Friday open thread: good habits
Dec. 4th, 2020 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12It's snowing outside, and I am delighted! I've lived in the northern hemisphere for twelve years, and I still haven't got over my wonder (as an Australian) at frozen stuff falling from the sky!
This week I'm returning to people's prompts for the open thread. Today's prompt comes frombruttimabuoni, and it is:
What good habits do you have — things that you do because they make you feel good, healthy, positive?
I have quite a few of these, and I'm quite methodical about maintaining such habits consistently. I have a bullet journal with a monthly habit tracker.
The big ones for me are exercise: I aim to do some form of exercise at least three times a week. In normal times this would be swimming, which always leaves me feeling fantastic. Generally I can only sleep well if I have been swimming consistently. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, I haven't been able to swim that much this year. I went during the summer when I had access to an outdoor pool, but I'm not prepared to risk spending time in an indoor pool or gym changeroom, even though my gym is open, and numbers of COVID cases in Cambridge are relatively low.
So for the most part, during the pandemic, I've been going running instead of swimming. I don't really enjoy it all that much, although I like the feeling afterwards!
The other physical activity I try to do very consistently is yoga. I don't really count it as 'exercise' as most of the sequences I do don't elevate my heart rate, but they do help me to feel calm, supple, and focused. In addition to longer yoga sessions, I have two sequences (one for the wrists/hands, and one for the neck) which I do several times a day to help combat the aches and pains I get from working at a computer.
My other 'good habit' is something I avoid, rather than something I do. I realised several years ago that looking at social media, particularly Twitter, first thing in the morning, always left me feeling angry and miserable. At that point, I decided that I would log each day when instead of going onto Twitter, I read part of a book during the morning. This has done wonders for my mood and my general lack of anxiety.
Over the years, I've gone through long periods of avoiding Twitter entirely. I've drifted back recently, but have made the decision that I'll be avoiding the platform again as of January, except for one brief weekly check in.
What about all of you?
This week I'm returning to people's prompts for the open thread. Today's prompt comes from
bruttimabuoni, and it is:What good habits do you have — things that you do because they make you feel good, healthy, positive?
I have quite a few of these, and I'm quite methodical about maintaining such habits consistently. I have a bullet journal with a monthly habit tracker.
The big ones for me are exercise: I aim to do some form of exercise at least three times a week. In normal times this would be swimming, which always leaves me feeling fantastic. Generally I can only sleep well if I have been swimming consistently. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, I haven't been able to swim that much this year. I went during the summer when I had access to an outdoor pool, but I'm not prepared to risk spending time in an indoor pool or gym changeroom, even though my gym is open, and numbers of COVID cases in Cambridge are relatively low.
So for the most part, during the pandemic, I've been going running instead of swimming. I don't really enjoy it all that much, although I like the feeling afterwards!
The other physical activity I try to do very consistently is yoga. I don't really count it as 'exercise' as most of the sequences I do don't elevate my heart rate, but they do help me to feel calm, supple, and focused. In addition to longer yoga sessions, I have two sequences (one for the wrists/hands, and one for the neck) which I do several times a day to help combat the aches and pains I get from working at a computer.
My other 'good habit' is something I avoid, rather than something I do. I realised several years ago that looking at social media, particularly Twitter, first thing in the morning, always left me feeling angry and miserable. At that point, I decided that I would log each day when instead of going onto Twitter, I read part of a book during the morning. This has done wonders for my mood and my general lack of anxiety.
Over the years, I've gone through long periods of avoiding Twitter entirely. I've drifted back recently, but have made the decision that I'll be avoiding the platform again as of January, except for one brief weekly check in.
What about all of you?
no subject
Date: 2020-12-04 11:37 am (UTC)I don't do Twitter or Tumblr (at least not actively), because I suspect I have a mild case of OCD (not enough that it affects my life significantly except making me good at my job, so I never bothered to get formally diagnosed) and it just overwhelms me and I would need to Read All The Posts Ever and no. Luckily I never got sucked into that. I can't do these things casually.
