sarakingdom

What is an engineer boot? I may need these boots.

Actual Buddhist meditation doesn't have a lot of visualization, unlike pop culture and new age meditation (most of which is relaxation sessions, and not closely related to meditation). So this one from Plum Village was a little surprising. It seems to be using mostly traditional visual metaphor to focus on nurturing particular inner qualities, in a way that seems a lot like metta meditation tilted to a slightly different purpose. (Metta is the one main exception I can think of to the lack of visualization. It uses certain imagery to create and explore a specific set of emotions, and this seems very close, but it's not loving-kindness.) Meditation is certainly part of some gritty eco-cyberpunk future, and I'm not sure there's a better choice than this one for a challenge with Swamp Thing. If there's ever a time to realize that you're the flower and the water and outer space, this is probably it.

Good to know. I prefer slightly more androgynous shoes, and my feet are a bit tricky to fit in women's shoes anyway, so a good unisex boot is probably my best friend. I like those a lot. Maybe I'll go a bit more motorcycle on my boots...

Week 0 Day 7 Sleep is trending the right way. I will be under a 15 hour deficit by midnight. I'm gonna allow one concession to week one, due to the fact that my sleep is ultra messy, my evening routine is not under control, and this is a time consuming new habit: week one will allow 20 minute sessions, for a total of an hour. That should help with the psychological resistance if I get a late start, but it's not a token placeholder, either. Task list for today/tomorrow Prep alarms and reminders for tomorrow Prep water bottle, clothes, and shoes for tomorrow Swap my journals Take challenge start measurements Brainstorm the "5 minutes on every project" hour Over the challenge: Buy the combat boots Return the shoes Send the card Find a good walking bag Make my workspace more inviting

Seven or eight hours was what I needed. Two hours of sleep a night is definitely punishing. And I felt every minute.

I did that thing where I put all the effort into good self-care, and was punished with two hours of sleep. Where is the fairness, I ask you. This is probably a lesson in Buddhist non-attachment. Do not get attached to the results of your actions, they are not promised to you. All you possess are your own actions. Stupid graphic novel-appropriate life lessons. Anyway, today has really dragged as a result. This won't help my deficit much, but it won't hurt it much, either, because it's replacing a three-hour night, so I'm only an hour down. I'm trying to remember that I probably do not actually have insurmountable interpersonal problems this week, I have a twenty-hour sleep deficit. Nor am I probably actually hopeless about my challenge, I just have a twenty-hour sleep deficit. Probably I need a nap.

The sooner you give in, the less disruptive this will be. Better just get it over with.

I understand the total and utter discouragement over the wasted time, but it may ultimately be a two-pronged solution, like keto to bring down the physiological symptoms in order to give the psychological tools the breathing room to actually be useful. In ADHD, the general wisdom is that the meds don't by themselves fix the problem, but give people people the ability to learn and use the habits and tools, which they can't do without the hormonal intervention. No one's favorite answer, but a logical one. WHO IS THIS MAJESTIC FLOOFY DOOFUS?

Week 0 Day 4 I'm taking my zero week rest seriously, partly cuz I need to bank that rest and reduce my 20-hour deficit. Other things to set up the challenge: Task list Scrub the desired water bottle Take challenge start measurements Buy the combat boots Return the shoes Send the card Find a good walking bag Pick a Darebee workout as backup for walking, just in case Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun Water intake 1 -2 -2 -2 AM sinus rinse 💧 AM nasal moisturizer PM sinus rinse PM nasal moisturizer God, self-care is so boring. It's just cruel how many necessary things are boring.

My sleep has been a disaster lately. That's partly me, but partly that my sinuses are a dumpster fire and my nose is so dry, and I need to do eeeeeeverything just to keep them barely functioning at night, and then they still hate horizontality. I need more sleep, cuz I'm deep in emergency territory, so we are doing a focused sinus intervention this week. Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun Water intake -2 -2 -2 -2 AM sinus rinse AM nasal moisturizer PM sinus rinse PM nasal moisturizer I can't think of a way to make this fit my theme. It's not interesting enough to be dystopian, or syncopated enough to be jazzy. It might be wet enough to qualify for swamp creature self care, but I don't think that's a metaphor I wish to draw.

