It’s that time of year. By that, I mean, “the time of year that demands doing something, anything, to get through these last vestiges of winter while the spring colors take their own sweet time coming out”. For me, the thing I just did was buy some new houseplants. Here they are, settling in and getting to know the current plant residents of my dining room.
Staking orchid is new; free-range orchids are 10-year incumbents.The staked new pink orchid, with the little but vivid yellow and fuschia one.Purple new orchid, with dracaena, bromeliad and pothos. All newbies.
I love them. I pretty much love all plants that make their way to my house. And, with the exception of a gardenia that seemed hell-bent on expiring pronto (which it did), I’ve managed to cultivate long-term relationships with all my indoor plants. I put them in nice sunny places (if that’s what they like), water them, prune when necessary, occasionally fertilize, and appreciate them heartily.
Which raises the questions: what have my plants done for ME lately?
…indoor plants can significantly benefit participants’ diastolic blood pressure… and academic achievement… whereas indoor plants also affected participants’ electroencephalography (EEG) α and β waves, attention, and response time, though not significantly.
That quote was sounding pretty good until the last part– “thought not significantly”. Hmphf. Well, I don’t know about that. Let’s continue the search to vindicate house plant ownership.
Ah, here’s another study, which sounds rock-solid to me. In this experiment, the researchers recruited 24 twenty-something males, asking half of them to do a computer task and the other half to transplant a plant from one pot to another. Here’s a series of photos from their paper to illustrate their study design.
This is science at work, folks. We got your plant pots, your computer with levitating clip board, and your participants participating.
Not to leave you all in suspense any longer, the results were as follows:
…the feelings during the transplanting task were different from that during the computer task. The subjects felt comfortable, soothed, and natural after the transplanting task, whereas they felt uncomfortable, awakened, and artificial after the computer task.
Our data support the notion that active interaction with indoor plants can have positive effects on human stress response mediated by cardiovascular activities. These physiological benefits may result from multiple natural stimuli acting on the senses of vision, hearing, touch, and smell.
Well, there you have it. Okay, it’s not saying that house plants will help you live longer or be healthier. But they say good things about having house plants and less good things about doing computer tasks. Yes, we already suspected this, but now science has settled the matter.
So, if you’re on the fence about buying some new geraniums for your front porch, or investing in a little succulent garden for a sunny window spot, consider yourself nudged. Or at least feel free to devote a little time to your green friends already residing with you. You’ll be glad you did.
I wrote about it last month and I did have a very mindful March, even though I didn’t do every activity on the calendar. I’m always happy to add more focused moments in my day so every activity I did was bonus.
If you didn’t hear about Mindful March until now, you can do the last two activities today and tomorrow. Today’s activity is “Mentally scan your body and see how it is feeling” and tomorrow, March 31, is “Discover the joy in the simple things in life.” That last one is a tall order for a single day but perhaps you can think of one simple thing you really enjoy and take a moment to do that.
For example, I really love when my tea mug is the perfect temperature for me to hold it in both hands and enjoy the warmth radiating from it. I’m going to take an extra moment or two to enjoy that feeling in the next couple of days.
Okay, so this isn’t a photo of me holding my mug in both hands but this image gives me the same kind of feeling. I love to sit on my front step in the sunshine and slowly drink a cup of tea – even looking at this photo feels good to me. This particular photo is from May 2019 and this is one of my favourite mugs. Image description: a photo of a small light brown mug with ‘Speak Your Kind’ in gold text on the front. My right fingers are wrapped around the white handle of the mug and my thumb is resting on the top. The mug and my fingers are in focus but in the background is a leafless tree, part of my lawn and driveway, and part of my street.
And, of course, you can always do the Mindful March activities at any time. It’s a good list of small ways to take a breather in your day.
And, of course, the daily tips from Action for Happiness switch up every month so, as Mindful March ends, we move right into Active April. If you click on the link in the previous sentence and scroll down to the bottom of the calendar, you have the option of downloading an ics file of the April calendar or viewing it on Google calendar – you can even add their calendar to your calendar list so you see the daily tips in your own calendar.
