Author: Christine Hennebury

I'm a writer/storyteller/director/creativity & lifestory coach with a black belt in ITF Taekwon-do. I read voraciously and I write like my fingers are on fire. I'm the founder and Chair of the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl and I'm a former president of the St. John's Storytelling Festival. I bake a mean chocolate chip cookie.
a small drawing of a gold star with a happy face on it Go Team 2026: A Gentle Reminder To Give Yourself What You Need (When You Can, Of Course)
advice · fitness · Go Team · meditation · motivation · rest

Go Team 2026: A Gentle Reminder To Give Yourself What You Need (When You Can, Of Course)

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hey Team, 

Here’s the short version of this post: It’s ok to give yourself the movement, the peace of mind, and the rest that you need.

I know this is not the first time I have given you (or myself) this advice but since I always need reminders about this stuff then I assume you do, too.

So, to reiterate:

Whenever you can, please, please, please, give yourself the things you need. 

If you need rest, then please get some rest

And please do that in a way that lets you meet your needs the best way you can in your current situation.

Resting doesn’t have to mean taking a nap (but a nap is great if you are able to take one!) It can mean resting in small increments, taking some deep breaths, pausing between tasks, choosing to limit the scope of some tasks, doing some yoga or stretching, or picking a restorative activity.

If your thoughts are feeling tangled and you need to meditate or journal then please meditate or journal. 

And please do those things in the way that meets your needs. 

Journaling doesn’t have to be pen on paper, it can be typing on a screen or drawing on an envelope or using voice to text or creating a collage or anything else that makes your thoughts more tangible and organizable for you. 

Meditation doesn’t have to mean sitting still (but that type of mindfulness is totally cool.) It can mean colouring, or doing walking meditation, or drawing a series of small lines, or doing a task with great care. It’s more about the nature of your attention than the specific activities involved.

If you need to get moving, then please get moving.

And please do that in the way that meets your needs.

If you need intense exercise, then push yourself hard in whichever ways are available to you right now. 

If you need slow movement, then take your time. 

If you need to lift heavy, lift heavy. If you need to lift light, lift light. 

And please don’t feel like you need to limit yourself to doing some sort of established routine. It’s totally ok to put on some music and flail around like a fish that got washed up on the beach. It’s totally ok to head to the playground and swing on the swings. It’s totally ok to do squats while you watch TV.  And it’s totally ok to stretch while you talk to a friend. 

As long as your movement meets your needs, then forge ahead.

If you need something, then please do what you can to meet that need. 

Even if you feel you *shouldn’t* (I still hate that word!) need it.

In fact, ESPECIALLY if you feel you shouldn’t need it. 

Your needs matter. 

You matter. 

And if you need some sort of permission before meeting those needs – in whatever way you are able to meet them at the moment – then consider that permission granted. 

I may not be the boss of you but I am perfectly willing to boss you into being kind to yourself. 

(Yes, I *am* the oldest sister, how did you guess?)

So, Team, please, please, please take good care of yourselves out there. 

And here is your gold star for your efforts to meet your needs – whatever they happen to look like right now. 

Go Team Us!

a small drawing of a gold star with a happy face on it
This little gold star cheered me right up. If you have a minute, draw yourself a gold star – you won’t regret it!

Image description: a drawing of a cartoonish gold star with a happy face on it. The drawing is on a piece of white index card and the background behind the star includes a bunch of small marks (some dots and some are a little more like lines) and five short lines that are near each point on the star like it is either glistening or in motion. The piece of index card is propped up between the keys on my computer keyboard which is black with white letters.

A cartoon drawing of a woman in plank position trying to do a push-up. Christine’s arms are apparently quite stubborn
ADHD · fitness · strength training

Christine’s arms are apparently quite stubborn

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

Ok, maybe stubborn isn’t quite the right word.

Perhaps they are protecting me or something?

I don’t actually speak arm so I am just guessing here.

What am I talking about?

Well, you see, I have been diligently following the Hybrid Calisthenics exercise program since early July and, as a result, I have done a lot of pushups against the wall and leaning against my kitchen counter. 

