups all over the world.

Here’s how you can help this week:

1. Cook something delicious! Check out the resources connected to Salt Fat Acid Heat to explore a new approach if you already cook or try something new if you are a novice in the kitchen.
2. Tell someone about the chance to join our monthly mastermind by sharing this post.
3. Explore the booklists above — they cover everything from Activism to Gender Identity to Arab Americans to Voting Rights!
4. Deep breaths this week loveys. Here’s a quick video of me at the beach. And in case you need more ocean sounds, I recorded this 10-minute Ocean Meditation.

And remember, look for magic in the everyday. There are clues everywhere!

Do you still need to get organized for your taxes? Do you have another project hanging over your head?
A huge part of my success (and happiness) is thanks to #smallincrementalsteps in everything I do.

You can join me on Saturday, March 7 at 11am Pacific Time via Zoom and get your stuff done. I will be hanging out for 90 minutes. I will get us grounded, pull cards and then off we go to get our stuff done.

Pay what you can and enjoy that feeling of making progress or completing the thing you keep saying you are going to do.
No recording. Just a live hangout.
Pay via PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/RebeccaVillarreal
Or Via Venmo @Rebecca-Villarreal-Author

I hope to see you there!

Next hangout – writing!

And you can be sure this week’s Magical Monday is FULL of inspiring joy!

#mysticathlete #cucalacas #workingwriter

PS: This is my nourished, happy smirk sitting in the sun after completing some major tasks on my list and rewarding myself with a gorgeous break.

Big news! I learned to fly. They gave me waffle wings. And with those powerful new wings, I’m taking you back in time with some of my most helpful blog posts. Here goes:

1. Shine the Pot: When to Let Go of Friends and Family

2. You are Asking Me to Swallow the Sun…

3. Erasing Big Mistakes, Watering the Seeds, Naming Your Own Matilda

How you can help:

A. Rest

B. Rest

C. Rest

Look for the magic in the everyday — there are clues everywhere!