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A meaningful life For some time now I've been slacking off and saying to myself there will be time for my goals later... A stupid thing to do when you just turned 40. Procrastination and laziness, added to my floating anxiety episodes, have made me feel a little sad lately. Despondency and criticism have appeared. But I don't want my life to be dictated by my thoughts or my feelings, so I've been taking the time to ponder and write about my values and the kind of life I want to live. I must say I don't know whether I got the right answers, but at least I've come up with some steps I want to take in different areas of my life, and some of these steps will appear in this challenge. For my main goal, this is, living a meaningful life: · I won't let bad feelings or anxiety dictate my life. I will accept those bad feelings and the anxiety, and will experience them. I won't ignore them, nor fight them, nor pretend I can control them or change them into some other thing. I'll stay with them and will let them express themselves. But they don't get to decide how I live my life. · Same goes for anxious, negative thoughts. They will be acknowledged, brain will be thanked for offering the information but I won't buy it. I won't argue with my critic nor will try to refute whatever comes to my mind. These thoughts are not the ones making the decisions here. So, I can be anxious, but I can also have a life, despite being anxious. For all of those described situations, I'll rely on the exercises I've learnt these past weeks from a couple of ACT books I've been reading, and which have proved themselves extremely useful. Everytime I'll find some resistance to take action, or want o leave things for later, or put excuses to justify procrastination, I'll use these exercises to help me. Barriers I think I may found: · thoughts: in the form of excuses, like, I'm too tired, it's too late, it's too cold, I don't feel like doing "X"; or in the form of discouraging thoughts: it's too difficult, I can't do that, I don't know how to do it, I will fail... · emotions: anxiety, fear, despondency, guilt, boredom... · sensations: cold, cold feet, jaw tension, knot in the stomach, hunger... · memories: from times when I've failed or quit · behavioral tendencies: procrastination, mindlessly spending time on the internet, eating sugary things, refusing to eat... I'm someone who cares about improving both her mental and physical health 1) Do some type of physical activity everyday Actions: · attend self-defence lessons twice a week. WEEK 0: DONE! WEEK 1: ONLY ONCE. SICK WEEK 2: ONLY ONCE. AWFUL NECK PAIN AND HEADACHES WEEK 3: ONLY ONCE. SICK WEEK 4: NOPE · take note of every move for subsequent practice at thome. WEEK 0: DONE! WEEK 1: there were no new moves WEEK 2: no new moves WEEK 3: there were no new moves WEEK 4: NOPE · practice self-defence at home at least once a week. WEEK 0: DONE! WEEK 1: SICK WEEKS 2&3: AWFUL NECK PAIN AND HEADACHES WEEK 4: NOPE · do at least one strength workout per week at home. WEEK 0: DONE! WEEK 1: SICK WEEKS 2&3: AWFUL NECK PAIN AND HEADACHES WEEK 4: NOPE · go to the woods and walk briskly for a while at least once a week. Biking is ok too. I can be excused from this action if the weather is really bad, like heavy rain or strong winds. WEEK 0: DONE! WEEK 1: SICK WEEKS 2&3: AWFUL NECK PAIN AND HEADACHES WEEK 4: NOPE · clean or declutter at home. WEEK 0: UH-OH WEEK 1: SICK WEEK 2: JUST OK WEEK 3: OK WEEK 4: OK 2) Frequent use of meditation Actions: · meditate for a minimum of 10 minutes everyday. Ideally meditate once in the morning and once in the evening. WEEK 0: DONE! WEEK 1: DONE! WEEK 2: DONE! WEEK 3: NOPE, only short meditations (3-5 minutes) WEEK 4: DONE! These goals start right now. I'm someone who cares about her students learning while having fun 3) Prepare this year's technique competition GOAL ACHIEVED! Actions: · look for some maps on the internet, or find some map generator DONE! · make some first drafts of the map DONE! · think of how many good, bad and neutral squares I want the map to have, and which drawings will be on them DONE! · think how I want the deck of cards to be, how many cards and with which content and difficulty no cards. It would make the game far too complicated. I'll be using one dice to decide the random aspects of the game. · define more clearly the game's rules DONE! This goal starts on week 1. I'm someone who likes to be in constant development and who has considered taking a step forward in her performance career 4) Do your technique everyday Actions: · Just. Do. It. WEEK 0: DONE! WEEK 1: SICK WEEKS 2&3: AWFUL NECK PAIN AND HEADACHES, but managed to do it 3 days each week WEEK 4: DONE! This goal starts right now. 5) Make a plan to start working on e-minor Bach's sonata Actions: · make a clean copy DONE! · listen to several recordings and take notes WEEK 1: DONE! WEEK 2: NOPE WEEK 3: DONE! · analyze the piece. Don't go mad on this, just a few lines each time WEEK 1: DONE! WEEK 2: DONE! WEEK 3: DONE! · devise a study plan DONE! · follow said plan ON IT This goal starts on week 1. 6) Find some time along the week to read, and/or to work on icelandic Actions: · choose a book from the pile on the desk fellow rebels will help me pick (18 pending books so far) Chosen book: FLOW · read said book for 10 minutes at least twice a week WEEK 2: DONE! WEEK 3: DONE! WEEK 4: DONE! · take notes WEEK 2: DONE! WEEK 3: DONE! WEEK 4: DONE! · choose an icelandic lesson (from grammar book, comicbook or whatever) WEEK 2: DONE! (Ástríkur!) WEEK 3: NOPE WEEK 4: NOPE · work on said lesson for 10 minuts at least twice a week WEEK 2: DONE! WEEK 3: NOPE WEEK 4: NOPE This goal starts on week 2 OR week 3, depending on how much work I've done on goal 3. I don't want to get overwhelmed. This area included another goal: writing an e-mail to a new teacher to book a lesson, but I've done it already. Now just have to wait for an answer, keeping my composure if possible to avoid checking my e-mail twenty times a day. To reduce pressure, every action can be divided in smaller steps whenever I need it, such as reading for only 5 minutes and leaving the remaining 5 for another moment, listening to only one movement of the piece, dividing the time to clean or declutter in short periods along the day, and so on. Points available: Goal 1: 2 STR, 1 STA, 1 DEX. Goal 2: 1 WIS. Goal 3: 1 CHA. Goal 4: 2 DEX. Goal 5: 1 WIS. Goal 6: 1 CHA.