Today is my birthday and I am boldly asking you for a favour to help me celebrate.
Today (or this week or this month or whenever, I would like you to do one (or more!) of these things in my honour:
1) Do something to make your workout (even more?) fun
If you don’t usually enjoy your workouts, maybe you can add music or podcast, maybe you can try a different movement, or ask a friend to join you, or wear something that helps you feel strong/fun/whimsical/more like yourself.
If you always enjoy your workout, maybe you can give yourself a little extra time to enjoy it or challenge yourself in some way that increases your fun (without putting yourself at risk, of course!)
2) Give yourself more time or space to rest
Yes, I know this is an almost impossible request but do what you can. Take a few deep breaths before getting out of the car. Lie on the floor while you think about what to make for supper. Do some colouring. Try a meditation. Do a little stretching. Turn off your notifications for 10 extra minutes. Drop 1 thing off of your to do list. Do something in an easier way. That thing that doesn’t need to be done right now but that has a loud *should* energy? Hide it in a closet! If you’re worried that you’ll forget about it then set a reminder to excavate it later.
3) Speak gently to yourself
You know that negative thought that you just can’t shake? Or that self-deprecating description you keep using? Or that mean thing that you keep trying to use to motivate yourself? The way that you speak to yourself but you would NEVER EVER EVER use to speak to someone else?
How about switching that out for a kind and gentle tone instead?
Yeah, I know it will be difficult. It may feel like letting yourself ‘off the hook.’
But it would be totally worth it, don’t you think?
I know it seems like that kind of talk is ‘tough love’ or ‘being disciplined’ or maybe even ‘being realistic’ but really it just ends up making us feel bad – and we don’t need any more of that!
*****
So, Team, why am I asking you to give these things a try on my birthday?
Because sometimes we find it hard to do things for our own sake but when we feel like it might help someone else then we have an extra boost of motivation to try it.
So, really, anything positive you try because of this post will have DOUBLE the effect – it will be good for you AND it will boost my birthday fun.
After all, you wouldn’t be having more fun, getting more rest, or speaking gently to yourself for selfish* reasons, you would be doing them to help ME out.
No one, not even *you* could blame you for that, right?
*****
So, Team, I hope you will use my birthday as the perfect excuse to be kind to yourself, to have more fun, and/or to get a little more rest.
And here is your gold star for your efforts.
Go Team Us!
PS- I ALSO think you should use my birthday as a reason to have a little treat whether that’s a snack, another episode of that podcast, a little time outside, a chat with a friend, some time to draw or read, or anything that feels right to you at the moment.
I had some pre-birthday fun drawing this gold star with balloons on Monday afternoon. Image description: a drawing of a large shiny gold star against a background of overlapping brightly-coloured balloons that have a few gold polka dots on them. You can tell the shapes in the background are balloons because they each have a black string extending from their bases to the bottom of the drawing.
*It’s never actually selfish to do any of these things but brains can be so weird about these things and selfish is often the label your brain will come up with for anything of this sort.
This week I’ve been in South Carolina at a local hospital where my mother is staying following a bad fall in her house, alongside rapidly accelerating dementia. I was on my way to a public health conference in San Antonio last Saturday when I got a text from my sister. Rapid travel plans were made, and emails canceling life and works plans were sent. Flights were taken, and a car was rented.
The good news: thanks to a few experienced, powerful and compassionate folks who work in the broken healthcare system here, we are making progress in finding a safe care facility for my mother where she will be cared for and where we and other family can visit her. I cannot adequately convey how complicated this process is, how many barriers there are to getting appropriate care, and how underfunded, understaffed and inequitable the elder care facilities and services are (in South Carolina and the United States in general).
Moving on…
My sister and I have been at the hospital for a week now, and we learned some things about navigating hospital environments where there’s high stress, lots of waiting, and no real control over schedules or outcomes. Herewith a short list. I would love to hear from any of you who have tips of your own to share; feel free to add them in the comments.
One: get outside of the hospital when you can, even if it is on the hospital sidewalks and grounds.
Get outside of the room of your family member intermittently, even if it is to walk some loops around the hallways. Get to the ground floor where there is more ordinary bustling activity (people ordering and eating food, people delivering flowers, student health workers in groups walking and talking).
Talking with doctors, nurses and social workers has been super-important, but it doesn’t comprise the bulk of my day. Sitting makes me feel creaky and cranky. So moving, changing locations (even within the hospital) and walking outside (even for short bursts) helps me regulate and reset.
