Search the Community

Hello Druids! My name is Noor and I am a halfling assassin who was cursed into the form of a stone giant by fae magic. If you take a look at past challenges, there are many bits and pieces of story there cataloging my quest to regain control of my body and mind from this curse, which is a metaphor for mental illness, hormonal imbalance, and the stresses and struggles of being a fat pansexual genderqueer professional in modern America. I come to the druids because I am seeking balance and centering after months of rapid change and high stress. I am in the process of completing my doctorate in psychology and my internship year is the first time I have been working full time since I left the workforce 5 years ago. I am also commuting over an hour each way, so taking care of my body and finding work-life balance has to be a huge priority. so yeah, that's me, doing my best to live a values-driven life in a mad and mixed up hectic world. ​ Goal 1: Yoga and Stretching. My body has become stiff, calcified by the necessary evils of a commuter's life. I have worked and worked over my time at NF to build exercise into my routine and pretty much every challenge I have gotten hurt, or aggravated my back. Instead, I am holding off until I can get in to see a physical therapist and build a routine under supervision. Instead, I am going ot focus on flexibility and core strength through low or no impact exercises and regular stretching. My goal is to do 15 minutes of core strength work 3 days/week, and at least 10 minutes of yoga every day. CORE (+3 STR) 15 or more days; (+2STR) 12 or more days; (+1 STR) 6 or more days YOGA (+3 DEX) 35 or more days; (+2DEX) 28 or more days; (+1DEX) 14 or more days Goal 2: Diet and Nutrition. I want to lose weight. I am tired of carrying this burden and I want to have a long healthy life. I can't really articulate my long and complicated relationship with food here, but it suffices to say I have an eating disorder that I have fought with since college and one of the best ways for me to manage food is to focus on eating appropriate quantities of healthy food that I enjoy. In my case that means generally a higher protein PaleoPrimal plan. IN order to make sure I am consistently eating the right amounts of food and staying in balance there, I will track food daily. TRACKING (+3 CON) 35 or more days; (+2 CON) 28 or more days; (+1CON) 14 or more days Goal 3: Sleep. My sleep cycle is getting dysregulated and I am not prioritizing my wellbeing over video games, media and social time. I have a long commute to work every day and I have to be up at 5am. That means bedtime is at 10 PM. That's lights out, in bed dozing off at 10pm. I get a break on weekends, no curfew on gaming nights, and shoot for midnight on the non-gaming day BED ON TIME (+3 STA) 27 or more days; (+2 STA) 20 or more days; (+1STA) 10 or more days Goal 4: Writing. I am completing NaNoWriMo this month. I have been struggling to prioritize creative things and to give myself more outlets in my life to be imaginative as I find that to be very renewing and important for my self care. I have always wanted to be a writer since I was little and have written tons of short stories, poems nad even longer pieces but never managed to complete a novel. Hopefully this will push me to do so. I am making a goal to write for at least 15 minutes a day. NaNoWriMo (+3 WIS) 35 or more days; (+2 WIS) 28 or more days; (+1WIS) 14 or more days

What’s This? What’s This? There’s Yoga Everywhere! What’s This? There’s Smiling in the Air! Hello and welcome to RoseofMay’s third six week challenge! In saying goodbye to Halloween, we begin to approach one of my other favorite holidays: Christmas! What better way to work through this new challenge than with some help from some of the friendly folk of Halloween Town? In this challenge, I am going to continue working with yoga practices, sharpening my food habits, reminding myself of the good times, and simplifying my day with a little practice of time management. Quest One: Sally I am going to be looking for yoga routines that engage your core. I’m certain that nearly every routine and pose does that, but I want to focus on strengthening that area. In addition, I want to work on breathing and finding my center. My goal is to do 15 minutes of core strength work 3 days/week, and 5 minutes of stretching and breathing exercises every day. Quest Two: Lock, Shock, and Barrel...or Calories, Sugars, and Fats I am determined to get into the good habit of keeping track of my food. I also want to put forth the effort to keep an eye on my sugar and fat intake. Staying within my caloric intake is important, but I noticed that despite coming in under that number, things such as sugar and fat would go overboard. Sugar more than anything else. That said, I am going to work to be mindful of the amount sugar things have, good sugars vs bad sugars, healthy fats, and looking for filling foods that will help me feel satisfied rather than hungry an hour later. Calories/Day: Sugar/Day: Fat/Day: Quest Three: Jack Skellington As the weather is growing colder, it means that moods will begin to decline in our house. I have decided to use one of my goals to make sure that I help not only myself, but my Mom. We will take the time every day to make a list of 5 things that make us happy. We will keep them tucked away in a special notebook so that whenever we are feeling down, we can refer to it. I think in doing the above, we will be able to see that there are so many things for us to be happy about should we be having a less than stellar day. Life Quest: The Mayor I need to work on my time management. I know that I could be accomplishing a lot of things if I managed my time better. Stop procrastinating until the last minute for things like projects, dinner, phone calls, cleaning...etc. Get it done early and not worry about it later. Doing this with everyday life will just help make everything go smoother. To accomplish this, I am going to make daily to-do lists along with a weekly to-do list. Instead of trying to narrow down a concrete routine, knowing what I should be accomplishing on a daily and weekly basis will help me prioritize my time. This includes time for myself!