Author: Christina Bruni

Christina Bruni is the author of the new book Working Assets: A Career Guide for Peers. She contributed a chapter "Recovery is Within Reach" to Benessere Psicologico: Contemporary Thought on Italian American Mental Health.

The Life-Changing Magic of Individuality

Christina BruniLeave a comment

Just reading about getting organized might throw some people into shame. To counter this I wanted to write in here about the life-changing magic of individuality. Of being imperfect beings with our beautiful quirks and traits and personalities.

Some of us are not really able to adhere to an always-tidy life ethic or living space. This is why self-acceptance comes in handy. Having the radical grace to accept that you’re doing the best you can with what you were given on any given day.

As the choice belongs to you and me whether we even want to change a certain behavior or can live with it.

Life is a dialectic state of being and doing. It’s not an “always” and “never” proposition of how to live. We can connect separate areas of our life with “and” as in “I’m neat at times and messy at other times.” Or even like this: “I’m happy and sad.”

Like a woman told me decades ago: “Perfection is a myth because it implies there can be no growth.” If we reached an ideal state that would be the end of our self-development.

Far better to believe that everyone’s work is in progress and that change, and growth are lifelong endeavors. Like I coined the approach decades ago the way to go is to give yourself a lifeline, not an impossible restrictive deadline.

Truly beauty lies in the imperfect. There’s a moral in the story of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the town of Pisa far off in Italy. The tower is leaning because multiple engineers designed and crafted each level of the tower over decades. Thus the building turned out leaning not straight.

Tourists flock to Pisa to see this magnificent imperfect structure that defies the logic of traditional architecture.

Ideas I give in this blog I seek to be a springboard for followers to consider. I intend that you can take my humble words as inspiration to find what works for you and to create your own methods too.

Get Organized Month

Christina BruniLeave a comment

New Year’s Eve is approaching quickly. The time to set a resolution that I think should be easy to achieve.

January is Get Organized Month all month. Per Google the focus is: Decluttering physical spaces, optimizing schedules, creating better habits, and boosting overall well-being. The themes are: Often ties into New Year’s resolutions, emphasizing fresh starts, productivity, and managing stress.

What better time than at the beginning of the year to Bring in the New Go out with the Old. I’ll write soon about ideas I have for getting organized in January.

The first article I ever published was in the Women’s Forum of the local newspaper in January 1990. The column I wrote was titled Time to Start Spring Cleaning.

I was the first person back then to make the connection that the beginning of the year was the ideal time to clear out the mental cobwebs in our head as well as the physical clutter in our home.

Clearing out the clutter in January and “cleaning up” our negative thoughts about what we’re capable of are habits that can serve us well at this time of year.

The last sentence of Time to Start Spring Cleaning was: And when you open up a can of chowder you might just discover a whole new you.

Cheers! To having the courage to express ourselves. To having the capacity to let go of what’s no longer serving us. To having a life unencumbered by the stuff weighing us down.

Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook

Christina BruniLeave a comment
Image of Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook Book

I checked the book above out of the library. A Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook by Jessica B. Harris is a short hardcover that packs everything essential into the guide to the celebration.

The First Night: Umoja for Unity.

The Second Night: Kujichagulia for Self-Determination.

The Third Night: Ujima for Collective Work and Responsibility.

The Fourth Night: Ujamaa for Cooperative Economics.

The Fifth Night: Nia for Purpose.

The Sixth Night: Kuumba for Creativity.

The Seventh Night: Imani for Faith.

Each night’s chapter has info, recipes, a project at the end, and blank lined pages to write in your own recipes and recollections.

While a White American won’t celebrate Kwanzaa I’m fond of how a holiday like this was created for Black Americans to celebrate. Sharing community meals is what’s needed at this time in history where things seem to be going backwards in terms of others giving you and me and everyone else dignity.

We each of us should be proud of our culture and our heritage regardless of whether others hold us in high regard or don’t when we’re of that background.

I’m going to create a festival for those of us living in recovery to celebrate at this time of the year. We should have our own gathering with themed days.

