Introducing Notes of Eunoia...A Newsletter

Hello fellow beautiful thinkers,

Welcome to the first installment of my new blog era, The Notes of Eunoia. Some of you may remember my little business I started a couple of years ago, Eunoia Botanica. It hurt my heart so bad to close it down to focus solely on the growth of Tangles and Beyond.

I haven't given up on it, but simply will live through it by sharing the things that inspired that brand. My insatiable need to get better, grow and heal. I hope you will look forward to these monthly musings as I share with you personal reflections that have helped me to get a little better each day. I think sharing with you guys my overall month will create a consistent routine for me.

I will reflect on the 5 things that are most important to me. My relationships with Family, Business, Mind, Body, Soul. I hope by sharing these, it can help you in your own journey to a better you. I will also be sharing things I have found that makes my life easier and the lifestyle I want more obtainable. 

As most of you know, my family is Julian and Jia, my husband and daughter. I don't have any other family outside of them. So when I refer to family, it is just these two I am speaking of. I welcome any questions you may have about why there is no more family. Anyway, I am still working on becoming a better mother to Jia. I think I am pretty decent. Not the worst, but not the best. I still feel some trauma from my own childhood that makes me want to do things that would cause her trauma. Learning how to navigate her changing personality and emotions is difficult. Getting her to understand, don't play with me, GENTLY, is very hard. But I am working on it. 

She is starting seventh grade and its just so crazy to me. We finally went school shopping and watching her pick out new clothes healed me so much. Watching her choose pieces that EVEN I would choose for was so good for me. Cause she literally says no to EVERYTHING I like. So I started not reacting to things when she would turn me down. I truly believe it was the reaction she enjoyed. So I stopped giving her that. And this has dramatically improved. So a win for that. 

If you know me, you know of my horrid sinus issues. I spent the last month on heavy steroids and antibiotics because this one was the worst one of my life. A polyp is back and this time it became so infected that I could literally SMELL it in my nose. Yall know I was losing my mind, right? I hate to say this left Julian with the bulk of the household stuff like laundry and cleaning because it left me only enough energy to do the work for Tangles and Beyond and cook dinner. I had no energy left after that. Being sick aint sexy either, so we haven't been able to enjoy each other either cause I'm in the bed. So we are looking forward to Jia being back in school and him having a day off during the week so we can act like we ain't got no kids!

Speaking of business, I've got a call coming up this Thursday with Whole Foods. I'm doing my best not to have any expectations about it. I hoping for good news though. The new look is finally going to be out in stores cause my distro has sold all that was left in the past few weeks. Thank yall for shopping the stores! Please share with your friends and family where they can get us! 

OH! There will be a BACK TO SCHOOL 30% OFF Storewide Event on August 3 at 7 pm! STOCK UP!

As for this mind, body and soul. Let's get to it.

My mind has been ALL over the place. At my last ENT visit, my doc says if these meds don't work, then you gotta have that polyp removed, which means a freaking surgery. I do not want a surgery as it can set me behind in work. I don't want to pay the high ass deductible and I don't want to go through the recovery. So I have been worried about that, I can't lie. Im better. But on the last antibiotic and its not gone all the way. So if it shows back up in two weeks, its surgery and no other option!

Far as body, Im bout sick of me. Having terrible sinus infections leaves you with no taste or smell. I am totally dependent on food for happiness, so I've been eating whatever tastes good and yall know whatever tastes good isn't good for you. And I've put on another 10 lbs. Being sick like this either doesn't let you workout as well as you should. I've done maybe 6 rides the whole month. That's terrible. But now that I'm feeling better, its time to get back to daily rides. Starting over. As long as I don't give up, I'll be alright. Now that I can taste better, I can control what will go in better. 

I have decided to add a new skin care regimen using this line I probably wasn't suppose to receive. This brand reached out to me to do a paid partnership. I have no idea how they found me because I haven't been working on Beyond the Tangles to secure partnerships. But they ultimately decided against me because I wasn't able to share the metrics they wanted to use to figure out what to pay me. But a whole box of their products showed up here and I want to use them. If they email me back on whether I can keep them or not, i will use them faithfully, and then report to yall next month on whether they are a keeper or not. 

I also have decided to make myself a dusting powder. I bought the cutest little antique glass holder from antique store here. If this recipe is a keeper, I will share it in the next newsletter!

I have not been consistent with taking care of this soul better. I talk to God, all day, everyday. Mostly, asking, what the fuck is wrong with people. But I haven't taken the time to quiet my mind and listen. I have been caught up on the what ifs, and the hundreds of scenarios (what if I have this surgery, go super viral somewhere and end up months behind?!) Like I need to sit with God and feel that trust fall over me and let these thoughts go. Know that I am and will always be taken care as long as I trust God and myself. I will be consistent this month in cleansing and clearing my mind of my insane intrusive thoughts. 

Anyway, beautiful friends, thank you guys for reading my first note and I hope you will join me every month as a reflect on myself. Please share with me some things going on in your world. This is my invitation to connect with the new, slow aging me!

xo-Ashley