I was more than a little excited to notice that a post I did on free desktop wallpaper designs a couple of years ago has been pretty popular lately.

Not only does it mean that I’m not alone in my geekdom—at least in its relation to pretty, inspirational design—but it gave me what I considered a damn good excuse to scour the internet for more.

So I did. And I spent way too much time poking and prodding to find designs that not only look pretty, but give you a little extra motivation without being obnoxiously overachieving. Because we all want to do good things, right? We just don’t need to shackle ourselves to doing them 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It’s a lesson I’m desperately trying to learn for myself, so I figured at least a few of you might be in the same boat.

Here’s to being balanced boss bitches.

Dear Friends,

Own your shit. There’s a certain amount of power that comes from wearing what you are proudly and not apologizing for it—that last part is the bit I have trouble with. My speech is generally laced with sorries for things I have no business being sorry for.

The weather’s turning shitty? Sorry.
You walked into the door and scraped your elbow? Sorry.
Stuck in traffic? Sorry.
You don’t like the sound of children’s laughter? Sorry.

Only I’m not sorry about any of these things. Do I feel bad that you may be disappointed and/or perturbed about something that’s going on? Sure. But I don’t need to take on your shit and make it my own. I don’t have to apologize.

Yesterday, before I was even finished with my morning smoothie, I was positive that removing clumps of hair by the fistful would be more fun than dealing with the shitstorm I found myself in the middle of. My little bubble of zen was completely punctured and there was air exploding wildly (and loudly) and throwing my little bubble every which way with uneccessary force. Not cool.

I’m sure you can relate. We all have to deal with things we’d rather sweep under the rug. Some of us (this is me, raising my hand and waving it around overzealously) have to be pushed into the lion’s den and forced to take action because we hate confrontation. Others enjoy a good battle and head into it with a little bit more gusto.

Either way, dealing with sticky situations can leave us wallowing in little pools of sorrow and self pity. I try desperately to pull myself out of these toxic pools by wading into much more positive territory. As silly and as hokey as it may sound, I often start the process by burying myself in inspirational quotes. I like to get the good vibes flowing and take the next step from there.

This post is for any of you who currently has a handful of hair and a cloudy outlook. Take a deep breath and rebuild your zen bubble…

Free People

I have been so busy lately. And busy is good. Don’t get me wrong. Busy is really good. The problem is that I’ve been busy with freelance work that has nothing to do with the direction I want to move in. I’m totally fine with putting my nose to the ground and doing dirty work (or just, you know, thankless work). Momma’s gotta make some money. But when that work becomes my excuse for not getting to where I want to be, I need to reassess.

Guys, I’m in one of those stress cycles again. I know you know what I mean. The kind of thing where if you clear one stressful thing off your plate, you immediately find something else that’s just as stressy (yeah, that’s a word now) to obsess over. The kind of thing where you can’t force your brain to be quiet for long enough to take a deep breath and relax.

Well, I’m tired of it now.

I recently got a new freelance client who has been keeping me nice and busy. This is awesome. Only it comes with a little bit of stress as I try to juggle tasks and schedules around to accommodate deadlines and rush projects. Instead of being elated that I have more clients and I’m busier (which was one of my main goals for this year), I’m just running around in circles in a big ol’ stress bubble.

What I need is a change in perspective. Instead of working my butt off to get through a project and to some imaginary stress-free place at the end of the tunnel, I need to see this as my new normal. I’m busier now and I have to adjust both my schedule and my way of thinking to work with it and find some sort of happy place.

If you’ve been a reader for a while, you know what I do when I get to this place. Yeah, that’s right. I head to the old Pinterest inspiration board and try to soak up some zen…