Ah Permaculture Diploma / New Year - where am I going?

I suppose it is always around this time of year that I contemplate where I am going in the upcoming year. I find January is a time of reflection for me as my birthday falls near the beginning of January as well as being the actual start of a new year.

Well, I got a great surprise in that one of my diploma projects got signed off in January with another one nearing being signed off. I have nearly finished writing up my wonderful collaborative Introduction to Permaculture course design that culminated in York's Introduction to Permaculture course run by 2 other permaculture diploma apprentices and myself back in November.

All very exciting but the diploma is also taking a lot of my time and that is something that I do not have a lot of. So the time has come to re-evaluate.

Something I always thought near the beginning of my diploma journey was using the permaculture principle of designing from patterns to details to concentrate, via my projects, on the circles of my life split up as follows:

1. my house
2. my street
3. my easily walkable neighbourhood
4. my walkable area (within 30 minutes)
5. my locality
6. my city
7. everything else needed to create community / remain connected to everything

with more effort put into 1 through to a lot less effort for no 6 and a weird amount of effort for 7 due to wanting to reclaim entertainment tasks from the economy such as cooking, childcare and fun. Across all the circles there is a need to connect with people, nature and myself and then contribute to the communities in those areas.

I also wanted to honour my quadrinity, as taught in the Hoffman Process, of intellect, spirit, emotion and physical body.

This is not something that I have touched on explicitly so far in any of the 10 designs but they are always in the back of my mind. However all these 11 areas are very important to me in different ways but how do I deal with them all in a way that is understandable? This is something that I have struggled with a lot whilst doing the permaculture diploma. Being dyslexic I tend to think big and assume that everyone is going to get where I am coming from. They don't!!!

All you need to do is look at the number of spreadsheets in my diploma journey planning, logging, documenting project plan here. It makes perfect sense to me but it isn't that easy to follow without some sort of explanation. And therein lies a problem because when it comes down to it I really cannot be bothered to explain all the many small details of my inter-connected way of thinking. I don't have the time and even if I did it would be taking me away from doing all the fab things I get to do. So what do I do now? I don't really have an answer. So I am going to keep doing the things I have been doing since starting the diploma and I will just see where this year takes me. I am going to stick to my plan as long as it doesn't cause me stress.

And so I am going to start with a re-evaluation of myself:

1. I am more than a someone doing a diploma in permaculture, I am more than someone who home educates their children, I am more than a wife, a daughter, a sister, a volunteer at my local community hub, more than a self-employed IT / PA / social media person, more than a friend, more than my jobs, more than my relationships. I am all those things and more.

I am the embodiment of all my relationships / all my connections with the world.

2. What I do does not need to be measured to be valued (do not mistake measurement for value eg. salary, school grades, etc) whether it be via salary, signed off diploma projects or whatever.

3. When I forget who I am and I become disconnected - I need to be aware eg. shopping for stuff I don't need, eating stuff that doesn't fuel my body properly, etc

and then:

4. Celebrate the connections in my life and build more:
i. honour the space I live in eg. declutter (minimalist month), use the space in a conducive manner
ii. continue making cider with people on the street every year, connect with my neighbours in other ways, help-yourself front garden
iii.working at the local community cafe & volunteering at the local youth club
iv. regular walks - health and wellbeing and awareness of my neighbourhood & member of my local Timebank
v. use my local shops eg. greengrocers - local produce, local businesses, local market
vi. walk/cycle as much as possible
vii. grow the great connections I have with my friends and with nature

Intellect
Admit my dysfunctionality
Recognise it = awareness
Confront it = will
Move on = take action

Emotion
Recognise the need to listen (observe)
Recognise the need to be heard
Enlightenment is a group effort or Charles Einstein's idea of us being inter-beings

Spirit
Honour the fact that I am part of nature

Body
Just do stuff and find positive body issues

These are just ramblings that I have written as they have occurred to me against the backdrop of the 11 areas mentioned above. A journalution of sorts (click on the link to find out more about journaling) and there is so much more I could write because working on myself and my place in this amazing universe is never going to end. The universe at present seems to be presenting me with many amazing opportunities to help people get the word out about brilliant courses, fantastic services that will help people find themselves or great products that honour the planet.

