Jenn Practices Self Care (Doctors Orders)

[J3NN]

Food/Nutrition

• Keep on keeping on, but try to find easier healthy options, especially low/no cook options since it’s summer in California. Monitor my weight to make sure I’m staying in the same weight range or losing.
• Keep taking vitamins and supplements Every day
• Drink water Minimum 64 oz; Stretch goal 100 oz

Physical Activity

• Walk to Mordor (start using Pokemon Go)
  • It’s hot now so this has been a challenge, need to find a new approach, either walking in the morning, or at the indoor track at the gym to still get those steps in.
  • Short term goal is 5,000 steps/day; long term goal to get up to 7500 steps/day.
• Hand weights. I feel my strength slipping away since I’ve stopped the gym workouts. I want to start using my hand weights at home, start with
  • Options: Bicep curls, Rows, Shoulder presses, Squats, Side tilts, triceps extensions; 1 set of 15 5x/week

Level Up

I’ve been experiencing a higher than normal average of headaches so I went to the doctor. They gave me a referral for neurology but recommended that I practice more self-care items, eating well, sleeping well, and exercising. So I’m going to put a specific focus on that. I found this book with very step-by-step intentional routines: The Witch's Book of Self-Care: Magical Ways to Pamper, Soothe, and Care for Your Body and Spirit by Arin Murphy-Hiscock, so I’m using it as a guide to make myself make time for even more self-care.

• Goals (Goal is to do something every other day to start with the long term goal of every day.)
  • Start a self-care journal
  • Practice self-care rituals outlined in the book and record each and the outcome in my journal
    • Mental and Emotional
    • Physical
    • Spiritual
    • Household

[J3NN]

I am home today instead of at work like I need to be, but I had a fever Saturday and Sunday and I'm not feverish now but still week so I'm giving myself an extra 24 hours. While I'm here I decided there's no time like the present so I created my challenge and have gotten started, so here's my first update.

 

Food/Nutrition

• Starting weight: 200.6 lbs
• Keep taking vitamins and supplements- done
• Drink water Minimum 64 oz; Stretch goal 100 oz - I'm at 54 oz so far, so well on target for the day.

Physical Activity

• Walk to Mordor (start using Pokemon Go)
  • Not making myself do this one today since I'm in recovery mode.
• Hand weight Options: Bicep curls, Rows, Shoulder presses, Squats, Side tilts, triceps extensions; 1 set of 15 5x/week
  • Ditto

Level Up

practice more self-care items

• Goals
  • Start a self-care journal
    • Completed this by blessing a new notebook and pens and pencils to use in the book following the ritual in the book
  • Next goal is to make a list of the different rituals so I can have that as a handy reference for when I am ready to practice

[Tateman]

Hopefully, you feel better. I very much prefer walking in the morning, are even the night time. Today I was walking around noon, and it was just to dang hot for that. haha.

[Waanie]

Found you!

 

Hopefully you'll feel better soon, both physically and mentally. How do you like the book so far? It sounds very useful, how well is the build-up? I often start with this type of routines, but at some point it becomes too overwhelming and I stop completely. It would be cool if this book is actually sustainable, I might buy it for myself then as well.

[Rookie]

I am also interested in the book. I am Googling it now. 

 

Is walking around in a mall an option? My mom used to take my brother and I to the mall when we didn't have AC just to get us out of the heat. And its essentially an indoor walking track

 

You better recover fast lady!

[J3NN]

It's definitely written with spellcraft in mind, so if that doesn't jive with your personal belief system it might come off a little strong. But that said, all the "spells" include natural elements, incense, candlelight, crystals and minerals and so forth, nothing that is difficult to find or really out there or dark. My house is littered with all these things already, so for me it's a natural transition. There is a brief introduction to witchcraft, with some teaching to help you focus (center and ground) and explain the concepts. And then she just dives into the self-care aspects. The things I really like about that is that each one is a "recipe" so there's a list of ingredients and then a step-out for each method. So for example, if you were going to practice self-care by journaling this might be the steps.

1. Center and ground
2. Light the candle and incense
3. Say a blessing (it will recommend one)
4. Journal
5. Close with another blessing
6. Extinguish the incense and candle if they haven't burnt out

Nothing earth shattering, but it feels very focused and the script makes it feel like I am really giving that time to myself to take care of me.

 

So, I appreciate it, but it's definitely weighted, so keep that in mind.

[Waanie]

Ah yeah, that sounds like it's not for me, although I do like this kind of step-by-step "recipe". I understand where it's coming from, but my tolerance for New Age-y stuff is fairly low. I'm glad it works for you though . 

