Just Breathe: DJ Trippy T Defeats the Evil Brain Weasels and Achieves Total Enlightenment

[DJtrippyT]

 

 

 

 

 

So my challenge this time around is a bit more about mental space. I am embarking on a journey to control my stress levels and achieve complete inner peace.

 

 

 

 

 

I feel like I have my physical fitness under control, and my nutrition is finally falling into line. I’m not at my goals with those things, but I can leave them on autopilot for a minute as I work on my metal health, which is the third leg of the health tripod.

 

Last challenge I finally made a huge career change, and while I doubt the job I’m in now will be my next career, it is definitely lower stress and gives me a stable schedule, roughly the same every week.  I was hoping that it would free up some bandwidth so I can finally figure out what I want to be when I grow up, but the pandemic and a family illness kind of stepped in and fried my synapses. Even with the less-stressful job, I often feel like I’m being pulled in 17 different directions at one time. I refer to this as being Eaten Alive by the Tasmanian Brain Weasels. It’s given me a kind of low-grade, grinding anxiety that I would like to dispense with (or at least ratchet down a weasel or two).

 

 

 

Some of this, too, is caused by my constant need to be doing six things at once to feel my existence is justified, which means I get three and a half  things done (none of them well) and two things undone, which I then feel bad about. This is not an optimal state for me. 

 

 

Rather than heading to Vegas with a homemade pharmacy, I will achieve my zen-like state of mind by attacking THE FOUR WEASELS OF THE APOCALYPSE.

 

 

The Hyper Weasel: Meditation sometimes works for me, and sometimes just makes me more irritated because I can’t calm down my brain.  So I will give it a shot, but I’m not going to feel bad about it on days it won’t work. 

 

Forest Bathing, which may be the weirdest hippy-dippy thing that I do*, works well. Put me out in a green space and I can finally calm the fuck down. My brain is still revving, but I definitely feel better. 

 

Goal: get out into green space three times a week, minimum. This can just be sitting on my patio staring into the garden. At least 20 minutes each time.

 

 

 

 

 

The Sleep Weasel: now that my schedule is a bit more consistent I want to get better sleep. I want to buy a mattress topper (we can’t afford a new mattress yet but I want a softer bed) and be in bed by 10:30 most nights. 

 

I had a rather disconcerting sleep aid dependency in my old career because my schedule was so crazy, but I don’t need them anymore, which is probably for the good. I think if I just get off electronics and maybe chant a little before bed I’ll sleep fine without the chemistry set coursing through my bloodstream.  

 

Goal: No electronics 45 mins before bed, bed at 10:45 pm nightly. Cozy footie pajamas optional. Order mattress topper by halfway thru challenge.

 

 

 

The Multi-Tasking Weasel: My old gig was extremely interrupt-driven, requiring me to jump from task to task constantly. This has left me with the attention span of a goldfish.

 

 

I would like to work on my ability to focus by working in concentrated blocks, working on one task at a time, and not perpetually distracted by my phone/email/whatever. 

 

Goal: Do three 45-minute focus blocks of work daily, with my phones across the room (so they’re accessible, but I can’t pick them up randomly and scroll) and one of those blocks I have to turn the phone and the wifi off. I set up my personal phone so I can put it on Do Not Disturb and only the Mantis, my Mom, or my new boss can ring through. The company phone has to stay on, but it’s less distracting because it’s only set up for calls and no one ever calls it except right before events.  

 

 

 

 

 

The Boundaries Weasel: 

 

I came from a career where you were expected to be on call 24/7 while you were on assignment for 10-12 day shifts, but that is just not sustainable AT ALL when I’m working somewhere indefinitely. So I’m going to set some reasonable boundaries. No email or phones before 9 am, no email after 6:30pm (but I will answer the phone until 8pm if it’s my new boss).

 

Ironically my new employer hates me constantly updating him on stuff in real time (which was the expected behavior at my old job). SO WEIRD. Now I just send him an end-of-day wrap-up email. So it’s not like anyone knows if I’m grinding away at 8 pm anyway.

 

Saturday is my day off and I will guard it religiously so that I get a break every week. 

 

 

 

I will rate each day on a Sliding Weasel Scale, with One being a weasel napping calmly in the sun, probably after a good lunch, and Five being my hair is on fire and also there’s a weasel attached to my face.

 

It’s weird not to have a fitness goal - usually I have some deranged, Bear Grylss-ish objective for these things - but right now I want to focus on the software side of the equation. I can go back to flailing wildly later. I’ll still work out and log my workouts, though. 

 

SPECIAL THANKS TO @Xena FOR THE WEASEL ILLUSTRATION!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

*honestly, this is saying something

[Sloth the Enduring]

Could be worse, could be brain stoats that are after you.

[DJtrippyT]

3 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Could be worse, could be brain stoats that are after you.

 

there would be, but apparently my friend Steve has been stuffing them in his pants, per our FB exchange

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following along.

[DJtrippyT]

2 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following along.

 

I swore a vow to @deftona that there would be no more naked mole rats, so you may be disappointed. All the animals this time will be fully clothed (possibly in a tiny, adorable sweater)

 

[Xena]

LOVE this challenge!

[DJtrippyT]

17 minutes ago, Xena said:

LOVE this challenge!