I get to continue honouring my planet by being part of the lives of the wonderful natural resources that are a whole host of amazing home educated children (including my own.) The next creative generation!! Every day I get to be part of that. It really needs to be celebrated.

So whether I take a pause from my diploma, give it up, keep working on it - it doesn't actually matter because those 11 areas mentioned above (and so many more) are always in the back of my mind along with the need to looking after the planet I live with.

Top tips for a healthy relationship

Recent things in my life have made me think about what I would like to teach my children about communicating and having lasting relationships (if that is what they want.) I have been married to my dh for nearly 21 years and most of the time we are happy but there have been times when things were not great. We argue, disagree and most of these things are due to the fact that we think and act very, very differently.

One of the best things I think that explains some of the issues we have encountered in our relationship I learnt about when I attended the Hoffman Process back in 2009. It is that in most relationships there tends to be one “minimiser” and one “maximiser.” This is taken from the Imago Relationship Therapy developed by Harville Hendrix. 

There are some great explanations out there at the Imago UK page or at these webpages -  Joan Emerson's page or The Passion Doctor

My experience is described in the table below:   

Maximiser	Minimiser
Need all disagreements sorted out now	Need space and time to think but then don’t want to talk about it ever
Needs emotions acknowledged	Tend to withhold feelings
Aggressive	Passive-aggressive
Outwardly express feelings	Tend to keep feelings to themselves
Look outward for approval	Look inward for approval
Tend to be quick thinkers	Needs time to think things through
Tend to be energised by being with my friends	Tend to be tired out by being with friends

My Hoffman teacher Matthew Pruen explained it well as “minimisers are like a tortoise and maximisers are like a monkey banging the tortoise on the shell shouting “come out, I love you” louder and louder. The more they bank the more the tortoise clams up.” He sums it up that minimisers need to learn to speak up and maximisers need to learn to listen.

From my own experience as a maximiser, minimisers need to remember that when they have been given space to think things through, the maximiser is then like a hungry tortoise looking at some lettuce very far away: every step is like torture to get the answer they need.

With my DH his biggest issue as a minimiser is when he hears me talk he hears “never..”; “always..” e.g. “you always forget…” or “you never remember...”. In return when DH doesn’t talk I, as a maximiser, think/feel that my feelings are always ignored, not loved, not respected, etc. You can see with this example what a wonderfully vicious cycle it is. So I need to try and soften my language and DH needs to be aware of my feelings of frustration.

This is where the 5 Languages of Love can really help to make a relationship more robust. So this is another thing that I have done with my children as part of their home education as although it is called languages of love it could easily be called the language of relationship. 

Go to the website and take the test to find out what your primary (and secondary) love language is. The higher the score the more important that language is to you and lower scores indicate that those are languages you seldom use to communicate love. 

Be aware that your love languages may be different to those of your partner and children and that you need to express love to those people in the mode that they want it NOT in the way that you want it. Again I love the simplicity of this idea and although there are things that it doesn’t show (one such thing mentioned below), it is a great start.

5 Languages of Love
Acts of Service	Anything you do to ease the burden of responsibilities weighing on an "Acts of Service" person will speak volumes. The words he or she most want to hear: "Let me do that for you." Laziness, broken commitments, and making more work for them tell speakers of this language their feelings don't matter. Finding ways to serve speaks volumes to the recipient of these acts.
Quality Time	Nothing says, "I love you," like full, undivided attention. Being there for this type of person is critical, but really being there – with the TV off, fork and knife down, and all chores and tasks on standby – makes your significant other feel truly special and loved. Distractions, postponed dates, or the failure to listen can be especially hurtful. Quality Time also means sharing quality conversation and quality activities.
Physical Touch	This language isn't all about the bedroom. A person whose primary language is Physical Touch is, not surprisingly, very touchy. Hugs, pats on the back, holding hands, and thoughtful touches on the arm, shoulder, or face – they can all be ways to show excitement, concern, care, and love. Physical presence and accessibility are crucial, while neglect or abuse can be unforgivable and destructive. Physical touch fosters a sense of security and belonging in any relationship.
Words of Affirmation	Actions don't always speak louder than words. If this is your love language, unsolicited compliments mean the world to you. Hearing the words, "I love you," are important – hearing the reasons behind that love sends your spirits skyward. Insults can leave you shattered and are not easily forgotten. Kind, encouraging, and positive words are truly life-giving.
Receiving Gifts	Don't mistake this love language for materialism; the receiver of gifts thrives on the love, thoughtfulness, and effort behind the gift. If you speak this language, the perfect gift or gesture shows that you are known, you are cared for, and you are prized above whatever was sacrificed to bring the gift to you. A missed birthday, anniversary, or a hasty, thoughtless gift would be disastrous – so would the absence of everyday gestures. Gifts are visual representations of love and are treasured greatly.

