I am just coming to the tail end of a fifteen hour migraine. Man, I hate those things! Knowing that I need to rest but also knowing that there are fifty things that I need to do before my husband heads off to work tomorrow is an exercise in guilt. Guilt that I haven't finished 'the list' and guilt that I haven't taken care of me. I finally gave in to the blinding pain and laid down on the sofa. The last load of laundry can wait until morning.
I did manage to stick with the Pinterest Challenge though. No, I did not do hair and make-up. As I said before, I am doing this my way and my way says that if you would be eternally grateful to have that one side of your face go ahead and violently explode in order to get rid of the migraine, make-up is not necessary.
Instead, I worked on my challenge board. I didn't bother with recipes or cute outfits or organization. Instead, today was about fitness. Chronic bodies require exercise routines that are gentle yet effective. I read through so many blogs and websites that I lost count and pinned about a hundred yoga exercises as well as ballet exercises. Some I will need to work my way up to but they look like fun and stretching is not only good for chronic bodies but my cardiologist told me that the more flexible you are, the more flexible your arteries are, making them less prone to gather plaque. The list of benefits of doing yoga and ballet are endless, better posture and sleep being the two I am most interested in since I have such trouble reaching and maintaining R.E.M. sleep.
The down side of all that reading was that I ended up prolonging a migraine that should never have lasted fifteen hours. Had I just gone to sleep, or at least attempted to, it probably would have subsided much sooner. Stubbornness is not always my friend.
Keeping in line with my new cleaning schedule, I will clean the house for about two hours in the morning (believe me, that is less than half the time I spent with my previous schedule) then I will figure out which of the hundred or so exercises will make it to Monday's schedule and then the husband is off to work for the week and the rest of my day is open to spend some quality time with my oldest daughter before I have to take her back to college.
I am liking this new scheduling! Normally, I would spend the entire day cleaning (because once I get started I always find more to do) and I would have no free time until after the dinner dishes were done. It was only then that I could focus on what I WANT to do. If I took time off during the day, I would play catch up the following day. It was an exhausting cycle. If nothing else in this challenge works out I will still be glad that I did it because now I have a better way of cleaning that meets my high standards and saves me a boat load of time. The cleaning schedule stays.
For now I'm off to bed and if I drift off to sleep, maybe the remainder of this migraine will drift away too. If you are interested in The Pinterest Challenge, follow me on the site and we can exchange ideas. You'll find me under Rebecca Christman. Goodnight Y'all!
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Friday, December 26, 2014
The Pinterest Challenge
My oldest daughter asked me if I had ever heard of The Pinterest Challenge. The what? What is this challenge for the sparkly website that I love so much? That lovely site where I find so much inspiration and stand in awe of the creativity that we humans posses. There is a challenge? Where do I find this unicorn?
After some research, I discovered that for many people, Pinterest is viewed in a negative light. I had no idea! There seems to be a stereotype for people like me who adore Pinterest. Why do we do that? Why do we classify people based on what they like or dislike if it doesn't jive with what we like or dislike? Here is what I found out; For many people, Pinterest is for middle class white women who strive to be Martha Stewart, June Cleaver and Cindy Crawford all rolled in into one perfect white girl. Apparently, we kill ourselves trying to follow every bit of advice on Pinterest in our ridiculous quest for perfection. We strive to be the perfect home maker, the perfect Mother, the perfect wife, the perfect cook with the perfectly cleaned and organized home, while we look like a super model trying to do it all. There are women who claim that they have what is called 'Pinterest anxiety' and are suffering from low self worth because they can not accomplish all that is Pinterest. Seriously? Are you kidding me?
To prove just how wretched they feel, they have decided to challenge themselves by building 'Challenge boards' and following all of the most popular advice Pinterest has to offer, for one week. After they have documented what worked for them and what they feel they failed at, they point to those perceived failures and say, "See? I told you so! This is why I am unhappy!"
I read through several of these blogs with my jaw in my lap. If you set out to prove that you will fail, then guess what? You're gonna fail. There are over one BILLION posts on Pinterest. Did you catch that number? The reason for such a massive number is because we are all interested in different things. Why torture yourself with something you are not interested in trying?
