Well, it has been quite a start into 2012. A close family member of mine has been in hospital for a week after a breakdown and is now being treated for depression.
It has been a very emotional week and naturally we’re all very upset. I don’t think anyone who has not seen this happen to someone they love can really relate. It’s just devastating to see someone suffer so intensely and having to stand by and watch, knowing that nothing you say or do at this point can help relieve that suffering.
Thankfully things are looking a little better now than they did a week ago. It’s been an intense week and we all need some time to get our heads around what happened.
It has actually helped show me even more clearly that in 2012 I need to take better care of my health, both physically and mentally. In 2011 I was constantly trying to free up time to take things more slowly and be creative. What happened was that I filled a lot of that time just surfing the internet randomly and generally being online too much.
I’ve realized that I need to define firm time slots for things that are important for me. This is where I am so far in planning (you could call it Project Health I guess):
- Setting a fixed time each morning for 10-15 minutes of meditation and stretching.
- Taking 30 minutes out of my lunch break to get out of the office building, go for a walk and catch a bit of fresh air. I’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks now and it’s starting to make a huge difference to my well-being.
- Limiting my online time to certain time frames (instead of it being the easy solution when I come home tired). So far I’m planning for this to be one hour in the morning (30 minutes if I sleep in) and one afternoon a week.
- Looking for a yoga class to join nearby in addition to horseriding twice a week.
- Blocking time slots in the evening for creative time. It doesn’t matter what I do in that time as long as I do it with my hands. This can be photography, sewing, knitting, crafting, whatever.
- Blocking time slots to spend time with the kitties. I’ve wanted to take up clicker training with them again forever and it does us all a world of good to spend time with each other. Without a fixed time however this often gets overlooked.
Additionally my boyfriend and I are talking about setting up a fixed friday night movie night. We always talk about watching movies together and then we never get around to renting a film or setting up the TV for that matter.
We’ll see. We’re taking it a day at a time right now. It does feel like 2012 is very old already, instead of just 15 days in.
*Photos taken at random during my lunch break walk.
little home by hand 
So sorry to hear about your family member’s illness. It is a good wakeup call for all of us to think about what we are doing. Love your list! As the year progresses on, I am also rethinking again some of the things I do. Thanks for the reminder. I’m off to write another list in my journal.
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I’m sorry Kristina. Hang in there.
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Hope things get better for your loved one.
And it seems like a good plan to keep you healthy in all senses.
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I’m so sorry to hear about your family, and I hope that things are getting better. Your list sounds great – do take care of yourself! (Sending a hug from waaay over here.)
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Thank you all so much for caring, it does make a difference!
I think nowadays we’re all so intent on quickly fixing things that we find it hard to just wait things out. But some things just take time.
Lynda, a wake-up call indeed. I’ll try my list for a couple of weeks and let you all know how it works out 🙂
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