The website states that the benefit of knowing, and therefore speaking, someone else’s love language is a greater sense of connection via better communication and increased understanding.

As you can see below in my family our languages are quite different although dh, ds and I all match on the primary language. It is really useful to know these facts and I am going to pin these results up somewhere where everyone can see them remind us all how we want to be appreciated/loved by others.

	Me	DH	DS	DD
Acts of Service	11 (1)	9 (1)	7 (1)	3
Quality Time	6	8 (2)	7 (1)	6 (1)
Physical Touch	2	7	5	3
Words of Affirmation	8 (2)	4	5	3
Receiving Gifts	3	2	6 (2)	5 (2)

The children are really interested in how these languages may change over time so we are going to redo the test every few months and see if they change as an experiment. I, for one, am aware that at present Acts of Service are really important to me because I am not 100% well and haven’t been for over 3 months. Once my health is better it may be that Quality Time may become more important and Acts of Service less important – who knows. 

Also, an interesting discussion with DH revealed that Words of Affirmation are important to him but more in the guise of “fewer words of defamation” as in those sorts of things mentioned above. My DH doesn’t like me saying things like “You never answer your phone” or “You always forget when I have asked you to do something” so although he doesn’t need to be affirmed, he hates being shamed like this, especially in front of the kids. This is great for me to know as I can try and keep these frustrations of mine more private for his sake. I am also going to endeavour to stop using the dreaded “always”/”never” words which –let’s be honest – I should “never” use LOL.

So these are the two things I would add to any relationship curriculum if it were up to me, which seeing as I home-educate it is. Hope you find it helpful!!!

Reflections on my Permaculture Journey so far

I am sitting in the York University library writing this reflective blog post. I am setting up days like this as it gets me away from the hustle and bustle of daily home educating life. I am also here at the University library because I am "stacking my functions" as we say in Permaculture speak. My dh works here so I am going out to lunch with him. There are precious few times that I get alone with him so driving him to work and working here means that I get some work done without the distractions of the home and children AND I get some quality time with my dh.

 Having spent the morning reviewing my Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design (DAPD) journey I have realised that I have come further than I thought I had. I have documented this journey in the Diary tab of my APD project plan here but you can also see it below. I embedded the Google document on my blog last night as a way to show everyone what I am up to. I also (with a lot of help from my gorgeous dh) managed to find a way to make that blog page the full width of the page. It was too squashed to be able to view the document properly with the two side columns there (as on a normal blog page) so I amended the HTML for that page using the instructions here.

I may well amend the other pages along the same lines for ease of viewing but I was really pleased that I got this one to work as the document is quite busy and needs more space.

Anyway better get back to finishing my Goals articulation. This is the under-pinning, overview document to my APD journey and shows how all my projects, goals and activities are linked to the Permaculture Flower, Ethics and Principles.

As can be seen above and here under the Goals tab, I have attempted to list all the goals and associated activities that I want to get out of doing my Diploma. I have then listed where these goals/activity pairings fit against the Ethics, Principles and Flower in columns C, D and E respectively with the key for these in column H. I have then matched these goals against my 10 projects in column F.

I know my project ideas might change over time but I can then just updated this document. I have also added a weighted value against each aspect of the Principles, etc in column I. This scores show how many times these are listed against a goal so that I have a clear indication of whether I am missing exploring some Permaculture Principle or whether a project isn't as rounded a permaculture project as I thought. It is a simple idea but gives me a very clear indicator of how I am doing on my learning path.