 

How's the weather, can you go outside again? Or is it still unbearable?

[Rookie]

It sound interesting. I would definitely give it a read but I am kind of with Waanie in the new age stuff. My mom is totally crystals, incense, candles, random rituals etc  .. unless I told her its has spellcraft in it. Shes weird lol

 

 

[J3NN]

@Waanie and @Rookie

You can read some of the pages online and get a feel for how witchy/new agey it is and see if it's too much. then you don't have to waste your money. But the step by step really helps, and you can modify to exclude anything that is too far out there, so for $10 it might be worth it anyway.  As I read further, it's definitely worth the purchase for me. I plan to make a set of meditation beads to use with specific affirmations for self-care, all inspired by a ritual in the book. So that's a win. And there's even a project to make your own beads out of rose (or other flower) petals, which I'm very intrigued by.

[Waanie]

I will think about making "rituals" after finishing my PhD-thesis, they might be helpful . I still have a heavier self-help book here as well, and also still have regular counselling, so I have to be careful to not overdo it. The rituals are very cool though.

 

How's your challenge going?

[Rookie]

I will check it out when I am home and remember (dont be afraid to give me a poke lol)  

 

Can you share a picture of the beads you made? :O I am picture many different ways this could come to light. 

 

 

[J3NN]

It was a crazy week, I was teaching/leading a workshop, and just finished yesterday so now life will be a bit better. I hope. I have a doctor's appointment today to talk about why I keep getting sick so maybe that will also be a load off. As far as an update, I guess I'm doing okay, but I need to double-down in some areas.

 

Food/Nutrition

• Starting weight: 200.6 lbs - current 204.4
• Keep taking vitamins and supplements- done
• Drink water Minimum 64 oz; Stretch goal 100 oz - Doing well, only missed a day or two

Physical Activity

• Walk to Mordor (start using Pokemon Go)
  • I have been averaging about 4200 steps/day, I still want to get that up to 5,000 consistently, so I need to work on that.
• Hand weight Options: Bicep curls, Rows, Shoulder presses, Squats, Side tilts, triceps extensions; 1 set of 15 5x/week
  • I have not done this. I could kick myself. Last night I saw the weights, literally put my hands on them, and then got distracted by chores and didn't ever return. Tonight!

Level Up

practice more self-care items

• Goals
  • Start a self-care journal
    • I have my journal and I recorded the ritual for making my meditation beads. I also started thinking about what else I want to record in it. Like a record of all the rocks/crystals I own and their properties, as well as herbs/trees, moon cycle etc.
  • Started to make a list of the different ritual, Pretty much have it done, just trying to figure out how to record it.
  • I've been doing a body scan which is one of the recommended steps of a morning ritual. I'm not sure it does anything except help me ground...but that counts as something.

[J3NN]

20 hours ago, Rookie said:

Can you share a picture of the beads you made?

I will do this tonight.

 

On 8/9/2019 at 5:29 AM, Waanie said:

The rituals are very cool though.

As I've finished reading the book and been through all the rituals, I feel very strongly that they are about a mindful approach to life. They may use the crystals and herbs and call themselves magic. But really, it's about stopping what you're doing, focusing, setting an intention and really being mindful about seeing it come to fruition. In our world it's so easy to be busy all the time, or to multi-task or get distracted, so these "recipes" really help me stop and focus on what I need to be doing for me and my well-being. Plus the candles have pretty flames and the incense smells good, so it's a win-win.

 

I've been reading up on practices like this and I see that the study of Druidry is about nature spirituality and this is intriguing to me, so I may dig into this more in a future challenge.

[Rookie]

Woohoo. You have made good progress J3NN  Time for us to focus! And silly you getting distracted by chores   We literally talked about your hand weights yesterday lol

[J3NN]

Here's the meditation bead craft I made. Thankfully I had all the supplies on hand. I picked the colors strategically, or tried to. Hope it works. [emoji16]

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[J3NN]

Woohoo. You have made good progress J3NN [emoji4] Time for us to focus! And silly you getting distracted by chores [emoji14]  We literally talked about your hand weights yesterday lol

Did 15 reps of bicep curls on each arm. Not a record, but I did it!

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[J3NN]

Food/Nutrition

• Starting weight: 200.6 lbs - current 204.4 (been up and down, but back to that point strangely)
• Keep taking vitamins and supplements- done
• Drink water Minimum 64 oz; Stretch goal 100 oz - I got 62 oz yesterday, so I was just shy of it, but I've been doing pretty well here.

