Dear Friends,

What is your day like? I find it so interesting to learn about how friends spend their time, and the routines they have built around what they need and want to get done. For me, it’s an indicator of my mind state—when my routine falls apart or gets chaotic, it means that uh, things have gone awry.

And boy, have things gone awry lately. (I’m working on not sending newsletters only when things are going well, hahaha!) I’ve experienced some professional setbacks, gotten short-fused and reactive with people I care about (ok it’s Cameron. Poor guy. Go subscribe to his newsletter.) I am truly in a valley of my own making. Hello from down here-here-here-here-here (imagine an echo please.)

Here’s the thing—would my attempt to get out of this valley by re-establishing a routine, be “the tail wagging the dog?” I was messaging Cameron about this and how I admire this minimalist lady for having an insanely regimented day. I told him that Yuhong points out (lovingly) that it’s not really her routine per se, it’s her emotional stability that I desire. (Ouch!) I’ll let her have that zinger since she’s stuck dealing with me, but it stings because it’s true. The frustrating thing is that I’ve had periods of stability, yet inconstancy (anicca) seems to once again remind me that it’s still here, stirring up everything.

So what is my day sorta-like? What am I changing?

General ~Daily

• (NEW) Meditate with Clear Mountain Monastery for 30 min

• Cardio workout for 45 min while watching YouTube, Push-ups and Pull-ups routine

• Cook and clean

• Journal using 750 words - recently added LLM analysis via Claude so now I can super navel-gaze my entries dating back to 2011. I’ve also been using voice memo and dumping the transcript—I found it therapeutic to activate the throat chakra and voice my thoughts instead of typing them out.

Monday

• (NEW) Writing this substack with CansaFis and crew

• (NEW) Weekly review of inbox and tasks

• (NEWish) Building Reframe - a curated community for entrepreneurs, builders, and high-agency individuals taking charge of healthcare for themselves and their loved ones. It’s my newest stab at building a fun and useful place for folks to document their health experiments. Think of this as Kind Camp 2.0 (yes I called OK Banger that but this is even closer 😂 it’s a vortex I can’t escape from…)

Tuesday

• Livestream OK banger with Cameron - the core show where we share our lives + talk about a book - we are now 42 episodes in! Cameron also started editing just the book portion, here’s our first one on Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act (it’s not just praising the book, we talk about how how realistic it is for someone to read it and become creative…)

• More Reframe building

Wednesday

• (NEWish) Half day meditation retreat at Insight Meditation Center usually with Gil Fronsdal

• Paperwork catch-up (kinda in an emergency state these few weeks with this because of tax season and passport renewal nightmare, yikes!)

Thursday

• Livestream OK banger with Cameron - we co-work on “tar tasks and hassle hurdles” together with friends - you are welcomed to join us!! We have a lot of good laughs and motivate each other along.

• More Reframe building

Friday

• Sometimes hike with friends, lunches with friends, date with Yuhong…

• Read the book Cameron and I will discuss on the OK Banger Show next week (which is Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green)

• (NEW) Weekly wrap-up of inbox and tasks

Weekends

• One harder hike with Yuhong, Sunday Crew every 2 weeks with

• Groceries, concerted cooking and cleaning

The difference with buddhist practice is that I’m pretty stoked to share these setbacks with you, whereas in the past I would have shoved it into the shame corner.

I also don’t think of the routine as a way to “discipline” myself into doing things—plus from experience, it will quickly fall apart from inner rebellion if I view it that way. Instead, maybe they are something like designing a house with purposeful territories—and if I even just stared at a blank screen during the designated time, that already fulfills its purpose as a container for the experience.

So…what have you been up to? I really want to know—let’s catch up! Here’s a scheduling doodad

Warm Wishes,

Christin