Feel Good Friday - My Self Care

 

I've been trying to be better about self-care lately.  I've been trying to forgive myself when I don't get things done, rejoice in what I do, and be grateful for every minute I can.  So I thought that I would take this Feel Good Friday to share a few of the things that help bolster me when I'm having a tough time.

Insight Timer on the Google Play Store is something that's been topping my "feeling better" list lately.  I have the free version, so no courses for me, but there are still thousands of free meditations that I can access.  Often, I'll use it to help me fall asleep.  Lately, I'm been trying to get some meditation in outside of that daily.  The meditations last anywhere from one minute to over an hour, so I can find something no matter what kind of time I have for meditation.  I'm not "good" at it, but I am getting better at letting the thoughts pass by and staying focused on the now.

I recently started using Tusk Task Manager.  I've tried a lot of different task managers over the years and usually I'll use them for a couple days then stop.  This one, I think I'll stick with.  It's very customizable, letting me put in tasks that only happen once to ones that recur with whatever frequency (for example, I have my exercising happening every other day).  It also gives me the option to keep a task on the daily page until I actually do it and then restart the count from there.  It has a widget (only available in the paid version, but it's very reasonable at $14/yr) that allows me to mark things done without having to open the app.  And then there are the achievements that give me a little glow when I get it.

The outside of my Today I... Book

A sample page of my Today I...

A long time ago, I used to have a blog here that was just a list of things that I got done  on any particular day.  I liked the thought of having a place where I could look back and see that I wasn't a failure.  Of course, I gave that blog up after several years of not updating.  In January 2020, I decided to start it back up again.  It was very sporadic that year, but during 2021, I've managed to write down what I did far more regularly.  I write down a lot of different things - taking my meds, cleaning a particular room, board games played and books read, just to name a few.  And since it's in an undated notebook, I can just continue on directly after the previous date.  I'm about half way through this book, so I expect that I may need to look for another book that's similar some time next year.

One List a Day over 3 years

A quick glance inside

I love lists.  I love finding different things to list because it's interesting to look back whenever I find them and see what's changed.  One year, my dad even bought me the whole collection (at the time) of Listography books.  I grab one off the shelf every few months and fill out a bit more with dates when I've written them.  Then one day, early last January, I was checking for other listy-things to pick up.  I came across One List a Day, a three year journal where you just write a list of three items in relation to the prompt every day.  It gives me a chance to think about things, whatever the prompt brings up.  Sometimes, I come up with the answers in a flash.  Others have taken a lot of thought.  On even months, you are able to create your own list in between the months.  And the first list of every month gives me a chance to think about a couple things I want to do.  So far, every list is filled out.  I'm looking forward to the beginning of next year when I ccan start looking at what I wrote the year before.

Just me

Finally, I love taking my picture when I'm feeling good.  I can take a look at myself and say, "This isn't a perfect me, but it is still a good me."  And days like the picture above, I can be proud of my braid.  Sometimes I'll take a picture when I'm wearing a new shirt or a new mask, just to show it off.  Sometimes I'll take a picture just because I like the way that  I look that particular day.

So these are some of the things that I use for self-care, things that just make me feel good.  What do you have on your list of things on your self-care list?

Daily Challenge - Day 1

I've been making a lot of changes lately - changes to my diet, my home, my mental and physical self.  Even though some of these have come about by necessity (like keeping my house clean), a lot of the outlooks have come about naturally.  I'm finding that I'm motivated to do more things than I have ever been motivated to do.  Even when I don't think that I have the motivation to do something, I end up doing it anyway.  Weird, huh?

One of the things that I started back with is SparkPeople.  I need the support of the community and having a place to keep track of my healthy habits.  And for some reason, as I was writing in my blog there today (I really have a lot of blogs and haven't been keeping up with any of them much lately), I realized that one of the things I want to do for myself is come up with a small challenge each day.  Some of them may be writing challenges to help me get to know myself better.  Some may be physical challenges to make myself feel better.  Some may be craft challenges to keep my inspiration going.  And some may be spiritual challenges to help me figure out where I'm going from here.  My plan is to document each challenge every day.  If you feel like joining me for the journey, feel free.  I'd love to see what you do with the challenge as well.  Even if you just want to come along and read what I'm up to, that's ok too.  I always like getting support from those around me.  Also, in the hope of keeping the support that I know I get from people over at LifeKraze.  They're great about making me feel good about myself and what I write about.

My main purpose for doing these challenges, though, is for me.  I want to grow in as many ways as possible, and to be the best person I can be.  I'm hoping these small challenges will bring that about.

Today's challenge is:

List 10 things you'd like to improve, along with how you plan on making them happen.

1. I want to lose 80 pounds within the next year and a half.  I've been too heavy for too long.  I've felt like crap for too long.  So I'm paying attention to what I'm eating and I'm making sure to get in at least 20 minutes of exercise a day.
2. I want my house organized.  I am going to set aside a different area to organize every weekend (so I don't have to slog through things on my own.)  I'm not going to bite off more than I can chew so I'll plan baby steps.
3. I want to feel good about myself.  I plan on having many of my daily challenges be self-affirming to remind me that I've got more good than bad.
4. I want to start spending time with more adults.  I am going to start by getting together with the SparkNashville people more regularly.  I used to love getting together with them, walking and getting healthy together.  From there, who knows where I'll meet my next friends.
5. I want to challenge myself.  I'm not sure how yet - getting out of my shell a little more, to start.  I want to stretch myself into joining things I find interesting rather than letting opportunities pass me by.
6. I want to get back into journal writing.  I already have a notebook that I'm writing in.  I haven't in a few days, but I'm going to remind myself that a few days away doesn't have to be forever.  There's not better time to jump back into things than now.
7. I want to be active with my blogs again.  I'm going to set up a schedule for me to write in them so keeping up with all of them won't be as overwhelming as it seems to be now.
8. I want to get back into my creativity.  I'm going to start by setting aside a couple hours a week for creativity.  It could be working on a smash book, or working on a scrapbook, maybe even writing.  But a couple hours a week should be a good way to get me back into the swing of things.
9. I want to hold myself accountable.  Far too often, I make excuses for myself.  "I had to grab something at McDonald's to eat because I was in a hurry.", "I couldn't work out because the kids were watching TV."  Excuses.  Sometimes the excuses are valid - my ankle was hurting too much for me to do high impact exercise.  But I'm going to start using my Today I... blog daily (whether at the end of the night or first thing in the morning) to talk about what I did and didn't do.  It will also help me look at myself in a clearer light.
10. I want to organize myself better.  Every day, I have a general idea of what I want to get done, but I don't write it down.  And then things slip away from me.  I'm planning on writing a soft schedule for myself once a week (possibly by using WeekPlan) so I know what needs to be done and have an idea how much time to put aside for it.  As a matter of fact, writing up that soft schedule will be my challenge for tomorrow.

So, come back tomorrow to see how I handle my challenge to 

Write a soft schedule for myself for the next week