when life hands you lemons…

Tags

bipolar disorder, blog for mental health 2015, borderline personality disorder, DBT, depression, mental health, mental illness, rebuilding my life, suicide

…freeze those fuckers and throw them at people you don’t like. Because seriously, who likes lemonade? But I digress, today is Thursday and on Thursdays we talk about mental health.

***TRIGGER WARNING***

I’m going to discuss suicide in this post. If that will bother you, stop reading now.

Something really cool happened yesterday. It’s probably only cool to me, but hey, my blog. This story actually starts back in 2010. Let’s hop in Mama’s time machine…

In February of 2010 I had a terrible breakup with a guy. That was pretty typical for me. I still hadn’t completed DBT and I wasn’t really taking care of myself. True to form I fell hard and scared him off. When he broke up with me I emptied the contents of the medicine cabinet into my stomach. That was my 4th serious attempt within two years. By the time I was found I was completely unconscious. The paramedics rushed me to the hospital, they pumped my stomach, and I spent time in the ICU.

Life was not good at that point, to say the very least.

I worked hard to get my life back together. I continued going to my therapy sessions, 3 times a week at the start, my mom locked my meds up and I only got one week worth at a time, and I learned how to think all over again. My psychiatrist wasn’t sure if I’d finally managed to cause myself permanent brain damage. (I hadn’t.)

Slowly but surely things came back together. I finished my Master’s degree and started doing better at work. My relationships improved. I learned how to not give up on myself anymore.

Back to the present…

A month or so ago my boss told me that our prescription insurance will do mail order three month med refills on generics for NOTHING. I take three prescriptions, all psych meds, and all generic. But I was concerned that my doc wouldn’t go for it because of my history.

The box came yesterday.

 

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life worth living weekly update – July 12th

Tags

28 day challenge, building a life worth living, DBT, getting creative, goals, health, stress management, taking charge of my finances

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of 10 Major Goals I want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

Another strange, but entirely awesome, week. WOOT!

Creative:  I want to finish the knit shrug. Trying this one again. Not yet, but I have joined the second sleeve to be worked in the round so the end is in sight.

Stress Management: I really want to start water aerobics again so I’m going to focus on finding a place. I’m also on vacation this week so I’m going to do my very best to relax. Got in plenty of relaxing, still haven’t for sure found a place to do the water aerobics.

Health: I got some new vitamins, new shampoo/conditioner, and I’m going to try to find a different moisturizer. I need to just get back into taking care of my physical health. Picked up even more vitamins and I’ve been using the new moisturizer every day. I like it even better than the first one.

Financial:  I need to make sure that I can cover what’s left for this month including paying for the divorce paperwork. I’ll be selling the Honda so that’ll help. When I sold the Honda I paid off a small loan that I had with Mom, my line of credit at the bank (and then closed it), and my credit card (kept that open for emergencies). I also spent some time looking at what my finances should be now that it’s just me and things will be soooo much more comfortable.

Simplify:  I don’t think I really even need this anymore. YAY! Yay!

 

Goals for this week:

Turns out I do have to report for jury duty, at least tomorrow morning. I’m not pleased by this, but there isn’t much I can do. It does mean that I’m going to try to get some of my work done at home, assuming I can get back into my account. I put in a request to have my name changed back to what it had been before I left on Thursday and they actually did it.

Creative:  I want to finish the knit shrug, seriously. It shouldn’t take more than a few more days, tops.

Stress Management: I’m aiming to get back on the treadmill at least 5 times for a minimum of 15 minutes each time.

Health: I really need to get back on the healthy eating bandwagon. There’s been a bit too much crap in my diet lately.

Financial:  Even though my situation is more comfortable now, I have got to quit buying shit like I’m loaded.

 

life worth living weekly update – July 6th

Tags

28 day challenge, building a life worth living, DBT, getting creative, goals, health, stress management, taking charge of my finances

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of 10 Major Goals I want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

It definitely wasn’t the week I thought I’d have, but it was pretty fucking awesome.

Creative:  I want to finish the knit shrug. No, but I did work on it.