This spreadsheet and all the tabbed sheets within it is how I will keep on top of everything but is also a living, breathing document which will get added to and changed on a regular basis. Embedding it in my blog will be another helpful reminder of the need to review it on a regular basis so I am very glad I worked out how to do that.

Any questions or suggestions please get in touch via the Comment Box below!!!

Stop procrastinating and just do something

I am sometimes the Queen of Procrastination but recently I have realised that that is ok and actually it is a way for my brain to tell me that I need to decide whether I want to concentrate on one thing or not.

One of the reasons that I am doing the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design is as a way to concentrate my mind and get myself organised. To this end I am in the process of organising my websites so that there is one that is more secular orientated here where I am marketing myself as a social media, website, organisational guru (need to find a better word for it than that - any ideas let me know!!) and one more spiritual one here where I am marketing myself as a Shamanic Practitioner and maybe writing more personal stuff about things I enjoy in my life etc.

Both websites need work and cleaning up but what I have discovered over the last few years about myself is that if I don't just get on and do something I actually end up doing nothing and getting stressed about it.

So here are my skills:

And watch this space for some more ramblings about my Permaculturing My Life. Living is a verb, Learning is a verb, Permaculturing is my way of combining the 2.

After at least 2 years of procrastinating here is the another start of my Applied Permaculture Diploma Journey.

"If you wait until you can do everything for everybody, instead of something for somebody, you'll end up doing nothing for nobody"

I am changing this quote to "If I wait until I can do everything perfectly for myself, instead of just doing something for myself, I'll end up doing nothing at all." 

Getting Things Done so far

Above are just a few of the things that I have been doing over the last few days to try and set up systems which will help me over the next few years with my Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design.

I have written all the design processes and frameworks; design methods and tools; project management tools and other useful piece of information in a card index folder for easy access.

I have set up a written Getting Things Done system in my A5 Filofax using whiteboard paper I bought especially for this purpose. At present this Filofax also has space for my 10 proposed designs although these may be moved elsewhere at some point.

I have got my email account inbox down to 892 emails. I am now going to use a post by Andrea Klinger to organise my email in a Getting Things Done way (see here.)

I have gathered together all the useful books, cards, information and started collating and organising it so that these tools are on hand for me to use in my designs. For example the U101 cards above were part of a Design course that I did with the Open University and could be used for Random Input or when I need inspiration.

I wanted to add the other pictures to show the other things I have done to get more stream-lined and organised. I have started using a Basics Wallet for my frequently used cards and to organise the other 30 cards I have (which were taking up far too much room in my handbag) set up an index system like that shown here.

I am also still regularly doing a Minimalist Month in an attempt to get rid of stuff that I don't need or use any more.

General Musings

OK I am really hit and miss at this whole blog thing. I am really going to try getting a bit more regular at it as part of my Diploma in Permaculture Applied Design learning pathway and recording. To help in this endeavour I have actually registered on the Diploma and so I am really need to get more focused about it.

As a start I am going revisit my bedroom design and my health design. I am also doing another minimalist month as can be seen below:

There are more things I have got rid of than the things above but again it has totalled more than the 496 things I was supposed to do as part of the minimalist month challenge. This is such a simple thing to do once you get used to the idea and it becomes quite addictive. I have also added the extra layer of randomly picking things up around the house (especially those things that don't have a home and seem out-of-place or a bit forlorn) and asking"does this bring me joy?" This is a question advised in the Marie Kondo book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying: A simple, effective way to banish clutter forever and it really works for me. As part of this latest de-cluttering cycle I asked this question about some of the many ink pens I have and realised that although I really like ink pens I don't need more than a couple and so the extra ones don't being me joy because they never get used and are taking up space in my house that they don't need to.

Anyway I really just wanted to put keyboard to computer screen to prompt myself to start writing again and I have done that.

More minimalist musings

The fab collage above shows some of the stuff that has left my home since January. I did another minimalist month in March and then May getting rid of another 1000 things. 

