A list of happymaking stuff

A bowl of foraged botanical bits n bobs

I'm quite the happy camper lately, as I've mentioned here recently. Actually, it's more accurate to say I'm an even happier camper, since I was fairly happy before (apart from that brief period I was off my meds). 

I've mentioned some of the reasons for this here and there, but here's a comprehensive list of reasons just because I like lists:

• I'm working four days a week instead of five. Less 
• I'm getting up earlier, which makes me happier because I like being up that early even if I don't love getting up that early (it makes sense to me...); I like seeing the sunrise from my bedroom window; I like not rushing in the mornings to get to work and having time to potter around a bit; I like getting to work on time (or even early); and I like having the time to walk to work again.
• I'm walking to work every day and home again most days. Walking along the river to work (and not having to deal with nuisance people on the tram) is a pleasant way to start the day. I get 40 minutes of exercise under my belt before 9.00am and a little dose of nature (as close to nature as you can get when you live a few kilometres from the CBD anyway).  
• I broke my almost-compulsive shopping habit (I have only about two months left of my year 12-month shopping ban and a new challenge in the pipeline). Overcoming that constant yearning to acquire more and more shoes and clothes has made a huge impact on my life satisfaction. It's hard to feel content when you are always wanting. 
• I've been in a super creative phase, fuelled mostly by my Instagram feed, which is full of flowers, nature and flatlays. Foraging for the bits and pieces to use in my flatlays is fun. 
• I've stopped complaining on social media and am actively being more positive (eg posting complimentary comments on Instagram). Not complaining boosted my happiness, but spreading positivity about the net wherever I go turbo-charged it.  
• I spend a fair bit of time on social media, but I actively manage my feeds to get what I want from them - entertainment (obviously), and news and information on topics that are important to me, but also connection with like-minded people, inspiration and positive vibes. For example, I follow many women who are feminists and body positivity advocates and their posts have had an impact not only on how I think about my own body, but about other women's bodies too. I'm less judgemental about them and less judgemental about myself (not that I hated my body before, but every bit of extra kindness helps). 
• I've been practising being less judgemental in general and trying not to let insignificant things get to me (I am normally irritated by many, many, MANY insignificant things). I do this by second-guessing myself - when I notice judgemental or irritable thoughts creeping in, I counteract it with another thought - e.g. "How can these idiots I work with not know how to stack a dishwasher?!" is replaced with, "Well, at least they're putting their dishes in the dishwasher instead of leaving them on the sink for someone else to deal with." And then I let it go. Most of the time. 
• I've been seeing a dietician who specialises in intuitive eating to help repair my unhealthy relationship with food. I have a history of disordered eating (but not a diagnosed eating disorder), which hasn't been helped by a long list of food intolerances that means I just can't eat whatever I want. I'm good at restriction...until I'm not and then I eat everything in sight. I lose weight and feel OK (physically, I mean)...then I put it all back on and feel rotten. Rinse and repeat. I decided I needed to finally get this feast/famine cycle sorted out for the sake of my health (physical and mental). I've seen the dietician three times and I feel like I've made good progress. 
• I've stopped eating gluten, which means I don't feel utterly exhausted and wracked with pain. Fatigue and pain really drag you down.
• The procedure I had in December has dramatically reduced the number of migraines I get (and also potentially prevented a brain haemorrhage/stroke. Not dying or being permanently incapacitated is very good for your mental state!). 

A year of four days

Sunrise this morning from my bedroom

Last Friday was my the one-year anniversary of working four days a week. Already! Even though I've been doing it for twelve months now, it still feels like a novelty - a bloody fantastic novelty. I'm not sure it will ever stop feeling novel. 

I'm much happier in general (only partly due to working less), I'm happier at work (not that I was unhappy before) and my relationship with my boss is even better. I don't really miss the extra income - starting a shopping ban a few months after dropping back to four days is a big factor in that. 

I haven't done any of the things I thought I might do with the extra day back at the beginning - finding a new job, studying or doing volunteer work - but that's OK because I'm very content with the way things are. I have no plans to look for a new job for the foreseeable future - I'd only consider leaving for another job that was also four days a week anyway. I'm not ruling out volunteer work or study at some point, but for now I'm enjoying the extra 'me' time and the chance to rest more.  

Most of my Fridays are spent going to appointments and running errands, which sounds dull but because these were things I used to have to cram into lunch breaks or after work, or sometimes take time off for, my working days are now more relaxed. 

Most of my Fridays also feature an afternoon nap, or at least a lie down. 

In other news...

I had a routine follow up angiogram yesterday to make sure the procedure back in December fixed my abnormal brain vein, and I got the all clear. Yay. I still get some migraines triggered by other things, but way less than before. Who would have thought having a DVT would turn out to be a good thing? (My abnormal brain vein was found because my neurologist ordered an MRI after I told her I had a DVT.) 