I started thinking about the negative aspect of this challenge and decided to turn it around. If you feel stuck in a rut or are chronically ill, like I am, and feel like you aren't accomplishing anything, wouldn't it make sense to schedule time throughout the day to do those things that never seem to get done?
I am doing The Pinterest Challenge 2.0 -A.K.A 'my version'. I am building (it's ongoing) a board filled with the things that I love and want to accomplish -or at the very least, try. I am scheduling my day based on my daily board. For instance, I never bother to look put together anymore. I am usually in so much pain that I just do not care how I look. I also found a daily cleaning list that trumps my routine. It covers everything that I normally do plus a few extras but it does it more efficiently, freeing up my time for things I seriously need to get done. I scheduled time for those things too. Like, daily exercise, writing my book, finishing my art pieces and finding the time to learn to do something new each week. My challenge is based on my likes, dislikes and what I am curious to learn. Also, the one week challenge just isn't going to cut it for me. I refuse to try something so structured for only one week so that I can call myself a failure before I have completed the learning curve. My challenge is 100 days. By then, the things that work will be habit and the things that don't will have been dropped from the schedule.
I am on day five of this challenge. So far, I have only seen positives. For the past four days, I get up and actually put myself together after yoga. I'm new to yoga and not very good yet but even though I look silly doing it, I feel better after. Getting dressed with a quick hair and make-up session has so far, made me feel good about myself. I feel like I am showing up to my life ready to go.
The new cleaning routine has been a good thing, especially since yesterday was Christmas and my old way would have had me in melt down mode by noon with all of the cooking and cleaning that needed to be done.
What will all of this do for me, really? Do I expect to be 'the perfect white girl' at the end of this? Uh...no. What is perfect anyway? I do hope to have some new habits that benefit my life rather than hinder it. I hope to learn some new things and complete a lot of things but I also hope to show other women - no matter what your race because the whole 'white girl' aspect of this really got on my nerves - that when you challenge yourself, you should do it in a way that is helpful to you. If you fail at something, so what? You tried, which is more than what a lot of people can claim. You had the moxy to go out there and try to make your life better and at the very least (if you want to be negative about it) you learned what not to do.
Judging your self worth based on what you think other people can or can not do is never helpful. My advice, if you are up for The Pinterest Challenge, do it on your terms. Do it in a way that will benefit your life in the long run. Never set out to fail unless that is part of your learning process - and then, that can't even be called a failure because you learned from it. We're too hard on ourselves. I'm not going to make myself crazier by constantly comparing myself to other women.
I will keep you updated as I go. For now, I am going to head out with my family and enjoy the day. I have made time for that when normally I would be stressing about what needs to be done. The new cleaning schedule has allowed me to lay that stress down.
If you decide to take on the challenge, let me know. We could swap advice on what works for us as we navigate forming new, fun, healthy habits! That's all for now. I'm out the door!
After some research, I discovered that for many people, Pinterest is viewed in a negative light. I had no idea! There seems to be a stereotype for people like me who adore Pinterest. Why do we do that? Why do we classify people based on what they like or dislike if it doesn't jive with what we like or dislike? Here is what I found out; For many people, Pinterest is for middle class white women who strive to be Martha Stewart, June Cleaver and Cindy Crawford all rolled in into one perfect white girl. Apparently, we kill ourselves trying to follow every bit of advice on Pinterest in our ridiculous quest for perfection. We strive to be the perfect home maker, the perfect Mother, the perfect wife, the perfect cook with the perfectly cleaned and organized home, while we look like a super model trying to do it all. There are women who claim that they have what is called 'Pinterest anxiety' and are suffering from low self worth because they can not accomplish all that is Pinterest. Seriously? Are you kidding me?
To prove just how wretched they feel, they have decided to challenge themselves by building 'Challenge boards' and following all of the most popular advice Pinterest has to offer, for one week. After they have documented what worked for them and what they feel they failed at, they point to those perceived failures and say, "See? I told you so! This is why I am unhappy!"
