Harriet's Map of the Stars

[Harriet]

 

I want to write a guide to my most important goals, strategies and insights, so that I can come back to them over and over when designing new challenges. I need to keep spiralling back to the core, to the crucial things, and not get distracted by the latest tactic, hack, or hare's tracks. And for that, I need to know what the enduring, core things are. They’re mostly about improving my health so I have less fatigue and anxiety. But they also include things I need to live a good life with or without good health. I haven’t learned everything yet, so I’ll update these as needed. But the idea is to find what really works, not to be distracted by a new hack or tactic every other week. Here are the stars, in their spiral constellation:

 

Spiral
Success is persistently spiralling back to the things that matter. It is not an unrelenting, linear war march or a perfect, unbroken streak.

 

Core

The central pillars of good health are good food, movement, sleep, stress management, sunlight, and connectedness.

Story

I should reject psychological narratives about my illness and insist on its reality, its physical consequences and the necessity of rest and accomodations. I have proven this to myself repeatedly but still feel the temptation to blame my character or habits. I should reject feelings of guilt or unworthiness due to achieving less than others.

Stressors

Acute stressors combat chronic stress. Exercise, sauna, cold exposure, intermittent hypoxia and fasting tune up mood, sleep, cardiovascular strength and the immune system, while tuning down chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and psychological stress. They can be overdosed, however, depending on one’s recovery capacity. 

Mind

I have a deep rooted tendency to run from presence and choose distraction. I must practice mindfulness often, while also upgrading the quality of my distractions (art and history and  high quality novels, for example, rather than doomscrolling). Mindfulness could take many forms. I haven’t yet found the forms I can stick with.

Trials
I have a deep rooted tendency to run from discomfort and choose easy rewards like food and alcohol and entertainment media. I should choose deliberately difficult or uncomfortable challenges more often. I haven’t yet incorporated these challenges into my routine in a deliberate way. I should experiment with this. It could be cold exposure, mindfulness exercises, outings, or tasks I have been avoiding.

 

Sculpture

To achieve and maintain the body composition I want, I must combine sensibly designed cutting and maintenance phases with weightlifting. There’s no hack, just calorie manipulation and diet fatigue management.

 

Healing

Distraction is not full rest. I should choose deliberately nourishing or restful activities in addition to my leisure activities. I need to come up with more ideas for this.

Study

I want to do art, and I feel envious and dissatisfied when I don’t. I need to make this a regular practice, and find out how to reduce resistance and get back feelings of playfulness and enjoyment. I also want to learn other things, but they may change from season to season. That’s fine as long as I am doing something I consider valuable and meaningful.

 

Spirit

I know that the spiritual needs a place in my habits, but I don’t know how to incorporate it yet.