Then last month I got rid of a load of stuff on ebay. I have to say this minimalist process is great fun and really, really good for the soul. It is something that I am going to endeavour to do at least twice a year if not once a quarter. I still have way to much stuff so I know that doing this is worth setting in stone so I have added it to my calendar!!

Minimalist January - complete - 496+ things GONE

Well I did it and more. It got to day 22 and I decided to get rid of my duplo train track which we occasionally take to home education group gatherings. Well there were over 110 pieces in that so that took me well over my target of 496 things.  I am really pleased and it went really well.

All the items sold on ebay other than Indie's dolls. Those will be going to charity as soon as I can get them there if no-one wants them on facebook.  The other things on ebay did really well and from things we sold we made £127 which is great because our dishwasher is broken and cannot be fixed :-( so we are getting a new one.

Anyway I loved this process and I am wondering when I can find the time to do another month of this some time later this year. But for now let the de-cluttering stop!!!  And marvel at some of the 496+ things I got rid of below!!

For those of you who like tables and to able to see the last few things I got rid of, here they are!!!

Day	Picture	Reason why
18		I whole load of wrapping paper, gift tags, party invitations I am nevr going to use. These were freecycled.
19		More knitting and crochetting magazines. These were freecycled.
20		More bits and pieces that I don't need. These went to charity shop and there were more than 20 items in this bag.
21		Musical instruments. Some went to my local community cafe, others went to charity shop and the 2 alto recorders are going to find a new home soon.
22		A whole load of duplo train track. This is the sort of thing I would love to keep - just in case - but I really am getting fed up of "just-in-case" or "in-case-my-children-have-children" items so this will be going on ebay if no-one wants it on facebook.

Minimalist January - part 2

Week 2 of the minimalist challenge is going well, so well in fact that I am posting this a day early!!

I had already got up to 11 and had already done 15 so I only had 12, 13, 14 left to do but I wanted to try and do 29, 28 and maybe 27 so that I had less to do when I was away. The smaller numbers were ok but those bigger numbers - they were a challenge without really cheating and counting things like marbles or pens!!

So I really put my mind to it and I did better than I thought I would as you can see below.

It was great to get some inspiration from some great articles about minimising though like this one.

Even dd and dh got in on the action with Indie getting rid of some items which are part of day 26 below and she got rid of a whole lot of dolls which went on ebay here but aren't included below as I didn't want to include too much of her stuff.

Day	Picture	Reason why
12		I am a bit of a bag lady so there is really no surprise that I had spare bags that I really don't need and don't use. These are just some of them that I could bear to part with. They went to charity shop.
13		Here are some of the books I got rid of but these went to my local library because they are happy to take good quality books.
14		Household magazines like Prima, Good Housekeeping, etc. These went on freecycle.
16		Juno magazines which I had read. These went to a friend.
17		A whole load of various crochet magazines which I had read and noted the patterns I needed. These went on freecycle.
23		Bad picture (sorry) but here are our unneeded Xmas decorations. We have one box of decorations and it was beginning to overflow so it was time to freecycle some.
24		A set of books that went to charity and a set that went to Amazon for some money.
25		A bunch of seeds I had left over from the Grow Wild Kew campaign last year. Some will be sown and the rest have been freecycled.
26		Some games we don't use which have been taken to charity shop and a bag of dd's clothes which are too small for her. It was great getting dd involved. We totally tidied and zoned her room as we went too (see below.)
27		A bag full of painting stuff that we don't need any more.
28		A whole load of various craft and knitting magazines which I had read and noted the patterns I needed. These went on freecycle.
29		Another whole load of various craft and knitting magazines which I had read and noted the patterns I needed. These went on freecycle.

My items from last week are still on ebay and don't end until Sunday but have sold already which is great. I have also freed up at least 3 whole shelves by getting rid of these magazines and various other things.