Two: find out where the hospital staff get their meals and snacks at the hospital and go there for food.
This hospital has a few commercial vendors of sub sandwiches (Firehouse Subs) and coffee (stripped down Starbucks), but it also has a local family-owned and run cafe called Sweet Tooth. On the front counter you can see baked goods galore. But in the back, there are homemade chicken salad and pimento cheese salad sandwiches, homemade green salads, and a delicious soup of the day. On our second day, we spotted a line of staff in scrubs, all waiting for the soup and sandwiches, and have been frequenting the place ever since.
Three: leave the hospital each day at a decent hour (however that translates) for downtime before attempting to sleep.
My sister and I have our laptops, phones, chargers, cooler bags, notebooks, etc. with us each day and have gotten good at turning my mom’s room and corner cafeteria tables into temporary offices. We’re both juggling work tasks, logistical healthcare decisions and family caregiver tasks. Our mom is well looked after by nurses, techs and hospital sitters assigned to her. She prefers our company, though, and gets distressed when we take temporary breaks or leave at the end of the day. It’s hard to go, but we do it in order to recharge as best we can for the next shift and the next day.
Four: do what you have to do to find a place and a way to sleep each night. Sleep deprivation is the enemy of everything good and important.
My sister and I are staying at my aunt Cathy’s small and lovely house, ten miles from the hospital. There is one guest bedroom, which my sister is using because she is not an easy sleeper. I have been encamped on her living room loveseat, which I’ve made work by creating a combined soft infrastructure of ottoman, loveseat, mattress pads, pillows and throw blankets.
One of my superpowers is being able to sleep anywhere, partly through willingness to commandeer anything in the house and partly through my determination to rest no matter what. 🙂 I also travel with sleep mask, pairs of ear plugs and soothing audiobooks. Developing whatever strategies help has been key to surviving this latest family emergency.
Five: find a little time away from the situation in whatever way you can.
My way to achieve this is by driving my own rental car to and from the hospital, or to my mom’s house, or to do errands. Even ten minutes by myself in the privacy of my own (for the week) Hyundai Elantra gives me space to breathe.
I hope that my mother will be settled in a care facility by the end of this coming week, so I will be taking my own advice (and looking for more strategies for self-care) this week. Any tips you all might want to share?
Do I still have a bunch of updates, some posts I promised, and a handful of drafts that I *should* be posting?
Well, yes.
But you know how I feel about the word should…(I hate it)
So, here I am on Monday, November 2 writing about my ideas for the month ahead instead of catching up on the various posts that I haven’t gotten to.
Luckily, catching up on those posts is one item on my list so it all works out. Or, at least, it CAN work out. 🙂
Now, let’s roll with my fitness & well-being ideas for November 2026.
Finish the 4 posts/updates I have partially drafted for Fit is a Feminist Issue
These posts are open loops and my brain would like to close them. Meanwhile, my brain is not keen to actually work on them, it just wants them to be done. Soooo, I am breaking them down into teeny steps and working on them bit by bit – which is always a good thing for me to practice and will be beneficial for my mental health.
Do at least 11 ten minute yoga practices for my upper back.
My shoulders, upper back, and neck are pretty cranky these days and a daily practice feels out of reach but 11 is an odd number (in both senses of the word) of practices to do and that feels appealing to me.
Have cake with at least one person per week in November
This is less about the cake than the conversation but I am kind of cheating with this one. My birthday is next week and at least 6 other people close to me have birthdays this month so it will not really be a challenge to pull this one off. It will definitely be good for my mental health though.
I don’t know why I drew this little robot on a slant but I like it. Image description: a drawing of a small smiling green robot holding a pink heart in one hand and a plate holding a cupcake with a lit candle in it in the other.
Restart my strength training
If you recall, I was doing the Hybrid Calisthenics program for over 6 weeks this summer. Then I did something to my back (unrelated to the program) and had to take a break. I got back into it but then it fell by the wayside as my busy fall made exercise math too complicated to solve.*
I’m starting the program again on Wednesday (November 4) because I know I have time that morning.
Schedule time for reading and writing
This one covers a lot of different activities but I have scheduled myself some weekly time for reading and understanding some important non-fiction books I have set aside, I have signed up for my friend Trudy’s ‘Finish That Book’ course (I have a draft written but I need guidance for turning it into something I could publish), and I am doing some short daily writing exercises.