In fact, I have done 705 pushups in total, 90 of which were done (in 3 sets of 30) on Monday morning against my kitchen counter.

I am really proud of myself and I feel powerful and strong as I do each set. (Well, for most of the set anyway!)

And I am also proud of the fact that I am not overthinking the program, I’m just following along and trusting the process. (This is kind of a new thing for me because my brain is always trying to leap ahead and ‘What about…’ every detail of anything new.)

But this weekend I got a little bit curious about whether, after all of those wall and counter push-ups, I might be able to do a single push-up (in good form) on the floor.

I was really hoping to execute it easily and feel the same kind of ‘look at me using my muscles!’ power that I feel when pushing off from the counter.

So, I rolled out my yoga mat on my bedroom floor and got down on my hands and toes, arms extended, and tried to lower myself down to the floor… 

That’s when I got a big nope from my arms.

In fact, they flatly refused to bend at all. 

A cartoon drawing of a woman in plank position trying to do a push-up.
See? So stubborn! Image description: a black and white cartoon-style drawing of me having a conversation with my arms while trying to do a push-up. The drawing shows my head, upper shoulders, and arms and I am in plank position on a flowered yoga mat. I have my hair in a ponytail and I am wearing a dark coloured tee-shirt. I am saying ‘Look, Arms, can you just try bending a little?” And a speech balloon at my elbow says, “Nope!” The drawing is resting on a small grey easel-like stand that is printed like an octopus tentacle.

I wasn’t testing if I had the strength, I was essentially trying to figure out how to encourage my elbows to bend and let me lower myself to the floor.

I tried to coax myself into it, tried to remind myself that I had lots of strength now and that I only had to do one push-up but still my arms were having none of it. 

Normally, I would find that extremely frustrating but, instead, I felt curious.

I knew I probably had the strength to do a floor push-up but for some reason it just wasn’t happening.

What was getting in my way?

Why couldn’t I get my arms to bend?

I don’t generally have any reluctance about getting on the floor.

I don’t mind lying face down for child’s pose, to start cobra, or to do stretches so it’s not specifically about getting close to the floor or anything. 

Maybe it had something to do with not trusting my arms to hold me up?

Maybe I was unconsciously protecting my shoulder or my neck or something?

I’ve been mulling it over ever since and I still have no idea why that mechanical action just wasn’t available.

But in the course of writing this, I realized that I might have had more success if I had started that push-up in a different part of the process.

Maybe my arms would be more cooperative if I started out at the bottom of the push-up – lying on the mat with my hands by my shoulders and my elbows pointing up – my arms would be willing to try pushing myself up to plank position.

So, I’ll give that a try the next time I’m on my mat. 

Other than that satisfy-my-curiosity attempt, though, I think I will just keep working through the program and see how I feel about more floor pushups once I get to them.

Perhaps the process of lowering my incline over time and gradually getting closer and closer to the floor will override whatever made my arms so reluctant to bend on this first try.

But if I still find my arms are locked and stubborn at that point in the program then I’ll try digging around in my brain to find the problem. 

No need to do that sort of excavation when the problem may yet solve itself, hey?

I’ll let you know how it goes.

a calendar from Action for Happiness for August 2026 Altruistic August from Action for Happiness? Sounds like a plan!
fitness · habits · self care

Altruistic August from Action for Happiness? Sounds like a plan!

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

Whether you call it kindness or you use a ten-cent-word like altruism, the world needs a lot more of it right now and the Action for Happiness calendar for August is a great place to start.

As always, the calendar is full of small practices that almost anyone could try but if you don’t feel up to the practice of the day, it’s totally cool to be kind in a whole different way. I’m sure you have a huge repertoire of kind actions you can take at any time.

In fact, even though this calendar is about being kind to others, it’s also a swell idea to practice being kinder to ourselves – these Self-Compassion Practices from Dr. Kristin Neff are a good place to start.

And the small actions are the most important part.

It’s pretty easy to get caught up in waiting to do a big project or to solve a big problem but to not actually be able to get started.

Doing a small thing right now is way better than developing a big thing that never actually gets done.