Big chip, fixer, lunch

I managed to fit a huge chip (crisp) in my mouth without breaking it and no one was around to witness my feat. It was nearly as big as the palm of my hand. I could represent Australia in Eating Big Chips at the Olympics.

I fixed a problem I was having with my phone. I'm always very pleased when I manage to troubleshoot a technical glitch. I had to googled the problem and the solution was pretty easy, but still. I fixed it! I'm a fixer!

It's my weekend! I'm having lunch with a friend and her two boys tomorrow. We're having pizza (gluten-free for me).

Less yearning = more happiness

I'm not sure if it's my new(ish) shorter working week or my now-month-long shopping ban—or a combination of both—but I feel very content lately. Like a fat cow in a field of buttercups chewing its cud in the sunshine. 

I'm not at all surprised that working less has made me happier, but I am surprised that not spending money on shoes and clothes has boosted my happiness and boosted it so quickly. I think it's because I'm not in an almost constant state of wanting stuff. Of yearning. 

Marian Keyes writes about freedom from yearning in Making It Up As I Go Along (which I read on the weekend) in a chapter about how interviewers often ask her about what's on her (*grinds teeth*) bucket list, but she doesn't have one. In fact, she has fairly modest goals—such as doing a first aid course.

"At this point, my inquisitor is openly contemptuous of me—because the rule is that we're meant to have aspirations, five-year plans, things to aim for. We have to be improving constantly, to stand still is to regress.

"But here's how it is: I spent my entire life in a state of yearning. During my (very ordinary) childhood, happiness belonged in the far-off future and the markers kept being moved. I'd be okay when I became a teenager. No, when I left school. No, when I got a degree.

"My twenties were a decade of suspended animation—before I could declare my life open for business, I needed the right man, the right job, the right hair, the right legs and the right lifestyle...

"Unaccountably, everything remained wrong. Until, through a small amount of rare proactive effort on my part, coupled with a huge amount of dumb luck, I ended up getting a book published. And I met a nice man. I got almost everything I yearned for...but to my great surprise, I was not yearn-free.

"Even as I was writing the first book, I was already worried about the next one—what if I couldn't write it, what if it was awful, what if everyone hated the current one and it all became irrelevant anyway? Those worries never went away, to the point where every book that I was due to write in my lifetime I yearned to have already written so that I didn't have to worry about them...

"But I don't want to live in a state of yearning. I don't want to move through my days not touching the sides. I don't want my life to be deferred until everything is perfect, because that will be never. Instead I want to want what I have...

"I'm at my happiest when I want nothing. Even happier when I realise that I'm entitled to nothing—but that I've been granted so much."

(That went on a bit too long, but the context is important). I haven't expunged all my desires (I want chocolate, and I want to sleep in every day, and I want to eat hot chips and take more holidays), but being free of the yearning to own this gorgeous dress and that awesome pair of shoes and other stuff I don't need is wonderful. 

Couch day, nice buns

Today is the first of my work-free Fridays where I haven't had to do something or be somewhere at all for the entire day. I went to bed without setting an alarm. I slept (on and off) until about 10 o'clock and got up a little after midday. Then I spent all afternoon on the couch reading and drinking tea. Not a bad way to spend a day at all.

We went to the Beer and Burger Bar in Richmond for dinner tonight for something different. They have fantastic gluten-free buns—they're as good as 'normal' buns (actually better than their standard buns because they serve their burgers in brioche and I do not approve of brioche for burgers). Foxes Den up the road from BBB also has delicious gluten-free buns. It's great to have options. Tasty options. 

Early, holiday, quick

I went out for breakfast this morning - probably the only time I have ever eaten breakfast away from home or my desk on a work day. I was up at 6.20 and left home just as the dawn light was starting to peek over the horizon. Why, you ask? Because it was the only time I could catch up with a US friend who was going to be in town for just one day. It was good to see him. 

As usual, I like being up at that time of day once I'm up...but I just can't make myself get up that early (unless I'm going away on holidays). I like my cozy bed more. 

Speaking of holidays, Luke is heading off to the UK towards the end of July to visit his daughter. I'm not going with him this year (because I've been spending too much money on shoes), but I am considering taking myself on a little holiday interstate while he's away. 

It's the end of my working week tomorrow already.  

Surprisingly good mood, appreciation, coincidence

I went in to work for a few hours today to finish off some end-of-month billing. Not only did going to work on my day off not make me cross, I was in a great mood. Bizarre! I did get to have a sleep in, and I enjoyed soaking up some warmth from the sun on my way into the office, so I suppose that helped. 

My boss left me a note on top of the bills. When I first saw the blue note paper poking out of the manila folder I groaned inwardly thinking it was going to be a page of annoying handwritten edits, but no.  It's nice to be appreciated. 