You can like I did check A Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook out of the library. Some of the recipes feature vegetables not just meat which can be good for vegetarians or vegans who celebrate Kwanzaa.

Coming up reflections on the New Year and setting resolutions that we can actually keep. My thinking is that a New Year’s resolution should be easy to get done. It’s the ideal time to focus on Who we want to Be not just on What we want to Do.

Atomic Changes

Christina BruniLeave a comment

A wise woman asked me to think of this:

“Where might a small change in my routine or habit create more energy?”

I opted for drinking a 23-ounce aluminum bottle of water every day at or near 7:00 a.m. consistently.

This is a question I think everyone should ask ourselves when we’ve reached a plateau.

And hey, I was excited to think that a shot of espresso in a tiny cup could lift fatigue.

It can be hard to change or break negative behavior. The book Atomic Habits is out of print however it’s likely available as an e-book or to check out of the library.

At the end of this James Clear guide is a two-page summary of the specific ways to replace an old habit with a new one.

Atomic habits I think are the ones to shoot for before things reach the point of requiring a drastic overhaul of everything all at once. Which is an impossible feat to accomplish.

Engaging in micro-habits to begin with if you ask me is the way to sustain the lifestyle and spark your motivation to continue.

This is where filming and living life in a slow beat production counts. To rush, cut corners or take shortcuts is a halfhearted approach guaranteed to be shoddy and precarious.

In the long run it’s always wise to take the long view if you ask me. Using the 90-day action plan in the book Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions could be the start of long-lasting or forever-lasting behavior change.

What if what you and I want to do is start something new and not replace an old habit? What if there’s nothing you want to change only a habit you want to add?

I like Google’s AI response. Per Google:

To start something new without replacing a negative behavior, focus on adding positive actions via habit stacking (linking new to old habits), starting incredibly small (micro-habits), changing your environment to support the new, and using mindfulness to build awareness, making it about growth rather than removal, with supportive plans and celebrations for progress. 

I wasn’t a fan of using Google until its first responses turned out to be excellent AI information that I could really use.

A small change is like an atomic habit. If we can micro-dose our happiness in tiny joy “snacks” each day as one expert calls them why not micro-dose the goals we have in smaller steps in the form of daily sub-goals?

More on these ideas coming up in a review of National Get Organized Month in January.

First coming up here a review of a new cookbook that if I remember right has just come out this fall.

Having It Your Way

Christina BruniLeave a comment

In the 1980s Burger King advertised that you could “Have It Your Way” with their hamburgers.

The special sauce for living life today I dare say is deciding for ourselves what kind of lifestyle is the best one for us. It might not be what others tell us is the only “right” way to live.

This comes down to having the radical grace to accept that none of us is infallible or perfect. We won’t always do what’s in our best interest. The goal is to create a lifestyle that is optimized for our own version of health wealth and happiness.

My definition of health is not going to be the same as yours. Nor is your kind of healthy going to be the same as another person’s.

For a so-called expert (as opposed to a credentialed expert) to tell us there’s only one “right” way to be healthy is what I’m here to counter.

A recent secondhand experience got me to see that in the throes of illness there can be inside a person a version of wellness. However ill that person might be they can live resilient.

We need to expand what constitutes health when so many of us have chronic health conditions. Isn’t it possible to feel good despite with and because you’ re living with a medical condition?

In what ways can each of us feel good should we live with any kind of limitation on our health? This is an area I want to explore in this blog. With an array of ideas re: “how-to” have that full and robust life when in the throes of a health issue or other setback or kind of challenge.

Let’s face it: Who among us can really live up to any other person’s expectations let alone an expert’s? Each of us is our own expert on our life.

This is not an endorsement of going AMA or against medical advice that is sound and proven and we’re asked to follow. No–do what the doctor ordered when it has the potential to cure you or alleviate your condition.

What I’m against is trying to live up to an impossible standard re: what is the only right way to live our lives. I for one couldn’t work in a corporate office for example.

The same goes re: having those chips every so often. Being okay when we’re not up to par or are not feeling up to par.

