Old Dog, New Tricks.
These next few weeks in the Zoot Household are going to be awesomely insane. LilZ’s Musical is entering it’s final weeks of rehearsals and then an insane week of production. (If you live here…PLEASE COME SEE IT…It’s going to be amazing. Seussical the Musical. It just sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Buy tickets here.) There will be things going on almost every night. Tonight? I’m going to a Hair/Makeup class since I’ll be there every night with NikkiZ anyway, I want to help out where I can. (NikkiZ has about 16-count part in the first act. SO CUTE.) There are rehearsals past 9pm, costume fittings, cast photos, and set build sessions. Not to mention the NON-theater stuff going on. MrZ’s grandfather passed away this weekend so he’ll be heading down to Slidell for a few days this week. I’m still studying for the GMAT and we’re still trying to wrap things up with Dad’s estate. And finally? NikkiZ started t-ball this week. And rec league t-ball? Much more serious than YMCA Soccer, it turns out.
In other words? I need something to help keep me FOCUSED mentally and emotionally in the next few weeks. Better habits to help me manage my life and avoid spinning out of control under a storm of stress and anxiety. So, I took this article and picked my favorites out of the list of 30 and tweaked them a little. I’m going to try to apply these changes to my life and build new habits these next few weeks. I wanted to share them with you so you can hold me accountable and kick me in the ass if you see me slacking.
10 New Habits I’m Going To Try To Form To Increase My Value Of AWESOME
- Exercise 30 minutes every day. Preferably do a run or a workout video, but if I can’t do that I’ll at least walk Sweetie around the block twice.
- Sleep 8 hours. I don’t know if it’s possible, but I’m going to try! In theory it sounds wonderful!
- Eat fresh fruits and vegetables every day. Another thing that would probably make me feel better in general, and would be a great habit to form.
- Drink more water throughout the day. (And less Diet Coke.) I’m not going to quantify this because drinking any water would be an improvement.
- No More Nightly Beers. I have one most nights before I go to bed. I’m going to give that up for a few weeks, even if I’m just doing it to see if I notice any difference.
- Mange Email Better. I have yet to find a system that works for me, but I’m going to try a few out. While I have to LOOK at my inbox more than twice a day because I am always waiting for responses on things that are time-sensitive; I won’t OPEN any emails that aren’t time-sensitive unless it’s one of those TWO times a day I set aside.
- List and Prioritize. I wake up every morning with a TO DO list and often don’t cross anything off at the end of the day because other daily stuff interferes. I’m going to try to prioritize my list so this doesn’t happen.
- Wait 48 hours before buying anything not necessary. This may not even come up, but I like it as a principle to live by.
- Meditate 30 minutes per day. I’ve really wanted to start trying to meditate every day and with weeks as crazy us the upcoming ones? It seems a good time to start. If anyone can recommend good Beginner’s Meditation resources I’d appreciate it!
And finally? Pictures from NikkiZ’s first t-ball practice. She’s the tiniest one out there! EEK.
There are tons of good guided meditations on YouTube — even just chants or gongs are a good way to focus. I say start with five minutes. 30 minutes is like advanced levitating Bodhisattva shiznit!
I.LOVE.THIS.LIST. Of the 30, your list of favs is very, very close to my own. I’ll be trying this too, probably a few at a time as I try to get habits established. Looking forward to reading about your progress.
#6 I need to do this in a big way.
Try this UCLA website for guided meditations. You can start small too–3 minutes!
http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22
Oh I wish I could come to the play! I’ve always wanted to see Seussical
#1: You’d be surprised how just walking the dog and/or kids around the block several times a week helps to maintain weight. I realized how much it helped after I’d had some foot problems, which prevented even short walks for months. Between that and having started Cymbalta a few months earlier, my weight got way out of control. Now I’m doing 2 Zumba classes per week, an hour each, and the spare tire around my midsection has begun to disappear. Zumba is so much fun that I forget I’m exercising. It lifts my spirits and is a good stressbuster. Let me just say that I’m the kind of person who only dances to slow songs–and only with my husband–once in a blue moon.
#7: This tends to happen a lot when you have kids, but it really does help to have a prioritized to-do list. I also keep a running list of groceries and other items we need and things that need to be done in my monthly planner (my “brain,” 5″x7,” purchased every year at the Dollar Tree), which goes *everywhere* with me. We live in a rural area almost 30 minutes from town, so this habit helps me make the most of being there and unexpectedly having some extra time.
Best wishes on forming better habits!
Great Easter bunny photo!
LOVE the adorable photos of NikkiZ!
Good luck with your focus goals. I’m very interested in what your readers have to say about meditation resources, too. I’ve found that just doing the twenty or so minutes of Namaste Yoga from FitTV has been a godsend.
I will do my best to see Seussical
Hehehe- you said “Mange email better”. I think that pretty much says it all!
I set up different labels in my gmail account “business-needs reply” “personal-needs reply” but it didnt work out great. There are several personal emails in that folder I just never responded to! So if you come up with a good system- share it with us!
My husband has meditations up on his sight – he is a life coach so he’s pretty good. http://www.wix.com/stephenrice/naturecoach Click on ‘free resources’. There are a bunch on there and he is constantly working on new ones!