So, as you give these small actions a whirl, please don’t worry that you aren’t doing enough right now. It’s ok to take the small steps now and let them build over time.

Here’s the full calendar for this month and today’s action is pretty straightforward, “Ask someone how they feel and really listen to their reply.”

Good luck out there, folks!

a calendar from Action for Happiness for August 2026
An image of a calendar of tips for Altruistic August 2026 that features small cartoon drawings of altruistic along the bottom edge. (for example, someone is putting coins in a tin, someone else is offering noodles to a friend, someone else is picking up garbage. Each block of the calendar features an action for that day and the background of each block is either dark or light blue or dark or light green.
A video from the Action for Happiness YouTube channel entitled, “Never underestimate the power of small acts of kindness.” The still image features Vanessa King, a middle-aged woman with medium blonde hair cut in a bob with a bang. She is wearing a white top with a series of red bead necklaces looped around her neck. Text to the right of the image reads, “Kindness Matters” in red and “3 tops tips with Vanessa King” in yellow.
a photo of a dog standing in some greenery Christine inches slowly towards her 2026 movement goal.
ADHD · challenge · fitness · goals · walking

Christine inches slowly towards her 2026 movement goal.

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

When I started The Conqueror 2026 challenge in January, I set myself a goal of 730 kms of deliberate exercise* for the year.

For those of you playing along at home, that would be the equivalent of 2 km per day, every day.

Why ‘the equivalent’?

Because I don’t actually care all that much about walking that specific distance.

What I care about is increasing my daily exercise/activity levels and the Conqueror challenge lets me measure everything in terms of distance so all of my fitness activities are adding up to the same thing. *

If that sentence made you say, “Wait, what?”, please allow me to clarify.

  1. The distance was pretty arbitrary in the first place – I picked it to represent the approximate amount of activity I figured I could do most days.
  2. I don’t care specifically about walking that distance, I care about doing that much activity.
  3. The app lets me input other activities – like calisthenics, yard work, or dancing – into the tracker and tells me the walking distance that is equivalent to that activity.
  4. Since my ADHD self tends to struggle with tracking/measuring progress, especially if that tracking is overly detailed or fine-grained, having everything translated to distance is really helpful. AND having everything rolled into one metric reminds me that all of the different types of exercise I do are all part of the same goal – feeling better and moving more easily.

But even though the tracker is useful and has helped me to be way more consistent than I would otherwise be, I am currently behind on my challenge.

a screencap of a walking challenge tracker
a screen cap of my challenge homepage that shows two gray rectangles in the centre the top rectangle says ‘goal distance 730.0 km’ and the bottom rectangle says ‘Reason – to challenge myself to move a lot each day.’ behind the rectangles are two images that will be on the eventual medal I will receive. In the upper right corner is the long neck of a dragon outlines of clouds behind it. The dragon is gold and the cloud outlines summer gold, and some are bronze. In the bottom left corner is a grey silhouette of a howling wolf sitting on an outline of a rock and there are outlined clouds behind it. At the bottom of the image is a circular logo that says ‘Conquer 2026’. And shows two trackers. The top one in gray and black indicates that I have travelled 42% of the distance. I need to travel this year. The bottom one indicates that 57% of the year has passed. Underneath both of those is a sentence that reads 103.7 km behind your planned pace.

Luckily, I’m not fazed by this in the least.

There were definitely times in the past when I would have ditched the challenge by this point because of the focused effort it will take to close the gap between my current position and the ideal position for this point in the year.

But this current version of myself is looking at that gap and thinking. “I can totally close that!”

And guess what?

I’m right!

It may take me until the end of September but I am 100% confident that I will catch up, keep going, and earn a 2026 Conqueror challenge medal.

I’ll let you know how things are going at the end of August.

*And ‘deliberate exercise’ means additional movement that I have chosen to do – i.e. I am not measuring steps that are part of my daily activities.

