Thoughts & Updates

I'm  a former classroom teacher, a runner, a yoga teacher, and a writer. And I have been a reader, dreamer, planner, and creator my whole life.  

I'm on a journey of Inner Transformation and Balance, exploring slow productivity, connection with nature, and authentic creativity to build my healthiest mental, emotional, and physical self.  

I am rekindling the playful joy and dreamy passions from my youth.  

Fumbling to learn new skills.  Letting go of as much technology and stressful hurry as I can.  

Standing still, wobbling on one foot in tree pose, releasing judgment.

And sharing my experience, encouragement, and resources with the new generation of teachers and parents who are wisely pushing back against over-stimulating, high-stress, chaos-inducing systems that just are not working -- not for their students, their children, or themselves. 

Visit my YouTube Channel and you'll see what I mean. 

I’ll offer you strategies, insights, practices, and simple low-tech hacks to encourage balance and harmony.  

You might find me filling out my planner for the week, setting goals for the year, creating simple projects, or just sinking into good literature, while chatting through my thoughts, inspirations, and struggles.  

Pop in for an RDP LIVE  so we can apply  "old school" curriculum plans to modern learning standards, and bring creative thinking back into the classroom.   It's part study hall, part writing club,  part meditation practice, and part support group.  

Whether you are leading a classroom of kids, motivating a team of athletes, designing your own personal curriculum, or completing your life / work / reading journal, we will keep you company and share ideas and give you an inspiring space to plan for learning. 

And a great place to start is the Letters of Intent Mail Club, a monthly mailing subscription that will activiate your inner word nerd!  Check it out below.

Have you noticed all the "unplugging" that's going on?  A return to some retro, pre-tech-explosion activities?

Like the new trend of Mail Clubs that have popped up --  Is that just another internet trend, or is it something worth considering?

There is a growing bank of research on the negative impacts of digital overload, and in particular,  "...internet addiction, problematic social media use, and doom-scrolling..."  And in one study on the subject, the authors  "identify dopamine-scrolling as a distinct behavioural pattern that warrants specific attention...".  Uniquely problematic, "dopamine-scrolling seemingly operates through reward mechanisms and variable reinforcement schedules. 

The dopamine-loop consists of 1) a cue/trigger, 2) a craving/anticipation, 3) an action, 4) a reward/ pleasure.  Intense anticipation can feel like anxiety.  Dopamine scrolling is the repetitive mindless searching for hit after hit of dopamine, which creates more "anxiety" and in an attempt to ease that feeling,  soon creates an "addiction"  -- to screens, endless games, endless short videos, etc -- as well as creating  impatience, impulsivity, and emotion-driven reactions. 

Parents and teachers see this in their children, but adults, too, are recognizing the addictive and disregulating effects on themselves, too.   Gen Z is pushing back hard against the proliferation of A.I. and millenial parents are returning to the low-tech systems of their youth, for their families and their own mental health. 

Mail Clubs are one way of purposefully disrupting the dopamine-loop addiction. But before you jump on this trend, or any other digital detox trend, think about the key elements of the activity to evaluate its role in the 4 stages of the dopamine loop.  

You will want to see one or more of the following:

• A trigger based in real life -- communication, relationships, physical needs, daily routines.

• Low-level anticipation -- internally, it should feel like "oh, that's nice".  

• Longer periods of time between each stage -- and especially between the anticipation and the reward. 

• Routine but non-repetitive action -- like feeding the dog or watering your plants, routine actions-- once completed you move on to the rest of the day.

• Low intensity reward -- Look for simple, imperfect, homemade, or functional pleasures.

A little boring, perhaps.  A little frustrating.  A little vulnerable.  A little bit incomplete.  A little diy even.   Something to try or share or use.   

Pause and reflect on the way your body responds with calm energy or excited energy.  Neither one is bad -- but the better we are at noticing the response, the better we will be at noticing when our brain is getting locked in the dopamine loop. 

And the smarter we will be about what we choose to do next.  

coming soon...