the april forecast

You’re reading the corner project, your one-stop recommendation station of self discovery, creativity, and lifestyle from Megan Batoon. It’s the first post of April, so here’s the Monday post to get your month started. If you’re into it, subscribe here and see you Thursday x

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I’m highly inspired by the 70’s right now. I’m not quite sure why exactly. The lifestyle of everyone just being free spirited and going with the flow. I feel like nowadays, we focus on so much of the stuff that gets in the way of being free and going with the flow. We’re preoccupied with our jobs, with how people perceive us, and trying to tip toe on pointe through one of those laser beam maze rooms to not offend anyone. I’m really embracing not only the aesthetics, visuals, even the vintage cuts of clothing that were ubiquitous in the 1970’s, but pieces of what I have gathered of the collective mindset as well. Obviously I didn’t live back then and haven’t gotten around to calling my parents for them to tell me what it was like, but from what I’ve seen? Big fan. Except for disco. Keep the balls, skip the music. WE’RE BEIN’ HONEST HERE.

On top of all that, the universe answered all of my unheard (and un-prayed) prayers, and gave us the duo I’ve never even thought I needed: Silk Sonic. Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars team up and create a fever dream of groove with a side of smooth suaveness that I want to replay every time I close my eyes at night. Silk Sonic debuting their first song during my obsession with this era feels like pure MAGIC. Also, what I think is even better and maybe a synchronicity(?) was gawking over this video with a friend of mine who showed it to me and realizing I have these lamps!! They were one of the first authentic midcentury pieces from that I got from facebook marketplace and I’VE NEVER FELT COOLER.

the lamp from the video:

me, excited about my lamp doppelgänger:

The entire music video that is nothing short of a decadent visual treat:

If you need this lamp in your life, it’s called Gruvwood lamp from the 1960’s. I found mine on facebook marketplace, but there’s a ton of these floating around on etsy and Chairish.

April’s focus is going with the flow. I have never thought I would be thinking this or even writing it, but I’ve realized I’ve been in my masculine energy for my entire life. Every human on this planet has both masculine and feminine energy. These are not gender conforming or one or the other. We are all both of them. Think of it like right brain vs. left brain thinking. Feminine energy is based on feeling, masculine energy’s got logic handled.

I’ve seen benefits of both sides. However, I think I was conditioned at a young age to be an achiever, a leader, respect-oriented, precise, and kind of ‘my way or the highway’ so that was my base level. I remember when I was searching for my first assistant years ago to work in the spare bedroom of my apartment (photo below):

this one! do we remember?

Anyway, I remember feeling so rigid and at one point I had asked my assistant to record minutes (?) recording everything that she had done so I could make sure that work was getting done. I not only held myself to an unattainable standard, it had started to infiltrate my relationships. It wasn’t until recently where I started to give myself more compassion and ask myself why it was so important to hold these beliefs and markers. More important than ‘why’ was asking myself ‘whose voice is this’ when these harsh inner critic voices would chime in.

I was introduced to feminine energy and a more intuitive approach to everything: eating, working, socializing, sleeping, all of it. Turns out when you start listening to yourself and your body, you’re given the cues and the direction. Once I started inviting and becoming aware of this energy, I no longer had any unanswered questions. I just started to go with the flow. It was so much easier, I had less stress, and I started to finally have fun and enjoy the life that was happening while I was too busy planning.

April’s practice: Make small steps to go more with the flow and tap into your feminine energy every day. Don’t feel like you need to do everything differently in order to change your life. Any lasting progress is a process, start with one thing this month and really integrate it into your life.

Here’s a good resource to go deeper into this: 12 Practical Steps for Learning to Go With the Flow

By Leo Babauta

No matter how much structure we create in our lives, no matter how many good habits we build, there will always be things that we cannot control — and if we let them, these things can be a huge source of anger, frustration and stress.

The simple solution: learn to go with the flow.

Every month, I curate a music playlist on Spotify of ten songs that have high-replay-ability. Here’s this months:

Happy April, let me know in the comments what your relationship with control and going with the flow are and please feel free and encouraged to comment and communicate with anyone in the comments section!

xM

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Next up: the pilot teaser episode of the new substack video podcast on Thursday!