Here’s a copy of April’s calendar in case you want to do a little planning before Active April starts.
Image description: A calendar for April 2023 from the Action for Happiness website that shows a different active tip for each day in April. The calendar squares are different shades of blue and green and around the edges of the calendar there are black and white cartoon drawings of people exercising and there is one drawing of a bunch of smiling fruits and vegetables.
In this #TBT post, I look back to what was happening with FIFI in 2013, the year the blog started.
In her March 23, 2013 post, Back after it after almost a month away: Rebuilding after illness, @samanthabrennan describes what happened when she got “a very nasty virus” that stopped her from exercising for nearly a month. She reports experiencing many bad symptoms: the worst was a “wracking cough” that kept her up all night. It’s tough on the body to be sick for so long, and it can negatively affect one’s spirits as well.
Ten years ago, Sam gave herself some motivational advice to help her get back to her activities: Aikido, soccer, CrossFit, rowing, riding, running, and swimming. Here’s a summary of the Sam-to-Sam pep talk:
Misery loves company (my expression, not hers): Sam notes that she will be no less further along than everyone else who has struggled to keep up exercising over the long, cold winter in Canada.
Baby Steps: Sam tells herself to take small steps and work out with others who may be in a similar situation.
Acceptance: Sam suggests checking her ego to help her to accept any nervousness she may be feeling.
Enjoyment: Sam has missed out, and she knows it will be good to return what makes her happy.
Focus on the good: Sam says that nutrition and on eating intuitively can be a productive focus as she rebuilds her strength.
At the time that Sam was recovering from her illness, she could not have predicted that, ten years later, millions of people around the world would have to rebuild their strength and their spirits after facing COVID-19 and other related viral illnesses.
This includes me. I’ve been sick with more than one viral infection for nearly three weeks, and although I’m recovering it’s had me feeling down.
So, I decided to apply Sam’s ten year-old advice pre-COVID advice to my current situation.
Same boat: I’ve heard of lots of folks who have been out sick for a long time these days. Although I feel like this illness will go on forever, others have struggled too and come out the other side. So will I.
Treadmill baby steps: I can capitalize on feeling better than I did last week by doing daily stretching, yoga, and some short treadmill walks before I re-join the world. (Also, I should really clean my home.)
Accept…and appreciate: Even when I’m healthy it’s hard to accept my skill levels, but there’s nothing like getting sick to help appreciate what it’s like doing stuff while illness-free.
My teams: I’ve played two team sports this winter, curling and soccer. I’ve missed seeing my teammates in both leagues, and the season is not yet over, so hopefully soon I will re-join them.
Tasting things: Like Sam, I haven’t been eating well while sick. Trying to get back to regular meals and healthier snacks will be good. Being able to taste things again will be even better.
Overall, I find Sam’s advice (to herself) reassuring for getting over an illness. Looking back has helped me to think more positively about moving forward!
Here we are at the last day of 2022, the last day of December, the last day of my Making Space posts.
I hope that you have found these posts useful and that you have found your own ways to make space for yourselves in your days this month. I also hope that you have found (or are starting to find) ways to continue making space for yourselves in the days that follow.
And speaking of the days that follow – tomorrow, I start a series of ‘Go Team!’ posts that encourage you to be kind to yourself as you figure out the habits, systems, and practices you want to take on in the year ahead.
But before we get to that, I have one more thing to say about creating space for your future self and it goes like this:
New Year’s Day may be a symbolic time to start but you can add new ideas, habits and practices to your life at ANY TIME.
And, you can create your own symbolism or meaning around the time that you choose.
For example, even though I like the symbolism of starting new practices in a new year, I had a bit of sideways December so I couldn’t give a lot of thought to things I wanted to do in 2023.
Instead of putting pressure on myself to find time to focus on that, I decided to let December be what it was and that I would figure out what 2023 would look like once it arrived.
Or, to put it another way, I’m choosing to have Planuary instead of January.
By labelling next month as Planuary, I have given it a shape. I’m not going in without a plan and hoping things will just happen – that would never work for my ADHD brain. Instead, I’m planning to spend January figuring out what my plans could be.
