Hello comrades and welcome to the second improvement megathread of May! Today is Mother's day, don't forget to call your mom.
As usual, some discussion ideas:
- Do you want to share something you've done in the previous week? Everything counts, nothing is too small.
- Do you have any goals for next week?
- Do you have any streaks? For example, "sober for one day." Feel free to post your streak every day in this thread.
- If you don't have a continuous streak, did you manage to abstain from something for a day or more?
- Did you come across some useful information or resource that might help others?
Poster caption: Glory to the mother-heroine!
Good luck with your goals!
This week I practiced meditation on 5 days and practiced exercises for my back (the McGill Big 3) on 5 days. I want to continue doing these exercises regularly in order to fix my dumbass back. I finally replaced the strings on my acoustic guitar so I can rock out
I use the Insight Timer app, it has a lot of free guided meditations. They are great because you just need to listen to the instructions. Here are some of my favourites:
Breathing Meditation - Jack Kornfield
Five Minutes Of Self Compassion
I recommend starting with some guided meditations, then when you get the hang of it you can just set the timer with bells in that app and do it on your own.
Pro tip: don't get discouraged when your mind wanders. People think that meditation means that your head needs to be empty and free from thoughts, but that's nearly impossible. The point is to notice that your attention has wandered and focus back on the thing that you were focusing on (usually the breath).
I also recommend listening to the "10% Happier" podcast. It's a great podcast about mindfulness, meditation, Buddhism and related topics. It has a deep backlog and a lot of interesting guests.
My library provides a free headspace subscription. I really like that app tbh although if it's not free it's highly overpriced.
AFAIK, you can count breaths in and out up to an arbitrary number (like 10) or meditate with a mantra that you repeat over and over.
The real secret sauce is noticing your thoughts, literally saying to yourself "oh, that's a thought I just had," then without strongly reacting, let the thought just float away and continue with whatever you were focusing on before.
What we say to ourselves is/becomes our reality unless you take the time to realize that it's not necessarily true just because your brain said it.
Also, meditation is a good time to notice sensations in your body that you may not have realized you're having, or emotions that you didn't know you were having. As benign as "oh my weight is pressing down on the floor/my chair" and as specific as "I've got kind of a weight in my chest" and later you can figure out whether it's because you're lonely or tired or whatever.
roll call:
@SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net
If anybody else wants to be added to the roll call, just let me know
Of course comrade, we're happy to have you onboard! :unity:
What would you like to improve, if you don't mind sharing?
I've been trying to get back into music, maybe resume light workouts, and improve eating habits slightly. I'd like to get back into running if the weather permits but I think I need to start stretching more before that.
Those are great goals! Check out "Couch to 5k" if you haven't, it's a great running program. There are a lot of free apps for it.
What kind of music are you into? Do you play an instrument?
Thanks, I'll check it out. I think I remember seeing that posted on the site a while back.
I'm not sure what genre it would be. I play guitar, bass, and I have a midi keyboard that irritates my hands sometimes so I use it sparingly to add some midi.
Dry May so far. I'm keeping my other plans modest until I'm really used to it. Sudoku and Fallout now, theory and weights later.
Congratulations on the progress so far!
I bet you can do the whole month, keep us updated on your progress. Are you playing or watching Fallout?
Thanks. I'm watching. I got Fallout 4 years ago but got to a really early dying-over-and-over again rut (maybe the first boss?) without enough commitment to the game to make it through, and now I hear they're regularly fucking it up so I'm not tempted to start it again.
I haven't watched the show yet but I heard it's good so I will definitely check it out. Fallout 4 is solid, especially with mods. But New Vegas is one of the best games of all time, I recommend it if you haven't played it yet.
So I'm currently ~16 days sober from alcohol and ~21 days sober from weed. All in all I don't really feel that different tbh but I have dropped a ton of weight (that I really can't afford to lose since I'm way too skinny now). I also got my dental issues fixed and am still recovering from that. As soon as my mouth stops hurting I'll be starting up a calisthenics routine to try and get back into some kind of shape. I'd like to get back to the weight I was ~6 months ago but instead of drinking to gain the weight I want to actually pack on muscle. It'll be a long road but I feel like I'm on a decent track for once
That's awesome, congratulations on the sobriety streak! Do you already have a calisthenics routine in mind that you would like to try?
No specific routine in mind but I'll be starting with some basic movements and building up from there. Thankfully I'm pretty well versed in fitness and progressive overload so that should apply to calisthenics as well. I didn't really have any movement goals at first but once I started typing this out I realized that I wanted to be able to hold a handstand and actually balance it. That'll be more long term though, for now I'm trying to just feel strong again. And of course aesthetic if I'm truly honest but that'll come with time
