Luciana Valerosa Culming respawns - reset level in 3, 2, 1

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

Goals:

I want to get back into exercise and not lose my head all the time. Therefore I need to get into a better headspace again, get my stuff done and move my body.

 

Quests:

Going by bike regularly. I'm aiming for 5 times a week.

Trying to get back into meditation.

Chose one timemanagement strategy for this challenge and stick to it.

 

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Hello,

 

I don't really know, what I want to do for this challenge yet. I'm trying to get back into exercise, meditation and keep track of my tasks.

 

For the first one, I'll start with going by bike every morning instead of buying a bus ticket this challenge. I'll start with this challenge next Monday.

 

I'm not quite sure how to tackle meditation this time. I have been doing long guided meditations in the past. But somehow I got afraid, when my mind got really distracted because of things. Let's say it good harder for me to concentrate... Somehow I've been less confident the last few months and than I meditated less. I think meditation helped me to controle my thought stream a little and I want to get back into this habit. And I would like to do unguided meditations, too, to incorporate meditation in my daily life.

 

Mhh for time management I'm still trying to settle for one thing, so I don't overwhelm myself. I'm always trying to do too many things at once. And then I'm procrastinating. D'oh.

 

What worked in the past:

Writing to do lists in the morning or evening

Using a Kanban board

Trying to do a specific task a few minutes a day and then sitting down longer then expected (works when I want to learn regulary, it's a trick to get myself at things I don't enjoy doing)

combo technique (past challenges)

Bullet journal

 

So this is still under construction. I'll try to update regulary. But I'll try to keep it simple and not follow to many people. I got a little overwhelmed a few months ago and don't want to repeat my failures.

[Infinity.Creates]

Nice challenge! I love using a bullet journal, though the hardest part is just setting a schedule to sit down and write in it. Sometimes it works and sometimes I go straight to bed or I'll oversleep and not have the time. But good luck!

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

Had to inflate my byciles tires yesterday. Unfortunately I got up a little late today and so I tagged along my mother in law in the car. Back home I walked, so there was at least some exercise. I could fetch some groceries with the bike later this week, to make up for the lost opportunity.

 

This evening I'm going to pack my bag in advance to save some time  in the morning.

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

Today around noon I sprained my foot, when I was on my way home going on my bike. I had to avoid a car and slided against the road curb and had to jump of the bike, or I would have felt. First it was fine, but now it already hurts when I try to get up the stairs. I guess I should have rested more, but there was still so much stuff to do... *sigh* I hope it will be better tomorrow. In the morning my mother in law will fetch me again. My boyfriend told me, he wouldn't let me go by bike tomorrow, if it still hurt only a little. But after work I would like to a least slowly walk home on my own.

[Infinity.Creates]

15 minutes ago, Luciana Valerosa Culming said:

Today around noon I sprained my foot, when I was on my way home going on my bike. I had to avoid a car and slided against the road curb and had to jump of the bike, or I would have felt. First it was fine, but now it already hurts when I try to get up the stairs. I guess I should have rested more, but there was still so much stuff to do... *sigh* I hope it will be better tomorrow. In the morning my mother in law will fetch me again. My boyfriend told me, he wouldn't let me go by bike tomorrow, if it still hurt only a little. But after school I would like to a least slowly walk home on my own.

Sorry for your bad luck! Hopefully tomorrow it'll be okay, and you'll at least be able to walk there and back. 

[Koaladle]

5 hours ago, PhysicsObeysMe said:

Sorry for your bad luck! Hopefully tomorrow it'll be okay, and you'll at least be able to walk there and back. 

 

Rest, ice, compress, and elevate that sprain! <3 There's not a whole lot we can do about injuries other than nurse them well, but I'm sure you'll be back at it in no time!

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

On 22.9.2016 at 3:54 AM, Koaladle said:

 

Rest, ice, compress, and elevate that sprain! <3 There's not a whole lot we can do about injuries other than nurse them well, but I'm sure you'll be back at it in no time!

Of course you're right. It got better quite fast, when I finally let it rest a little. I was already able to go by bike again today. At least I would have, if my chain hadn't droped during the little accident. I didn't realize this until Friday morning. But I walked there and luckily made it still in time. =)

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

Update week zero

 

I'll be away this weekend, so I'm going to post my update now.

This week I only focused on going by bike regularly and adjusting to the new timetable. For example I incorporated a routine, where I got everything ready for the next day, before going to bed, so I would have a less stressful morning. And today I finally managed to wake up ten minutes before my alarm went on. I decided to use the extra minutes to try some meditation. Meditation appears to be much harder now. I tend to think of a lot of other things during unguided meditations. At least I didn't fall back to sleep. So for week one I'll try some thematic meditations I learned during my Tai Chi/Qi Gong classes. Most of them the imagination - like imagianing to be a bamboo in the wind. For timemanagement I decided to stick to the Kanban board for this challenge. I tried to get a lot of housework done this week, because so much had to be done after my travels. But than I lost sight of some other tasks like preparing stuff for work. Going by bike went well. I only had two slip ups.

