scalyfreak

New challenge!

Scalyfreak has reluctantly come to the conclusion that it’s impossible to completely defeat Stress Monster. For one, it seems to be multiplying. Like the heads of a particularly vicious hydra, when one Stress Monster is cut down, two others appear to take their place. They soon grow to such a number that it doesn’t matter that they are considerably smaller. Miniatures of the large one, but now it’s a swarm… a swarm that moves as if directed by one single mind, surrounding Scalyfreak, attacking in perfect unison. Taking on a large number of small Stress Monsters turns out to be a lot more difficult than fighting a single large one. “They’re like the fricking Borg. Perfect...” Scayfreak mutters to herself, and decides that it is time to stop complicating things. Time to stop over-thinking, time to stop disregarding the very basics of her training, and refocus on what will help her win the battle. Cut. Parry. Thrust. Shield up. Nothing matters but there here and now. Focus. Work stress levels remain high, but now it’s due to several small things, rather than one huge stress factor. Since it’s unlikely that the minor things will go away without being replaced by other minor things, I’m going to need to figure out how to deal with this. I need to find a way to either not let these things stress me, or find a constructive way to deal with the stress by channeling it into something more constructive than slow-burn anxiety attacks. So this challenge will attempt to go back to the basics of what has worked well for stress management in the past, and build on the Stress Management categories from the last challenge. I have added a few tweaks, and some detail to the happiness part. 1.Physical stress management When I move, particularly when I lift weights and when I get out of the house for walks in the evening or morning, I feel considerably less stressed and the anxiety is much easier to control. I need to get back to going to the gym regularly. “I’m too tired” is not a valid excuse to avoid the gym. I also need to stop eating candy and deep fried items when I feel stressed, since that’s a large part of the reason for my stomach issues that sabotaged my last challenge. (I have enough problems without adding self-inflicted ones.) 1a. Go to the gym three days per week. Aim for Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. If something comes up, that stops you from going one of those days, plan ahead and around that, so you can go another day and still get the three gym days into the week. 1b. Stop eating like you’re still in college. This is going to be a long-term goal, that begins with me tracking my food, to get an idea of what I’m eating, and also to make me more aware while I eat, maybe even before I put stuff in my mouth. To this end, I will create an account on My Fitness Pal, and start tracking my meals. I will not worry about setting weight loss goals or amounts of calories, or anything else that stressed me out and made me hate food tracking every other time I tried to do it, and did it completely wrong. This time I will start slow, and I will use the tracking to figure out patterns related to indigestion and sleep, instead of fixating on my weight or the number of calories. 2. Mental stress management This is going to be the exact same as the last challenge: 2a. Mediate every day, without fail. This is critical for mental health and for keeping the stress at bay. I will continue to use Insight Timer, since it has a large number of guided meditations of various length as well as a timer for meditating without the guidance. 2b. Get enough sleep. I seriously need to get better at this. I have set my Fitbit to remind me to get to bed by 11:00 every night. Assuming this works, I’ll get between five and six hours of sleep every night (okay, closer to five), which will be an improvement over the past month or so. 3.The Happiness Factor Now that I have a working definition of happiness, it’s time to start working actively to getting myself to that point. A lot of things that are happening in the world make me feel angry, despondent, and helpless to prevent the whole thing from going up in metaphorical flames. This causes stress and hopelessness, which in turn makes the anxiety comes back. This in turn makes me more stressed, and just like that, the vicious cycle is in full swing. The antidote to this hopelessness is to look away from the big picture, and to find day-to-day things make a difference on a smaller scale. 3a. Set up a full recycling central at home, so as little as possible goes in the trash. This will require learning about what is recycled in our county, and how, and obtain appropriate containers for all the things that can be recycled. And then figure out how to make it all happen and turn it into a habit. 3b. Get a hobby. Or to elaborate a little bit, scrutinize my many interests and pick at least one, at most two, and turn them into actual hobbies. As in, go online and join groups about them, find local face-to-face groups, learn how to get better at them, et cetera. All of the above begins on Monday 22nd.

I am totally stealing this for my challenge. I need to get back to basics as well, for both similar and different reasons. My stress has been off the charts, but not because of hurricanes. I don't suppose you have a link to the minimalist 3x3 program, by any chance, do you?

Whoa. Wait. We need one of these too...

I need those red boots. Right now.

This might be the most important part, and you didn't put it on the spreadsheet! (Music is like breathing. You can be without it, but it's difficult, soon starts to hurt, and after a while you inevitably are back at it, whether you wanted to or not.) Out of curiosity, why the bass? No obligation or pressure to answer if it's too personal a question. I just have not run into a lot of bass players lately, and it's such an underappreciated instrument.

Following for the sleeping, since I'll be refocusing on that as well.

Good to see you.

Why are you posting a video about a bunch of engineers?

*points to forehead* Lifting is here. *taps chest right above the heart* And lifting is here. *taps leather belt* Lifting is never here. I like your approach to lifting, applying it outside the gym. Since my goal with lifting simply is to become stronger, that way of thinking will help me stay on track and not lose focus on that goal.

Looking back, this whole challenge period was a bit of a chaotic mess. 1. Physical stress management – get a workout in three times per week. Use Habit Bull to track this so I can see progress. This part would have gone a lot better if I hadn't been hit with a combination of multiple digestive issues while trying to fight off a cold. We're going to call this a forfeit due to circumstances and leave it at that. 2. Mental stress management – this is the part that keeps my mind from spiraling into an ugly Catch 22 of panic about how stressed I am. Meditation remains awesome on every level. Special thanks to @MaD MaLKaV on this part of the challenge, for suggesting I check out Insight Timer as a source of guided meditations. The app is free, with a micro-transaction system where you basically pay for "courses" of guided meditations, or you can just use the huge library of free sessions, or you can use the timer and dive into meditation on your own. Versatility is a good thing in meditation apps, since I don't always have 15 minutes to spare in the mornings. But I can make time for 3-5 , and that is better than nothing. 3. Happiness Factor – The idea with this is to do something that makes me happy. This one has been tricky. Without becoming too negative or detailed, a lot of things about the current political situation and political climate in the United States, stress me out. The rest flat out piss me off, and some of the political news do both. Combine this with what has been going on at work, combined with trying to be there for my husband (with varied success), and life has been very stressful lately. Stress is not good for my health, either physical or emotional. So for this one, "something that makes me happy" meant actively take control and reduce the stress levels around everything. And this was a success.

Your cat showed some seriously impressive restraint there. T-DAP shots are sucky though. The one I had a couple of years ago still hurts on occasion.

Using it isn't always mandatory though, so if your brain needs a break, give it a break. It will thank you.

My work does that to me pretty regularly. I've pretty much given up on accessing anything related to file sharing from work .