I'm not normally a "go buy gadgets" person, but... cookers that shut themselves off and are safe to leave unwatched are great.

The good news is, my calf pull isn't too bad. The bad news is, it's bad enough, and it's jacking up my hip. I'm not a fan. Walking distances is probably out for the near future, so I'll do ten minutes or so of walking at home, and switch to low-tech rowing. Maybe some dance. I can stand on it fine.

I practice intuitive pleating.

5000 steps is a good goal. I'm a fan of the 7000-ish step ultimate goal, and 5k is a good chunk of the way there. I would make a plan for gradually getting there. 5000 steps is about 50 minutes of walking, and will be very noticeable going from a more sedentary pattern. It might even be a bit of a strain, if your body isn't used to that. So starting with consistency and ramping up, maybe even ramping up 1k steps per week of the challenge to hit 5k in the last week, would be one option. Another would be splitting it up into 3 or 4 walks across the day. I used to hit 5k just from various bits of my commute, if I picked the further bus stop. (That can also be a good way to hide it throughout the day, if the issue is more the shock to your schedule of losing a whole hour. Somehow finding four 10-15 minute blocks is a lot easier.) Basically, have some plans for not burning yourself out on an ambitious goal, and work with where you are. It's a doable goal, for sure, but it's a big shift in where you're spending your time and how much walking you're doing.

Sacred foods are not for everyday meals. Reserve your blueberries and honey for the ritual observances. (Browse the blueberry bushes once a day, and raid the bees once a week and twice in summer, because stinging sucks and honey is seasonal.) We are not nervous comedy Pooh Bears who keep our paws constantly in jars of honey. We are very serious bears who hunt red meat between dabbling in sylvan omnivory. MEND YOUR SALMONY WAYS, HERETIC. Or at least think salmony thoughts while taking an omega 3 supplement.

I'm waiting for the Bored Stronkey NFT.

There is merit in showing up, and this is a wonderful challenge.

Latvia! Might not be bad...

Alcohol is not gonna help with that. But he might see related benefits from the traditional American folk way of learning to tie the maraschino cherry stems into a knot with his tongue.

HONEY FOR THE BEAR GODS. Ugh, that's a lot of frustration and life stuff hitting all at once. Does it help to balance the extra effort with extra rest? I sometimes do that, on the (slightly tenuous) grounds that my mental energy is being depleted faster than usual and needs an extra recharge. I'm glad you and your brother will be seeing your dad soon!

I HAVE SWAMP THING. And also I am suitably dressed for this future, down to the whimsical socks. It's not my fault if everyone else forgot to move here with me. I seem to have randomly pulled a muscle in my calf, so it's possible my morning walk might become something more rehabby for the first week, like a shorter walk and some rowing. That's fine. Half an hour of gentle movement. It's not sharply pulled, just oddly stressed, so it hopefully won't take too long to shape up. (Though I did not help it today.) I need to remember, when I have no brain for the hard things, that doing five minutes of hard brain things feels good, and usually leads to a decent 15 minute chunk of work getting done, even if I truly don't have a long session in me. Helps if the headache is gone, though. Anyway, I did some things, took a walk, rested when I needed it (roughly), have passed my 2 liter hydration minimum, and ate healthyish things. I would not call it a stellar day, but a day where I dealt well with subpar conditions.

An extra mellow musical choice today, because I'm low-level tired and dehydrated, and that's making it hard to think. (I've been working on both, but it's hard to get enough sleep or water.) Coffee. I should go make coffee, shouldn't I? That would theoretically help with both problems. And I ought to be pairing coffee with my jazz. I'm getting little things done today, but I'm not very focused.