Stress Management:  I really REALLY need to get back on the treadmill. I didn’t do this, but I’ve been pretty damn active the last few days.

Health: Skin again. For some reason my hands are just trashed. I sort of did this but not as well as I should have.

Financial:  Pay day is tomorrow, time to get serious. It’s amazing how much more money I have available now that I’m truly only paying MY bills.

Simplify:  ??? Not sure about this one this week. I got rid of a TON of stuff. I loaded the Jeep full 3 times with stuff we took to Goodwill.

 

Goals for this week:

Creative:  I want to finish the knit shrug. Trying this one again.

Stress Management: I really want to start water aerobics again so I’m going to focus on finding a place. I’m also on vacation this week so I’m going to do my very best to relax.

Health: I got some new vitamins, new shampoo/conditioner, and I’m going to try to find a different moisturizer. I need to just get back into taking care of my physical health.

Financial:  I need to make sure that I can cover what’s left for this month including paying for the divorce paperwork. I’ll be selling the Honda so that’ll help.

Simplify:  I don’t think I really even need this anymore. YAY!

 

life worth living weekly update – June 29th

Tags

28 day challenge, building a life worth living, DBT, getting creative, goals, health, stress management, taking charge of my finances

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of 10 Major Goals I want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

The nicest thing I can say about last week is that it’s over. (I think I said that last week, too.)

Creative:  I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. I FINALLY finished the black and white vest and I did make good progress on the knit shrug.

Stress Management:  Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 25 minutes minimum. Nope. Because of the severe issues with my legs I only managed one time and only for 10 minutes.

Health: Back to working on a healthier diet. Tomorrow morning I’m trying the soaked chia seed breakfast again with some tweaks. I got the chia breakfast thing figured out and it’s amazing. My diet did some up and down things last week but I managed to lose one pound. So yay.

Financial:  I need to look at the budget again, closer, and see where I can make changes. I want to get things paid off. This didn’t happen because of all the medical shit with Josh. I simply didn’t have the energy or inclination.

Simplify:  I actually went through my printed patterns last night and got rid of the ones I knew I wouldn’t ever actually make. I think going through the craft supplies is probably my next stop. I don’t have too much excess of anything, except maybe yarn, but if nothing else it’ll refresh my memory of what I’ve got. I didn’t get rid of anything but I was able to straighten up the yarn storage and figure out what all I’ve got.

 

The challenge is officially over and I officially did not do well. I’m going to keep plugging away at finishing the other two projects. I’m thinking the next time I do this sort of challenge that it’ll be just a little easier, like maybe not shopping for anything but groceries or something.

Goals for this week:

Creative:  I want to finish the knit shrug.

Stress Management:  I really REALLY need to get back on the treadmill.

Health: Skin again. For some reason my hands are just trashed.

Financial:  Pay day is tomorrow, time to get serious.

Simplify:  ??? Not sure about this one this week.

 

my tolerance for bullshit has reached an all-time low

Tags

anxiety, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, choices, DBT, drama free zone, family, health, life, limits, mental health, mental illness, moods, save the drama for yo mama, skin conditions, stress, the world is full of fucking idiots

Yeah, Mondays suck. I’ve been trying my best to deal with the ridiculous quantities of bullshit going on right now and, honestly, I think I’m doing a fan-fucking-tastic job. But truly, a girl can only take so much at once.

Josh and I have both smoked what should be our last cigarettes. That happened yesterday. Remarkably it hasn’t been as hard as I remember quitting can be. Part of it is that it’s been hot as hell here lately. I hate smoking outside when it’s really hot, wet, windy, or cold. So basically there are like 6 weeks out of 52 that I find smoking outside tolerable in Nebraska.

Because of all the drama going on with Josh’s health I’ve been trying to take care of myself as best I can and not make a fuss about not really feeling great myself. I know it’s stress and that this stress will pass, I really do get that. But my skin crap is flaring up on both legs now and draining like that cheap old car we all had that leaked oil like some kind of freak mechanical miscarriage. It ain’t pretty in my special long-legged drawers right now kids, not pretty at all.