And I’m inviting you to create space for your future self by doing something similar.
If you WANT to start something new sometime soon, you don’t have to come roaring out of the gate tomorrow. You can decide on your own terms and your own timeline when and how you want to get started.
You can plan to plan in Planuary.
You can write one thing on an index card and do that until you get bored with it.
You can make a giant list and a big chart and have a grand time with it (as long as you aren’t going to be mean to yourself if you have to change your plan – I can’t get behind that)
You can choose to just keep doing what you have been doing all along but add in the plan to be kinder to yourself in the process (THAT I can full endorse.)
Basically, I want to encourage you to give yourself the space to do things in your own way on your own schedule.
Your tomorrow-self doesn’t need to have it all figured out and doesn’t have to have the perfect plan.
Please be kind to yourself as you make space for future you to develop, expand, and think up cool and fun things to do.
NOTE:Have you ever seen DSri Seah’s Groundhog Day Resolutions monthly personal review system? It’s a cool way that they developed to check in with their resolutions and projects all year long. I love how they worked out a system that works for them without getting caught up in when things *should* be done during the year.
Here are our final videos for the Making Space series. At first I was looking for new year/end of year themed videos but there was such a variation in tone from video to video that I didn’t want to choose something that would be irksome. So, instead, I chose videos for calm and for energy/feeling good – I figured those could be most helpful.
I also chose a yoga video AND a cardio video so you could decide if you wanted to see the year out in a low-key way or in a burst of movement.
Whether you do these videos or do your own thing, I wish you ease, energy and lots of space for yourself as 2022 becomes 2023.
See you tomorrow for our first Go Team! post for 2023.
A video from the Yoga with Kassandra YouTube channel entitled ‘10 Min Morning Yoga for Calm. The still image features the instructor in light brown exercise clothing standing with her legs wide apart and her upper body folds forward toward the camera so she can touch her mat with the palms of her hands and her ponytail has flopped forward towards her mat. Text reading ‘10 Min Morning Yoga’ is overlaid on the upper left side of the image.
A PopSugar Fitness 10 Minute Feel-Good Cardio Workout with Deja Riley. The still image features the instructor standing in a white-walled studio with her arms in the air in a joyful sort of celebratory gesture (that is probably just part of an exercise movement but she looks celebratory to me.)
Another 5 Minute Mindful Meditation for Calm from the Great Meditations YouTube channel (I have really become a fan of that channel during this series!) The still age features light brown text reading ‘Calm 5 Minute guided meditation’ and a cartoon image of a person sitting in meditation with their arms, bent at the elbow, outstretched slightly to the sides in a welcoming or accepting gesture. Behind their head is either their long hair streaming upwards or a thought balloon that contains symbols of thoughts – question marks, ellipses, hearts, emojis etc. and behind their body there are symbols of tangible items like a clock, some gears, and the leaves of a plant.
About Making Space 2022
In December 2020, Fit is a Feminist Issue blogger Martha created a tradition – a series of reminder posts to take good care of ourselves during this last month of the year when it is far too easy to get swept up in your to do list, no matter what you are celebrating or not celebrating. Last year, it was my turn and after an introductory Go Team post called Give Yourself Some Space, I created a series of reminders called ‘Making Space‘ that offered a suggested short exercise video and a suggested meditation in case you needed an easy way to find space for yourself in your schedule.
For 2022, I’ll be doing the same thing but I’ll also be including a link to Martha’s post from the same date in 2020 and I’ll offer a few extra ideas for relaxation, creativity, and self-kindness here and there.
These posts are not about insisting that you do more, more, more during this busy season. Instead, I want to encourage you to remember that there IS a *YOU* who is doing all of the things and you are worth taking good care of.
Perhaps the things I suggest aren’t what you need in the moment. That’s totally ok. Perhaps you can use something else to create some space, something that will help you feel more relaxed or more in charge of your day.
This post shares about general, non-specific body aches. My reflections are based on my personal experience. As everyone has different bodies and experiences, I welcome you to share your thoughts in the comments.