I know these books don’t have titles but I didn’t want to commit at this point – ha! Image description: a drawing of a stack of books on a table. The bottom book is purple, the next one is yellow, next is green, and the top one is pink. The table cloth is decorated in small yellow, green, and pink polka dots.
Yard work and a fire in the firepit
In general, I do a half-assed job in prepping my yard for the winter but this year I am consciously making time to tidy things up and ensure that I have less work to do in the spring when I want to enjoy my outdoor space even more.
The fire in the firepit is a bonus for the outdoor work. I really like being a bit chilly while sitting by the fire with a cup of tea and some time to think.
Go for one longer walk each week in November
I walk with Khalee almost every day but it’s more of a stroll than a walk and she’s not so keen on longer walks these days (she’s thirteen so that’s to be expected.)
I sometimes find myself wanting to go a bit further, a bit faster, and do a bit more hard work on my walks but I don’t always fit that into my week so I am starting with one longer walk a week to see how that feels. (I’m trying to reduce my all-or-nothing thinking in all areas of my life.)
Do 11 hours of decluttering/rearranging/tidying in my house
Again, the odd number has a certain appeal for me here.
I don’t want to set myself a project of ‘declutter the house’ because there is no clear end to that project.
And trying to do a little bit each day doesn’t feel very useful (I know it IS objectively useful but my brain refuses to believe it) so I needed another solution that would have a definite conclusion.
So, 11 hours it is and I can do those 11 hours in whatever size chunks I like.
Have another art day with my friends
Through a series of coincidences, I ended up spending a few hours on the weekend collaging with some dear friends of mine and it was a wonderfully relaxing couple of hours.
I want to do that again this month but on purpose. Maybe as part of my birthday celebration.
10. Plan at least one thing to bake each week
I used to bake a lot more often than I do now and I think the issue is that I am waiting for the magical combination of free time and motivation.
Of course, we all know that those things don’t just appear together regularly, we have to create the conditions for them to show up.
So, this week I am going to make a cinnamon coffee cake.
But I will defy its very name and eat it while I have tea.
11. Plan my December fun
I have learned my lesson from my October plans! I didn’t finish everything that I had on my October list but making the plan kept my ideas top of mind and it helped me choose to have more fun throughout the month instead of putting it off until the end.
So, throughout November, I will be making deliberate choices about what to include in my December plans so I can do what needs doing while increasing my capacity and my opportunities to have fun.
*****
So, there it is, my November list.
Will I get all of this done? Who knows?
Does it matter? Definitely not!
Having this list will help me shape my days and my weeks and my month and I am determined to keep checking in with myself about the items on here.
Maybe I will change my mind about some of them. Maybe I will reshape what some of them mean for me. Maybe I will do some of them exactly as I have written them.
Either way, having this guideline will make it easier to choose what to do with my time and it will give me some interesting information about what I want in my life and what feels good to include in my days.
What kinds of things are you including in your November plans?
*Exercise math refers, in my case, to the challenges of trying to time my exercise sessions around a haphazard schedule, family, volunteer, and work obligations, the timing of showers and errands, all of which is complicated by my ADHD-related difficulty with prioritization, sense of time, and perception of effort required. I know everyone has to balance a lot of things to fit exercise into their days but the scheduling math seems to overwhelm me more often than it does for other people.
I tried to make the title of this post sound as un-fun as possible so… how did I do?
As I write this, I am more than halfway through the month and even though I have been ridiculously busy* I am happy to report that I am having more a lot fun than I usually do in October.
And that’s definitely due to the fact that in my post two weeks ago I took the time to write a list of seasonal things I wanted to do that would maximize my fun this month. Creating that that post gave me a good container for my thoughts about the kind of fun I want to have in October AND it guided me to make plans early enough to make things happen.
Here’s an update on each item from my list of 13 in the initial post:
I have already planned a ghost story writing workshop and a spooky storytelling event later this month.
I taught the ghost story writing workshop on Sunday and we all had a great time.
The spooky storytelling event will be on October 28 and you can join us online if you wish – let me know if you want the registration link.
Plus, I added an idea-generating writing workshop and an oracle card making workshop to the list of things I am offering this month. I love teaching workshops so that’s extra fun for me.
