In the Northern Hemisphere the April full moon corresponds with signs of pink and early berries in the trees and bushes during the Spring. Farmers have planted their crops, and the babies of Spring have started to arrive in their herds. It is a busy time of year that keeps the farmers close to the land and their animals.
The full moon in April is commonly known as the Pink Moon because of the pink flowers that bloom Mid Spring. The April full moon is also known as the Paschal Moon because it is used to calculate the date for Easter. This is the moon that told our ancestors who lived off the land that the earth was about to give way to the first wild berries and roots of the Spring. This was also a time when they resumed hunting. The most common signs of The Mid Spring Full Moon are the early berries and roots for foraging, the ground showing the blades of green grass, and the trees and bushes beginning to flower with pink. This moon also served as a signal of Easter to the colonial settlers.
The Mid Spring Full Moon Names:
Pink Moon Sprouting Grass Moon Fish Moon Hare Moon Egg Moon Paschal Moon
Growing up on a Mid-Western farm, this was a busy time of year. Signs of growth and renewal were all around us as the days grew longer and even warmer. Our parents were in the field planting the crops and us children were anxiously looking to play with the new baby goats, chicks, and calves. Every year we looked forward to Easter with the extended family and hunting for eggs with our siblings and cousins outside enjoying the warm weather after the confines of winter.
For these two Easter spreads, I decided to keep it light and a little more pastel in color pallet. I usually start off my picking a message to focus on for the week that I put in the top left corner of the spread. This week I chose a sticker that says “Simplify” to remind myself to try and simplify my life in all aspects.
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Down in the corner I have this cute little egg sticky note that I found in a stationary pack from Target, which is also where i found the Easter themed stickers. The stamp markers are something that I’ve had for a little while now. Today I am pulling from a few different sets to combine three different flower stamps and a yellow heart stamp.
This year we are going to have two Easters to celebrate, my husband’s family decided to switch over to old calendar. So we will be able to see both sides of the family from now on which is going to be really great!
I’ve already filled out this spread a little bit with my important dates and reminders for what is coming up this coming week and next week.
On Good Friday there is a Full Moon, so you’ll be seeing a little mini video update on Instagram of what my Full Moon Intention is going to be. Make sure that you follow me over there so you don’t miss the video.
The second spread is going to be the week before Old Calendar Easter with my husband’s family. I wanted to go with a Ukrainian inspired spread. This time on the left I have these sticky notes that I came across that we really bohemian and completely my style and was initially just drawn to them. And when I got them home, I actually noticed how close they were in patter to one of our rushnyks which you can see in the photos and in the video.
It’s red and black, and has all this beautiful embroidery on it. I’ve noticed over the years that our family uses a lot of reds and blacks, so I definitely wanted to pull that together and draw inspiration from the embroidered rushnyk that you can see below.
For the pysankya decoration I’m going again, with some beautiful Ukrainian inspired designs. The deer symbolism has always been really important to me, growing up in the farm we always had deer around. This is always the design that I try and thumb through all of the egg decor sleeves for first and I think I’ve used up all over the years so we’re gonna have to get some more of those because that’s definitely my favorite.
On Monday we have the waning moon, so you’ll definitely see another mini video for me. You’ll have to go over to Instagram to see it, so make sure you subscribe to me over there.
Instead of looking at all of the things that I either didn’t get done or all the things that I’ve like scribbled out and blacked out, I like to cut little strips of paper out and paste them over each day at the end of each day after I’ve moved over any tasks that I didn’t finish. Or if I have finished everything and I just don’t want to look at the mess of my notes.
Check out my other daily planner video to see how I cut these out to make sure that they’re the right size for my journal in the little section that I have for my notes and to do list.
You can always find me over on Instagram where I’m usuallyalways at. I’d love to talk with you, please send me a DM or tag me in a comment so I can find you! I really love talking with all of you. I like to share behind-the-scenes stuff, my lunar of goal-setting intentions for each moon phase, and a ton of BUJO and art journal inspiration. So make sure you subscribe over there and join the tribe here!
This week I want you to focus on turning off that overly critical voice in your head through meditation.
