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On Wednesdays, we’ll reflect: See below for some some of what I’ve learned from the week to inspire reflection, a well-being soundbite, and a view of my wish list / recs / things I’m currently obsessing over. 🙂
1/3. W.I.L.T.W (What I Learned This Week)
Flexing Curiosity
"Pronunciation is not comprehension. Repetition is not comprehension."
How many times have you been staring at a dense work email, trying to make sense of a PowerPoint slide, or rereading a passage in a book, only to feel like you've read it a dozen times without actually grasping the main point? I think it’s a human tendency to equate pronunciation and repetition with comprehension, but a video I watched over the past week made me realize that we often trick ourselves into thinking we understand something just because we've read it.
When asked to summarize the core idea, we might struggle. This made me reflect on how often I do this in my own life without even realizing it.
The video articulated a simple, tactical solution to ensure you actually comprehend what you're reading. Tactical and simple - we loooove this combo!! The next time you're unsure if you understand something, reread it, but this time, try to rephrase each sentence in your head as you go. The goal is to articulate the sentence in your own words (aside from proper nouns like scientific terms, country names, etc.) This subtle shift forces your mind to actively process the information rather than passively scanning it.
Taking an extra minute or two to apply this practice can significantly increase your confidence in understanding the materials you're processing daily, whether it's an email from a coworker, a news article, or a passage from your favorite book.
2/3. Well-being Weapons
Pickling More Than Pickles
I’m a huge proponent of making sure I don’t waste food, especially produce, when I order groceries. This past weekend, I didn’t order groceries because I had a lot of leftover produce and frozen protein + meal prep side options to get me through the week.
My plan was to make large salads for dinners at home with chicken, cheese, and a bunch of leftover arugula and spinach I had on hand. The only problem was that I didn’t have other fresh veggies to make it an actual salad. It would have just been chicken, cheese, and greens. And that’s just not a salad…haha.
After adding some canned jalapeños and corn into the salad I was making Saturday night, I remembered Dylan and I had pickled a bunch of veggies a few months ago and had a good amount left. It got me thinking about how much I loved the tangy crunch and how they could elevate what I was crafting into a salad. It also brought me back to my childhood, my parents would make a "pickled vegetable salad" with pickled cabbage, carrots, peppers, cauliflower, and tomatoes as an appetizer before we ate our meal as we sat and caught up at the dinner table. We pickled carrots, radishes, and cauliflower to start our pickling journey.
It made me realize I haven’t written about this yet. With a little bit of planning and a few jars, you can pickle your favorite veggies and store them in the fridge for up to six months. Not only is it kinda fun, but it's a great way to always have a go-to snack, side, or addition to a salad or sandwich. It also prevents you from throwing away any unused produce that eligible to be pickled.
I wanted to share a recipe that was the inspiration for our pickled veggie journey. I hope you enjoy it!
3/3. What’s Wowing Me: Weekly Obsessions
This one may be a bit odd, but I ordered these hydrating sock masks on Amazon last Wednesday and have used two pairs by now. I love them, they remind me of the massage you get at the end of a pedicure and I wore them for ~30 minutes at night as I was winding down in bed and reading or journaling.
Wanted to share them with you if you’ve been in the market for something similar 🙂
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