So I called the dermatologist’s office to get an appointment to try the phototherapy whatever. She’s on vacation this week so I’ll see her PA, her dude PA. Keep in mind that my problem area is my inner thighs, right up next to where all my junk is. The nurse explained that they’ll “paint” the area, let it sit (to give it time to think about what it’s done to me???), then I’ll sit under the light. The whole process is supposed to take about two hours. And then, get this, I cannot expose the affected area to sunlight for 48 hours. She told me that and I’m all, “honey, that part of this body hasn’t seen the actual light of day in YEARS.”

Oh sweet jezuz, what the fuck am I getting myself into now…

My appointment is at 12:30, if it runs 2 hours I’ll be done at 2:30. Josh’s appointment with the anesthesia people is at 3:30. I know where we’re going but he doesn’t and I’m not entirely sure how to work all of this because he and I will be coming from complete opposite sides of town. Righty-o.

Alright, I’ve had my 15 minutes of bitching, time to suck it up and get on with kicking ass and taking names.

It’s certainly not a popular opinion that I hold, but I will tell you that it is my heart-felt belief that each of us is faced with choices every day and how we choose shapes the remainder of our days. I said something to this effect to someone the other day and was met with utter resistance. I was told that I couldn’t possibly say that everyone can choose.

I’m here to tell you that they can and they do. There are no excuses. Maybe you aren’t in a state of mind to make a reasonable choice today but I would suggest that it likely has to do with a choice you made on a different day. And don’t for one minute think that not making a choice gets your ass off the hook. Not choosing is a form of choosing, rather a coward’s way.

I’m choosing not to put up with whiny ass bullshit drama anymore. I have better things to do with my time.

life worth living weekly update – June 21st

Tags

28 day challenge, building a life worth living, DBT, getting creative, goals, health, stress management, taking charge of my finances

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of 10 Major Goals I want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

The nicest thing I can say about last week is that it’s over.

Creative:  I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. There was some progress made. See below.

Stress Management:  Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 25 minutes minimum. Didn’t go as well as I wanted it to so this goes back on the list. Again.

Health: Skin care (hands, feet, and now my face – yes, I bought moisturizer finally), new crud for my hair, and back to eating healthier. We took a trip to the farmer’s market yesterday morning and I’ve got some great veggies to keep me company. Mostly good with this one, though not entirely. I did manage to lose weight last week, which was a damn miracle. Still working on a balance.

Financial:  I need to get my spending under control. Seriously. It’s really hard to spend what you just don’t have. I did take the time to go over our budget and print a copy.

Simplify:  Even if I don’t manage to get rid of anything, the closet needs some love. This actually happened almost immediately after I posted last week. We didn’t get rid of much but Josh did manage to move most of his winter stuff in his cedar chest to free up some room in there.

I made great progress on the knit shrug last week, as evidenced by the one pic I shared. I need to bind off that sleeve and then start the other half. I had the kid frog the crocheted vest yesterday. It was sad, but it needed to happen. There was no fucking way to salvage that damn thing.

I have yet to get back to the black and white vest and I still haven’t touched the dragon cross stitch. I honestly don’t think there’s any hope in hell of getting this all done in time.

Goals for this week:

Staying out of prison is a legit goal, right?

Creative:  I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. This is rolling over from last week, AGAIN. Sweet Ceiling Cat am I tired of this bullshit…

Stress Management:  Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 25 minutes minimum.

Health: Back to working on a healthier diet. Tomorrow morning I’m trying the soaked chia seed breakfast again with some tweaks.

Financial:  I need to look at the budget again, closer, and see where I can make changes. I want to get things paid off.

Simplify:  I actually went through my printed patterns last night and got rid of the ones I knew I wouldn’t ever actually make. I think going through the craft supplies is probably my next stop. I don’t have too much excess of anything, except maybe yarn, but if nothing else it’ll refresh my memory of what I’ve got.