**Besides fitness, of course, but the idea of being ‘fitter’ or having a good ‘fitness level’ is not even remotely tangible.

a photo of purple lupins (flowers) with a bright blue sky and water in the background (Finally) Circling Back to Trisha Durham’s ‘Movement Snacks’
ADHD · fitness · functional fitness · habits · mobility · self care

(Finally) Circling Back to Trisha Durham’s ‘Movement Snacks’

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Back in Planuary 2023, my Dad was in hospital and my time was very limited so I was using movement snacks from Trisha Durham’s Instagram account and, later from her book, Movement Snacks to add more movement to my days and to help me take the edge of my stress.

I found the practice quite useful at the time. Having a list of small movement prompts that felt useful, that kept me from stiffening up too much, and that could be done quickly made a huge difference for my mental health at a difficult time.

I know that I kept it up for a while but I don’t remember noticing when I fell out of the habit of doing them*

In fact, I had essentially forgotten all about them until I came across the book again this weekend and actually said, “Oh! Movement snacks! I love them.”

I flipped through the book right away and picked a movement to do (I put my arms overhead and wiggled my fingers and the like) and as I did that, I had an idea…

“Do you know what would be better than having these listed in a book? If they were on separate cards or something so I could just pick one out at a time without having to flip through them.”

And that, my friends, is how I spent a chunk of my Saturday cutting up a photocopy of the listed movements and separating them into two types.

The first group was ‘overall practices’ – like taking the stairs, parking further away, etc., and the second group was ‘quick things’ – like using a ribbon to practice balancing skills or standing on one foot to brush my teeth or stir a pot.

Now I am trying to decide the best container to hold all the movement ideas (and I strongly suspect that I will be decorating the container AND the slips of paper but I will leave that as a fun treat for Future Christine) so I can just pick one when I am so inclined.

A selfie of the author sitting on the floor, wearing a black shirt.
This is from before I rediscovered the book but before I took this I was practicing getting up off the floor without using my hands for support so that’s totally a movement snack! I look a bit cranky because I wanted to be better at that project than I was. Image description: A head-and-shoulders selfie of me – a middle aged woman with a round face and shoulder length light brown hair that is kind of wavy/curly here – sitting on the floor. I am wearing a black shirt and a slightly disgruntled smirk. Behind me you can see the light green wall of my bedroom with a bunch of photos and decorations on it – including a string of star-outline lights hanging up behind me. Also, I can never seem to remember to look at the camera instead of the screen so I am looking downward a bit instead of straight ahead.

PS – Sam wrote about exercise snacks in May of this year and Catherine wrote about them in September 2024 but the ‘snacks’ they describe seem to be slightly different than the ones in Durham’s book. While she has some suggestions – taking the stairs, parking further away, etc., that are more exercise-y Durham has much more of a focus on mobility/movement rather than on getting a few minutes of cardio in. I guess that’s why the book is ‘movement snacks’ rather than ‘exercise snacks!’ Also, I agree with Catherine that using the word ‘snacks’ is much more likely to make me think of food than exercise. Don’t worry though, I make sure to have plenty of both kinds of snacks. 🙂

*My Dad actually passed away in May of 2023, just a few months after my initial post, so my timeline for those few months is blurry, to say the least.

A photo of a wire card with the word decide drawn on it. Meditation Jumpstarts Christine’s New Exercise Routine
ADHD · habits · meditation

Meditation Jumpstarts Christine’s New Exercise Routine

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

I started the Hybrid Calisthenics routine last Monday and I swear I can feel a big difference in my movements already.

Yeah, I know, it’s unlikely that I actually have many results from a single week of focused training but my brain is convinced otherwise so I am just rolling with it. 

In fact, my brain is so convinced that it isn’t fighting me on finding time to exercise every day. Instead, it has let me just get started* when I reach ‘exercise time’ each day. This is virtually unprecedented. 

And I think this shift comes down to two things:

  1. A meditation on Insight Timer called Train Like An Athlete**  in which Amanda Sellers said (among lots of other helpful things), “You don’t need motivation, you need a decision.” 

I swear when I heard that, I actually said ‘Oh!’ out loud.

I don’t know why that really hit home at that moment – I know perfectly well that I don’t need motivation but perhaps subconsciously I didn’t believe it until just then. 

