Daily Maintenance Lists

Since college (and maybe earlier?) I’ve dealt with seasonal depression… the winter blues, some say. This year I finally decided to get some help for it. I’ve been going to group therapy for the last two months, and I’ve learned some incredible things.

I’ll attempt to share them with you one at a time.

This post is about building daily maintenance lists. When we’re not feeling our best, we can often trace it back to something on this list that we’ve let slide. The first thing to go for me is the correct amount of sleep. 7-9 hours is recommended. When I’m feeling my gloomiest, I’ll get 11-12 hours of sleep. Go to bed early, wake up early, take a nap. Hibernation, I suppose. Exercise slips away around the same time.

We make these lists so we can check up on ourselves. When I start to feel low and unmotivated, I need to look at the list and remind myself that if I do just these things in a day, then I’ve accomplished something great.

Here’s my list…

Things I know I need to do for myself EVERYDAY to make sure I stay well:

• Shower, brush teeth, wash face
• Eat healthy foods and drink water
• Get dressed
• Leave the house and the apartment complex
• Exercise, even if it’s just a walk or stretching
• Quiet time
• Tidy house
• 7-9 hours

Things I need to do WEEKLY to make sure I stay well:

• Grocery shop
• Laundry and house chores
• Wash hair
• Shave legs
• Talk to parents, family
• Socialize
• Go out to eat
• Cook a meal
• Be creative (art, writing, etc)
• Meditate
• Read

Things I need to do MONTHLY to make sure I stay well:

• Adventure and explore (leave Redwood City)
• Date night
• Photo shoot
• Visit Brad for lunch
• Spend time with a new friends
• Try a new restaurant
• Go over budget
• Set goals, do personal check ups
• Hot tub

Things I need to do PERIODICALLY to make sure I stay well:

• Travel
• Have a house guest
• Go to the beach
• Shop
• Bake
• Journal

Special little things I can do for myself when I need to feel better:

• Bath with candles and oils
• Alone time hike
• Nap
• See a movie
• Go out for a dessert
• Learn something on Youtube

Share your lists! Did I miss something vital?

Advertisement

Denmark 2016 – Part 1

Okay. It’s time to talk about Denmark.

12/8- a dang long flight

12/9- arrived late in the day because of the 9 hour time difference. Brad met me at the airport, the sweetie, and we Ubered back to the Airbnb. Then we walked around Copenhagen till I was too cold and tired. (Steps: 14, 365)

12/10- Whoops for sleeping till 10:30! We were going to take a train to Germany, but that didn’t happen. Instead, we took a train to Hillerod and saw the Fredricksburg castle. The museum/castle tour was closing in like 20 minutes, so we didn’t pay to go inside. The grounds were pretty cool. I imagine they’re a lot greener and lovelier during the summer. Hillerod was a cute town though. Lots of little shops. A big mall. It was fun to be in a smaller town. Just classically Danish. We were starving by the time we got back to Copenhagen, so we found an Indian restaurant near the shopping district. They charged us for water….wth?? (Steps: 17,539)

12/11- Oops. We slept till 10:30 again, missing most of church. So I guess that means more exploring Copenhagen! Our Airbnb was so close to downtown, so we walked around pretty much everywhere. Christiansborg Palace was first stop on our list. Then we wandered across the canal to a church. Christians Church, I think. There was a super cool crypt underneath. And the weirdest thing was they weren’t all super old bodies. Like… 2013, 2014 deaths. Cool and weird. Christiania was nearby, so we ate some sandwiches on the way. There was a sweeto art sale we walked through, and dang, I would have bought so much if we had room in our bags. Very cool random art. The evening got colder, but we kept on walking and found Paper Town. This is where Copenhagen Street Food is. That’s a giant warehouse full of food vendors. Yeah. Why did we just eat lunch? It smells delicious in there. From Paper Island, we had a rad view of the Theater and the city across the canal.  We walked across a brand new foot/bike bridge while eating a yummy Nutella crepe. Nyhavn was just across the bridge, so we wandered through the most popular section of the city. All thanks to winter, we weren’t stampeded by other tourists. We kept wandering and found an opera house and then the Church of our Lady, which houses the original Christus.We rested out little feets and sat through part of a service. We made our way home and spent the evening eating pizza with our feet on the coffee table of our Airbnb. (Steps: 23,345)

