[athousandwords]

 

I was sorely tempted by all the villainy going around this challenge, but in the end, something simpler was calling my name. This month all signs are pointing to mindfulness and who am I to ignore the signs?

 

I'm playing around with the idea of rituals instead of habit stacking - that lacing the mundane with intention and a little enjoyment will go a long way toward making these behaviors permanent. Plus it's spooky season, I just rewatched Practical Magic, and after all - There's a little witch in all of us. 

 

Most of these goals are, well, practical. Several of them are the same things I've been doing all year. (If it works, why change it?)

 

But my overarching goal this challenge is to spend more time in the moment, to bring a little wonder and life to old habits.

 

✨ Mindful. But make it Magic. ✨

 

 

? Drink 8+ cups of water.

? Stretch at least 5 minutes, meditate for 2 minutes.

? Plan food intake and stay under calorie budget.

? Walk 6500 minimum steps daily, and 70k steps weekly.

 ?  Find one thing each day to make any routine more enjoyable.

[MezzothePatient]

Elegant and simple. Love the vibes.   Mindfulness is so hard to practice, cheering you on!  

[Laghail]

11 hours ago, athousandwords said:

I'm playing around with the idea of rituals instead of habit stacking - that lacing the mundane with intention and a little enjoyment will go a long way toward making these behaviors permanent. Plus it's spooky season, I just rewatched Practical Magic, and after all - There's a little witch in all of us. 

 

Gorgeous, so very very here for it.

[Sovalis]

Absolutely here for this! Rituals are the best!

[Everstorm]

Love the idea of rituals!

[Elastigirl]

I like the idea of adding a bit of magic to your daily routines to make them more enjoyable.

[athousandwords]

On 9/9/2024 at 9:06 AM, MezzothePatient said:

Elegant and simple. Love the vibes.   Mindfulness is so hard to practice, cheering you on!  

 

Thank you! ❤️ 

 

On 9/9/2024 at 10:34 AM, Laghail said:

 

Gorgeous, so very very here for it.

 

 

On 9/9/2024 at 11:03 AM, Sovalis said:

Absolutely here for this! Rituals are the best!

 

Happy to have you as always!

 

22 hours ago, Everstorm said:

Love the idea of rituals!

 

Love that so many people are vibing with this idea! It's working for me too so far!

 

20 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

I like the idea of adding a bit of magic to your daily routines to make them more enjoyable.

 

 

Week 1 - Monday/Tuesday

 

? Drink 8+ cups of water. ⭐⭐

? Stretch at least 5 minutes, meditate for 2 minutes. ⭐⭐

? Plan food intake and stay under calorie budget.  ⭐⭐

? Walk 6500 minimum steps daily, and 70k steps weekly.  ⭐⭐

 ?  Find one thing each day to make any routine more enjoyable.  ⭐⭐

 

It's been a good start to the challenge so far. Matt is out on another business trip, so I'm solo parenting again, but so far it feels like smooth sailing. The house is clean, which helps my stress levels immensely. The kids are healthy and in school (knock on wood). Work is busy, but the good kind of busy that keeps me interested and challenged and not working crazy hours. 

 

A couple little enjoyable things:

- On Monday, we put on music during dinner and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. The kids focused more on eating and less on filling the silence with chatter. After, I found myself rocking out to The Bangles and Queen while packing lunches and tidying up the kitchen, and yep, it actually made those boring chores a little more fun.

- Speaking of music - I've been listening to an old playlist that I haven't heard in a while during my workday. I'm normally a work-in-silence kind of focuser, but I've been experimenting with music during the workday a little more and it's nice to listen to some old favorites.

- Tonight my 7yo asked if we could play catch after dinner and homework and I said yes, even though we only had about 15-20 minutes before bedtime started. I'm happy I did - the extra sunshine was good for everyone and we've invented a silly little dance we do every time he catches the ball that makes us all break out laughing.

 

[Laghail]

17 minutes ago, athousandwords said:

A couple little enjoyable things:

- On Monday, we put on music during dinner and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. The kids focused more on eating and less on filling the silence with chatter. After, I found myself rocking out to The Bangles and Queen while packing lunches and tidying up the kitchen, and yep, it actually made those boring chores a little more fun.

 

At risk of over-using the keyword from this challenge, this is magical. I don't know what your taste is in music, but Miles Davis has this album, "Sketches of Spain" that's my favorite to play during a meal. YMMV, no shade if it's not a hit for you.

