It’s an interesting time to be fifty y/o. I am entering 2024 at age 52. As I type, I wonder what additional qualifiers are necessary to share: single? female? lifetime school employee? 

I like fifty. I like fifty in 2024. I like what I can access with technology. I like that I can anticipate living a long time in good health. If illness shows up, I move toward it. If I die, I die. In the meantime, I’ll focus on a long, healthy life span. 

As I type this, I am visiting my parents. My dad and I were talking and he mentioned how he would have liked to have been a sports announcer. We were in the car, and there are a lot of cars in Southwest Florida these days. It was also in the afternoon. It is my experience that general busy-ness and time of day contribute to my thoughts and actions moving faster than they might at other times of the day. My response to him saying that was that he’d be a great modern time podcaster. “No Sal. I would have been a good sports announcer.” Pause. “Yeah. you would have been great.”

The reason I tell the story in that way is 1. To recognize that at times people just want to be heard and validated, and depending on circumstances and time of day it may be more difficult to do so, and 2. In 2024, there are ways to access desired outcomes using technology and the opportunities available as a result of the digital age. 

At fifty, it is my belief that one can create desired outcomes in a general sense. One cannot create desired outcomes that include other people, as one has no control over another’s inside world of thoughts,feelings, and urges/impulses to act or to not act.

In my content, what I share is what has been relevant to me and my experience largely connected to disrupting a depressive cycle that began early. The first time I used medication as a mood stabilizer was at age 26. I used medication twice. The second time was age 33 when I was in graduate school.  At present, I use the skills, tools, and strategies I share to access a balanced state of wellbeing. 

As for the 2024 blog year, on Thursdays I would like to share from my book Something More. Connecting to the Pulse of a Shared Humanity. The book was unintentional, as I set out to create monthly online learning courses. My first book, The Story I Tell. How to make the Age of Disruption work for you. was the result of a 2020 January attempt at an online learning course named: self-care.

If you are interested in following somethingmore, the book is available at Amazon Books. 

A prerequisite to following along would be to create a Quiet Time in your day. Something More can be used as a weekly reflective tool.

 
Let’s ease into this blog year and see what happens.  …she writes, mostly to herself.

Today I will share the images taken from my copy that includes notes I wrote yesterday. Today’s share includes the ‘front matter’ as the Reedsy app calls it.

Next week will include the first post along with reflection suggestions if interested.

This is the cover (duh). The cover is made up of 2020 Instagram posts. The posts are blog quotes. It goes without saying that in January 2020 I had no idea as to what was going to happen in March. Having the global crisis created real time context for the skills, tools, strategies shared. The context can be helpful when reading somethingmore.

In December 2019, I was visiting my parents in Southwest Florida for the holidays. We ate at a fish house in Casey Key and my dad saw Stephen King come in for take out. This was the impetus for me to upload On Writing on Audible.

Yesterday morning I wrote about an experience I had in my childhood. It happened more than once. I’ll share what I wrote – it’s scratch writing. The summary is that the absence of the somethingmore could be considered existensialism and/or impermanence which both can be quite unsettling and make life feel scary and uncertain. My experience of depression was a form of existensialism (what’s the point? life is a cruel joke).

somethingmore is expansive and the state would be considered one of possibility. When I draw the nervous system and describe it as clear mind, open heart, stable belly, I am describing my experience of what somethingmore, or a state of possibility, feels like. You have your own experience.

I created the monthly topics originally for online courses. I chose words that I felt connected to the month/time of year.

If you are interested enough to have read my images then you will see the general notes I included to validate what is still quite relevant.

The journal suggestion: What would you do if money, time, and other resources were of no issue or concern? is taken from part III of storyitell – brainstorm.

What are you currently influenced by? I just started the Masterclass app and have access to endless courses. A few I completed include: Amy Poehler, James Clear, Noam Chomsky. I am listening toJon Kabat-Zinn and Michael Pollan. I also love the goZen! social-emotional curriculum by Renee Jain. In November 2023, she interviewed a number of experts in the field of Executive Functioning. I listened to a 45 minute discussion with Nir Eyal, author of Indistractible (which will be my next download on Audible, along with his other book Hooked); and I am 30 minutes into an interview with Yulia Rafailova. I have many interviews ahead to listen to, and if these first two are any indication of what is to come, I find it to be highly useful, relateable, and validating as to what I observe in myself and the students I spend my days with. I’m really enjoying Andre Duquom’s podcast, and continue to find Tim Ferriss interesting for a variety of reasons, as well as love Rich Roll’s conversational style – and his wife, Julie Piatt.

What books do you have open currently? I am not home, but I think I have Yes, And open, along with all of my own and a DBT workbook created for classrooms.

Open on Audible? Hidden Potential by Adam Grant, and Yes, And by Kelly Leonard and Tom Yorton. The third book is not yet listened to but is an Audible original called A Mind of Her Own by Paula McLain.

Podcasts in last week? I love Andre Duquom. The top four podcasts that show up for me are The Rich Roll Podcast; Armchair; Trevor – What Now?; and Know Thyself (this is Andre).

Instagram follows? Truth? I’m not that into it right now. I like the dog memes and lol at the iamthirtyaf posts if they show up.

If you happen to read this, I’m curious to know what your answers are…email me at sallyseifferco.blog (truth – wordpress AI suggested that I end my blog with a question to engage readers…this was on my last post – but it seems relevant today).