Right after I listened to the meditation, I got out of my chair and did some stretches, squats, and standing twists just to keep myself in the right frame of mind. 

And later that day, when I was mowing the lawn, I reframed that chore as exercise and decided to make sure to push myself a bit harder throughout the process.  My ADHD brain loved the feeling of that decision and it loved the fact that I was accomplishing two things at once. 

The good feeling of DECIDING to move my body more effectively lasted through the rest of the yard work the next day and brought me right up to Monday morning when I realized that I could build on the momentum of the last two days by choosing a new exercise program and starting it RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT. 

And that’s when the Hybrid Calisthenics app kind of floated into my mind. 

  1. The Hybrid Calisthenics program app is VERY straightforward and VERY clear.

I have sort of tried the program as outlined on the website before but I didn’t get very far with it because, as I now realize, I don’t do very well with just a list of exercises.

When I just have a list, I always either push myself too far and overdo it early in the process or I don’t push myself enough and I get bored with it. 

So, while I love Hampton’s friendly and encouraging style on the Hybrid Calisthenics YouTube Channel   I had kind of filed his program away for later.  You know, the perfectly logical process of putting a program that will help you slowly build your fitness on hold until you feel fitter. (Note: please read that sentence in a dry sarcastic tone. Include an eyeroll if you can.)

But once I took a look at the app, his routine felt a lot more possible so I once again took Amanda’s advice and made two decisions 1) to give the routine a try and 2) to follow the routine as it was laid out – no second guessing, no figuring things out, just following the instructions in the app.

Before I knew it, I was doing two sets of 30 wall pushups and two sets of leg extensions, recording my progress on the app, and feeling a real sense of accomplishment. 

It must have been the perfect combination and level of exercises for me because while my muscles were a bit tired the next day, they weren’t discouragingly sore and I could do the next part of the routine without strain or stress. 

And now it’s a week later and I could increase my wall pushups by a few reps this morning. 

All because I heard that line “You don’t need motivation, you need a decision.” and made a decision at just the right time. 

Now I just have to keep deciding to show up for myself. 

Go me!

*Task initiation is notoriously hard for the ADHD brain in general and my ADHD brain in particular. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=adhd+trouble+getting+started

**The full meditation isn’t available without a membership but here’s a sample – https://insig.ht/a0IpEg5jK4b)

a brightly coloured calendar of resilience tips from Action for Happiness Jump Back Up July? Sounds like a plan.
fitness · habits · health · mindfulness · self care

Jump Back Up July? Sounds like a plan.

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

This month’s Action for Happiness theme is ‘Jump Back Up July’ and their calendar is full of small steps to help you build your resilience, to increase your ability to face challenges, to notice your strengths, and to be kinder to yourself.

Now, as I am sure you can guess, I don’t really think that we have to *jump* back up every single time but even staggering back up gets us back up and trying again.

Cultivating the inner fortitude to try again when things go awry, to be compassionate when we make mistakes, to ask for help when need it, to reframe challenges, and to nurture hope throughout the process can serve us well in so many areas of our lives (including fitness!) that the effort to build our resilience skills is worth the effort.

Even though many of these practices are already in my regular repertoire, I’m going to make a point of practicing them during Jump Back Up July (or Get Back Up At Your Own Pace Using Your Choice of Movements July which is more accurate for me but far less catchy. 😉 )

Are you in?

Here’s the Jump Back Up July Calendar :

a brightly coloured calendar of resilience tips from Action for Happiness
The ‘Jump Back Up July’ calendar from Action for Happiness. I will, of course, be using this for ‘Get Back Up At Your Own Pace Using Your Own Choice Of Movements July’ too. Image description: A calendar for July 2026 with each block coloured in a repeating pattern of dark green, light green, orange, and yellow. The text in each block is a daily tip for building the skills to ‘Jump Back Up’ and the edges of the calendar are decorated with black and white cartoon images of people doing resilience activities such as hugging someone or carefully repairing a loved object.

