On becoming one another’s ‘yes friend’s, giving yourself assignments, and paying attention to the everyday
An interview with Deborah Huber and Willow Older of Today I Noticed
I had the pleasure of interviewing Deb and Willow a couple of weeks ago. They’re the authors of the new book, Today I Noticed. They also run a popular joint Instagram account of the same name, and run workshops together.
It was a joy to interview two people who get on so well together (#friendshipgoals), finish one another’s sentences, and who have such an infectious joy for what they do.
To begin with, what is Today I Noticed?
Today I Noticed is a creative mindfulness practice based on the transformative power of paying attention. The simple prompt, “Today I noticed,” is an invitation to pause, observe, and then record (with words and a simple sketch) some of the little moments of everyday life that often slip by unnoticed. When we tune into our surroundings, and ourselves, we feel more grateful, present, and joyful. Today I Noticed also provides an opportunity to have a bite-sized creative practice, something so many of us crave. When we take the time to express ourselves creatively, we give ourselves the gift of nourishment, relaxation, and rejuvenation.
How did you two meet?
We met on the sidelines of the soccer field when our our boys, who are the same age, were in 6th grade. And I think neither of us was that interested in soccer, but we discovered we were interested in each other and just struck up a friendship. Slowly but surely we became really, really good friends and we spent a lot of time going on outings together. Ultimately we began thinking about how we both wanted to do a project together and preferably something relating to mindfulness.
We quickly became each other’s “yes friends” - you know, “hey, do you want to go check out this event?” “Yes!” “Hey, do you want to go hear this reading?” “Yes!” “Hey, I heard this really interesting thing is happening, do you want to come?” “Yes!”
Not all friendships lead to “hey, do you want to try something together?” right? That's sort of a new level or new new realm.
How did Today I Noticed come about?
It started as a very private personal practice. Well, it wasn't even a practice, it was an experiment. It was Halloween and it was a Wednesday and Deb and I decided that we were going to play hooky for the day. There was an exhibit at MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, that we wanted to go and see. So we took the morning off, drove into San Francisco, got great parking, got our coffee. We were so pleased because we walked up to the front door of the museum and we were first in line and we stood there for a few minutes before realizing, oh, we're first in line because actually MoMA is closed on Wednesdays. Which we would have known if we had been paying attention. So we always like to say this came about because we were not paying attention.
But we decided, OK, let's instead of just turning around and going home, let's have a little urban adventure. Let's go walk around and explore downtown San Francisco. We haven't been there for a while.
But instead of just getting caught up in our conversation and chat like we always do, we said let's give ourselves a little assignment. Let's use this. Let's pay attention. Let's notice what's going on around us, what we're feeling inside, and just sort of see what happens - and wonderful things happened.
Little tiny moments rose to the level of our consciousness that we would have totally missed, and I'm talking about things like tiny little flowers growing up through the cracks of the sidewalk in downtown San Francisco.
We found an architecturally historic building hiding behind a row of pop up food trucks and I think probably one of our favorite moments that we would absolutely have missed if we hadn't been paying attention was seeing an older couple holding hands and shuffling slowly across the street together.
And just a couple of hours of this sort of intentional noticing left us feeling so nourished and grounded and really filled with joy at this intentional way of seeing the world.
And we said, my God, maybe this is it? Maybe this is our little practice or this little experiment that we can try together.
When Willow and I decide something, we don't fool around, so we immediately stopped at an art store, picked up some simple art supplies and said, let's go. Let's do this. And we started the next day and each of us every day carried these three words, Today I Noticed, around with us and let it guide us in paying more attention to what was around us. We did it for about two weeks alone. We didn't really talk too much about it. We just did it the way we would each do it.
And then it occurred to us that we it'd be really fun to share what we've both been noticing. So we met at a local bar and sat up on the stools and opened our journals and paged through them, and as we did, we found ourselves saying things like, Oh my gosh, I noticed that too, or I feel that way sometimes, or that that happens to me too, and we hadn't expected this, but it really highlighted how much we all have in common when when it comes to our daily life.
And the other thing is we talked about how we had felt over the the past couple of weeks doing this practice and we both really felt like it just made the world brighter, richer, more textured. We felt more present, more relaxed and we were pretty committed at that point to keep going because we were really finding it beneficial. So we said let's just keep going and we did. Eventually we realized that this practice of just noticing the little things of everyday life, the silly, the, the funny, the heartwarming, et cetera, was really more than just an experiment between two friends, it was something that other people could benefit from, so we ended up deciding to start posting on Instagram, our observations, our little sketches with our short descriptions, and that seemed to resonate with people and our following grew.
And we just have been doing it ever since.
How did the book come about?
We've always taken the idea of a book very seriously in the sense that once we decided, huh, maybe there is a book in this, we're both writers and professionals, so we approached the process of writing a proposal very seriously. You know, we did our research and felt like we wanted to create something really high quality that we could, you know, present to the world.
We were getting so much feedback on Instagram about how our posts were making people smile, our posts were reminding people to notice the joy and beauty around them, that we felt like we should try to share this in another way. So we wrote a proposal and we pitched it to agents and we found an amazing agent, and she pitched it to some publishers and Blue Star Press decided to publish it. What we decided to do with our collaboration with them was to post a collection of our TINs as a way to show people and inspire people to take up this idea of noticing. And then at the back of the book, we included some some blank pages for people to sketch their own observations and describe them with words. So the book is kind of a combination of fun, playful or serious TINs combined with encouragement to try this practice on your own.
What do people tell you about their experience with the practice?
That it's so easy and it's so natural. Noticing is a totally natural act, we are all noticing all the time. The trick, and this is what we really encourage people to do, is to catch yourself noticing, to notice yourself noticing. Because once you do that, that's when, first of all, you have this mindfulness magic.
You become aware of your surroundings or what you're feeling. You tune in in a different way because it becomes this concrete moment, and when you write about it, and then even sketch about it, it becomes first of all, more memorable. It becomes something that can you can process. Just the creative act is a way to process or synthesize something that you're noticing.
And it also becomes more meaningful and obviously it becomes something that you can share and that's one of the things that you know we delight in and our followers and hopefully now our readers are going to delight in and connect over and say ah, yes I totally get that, or, oh, I've never thought about that before, because there's that moment of surprise.
And also doing this, you know, taking the time to to record what you've noticed really gives you a chance to savor again that moment. Hopefully the act of noticing in real time helps you savor that moment. And then you cement it into your psyche when you record it.
Order the book: Today I Noticed: A Little Book of Mindfulness that Will Change the Way You See the World
Website: www.todayinoticed.com | Instagram: @today.i.noticed
Email: hello.team.tin@gmail.com
Something else worth paying attention to:
On a related note, there’s another daily creative practice I’d like to share with you. My friend Christy has just produced a journal for all creative entrepreneurs, from web designers to brand designers, marketers to business coaches, artists, photographers, writers, and anyone whose business revolves around creativity and inspiration.
The 365 daily prompts are intended to serve as a practical compass to help you find inspiration, set meaningful goals, and work through challenges, and there’s ample journaling space, so you can dive deep into your thoughts and ideas with dedicated lined pages for each prompt.
Christy is a kind, grounded and very experienced and successful creative entrepreneur, whose thoughtful anti-hustle approach to business is likely to align with most readers of this newsletter.
You can order the journal here.
May you notice moments of joy, creativity and inspiration in the coming days and weeks - if nothing else as a way of growing your capacity for resilience in these difficult days…
Sophy xo