I’ve planned a couple of artsy-craftsy Halloween events with my community arts organization so I’ll get to be creative and hang out with lots of other people who love this season.
The other bonus is that I will have extra places to wear my costume and I will get to make some cool decorations for my house.
And in addition to those events, I also bought tickets to see Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors – a dear friend of mine is in it so it’s going to be extra fun for me.
I also bought a ticket for an online lecture called ‘Seasons of the Witch’ which promises to be very interesting.
Sidenote: I also bought a book called Season of the Witch: A Psychiatrist’s Case for Magic by Ellen Vora, MD and I am finding that very intriguing, too. I’m not really that far into the book so I can’t address the strength of her arguments or anything but I’m very interested in the ideas she’s working with. I’m also reading Grady Hendrix’s How to Sell a Haunted House and I can endorse the argument he is making so far – dolls and puppets can indeed be very creepy. (Since I can’t include tone in a blog post and I want to be clear: I’m making a bit of a joke about the second book. I just found it funny to pretend that he’s trying, in a horror novel, to convince us that dolls and puppets can be creepy.)
I have already assembled my Halloween-themed collage/junk journaling supplies so they’ll be handy all month.
I’ve spent a couple of evenings moving bits of paper around but I haven’t actually finished my collage yet so I’ll share it later.
Meanwhile, I would not have gotten around to this at all yet if it hadn’t been for this so I would have missed out on that relaxing creative time.
Lists = More Fun. Imagine that!
I’m making two zines – Advice from Monsters and (Some) Ghosts are Helpful – which will let me combine drawing and writing and some silly spookiness.
I’ve made a list of monster advice and a list of ways that (some) ghosts can be helpful and I have experimented with a slightly different way to fold a zine.
I’ve also drawn some practice ghosts and some practice monster eyes, monster horns and monster teeth.
The actual zine part isn’t complete yet.
I’m on track to finish the ghost story that I’m writing (it’s about a haunted mirror that someone picked up on the side of the road.)
This one has moved slowly because of the aforementioned busyness but I have a fair bit of writing time this week so things will pick up.
I’m slowly putting up Halloween decorations all month.
This is ongoing and as I mentioned above, I am also making some new ones!
I’m making a bit more time for my favourite spooky podcasts/YouTube channels – including taking slightly longer walks and doing slightly longer workouts so I can finish an episode.
So far so good with this one and I am also using Halloween-themed background music and ambience channels** to add to my fun while working or creating cool stuff.
I have used this oracle deck before but those times I was mostly just thinking about things in the moment. Drawing a card and reflecting on any possible personal meanings has been really cool. My mind likes it a lot.
I’m doing some practices from Yoga for Witches by Sarah Robinson – I know that title sounds like it could be flippant but I am finding it to be respectful to Yoga and to pagan practices.
I haven’t done many of these yet but, like my writing, this is a good week for it.
I’ve got big plans for making soups and breads and cookies.
I’ve made two batches of chocolate chip cookies and two pots of soup and they have all been delicious.
My Halloween costume is already in the works.
It is still in the works!
I’ve added Halloween music to my playlists.
Last week, my oldest kid (24) and I had a great time rating the relative seasonal appropriateness of a bunch of Halloween songs while I was driving him to work.
Yes, we did find that a lot of fun.
Note: Monster Mash is fun and seasonally appropriate but Flying Purple People Eater is not particularly Halloweenish. Also, do the words flying and purple apply to the eater or the people it eats?
I’ve already started wearing all of my Halloween themed clothing.
I have indeed! And I just dug out more from storage.
I’m wearing a ‘Haunted Harvest Festival’ tshirt right now and several people have been disappointed to learn that it’s just a shirt, not an actual event.
What do you think a Haunted Harvest Festival would entail?
Is the Festival haunted or is it the Harvest that has gotten all spooky?
(Yes, I do take any opportunity to follow my curiosity)
____________
So, with another week and a bit until Halloween, I have to conclude that advance planning, making lists, and deciding to have more fun (without pressure to fully do every part of every plan) does indeed result in a clear increase in October Fun.
And, as suspected, increasing my fun levels has been great for my mental health and my overall wellbeing.
How is your October going?
*I really need to have a serious look at how I organize my schedule but that’s a whole different post!
**In my last post I shared some podcasts and YouTube channels that focus on spooky stories so this time I’ll share a few links for spooky season ambience.