 

 

17 minutes ago, athousandwords said:

- Tonight my 7yo asked if we could play catch after dinner and homework and I said yes, even though we only had about 15-20 minutes before bedtime started. I'm happy I did - the extra sunshine was good for everyone and we've invented a silly little dance we do every time he catches the ball that makes us all break out laughing.

 

I'm annoyed that this only word for this part is also "magical." Maybe have a worse family life so I can be less repetitive in my commentary??

[athousandwords]

23 hours ago, Laghail said:

I don't know what your taste is in music, but Miles Davis has this album, "Sketches of Spain" that's my favorite to play during a meal. YMMV, no shade if it's not a hit for you.

 

I put it on for dinner tonight! May have been a little too low-key for the kids, but I enjoyed it. 7yo showed off his music class vocab and told me it sounded "very minor" and the 4yo knew it was a trumpet playing, so I feel like we even got some culture in. ?

 

Week 1 - Wednesday

 

? Drink 8+ cups of water. ⭐⭐⭐

? Stretch at least 5 minutes, meditate for 2 minutes. ⭐⭐⭐

? Plan food intake and stay under calorie budget.  ⭐⭐⭐

? Walk 6500 minimum steps daily, and 70k steps weekly.  ⭐⭐⭐

 ?  Find one thing each day to make any routine more enjoyable.  ⭐⭐⭐

 

I've been working on a morning ritual: walk for 30+ min outside to greet the day, stretch for 5-10 min as time allows, meditate for two minutes, then plan out my food intake for the day before starting work. It works well on work days, but weekends are a little more chaotic, so we'll see. Today was also a little tricky because I had calls first thing starting at 8:30, so I did this whole routine a little later in the morning and then forgot to plan my food intake, oops. ? Still ended up under calorie budget for the day; I've been eating a lot of leftovers (er, meal prep) lately so the calories are kind of on lock.

 

Enjoyable moments:

- I took one of my 1:1s outside on the screened in porch - the weather is just gorgeous right now and it was nice to get away from my desk for a bit.

- Realized Christina Perri put out an album a couple years ago that I hadn't listened to, so I put it on during my walk this morning. Her older albums have been on my repeat list for the last few weeks, and her new album did not disappoint. It turns out we're the same age, and the whole album just felt very relevant: about motherhood, the road not taken, redefining yourself in middle age.

 

[Elastigirl]

Sounds like a very good day!

[Sea-to-sky]

Great challenege. Love the finding things to enjoy goal. Such a nice idea. 

[athousandwords]

✨ Week 1  ✨ 

 

? Drink 8+ cups of water. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐☠️

? Stretch at least 5 minutes, meditate for 2 minutes. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐☠️☠️

? Plan food intake and stay under calorie budget.  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

? Walk 6500 minimum steps daily, and 70k steps weekly.  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ☠️ / 62k

 ?  Find one thing each day to make any routine more enjoyable.  ⭐⭐⭐☠️☠️☠️☠️

 

 

There were lots of great things going on weekend. I spent Friday shopping for fabric to make ths kids' Halloween costumes. I went on a lovely vineyard tour with a friend on Saturday, then came home and played games with some other friends after the kids went to bed. On Sunday we took the kids out for a long walk/bike ride on a beautiful trail near the Shenandoah River.

 

But I'll admit, the goals took a nosedive. I realized that some of these fall apart when I don't have a consistent route: stretching in particular. And my goal about finding something to make my routine more enjoyable isn't well defined enough - what counts? Do I have to write about it or journal it? Or is it more of an overarching goal instead of a daily goal?

 

I'm not going to beat myself up about it. The week started great and I still did pretty well, even if I missed a few things over the weekend. Just a reminder to work out a plan for the week ahead. But enjoy some pics from our walk this weekend!

 

        

[athousandwords]

✨ Week 2  ✨ 

 

? Drink 8+ cups of water. ⭐⭐☠️

? Stretch at least 5 minutes, meditate for 2 minutes. ⭐☠️☠️

? Plan food intake and stay under calorie budget.  ⭐⭐?

? Walk 6500 minimum steps daily, and 70k steps weekly.  ⭐⭐⭐

 ?  Find one thing each day to make any routine more enjoyable.  ☠️☠️☠️

 

I'm doing a NF walk of shame here and admitting that I have been almost completely off my challenge this week. I guess I'm doing the bare minimum: I'm still tracking calories, I'm still mostly hitting my water goals, I'm getting in my minimum number of steps (although I won't make 70k this week if I don't hustle). But all the things that were actually mean to be a challenge this month? That focus on mindfulness and enjoying the little things and stretching and meditating? The extra challenge I took on in West-Marches? Completely fallen by the wayside. And I know what's to blame...