12/12 – Brad went back to work today, so we actually had to wake up on time. We were also switching from the Airbnb to a hotel, so we packed up and took our stuff with us to Brad’s office. We stashed the goods behind a couch, and I went on my merry way, which Brad went to a desk. After that, I learned what kind of adventurer I am: the get-on-a-bus-and-see-where-it-goes kind of adventurer. Today, I was headed towards the aquarium. It took me quite a while to get there. Bus to Metro to Train then a 15 minutes walk to the TINY aquarium. Did I skip an entire exhibit? I swear it took me longer to walk to the aquarium than it did to walk through it. Still I got to see some adorable otters and other fishies. No time is too short to hang out with fishies.

Oh, let’s talk for a second about the Copenhagen Card. I spent $120 to get five days of unlimited public transport and free access to 75 or so attractions. And yes, it was way worth it, especially since I’m not a planner. I got on the bus, then got off two stops later. Then turned around and went the other way. I probably road the bus 50 times. Even just to have the convenience of hop on, hop off without having to carry Denmarkian monies was so worth it. Then there’s that part about being in the aquarium for 30 minutes. I left without feeling bad about paying an entrance fee. I could seriously just go into a museum for two minutes (and I did, but more about that later). Aaand moving on.

I couldn’t decide if I would be back in time to get lunch with Brad, so I stopped at Rosenborg castle, which was nearby. It was closed, of course. And the art museum across the street was closed too. Apparently Denmark shuts down on Mondays. And I was hungry, so I got onto a bus towards Issuu. JK JK. It was the wrong direction. So I hopped off and eventually found the right one. I honestly took the wrong bus at least 7 times over the week. Yeah… I spent a few hours at Issuu letting my feet rest. I wandered for another hour or so I saw the Rauthaus (city hall), a lot of cool downtown buildings, a Christmas market, and lots of children in cute little pods. Brad and I checked into our hotel and started our evening adventure. First stop: dinner! Probably something delicious, but I honestly can’t remember what we ate. We bought Brad his Copenhagen card and tracked down a place to pick it up. Then we went to Tivoli! It’s the cutest little theme park with carnival-type roller coasters. A nice ride attendant let us on for free, and it was the best ever. I miss roller coasters. Naturally, we chose the coldest night of all to be outside for hours. Our feet were freezing by the end, but we had a fun time seeing all the cute lights and Christmas shops. (Steps 24,226)

Hopefully

Let’s pretend for just a sec that I have like six thousand people reading my blog daily. (Hint: I don’t.) But I could pretend that people know me or something. Or at least they want to know me. (They probably don’t.)

Anyways, I would tell them that I have an office job that is sometimes super busy and most of the time really slow. Like, sit in the office for 8 hours with nothing to do slow. So I try to find things to fill my time. Most often laziness takes over, and I just end up on gchat with my two besties or link hopping through the never-ending time wasting websites. Here’s what I did to keep up the productivity:

Today I wrote eight ideas of time fillers on sticky notes and stuck them on my monitor.

• Make a list. Honestly though, lists are fun. To-dos, goals, travel wishes, friends to call, things to buy. Then maybe once the list is done, I can start crossing things off.
• Draw. I’m not a doodler, but it isn’t too late to learn.
• Read a random science article. Brad always spouts out these random science facts. My turn.
• Walk up and down the stairs. Okay. So sort of boring, but it’ll boost my step count and be outside a bit longer.
• Write a blog post. Duh.
• Learn something from YouTube. Today I watched this one. He’s a friend of ours, and it’s actually really interesting. Ideally, I’ll watch the video and actually do the things they’re teaching. Not today. Today I wrote this post instead.
• Call an old friend. I have a couple of people I call while I’m on walks. (Thanks, Mom.) Maybe I’ll use my list from the first suggestion and actually call them.
• Make something for Etsy. Brad and I are trying to open an Etsy shop this year with his design things and my random things.