A video called “Cute Lo-Fi for Ghosts” and the still image shows a cartoonish drawing of a sheet ghost in a graveyard at night with tree trunks in the background. The majority of the image is blue/black but the ghost is white and there are white scribble accents here and there. White text at the top of the image says “Halloween Lo-Fi No AI”
A video called “October Magic Ambience” from the Dead of Night channel. The still image shows a digitally animated corner of a room with stars and moons on the wall, and a stack of books with a teacup on top, an antique dresser decorated with stars and moons, a carved Jack O’Lantern, a blanket with ghosts and witches on it, a sleeping cat, and a bunch of Halloween knick-knacks and on the right side of the image is a window that is slightly open that is decorated with a string of mushrooms.
This ambience video is called Vintage Halloween Art and is by Art for Your TV by 88 Prints. This channel would be to put on a screen as a ‘decoration’ in your room and the images change every so often. The first image is a sepia-toned drawing of a witch and her cat flying on a broomstick over a village at night. There’s a church and houses with their windows lit up and there are a bunch of trees at the bottom of the image. The full moon is in the sky but it is not casting much light.
This music/ambience video is called (No AI) The Toy Shop. Text at the bottom of the image reads “The Toy Shop: Hand-painted Art. Original Music. Ambience.” The image is of shelves in a toy shop with all kinds of wooden toys, dolls, and puppets on them and in front of the shelves are a series of marionettes hanging from the ceiling with their feet near the floor.
A playlist called “something wicked this way comes; a playlist for writing spooky stories by candlelight” The still image shows two hands emerging out of the dark background, the back of one hand is towards the camera, and we can see the palm of the other hand. There is a human skull on the bottom right and we can only see the left side of it because it is facing towards the left in the image, it is poorly lit so it isn’t highly visible. The words “Something Wicked This Way Comes” in a gothic font are overlaid on the image.
A playlist from Alex Rainbird Music called “spooky season 🎃 • a haunting indie/folk/alternative playlist” and the still image is of a person with long hair in dark clothes standing in what looks to be a forest with fallen leaves all over the ground. They are looking downward at the pumpkin they are holding at waist height.
When I was in my 40s, I spent a lot of time training for long rides, short intense rides, hilly rides, and yes, bike racing. Mountain bike racing was the most fun, and I also did some crits, some cyclocross races and a few road races (my least favorite).
For a while, I had a cycling coach, the marvelous and wise Steve Weller. He was in his 20s then, racing and also beginning coaching. He saw and appreciated my strengths (cornering, bike handling, general enthusiasm) and helped me improve on my weaknesses (sticking to a training regimen, developing high-end power and hill-climbing coping strategies).
I’m still on Steve’s email list. He sends out weekly posts about training, mental states and attitude, seasonal shift advice, etc. Last week’s post was about research on intense workouts featuring 30-second all-out intervals with 15 second breathers.
And then there was this one small mention of the grey zone. What’s that? Here’s what Steve wrote:
The grey zone is the intensity band between genuinely easy and genuinely hard. It’s not Zone 2. It’s not a threshold interval. It’s the moderately hard effort that feels productive — the group ride that’s too spicy on the hills, that solo endurance ride where you keep the power “comfortably uncomfortable” for two hours.
Those rides take some effort, they feel like a workout, and they’re definitely not easy.
But physiologically, this approach is a dead end. You ride too hard to truly build an aerobic base, but not hard enough to create a meaningful high-end stimulus. You accumulate fatigue without triggering the adaptations that will actually make you faster.
Yep, I can speak for myself that I’ve spent way too many minutes on the bike going harder than I might like, but not in a focused or intentional way with a particular goal in mind (other than to get this ride over with or keep up with folks who are faster or peppier than I am). All cycling coaches and all cycling training advice tells us that the grey zone is where motivation goes to die. We don’t get the benefits of focused threshold or top-end-power training, and we don’t get the advantages of long slow distance. We just get tired and then frustrated when we don’t see results.
Oh my god, I can so relate to this now, even though I’m not doing bike training.
Reading Steve’s posts, it was clear to that this is a thing I do in life as well. When I’m feeling behind or pressed by tasks and obligations piling up, I’ll often speed up a little, trying to catch up, but without a real plan or purpose or specific and reachable end point. Instead, it’s all about Go faster! Try to catch up! When will this be over? When can I take a break?
We all know that frantic flailing rarely works in any context, but it is an easy go-to move. Maybe there are other options.