 

life worth living weekly update – June 14th

Tags

28 day challenge, building a life worth living, DBT, getting creative, goals, health, stress management, taking charge of my finances

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of 10 Major Goals I want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

This week was really pretty odd. Josh started back to school and was gone three nights. This is good but it always takes a little time to adjust. And evidently one of my meds doesn’t like me getting a whole lot of sun. I have a rather wicked rash that looks horrid. But it was a good week overall.

Creative:  I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. I did work some on the crocheted vest though not as consistently as I had wanted to. My plan is to get the black and white vest done today.

Stress Management:  Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 25 minutes minimum. I walked four times on the treadmill and I can’t remember if I got 25 minutes in each time or not. I am adjusting the speed and incline so that my workout sessions are a little more intense.

Health:  I’m going to focus on my skin this week, primarily my hands and feet. I need to continue to do this so it’s going to carry over. But… I’m also going to get back to eating better. My habits over the weekend kind of went to shit. I want to lose a little weight this week so it’s back to eating salads for me. This was a little hit and miss though I feel like I did really well with the skin stuff. The only night I did do everything was last night and I had a mani/pedi yesterday. The eating better was mostly better. It would have been great if I hadn’t gone for ice cream twice. But I didn’t gain any weight last week and that’s good.

Financial:  I want to try to take a long hard look at what I’m doing with my money and where I need to make changes. (other than just not going shopping) Didn’t get to this.

Simplify:  I’m not sure right now what makes the most sense to do with this right now. And actually, I may just put it off in favor of spending more time with my 28 day challenge. I did manage to take a small load of stuff to Goodwill. There’s much temptation to dig into the closet again and get rid of a few things, just not sure if that will happen this next week or not.

This isn’t much of an update, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

For some reason I just haven’t been able to stick to the plan I had laid out for myself. I am still making progress, which is good. I also made another vest yesterday that just needs a few tweaks and then I’ll call it finished and that one wasn’t part of the original plan. But it was super quick and very funky. Anyway, I’m going to try to get back to this today.

Goals for this week:

Creative:  I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. This is rolling over from last week, AGAIN.

Stress Management:  Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 25 minutes minimum. Trying this one AGAIN as well.

Health: Skin care (hands, feet, and now my face – yes, I bought moisturizer finally), new crud for my hair, and back to eating healthier. We took a trip to the farmer’s market yesterday morning and I’ve got some great veggies to keep me company.

Financial:  I need to get my spending under control. Seriously.

Simplify:  Even if I don’t manage to get rid of anything, the closet needs some love. The shelf above the rod is where Josh and I keep our t-shirts and it’s an utter mess. I’d like to get him to go through his clothes sometime this week, just not sure if it’ll happen.

 

life worth living weekly update – June 8th

Tags

28 day challenge, building a life worth living, DBT, getting creative, goals, health, stress management, taking charge of my finances

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of 10 Major Goals I want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

So evidently I didn’t bother to change the title of last week’s post. Wow…

Creative:  I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. Well, sort of. I did this for several days, but not every day. I did make some nice progress though.

Stress Management:  Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 15 minutes minimum. I lost track of how many times, but I did at least the 5 and often longer than 15 minutes, plus I got a lot of walking in Friday evening at the art festival and then a ton of exercise this weekend in the yard. And this morning I did 25 minutes.

Health:  I’m going to focus on my skin this week, primarily my hands and feet. I think I neglect Friday night and Saturday night but that was it. The results are wonderful.

Financial:  The bills for all of Josh’s medical stuff will likely start rolling in any day now, so I need to get back to pretending I’m super poor and stop thinking I really need new shoes and more Legos. Um…

Simplify:  We did a tiny bit of purging at home this weekend and I brought a few pieces home from my office, mostly because I’m getting a new adjustable desktop thing that will allow me to work standing up and I didn’t figure it would be a good idea to have things hanging on the wall behind that. Anyway, I’d like to keep trying to streamline things a bit. I redid some things on my desk last night to try to help. Visually it was just too much. I think what I’ve got setup now is better, but we’ll see.

Goals for this week:

Creative:  I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. This is rolling over from last week.