Meditation is hard if its not something you practice daily, it’s a muscle that needs to be flexed and cultivated on a regular basis. One of the many benefits of developing a daily meditation practice is that it will give you a safe space away from the overly critical world. It creates a space where you can sit with yourself and tune out the rest of the world. This is really beneficial, but also hard to do if that overly critical voice is coming from within you. Learning to let those negative thoughts float by is something that will strengthen your self confidence and sense of self worth.
I had to teach myself to believe that those overly critical voices were not my own, that they didn’t represent who I was and my morals. I let the voices pass, let them fade into quietness.
Jenny proczko
I have found that I am the overly critical voice in my life, and that everyone else around me is supportive and loving. When I am going through a rough patch that inner critical voice gets louder and meaner as it berates me until I am left feeling alone, depressed and worthless.
Trying to develop a positive inner voice did not help me. In those times of despair, I wasn’t able to silence the critical voice with the positive, loving and supportive one that I was trying to give myself. The only thing that helped me was meditation. Instead of trying to drown out that overly critical voice, I learned to sit with those feelings and thoughts, and let them pass. I would imagine myself sitting calmly, eyes closed, cross legged in my mind as the overly critical voices screamed at me. I let those voices throw their temper tantrum as I sat there, quiet, waiting.
I have found that I am the overly critical voice in my life, and that everyone else around me is supportive and loving. When I am going through a rough patch that inner critical voice gets louder and meaner as it berates me until I am left feeling alone, depressed and worthless.
jenny proczko
I had to teach myself to believe that those overly critical voices were not my own, that they didn’t represent who I was and my morals. I let the voices pass, let them fade into quietness. It was as if I was ignoring them on the outside so they got bored and went away. I imagined that on the inside of my mind, I was acknowledging the overly critical voices, and letting them get their frustrations out, while I sat solid in the belief that those thoughts were not my own. I simply let the voices and thoughts pass while I sat quiet in meditation.
The overly critical voices in the world and in your head are not you. They do not define you, your thoughts, or morals. You are a beautiful human being worthy of love and acceptance.
jenny proczko
Things to Remember:
The overly critical voices in the world and in your head are not you. They do not define you, your thoughts, or morals. You are a beautiful human being worthy of love and acceptance. You should also remember that meditation is hard at first and that being able to let these thoughts pass is a difficult ability to master. But you can do it. I know you can.
Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss my tip for next week: turning off the overly LOGICAL VOICE in your head.
What do you do to turn off that overly critical voice in your head? Have you tried meditation?
Today I’m going to show you how I set my monthly goals at the beginning of each lunar month. The beginning of each moon cycle starts with the New Moon or the Dark Moon, which is a time to plan for the cycle.
Every new moon I like to set a short term goal for the next 28 days which is one lunar cycle. Instead of picking out one intention out of thin air, I like to use tarot cards to help get my creative juices flowing. I don’t believe that tarot cards can tell us our future, but I do think that they are some pretty beautiful miniature works of art that can inspire us with their stories and help prompt us to look at our lives through a different lens.
I use this Journaling Prompt spread in my Lunar Bullet Journal to inspire me to identify my hopes, dreams, challenges and goals for the coming lunar month.
You might recognize this from my April Plan With Me. This month’s lunar theme is “celebrate your blooming goals.” In this spread I have a section for challenges, goals, and how I’m going to accomplish them. I also have a little tracker down at the bottom of the page that I fill in with a new leaf each day when I say these mantras to myself.
This month I felt like reaching for the Wild Unknown Spirit Animal Deck. I start by just shuffling cards, I usually do this about three times or whatever feels good and then I cut the deck. Today I’m doing a really simple present, past, and future 3 card layout, starting with the present in the middle.
I think about the challenges that I could be faced with in the coming lunar month as I jot down any notes or themes that stuck out to me from the guide book. I’m using the guide book that goes with this deck, you can use any type of tarot deck or book that you want you can even just do your own intuitive reading of what these cards mean based on their drawings. I always make sure to write down the main theme of each card listed in the guidebook, then anything from the description that speaks to me. I also take notes of what the card might be prompting me to think about in connection to my current life situation.