This appeared in my Facebook timeline on day 2 of my shopping ban, courtesy of Grandiloquent Word of the Day. Quite the coincidence. Not that I considered my urge to shop to be obsessive or  uncontrollable.  

  

Exceeding expectations, superfast, spooky

I had my annual performance review this morning. It went very well. I'm exceeding expectations. I showed my boss the email from a senior associate I used to work for in which she said I was the best secretary she'd ever come across, and he said to attach it to my review form to go to HR, so I did. If I don't get a pay rise after they see that, I'll be rather cross.  

Today flew by superfast (even though I spent most of it doing the same things as yesterday) and now it's my weekend! 

I arrived at the tram stop just as my tram home arrived (I was too sore from yoga to walk tonight, I'm so out of shape).

The moon was shining through light clouds and looking very spooky as I walked from the tram stop. 

Yoga, that boring job, a fast/slow week

Today I did a yoga class organised by the social committee at work. It's the first of four classes I've signed up to do, for a mere $20 (in total). I enjoyed it, although I felt like the least flexible and most wobbly one there. Something to work on... 

I spent most of my day sorting out my boss's Outlook contacts, a job that's been on my to-do list for ages. There's a lot of duplicate (and some triplicate) contacts, and about half are incorrectly filed by first name (seriously, who does that?). Not a particularly stimulating job, but a good one if you're too tired to do much else, and it's almost as therapeutic as having a physical clean out. 

I can't believe the last day of my week is almost here already. The days have dragged this week because I've been sleepy and not very busy, but now it's almost the weekend!  (Have I published any posts lately that don't go on about how great working four days is? I don't believe I have!) 

I walked again

I didn't want to walk home tonight because I'd been super sleepy and cold all day, and I just wanted to get home to my couch as quickly as possible. But then I just walked anyway. Go, me. 

My week is half over. Hurrah! I don't have a hump day anymore; the hump arrives when I leave the office on Tuesdays.  

Imagine the old book smell in these centuries-old libraries! 

No work, no squinting, no fillings

On my way home late this afternoon

When I first work up this morning I briefly thought I had to get up for work, but NO! I didn't! Wooh! I have a moment every Friday morning when I think I should be at work. 

I picked up my sunglasses with new prescription lenses today. So happy to not be squinting anymore. 

Guess what time my dental appointment was today? Two-thirty, of course! No fillings for me. I have tough teeth, Mrs Marsh. 

Warm, 1800, surprise chip

Coming home this evening

We had another warm autumn day today, a perfect day to be free of the office. I was out and about for most of the day getting sh!t done and getting some vitamin D along the way.

I've done just over 18,000 steps today, which is considerably more than my average. I don't feel as if I've walked that far, which is unusual; most of the time I feel as if I have traversed a much greater distance than I actually have. 

I love that moment when I'm at Hunky Dory on a Friday night and think I've eaten all my chips, but then I find one hiding under a piece of lettuce (no, I shouldn't be eating chips on my modified diet, but I'm only human...). 

New dress...sort of

A bumper sticker  I saw in my street (thong = flip flop in Australia) 

I wore a dress today that I haven't worn in about two years because I got too chubby to fit into it. But now I'm not so chubby, it fits me well - probably better than when I first bought it. This pleases me.  

I have a lot of clothes in my wardrobe bought over the past year or two that I haven't been able to fit into for a while and I'm excited by getting to wear them again. It will be like going shopping without spending money. 

I had a long day today and didn't leave the office until 7.15, BUT NOW IT'S MY WEEKEND! Hooray!  I have a busy day of appointments tomorrow, but no plans for the rest of it, apart from getting my hair done. Oh, and mothers' day with Luke's family on Sunday.

New boots, not so busy, Friday

I wore my aforementioned new boots at work today. It felt good. I love the angled heels and the square toes. I forgot to take a photo of them, but here's one from the site I bought them from (massively discounted too - the best kind of shoes).

I thought I was going to have a crazy busy day today (end of month billing), but it was quite laid back. Phew. 

It's my Friday tomorrow. Wooh! 

Dragon fly and shy magpie

(Click to enlarge)

Check out the intricate pattern on the wings of this insect (which might be a dragon fly?). I spotted it on a fence at Luke's parents' place and thought it must be dead because it didn't react at all to me poking my lens right up to it. It was sitting right next to a spider web, so we thought a spider might have sucked out its innards. But when I came back later, it was gone!

This young magpie was in the yard. When it noticed me with the camera it hid behind foliage. Shy magpie.

Oh, today was my day off work. Wooh.

Fluttering, beat me to it, day off

I saw a butterfly fluttering by the window of the kitchen on the 44th floor of my building this afternoon.

I picked up my phone to text Luke today and there was a message from him sitting there waiting for my attention.

I have a day off work Friday. Gotta love a four-day week.