Beet salad: A few tips on adulting through our busy lives
In this edition: Last minute greeting cards and gifts, reminder to recharge, feel good products and Brene Brown's the Atlas of the Heart
Hi there! Welcome to the 40+ new subscribers that have joined us in September! We are honored that you have joined our extended community following our life journey. This week’s post is a different format - lovingly called the Beet Salad - a compilation of quick-read tips, lessons, and recs across the full spectrum of topics we discuss on Mind The Beet. Perfect for those who just want to skim and graze!
You can always find all our longer-form, single-topic essays here: mindthebeet.com/articles. If you are new, here are some of our favorites from the archives:
🌄 Burnout and Boredom: A manager’s pandemic retrospective on Mental Health: Thoughts on managing stress, setting boundaries and finding peak performance
👩🏼💼 The interview: Preparation guide for an interview in product or marketing
🎁 The Gifts We Hope to Give: Learn a bit about how we approach parenting and leadership
🎙 The Studio: A product guide to building a custom telepresence room
🤗 A Day In the Life of a Frontline Manager: Battle tested advice for new frontline managers and some human stories about it.
📚 Information Diet: Recommendations for news outlets, analysis, podcasts, and newsletter subscriptions from an information junkie
👨👩👧👧 Brave Parenting. It’s OK to not be perfect. It’s OK to be scared as a parent - even in the everyday moments.
I thought that when I grow up, the biggest benefit of adulthood would be the ability to stay up late and eat ice cream whenever I wanted. Now that I am getting closer and closer to 40, living a full life with a career, friends, loving family including my two wonderful children and a husband, I am squarely in the adult zone. As it turns out, as an adult, I want to go to bed on time (no later than 10:30pm so I can be up at 6am to work out), and eating ice cream gives me a stomachache more often than not.
So in this post, I have compiled a few tips and products that make adulting a little bit easier as well as included some indulgences that I have been enjoying (since ice cream every day did not work out). Hope you enjoy it and pass it on to others you think may benefit.
Life tip: Last minute greeting cards and gifts
I really helpful trick I learned from my mother while growing up is to have a drawer of a few thoughtful gifts and cards that you can use when you need a last minute solution. For me, this means that I have a stack of greeting cards on hand for birthday, thank you and get well cards. I try to stock up opportunistically at grocery stores, gift stores, art stores or museums.
Additionally, I keep a variety of generic gifts: a couple of glassy baby candles for girlfriends and colorful Usborne books that I buy to support friends who host book parties that make great gifts are a few examples.
Whether you need something for a last minute event or for a milestone has slipped your mind, I have found this practice to be really useful.
Wellbeing tip: Make time for yourself
One of our most popular posts on Mind the Beet to date has been Adam’s retrospective on how he planned his recharge week (How I approached a Recharge Week). As we hurl into fall and this hectic and unpredictable year, whether you are able to find a day, a weekned or a week to recharge, here is a quick set of tips to help you set yourself up for success:
Be intentional about the clock speed. Think about how intense you want your week to be.
Find content ahead of time. Books, podcasts, TV. Having a queue that pulls you towards it and motivates you to change your pace.
Plan the themes. Self-care, community, and checklists were my big themes.
Leave room for whatever strikes your mood that day. Don’t plan out the entire week. Have a frame and let yourself work in it.
Be introspective. Stepping away from equilibrium is such a gift you can give yourself because it engenders fresh perspective that you can get in no other way. Ensure you pull on that – ask yourself what you want to do differently as you approach re-entry.
Plan the next break. It’s so important to have milestones to look forward to. Spend part of your time planning your next break 2-4 months from now.
Read the full post here.
Product rec: Formulate - Custom shampoo
You know you’ve hit prime time of adulting when you write about customizing your shampoo . Formulate has an offering that designs a shampoo for you that optimizes for your hair goals (strengthening, reducing thinning, making it less oily/dry, etc.) via a quick questionnaire as well as picking your scent (I chose peach mango).
I liked Formulate’s first run experience - a questionnaire focused both on what hair you have, your goals, current products you use as well as your geographic location. The location is used to give you insight on what type of climate you live in and how that could impact your hair (dryness, etc.) - which I thought was a nice touch.
I just ordered mine and thought the concept was cool, so sharing with you all as well.
Product rec: Favorite tea - Harney & Sons Paris
Tea is a big ritual in my childhood home. Anytime you would enter my parents house, you can be sure that the first question you’ll be asked is if you’d like a cup of tea. I grew up drinking tea 2-3 times a day - it is the first drink in the morning with breakfast, a common drink during an afternoon snack and a stable post dinner. It is also a soothing “everything will be ok drink.” Because tea was such a big deal, for much of my life, I did not actually care what it tasted like. I liked basic Lipton tea - I would dip it in for less than 5 seconds and take it out. Over time, I have started actually trying different kinds of teas - fruity teas, decaf lavender, flavored black teas. I have discovered English tea time and aromatic Indian teas.
A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by to visit a friend of mine, who shares the culture of tea drinking and she made me a cup of Harney and Son’s Paris tea - and it was really good. It’s got a balance of vanilla and black current flavor mixed into the black tea and it brings me joy. I was even more excited to learn that I can order it on Amazon.
Product rec: Cell phone crossbody holder
I have been looking for a solution to cary my phone plus 1-2 cards with me when I am not carrying a purse. Usually I stick my phone in my back pocket and my mini wallet that holds a couple of cards in my other pocket, which means every time I sit down, I have to take both of those things out. A fellow mom introduced me to the two-in-one that actually works!
I now use the Bandolier cell phone + mini wallet (the Haley model). It fits my phone as well as 2-3 cards, which is exactly what I need. I can wear it across my body as well as take the straps off and just throw it in my purse. The only downside is that it doesn’t work super well with my MagSafe charger in the car (thought it works with others ones just fine) - the weight of the case, pulls the phone off the magnet.
I bought mine in black, but other colors and styles are available. Also, they already have the cases for iPhone 13 out.
Upcoming content: Brene Brown, Atlas of the Heart
I can’t wait for Brene Brown’s next book, Atlas of the Heart - coming out at the end of November (you can pre-order now). “In Atlas of the Heart, Brown takes us on a journey through eighty-seven of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. As she maps the necessary skills and an actionable framework for meaningful connection, she gives us the language and tools to access a universe of new choices and second chances—a universe where we can share and steward the stories of our bravest and most heartbreaking moments with one another in a way that builds connection.”
I am excited to adopt this additional toolkit that helps with naming emotions and understanding what they mean in my continuous search for greater connection and purpose.
Thanks for reading! Drop us a line (reply to this email or email mindthebeet@gmail.com) with any content recs or feedback.