And here’s a tip video from Action for Happiness featuring Vanessa King:

A video from the Action for Happiness YouTube channel called ‘Coping with challenging times. Jump Back Up July with Vanessa King’ on the left side is a still image of Vanessa King, a middle-aged white-presenting woman with reddish blonde hair that is pulled back from her face on the sides and top but with her bangs curling down towards her eyebrows. She is wearing brown-framed glasses, a black shirt, and a green scarf decorated with white flowers and gold-coloured leaves. She is looking towards the camera and smiling and there are two books and a vase of flowers behind her. On the right side of the image is a light blue rectangle with text that reads ‘Resilience. Bouncing Back’ in red and ‘3 top tips with Vanessa King’ in yellow.

Here are a few links about resilience that you may want to check out:

Leo Babuta – A Guide to Habit Resilience

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health – Building Resilience

Dr. Tracey Marks – Is Your Brain Stuck? How To Build Resilience Through Microregulation.

Robert Waldinger – How To Ease Suffering By Widening The Container

A painting of a gold star on black paper with encouraging text on one side. Go Team 2026: Keep Showing Up
fitness · fun · Go Team · goals · habits · health · motivation · self care

Go Team 2026: Keep Showing Up

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hey Team,

When was the last time you celebrated showing up?

If it has been a while, then please take this post as a sign to pat yourself on the back, congratulate yourself, and claim your gold star.

And if you congratulated yourself earlier today?

Well, pat yourself on the back, congratulate yourself again, and claim your gold star.

If you’re like me, there will be times when you are really challenging yourself and times when you are just kind of treading water.

Both are good.

In fact, the whole range of ways to show up are all good.

And I’d like you to celebrate every one of them.

I am proud of you for showing up when it’s fun and I’m proud of you for showing up when it’s annoying to be there.

And I hope that, overall, you get more fun than annoyance but here’s your gold star for your efforts either way.

Go Team Us!

A painting of a gold star on black paper with encouraging text on one side.
I’ve been trying out gold star cards with encouraging text and I like how this one turned out. Image description: a black card with a small painting of a gold star on the left side. On the right side is a piece of white card with rounded corners that says, in black text, “ this gold star celebrates your hard work, the effort you put into showing up every time. Congratulations! I’m so proud of you.” The white card is framed in black with a gold frame outside of the black one. There is a thick gold line a little ways under the star that also extends downward underneath the white card.

a close-up photo of a lilac branch with the flowers still closed Paying Attention Pays Off On Christine’s Monday Walk
dogs · fitness · mindfulness · walking

Paying Attention Pays Off On Christine’s Monday Walk

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Monday was an ‘out of sorts’ kind of day.

I don’t really know why I was out of sorts because nothing went particularly wrong.

In fact, lots of things went right – I had two terrific Zoom conversations with friends, I spent some time drawing and writing, it was sunny out for most of the day – but I felt a little under the weather, I couldn’t really settle into my work, and I had to push myself to do even the simplest things.

I even had to push myself to go for a walk this afternoon – an activity that is automatic about 90% of the time.

I’m sure Khalee would have forgiven me if we didn’t walk today but I didn’t like the idea of her missing out on a walk on a warm, sunny day.

Since I was having trouble with the push to walk, I decided to try to add a ‘pull’ factor – I challenged myself to take a photo as many beautiful things as I could without Khalee losing her patience.

And that worked out pretty well – it made my walk into a series of small strolls between photos and I was reminded of how many lovely things I can see even on a short walk.

All in all, this small photo challenge was a good way to finish my Monday.

And if you’re having trouble getting out for a walk, I highly recommend going off in search of beauty.