Can I push myself to go hard for a short period of time, a particular goal in mind (e.g. finish that abstract, grade that set of exams, write that report draft, do that group family call)? Can I schedule in rest or relaxation or recreation for some amount of time (e.g. crafting, reading, watching a movie, calling a friend, taking a nice walk, swimming with my favorite toddler)? I’m thinking that yes, I can do that. I can do that more often.
The grey zone sounds scary, but really it’s just a place where we can’t see our way clear to resting or focusing. Let’s clear things up and see how that makes us feel. Thanks, Steve, for reminding me how to train for life as well as cycling!
Today (Tuesday, October 13) is Train Your Brain Day so I thought I would find a few fun ways for us to celebrate.
Don’t worry if you struggle with these activities or videos though because October 13 is also the International Day For Failure – a day to celebrate the important role that failure plays in the learning process.
So, even if you make a total mess of the brain training, you can console yourself with the fact that you ARE learning and that you are celebrating both Train Your Brain Day and International Day For Failure at the same time.
That would be pretty impressive, don’t you think? There’s really no downside to giving this whole thing a try!
Is solving a Rubik’s Cube specifically mentioned in the articles I read? No. Does it seem like the kind of challenge that would be beneficial? Yes. Image description: a photo of someone’s hands holding a Rubik’s Cube as they turn one column of squares into place.
So, let’s get started with the whole Brain Training/Day for Failure cycle then, shall we?
I’m giving you a big list of links and a bunch of videos but I don’t want you to break your brain.
Just pick one or two things to try, pretty please. No need to overwhelm ourselves!
And, finally, here is just a sample of all the fun videos I found about training your brain.
A video from Justin Agustin called How to Improve Brain Power/ Easy Brain Exercises to Improve Memory. On the right side the still image shows Justin (a man with light brown skin, very short/shaved hair, and a green sweatshirt), using his left index finger to point to his right hand which has two fingers raised. In the middle of the image is a pink image of a brain and text reading 6 Powerful Brain Exercises is on the left.
This video from the Wellness Cupboard is called 2 Min Brain Boost Quick Hand Exercises: Day 1. The still image shows a pair of light-skinned hands with their fingertips pressed together and the background is beige with text reading Neuro-nimble Series Day 1 in brown on the upper right. Their channel includes a whole playlist of activities like this.
This video from NeuroYoga is called Halloween Memory Challenge: Where Was It? Brain Game and the still image is supposed to represent a spooky night. The majority of the background is purple with a darker purple representing the night sky and lighter purple representing clouds. The ground at the bottom is black and there are small houses with triangular tops and a few trees at the bottom and a few black bats in the sky. Text in white reads Train Your Memory Halloween Challenge “Where Was It?”
This video by SENDCo is for kids but I found it fun so I included it. It’s called Brain Break Hand Movement Routine for Focus and Crossing the Midline. The still image shows a landscape in the background with a simple drawing of green hills against a light blue sky. There are two hands near the bottom of the image with the palms facing the viewer. The left hand is pink and the right hand is blue. Text in black reads Cross the Midline Bilaterial Coordination. Copy the left and right hands and pulse to the beat. The words left hand are next to the pink hand and the words right hand are next to the blue. A blue numeral 5 is on the right side of the image near the bottom.
This video from Yoga with Adriene is called Yoga for Brain Power and shows Adriene (a woman in her 30s with light skin and brown hair that is pinned up, wearing black leggings and a grey shirt) standing on her yoga mat in the middle of her living room doing tree pose (left foot resting on right inner thigh) with her arms in the air. Her dog Benji is sleeping on the floor behind her near some potted plants.
This video from Jim Kwik is called 5 Exercises to Improve Memory and Concentration. The still image features Jim Kwik an Asian man with short black hair in a black tshirt who is standing up with his right arm raised and his right hand over his head. There is a black rectangle with text reading Brain Exercises and featuring a small cartoon picture of a brain superimposed over him at waist-height.
This video from The Calm and Content Mind is called Balancing Exercises (the Cerebellum Connection): Inspired by the Book ADHD 2.0. The still image shows the instructor (a woman with light skin and brown hair that is pinned up, wearing a burgundy long-sleeved shirt, leggins, and black sneakers without socks) standing on a small square and holding her arms out to the sides, level with her shoulders. She is in a room with beige walls that have white trim and there is a window to one side with the white blind closed. There is a painting with lots of green in it behind her on her left.
