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Alisa Kennedy Jones's avatar

When I feel myself starting to actively flail, I tend to ask how can I get curious again about the thing at which I'm flailing to shift my energy relative to it all and reset the rhythm/tone.

My metric for measuring thriving versus flailing is... How's my nervous system doing? Am I able to calm it down? Most of the time... yes. (knock wood)

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Alicia Dara's avatar

That’s a good one, and I use it all the time, too.

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Alisa Kennedy Jones's avatar

I love that you are doing French for your friend. I need to do that.

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Yi Xue's avatar

Instead of asking "Am I failing (or succeeding)?", I'd ask "Am I happy?"

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Alicia Dara's avatar

This is a great point, Yi! I'm at a stage of life where I probably equate happiness with productivity too much, but it's only because I'm doing everything I can to ensure that the old woman in my future is well taken care of :)

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Kim Holden's avatar

I am flailing upward...with audio books for fun (not work), and I am trying to learn something new each week. I'm not super organized about it, but I have always had a lot of "thoughts" about things I would love to know or learn some day. Well at least once a week, I explore one of those thoughts. This week, I will be learning how to service my own sewing machine. Soon, I want to learn how to decorate cookies with the fun icing, and I have already learned how to make my own protein granola.

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Alicia Dara's avatar

Sounds good, Kim! Maybe you could share your protein granola recipe with us?

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Jennifer Silva Redmond's avatar

I love this so much! Yes, we might flail, but we won't fail, we will evolve and grow in spite of challenges. You are an inspiration.

And I have to mention a French crime series, Astrid, on PBS (Passport streaming app). It's about a couple of women thrown together who solve crimes, and learn to think differently through friendship. Nuerodivergence is key, and real women with real bodies, and it's all in glorious French, with subtitles. Russel and I love it and we are chatting in basic French again.

And I'm on Duolingo, too, still flailing upward in my attempt to become fluent in Spanish.

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Alicia Dara's avatar

I've heard about that show! I'd love to see an American remake, although the entire concept of "real bodies" would likely go out the window. In any case, bonne chance avec votre Francais, et j'espere que cela continuera de t'apporter du plaisir :)

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Jennifer Silva Redmond's avatar

Oui!

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