Belated Weekend Recap
Hola peeps and happy Tuesday. Anyone else get engulfed by the wildfire smoke over the weekend? Three days straight for us with lots of air quality alerts. I hope my Canadian friends are doing okay. It was a bit of a lazy weekend to start until it wasn't. (Thanks to me, I'm sure the Mr is mumbling under his breath.). I have been throwing myself into projects this month to keep myself from spiraling over Mom's birthday this week. Not to mention constantly fighting every aspect of gardening and I swear I typed that sentence before that last time I tried in 2020. I have fungus gnats in the elevated planters because of all of the damn rain we've been getting and the soil can't dry out for them to die off. So I got some mosquito dunks that can be cut into 1/8's and put into a gallon of water overnight and then water the area to kill the larvae then dry the soil to kill the adults. This is apparently common with organic gardening but frustrating...
I have a hard time shutting my brain off when I want to sleep sometimes but usually reading a book at night does the trick - though I admit sometimes I end up reading a lot longer than I might want to before it works.
ReplyDeleteI've tried that and it does seem to help a little but then as you know, I wake up in the middle of the night and the hamster puts on some ONJ and gets Physical on the wheel.
DeleteLike the Mr., I like to read in bed before attempting to sleep. It definitely helps to quiet my brain and get me to relax, but the selection of book definitely matters. The book needs to be fiction, engaging, but not too exciting. I also try to set a time limit as to how long I will read, about a half hour, and will include it in my bedtime routine. That way I am still turning off the light at my preferred time.
ReplyDeleteOutside of bedtime two ways that I am able to mentally relax is to take a hot shower and focus only on how the water feels on my body and to sit by a large body of water, focusing on the movement of the water. It helps that I live near the Atlantic Ocean.
I too have struggled to be in the moment in more intimate situations. One thing that has helped me is to focus on what I feel under my hands, the different textures available to me, finding something soft, smooth, calming, which brings me back into the moment. I'll also be honest about what is running through my head, usually something silly or completely random, and we will laugh about it, which helps us reconnect.
So happy you have a nice body of water close by to enjoy! (We have a sea of orange barrels in every direction for about 20 miles) Those are good tips and I will give those a try.
DeleteThis is where the mindfulness meditation helps me
ReplyDeleteI sooo wish I could meditate. Last night I literally apologized 6x praying from my thoughts wandering even when I was talking to Grandma after. LOL I did try again this morning. Something I really need to super focus on.
DeleteI'm about 50/50 on this. When I'm really upset about something it's hard to put it out of my mind completely. But whether it's been a stressful day or a regular okay day, I always, always play a funky solitaire game on my Fire. I do this to help relax, to distract, and to calm down if I'm on overload. I usually have the game music turned off too because sometimes that can be annoying to hear if I'm amped up. Like Browren above, if I'm by water, like a lake up north, all my stress and thoughts go out the window because I'm able to just focus on the sounds of the water and any bird or animal noises nearby, and my breathing becomes more steady and regulated.
ReplyDeleteOn the bad days I will do an Italian lesson and/or pop bubble wrap. When we were on Long Island, it was easy to relax sitting on the beach-- even when I ended up in the water fully clothed I still laughed about it. I need an ocean or lake near me!
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