Image by Jackson Simmer CC-By2 .0
Body aches have become a common fact of my mid-life. My low-level, everyday aches are unique to my body and its history; yet, my friends and I seem to share an increased frequency of body aches as we age.
Body aches are mysterious to me because they can be (to use a word I am making up) contramonious. In other words, opposing causes can result in similar aches. Some examples:
I can ache from exercising too intensely or too often, or from not enough or not frequently enough.
I ache when am dehydrated, or when I feel I am retaining water.
Aches can come from new injuries, but also from old healed injuries.
Aches in the body can also present in contrasting ways:
Aches can be dull and generalized, or sharp and localized.
Aches can come from one’s body attacking its own healthy cells, as in an autoimmune disorder.
Aches can be uncomfortable but indicate nothing serious, or they can be symptoms of a condition that requires immediate medical attention.
Aches can be a mystery when their causes are not clear. My body has been been aching this week, and I can’t exactly pinpoint why. Maybe it’s because I sat all week at my desk. Or it’s because I went rollerskating in the mall on the weekend. It could be from recent my flu vaccine, or because I am getting sick and I haven’t hydrated enough. Perhaps there is a specific medical reason, or perhaps I am just tired and burnt out in general.
Body aches are literally a pain, but the small upside of mine is that they are a general warning light for me: inflammation is happening in my body, and things could get worse if I don’t take action. Aches force me stop and self-assess—how severely am I aching, what impact are these aches having on me, and what can I do to alleviate them?
I’m also happy that, though my aches may have many different possible causes, the treatment is fairly simple and standard:
Fluids
Rest/sleep
Anti-inflammatories
Warm bath (or my heating pad!)
Light, safe movement
As I age, my low-level body aches are little mystery novels that remind me to do more simple self-care, no matter “what-dunit.”
What is your experience with everyday, low-level body aches? Is there an upside to your aching?
In today’s post we are getting back to some basics – doing ground-level self care.
As is my new tradition, the chatty part is below the videos.
I chose both of these videos because they are direct, quick, and helpful. The first one is about functional fitness – just getting your body moving in a way that both feels good and will help you loosen up your muscles a little. The second is a breathing exercise – box breathing – that can be useful in all kinds of situations – including developing mindfulness.
The goal here was to think about the low-key things we can do to make our lives a bit easier – some movement now will help us feel a little better overall, a breathing exercise will help us feel calmer as we move through the day.
These are basic and incremental things that we can sometimes overlook as we think about big things we would like to change.
However, small things like this not only help us right now – which is inherently valuable – but, as a bonus, they can help us slowly create space for bigger things we want to do later.
And, if things get overwhelming, we can always return to basics like these.
This video from the naturallybeata YouTube channel is entitled “JUST5 (Tuesday) – 5 minute @home functional fitness” and the still image shows the instructor from the neck down, wearing flowered leggings and a black tank top that says ‘Faster’ on the front. They are standing in front of a couch in a living room.
A short video from The Pocket Mentor App YouTube channel entitled ‘ Box Breathing Technique Guided Mindfulness Meditation’ the still image features a green box with an almost complete darker green outline in the center of the screen, a pink cartoon-style brain in the bottom right hand corner, and text in the center that reads ‘Box Breathing 3 Minute Mindful Meditation.
The Chatty Part
Martha’s advice for this day in 2020 was Take Your Meds , a reminder to ensure your own wellbeing throughout this busy time by taking any medication you require.
That advice is great at any time of the year but it is especially helpful during this busy time when routines are disrupted and things can get overlooked.
A reminder to take your meds is a foundational thing that can make a huge difference in your day and it is worth reminding yourself about.
In an interesting coincidence, my Facebook memories from yesterday included a related reminder. (The relationship may only exist in my mind but let’s roll with it.)
From time to time, I write ‘Go Team’ style posts on my own Facebook profile so I can provide a little support to any friends who might need it at the moment.
In 2018, I was reminding us all that it is ok to make our lives easier by using reminders and support (say, like medications, for example.)
Here’s the text from that post:
These are my favourite mitts.
Description of image below: my right hand dangling a green mitten on a string over a pile of snow on the road.
