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I feel 1000X better than I did 2 months ago. I feel better than I knew I felt bad, if that makes sense. BUT Just because I feel like I can do all the things now when I felt like I couldn't do the bare minimum before, doesn't mean I should try! Time to be SMART with my goals. I've not had very specific or measurable goals the last couple of months, and I'm changing that. I'm also thinking of doing a grade/reward thing but can't think of a reward right now. (I had more here & was almost done with my whole challenge, but the power went out, and I'm too annoyed at having to start over to redo it right now. But I talk too much anyway, so it's probably a good thing! ) 1. Meditate for a total of at least 2 minutes a day. My brain feels out of whack; I think I haven't leveled out yet. Lately, I have seen several people mentioning why they meditate. Each time I'm like "oh, I need help with that", "mm, yep, me." Help with focus, discipline, sleep, and patience. I think I've never stuck with a regular habit of meditating long enough to benefit much. I'm going to start building that habit now. I plan to use the 21 Days of Calm program, but it looks like it has some longer sessions, so I'm also allowing myself to use another method (like the breath bubble) on some days. At least 2 days a week will be longer sessions, from the 21 DOC. Or I may redo the 7 days if the 21 days starts off with too much. My intentions are to manage stress, get better at leaving work at work, and while I don't want to slow down the random ideas I get mid-sentence, I do want to get better at not spitting them out. It has caused some confusion with my boss. My former boss didn't usually have a problem keeping up when I switched tracks; she even said she liked it. My new boss, he is more of a one track guy. 2. Get rid of one thing a day. Yeah, I'm back to this. While I was moving so often and all my stuff was packed into storage, I kind of liked it. Now I've been back in a house and had my ALL my stuff for a year. I feel closed in and squished. Part of it is probably how this house was laid out compared to the one I lived in before. Previous (long term) house was an open floor plan with wonderful & large kitchen. Current house is not as big and has too many walls. I actually just had maintenance tear a closet out because it was useless and would make the kitchen & living room flow better. The master bedroom & bathroom are HUGE because it was a small house and to make it fit the new(er at the time) park standard for size, they had to add on. So they added it all in those two rooms that they built on. So it's weirdly shaped. The idea of minimalism appeals to me. I doubt I could ever truly be a minimalist just because the things I enjoy require "stuff." But I can reduce how much of it I have at one time by not hoarding it, only buying it for specific projects, and not buy more until I finish said project. (I'm looking at ya'll, Yarn & Reed) I also have way more books than I could re-read and several I don't want to re-read. They've got to go. So at least one thing a day. Getting rid of more than one thing in a day is good, but it won't roll forward. If I get rid of 6 things today, I still have to get rid of one tomorrow. The only exception being if I'm not going to be home for a couple days, because I think it's pretty obvious I can't stay home for more than 2 weeks at a time. Then I have to get rid of one thing for each day I'll be gone BEFORE I pack. 3. Do yoga 4 days a week for at least 10 minutes total & at least 2 days a week do a combat/MA workout. I like yoga. I really, really actually enjoy it. More than most of the bodyweight workouts I've been trying to do lately. The BW feels boring. Yoga doesn't. This is weird because BW has more movement. So I dunno. But I re-realized (partially because of @Jigme's last challenge) there's no point doing something I don't enjoy if I can do something else effective that I do enjoy. I'm a monk because I love martial arts. I haven't actually been to a martial arts class in 3 years, but if I like TKD workouts, why don't I do them in my house by myself? Duh. I used to help teach class, surely, I can come up with something. So I'm going to do that, too. Some of the Darebee workouts have stuff I like, and some of the ones in the Foundation series I started were fun because they were more MA/combat. I also have a deck of exercise card that are combat themed. This is my movement for this challenge. I want to slowly build on it. I've been doing yoga as part of my morning routine and still mostly stick with it. The days can(&will) overlap. I plan to walk some, and maybe even run, but I'm not including it on the challenge. First, because I want to see how Turtle is doing first. If he's not able to walk, I'm not sure I'll be able leave him alone in the house to go walk, especially if he may not survive. Second, because I've gotten to where it's pretty routine, especially with the pup. I want to work back up to running, though, so it'll come soon. I really loved running before. 4. Do Duolingo 6 days a week. It can be German, Japanese, Greek, or Spanish. I've decided mostly to focus on reviewing German and learning Spanish. I want to visit my cousin in Germany in the next couple of years, so that'd be useful. I'm also going to (hopefully) start doing EMT PRN work with a couple of local services. Spanish would be very helpful there. I'm going to look into some Spanish programs specific for EMS after the holidays. Challenges! I'm going to be at a pretty intensive Wilderness EMT training for 9 days of December. It's an 90 hour course crammed into 9 days. If the days are as active (hiking, carry outs, etc) as I suspect they will be, I'm going to take off the MA wo & just make sure I do yoga. I don't know if I'll have internet or cell phone access, so I may not do Duolingo those 9 days. I'll meditate, but maybe not with Calm, bc of connectivity. It doesn't seem like you can download stuff ahead of time anymore? I will get rid of stuff for those days before I leave. I have a German course from Living Language. I will take the book and work in it to sub for Duolingo. I don't think the holidays will be much of a challenge aside from traveling a little for Christmas with my guy's family. I have a lot of time off work. Dec. 20 - Jan. 1st. To Do List Sew napkins for Christmas presents Weave & Sew dish towels for Christmas presents (35% done) Weave mug rugs Sew doll sleeping bags Grab & Go Binder Update & Organize (Started 25% done) Consolidate Go bags I have more than one. That's dumb. I had a bag I keep in my car with extra clothes, sleeping bag, & stuff for in case I stay decide to stay somewhere and I have a slightly more traditional emergency evacuation bag. I need to just squish them together. I can keep the change of clothes on top of the other stuff or put it in a smaller bag snapped to it. (Started, but had to unpack it to wash it bc Turtle had an accident on it..) Clean up my extra room. It'd be a great workout space and office space if I'd get it reorganized. Finish cleaning up the porch maintenance tore a closet out of my house and my porch is covered in dry wall dust now (I did quite a bit of work on the porch before I left for training 50%) Not much left. I finished unpacking a box that's been there for too long and some other stuff 65% I think my telescope needs a new home. List bed, cds, & stuff I plan to sell instead of procrastinating Clean out T-shirt drawer It's gotten a little crowded in the shirt world. It's like they multiply. I haven't even bought a shirt in months! Consolidate First Aid Kits Seriously? How many does a girl need? I have a hiking one, a daily one, a work Responder bag, a personal responder bag, a house kit, and a water sports kit. Not Necessary. Oh! And there's a first aid kit in both the go bags. I keep them all updated and just listing those, man, how much time I'll save if I squish them down. There's no reason my paddling one can't be the same as my hiking one. Anyway. sorry. tmi (Started by rounding up all of them 10%)