 

 

Let me back up. A couple weeks ago, I was taking a walk and trying out this new goal of mindfulness - specifically noticing how beautiful the fall leaves were twirling around in the breeze. And it reminded me of the  way leaves fall in Stardew Valley and for the first time in a year or so I felt the urge to dust off my old save file and get back into it. I thought it might actually help because Stardew is an absolutely beautiful game that really reinforces being present in the moment, and it would get me away from mindlessly scrolling on my phone in the evenings.

 

For the first week I had one goal in mind: finally finish the Community Center. I was mostly done, just needed to catch some final fish, and so for a few days I spent all my free time playing in a rush to the finish. But last week I was pretty busy at work, and I was pretty dedicated to my new challenge goals, so "all my free time" didn't amount to all that much. Then when I finally unlocked the Community Center a bunch of new goals came to mind: rearrange my farm, build more kegs, figure out Skull Cavern... and my brain got completely hooked. I've spent a ridiculous amount of time playing Stardew this week. I've skipped my morning walks and stretching so I could squeeze in an hour before work. I've had extended lunch breaks playing Stardew. I'm basically ignoring my kids and letting my husband cook dinner while I'm playing Stardew on the couch. And it's made me grumpy and impatient because I have to do things like pickup the kids from school or put them to bed or do dishes all while my brain is screaming at me to go back to playing Stardew. I've been a halfass mom, wife, and employee all week. And I hate that my attention goes from 0 to 100 on something and there doesn't feel like any way to just play casually - I'm all in or nothing. 

 

So I think I have to quit playing and I'm honestly mad about it, but I don't know that there's a happy medium. Even trying to set limits using focus mode won't work - I'll just go disable it to play longer. And at the same time I'm proud of myself for realizing it's become a problem and realizing I need to make a change. Last night I was grumbling that the kids have been in a crappy mood all week and it hit me that (consciously or not) they're probably acting out to get my attention because it's definitely been glued to my phone and they can definitely tell. And in the grand scheme of things I know 1-2 weeks of getting addicted to a game isn't the end of the world, and it's better to cut myself off now before it becomes a habit.

 

But I am going to miss playing.

[TimovieMan]

16 minutes ago, athousandwords said:

So I think I have to quit playing and I'm honestly mad about it, but I don't know that there's a happy medium. Even trying to set limits using focus mode won't work - I'll just go disable it to play longer.

It's generally easier to set limits to when you can start playing (for instance: no Stardew Valley until the kids are off to bed), than it is to set limits to stop once you've started...

Still not easy, though.

As a fellow obsessive gamer, I know what this is like...

[athousandwords]

13 minutes ago, TimovieMan said:

It's generally easier to set limits to when you can start playing (for instance: no Stardew Valley until the kids are off to bed), than it is to set limits to stop once you've started...

Still not easy, though.

As a fellow obsessive gamer, I know what this is like...

 

This is really helpful - I might give it a try after a small cooldown period. I'm not much of a gamer, so I haven't really run into this issue before. Not to say I haven't gotten obsessive or addicted to other forms of media, it's just that they usually have a stopping point. I can afford to be obsessed with a book or binge watch a show for a few days or a couple weeks because they eventually end and I can move on. But this game is so open-ended I could see myself being addicted for a while, and I really can't have another week like this last one. ?

[Everstorm]

Seconding @TimovieMan's point, and adding that attaching the reward of playing Stardew Valley to your challenge goals might help motivate you to get them done.  Like you get to play after you have finished meditation or after you complete a West Marches quest.  The science calls this temptation bundling, and it can be surprisingly effective.

[MezzothePatient]

On 9/19/2024 at 8:36 AM, athousandwords said:

And at the same time I'm proud of myself for realizing it's become a problem and realizing I need to make a change.

 

❤️ It's awesome that you recognized the issue and made the change!  You should be proud of yourself

 

On 9/19/2024 at 9:17 AM, athousandwords said:

But this game is so open-ended I could see myself being addicted for a while, and I really can't have another week like this last one. ?

 

This is me when new main Pokemon games drop  ?   

[MezzothePatient]

Hope you are well, friend ❤️

 

[Sovalis]

Hey athousandwords! Thinking of you!