a photo of small white flowers on the tip of a tree branch
I really liked seeing all of these clusters on white flowers on the tree branches reaching toward the path. Image description: a cluster of small white flowers on the top of a tree branch that has relatively small green leaves. The background is out of of focus but there’s grass and trees and the sun is shining through here and there.
a photo looking up at the underside of a spruce tree with green cones and purple cones forming on the branches.
I really liked the contrast of the green branches and the purple cones with the blue sky in the background. Image description: a photo of the underside of a spruce tree looking up towards the sky. another set of branches, up very high, is visible at the top of the photo and the deep blue sky is visible on several sides. The tips of the spruce branch are laden with new cones that are growing. Some are green and others are a soft purple.
a photo of a small woodsy area with a dog in the foreground
When I was young, my friends and I played ‘spies’ in the small wooded areas along this path. Little alcoves formed by the trees were our favourite hiding places. Image description: a photo of a wooded area with a clearing between the trees, the entrance to which is partially blocked by trees that are leaning far to one side. Khalee, my light brown dog who is wearing a blue neckerchief is in the bottom of the photo.
a top-down photo of a shallow river almost completely overgrown with trees and shrubs and dotted with rocks.
I take so many photos of the sun on the greenery and the river in this particular spot on the bridge. Image description: a photo of a river that is so overgrown that there are just two or three pools of water easily visible between the greenery and the rocks. The sun is shining down on all the trees and shrubs and grass making it area look very lush.
a photo of suburban street with a long cloud in the bright blue sky with the sun at the very top of the photo.
Something about the shape of this cloud was really pleasing to me and I also loved how looooooong the street looked in this photo. Image description: a photo of a street near my house that seems to be leading me right toward the most prominent long white cloud in the bright blue sky. The sun is a bright shape with a kind of aura around it in the top of the photo and there is a series of trees, houses, and cars, as well a sidewalk along the left side of the photo, and a few houses, trees, and cars on the right.
a close-up photo of a lilac branch with the flowers still closed
I took this photo on my front lawn where this lilac tree keeps blooming despite (because of?) my benign neglect. Image description: a close-up photo of a lilac branch with bright green leaves and with the lilac flowers still closed up in dark pink buds. There are houses and cars out of focus in the background and blue sky above.
a top-down photo of some bright orange flowers amidst greenery
These small orange flowers are apparently a type of poppy and they also thrive under my benign neglect in a planter next to the lilac tree in front of my house. I will be pulling the grass out of the planter once I get around to it. Image description: a top-down photo of some small orange poppies amidst a variety of green plants and leaves and a smattering of grass stalks. On the right side of the photo there is the edge of the wooden planter and a few rocks scattered on the dirt that is part way under my front steps.
a photo of the head and front legs of light brown, medium-sized dog who is looking towards the camera
I think Khalee is just as beautiful as the trees, the flowers, the river and the cloud, of course. Image description: a photo of Khalee, a medium-sized light brown dog whose face, paws and chest are white. She is wearing a jaunty blue neckerchief with blue daisies outlined on it. She is standing in a shadow on a patch of grass with a sunny spot just past her. Only her front paws and her head is in the shot and she has her head turned slightly towards us so she is looking into the camera.
a photo of deer in a greenspace next to a walkway Christine’s Own Travel Advice Mostly Worked For Her
ADHD · fitness · self care · traveling

Christine’s Own Travel Advice Mostly Worked For Her

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

I am happy to report that my plans to take very good care of myself worked VERY well on my way to Victoria for my conference.

I packed good snacks, I made sure to buy breakfast in the airport, I moved the things I planned to do on the plane to the top of my backpack, and I walked around a fair bit and did a little meditation in the airport to ensure that I was as unfrazzled as possible when I got on the plane.

Once I was in my seat, I put my papers, markers, and water bottle in the pouch on the seat ahead of me and made myself as comfortable as possible in the cramped space.

After take-off, I made a loose plan of how I wanted to spend my time and set my repeat timer so I didn’t feel like any task was going to go on forever.

The timer will let me choose a length of time to work and a length of time to rest and how many times to repeat the cycle. It’s really handy, especially since my ADHD brain will sometimes refuse to start something – even something fun – if it feels like it will take a lot of time. Setting a timer creates an escape hatch and makes it easier to start.

So I alternated between reading, drawing, writing, and taking notes on some YouTube videos I had downloaded and took breaks for snacks, for stretching, for napping, and for meditating.

a drawing of overlapping ovals, each filled with a pattern, in black ink on a white index card. The card is resting on a seatback table on an airplane.
Here’s one of my drawings from the plane. image description: a drawing of overlapping circles with about half of them filled in with patterns on an index card drawn in black ink. The card is resting on an airplane table and a marker and my grey pencilcase is nearby.