This video from Ageless Grace Brain Health is called The 21 Tools of Ageless Grace. And the still image shows the instructor, a woman with blonde shoulder-length hair and bangs wearing an orange shirt and dark pants, sitting in a chair with her eyes closed and her hands raised in front of her at chest height. She is in the middle of a movement that may be about turning her hands in a circle. She is sitting in a living room chair and there are shelves of photos and knick-knacks behind her on her left and a table with knick-knacks behind her on her right.
This video from Power for Parkinson’s is called Boost Your Brain with this Standing Cardio Workout for Parkinson’s and the still image features the instructor (a woman with long curly brown hair, light skin, and glasses, wearing a black tshirt that says Power for Parkinson’s) mid-movement on the left and the title of the video in yellow on the right.
This video from Yes2Next is called 15 Min Brain + Body Workout for Seniors and features the two video participants, one on either side of the image with the video title in the center. The words ’15-Minute’ are white and are enclosed in a purple rectangle, the words Brain + Body are in yellow with a purple outline. The person on the left is the main instructor (a middle-aged Asian woman with a pink tanktop and black pants with a big smile and her right arm held up in a non-aggressive fist), the person on the right is an elderly Asian woman (the instructor’s mother) with short grey hair, glasses and a small smile. She is wearing a black sweatshirt that says Live Your Yes2Next and she is holding up one finger on her right hand and is making the ‘thumbs-up’ signal with her left hand.
Ok, so I am reporting back a little early but since I don’t think there will be a drastic change in my results over the next two days, we’re in the clear.
On September 1, I told you about my experiment for this month – 5 minutes of circle-based mobility exercises each night before bed.
And, despite the fact that I was ‘going in circles’ this whole time, I have definitely made some progress towards increasing my mobility and improving my sense of well-being.
Here are my discoveries:
1) As I suspected in my initial post, doing circles seems to reduce the restless, twitchy feeling I was often experiencing while sitting in bed reading before going to sleep.
2) I feel far less stiff and achy when I get up in the morning.
3) My body feels a bit more mobile and fluid overall.
4) I like having a small physical practice as part of my bedtime routine.
5) If I had trouble settling into sleep in the evening, doing a few more circles was soothing.
Obviously I am declaring this experiment a success!
And I am giving myself bonus points and a gold star ⭐️ for sticking with my experiment even though this month included some travel with friends and coordinating a 10 day arts festival.
Normally that kind of shift in routine would affect any kind of new practice I was trying to incorporate into my days but I guess that my plan to go in circles was just the right-sized practice for almost any circumstance.
And since it has worked out so well, I plan to keep this circular strategy going.
My courses are settling into what they’re going to be, which is a smooth-ish and pretty amiable set of class meetings on topics I’m into and the students are enjoying/tolerating (so far).
I’m organized enough to vary my going-to-work footwear more than usual, color coordinating it (yes, I have shoes in many colors– sue me) with my more-colorful-than-the-average-person’s clothing. And jewelry, too. Ain’t I fancy…
I acquired three baby spider plants from my FB Buy Nothing group. They are joining my indoor aspiring jungle and appear to be getting along well with everyone.
On Wednesday morning, I went to yin yoga with my friend Kathy, joining Norah, who goes (almost) every week. I usually sign up for the zoom recording, leaving it for later (or not), but I thought to myself, I can make time for this. So I did.
Afterwards, eating sandwiches with Kathy, I got a preview of what it might be like to be a lady who lunches (well, I am a lady who has lunch but you know what I mean). It’s pretty damn good.
On Saturday I went swimming with Rachel and her 3-year-old Teagan. We (Rachel and I) traded off hanging out with Teagan in the kids’ pool so the other could do some laps in the lane pool. It worked out well, each of us doing 4 laps (8 pool lengths). Rachel said afterwards that it would be nice to work up to 50 laps. I corrected her, saying 20 laps was a more pleasant-sounding goal. She agreed (for now).
The swimming was at a local indoor pool and it cost the three of us $10 total. A bargain.
I’d really like to a) re-establish a weekly in-person yoga class; and b) go swimming once a week. Both feel really good. Can I do this? Yes, I think so. Okay, let me rephrase that:
Yes We Can.
Bob says “yes we can!”