Physical Activity

• Walk to Mordor (start using Pokemon Go)
  • I have not opened Pokemon Go yet, it's just been so hot and there's so much going on. This weekend we're going to Long Beach to the aquarium, I might see about having my daughter's friend show me more while we're there.
• Hand weight Options: Bicep curls, Rows, Shoulder presses, Squats, Side tilts, triceps extensions; 1 set of 15 5x/week
  • I did two nights ago, and last night was my daughter's birthday and with everything going on I just forgot. BUT, on the way home (driving) I was feeling a lot of muscle tension in my neck/upper back, so this song came on that had a great rhythm, so I made myself do shoulder lifts for the whole song. I think it really helped my muscle tension because it didn't bother me the rest of the night. So maybe that's something I can work into my routine, it'd probably be good for my posture too.

Level Up

practice more self-care items

• Goals
  • Start a self-care journal
    • I used my meditation beads last night and went through the affirmations for healing, success and love. My family doesn't care for incense, so I'm trying to find a way to get the same benefit of the smell of incense but in a different way. I am going to look for an essential oil and try using that. The experience of the ritual was fantastic. To only have to take 5-10 minutes, but to feel like I really focused on positive self-talk for myself and setting good intentions, that was amazing.

[Tateman]

Yeah, it has been way hot here. The Aquarium might have some good Pokestops and such to spin. Probably a good place to open it up

[J3NN]

On 8/15/2019 at 3:50 PM, Tateman said:

Yeah, it has been way hot here. The Aquarium might have some good Pokestops and such to spin. Probably a good place to open it up

Well, that didn't happen. My battery is shot and so I had my phone in airplane mode most of the day. But I have managed to level up to level two and caught my third pokemon this morning. So I guess stuff is happening even if I'm not doing it a ton!

 

The aquarium was awesome, totally and completely. We got to pet sharks and rays and even jelly fish. Plus, we saw a Peacock Mantis Shrimp and an awesome little dude called a Mandarinfish who liked to play peek-a-boo and was a gorgeous blue. A good day all around. One of the bat rays actually nuzzled my hand and was around for a bit to be pet, not just swimming by barely out of reach. That was so cool.

[J3NN]

Food/Nutrition

• Starting weight: 200.6 lbs - current 205.8 (mostly just keep going up :/)
• Keep taking vitamins and supplements- done
• Drink water Minimum 64 oz; Stretch goal 100 oz - Doing good with the minimum, almost reached the stretch goal yesterday..

Physical Activity

• Walk to Mordor (start using Pokemon Go)
  • I have caught three pokemon, and leveled up to level 2, but I have yet to do an actual walk with it. I ordered a new phone and should have that today so maybe with a fresh battery I can actually use my phone to do stuff like this.
• Hand weight Options: Bicep curls, Rows, Shoulder presses, Squats, Side tilts, triceps extensions; 1 set of 15 5x/week
  • I haven't been good at this, I haven't done any further sets. I really need to commit to this more, or find something else. I'm really struggling with adulting and responsibility right now so this keeps getting passed over.

Level Up

practice more self-care items

• Goals
  • Start a self-care journal
    • I haven't made any further progress on this unless you count saving ideas for things to put in my journal. 

[Rookie]

-headbutt attack- lol

 

2 more weeks!

[J3NN]

Food/Nutrition

• Starting weight: 200.6 lbs - I haven't weighed since the last time, so I honestly don't know. I have completely fallen off the wagon of tracking.
• Keep taking vitamins and supplements- done
• Drink water Minimum 64 oz; Stretch goal 100 oz - Doing good with the minimum.

Physical Activity

• Walk to Mordor (start using Pokemon Go)
  • It's still been too hot to motivate myself to walk, but I did make my daily goal yesterday and I am now level four in PoGo.
• Hand weight Options: Bicep curls, Rows, Shoulder presses, Squats, Side tilts, triceps extensions; 1 set of 15 5x/week
  • Nope. Nada. Zilch.

Level Up

practice more self-care items

• Goals
  • Start a self-care journal
    • I still haven't made any further progress on this unless you count saving ideas for things to put in my journal. 

Starting to think about the next challenge and what to do different to kick myself back into gear.

[Waanie]

1 hour ago, J3NN said:

• • • I still haven't made any further progress on this unless you count saving ideas for things to put in my journal. 

 

This is actually why I bought an agenda to use as a journal. You can test things out, and just start DOING instead of saving ideas and being afraid of messing up your journal .

 

-hugs- There's still one and a half week to go, you can still make this challenge somewhat of a success!