	Here are the photos from dd's room transformation. I wish I had got some before photos as well because you can rarely see dd's floor. I am hoping that the re-zoning of everything to where it is most useful to her might help her keep the floor tidy but we will see.
Above is a photo showing that there is enough floor space to actually lie down!! Not something you can ever do in dd's room. Here are her newly arranged shelves with boxes and baskets all ordered and organised. This will not last but it looks good at the moment.
	I have tried to organise her shelves so that the books she uses more often are nearer the bottom and ornaments she doesn't play with are at the top. The same with the red shelves in the photo above. The more ornamental things are on the top shelf and the precious things she uses more often are on the bottom shelf.
With the 3 sets of wardrobe shelves (to the right and above) I again tried to find out from her how she uses her toys and boxed them up appropriately. This means that she can get a box down to play with something and there then might be a small chance that she then puts it back!! I think these will need re-visiting as her room becomes messy again. I will then try to find out what is not working and why but by this time she as getting tried of tidying and sorting.
	A happy dd using some floor space for writing her book whilst listening to music. So even when I sort out her desk so that she can write on it she wants to use the floor because she can!!
The 5 piles of stuff that we got from her room which she doesn't want any more. Result!!

Minimalist January - part 1

I am going to play my Minimalist January game a bit strangely because I am away at the end of January and don't want to be left with took much stuff to get rid of at the end of the month when I am not even in my house.

So for the first few days of the challenge I am going to do extra later days as well as the early ones.

Let the de-cluttering begin!!!

Day	Picture	Reason why
1		Tap Shoes I don't use and them and never will. They have gone to a good home where the kids do dance.
2		New Rock Shoes & Keyring These are now on ebay here.
3		Wooden Fairy Village This has found a fab new home with neighbours who I know will get lots of use out of it. I am really pleased because I really, really didn't want to get rid of this.
4		Jewellery that I made and some I don't need These have been given to a friend as a present which she will really enjoy.
5		Socks - socks are only small so 10 pairs of socks = 5 This is what I love about this game. You start seeing everything differently. I had too many socks and had had too many socks for a long time and suddenly I am seeing opportunities to get rid of stuff everywhere. Even getting rid of 10 pairs of socks is a small step towards de-cluttering and it is becoming a habit.
6		Sea glass, sea pottery and marbles I had a lot of this stuff that was on display but I didn't need all 7kg of it so I got rid of 5kg of sea glass and 1kg of marbles and sea pottery.
7		Wool This was a tough one as I LOVE my wool. But I thought I could donate these few balls to either the new York Timebank craft group or some other crafty group.
8		Empty Jam Jars We had planned to make jam and chutney but didn't get round to it so there are being offered on freecycle.
9		Open University course books Put on ebay here.
10		Oracle cards and sets Again I have too  many sets of these so I picked my favourite and these are now on ebay.
11		More Open University course materials These are now on ebay now.
15		Empty bottles and Bach Flower remedies These are not getting used in my house so have been offered on freecycle
30		Books and Game These have been given to my brother and sister-in-law for their gorgeous new baby boy. They are all learning to read books and games.
31		More Books There are always more books to get rid of. I used to have a tendency to think that I needed to keep all books that the kids may at some point want to read but I now know that will more clutter they are actually less likely to read the books they want to read because of being overwhelmed by the number we have.

More next week!!!

Designing Health the Permaculture Way

Part 1 - Movement

Over the last year I have yet again, through lack of time and losing my favourite exercise activity of Ceroc, gone beyond my comfortable size.  I have an uncomfortable "my belly looks like I am pregnant" phase I hit which always results in my taking stock of where I am health-wise and what I am going to do to tone up a bit.  I then found that I was officially obese with a BMI of 30.5, which is probably the heaviest I have ever been in my lifetime,.  I am sure this is a result of many factors such as:

1. my relatively recent foray into the "diet" industry AGAIN
2. the aforementioned lack of Ceroc classes in York
3. my recurring back problem which occasionally stops me exercising
4. my weekly kick-boxing classes being cancelled
5. my liking of chocolate

to mention but a few.  With regards to point 1, like many others, I always end up feeling lousy about my lack of willpower to stick to a restrictive diet and I end up heavier/fatter than when I started. It always seems such an ingrained, natural thing to do though - to diet. I always vowed after having children that I wouldn't diet because I don't want my children growing up with the idea that diets are a good thing. Anyway I am resolute that I not going to restrict my eating like that again and I will be looking at my eating habits as a separate issue to this one.  So having vowed that I would never again restrict my diet or try to be unrealistic about what exercise I am going to do, I was left with a bit of hole as to what to do next.  This void, together with no sign of Ceroc classes returning to York, left me in a bit of a quandary.

