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!). 

Surprise energy

I got up at the same time as the sun this morning (7.15)

Yesterday I said I don't have enough energy to walk to work and home again. Today I walked to work and then home again. I felt OK so thought I'd give the tram a miss, and it was fine. I didn't run out of energy part way and I didn't need a lie down when I got home. (Cutting out gluten seems to have finally paid off.)

Good things about walking to and from work: the smell of eucalyptus, close(ish) encounters with ducks, fallen acorns, seeing the early signs of autumn and saving $7 a day on fares.

Hi hi, hi ho, it's off to work I go 

 Moomba is moving in. Spotted on my walk home

We rise by lifting others*

Legacy mural, Drewery Lane in the city

As I've mentioned in recent posts, this year I've been working on establishing a number of new habits, including being more positive on social media. 

I've been conscious of not being too whiny on Twitter and Facebook for nearly as long as I've been using them, because I'm aware of how draining it can be to be around (online or IRL) people who do nothing but complain and criticise (though of course it's easier to get away from the online whiners and critics). I've aimed to balance my moaning with positive (or at least neutral) posts, although I'm not sure if I achieved it or even whether the positive really cancels out the negative.

But it doesn't matter now because I'm trying not to be whiny and critical online at all, which is not to suggest I'm OK with being a ball of negativity offline because I'm not; I'm working on Offline Me as well (for example, trying to be less judgemental and less irritated by stupid stuff), but social media seems to have become my outlet for bitching and moaning. 

Most of what I complain about is minor stuff anyway - petty annoyances like people blocking the doors on public transport or talking too loudly in my vicinity - so it's not as if keeping my thoughts to myself is going to lead to an explosion of repressed rage. Instead of taking to Twitter to whinge, I try to let it go, or I get up and move away from the annoying people. 

I've been doing very well at being more positive on social media so far and it's been quite uplifting. Not that I was feeling low - I've been a pretty happy little camper lately - but making an effort to be a more positive online presence makes me feel even better. 

But wait! There's more! This past week I've stepped things up a level. I'm not just avoiding being negative, I'm making an extra effort to be more positive. For example, instead of just clicking 'like' on Instagram, I've been making a lot more comments - genuine compliments on photos that I love. Likes have a tendency to blend together in a fairly anonymous mass, but a thoughtful compliment is a little more special.  

Paying all these compliments makes me feel good, even if the recipients don't respond, but usually they do, and those little connections make me happy too. 

There's more than enough negativity in the world, online and off, so I'm going to keep doing my little bit to spread kindness and lift others up, with the added bonus of boosting my own happiness. 

* This quote - or something similar - is by Robert Ingersoll, who also said, "The way to be happy is to make others so".  

What I've been doing

Portarlington

I've been a bad blogger again. It's not that nothing gleeful has happened; I've just had so little energy for the past few weeks that most days I'm basically only working, eating, and sleeping. 

Luke and I have done a couple of nice day trips on weekends (Port Arlington and Noojee), but they depleted my battery and there was no energy left over to blog and post photos (except to Instagram because that's quick and effortless).

My current malaise is frustrating because I feel as if I'm doing all the right things to boost my energy  - I'm eating better; I'm getting up earlier and not rushing to get to work; I'm walking to or from the office every day and I'm racking up 10,000 steps nearly every day. And you know what? I FEEL WORSE! I'm physically and mentally exhausted, and I have constant stiffness, aches and pains that seem to be getting worse as I go along. It's not fair.

On the way to Toorongo Falls near 
Noojee, Gippsland 

But enough woe-is-me. I'll see my doctor soon, and in the meantime I'll keep doing what I'm doing because I'm really pleased with how well I'm sticking with my habits. Some of the exercise habits have fallen by the wayside for now because of my lack of energy, but I'm going great guns on some of the other habits.

I'm particularly pleased with my efforts at getting up earlier. Since I started, I've been getting up five minutes earlier each week, and this week I'm rising at 7.25. This gives me enough time to get ready at a leisurely pace and walk to work (also at a leisurely pace), arriving about 5-10 minutes early. At the moment I'm leaving the house only about five minutes later than when I was getting out of bed - or even earlier, since I'd got in the habit of staying in bed until 8.10 at the end of last year.

I'm simultaneously loving and hating being an earlier riser. The moment my alarm goes off I think, "Ugh, I can't do it today. Just one more snooze," but then I just do it and get on with things. I suppose I hate that moment, but I love everything that comes after it.