These are going to be the ideas that I need to focus on in this coming lunar cycle. Keeping in mind the theme of the lunar month which is “celebrate your blooming goals,” I’m going to be thinking about the challenges that might pop up and then the goals that I want to make sure that I am working toward to be accomplished.
This spread has prompted me to create stronger foundations in my creative work, mental health, and continued learning.
The challenges that I’ll be facing in the coming lunar month are: letting my voice out, finding the daily retreat, balancing the ego.
My goals are to focus on: talking more and opening up, meditation as a priority, reading an inner child book.
Under the How I’m going to do it section, I usually these ideas straight into mantras for myself. If you want to see the process of determining to write this section check out my 13th Moon Video.
My mantra for this cycle is:
“I celebrate my blooming goals by continuing to nourish them with more sit down videos, meditating right after yoga, and reading right after meditation.”
jenny proczko, 4th moon Mantra 2019
My tracker is the same as always, little sprouts that come up during each week of the lunar month, which you can see at the bottom of my page. Each day I create a little leaf and color it in as I say the mantra with my morning tea.
On the next couple of pages are my lunar month spread with moon dutch doors. If you would like to see how I came up with this layout, check out my April Plan With Me.
Either by the moon or in the morning of each new lunar phase, I set a positive feeling based intention for each of the eight lunar phases. For this new moon I wrote:
“I set my intention to celebrate my blooming goals by continuing to nourish them with more sit down videos, meditating right after yoga, and reading right after meditation. I feel my intention in my body.”
JENNY PROCZKO, 4TH MOON 2019, New moon Intention
Then at the beginning of each moon phase for this cycle I will come back to this spread and write a new positive feeling based intention. I’ll be posting these little mini moon updates over on Instagram, so be sure to follow me there so you don’t miss them!
On the final Crescent Moon of the lunar cycle I do a Lunar Review of the entire month tracking my journey back to the new moon. First I think about what worked, what didn’t, and what I can improve. Then I reflect on the biggest wins of the lunar month.
This journaling and goal setting practice is something that I do the night before every new moon or the morning of every new moon. This practice of short term, achievable goal setting via the lunar cycle, has grown really dear to my heart. It’s something that I can’t imagine not doing.
Using tarot cards in this way gives me a new lens in which to look at my life. It’s also given me a lot of inspiration and closure by looking at my life through a different perspective. This practice has also helped me hone my focusing skills and has enabled me to quit second guessing myself. With this practical tarot new moon journaling prompt, I look forward to each lunar cycle and the start of a new chance to achieve my goals.
Now that we have completed this Monthly Lunar Goal Setting session, we can go ahead and bring our 4th Moon Practice to a close.
Subscribe so you don’t miss anything. To see how I make sure I’m on track with my goals for each Lunar Month check out the my Full Moon Check In.
Self care can take many forms, a warm cup of tea or coffee, coloring books, face masks, massage, playing video games, a date with your best friend, naps, reading a book, a special dessert, listening to podcasts, long showers, sleeping in, a new hair or beard oil for the men out there, or even cleaning (which is one of my husband’s self care activities). But when do these little acts of kindness turn into bigger things harming our health and sending us down a detrimental path?
Normally my mornings look like this, but today I have been the caretaker of a moderate fever in our house for 24 hours and the feveree is in incredible pain and can’t sleep. I’m doing everything you should, cold compress, cool showers, temp taking. And we even got the fever down one degree, which is a blessing.
This morning I was woken up to a deep guttural moan that turned into a painful yelping, coming from a grown man that looks like a lumberjack. I sprang up into action and stumbled over the cats who were genuinely freaked out. Once things calmed down and the lumberjack was back on his way to sleep, I laid back down to try and rest myself. This was my first mistake in self care. due to the chaos of the moment I hadn’t realized what time it was and didn’t take my medication for my mental health.
Later in the morning after he decided to stay awake and the Tylenol kicked in, I moved him out of our communal space in the house and back to the sick ward so I could pick up, clean, and get to work, since I work from home. Surprisingly, he was compliant. haha.
Instead of melting into the couch with my coffee so I could give myself a chance to wake up, I told myself that I couldn’t have any coffee until I cleaned the kitty litter and put my makeshift couch bed away. This was my first act of self care for the morning… bribery. But some days you have to balance GSD’ing and Self Care with a little bribery.