In the current climate of “scarcity” it should be reassuring to know that we have enough and we are enough.

In this coming winter of hibernating and some of us having SAD or seasonal depression this comes down to figuring out where we want to use our energy and what we want to devote our time to.

Coming up a question I was asked that I think can be the springboard for finding out the right course of action. The question posed to me was a game-changer.

Cheese–The New Superfood?!

Christina BruniLeave a comment

According to the fall issue of Women’s Health magazine certain kinds of cheese–not the shelf-stable queso; industrial mozzarella; or powderized poof sprinkle–can be a boon to our health.

As in real cheese having “tons of protein, bone-strengthening calcium, gut-healthy probiotics, and stomach-satiating fats.”

Only 3 ounces is all you need to pack in 20 to 30 grams of protein.

I’m fond of burrata. Gruyere is great too.

Aged Manchego has 21 grams of protein. The Italian staple parmigiano-reggiano has 30 grams of protein in a hard 3 ounce block.

The fall issue of Women’s Health gives three Pro Tips for how to make a high protein cheeseboard. Plus a cheese map to find your new favorite flavor.

Who knew that real cheese in moderation could be a superfood. I’m skeptical yet willing to try my hand at a cheese board.

Mangiare un poco formaggio that is “to eat a little cheese” as Italians would is okay if you ask me.

Snack on!

Filming a Slow Beat Production

Christina BruniLeave a comment

In an instant one day the words Slow Beat Production streamed into my head.

All along I realized that slowing down was the way to go. To zhush up this philosophy I call filming and living in the video of life a Slow Beat Production.

Decades ago I coined the term of giving yourself a lifeline not a restrictive impossible deadline by which to achieve a goal. I’ve failed at creating 5-year plans. Every 5 years I was tackling the same goals onto a new 5-year plan because I failed to achieve those outcomes in the first 5 years.

It took me 13 years to publish my first book. Over 5 years to accomplish a current objective.

Our lives are going by fast enough. The older we get we don’t have the kind of time to waste beating ourselves up or expecting ourselves to be perfect and do the right things always.

I have an issue with using the word “right” to describe an action or behavior. In a coming post I’ll detail the distinction I make as to why there’s no one “right” way to think feel live act love and dress.

Living our lives in a slow beat is called for when yes we want to get the things we want to have that we’re supposed to get. I’ll refer followers to the book I reviewed in here years ago: Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions.

The guide is a 90-day action plan for replacing an unhealthy habit with a new behavior. Ninety days isn’t really a long time. It’s far more viable to embark on a 90-day practice then to fall prey to a magazine article that tells you how to: Drop One Dress Size by Tuesday.

Again the ultimate aim is to reduce the pressure we have to conform, whether that’s following along in having a societally-approved ideal weight, an acceptable lifestyle, or a standard operating procedure for how to interact with others to name a few.

It comes down to self-respect. If we can’t live with ourselves when we wake up in the morning that’s when it’s time to change. This is why I said Goodbye, Chips.

What others think of us should be of no concern. Our best lives are calling and are within reach. This life is attainable when we have the courage to think for ourselves about the kind of life we want to have.

Avanti! Forward!

Choosing Sanity Over Vanity

Christina BruniLeave a comment

In here I’ll detail in this post further thoughts on a sane approach to consuming food and drink. Choosing sanity over vanity is what matters. Instead of caring how we look to others it’s healthier to think about whether we can live with ourselves at the end of the day.

It was the singer P!nk in a magazine interview easily a decade ago who told the reporter that if you feel bad about what you’re eating then you’re swallowing guilt.

Indulging in food or drink that we label a “good” or “bad” item has the tendency to make us think that we’re good or bad people for eating or drinking it.

Let’s face things so often what we choose to do is because we care how we appear to others. Taking the pressure off happens when we decide that the only person we need to impress or to have approve of us is ourselves.

My days of eating bags of chips are over. I stopped doing this for me.

What I’m saying and I’ve said this repeatedly before in one of the other blogs too is that whittling yourself down to skin and bones to attract others is what’s not ideal.