Stress Management:  Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 25 minutes minimum. Turning it up a little from last week.

Health:  I’m going to focus on my skin this week, primarily my hands and feet. I need to continue to do this so it’s going to carry over. But… I’m also going to get back to eating better. My habits over the weekend kind of went to shit. I want to lose a little weight this week so it’s back to eating salads for me.

Financial:  I want to try to take a long hard look at what I’m doing with my money and where I need to make changes. (other than just not going shopping)

Simplify:  I’m not sure right now what makes the most sense to do with this right now. And actually, I may just put it off in favor of spending more time with my 28 day challenge.

So you’re getting a two-fer today. Yay!

The black and white vest has the outer binding pretty well done. I need to go back and fix a few spots, trim excess fabric, and cut off the threads. I have measured my sample piece so I know where to cut for the arms.

The crocheted vest is getting there. The back is done and I’ve started the arms/collar stuff. I’m guessing that’s not going to take a whole lot longer. I hope.

I’ll do my best to have progress pics to show next week.

top 10 tuesday returns

Tags

anxiety, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, DBT, depression, effective coping skills, goals, life, meds, mental health, mental illness, moods, motivation, sleep, stress, stress management, top 10, top 10 tuesday

Hiya kids! Welcome to another installment of Top 10 Tuesday. This week I’ve decided to share some effective coping skills / tips & tricks I’ve picked up over the last 9ish years. I need to point out right about now that yours truly has a dual diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder II and Borderline Personality Disorder, so I’ve gone through DBT and that’s where I picked up a good chunk of this.

I’m not trained in delivering DBT and I’m sure as fuck not a medical professional so what I’m offering here are just suggestions for things that I find effective. Your mileage may vary.

M’kay, let’s roll…

1. Control:  First and foremost I would like to remind you, gentle reader, that you are human. (shocking, I know) As humans we are imperfect creatures. We do not always make the most effective decisions when faced with a choice. I would encourage you to strive for gentleness in all things but in particular when dealing with yourself. And do your best not to judge, others or yourself. Judgements can lead to emotional pain and that’s not very effective. Learn to recognize the difference between the things you can control and things you can’t. Do your best to make informed choices when you have control and to roll with it when you don’t. Acknowledge it, learn from it, and move on.
2. Staying Organized:  I thrive on structure and routine. My keys are always hung on the hook in the entryway when I’m at home, in the small outer pocket of my purse when I’m carrying that, or in the top flap pocket of my backpack when I’m carrying it. If I don’t do things the same way every time I confuse myself. By doing the small things like that the same way consistently I’ve found that I can free up some of my limited brain power for other, more interesting to me, things. It also minimizes the stress I would feel should I have to hunt for stuff.
3. Put it on Paper:  This kind of goes with staying organized I guess. Anything I need to remember is immediately documented otherwise it’s gone. I have an app on my phone that allows me to keep a to do list with reminder notifications, I keep a small notebook in my purse and another in my backpack, and I use the Tasks feature in Outlook for my work stuff. This is another stress minimizer. If I don’t feel the stress in the first place then I don’t have to spend time trying to reduce the impact of it on my day.
4. Set Goals:  The weekly goals thing I do really does help me to not only get things done but also challenge myself. I set them to be just a little on the difficult side, but not all of them and not always. I’ve learned that nothing breeds success for me like success. (say wha…?) No, really. If you’re able to set yourself up to succeed you are more likely to succeed again. Start small and build your way up. Try it, you might like it. And I have faith in you.
5. Get Active:  I have learned over the years that few things will help level my mood, reduce anxiety, and help me sleep more than getting a little exercise. My preference is to walk on the treadmill for at least 15 minutes. Lately I’ve been increasing my speed and adding a little incline to make it slightly more challenging and I’m trying to 5x a week. But it is utterly amazing what a difference a brisk walk will make for me.
6. Good Nutrition:  There is a saying in the tech world, “garbage in, garbage out” and it holds true for fuck near everything. If you put garbage (junk food) in your body then you really shouldn’t expect it to perform well. Aim for a balanced diet that includes a variety of stuff including whole grains, fruits, veggies, lean meats, and a little chocolate. Seriously, don’t tell yourself that there are things you can’t have (unless you’re allergic, then totally don’t eat that shit) but try to be aware of serving sizes and exercise a little moderation.
7. Relax:  Make time every day to do something that you enjoy and that you’re good at. (success breeds success, remember?) Your brain and body need some time to unwind and just hang loose. For me this is an every evening thing. At 8pm I take my bedtime meds, turn off the electronics, turn on the stereo, and do something creative. I need that time to feel like me.
8. Know When to Retreat:  Some days you’re the dog and some days you’re the hydrant, that’s just life. There will be times when going back to bed and hiding under the covers feels like the best option. So do it. But then tomorrow you need to get back up and start kicking ass again. It’s a tactical thing really. You retreat, rally the troops, build your strength back up, and come out swinging.
9. Make the Most of What You’ve Got:  My assumption is that we all have tools available to us that could help make our lives a little easier, we just need to identify them and utilize them in the most effective ways possible. The #1 tool in my arsenal is my phone. I have a Motorola Droid Ultra smartphone and I make that little fucker do everything. I have a white noise app to help me sleep, the Fitbit app so I can see my progress during the day and help track my sleep and food intake (when I can be bothered to log that shit), an app so I can listen to audio books while I walk, my task app (with a reminder setup for every night at 8pm so that I don’t forget my pills), email apps for my personal and work accounts, a calendar app that ties in my personal and work info, every mailing address I could possibly need entered with my contacts… You get the idea. I also use pill trays, 3 of them, to keep track of my pills which makes it super easy to see if I forgot a dose of something. It doesn’t have to be electronic/expensive/or fancy, but I bet you’ve got something you can turn into your little personal assistant.
10. Chaos:  I’ve learned the hard way that physical chaos in my surroundings leads to an almost complete inability to be productive. I pick up after myself every night before bed, I put all of my shit at the office away when I leave for the day, and I’m trying to keep the crap in my immediate line of sight at my work areas to a minimum. You might not be bothered by this, but I sure as fuck am. Clutter is an evil thing in my world and I’m trying to eliminate as much of it as possible.