I don’t wear them every day but they are superwarm and, you will notice, they are on a string.
So, when I do wear them, that string means that I can grab my winter coat to go out and I don’t have to look for my mitts. It means I can take off my mitt to unlock my door and I don’t have to tuck it under my arm and risk losing it.
That string on these mitts was amazingly useful when my kids were small and I always had a lot of things to keep track of.
I know that mittens on a string are kind of a little kid thing and as an adult, perhaps I “shouldn’t” need them but they are useful and they serve my purposes quite well.
We often get caught up in whether we ‘should’ need certain things – reminders, schedules, delivery services, help with everyday tasks – and because we feel we ‘shouldn’t’ need to use them, we don’t. Then we get frustrated because we can’t ‘get a grip’ on the tasks in question.
Today, I’m challenging you to accept the idea of mittens on a string – or at least the equivalent.
What’s something you can do to take one small hassle out of your life?
What can you do to make one routine task a little easier?
Even if you feel that you ‘shouldn’t’ need the help or the reminder, I dare you to use it anyway.
Go ahead and set a weekly reminder to call your mother.
Go on and establish a daily reminder to take your pills or to drink water.
Put a basket by the door for your purse or your keys.
Do the thing you need to do to make your life a little easier.
I dare you!
<- for your efforts today.
There, see what I mean?
Things like taking your meds definitely fall into the sort of self-care that we might experience a little push-back (internal or external) about needing.
I’d like it if we could all find our way past that pushback and be able to: take our meds, set a reminder to take our meds, use a shoehorn, keep a set of reading glasses in multiple places, get the large print book, create a cleaning schedule, get a friend to sit with us when we work…or whatever we need in order to do the thing. I want us to be free to find/give ourselves the accommodations and support that make sense without having to second-guess ourselves.
And this seems like a great season to give ourselves that gift.
Whether you are doing foundational fitness, breathing exercises, or enlisting help to clean your house/ wrap your presents/ finish that year-end report/get to that meeting, I wish you ease.
And I wish you peace of mind around giving yourself permission to get that support.
⭐💚
About Making Space
About Making Space 2022
In December 2020, Fit is a Feminist Issue blogger Martha created a tradition – a series of reminder posts to take good care of ourselves during this last month of the year when it is far too easy to get swept up in your to do list, no matter what you are celebrating or not celebrating. Last year, it was my turn and after an introductory Go Team post called Give Yourself Some Space, I created a series of reminders called ‘Making Space‘ that offered a suggested short exercise video and a suggested meditation in case you needed an easy way to find space for yourself in your schedule.
For 2022, I’ll be doing the same thing but I’ll also be including a link to Martha’s post from the same date in 2020 and I’ll offer a few extra ideas for relaxation, creativity, and self-kindness here and there.
These posts are not about insisting that you do more, more, more during this busy season. Instead, I want to encourage you to remember that there IS a *YOU* who is doing all of the things and you are worth taking good care of.
Perhaps the things I suggest aren’t what you need in the moment. That’s totally ok. Perhaps you can use something else to create some space, something that will help you feel more relaxed or more in charge of your day.
I often get stuck on my to do list because when I can’t do everything at once, my brain won’t let me do anything at all. I end up doing what I call ‘skimming the surface’ of my list – keeping it all in my brain, hopping from idea to idea, feeling busy but not actually getting anything done.
I don’t know if this is an ADHD thing, a Christine thing, or a ‘most humans’ thing because, after all, I have always been me and I have always had ADHD, so it’s a bit tricky to know if my sticking points are universal.
However, after reading Martha’s 2020 post ‘Pick one thing‘ – I suspect that the feeling is pretty common even if the frequency by which it happens to me may be an ADHD thing or a Christine thing.
I’ll talk a bit more about that below but, in keeping with the ‘pick one thing’/keep things manageable idea, I have picked a couple of very short videos today.
The first one is 3 minute video that really just focuses on one area of your body. If you are carrying tension in your back, it will affect your entire body so this is an excellent example of how focusing on one thing helps you in a variety of ways.