Are we really counting calories for our health? Are we choosing and using what to eat because the food improves our mood or does it just conform to what we think is healthy?

There’s a ton of products that the editors of the Nutrition Action newsletter expose as not really health-boosting.

Far better to indulge in a real food treat like a pastry every so often. Not bolt for a drink that’s supposed to give us energy or nutrients.

My goal is to share stories and teach others to be well as I’ve written before. Wellness is not the absence of illness. It’s not unachievable to be well when you expand the limits to the definition of wellness.

The online dictionary defines wellness as: the quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal. Within the limits we have with our bodies and minds we can strive to be in good health.

This starts when you and I ask ourselves: “What does good health look like for me? How can I get there? What do I need to do to sustain this lifestyle?”

Having the radical grace to be flexible and adaptable and open to change when this routine no longer fits our life. Just going easier on ourselves when we slip up or fall down here and there. Understanding that most setbacks are only temporary. Picking ourselves up and recommitting to the path we chose.

In the coming blog entry I’m going to talk in more detail about the ethic of going in a steady rhythm.

Chemical Chow

Christina BruniLeave a comment

How and what a person consumes in terms of food and drink is a personal choice. I’m not going to judge anyone else for chowing down on chemical cuisine. Nor am I going to glorify a person who is a total saint in their nutrition practice.

“Everything in moderation” is what I think is the best approach. Striving to have a healthy balance and not overdoing it with the extreme in either direction.

My aversion to using food and drink “products” containing natural flavor I found out is a real issue after eating two different bags of potato chips within four days of each other. I could taste the different taste between the Siete chips with three real food ingredients and the Deep River regular chips that use canola or safflower or cottonseed oil.

Though the Deep River didn’t use natural flavor I could taste that their chips tasted funny compared to the taste of the Siete chips.

There’s a chemical taste to food using natural flavor too. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) calls natural flavor a drug like crack because it’s an addictive food additive. The EWG goes so far as to say this.

I ordered the Nutrition Action booklet Chemical Cuisine that lists the chemicals in food products that cause ill health like common caramel flavor. The other chemicals in the guide are too numerous to list here.

It can appear that I’m nuts writing about this repeatedly. This shall be the last time I detail my thoughts on the topic of natural flavor. Though trust me real food tastes better.

I would like to say that it’s because I’m Italian American that using chemicals to cook food with leaves a distaste in my mouth. And of course, too I’m a fan of the Slow Food movement that started in Italy at the time of the rise in fast food restaurants there.

I don’t use a microwave either. It’s a matter of personal choice. In the coming blog entry I’ll talk about Choosing Sanity over Vanity in adopting a nutrition practice.

For one as a person who weighs 107 pounds I don’t like when other women tell me either that I’m too thin or else tell me “That’s good!” for fitting into a size 2P. My workout routines and weekly eating plan are not habits that I think 90 percent of Americans would want to adopt.

For the 212 loyal followers to this blog that I have after WordPress deleted the inactive accounts I think the readers who’ve stayed on this long might be the ones getting value from my approach.

Takes what works and leave the rest as the saying goes.

I eat well to feel good. That’s the story.

Protein Powder Economics

Christina BruniLeave a comment

The Truvani vanilla protein powder package I order from Amazon has 18 servings and costs $45. Eighteen servings will last 18 days if you have one protein drink each day.

That’s $2.50 per drink which is cheaper than getting a coffee at Starbucks. Not including the tax and shipping fee if you don’t have Amazon Prime and load up on AMZ deliveries regularly.

Cheaper products were sold that I found by typing protein powder into the AMZ search box. My thinking is that they contain natural flavor not real vanilla bean or cocoa powder for the chocolate version.

I’ve seen that with the 12-ounce cup after I shake the powder with a spoon in the almond milk a clump of thick powder settles on the bottom of the cup. I’ve ordered a 16-ounce pint glass to use for the protein drink in the future.

In the coming post I will write about how I accidentally found out that I have a justified aversion to consuming food products that contain natural flavor.