 

Monday: Didn't go by bike, because I got up too late and because I got a ride.

Tuesday: Was late for a few minutes, but at least I found my way with the bike. And I also went grocery shopping by bike to make up for Monday.

Wednesday: Had a little accident on my way home.

Thursday: Restday because of minor injury.

Friday: Saw that the chain droped out and decided to leave my bike half way. Fixed it on my way back. So I think I still can count this one. Especially because I walked the rest of the way.

 

Goals for week 1

1. Go by bike 5 times (STA)
2. Meditate 3 times (CHA)
3. Update Kanban board after work and on Sunday evening (WIS)

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

On 17.9.2016 at 3:28 PM, PhysicsObeysMe said:

Nice challenge! I love using a bullet journal, though the hardest part is just setting a schedule to sit down and write in it. Sometimes it works and sometimes I go straight to bed or I'll oversleep and not have the time. But good luck!

Somehow I missed this one. You're right updating a bullet journal can be quite hard, when you want to do it every day. I use mine as a tool for reflection. So I write down after a challenge, to reflect my progress or when I had and intresting thought that I want to remember. The last few months I haven't used it much, especially because I didn't participate in any challenges in summer.

[LucentFrost]

You made me search for Kanban board, and this is a good idea to track to do's! Reading for more...

[NeverThatBored]

LUCIANAAAA I'm so excited that you're back! That sucks about the ankle but I'm glad it seems to have healed quickly! 

[Koaladle]

3 hours ago, Luciana Valerosa Culming said:

Of course you're right. It got better quite fast, when I finally let it rest a little. I was already able to go by bike again today. At least I would have, if my chain hadn't droped during the little accident. I didn't realize this until Friday morning. But I walked there and luckily made it still in time. =)

 

Just because things don't go according to plan doesn't mean improvisation won't count. Great job finding a way to work through the bumps!

[Kyellan]

Hey, habe ich dich gefunden! =) Sorry to hear that Week Zero was a bit rough, but glad you're working through it.

 

I managed to get a challenge up and running, thanks to your reminder!

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

On 26.9.2016 at 3:22 PM, Kyellan said:

Hey, habe ich dich gefunden! =) Sorry to hear that Week Zero was a bit rough, but glad you're working through it.

 

I managed to get a challenge up and running, thanks to your reminder!

Nice to have you here. My first week was a little rough, but I'm getting used to it.

 

Meditation:

Last week I still had trouble meditating. I only managed to meditate a little, when I woke up earlier then expected. In the evening I'm usually to tired or distracted to meditate. Yesterday I only tried to concentrate on my breath and slowly counted to 20 two times.

Today I put my phone under the pillow again to muffle it a little and did a guided meditation, when I woke up from thunder. The meditation with the titel "Sound and thoughts" is about listening carefully to the sounds around you without "judging" them. When I'm doing guided meditations, I usually do one of the mindfulness meditations you can find here: http://franticworld.com/free-meditations-from-mindfulness/ .

 

Exercise:

The harder part this week seems to be, that I have to convince his grandfather not to drive me to school. Monday I went by bike, but today is was storming in the morning. His grandparents are really nice, but a little overprotective. At least it didn't rain, when I finished and could walk back home. I'll fetch my boyfriend from the train station later. And for the next few days the weather forecast promised sunshine, so I should be fine.

 

Kanban board:

Got a lot of things done and hope to finish my to-do-lists.

 

Mini-victory:

I drew a birthday card for my aunt. I haven't been doing aquarell for a while and I'm really happy with the result.

[Infinity.Creates]

I took a look at the website, and it seems really cool! I'll definitely be trying them out in the future. I use calm.com when I want unguided stuff, but their need for subscription puts me off a bit.

 

Congrats on the exercise! It's a struggle for other people to understand how you're trying to change your life. My parents are slightly worried about me running in the early morning, but they know it's what I want and currently need to struggle through. 

 

And well done on your mini-victory success!

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

On 27. September 2016 at 6:48 PM, IAmInfinite said:

I took a look at the website, and it seems really cool! I'll definitely be trying them out in the future. I use calm.com when I want unguided stuff, but their need for subscription puts me off a bit.

I found the book in the local library and enjoyed reading it. When I googled the author I found this page. I try to get into unguided meditation, because you can do it everywhere. Somehow I find it distracting to use in ear plugs, so it's not so easy to do guided meditations during the days. What are you doing as meditation?