This Mayo Clinic video is called Deskercise – Lower Back and Torso Stretches and features a person in a striped shirt sitting in an office chair which is turned away from the desk and computer behind her. She is wearing glasses and she has her hair up in a claw clip.
Given that we are concentrating on ‘pick one thing’ today, I thought this very short meditation would be useful. It’s about resetting your focus – which is always handy when you are trying to pick something.
This ‘2-Minute Quick Focus Reset Meditation: Regain Focus to Work, Study, or Get Tasks Done’ short meditation video from the Headspace YouTube channel has a still image with a purple background, text that reads ‘ 2 Minute Focus Reset’ and a series of concentric circles on the right hand side. The innermost circle has an emoji-style face with its eyes closed and a small smile.
Now the chatty part:
When I find myself skimming the surface of my to do list, I feel awful. My mind feels scattered, it feels like my tasks are building up, and it seems like I will never be done and things will just get worse.
Martha’s advice to pick one thing is terrific and it really helps.
I would just like to add some layers to that.
She mentions in her post that if you have decision fatigue and you can’t decide what to do, any method of decision making will help – you can close your eyes and pcik an item, you can call a friend to pick a number from 1 to 10…and so on.
I would like to add that if there are no obvious priorities and you don’t know where to start then it probably doesn’t matter where you start. Anywhere you start will help you move ahead and break that ‘stuck’ feeling. If you feel uncertain about just starting anywhere, pick an amount of time to work on your first choice, set a timer, and when it goes off, reassess whether you should keep working on that item or switch to something else. Often, once you have worked on something for a few minutes and your mind has settled, you will be able to prioritize.
Another thing that helps me when I am facing a huge to do list that I can’t figure out a ‘logical’ way to prioritize is to pick things that will make a visible difference. If I have a huge stack of dishes, I wash the pots because they look the messiest and they don’t stack well. If I have a bunch of small items on my list, I will set a timer and knock those off one by one because my list will look VERY different with a series of checkmarks than it will if I just do one thing.
Finally, the thing that I often forget is that I don’t have to *finish* something for my work to count (or for it to feel good. It sounds ridiculous but I really do forget that working on things eventually gets them done. (This may indeed be an ADHD specific item.) Anyway…if I have a huge project but I don’t have time to do it all at once, I often find myself avoiding it. However, if I commit to working in it in short bursts, it does move the project forward in a visible and satisfying way and it often reveals what needs to be done next on the project even if I am not clear in the beginning.
So, if you have a huge, kind of intangible task on your list, framing it as ‘work on thing X for 10 minutes’ instead of ‘do thing X’ might help you feel in charge of it instead of feeling stuck.
Whether you choose to do these videos today, whether you pick one thing, or if you are taking some downtime, I hope that you have space for yourself in your day today. I wish you ease. ⭐💚
About Making Space
About Making Space 2022
In December 2020, Fit is a Feminist Issue blogger Martha created a tradition – a series of reminder posts to take good care of ourselves during this last month of the year when it is far too easy to get swept up in your to do list, no matter what you are celebrating or not celebrating. Last year, it was my turn and after an introductory Go Team post called Give Yourself Some Space, I created a series of reminders called ‘Making Space‘ that offered a suggested short exercise video and a suggested meditation in case you needed an easy way to find space for yourself in your schedule.
For 2022, I’ll be doing the same thing but I’ll also be including a link to Martha’s post from the same date in 2020 and I’ll offer a few extra ideas for relaxation, creativity, and self-kindness here and there.
These posts are not about insisting that you do more, more, more during this busy season. Instead, I want to encourage you to remember that there IS a *YOU* who is doing all of the things and you are worth taking good care of.
Perhaps the things I suggest aren’t what you need in the moment. That’s totally ok. Perhaps you can use something else to create some space, something that will help you feel more relaxed or more in charge of your day.
Back on December 6, 2020, Martha was advising us to Get some fresh air and she was downright inspiring with the list of fun things she did outdoors on a unseasonably warm day.
And THAT made me think of one of the reasons that this time of year can get so overwhelming. Most of us have lots of things that we want/must do but we don’t necessarily have company while we do them.