While the water was warming I was called back to the sick ward. I was happy to see that Mr. Lumberjack was in a positive state of mind, and hungry. So, Dr. Jenny sprang into action and forgot about her coffee, but on my way back to the kitchen I passed the bathroom and realized I hadn’t taken my medication yet and it was hours after I was supposed to, so, I snagged them.
When I finally got to my morning aeropress coffee ritual I finally felt a semblance of normalcy. Our house had gotten quiet again, the cats calmed back down, and I could smell the enticing aroma of coffee brewing up just for me. While I was putting in my creamer I decided consciously that an extra spoon full of creamer would be my act of self care to help calm and nourish my soul for the morning. But then I realized… when is that small seemingly simple act of self care actually bad for our health?
I felt guilt for a moment, then told myself, nah its ok, you’ve switched from dairy creamer to unsweetened almond creamer, you go get it girl! So, in the extra spoon of creamer went.
But it got me thinking, when is self care bad for our health?
Two years ago, pre-medication, I was in such a tumultuous mental and emotional state, that I allowed myself small acts of self care like extra creamer multiple times a day, and looking back it didn’t work and only made my physical body health worse. I was consuming more, moving less and not balancing out those little decadent extras that I was deeming acts of self care.
So how far should we allow ourselves when it comes to self care?
I started setting timers for myself when it came to self care activities to make sure that I didn’t over indulge. I switched to a plant based diet so that I could have a few bites of dairy and meat here and there, and those bites became beautiful little treats that I relished.
Just because you find yourself freaking out because of anxiety or depression, but have the presence of mind to stop and take time to prescribe yourself self care, doesn’t mean that the prescription is always a “small” square of “dark” chocolate. All of those “small dark” chocolates add up and affect your physical body health.
So ask yourself, when is self care bad for your health? Have I taken self care too far? weather its a nap, a consumable, tv, or an activity, there is always balance needed. Just because you decided to use self care, it doesn’t mean that everything will be better. There are other real life things that sustain your ability to live, like work, chores, and grocery shopping, that have taken a back seat to your self care. Instead of over-indulging in negative actions under the guise of self care, look to actions that nurture positive outcomes and help you achieve your goals, even if the goal is just being able to get out of the house.
This week I want you to focus on turning the tv off.
Take a break from your TV, including on demand services like Netflix, this week and you will see your world change. You will become more productive, spend more time with your family, have more meaningful interactions with real human beings instead of TV characters. You will read more, get more cleaning and honey-do’s done, and most likely find that you don’t miss TV at all. I bet you will sleep better too!
I have found that when I turn off the TV, I am much more productive because I begin to see everything around me again.
Jenny Proczko, of Owls&inndigo
Don’t get me wrong, I love Netflix, and YouTube, and Hulu, and Crunchy Roll, and TV in general. But to be honest, I have found that when I turn off the TV, I am much more productive because I begin to see everything around me again. I see that the dishes need to be done, clothes need to be folded, food needs to be prepped, etc. The thing that I notice most when I turn off the TV, is our donate box and the to-do box that is usually full of things that need to be mended, or decor things I wanted to create.
If its entertainment that you are missing, grab your nearest human and play cards or a board game. You can even invest in mandala or nature scape coloring books to keep your hands and mind busy. You will be amazed at the things that get done when you turn the TV off and amazed by the person sitting next to you.
I know its a little bit late, but my April Plan With Me for my Lunar & Spiritual Journaling is finally here.
I’m starting off with my monthly overview page. This month I was inspired by some elements that I wasn’t sure were going to go well together at first, but i decided to take a chance anyway. I have started with a watercolor branch that I am filling in the dates on with a white gelly roll pen. Now I’m working on drawing in the moon phases dripping down from the branch on their respective dates. I have been pinning gorgeous images like each of these moon phases on pinterest for months and have been trying to figure out how to work them into my journal, and finally here they are! I was also inspired by ChristineMyLinh one of my favorite youtubers and Journal Away. I really love her goal setting layouts, they are so simple but also ask important questions. I’m also using a gold gel pen and gold sharpie for the accent colors.
