Sari Solden's Daily Questions:
What emotional pangs did I notice today?

What feelings about differences did I notice?

What went well today?
How can I make it happen more regularly?

What strengths have I focused on today?

At what point did I feel most authentically myself?
Showing posts with label Tai chi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tai chi. Show all posts

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Day Sixty-three

A glorious autumn day, mild in the sun and at midday; got suddenly a lot colder towards evening.

What emotional pangs did I notice today?

Too busy to notice.

What feelings about differences did I notice?

I'm such a stickler for details.

What went well today?
Kept good time for my various appointments and commitments.
Shipped off a translation in good time; kept up with other ones.
Encouraging dental appointment to see whether my recurrent mouth sores can be sorted.
Good walk right across town and back again.
Typed up my TO DO list, and also typed up a HAVE DONE list! 
I get a lot done in a day, even if I don't get to some of the things that I should.
Booked hair appointment for next week.
At last caught up with plumber who has not been very forthcoming re new taps in kitchen and bathroom. 
Took phone calls from ACHA people re water ingress from ACHA flat into mine.

How can I make it happen more regularly?

Keep on keeping on. Keep checking up on clients, workmen – but why should I have to do that?

What strengths have I focused on today?

Ability to juggle quite a few things at the same time.

At what point did I feel most authentically myself?
In meditation during Tai chi class.
Walking to hospital and back again in glorious sunshine.
Chatting to some friends I ran into along the way.


What did not go so well?
Have not touched my accounting at all, at all. 
Watched TV late into the night.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Day Thirty-two

Sore and tired. My arms hurt from all the typing done today, and maybe there's a twinge or three left over from yesterday. Certainly haven't had enough stretching and balancing exercises.
A tough day. Wild weather out there, not as disastrous as further south(-east), but wild nonetheless.

Woke at a decent hour, got up at 8:30. At last pushed myself into the shower and emerged feeling clean and human.
But hung over, as if! Maybe the weather, maybe the fact that I overate on carbs last night. Had no energy, no focus – or hyperfocus on all things other than work.

Result: had to cancel Gaelic choir practice to push ahead on work, of which suddenly there has been quite a bit – yay! I may yet be able to pay all the bills looming on the horizon :) And barely set foot out of doors.

What emotional pangs did I notice today?

Sudden accesses of loneliness, dread, despair, alternating with hyperfocus and elation. A bloody roller-coaster! But chiefly the realisation that I have to stop procrastinating, or else...!

What went well today?
Received an invitation to stay in Glasgow when the need arises. Fellow translator. Very kind!
Confirmed details with my next visitor, one of my very oldest friends. Can't wait! Feel motivated to get stuff out of the way before she arrives.
Cooked a well-balanced meal (chicken, lots of veg, some of yesterday's tatties, on a bed of fresh lettuce); ate only half of it so I can heat up the rest tomorrow.
Shipped off a couple of small jobs (but only barely within the deadline – very naughty!).


How can I make it happen more regularly?

Practice makes perfect?
Certainly will try to eat lots more veg and salads than I did yesterday.

What strengths have I focused on today?

Hyperfocus, pushing myself to beyond my self-perceived limits.

At what point did I feel most authentically myself?
e-corresponding with friends; sorting out transport and accommodation details; getting work done and e-mailed to clients.

Is Concerta making a difference?
As on previous days, I felt hyperfocused on all the wrong things, only managing to snap out of this weird mode in the middle of the afternoon. I have no idea what caused it.
By 7:30 I had not eaten for too long and suffered a mild version of the severe stomach cramps I had as a very young woman, when I was so harrassed and stressed-out in Paris that my GP prescribed – guess what? – some drug similar to Valium. It was a bugger to wean myself off the damned pills! Once I had stopped taking them, it still took years until I managed to leave home without at least two of them in my bag, just in case.

I had forgotten all about that until just this evening – fancy that!

Must stop – right arm very sore now. Wrong posture, so off to do some gentle Tai chi movement exercises before bed.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Day Ten plus Eleven

A good day, all in all. Woke at some point in the early morning but must've fallen asleep again while thinking about getting up because my alarm woke me at 8:45 – time for Concerta x 2.

It was pretty damp out there and grew damper and windier as the day wore on. Wild water out in the Bay, beautiful but not to be taken lightly. I was glad to have the shell of my car about me, anyway.

Wasted a lot of time sorting on-line stuff out for my new Gaelic course, and phoning people, chasing things up.

What went well today?
But had a good laugh with my new dentist, who accepted my decision not to have injections for the removal of a dodgy filling. It was fine. That kind of pain is over so quickly and then it really is over.

Also managed to hopefully sort out a knotty translation question for my very oldest client, who has kept me housed and fed for over twenty years – not exclusively, but with some of my most interesting  commissions.

And had a good Tai chi session, and got ready for some more work.

Finally, a lovely evening out with a friend up at live music in Benderloch (Orcadian Ivan Drever, guitarist, singer, songwriter).

Shall I look at all the things I did not manage to do?
- accounts
- another translation due by Saturday
- garden work
- cleaning windows, cleaning house in readiness for a visitor

What emotional pangs did I notice today?

Missed the cat at the most unexpected moments – should be over that by now, surely...

At what point did I feel most authentically myself?
Probably when I walked along the Esplanade, with the spindrift blowing in my face! It was good to be out there and to feel the elements. Needed that!