 

Congrats on the exercise! It's a struggle for other people to understand how you're trying to change your life. My parents are slightly worried about me running in the early morning, but they know it's what I want and currently need to struggle through. 

Yeah, and I feel I need to be independent for my own ego. When I was a kid, we couldn't go by bike for long distances. There were no bycicle tracks and it would have been dangerous to drive on the road. We're I live now, there are a lot of bycicle tracks. I just have to get used to driving on the street. And I guess I'm feeling a little insecure, because we haven't been cycling a lot as kids. I think getting a drivers licence would have been easier for me, if I had been gone by bike more often. You learn to pay more attention to your surroundings and what's going to happen. Something I want to keep in mind, when I have kids.

 

And well done on your mini-victory success!

Thank you. It was important for me because of two reasons. 1) Want to repair the relationship to my relative. 2) Want to draw more often. 

 

Today I managed to put the chain back on without help. I think the goal I'm struggling the most with is meditation. I should set up a timetable for next week. I don't know why I've been struggling with it the last few days.

[Kyellan]

I'm fighting with the meditation portion a bit myself... for some reason it's hard to make it a priority. :/ Needs figuring out.

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

Yesterday I had two shorter meditation sessions and today I didn't fall asleep during a ten minute body scan. :/ I tried to get back to sleep. But at least I got my meditations in. And I got calmer and dozed a little afterwards.

 

Sidenote:

Oh, gosh. Please correct my grammer the next few days. I'm going to have my entry-level test (Einstufungstest) in English on Monday the 10th. I need C1 or at least B2. 

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

Update week one

 

It's already Sunday evening here, so it's time for another update.

This week I took my vitamins again, because I felt like I could get a cold. I don't know if it was because of the vitamin D, but I had a really good week mood wise.

Timemanagement went well. I got almost my whole To-Do-List done although I took a restday on Thursday.

 

Monday: Cycled

Tuesday: Didn't go by bike, because it was raining so hard. But I got a long meditation session in in the morning.

Wednesday: Cycling

Thursday: Cycling and repaired Chain by myself this time.

Friday: Meditated in the afternoon for a few minutes, went by bike in the morning and jogged to the train station in the afternoon. So I think I made up for the rainy Tuesday.

Saturday Meditated 10 minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the evening.

Sunday Got a lot of housework done and meditated ten minutes in the morning. I planed to meditate again before going to sleep. But I'm not sure, if it will happen.

 

Goals for week 2

1. Go by bike 5 times (STA)
2. Meditate 7 times (CHA) (I'll try another guided meditation too.)
3. Update Kanban board after work and on Sunday evening (WIS)

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

All right, perhaps this was a bad idea. But I created a cooperative artsy challenge for Oktober. I hope some creative people are going to participate or I'll have to draw 31 pieces of art by myself. I'm always struggling to get back into art and draw more. Next challenge drawing will definitly be part of my challenge goals again. But for now I wanted to create something that sounded like fun.

 

Would it be too forward to advertise this in the Juice Bar?

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

I have to schedule some workouts to get back on track with my first goal. It was a National Day in Germany, so I didn't cycle to work yesterday. And today his grandparents made a little fuss again, because it was raining in the morning. At least I could convince them to let me walk home on my own, when the sun came out around noon. If it stays nice outside, I'm going to get my boyfriend from the train station in the evening. The way to the train station is almost as long as it takes me to get to work. Or I'll cycle on the stationary bike. Getting outside sounds good. Recently my mind has been a little unsettled again. Today I couldn't really concentrate on work. Perhaps it get's better, after I got some more sleep. At least meditation goes well. I managed to get in a meditation in the morning and in the evening.

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

I'm a little stressed, so a short Update:

 

meditation 7/7 

cycling 3/5

extra walks 3

timemanagement 4/5

[Infinity.Creates]

On 10/3/2016 at 9:18 AM, Luciana Valerosa Culming said:

Would it be too forward to advertise this in the Juice Bar?

Go for it! It sounds really cool, though I'm more of a writer and less of an artist.

[Infinity.Creates]

And I'm sorry I haven't checked in with you this week. 

 

For meditation, I found Stop Breathe Think. So far they seem really good, and they have a variety of meditations that they suggest to you depending on your mood. 

 

Also, maybe getting more sleep would help? I find myself really irritable if I go to bed after 11, and get less than 7 hours sleep. And then being in that state of mine makes everything else harder, including having the patience to meditate.

 

Congratulations on doing so well at Week 1 ! 

[deathbyshiny]

5 hours ago, Luciana Valerosa Culming said:

I'm a little stressed, so a short Update:

 

meditation 7/7 

cycling 3/5

extra walks 3

timemanagement 4/5

Still looking good, though, stress aside!