Shaeon Gets Centered

[shaeon]

Last month I did pretty good with my goals, except for my life goal which I completely failed at. That goal was to make a leather bag for my mom, and I didn't get one thing done on it. In fact, I have a general sense that I want to make a bag with a floral design on it, and that's it. No further ideas. I'm low on creativity. 

I also found last month that the things that threw me off track basically add up to getting distracted and taking things personally. 

So this month, I turn inward to nurture my creativity, center myself, and try to be less easily distracted.  

 

My goals for this month: 

 

Sleep: By the end of the challenge, I want to be going to bed before midnight on every work night. 

Yoga: Do yoga 3 times a week. 

Meditation: EDITED TO ADD Daily. 

Life goal - Creativity: EDITED TO ADD Time set aside for leatherwork at least once a week, and time set aside for other creative activity (free-drawing, sketching, etc.) once a week. I just started the advanced leather carving class, so that should actually make it easy to fulfill the first of those.

For now, I'm really tired, and going to bed pretty soon. I had considered doing yoga today, but at this point I feel like "I wonder if laying down in bed counts as Corpse Pose."  

 

[RES]

hmmm...it might!

 

I'm here...stalking as usual!

[RogueLibrarian]

Following! We should talk meditation some time. I have trouble motivating myself to do it for some reason -- and it should be the easiest item on my challenge list.

[shaeon]

Made edits to the post above to clarify the parameters of two of my goals. 

 

This week, I must be in bed by 12:30 every night. Woo! 

 

I also just took steps to get my cat Mike insurance. He had a lot of problems last year, so I've decided it's just worth it with him. Taking care of that gives me a little peace of mind, which certainly helps me with being more centered.

[shaeon]

Got a duplicate post for some reason. Writing this just to remove the duplicate. Not sure why deleting wasn't an option. 

[shaeon]

Just found out that the friend I went to Atlanta with this weekend has the flu. 

 

 

So I guess there's nothing to do at this point but wait and see what happens. And hope. That I don't have the flu. 

 

 

Following! We should talk meditation some time. I have trouble motivating myself to do it for some reason -- and it should be the easiest item on my challenge list.

 

I have the same issue, and yeah, it really should be easy. Typically I have the issue that I'll be at work thinking "I should take a break and do the five minute meditation on my meditation app" and then I think "but no, I can't, busy busy busy." And then I get home and I don't feel a need to meditate, so it doesn't cross my mind and I forget. 

 

One of the best ways for me to do it is to meditate first thing in the morning. I have a bad tendency to want to go right back to bed after waking up, and often I do for 15 to 30 minutes more. This often means rushing and barely making it to work on time. I can compromise with the seductive call of the bed by going and sitting in bed instead of laying down, and meditating (sometimes I will sit on my sofa instead for morning meditation, but usually covered in blankets). This is a nice compromise and tends to transition me from "no no no need more sleep" to "OK I'm awake now." I just have to be sure to sit upright so that I don't simply fall back to sleep (I also set an alarm to go off sometime after the meditation has ended, just in case). 

What tends to work - and not work - for you?

[shaeon]

Rawr. Went for a walk and very suddenly got a cramp in my right calf muscle. I'm thinking my road trip to Atlanta on Friday and back again on Saturday, followed by a do-nothing Sunday, is the culprit. I've had a similar issue before with air travel, where a day spent sitting very still and doing no more walking than what's required to change planes and get checked in to a hotel results in a leg cramp. In fact, I'm thinking the right leg is the one suffering because it's the one that I spent hours extending forward on the gas pedal. 

 

On the positive side, though - I came across the video Human Kinda about a week ago, and really enjoyed it. It's about people being busy all the time and the need to slow down. In it, a woman learns breathing exercises and a man spends a day doing nothing. Surprisingly, it's actually a fun video to watch. It makes me really want to spend a day doing nothing (not the nothing I did yesterday, all podcasts and Netflix and naps. More of a go to a park and watch ducks kind of nothing. A nothing that's free from staring at screens). 

[RogueLibrarian]

I think maybe I should try morning meditation. I'm usually doing evenings before bed, and that makes it easy to put it off and forget. I'm often tired and cranky and unfocused after work. Taking a meditation break in the workday is good when I can do it, but I don't have an office door and privacy is hard to come by -- not that anyone would notice or care if I sat in my cube and did it, but I get self-conscious.