By “we”, I mean me plus my friends, who support me in most/all of my social and physical activities. It’s much more fun and happens more often when I enlist the company of others. Of course you all know this. But it doesn’t hurt to remind oneself from time to time.
Who are you heading out the door with this week for physical activity, fun, or frolic?
Here’s your semi-regular reminder that you are the boss of you.
Soooooo, it is up to you how to proceed with your plans.
If your current plans feel good and you are getting where you want to go, then forge ahead.
I mean, it’s good to check in every now and then but you are under no obligation to examine every single detail of your fitness plans over and over.
And you certainly don’t have to keep changing them to match trends or to prove a point.
Basically, if your current plan is working for you then… FORGE AHEAD!
But what about if your plan sort of works but there are stil rough spots, friction, and/or you often find it hard to get going.
In that case, it may be time to make a few changes.
You may want to switch up your plans a bit, change the exercises you’re doing, find some company, take on a different challenge, put in some extra effort or maybe dial things back a bit.
Basically, if your initial plan is getting on your nerves you don’t have to keep frustrating yourself (and you definitely shouldn’t be hard on yourself), instead, you can… PIVOT!
But what about if you started out strong but your enthusiasm waned?
Or if you hated your plan from step one?
Or if you love the plan but life got in the way and now you just can’t?
Or if your plan worked when you made it but then your schedule changed?
Well, in that case, the only thing you *can’t* do is be mean to yourself about it. (Ok, I guess you can but I will give you a stern look about being mean to my friend.)
After all, finding a fitness plan that works for you isn’t about doing the perfect thing as your perfect self on your most perfect day.
Instead, it’s is about finding ways to keep doing things that you want to do (or achieving things that you want to achieve) so it only makes to make your plans appeal to the most important person in the equation – YOU.
Basically, if you aren’t doing the things you want/need to be doing then change your plans and …RESTART.
And yes, I know there is great value in starting something new on a significant date (New Years, your birthday, September 1) but there is also value in starting wherever and whenever you happen to be.
(In fact, with a little imagination you can turn anything into a significant date. If nothing occurs to you, feel free to post in the comments and I’ll wrangle any ordinary day into an auspicious occasion for restarting you project.)
So, Team, the key information here is that it is ok for you to do the things you want to do, in the way you want to do them, on a schedule that works for you.
You can work hard or proceed gently or do anything in between. As long as you match your expectations to your efforts, your intensity is up to you.
You can have a strict schedule or something a bit more loose and responsive to your day to day plans. As long as it works for you, it’s a good way to proceed.
Basically, as I said at the beginning, you are the boss of you.
AND your needs are the most important factors in your fitness plans.
So, whether we’re going to forge ahead, pivot, or restart, let’s do all what we need to do to help us stick with the things that help us feel the way we want to feel.
Oh, and please collect your gold star for your efforts below.
For the last few nights, I have been doing about 5 minutes of mobility exercises before bed and the practice feels really beneficial.
I didn’t start the exercises with a plan, I just did them one night while listening to the end of a podcast and I liked how I felt afterwards so I did them again the next night.
And since I often find myself feeling a bit twitchy and restless before bed – with an odd feeling or an ache in one place or another – but I haven’t had that feeling in the last few nights so it seems worth exploring if there is a connection between the exercises and the lack of twitchiness.
This may be a coincidence of course but that’s part of the experiment.
I’m referring to it as going in circles because I made myself laugh when I referred to the exercises that way on Sunday night.
And seeing as the routine includes rolling a ball under each foot and then doing ankle circles, knee circles, hip circles, upper body circles, arm circles, shoulder circles, and neck circles, it’s not wrong it just sounds a bit funny.
So here’s my experiment:
For September, I am going to go in circles for 5 minutes each night before bed and note whether or not I feel twitchy afterward and whether I feel more or less stiff each morning.
I’ll report on my experiment on October 1.
These imperfect circles were fun to make and they are a good representation of the imperfect circles in my practice. Image description: a drawing of 8 overlapping, painted circles in fall colours (shades of green, brown, red, orange) with a different pattern in black ink on each one (spirals, circles, grids, lines, triangles, squares) and each circle is outlined in black. The drawing has been cut out of a larger sheet of white paper in an irregular shape that resembles a cloud or a puddle. The outer edge of the paper is trimmed in black and there are gold dots between the black trim and the edges of the circles. At the bottom are the words ‘hello, September!’ written in black.