So I started thinking about designing my health and I thought that using Lobby's Design Web mentioned in her book Permaculture and People would be a great place to start.  What I liked about this Permaculture Design Process was that it is more geared towards acknowledging me as a person and I felt it would help me overcome the obstacles which have hindered my health in the past. There were also many aspects of the ideas within this web which resonated with processes which I have put in place in my life since attending the Hoffman Process and training as a Shamanic Practitioner (more of these realisations may appear in other blog posts and Permaculture design write-ups.)  Here is the write up of that design so far using Looby's Design Web:

	Ideas
	Growth Phase
Vision	To be healthier. To continue to enjoy life and find more ways to integrate body movement (I hate the word exercise) into my way of life. To find a balance between time away at classes and time with my family. To protect my back (which has been problematic since I was 16) by increasing my core stability. To have fun. Incorporate more movement into my everyday life to counteract the amount of time spent at a computer. To be realistic. Learn more useful skills. Build on what I already know.
Helps	My geeky nature - I could potentially incorporate some apps and goals so I can see my progress. The resources of the internet. My stubbornness and willingness to try anything once. Finding activities which are fun and/or useful in my life in other ways.
Limits	Cost (financial, equipment, time.) I get bored easily. The need to feel that the time/cost is worth it. My tendency to be unrealistic.
	Exploratory Phase
Patterns	1. I get bored easily. 2. I don't like spending money. 3. I don't like going out in the evening as that is when I see my husband. 4. I fear I won't stick to any program if I have to do it alone. 5. If it's not fun I will not want to continue. 6. Worrying about my appearance. 7. I find it difficult to do exercise at home because I forget as there are always other things to do and distractions. 8. Overdoing it and not realising when I need a break
Ideas	1. Find an activity which progresses in some way or where improvements are easily noticed. 2. Use my time-bank hours to pay for classes or find something where the benefit of the class outweighs the cost. Realise any investment will be of benefit to me. 3. Include the family in my workouts or find during the day classes which don't get in the way of evening family time which is what we did with kick-boxing. 4. Find classes where there is extra motivation to participate or find some goal-orientated way to give me staying power to keep going. 5. Find classes I really, really enjoy like Ceroc. 6. Continue to work on the reasons that I don't like my appearance and realise that these are not size-related because they have always been there. 7. Find activities I can do at home and find a way to remind myself. 8. Make sure I evaluate regularly and re-design when needed
Principles	1. Observe and Interact - taking ideas from nature - I have always liked the idea of natural movement (see blog posts here and here) but I find it really difficult incorporating these ideas into my life (point 7 in patterns.) I need to find ways to have the space, time and inclination to does these things and I need to integrate them into my way of life so that I think about it, they are just things I do as naturally as breathing, eating, etc. I also need to be aware of when I am resisting any changes and analyse what this resistance means. 2. Catch & Store Energy - maybe my geeky nature would be a good way to capture the energy of my finding new ways to move and get healthier e.g. revisit websites I have used before to track my activities e.g. endomondo, mapmyfitness, myfitnesspal and investigate other activity apps/websites which incorporate goal setting; connecting to others and forums for advice; in the past I have taken photos along the way which I might do again to keep me motivated; getting my kids involved could also help. 3. Obtain a Yield - feeling healthier, losing the "pregnant" belly feeling, incorporating natural movement into my life so it is seamless, learn what feels good to me, increase my range of body movements and become more somatically aware. 4. Apply Self-regulation & Accept Feedback - if I don't enjoy the activity I need to find something else as I refuse to do exercise for the sake of exercise as it makes me feels bad and my emotional well-being is as important as my physical well-being. Maybe finding classes which are flexible would benefit my life-style in that I very often cannot stick to a set time and day. Pay-as-you-go is therefore better than any pre-paid classes. Revisit how I feel about what I am doing every month or so to check that I am happy; my kids are happy with any time away as is my dh. My feedback needs to be about how I feel physically but also emotionally, spiritually and mentally about my health. Although I am talking about activities and classes if I am not feeling better in all aspects of my life then my plan is not working so I need to find a way to monitor these 4 areas each month. 