This next spread is my letters to the universe that I include every month. I think that this is the spread that ended up being my favorite this month. It turned out just how I wanted it to, which really surprised me because this was the first time I created watercolor clouds. I left A LOT of the art work to fate this month. I winged all of the watercolors and couldn’t be happier with them. You’ll see Olena my black cat a lot in the video this month… She’s my water cat that is obsessed with our sink…. so its no surprise that watercolors are her favorite art medium…. Also, don’t worry, she didn’t actually lick any of the paint or the water bowl.
I was inspired by this doodle that I found on a google search and wanted to turn it into a line drawing self portrait. It just felt like me, It felt right to send out these letter to the universe with my morning cup of coffee and sometimes tea, depending on the day.
This spread was inspired by Journal Away and is alllllll about my hopes and goals for the 4th lunar cycle. This is the page that I use to work out my mantras for the lunar month. The theme for this cycle is “celebrate your blooming goals” I have a section for the challenges I’ll face, my goals, how I’m going to do it and down at the bottom, my little plant tracker. I fill in a leaf each day that I say my mantras, which is usually in the morning with my coffee.
I really loved my fortune teller dutch doors from last month, I’ll leave a link here and down below! So this month I’m creating a Moon Dutch Door. Here I’m working on painting in the moon with two yellow water color shades from this tiney tiny Windsor & Newton watercolor pallet that I got yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeears ago at the HobLob (Hobby Lobby).
I’ve now flipped over the the other side of my moon dutch door to start inking in the rest of the designs that I’m tying in with the first one, my monthly overview page. I’ve added in a crayola stamp marker for a few extra star details. Does anyone remember those guys?
And now I’m watercoloring in a portrait of my ginger tiger cat Zoya the Destroya reaching down for one of the hanging designs. On the back page of the dutch moon doors I’m now painting in my black cat Olena. I didn’t have black in my watercolor pallet so I improvised with a black supertips marker. It worked out surprisingly well as a watercolor medium. Now I’m just going back in after the water color has dried to add some little details on both of the cats with a black gel pen, gold gel pen, white gelly roll, and green metallic marker.
Now I’m working on the inside of the moon dutch doors, which is where I’m putting the feeling based intention journaling prompt that I’ll be filling out on the morning of each moon phase. If you want to see how I use this spread check out my 4th Moon Lunar Goal Setting Video.
I’m using some of my favorite flower doodles this month as dividers between each section for the moon phases. I’m also free handing in metallic green and rose gold floral details around the entire moon cycle to match the outsides of the dutch doors.
And now the final spread of the month, my unravel your month check in, my words for this year are “flux & flow.” I’m tying all of the designs together on this page and left it really simple so I would have plenty of room for journaling at the end of the month when I reflect on how April went.
Now that we have completed this month we can go ahead and bring our April Plan With Me lunar & spiritual journaling practice to a close.
Today I’m going to show you how I review and assess my goals at the end of each lunar month to see how I did and what progress was made. The end of each moon cycle starts with the Balsamic Moon which is the last crescent moon of each lunar cycle.
This is my journal spread for the 3rd Lunar cycle of the year. Watch my 3rd Moon Full Moon Check In to see what my intention was for this cycle and to see the feeling based intentions I wrote on each moon phase from the new moon to the full moon.
I’m starting off with the feeling based intentions for the Disseminating Moon, which is also the Waning Moon. Remember Wax On is the first half of the cycle and Wane Off is the second half of each lunar cycle.
I write these feeling based intentions on each lunar phase either in the morning or in the evening by the light of the moon.
On the final Crescent Moon of the lunar cycle I do a Lunar Review of the entire month tracking my journey back to the new moon. First I think about what worked, what didn’t, and what I can improve. Then I reflect on the biggest wins of the lunar month.
This week I want you to focus on journaling first thing in the morning for 5 minutes.
Journaling can help you in many ways. It can clarify your thoughts and feels, reduce stress, and most importantly give you the power to get to know yourself better.
The best thing I have found about journaling, is that it helps me not feel alone or lost when I am in a bad spot mentally. My journal lets me look back onto the times that weren’t so bright, and give perspective on my current situation. Sometimes my journal even gives me solutions to my problems by being able to look back and see how I dealt with a problem in the past.