I read through several of these blogs with my jaw in my lap. If you set out to prove that you will fail, then guess what? You're gonna fail. There are over one BILLION posts on Pinterest. Did you catch that number? The reason for such a massive number is because we are all interested in different things. Why torture yourself with something you are not interested in trying?
I started thinking about the negative aspect of this challenge and decided to turn it around. If you feel stuck in a rut or are chronically ill, like I am, and feel like you aren't accomplishing anything, wouldn't it make sense to schedule time throughout the day to do those things that never seem to get done?
I am doing The Pinterest Challenge 2.0 -A.K.A 'my version'. I am building (it's ongoing) a board filled with the things that I love and want to accomplish -or at the very least, try. I am scheduling my day based on my daily board. For instance, I never bother to look put together anymore. I am usually in so much pain that I just do not care how I look. I also found a daily cleaning list that trumps my routine. It covers everything that I normally do plus a few extras but it does it more efficiently, freeing up my time for things I seriously need to get done. I scheduled time for those things too. Like, daily exercise, writing my book, finishing my art pieces and finding the time to learn to do something new each week. My challenge is based on my likes, dislikes and what I am curious to learn. Also, the one week challenge just isn't going to cut it for me. I refuse to try something so structured for only one week so that I can call myself a failure before I have completed the learning curve. My challenge is 100 days. By then, the things that work will be habit and the things that don't will have been dropped from the schedule.
I am on day five of this challenge. So far, I have only seen positives. For the past four days, I get up and actually put myself together after yoga. I'm new to yoga and not very good yet but even though I look silly doing it, I feel better after. Getting dressed with a quick hair and make-up session has so far, made me feel good about myself. I feel like I am showing up to my life ready to go.
The new cleaning routine has been a good thing, especially since yesterday was Christmas and my old way would have had me in melt down mode by noon with all of the cooking and cleaning that needed to be done.
What will all of this do for me, really? Do I expect to be 'the perfect white girl' at the end of this? Uh...no. What is perfect anyway? I do hope to have some new habits that benefit my life rather than hinder it. I hope to learn some new things and complete a lot of things but I also hope to show other women - no matter what your race because the whole 'white girl' aspect of this really got on my nerves - that when you challenge yourself, you should do it in a way that is helpful to you. If you fail at something, so what? You tried, which is more than what a lot of people can claim. You had the moxy to go out there and try to make your life better and at the very least (if you want to be negative about it) you learned what not to do.
Judging your self worth based on what you think other people can or can not do is never helpful. My advice, if you are up for The Pinterest Challenge, do it on your terms. Do it in a way that will benefit your life in the long run. Never set out to fail unless that is part of your learning process - and then, that can't even be called a failure because you learned from it. We're too hard on ourselves. I'm not going to make myself crazier by constantly comparing myself to other women.
I will keep you updated as I go. For now, I am going to head out with my family and enjoy the day. I have made time for that when normally I would be stressing about what needs to be done. The new cleaning schedule has allowed me to lay that stress down.
If you decide to take on the challenge, let me know. We could swap advice on what works for us as we navigate forming new, fun, healthy habits! That's all for now. I'm out the door!
Thursday, December 18, 2014
It's Me Again, Margaret.
I am amazed that anyone is still reading this blog. I owe you an apology. I have been inconsistent in keeping up with it for quite a while now. Life has just been so....chaotic is a really great word.
Between fighting with Fibro, CMP and CFS, I usually have around twenty projects going at any given time but I have also had a great many major life changes and epiphanies hit me one right after another. I have been waiting for things to slow down but since they never do, I decided that making the time to be here with you has to be a priority.
This was the first year that I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I finished the word count challenge but not the book. November is not the ideal time to sit down and write an entire novel but I'm over fifty thousand words in, so it will keep until after Christmas.
Everyone makes New Year Resolutions. I'm not going to do that. I mean, really, who keeps those things anyway? I have goals that I am working toward but I can't say that one has to be done by this date or that date. I intend to make some major changes that will surprise some people but others will just be relieved that I finally got on with it.