I find it less stressful to run errands if I bring a friend along for company (Hi, Mary! Thank you!) and I like to have a ‘body-double’ for tedious tasks of any kind. If I can’t have in-person company, then I often do check-ins with a friend online (Hi Trudy, Michelle, Kevin W, Janet, and Martha – all at different times! Thank you!)
Hanging out with a friend in-person or virtually really helps me stay on track and makes even a tedious task kind of fun.
Maybe you’ll find that the same thing works for you?
If you can’t partner up with someone for your current tasks, maybe a different form of virtual company might help.
Or you want a way to frame your worktime, have some background noise, and be able to see someone else working away, you could check out the huge variety of ‘Keeping you company while you do stuff’ videos on YouTube. Here is a big list of suggestions:
Color and Chill With Me (Christina Lorre’ – this one starts with a fun and chatty intro but at around 10m 30s settles into colouring) Color with Me (Art Jalons – this one is quite short but fun), Color with me (Gea – this one plays soft music starting a few minutes in)
Read with me (shin – 45 mins with piano and rain sounds), Read with me (Kate – 30 mins, no music but there are bird sounds in the background), Read with me (Morgan – 1 hour with music)
Study with me (cafe.studyy – 66 minutes, soft music), Study with me (beetles in the sunshine – 1 hour, 39mins – rain sounds, no music), Study with me (Merve – 10 hours(!) – background noise but no music)
Work with me [Vicky Zhao BEEAMP] – 75 minutes, music and typing noises – this video is using the pomodoro method of alternating 25 minute work sessions and short breaks), Work with me (Alexis AKA MissTrenchcoat – 3 hours with ambient music), Work/Study with me (Hara Studies – 2 hours, coffee shop background noise)
Mostly, I want you to be able to do the things you need to do in the most enjoyable way possible. If that includes in-person company or some sort of virtual company, so be it.
And, of course, I always recommend creating extra space for yourself in your day by including some movement and/or some meditation (videos below.) But if none of this works for you today, just take good care and be kind to yourself.
Your efforts matter and you are doing the best you can with the resources you have. ⭐
A 10 minute walking workout for seniors, beginning exercisers from the yes2next YouTube channel. Still image features two women in exercise clothing mid-step with their left legs forward and their right arms forward/left arms back. They are both smiling. The left hand side of the image has a purple background and white text listing the name of the video.
This 5 minute ‘meditation for busy people’ from Kendra Fried features a still image of a pond surrounded by trees. The trees and sky are reflected in the calm water.
About Making Space 2022
In December 2020, Fit is a Feminist Issue blogger Martha created a tradition – a series of reminder posts to take good care of ourselves during this last month of the year when it is far too easy to get swept up in your to do list, no matter what you are celebrating or not celebrating. Last year, it was my turn and after an introductory Go Team post called Give Yourself Some Space, I created a series of reminders called ‘Making Space‘ that offered a suggested short exercise video and a suggested meditation in case you needed an easy way to find space for yourself in your schedule.
For 2022, I’ll be doing the same thing but I’ll also be including a link to Martha’s post from the same date in 2020 and I’ll offer a few extra ideas for relaxation, creativity, and self-kindness here and there.
These posts are not about insisting that you do more, more, more during this busy season. Instead, I want to encourage you to remember that there IS a *YOU* who is doing all of the things and you are worth taking good care of.
Perhaps the things I suggest aren’t what you need in the moment. That’s totally ok. Perhaps you can use something else to create some space, something that will help you feel more relaxed or more in charge of your day.
After spending the better part of two weeks dealing with Covid, I am finally feeling mostly like myself.
I missed two weeks of Taekwondo, missed lots of walks with Khalee (I didn’t miss two full weeks of walks, those are easier to scale to my current energy levels) and kept my yoga mat rolled in the corner.
I really missed my usual activities. Aside from my enjoyment of the movements themselves, I missed the shape that yoga and walks give my days and the shape that TKD give my weeks. Without those things, my last two weeks have had a ‘stepped out of the normal flow of time’ kind of feeling.