Exercise is a habit I aspire to, but I'm not very good at it, especially now that I'm not sprinting after a train twice a day.
What I find really helps me with my day is my nightly writing (or editing). It makes my brain think about something else, I can have the tv on something mindless for background noise and get busy with textwork. Whether it's fanfic or tinkering with some original work, it cleans up something in my head and I don't feel the day is finished until I got at least some writing done, even if it's just a sentence or if it' going back and working on previous sections. I know something is wrong with me (mentally or I'm getting the flu) when I can't sit down and get something done. I think it serves the same function for my brain that it does for people who sit down and knit.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-05 01:18 pm (UTC)It's interesting how different people have such different reactions to different social media platforms. Facebook for me has always been a really calm place (especially since I muted the people who were most annoying me, and hid my posts from the friends who were most inclined to argue with me about stuff), whereas Twitter is just this howling void of despair and fury. But I know a lot of people who, like you, find Facebook a real trial. I think it's very important that people are able to assess the effect of different platforms on their mental health, and leave or set up adequate boundaries to retain a sense of equilibrium.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-05 04:01 pm (UTC)It's simply something different to focus on? I don't like working in the evening, and I was never one to burn the midnight oil for any work or study related things, but fiction is different.
Ah but see, you had to mute and filter people. ;) That's something that's already too much effort for me. I think part of my FB annoyance is that my life is pretty patterned in one and the same way and nothing really happens and considering all the things that seem to happen to other people I feels odd to spectate in that through a screen without reciprocating. And I don't bring much fannishness to my real life (and therefore FB), so I'm definitely not talking about that. I'm a child of the early interwebs when you your real name was the biggest secret to keep, so that may be part of it as well.
I think my FB avoidance has also led to things coming to light that I would rather not have found out. I have a friend who I've known since 5th grade and who basically lives on FB, which definitely is her decision and I have no issue with that, and who got married a few years ago. I knew she had plans to do so but hadn't heard about any more and then learned at Christmas that actually she had gotten married and everyone else from that friend group had been there. That means that either I wasn't invited at all (which would sting on one level, but which is a decision people make for all kinds of reasons) or that I got my invitation on FB and no one followed up when I didn't respond which is a different can of worms. I have reason to suspect it's the latter. And to be honest that still stings, but I also don't want to investigate that too closely.
Anyway, it certainly is a decision everyone has to make by themselves according to what makes the most of sense for them. I do admire people who can handle social media as an integral part of their lives and have this balance. It took a bit of trial and error to figure out that that isn't me.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-06 10:28 am (UTC)I think for me I've had to keep social media in a somewhat central place in my life because I'm an immigrant, and I dislike talking on the phone (or any videoconferencing equivalent). So if I wasn't on social media, I would have no idea what was going on in people's lives, or I would have to spend each visit back to my country of origin catching up on two or three years' worth of people's major life events.
Anyway, it certainly is a decision everyone has to make by themselves according to what makes the most of sense for them.
Exactly.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-06 06:04 pm (UTC)I agree with you that major life events should probably be communicated in different ways, but other people will make different choices. The reasons for which ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I cannot fathom. I mean, was I shocked when everyone started talking about "you were so beautiful at your wedding and I'd never seen you in a dress before" at Christmas dinner? Oh yeah. Did I just smile confusedly and kept my mouth shut? You betcha. While I am a person who tries (and fails) to let things like that roll off my back and find equanimity in the unexpected, I also have to admit that this situation made me pull back from that friend circle. I find it somewhat regretful, but not enough to confront it head on.
What you describe sounds a lot like life after grad school (granted, most of them didn't move 10 timezones away, except the Australians who went back home), as mine is a field where people leave and don't look back (scientific research, wet lab). I've accepted that people will drift out of my life in that way unless both sides make an effort which I am personally bad at (and yes, I hate video conferencing, I have enough of that at work these days), but I also fully understand why you want to preserve ties with back home and in the current situation, it's probably an additional blessing since travelling is not an option.