[shaeon]

I think maybe I should try morning meditation. I'm usually doing evenings before bed, and that makes it easy to put it off and forget. I'm often tired and cranky and unfocused after work. Taking a meditation break in the workday is good when I can do it, but I don't have an office door and privacy is hard to come by -- not that anyone would notice or care if I sat in my cube and did it, but I get self-conscious.

I've done five minute meditations in my cube, and I basically think 1. Nobody will probably notice, but 2. If they do, they will think I'm sleeping on the job. I have mixed feelings about that. I can always just say "oh, well I'm meditating for five minutes" and who knows what the response might be. No one cares when I go for a walk for 15 minutes. 

And I like morning meditation. It starts the day off nice. I tend to like meditation in the evening too. Especially if I just did yoga. 

Which I just did. And I really want to meditate now.

[SevenofSeven]

Man calf cramp sucks.

I had a day of doing nothing but watching my birds today. It was my birthday and I told the Lads I was having the whole day off! A great way to regroup and make sure you are ready to jum back into life full force!

[shaeon]

Man calf cramp sucks.

I had a day of doing nothing but watching my birds today. It was my birthday and I told the Lads I was having the whole day off! A great way to regroup and make sure you are ready to jum back into life full force!

 

That sounds really nice. Happy Birthday Seven!

[shaeon]

Today, the pain in the leg has stuck around. It really doesn't feel like a cramp anymore - I'm not experience the soreness but eventual relief of walking it off. In fact, more walking makes it hurt more. The only thing that doesn't hurt is sitting still. 

This means two likely culprits: a pulled muscle, or a blood clot. 

 

Gotta love things like that. It's basically tea and cake or death, right? 

The chances are really much higher that it's a pulled muscle. I was sitting in a car doing nothing for around 6 hours in the space of 2 days. I've gotten leg cramps after long flights before, it kinda makes sense to me that I could also pull a muscle after extended inactivity. Especially because the whole time, I was wearing the boots that are in my profile pic. They are well made and comfortable, but can be a little constricting when sitting in a car for hours. 

Of course, sitting around being inactive for a long amount of time followed by severe leg pain is also frequently symptomatic of blood clots. 

So no exercise today. Just taking it easy. Had a frozen homemade burrito for dinner, and made myself a smoothie since potassium is helpful in the event that this is a pulled muscle. I'm about to elevate my leg and ice the sore area.

[SevenofSeven]

Take care, Shaeon.

[shaeon]

It's not a blood clot! yaaaay! 

 

What it is is tendinitis. So I've got a worksheet to look at and some exercises and such to do for home care. Of course I'll also be looking for ways to exercise without making things worse. But so glad that I don't have to worry about a more serious issue. 

[shaeon]

Been doing some reading on the stretches that I should do for recovery of my tendon. Walking as a form of exercise is off the list. I believe I can continue to do yoga, but I will need to be careful with some poses so that I don't do anything that puts stress on my injured leg. Unfortunately, my gym doesn't have a pool, so swimming isn't a viable form of cardio for me. A lot of the basics of bodyweight exercise - such as squats and lunges - are out of the question. 

 

So I guess I'm going back to weights sooner than I'd planned, because I can still do upper body lifting and rows and such. My upper body is going to get ridiculous if this injury lasts a while.  

[SevenofSeven]

LOL, all the curls!

Glad to see it was nothing to seriously major, although tendinitis can be a real pain in the butt.

[shaeon]

Interesting development with my sore muscle: 

 

On Friday I drove to Atlanta with a friend to go see the Center for Puppetry Arts, and to attend DragonCon night at Medieval Times. I was taking extra care to not let my right leg stay in the same position for an extended amount of time, using cruise control and moving it around frequently. On the route there, I pretty immediately noticed a tingling sensation on the shin of that leg. It continued all day. At first I wanted to chalk it up to having just shaved my legs and perhaps shaving too closely on that leg, but after a while it was pretty clear that that wasn't the situation. The following day, it was even worse, being accompanied by an occasionally icy feeling to my lower leg. It was really freaking me out - I had just had an ultrasound. I knew everything was looking pretty normal. And yet I had this weird feeling. I started getting nervous and thinking about the signs of a stroke, and thought "but that can't be. I'm taking blood pressure medication and I take my blood pressure daily and I know it's under control..."

And then I realized my doctor had warned me that their could be problems due to the potassium levels in my medication. 