I'm still surprised I've managed to do it so easily. I love my bed  - ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT - and even when I'm feeling OK, I do not like getting out of it. Previous attempts at getting up earlier - even just 10 minutes earlier - have failed miserably, but I wasn't giving myself 'gold stars' for effort on those occasions. Those gold stars (ticks, whatever) are magic.

Eventually, when I'm getting up early enough, I want to start doing some stretches  - maybe some exercise - in the mornings, and I'm thinking about bringing my starting time forward to 8.30am so I can leave at 5.30pm instead of 6.00.

Betty the boat at Portarlington

The other habit I'm totally acing is walking to/from work. I started off walking home from work, but for the past two weeks I've been getting up early enough to work in the mornings. I much prefer the mornings - a walk along the river is a pleasant way to start the day, especially compared with cramped public transport; it's cooler and has that nice new-day freshness about it; I don't have the aches and pains that come with sitting at a desk all day; and the time I arrive at work isn't dependent on the trams running on time.

Since I'm doing well at walking to work, I'm also reaching my daily goal of 10,000 steps. The trek to work accounts for about half of that, and even on the weekends I reach my goal most of days.

Other habits I'm doing well at: 

* not complaining on social media (this is really hard some days);

* no negative comments on social media (debate about politics is allowed, just politely); and

* flossing most days (no more lying to the dentist!).

Habits I'm doing just OK at: 

* not eating gluten. Initially I was hopeless at this - I love bread - but I thought it might be why I was feeling so bad, so I stopped a couple of weeks ago and I've been doing a good job of sticking to it. But if cutting gluten out is actually making a difference to how I feel, it's happening at a glacial pace;

* reading before bed every night. Some nights I'm just too tired, which is a decent reason except...

* ...I somehow manage to stare at my phone instead of sleeping, so that's another bad habit I'm not doing a great job of overcoming;

* no extreme napping. Again, as I've been feeling wrecked lately, I don't feel bad about resting when I need to. Some days I just lie down, sometimes I nap for an hour or so, but other days I sleep...and sleep...and sleep.

Fuzzy caterpillar near Noojee

I'm walkin'

Crossing 'my' bridge this morning

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I have also revived my habit of walking home from work, which is only the habit requiring the most energy to achieve of all my new 2017 habits (albeit on only four days of the week).

At some stage - when I'm getting up early enough and I have more energy - I will start walking to work in the morning as well, like I used to in the old days before my work moved to the west end of the city (and thus a little further from home). A walk along the river into the city really is a much better way to start the day than crowding onto a tram like sheep.

But for now I'm quite enjoying not catching the tram home after work (even on hot days) and getting a 45 minute walk in without really feeling like I'm making an effort to exercise.

Sometimes I walk on the south side of the river and sometimes on the north side, which is nice on hot days because there's a no-bikes-allowed path which is very shady and less busy. One day I detoured for the final part of the walk through the north end of the Botanic Gardens, which was very pleasant (even though as I walked from the Tan track to the garden gate I found myself amid a group of people much older than I who were all jogging up and down the incline while I dragged my sore/weary body up it...and then had to have a small lie down when I got home.)

I'm still doing well on getting up earlier. The last couple of days I've been tempted to hit the snooze button and stay in bed a bit longer because I haven't been sleeping as well, but I didn't! Go, me! I've been talking myself into just getting up and getting on with it. I really want those ticks! I'm still surprised how such a simple thing is motivating me so effectively, especially as it's private - I'm not accountable to anyone; it's just me and the list. 

All of these (good and) bad habits

Last Monday I decided to get my act together to overcome some of my bad habits, revive some old habits and develop some new ones. Instead of just deciding to get up earlier, exercise more, read more and nap less, and then just muddling my way through, I've gone and got all systematic about it.  

Nothing complicated - I have a list of all the habits and I get a tick for every day that I do what I'm meant do (or don't do what I'm trying not to do).  I know that sounds tedious, but I like seeing the ticks piling up and missing out on a tick does motivate me to do better.

So far I'm doing a good job of getting up earlier (and getting to work early), walking 10,000+ steps a day, rebounding for 15 minutes most days, stretching, reading a book before bed (instead of the internet), flossing and not whining on social media. I'm doing a reasonable job of not napping  - I was doing well until an epic nap on Sunday. 

I'd like to say I feel great, but actually I'm utterly exhausted (and I'm not even waking up earlier!) and my body feels sore and stiff. Mentally though, it feels good to be taking action to get my crap together, and I'm pleased with my progress so far. 

I really do function better with routine. Boring, but true.