What are your random time filler things?

It’s a New Year

Generic title followed by a generic post about some generic resolutions for 2016.

What more can you ask for?

From me? Not too much. I’m a college grad working at a desk job that basically anybody could do. I surf Facebook far too much and read all the Buzzfeed articles about cats and Harry Potter and confessions of twenty somethings.

I am a twenty something. I have had a fantastic life with everything I have ever needed handed to me. Needed, though, not wanted. I’ve worked for something things, and I’ve asked for others. I’m privileged. I have nothing to complain about.

I am happy. Most of the time. Some of the time I’m just anxious. For no reason, I worry about wasting my life. Why am I not out more? Why am I not using my office time wisely?

I made some goals. They are basically the same goals that everyone else makes.

-adventure more

-save money

-exercise more

-do happy things

-learn a headstand

-learn the splits

Here’s the first key to goals: split them into categories of Habits and To-Dos. A habit is something like flossing every day. You worry about it every. single. day. A To-Do is something you work towards and accomplish or something you do once. For example: learn a headstand. To-Dos are generally accomplished by creating habits. If my To-Do is to read a book every month, I have to get into the habit of reading every day. If my To-Do is to go to Europe, my habit is to save money. If my To-Do is to do a headstand, I need to practice every day until I can do it.

Habits:

Yoga, Read, Write, 10000 steps, Remember names, Save money, Take more pictures, Pray.

To-Dos:

Save X amount by 2017, Run a half, Run a Spartan, Headstand, Splits, Leave country twice, Read 20 books.

See how the Habits build up to the To-Dos? Habits are the short term goals that build up to the long term. It makes them manageable.

Even manageable goals are useless without the second key to goals: check ups.

The number one reason most New Year’s Resolution are forgotten by January 15th is because people forget about their goals. They slip back into last year’s habits. It’s okay. I do it too. Make that list and put it where you see it every day. Think about them. Focus on one goal this week and a different one next week. Maybe this will help. Maybe it won’t. I made a spreadsheet where I can check in with myself every other week.

I’ve learned through my yoga practices to not compare myself with anyone else, not even myself. I am who I am today at this very moment. Yesterday I was different and tomorrow I will be new again. I have a new chance every day to become who I want to be. Make the decision to be the best you that you possibly can be.

Good luck.

Oh, and after all this rambling, I want to write more this year. And the way to do that is to be held accountable. Here I am, writing more. Crappy or not, here it comes.

My Day in Photographs

A Short Poem From My Bed

The first of July, and my body is tired
Of part-time jobs and acting inspired,
Of treadmills and mats, of food and TV,
I just want to lay here and sleep till I die or at least until I become a world-famous sleeper and people pay me for doing what I do best.

Explore your world

Yeah, photos are art. Just like words are art. But pictures and words also act as extensions of our memory. And sometimes, that might be more important than art. But how about making words and images double as art and memories? Boo ya.

So while I live in Idaho for the next seven months, I’ll make art and memories. That’s why we live, right? Especially when they’re filled with yellow. Love dat yellow.

Like these…

Just another day and another silly post

These cute little stinkers rule my world. Seriously. Paige, Luke, and Sebastian are the best niblings ever.

We went to the air show. Vroom vroom. And ate pizza in the back of the car. And watched the new How to Train Your Dragon movie. Best ever.

Oh yeah, and the whole eternity thing.

A few months ago I may have made some super secret promises to a handsome boy. We may have grasped each other by the right wrist and whispered some words. An old man may have twirled his magic wand around, whispering other words and binding us together for eternity through sickness and health, wealth and poverty, adventure and bore.

Brad makes me giggle. He teaches me about cool things. He’s talented, creative, loving, intelligent, adventurous, and everything else that’s good in the world. He’s the only boy allowed by my side as we ride bikes, climb mountains, sail oceans, see stars, become dust.

Namaste, my friends.

Yoga is a beautiful thing. A beautiful way to teach your body to be something that it isn’t. You teach it until it becomes the something that it isn’t. And then it is. And then you are.