With the end of 2017 approaching fast, I’ve been trying to reflect on what went well this year and understand how to build on it in 2018. My plan was to take a long walk, allow my thoughts to bubble and ferment and then bottle the results for future use. It didn’t go so well – way too much bubbling and no bottling at all. My mind could not follow a train of thought for more than a minute without jumping.
Fortunately, as I was walking, my brain shifted to Slow dude post writing mode for some reason and I suddenly found I could focus much more easily. I’m not exactly sure why this is so, or if it will work for you, but thinking as if I’m writing seems to allow me to process things more linearly and objectively. Yes, it is basically a voice inside my head but one I seem to be semi-controlling, for a change.
More advanced people out there will probably be asking why I didn’t just try journaling or free writing. You’re correct, of course. But, well, to be honest, I didn’t really want to because it sounded like work. Writing posts, on the other hand, I enjoy. And so here we are.
You may be expecting this to be a little personal and of limited value. Perhaps so but I haven’t found examining my life in minute detail to be particularly useful. Apart from the brain warp, there’s too much variability and unpredictably. Broader more positive strokes seem to work better. Also, as you’re reading, I’ll try to keep things as informative as possible.
You may want to brew yourself a beverage before starting, though. The more I wrote, the more it seemed there was to say, and so things grew. To make it all a little more readable, I’ve roughly divided my review of 2017 into three parts, health, focus and learning, concentrating on what went right this year. They may make more sense if you read them in order. I shall also link to a section on new directions for 2018 in the learning post.
Part 1: Health
Looking back to when I arrived in New Zealand from Japan in February, my health was in a pretty dire state. Medical science hasn’t been much help in answering the why on that but I believe I was just basically overwhelmed by stress and fatigue. While I still need to do more, I have managed to make a series of small gains that have built up over the past 10 months to a point where I feel fairly human on most days.
It is not a high bar to be sure but the direction is positive. I plan to focus more on this in 2018, mostly in the same way as this year, by taking small, incremental steps that gradually build lasting habits. I’ll put a few of the things I’ve been working on below. Your areas are likely to be different but I’d strongly recommend giving your health some solid thought. You’ll probably enjoy your life a whole lot more.
Exercise
I just started out going for brief walks and gradually lengthened them. Once I had built up a little stamina, I switched to body weight exercises and stretching on three days a week. Most government health authorities say you only need about half an hour of exercise each day and this has been enough to produce results for me. I do use some weights but they are literally taped together water bottles filled with various substances. I doubt I’ll ever set foot in a gym again.
Nutrition
I’ve been quite obsessive about nutrition for years but I’ve recently discovered that if I eat mindfully and gratefully, I am completely fine with having the same simple meals on a regular basis. It has been very liberating and has helped me to enjoy food more. My veggie garden experiment has also convinced me of the particular excellence of leafy greens such as spinach and bok choy. Basically, I just seem to feel better when I maintain several servings a week.
Sleep
I haven’t been very good at sleeping since my mid-teens. But I gradually let things get away on me in Japan, sleeping anywhere from zero to six hours on a big night. I came to see sleep as downtime and actually felt guilty about the lost hours. Since arriving in New Zealand, I’ve been trying to shift my attitude and see sleep as the essential restorative, reparative thing that it is. I’m still not great at it but am getting six to seven hours most nights now.
Stress
Despite reading a lot about the impact of stress on health in the last few years, I have only really begun to address it recently. But when you have high levels, it can be difficult to look at. Fortunately, improving bit by slow bit in the areas above helped to open up some space. This has also allowed me to deepen my meditation efforts and start to let go of things that are blocking me and focus on things that serve me better. I go into this more in the next section.
If you’ve found this to be at all useful, I invite you to continue on to part 2, focus.
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