 

Your cartoon was the inspiration

[DJtrippyT]

i double-posted, so enjoy this screencap from a wildlife YouTube I was just watching, which has the best caption ever

 

 

[Elastigirl]

Try and avoid the weasel attatched to your face. I hear that's not fun. I'm liking the weasel way better than the mole rats, though mole rats in their own little ugly way sort of fascinate me.

[deftona]

Thank heavens these weasels are not naked, between the naked animals and the sloths, this whole corner of cyberspace was starting to need a trigger warning for me. 

[fearless 2.0]

hahahaha the pics!!!!! Im loving it! Why didnt I check you out earlier? Following ...

[DJtrippyT]

12 hours ago, deftona said:

Thank heavens these weasels are not naked, between the naked animals and the sloths, this whole corner of cyberspace was starting to need a trigger warning for me. 

 

[DJtrippyT]

8 hours ago, fearless 2.0 said:

hahahaha the pics!!!!! Im loving it! Why didnt I check you out earlier? Following ...

 

I am very visual yes

 

Also I think it should be stated for the record that weasels are fucking adorable and it's a travesty that their name is sullied with the negative association. I wish we had one in the garden. Although if I still kept chickens I would probably feel differently

 

[Ann of Owlshire]

Here for weasels napping calmly in the sun

[DJtrippyT]

First day of Zero week and I'm officially at a ONE! 

 

Hyper Weasel: I did an okay meditation session this morning, and I had a good forest bathing thingy yesterday so I'm ahead of the game for the week.

 

Sleep Weasel: got off the electronic pony last night and went to bed more-or-less on time, after watching a Nat Geo thing on sharks vs dolphins. It helped that my phone battery died just as I thought, "I really gotta get off this thi-" bzzzzp dead. 

 

Multi-tasking Weasel - This was AWESOME today. I took the time this morning to write out my to-do list in order of priority, and I inserted a little break for myself every four or five items. And it all got done! Well, almost, but way more than the usual spaz. I even had time to go get my nose swabbed again (I kept working while waiting in line, the only acceptable multitasking). 

 

Just look at all those crossed off items! I tell you, it's incredibly soothing. 

 

 

Boundaries Weasel: I did good at this too. I took my phone out of the bedroom and used the alarm clock to get up, got up on time (6:45) and then didn't look at the phones until 8:45 so I had a calm morning. Very Pleased. 

 

Now I'm going to work out.  I work my workout clothes all day today to remove that mental barrier. It's not like anyone sees me but the cats. 

 

 My OMAD today will be pulled pork tacos, green salad, and soup I picked up over the weekend. yummy. Gotta live through the workout first.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Xena]

3 hours ago, DJtrippyT said:

It's not like anyone sees me but the cats. 

 

Cats can be super judge-y but it's hard to know what their criteria are.

 

And great start to zero week!

[Xena]

I know this thread is about weasels, but I just saw this and wanted to put it somewhere. Cats are SO hard to impress sometimes!

 

 

[deftona]

40 minutes ago, Xena said:

 

 

 

 every single cat owners life, every single day.

[DJtrippyT]

3 hours ago, Xena said:

I know this thread is about weasels, but I just saw this and wanted to put it somewhere. Cats are SO hard to impress sometimes!

 

 

 

All cat videos are allowed, at all times. Except naked cats because I promised deffy.

 

2 hours ago, deftona said:

 

 every single cat owners life, every single day.

 

Truth.

 

[DJtrippyT]

Today the sliding weasel scale ended up at a 3, Weasel Doing Weasel Things But Not Entirely Well.

 

Hyper Weasel: I did not meditate or forest bathe today. 

 

Sleep Weasel: I got off the electronics last night on time, read a little, and then did a candlelight meditation for about 6 minutes. Then I fell asleep and slept like the dead until 4 am, when one of my cats decided to chew on my hair. I had a little trouble falling back asleep so I didn't get up at 6:45 as planned

 

Multi-tasking Weasel - Remember how yesterday was AWESOME? Today was not awesome. I had trouble tuning out distractions and never got my phone-free hour, and I got handed a work assignment that pushed everything else off the table, so I didn't get all my work done. Plus I had to drive my boyfriend to return a rental car and then later to pick up his car at the shop. Tomorrow will be better, as I have less on my list - I was a little overloaded today anyway.

 

Boundaries Weasel: I did good about the phones this morning, but I'm just finishing up work now (7:30PM) but that is because I agreed to help a friend write a business plan and he couldn't talk until 7 o'clock.  So that's on me. 

 

I worked out today between regular work and helping my friend, stadium steps and box squats with a sandbag. it was very sweaty.

 

Now I am going to make dinner which will be shrimp and rice. I had some scrambled eggs at breakfast - I'm trying to do a zero -carb breakfast a few days a week - and my boyfriend made frozen pizza earlier and I had some of that, so it has definitely not been an OMAD day.

 

Enjoy this story of a man and his tiny weasel friend. TW: bunny carnage

 

 

[DJtrippyT]

HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN CHANGED I LITERALLY JUST SAW IT

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

44 minutes ago, DJtrippyT said:

HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN CHANGED I LITERALLY JUST SAW IT

 

Sometime in the first quarter of the last challenge.

[Xena]

If we were playing a drinking game, I could legitimately say "I've never stolen a dead rabbit from an ermine"

Anyone???

[DJtrippyT]

11 hours ago, Xena said:

If we were playing a drinking game, I could legitimately say "I've never stolen a dead rabbit from an ermine"

Anyone???

 

Likewise

[Sloth the Enduring]

I feel like you two need to live a little.