I do want my gym membership back. I loved the gym. Rejoining is one of my goals. Finishing the book is another. Honestly though, just finding that place where I am more happy than unhappy is my main goal. If that means shedding certain people from my world then that is what will have to happen. I feel so drained by the toxic people around me. Their constant negativity helps to keep me in a state of flare that I can not escape as long as they are a part of my day to day life.
Something that I have been doing for a while now -and excites me to no end - is I have been taking the Bible back to it's original translation and finding out what it meant when it was written. Even in the King James version, there are some bad translations. It wasn't intentional. We're human. It happens. But being able to read it the way it was meant to be read has been a real eye opener....and has caused me to resent the hell out of the church. If you ever read it, you'll understand why. I'm working on that too. I'm human. Aggravation and anger are understandable, and forgivable.
Like most of the church, I trusted that the various preachers in my journey knew what they were talking about. They didn't. So then I got mad at myself for doing what I know better than to do -trusting the word of other people without checking the facts. My fault. I'm a little ticked off that lies are being taught in church...that's a lie...I'm straight up pissed off about the lies being taught in church but isn't it my own fault for not checking it out? Yup! I'm correcting it in my own life now and I'm enjoying the heck out of it! I'm such a curious person by nature, I LOVE learning. Love it! I like real. I like authentic. We live in such a fake world, it's refreshing to peal back the layers and find what is real.
I don't know where this next year will take me. I do know that major changes are on the way. This is a short life. Far too short to live it in a way that doesn't bring you happiness. I'm chasing my happy. There will be dark days. There always are, but I'm ready for them. Now, when this flu goes away, I'll be up and running again. I will take you with me. If you have stuck with me this far, then anything I am going to do won't surprise you a bit. I love you for that.
Between fighting with Fibro, CMP and CFS, I usually have around twenty projects going at any given time but I have also had a great many major life changes and epiphanies hit me one right after another. I have been waiting for things to slow down but since they never do, I decided that making the time to be here with you has to be a priority.
This was the first year that I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I finished the word count challenge but not the book. November is not the ideal time to sit down and write an entire novel but I'm over fifty thousand words in, so it will keep until after Christmas.
Everyone makes New Year Resolutions. I'm not going to do that. I mean, really, who keeps those things anyway? I have goals that I am working toward but I can't say that one has to be done by this date or that date. I intend to make some major changes that will surprise some people but others will just be relieved that I finally got on with it.
I do want my gym membership back. I loved the gym. Rejoining is one of my goals. Finishing the book is another. Honestly though, just finding that place where I am more happy than unhappy is my main goal. If that means shedding certain people from my world then that is what will have to happen. I feel so drained by the toxic people around me. Their constant negativity helps to keep me in a state of flare that I can not escape as long as they are a part of my day to day life.
Something that I have been doing for a while now -and excites me to no end - is I have been taking the Bible back to it's original translation and finding out what it meant when it was written. Even in the King James version, there are some bad translations. It wasn't intentional. We're human. It happens. But being able to read it the way it was meant to be read has been a real eye opener....and has caused me to resent the hell out of the church. If you ever read it, you'll understand why. I'm working on that too. I'm human. Aggravation and anger are understandable, and forgivable.
Like most of the church, I trusted that the various preachers in my journey knew what they were talking about. They didn't. So then I got mad at myself for doing what I know better than to do -trusting the word of other people without checking the facts. My fault. I'm a little ticked off that lies are being taught in church...that's a lie...I'm straight up pissed off about the lies being taught in church but isn't it my own fault for not checking it out? Yup! I'm correcting it in my own life now and I'm enjoying the heck out of it! I'm such a curious person by nature, I LOVE learning. Love it! I like real. I like authentic. We live in such a fake world, it's refreshing to peal back the layers and find what is real.
I don't know where this next year will take me. I do know that major changes are on the way. This is a short life. Far too short to live it in a way that doesn't bring you happiness. I'm chasing my happy. There will be dark days. There always are, but I'm ready for them. Now, when this flu goes away, I'll be up and running again. I will take you with me. If you have stuck with me this far, then anything I am going to do won't surprise you a bit. I love you for that.
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