Saturday, July 10, 2010

I want to do more - Originally posted 6 June 2006

So I want to do more... more of everything... more dancing... more gym... more sewing... more hobbies... more yoga...

As I was lying in our bed, sleep eluding me, I thought about all those things that I'd like to do more of. My restless mind was trying to grasp at my frustration over not doing everything and a sort of panic was growing in me. I tried to calm myself, telling myself that I could not possibly resolve it all when it was actually time to rest. That helped but my mind was still racing. I reminded myself that I could find the exact solution when it would be time to be awake and that it would work through efficient planning. That helped a lot. Phew! I didn't get to sleep right away but it was easier, of course.

One of the things that I would like to do is to be able to do some yoga in the morning. It is apparently very invigorating to do in the morning and it seems to me like that would be a good start to my day. I've had that thought quite a few times in the past year, let's say, but I haven't managed to do anything really about it. Well, rather, I had good intentions, would put my alarm clock early enough but I would simply snooze because I was too tired.

In the past few weeks, we haven't been able to go to the gym as often as we wanted to and it was mainly due to the fact that we were tired. Now, some of that came from the gym itself requiring so much energy. Some of it came (for me) from getting to bed too late and not getting enough sleep. It created some kind of frustration within me: I was disappointed at not going to the gym as regularly as I wanted and I felt quite a good amount of guilt too.

Jeff gave me great advice recently on that: be like a guy, Isa! Guys don't feel much guilt over these things. They just shrug it off, put it behind them and look forward. So I now joke that I scratch my (imaginary) balls, shrug a little, cough or belch a little, and I'm good.

Now, with the gym, when we get there around 6-6:30pm, it feels painful for me... because it means that we won't get out until 7-7:30pm and we haven't eaten yet. So by the time that we've had dinner, the evening is mostly gone. Not fun. No opportunity to do other stuff. Like I wouldn't start sewing because I would be too tired and there wouldn't be enough time. Like it would be hard to do some belly dancing afterwards (which was my intention) because there wouldn't be enough time for my body to recover from the gym and for my dinner to not affect my belly rolls.

So... I decided to take it step by step... instead of what I used to do before, which was an all-or-nothing scenario (seems that us chicks are really good at that), which would inevitably not work and/or be too much too soon.

1. I will strive to get in to work at 8 am every morning, whether I have a meeting at 8 or not. There are multiple reasons for that: a) I will then be able to leave work at 4 pm, making it easier to get to the gym early and/or do other stuff; b) it will force me to go to bed at a reasonable time; c) it will create some routine that my body and mind can get used to.

2. I will stop all hobby-related activities around 10 pm. That is to help me get to bed at a reasonable time to get enough sleep and before getting up to be at work for 8 am. There are a bunch of little activities that I need to do before going to bed, like cleaning the ferrets' cage, washing my face, and I have the "bad" habit of needing to read a little.

3. I will start doing yoga with an instructor. After my beginners class, there is a drop-in yoga class right in the same studio. So I will stay and see whether I like it. I can't seem to "find" the time to do yoga on my own so I will force myself to do it with an instructor. I might like the guy or not. That's still to be determined. If it's not there, I can do yoga at the gym for free but the time is not perfect for my schedule.

4. I will try to limit the time that I am playing WoW. I love playing WoW. It's definitely a great hobby. But I have to make time for my other hobbies too. If need be, I'll do like what some parents do with their kids and restrict my time playing that game... like max so many hours per week or per day. It's fun and all but it's to a point where I have 2 options: either I diminish my time playing and do other stuff or keep on playing and stop bitching about not doing enough of other things (that's the guy way).

So that's what I'm starting with. Let's say that it's my goal for like a month. Or maybe less. We'll see.

Then, I will be able to add things like getting up a bit earlier to do some very light yoga, etc. I am not really planning to add things in my schedule just yet. If it happens, it happens. I don't want to disappoint myself. And the goal right now is just to hit those 4 items listed above. But, at one point, I may put schedule stuff like "do molds stuff for miniatures" (I understand what I mean), sew item X by this time.

Gosh, I need to be more forgiving with myself. That's what it boils down to. Oh and scratch my (virtual) balls, belch, shrug, and look forward. ;o)

No comments:

Post a Comment