(Yes, I know wobbly is misspelled) A GIF from the BBC show Doctor Who in which two character are saying ‘Wibbley-wobblye timey-wimey’ to each other.
This time last week, I had to sit down after putting in a load of laundry (there are two flights of stairs involved) and trying to do even gentle yoga left me feeling not quite dizzy but definitely disoriented.
And aside from the physiological evidence that I needed to take it easy, I also have read (and heard evidence from friends) that pushing yourself too hard when you are recovering from Covid can lead to complications.
Today though (I am writing this on Monday), I did a little gentle yoga and my walk with Khalee, while somewhat short, didn’t leave me feeling worn.
In fact, the movement in both cases felt GOOD instead of being mostly tiring.
I’m taking that as a good sign that my recovery is on track and that I am easing back to my regular life.
I’m still going to rest when I can and pay close attention in case things get to be too much for me but I’m glad to be stepping back into *my* normal flow of time.
A GIF of a person with white hair and glasses, wearing a dark pink sweater and a flowered scarf saying the word normal while making air quotes with their fingers.
Here we are on Sunday, December 4 and I think it’s an excellent time to plan for a rest.
Martha’s advice on December 4, 2020 was to Take a Nap and I am 100% behind that. Even if it is not possible for you to actually sleep in the daytime, planning a short rest period – sitting still, listening to restful music, taking deliberate slow breaths can make a huge difference in your well-being.
(Note: There’s a great quote from the Nap Bishop in Martha’s post, be sure to have a look.)
By the way, there are some guidelines for taking naps that you might want to have a look at – after all you don’t want your daytime rest to affect your nighttime sleep.
And now that you have been reminded about the hows and whys of resting, I have one more thing to ask you.
Can you plan short daily rest periods?
And/or could you plan ‘time off’ throughout this busy month? Even a few planned hours of deliberate relaxation scattered throughout the month can make a huge difference in how you and your brain feel about everything else on your list.
Seeing as we’re keeping today low-key, here are some relaxing stretches from Doctor Jo:
A video from the Ask Doctor Jo YouTube channel entitled Relieve Stress &Anxiety with Relaxing Stretches. The still image features Doctor Jo lying on her back on a blue mat and a pillow. She is bringing her left leg toward her chest and her right leg is bent while her right foot rests on the floor. She is smiling and she’s wearing grey pants, a green shirt, and light blue socks with whimsical patterns on them.
And next up, we have some yoga nidra – a wonderful way to get some deep rest without actually falling asleep (although, I often do.) This is a short video but if you like the practice there are plenty of longer ones available on YouTube.
A 5 Minute Yoga Nidra video from Ally Boothroyd’s channel. The still image features a person with a beard and chin length hair, wearing a light coloured shirt and dark pants, lying on their back on a yoga mat. They are in Shavasana, corpse pose. Text at the top of the image reads ‘5 Minute Yoga Nidra Rapid Deep Rest Reset.’
I hope the links and videos in this post help you find a little extra rest today but, no matter what you do or don’t do today, please be kind to yourself about how things proceed.
You are doing the best you can with the resources you have.
Be good to yourself. 💚⭐️
About Making Space 2022
In December 2020, Fit is a Feminist Issue blogger Martha created a tradition – a series of reminder posts to take good care of ourselves during this last month of the year when it is far too easy to get swept up in your to do list, no matter what you are celebrating or not celebrating. Last year, it was my turn and after an introductory Go Team post called Give Yourself Some Space, I created a series of reminders called ‘Making Space‘ that offered a suggested short exercise video and a suggested meditation in case you needed an easy way to find space for yourself in your schedule.
For 2022, I’ll be doing the same thing but I’ll also be including a link to Martha’s post from the same date in 2020 and I’ll offer a few extra ideas for relaxation, creativity, and self-kindness here and there.
These posts are not about insisting that you do more, more, more during this busy season. Instead, I want to encourage you to remember that there IS a *YOU* who is doing all of the things and you are worth taking good care of.
Perhaps the things I suggest aren’t what you need in the moment. That’s totally ok. Perhaps you can use something else to create some space, something that will help you feel more relaxed or more in charge of your day.
<- for your efforts today.