5. Use & Value Renewable Resources and Services - I will be using my own power to improve my health and one of the reasons I am planning this design is so that I remain a viable renewable resource for as long as possible. 6. Produce no Waste - over time I have accrued all the workout equipment, DVDs, clothing and shoes that I need to try any type of activity necessary. I will endeavour where possible to find local activities and will evaluate why (if ever) I need to go further afield. Again I will balance using my car to get to classes over time away from family and other considerations. 7. Design from Patterns to Details - being clear about why I want to be healthier and how to balance my health with family/time/finances.  Combat any negative patterns about my health and create healthy patterns. Evaluate my monthly feedback from (4) and redesign if necessary. Celebrate any break in negative patterns as well as any new healthier ones. 8. Integrate rather than Segregate - having made a space in my bedroom (see here) for exercise which already includes a climbing wall, punch-bag, various exercising paraphernalia and a playstation 2/TV combo and now enough floor space for most types of activity this gives the kids and I the chance to engage in whatever movement activity takes our fancy. This area is nearly perfect from a theoretical point of view but we need to start using it so that it becomes an integral part of our lives for fun movement activities including keeping up with our kick-boxing skills in case we ever get to go back to our classes. 9. Use Small & Slow Solutions - I am being realistic here that anything I do is not going to make my "pregnant"-like belly disappear overnight or my BMI suddenly be reasonable. I haven't had a BMI within normal range for over 12 years and I am not even sure I agree with it as a measurement anyway. This design is focussing on how I feel about myself from all four aspects of my "quadrinity" (as the Hoffman Process calls the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of ourselves) and so my reflective writings about how I feel will be my overall guide as to how the design is going. Integrating different ways of being in my body will be slow because anything that doesn't work will be dis-guarded and new things tried and evaluated. 10. Use & Value Diversity - I need to look at this "integrating movement into my life" design holistically and as mentioned earlier need to include different types of movement in different places e.g. outdoors, indoors, natural movement, cardio, strength work, martial arts, etc. 11. Use Edges  & Value the Marginal - over the last year there have been changes in my life which are worth considering with regard to edges. For example, my parents moving to York and my getting a Saturday job. Both these things can integrate using my body more into my life if I chose them to. Sharing some activities with my children and husband can acknowledge the edges between us and help me in my endevaour to improve my health. 12. Creatively Use  & Respond to Change - I am going to be 42 in January so I need to incorporate strength work as well as cardio as my muscle mass is in decline. I have an opportunity to include natural movement now we have a woodland where we get the fuel for our wood-burning stove so I can carry logs from garden to house regularly over winter and pile logs all year round at the woodland. I recently started working so relying on walking and cycling wherever possible saves money (+ve.) I also have an opportunity to include my children in anything I do as I home educate and want them to have a positive view on how moving their bodies makes them feel good. Most of all though I need to find activities that take over from Ceroc and kick-boxing.
	Productive Phase
Integration	Thoughts via hackpad
Action	Measure various parts of my body and take a photo on 1st January 2015 Use misfit acticity tracker everyday and sync with app so it gets picked up by mapmywalk Trial Monday swimming with the kids at least once a month Keep going to MFT classes on Tuesday (or Thursday if I cannot do Tuesday) Trial Tai Chi classes on Wednesday morning with the kids, once a month maybe twice - review in 2 months Friday - attend Jitsu class (move to Monday if I cannot do Friday) Friday or Saturday once a month to every 6 weeks go climbing with at least Dave Try out various activities with the kids eg. 7 minute workout on my phone; DVDs; trampolining; kettlebells; natural movement; etc. - start small Incorporate more things as I get more time
Momentum	Review on the 1st of every month. Add this date to my calender as well as a weekly check in when I have time.
	Reflective Phase
Appreciation	Take photos and measurements at my monthly review and celebrate my achievements regardless
Reflection	Monthly review.
Pause	If I need time off, take time off.

That's it for now. Watch this space!!