life worth living weekly update – May 24th

Tags

28 day challenge, building a life worth living, DBT, getting creative, goals, health, stress management, taking charge of my finances

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of 10 Major Goals I want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

Creative:  I will get that black and white vest finished before starting or going back to anything else. Almost. I have the whole outer edge done I just need to do the armholes. Hopefully tomorrow night.

Stress Management:  Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 3 sessions of 20 minutes minimum. I lost track of how many times, but it was at least 3. So yay!

Health:  I will figure out how to easily add my food intake in the Fitbit tracking app. Oh I figured it out just fine, and learned that I’m really mostly lazy. Doh!

Financial:  Friday is payday for both of us so it’ll be time to pay the piper. Until then I need to minimize how much goes out. I did really pretty good with this.

Simplify:  One of the tasks on my list is to make another go through my jewelry armoire, so that’s up for this week. Done!

Goals for this week:

Creative:  I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects.

Stress Management:  Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 15 minutes minimum.

Health:  I’m going to focus on my skin this week, primarily my hands and feet. Because I wear sandals so much my heels are trashed. And my hands are usually all dried out and cracked as well. I’ve found some stuff for my heels that I put on before bed and then yesterday I gave in and got a jar of coconut oil. I’ve been having so much trouble again with everything else that I figured it was worth a shot. It absorbed right in and smelled great. So I need to do my hands and feet and every night before bed.

Financial:  The bills for all of Josh’s medical stuff will likely start rolling in any day now, so I need to get back to pretending I’m super poor and stop thinking I really need new shoes and more Legos.

Simplify:  We did a tiny bit of purging at home this weekend and I brought a few pieces home from my office, mostly because I’m getting a new adjustable desktop thing that will allow me to work standing up and I didn’t figure it would be a good idea to have things hanging on the wall behind that. Anyway, I’d like to keep trying to streamline things a bit.