February Wrapped
The shortest yet the slowest month
February
Although February is our shortest month, it always feels like the slowest. Maybe it has to do with Chinese New Years and how friends and family are all preoccupied with their own new years traditions. Since my parents have moved away, I have far less events around this time which is a nice change after the rush of January.
February brought a lot of “feel good” moments. Deeper conversations, slower nights after work, and discovering that my body is capable of so much more than I thought. There were also (too) many moments of self doubt, frustration, and over-intellectualizing spaced out in between. It’s easy to just talk about positive moments but in reality there were just as many moments that felt shaky and uncertain. But here we are in March, still standing strong. That’ll always be something worth celebrating to me.
At the end of each month, I always do a month-in-review / next month’s planning in my journal. I use the review portion to think about what went well, what could’ve gone better, and the things I was the most grateful for. Then I always do a wheel of life evaluation before I dive into setting intentions for the next month. (Let me know if you want me to share my monthly journaling reflection in detail and I can do that in a separate post!)
I did share some reflective prompts for journaling more intentionally earlier in the month which is how I’ve been trying to shape and guide my thoughts. I loved this interview response from Eileen Gu where she talks about how she sometimes feels like a scientist inside her own brain, just tinkering away at her thoughts so that she can become who she wants to be.
In a way I’m always trying to do the same (with varying levels of success). The frame work really is this: think, observe, label, reframe, move on. Similar to the RULER framework, developed by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, by understanding and expressing how we’re feeling, or in this case what we’re (over)thinking, it creates the space we need to actually process the thing and move past it. Definitely a WIP but a mindset that I’m hoping to carry into March and the rest of the year.
March will be all about simplicity, but that’s a whole other article on it’s own.
Loving
I bought a 10mL of this last year and never really got around to wearing it. As far as light, bright white florals go, Ilha do Mel by Memo Paris is still one of my holy grails. I’ve finally decided to branch out and have added quite a few new white floral masterpieces to my collection and Doson is definitely one of them.
It wears as an airy, almost fluffy white floral with a hint of the tea note that you get with jasmine sometimes but still maintaining quite a bright feeling. It’s a great one for spring but honestly I love it so much I’d wear it all year round.
Midori A5 MD Notebook
To be truthful, the Itoya A5 dotted notebook still has my heart but I stupidly didn’t restock the last time I was in Japan so the Midori has been my stand in for now. The paper quality is great but doesn’t write quite as smooth as the Itoya. But it is widely available which is a huge plus.
Physical planners
I can’t pinpoint exactly why I decided to go back to having a physical planner but I’ve been loving having it back in my work ecosystem. While I still do all of my time-blocking within Akiflow and project organization within Notion, my day-to-day / week-to-week todos are now living within my Filofax. More on this soon!
Consuming
Wuthering Heights
After watching “Wuthering Heights” with Summer, I knew I needed to read the book so that I can make a proper comparison for myself. I enjoyed the movie for what it was—a campy, fun, sexy take on a classic adaptation. There were parts that I loved and parts that I didn’t but overall I left the the theatre feeling like I had a good time (minus the BAWLING I did in the last 10 minutes).
I’ve been reading and listening to Wuthering Heights on Bookwise, a new reading app that I’ve been invited to test. I’ll definitely give a more in-depth review once I’m done but so far I am enjoying how accurately ridiculous movie Cathy was compared to book Cathy.
The Lobster
I stumbled across this movie on Letterboxd and found out it was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the same Director that did Bugonia recently. This was an absurdist, dystopian story that pokes fun at our societal needs of being in a relationship. In this world, single people are sent to stay at a hotel where they have 45 days to find a mate and be coupled up. If you aren’t able to meet that deadline, you’re turned into an animal permanently and sent back into the world. The only other option is escaping into the woods and living as a “single” where you’re an outcast from society, constantly being hunted, and banned from having any forms of a relationship with another person.
This film starkly contrasts that deep yearning love that I usually crave from movies about relationships which made it quite a thoughtful watch for me. Without spoiling too much, the ending scene really prompts you think about whether we’re chasing love for the right reasons.
Eternity
The premise of this movie still lives in my head rent free (so much so that I’m working on a separate post on it altogether). In the afterlife, Joan is faced with the insane choice of spending eternity with the husband she spent with life with or her first love, who died in the war, shortly after they were married. It’s SO interesting hearing different people’s perspectives on the choice they would’ve made and why. I love how the movie explores that big question of do you go with what you know or explore the “what if” because it’s one that shows up over and over in our lives in so many different ways. Anyways, I have SO many thoughts so I’ll be sharing that soon.
Repeating
My running journey
To everyone who enjoyed my article on how I (unintentionally) became a runner, here’s my update: I am completely and utterly obsessed. At the time of writing that article (January), I set the goal to running a 5k without stopping and running a 10k for the year. We’re in March now and 5kms have become my easy runs and I run at least 10k every weekend. My longest run so far has been 14km!!
I could honestly go on and on about why it’s grown on me so much but here’s the quick summary:
I feel incredibly powerful being able to tackle distances I never thought I would do in my entire life. I’m currently aiming to run 31km on my 31st birthday in May.
Having a running training plan builds self-trust and discipline. I absolutely LOVE the Runna app* and how practical and realistic it makes running feel. No matter what goal you’re working towards, they’ll create a progressive plan that meets you at whatever your fitness level is.
I physically feel so much fitter. In the same way progressive overloading at the gym shows you that you’re getting stronger, when distances that felt impossible start feeling easy, it’s such a clear sign of your fitness improving. And boy does that feel good.
I’ve definitely learned a lot in the last two months (and I’m still learning more about running every day) so if you’d like an updated article about my running journey, please let me know!
*I actually love Runna so much I outreached them to see if I could land an affiliate code. So if you want two weeks free of their paid plan which allows you to set a custom goal, use code ANGEL when you sign up!
Blueberry yogurt bowl
Increasing my monthly workouts by 900% (LITERALLY) has meant that I’ve had to change how I nourish my body as well. Especially when it comes to running, I’ve had to learn how to fuel my body before and after so make sure I have the energy to tackle 10+ km of running and give my body what it needs to recover.
I’m definitely a hyper-fixation eater (it’s SO hard for me to get sick of a dish) and this month I’ve been eating this blueberry granola yogurt bowl for breakfast or for a mid day snack (sometimes both). All you need is:
Yogurt (I use Siggi’s vanilla high-protein or plain Skyr yogurt for a protein boost)
Frozen blueberries (the frozen ones turn the mixture into an ice cream consistency)
Granola of your choice (I love any of the ones from Terra)
Chia seeds
Honey (optional but I like a small small drizzle when I use plain yogurt)
Delicious AND good for you. You really can’t go wrong.
Snapping
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I love Lobster. Such a funky film