 

I looked it up and sure enough - I was experiencing symptoms consistent with negative side effects of that medication. INCLUDING the leg pain. I called the pharmacist and confirmed, and of course she recommended that I talk to my doctor on Monday as well. And frankly, considering that my doc is more than a little fanatic that I should be losing weight, I'm pretty sure she doesn't want me having leg pain severe enough to prevent me from doing cardio. 

 

So I skipped last night's dose. Already, the tingling sensation is gone and my leg is feeling a little better in terms of the pain. My blood pressure was decent this morning so I'm not concerned about it rocketing up as a result of skipping a dose. I plan to skip tonight too, and have some things to report to my doctor tomorrow in terms of how that's going. Definitely need to find another solution is this is how those meds make me feel. 

Other than scary leg problems, it's been a good weekend. The Center for Puppetry Arts is awesome. They have a Jim Henson exhibit which includes Muppets, Fraggles, and puppets from The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. Medieval Times was fun too - I only ever go to Medieval Times for DragonCon night, because I decided that seeing it with a bunch of people in costume would be the very best way to see it. And our knight won, which I have to admit does make it a bit more fun. And I got a new pair of boots I've been waiting a while for. I'll have to post a photo of those. 

[shaeon]

Here's the new boots: 

 

[RES]

<3 the boots...honestly they are the main reason I started stalking you

[SevenofSeven]

Now those right there are some sexy arse boots! Love 'em.

Glad you figured out what may have been the root cause of the leg problem. I am on blood pressure medication and have never heard of such side effects, all I know with mine is I shouldn't take NSAID's with them.

Hope the rest of your challenge is less challenging!

[shaeon]

<3 the boots...honestly they are the main reason I started stalking you

And now I have TWO PAIR of them!

 

 

Now those right there are some sexy arse boots! Love 'em.

Glad you figured out what may have been the root cause of the leg problem. I am on blood pressure medication and have never heard of such side effects, all I know with mine is I shouldn't take NSAID's with them.

Hope the rest of your challenge is less challenging!

 

Thanks!

That kind of sucks about not being able to take NSAID's. The side effect I'm experiencing isn't common, but it's a known side effect. Time to try something new. 

[shaeon]

Week 1 in review: 

 

Sleep: Bed before 12:30 every worknight. 

 

Yoga: Only twice this week. My sore leg made me back off of activity in general. By Sunday, however, I had decided that yoga was probably much better for it than anything else I could do, so I plan to get back on track with yoga next week. 

 

Meditation: 6 days out of the week. Not perfect, but not bad. As Rogue Librarian and I discussed, it is really weird that something that should be easy - and that in fact I find really enjoyable to do - should be hard to just do once a day. I think it's about mindset. The day I skipped, I was busy all day, and then I was tired so I just wanted to nap and then rest. Now, meditation is an awesome way to sit at rest, of course. But basically what stopped me was busy-ness followed by laziness. This just serves to remind me that the best way to meditate really is to do it as soon as possible. 

 

Creativity: I went to leather class this week and continued work on the advanced project. My instructor informed me that he has decided to call this the intermediate/advanced class. Which is actually fine with me - I'm glad there's more to learn. I did not set aside time for drawing, though. I may do that tonight just to make sure I get that taken care of for this week. 

 

For the coming week, all goals remain the same except that I must get to bed by 12:20 p.m. on worknights. 

[shaeon]

For a couple of days, I've had a bit of a sore throat and a little congestion. Last night things were getting worse, so I took Claritin. I spent the night waking up repeatedly, and by the morning I had a full blown sinus infection. I've often had the experience with both medications and natural remedies that are supposed to clear the sinuses that they instead make my entire face produce moisture, including making my eyes weep. Doesn't make for good sleeping. 

Anyway. Tonight I'm taking Benadryl instead. 

Meanwhile, I was already majorly upping my fruits, veg, and whole grains in my diet, and feeling bad has made me want these things even more. 

In far more positive news, an artist friend put a call out for contributions of creepy dolls for a video she's making. I got a number of ideas of things I could do with that combining leather and baby dolls harvested from thrift stores, so I'm getting started on a new art project ASAP to contribute creepiness to her video. I'm excited to have found something inspiring to do, since my creativity has been floundering. 

And otherwise it's actually been a decent day overall. Work was a little annoying, but eh. That's why they call it work. I meditated twice today (the second time mainly because I was exhausted and really wanted an excuse to just sit quietly with my eyes closed). 

[shaeon]

And now it's a chest cold. Hooray. 

[RES]

Boo!

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