The flight to Calgary for my stopover felt pretty fast but I did have one recurring annoyance because of time math.

If I were to write it as a story problem, it would go like this.

The first part of Christine’s trip is a 6h 20min flight to Calgary where she will have a 1h 5min wait before her flight to Victoria. If her initial flight from St. John’s to Calgary leaves 1h late but the pilot says that the flight will only take 5h 30mins, will she make her connecting flight?

And yeah, the math works out but when you factor in me wondering if I had misheard the pilot, and my concern that I had miscalculated time difference (Is this a factor? no. Could I shake the concern loose? also no), I ended up with a low-key worry that I was going to miss my connecting flight and my arrangements to share a cab from the airport in Victoria were going to get jumbled.

I eventually realized I could ask the flight attendant and I felt better after that but the brainloop was irksome in the meantime.

I made the second flight, got to Victoria just a little late, had lunch with my storytelling friends (Hi to Cindy, Shelah, and Brigitte!) and got to campus feeling pretty damn good.

The conference was great – I heard some marvellous stories, took some terrific workshops, and I was thrilled with how my workshop and my story performance was received.*

On Sunday, I was heading back home via Ottawa. I was relaxed and looking forward to getting home and I got to chatting with different storytelling friends in the airport (Hi Colette and Gail!) and didn’t really give much thought to the practicalities of the trip.

Actually, I kind of forgot my ‘take good care of yourself’ strategy.

In fact, even the need for it slipped my mind.

So, when I started to feel a bit twitchy a little ways into the flight and then I realized that I wasn’t exactly sure how long we had been in the air, I realized that I needed a plan or I was going to drive myself and my seatmate bananas before we landed in Ottawa.

I did my best to calculate how long we had left in the flight and I set my repeat timer.

And, once again, I alternated between reading, listening to podcasts/videos, napping, writing, and meditating. I made sure to eat at regular intervals, to drink lots of water, and to do a bit of stretching.

This worked out pretty well, just not as well as it had on the way up and the flight felt loooooong.

Once I landed in Ottawa, I opted to walk around and stay standing for the hour or so wait so I could burn off some of the energy I built up sitting on the plane.

I did the same timer trick for the last part of my flight – with a few more nap/meditation times because it was late at night (my flight was supposed to arrive at 12:48am and actually got in at 1:30am) – and I made sure to have lots of water and a substantial snack so I could head right to bed when I got home instead of having to make time to eat.

Even though it was a relatively short flight, it did drag a bit because of the late hour and we got in at 1:30am it took forever to get off the plane and get my luggage so it was almost 2:30am before I got home.**

Why am I including those details?

Because the time of day makes it hard to tell how effective my strategy was on the way home.

I think, once you are up into the wee hours traveling, you kind of have to surrender to a certain amount of off-kilter feeling, no matter what you do.

But, I do think that I felt better than I would have if I had just tried to forge ahead through my travel without any distress-management plans.

However, I have to note that the disrupted sleep on Sunday night/Monday morning really left me feeling out of sorts for the rest of the week and I was decidedly out of sorts until the weekend.

That’s why I am writing and posting this a whole week later – I just couldn’t make my brain behave last week and I am grateful to @samanthabrennan for posting in my place on Tuesday past.

Overall, I think my lessons here are that making a plan and taking good care of myself really helps me travel with less fluster. AND that I should try to avoid flights that arrive in the very early hours of the morning.

a photo of the bright horizon at sunset taken from a plane window with a plane wing in the foreground
I took this shortly after we left Ottawa. image description: A photo taken from a airplane window of the bright horizon at sunset. There is a dark area at the bottom, a stripe of red, then a stripe of orange, then lighter blue, then darker blue. In the foreground you can see the plane’s wing illuminated by one of the plane’s lights. It creates a great contrast to the dark in the middle of the image and the bright natural colours on the horizon.

*I taught an 1.5h workshop on how storytelling builds empathy and I performed a story about doing a tarot reading that asked, “What advice would my Dad give me?”

**Many thanks to the valiant Steve for picking me up at that late hour when he had to work in the morning!