✨The Dos✨ Hanami and walking for divergent thinking
On the beauty of slowing down
Hi, hello, greetings! Welcome to ✨The Dos✨, a bi-weekly note passed to you with a healthy dose (yup) of things I’m reading, considering, doing and loving. If you don’t know how you got here (but you’re sort of enjoying yourself), here, subscribe! I’d love to have you, and if you send me a note, I’ll always try to write back.
Tomer Hanuka, an illustrator and cartoonist, recently asked his students at the School of Visual Arts to “come up with a post-pandemic New Yorker magazine cover.” He posted some of their beautiful, heartwrenching illustrations on Twitter.
This one by Chenmiao Shi struck me.
Yes, the spring blooms during a pandemic. Yes, the pulling down of the mask. Yes, the sweet smell of the magnolias (I think they’re magnolias?). But, what this photo reminded me of is hanami. Hanami (花見, "flower viewing") is the centuries-old Japanese tradition of enjoying the fleeting beauty of flowers — quite literally, basking in spring blossoms.
A couple of years ago, I went on one of my most treasured trips to Japan with my mom. It was our first time in Japan and my god, the flowers! The flowers. We traveled the country during cherry blossom season, which meant we saw hanami in cities large and small.
The ritual of sitting under cherry blossoms with friends is something I can’t quite get out of my head. It’s just so beautiful. Thousands of people fill the parks, bringing feasts to enjoy beneath the flowering trees. Sitting for hours with lovers, family, co-workers. Picking a spot based on the blooms. Taking off their shoes to sit on the ground on a flimsy blue tarp.
It was so captivating — and so unlike my fast-paced life back at home.
But, in the last year, things have slowed down. Instead of stacking social events on the weekend, I spend hours with one or two people. Instead of optimizing for the best new sushi place, it’s less about the food and more about the area of grass we pick in Golden Gate Park. As far as the shoes go, my parents are Indian and I’ll always take my shoes off to step onto a blanket. ;)
I hope to take some lessons to heart from all this slowing down. There’s beauty in fewer plans on the calendar, lingering hours-long conversations, and, of course, sitting on the ground in nature, enjoying the flowers. 😌
Read
Walking for creativity (and mental health): While it’s taken some convincing (read: me seeing the data + feeling more fit when I clock more miles) for me to fully accept walking as an activity with actual physical health benefits, I get it now. 2020 did that. But, what about the other benefits? In one Stanford study, participants who walked regularly increased their ”divergent thinking” by 60 percent — they generated more creative ideas because they became more open to exploring possible solutions. Quite simply, walking gives us space to let our minds wander, opening up the free flow of ideas. I delight in this fact — that taking a walk might help me think more creatively and be more open to new ideas. And while we know walking is great for our mental health (again, see: 2020), another study said walking in nature, specifically, reduces rumination over negative experiences, which makes us happier and less at risk of depression. Win, win, win.
On Joy and Sorrow: A friend sent me this beautiful poem by Kahlil Gibran several weeks ago, and I’ve returned to it many times. At this strange juncture between the grief over the last year and the joy of reunions and resumed activities — it captures the dichotomy of human emotions.
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Enjoyed!
Pastel Le Pens 🖊(they flex)!
Petit Ecoliers 🍫(dark chocolate). Picked up a box of these little European biscuits at my local grocery and was reminded of how delightful they are (yes, I’m eating them right now). Delicious! Their shape reminds me of little postage stamps.
My new “watermelon sour patch kid” 🍉 workout outfit: Textured compression shorts in Pink Punch (a very new color for me) and this tried-and-true CloudKnit tank in Eucalyptus. Listen, it’s a new look and we’re just wearing it at home rn.
A ceramic watercolor palette 🎨 from my favorite shop! (OK, it hasn’t arrived yet, but I know I’m going to enjoy it.)
I hope you're doing well. Send me your favorite poem, if you’ve got one (this is an old favorite from elementary school). I’m not always so deep!
Dos ✌️