Starting Two Experiments
and getting knocked back after a week
I have noticed my mental health dip slightly over the past few weeks. This hasn’t been helped with me just wanting to sit in front of the telly all the time. Obviously impacting my goals and writing etc as well as my mental health.
After watching a YouTube video on simplifying lifestyle, I decided to take two points from the video and experiment with them. These two experiments are:
Wake up/go to bed at the same time each day
No telly watching on weekdays.
I wake up at 6 am on a work day and then attempt to sleep in on my days off. Sometimes this isn’t the case but get annoyed at myself for not sleeping much longer than a work day. Most of the time I’m going to bed around the same time but sometimes my mind goes into sabotage mode. With my work day being a 6 am start, I’m going with this for everyday wake up.
My first day of doing so was a non-work day with plans, and I naturally woke before 6 am so when it came to my alarm it was easy to wake up. Instead of being annoyed at myself, I felt energised. I ended up making some velvet cupcakes, visiting my free little library with Alfie and reading a little before it was time to go to my friends. I also ended up taking some cupcakes to my friends and for my step-dad to have as well. (Making sweets is also a goal so I had ticked one off before 9 am).
Once I returned home, a time usually not long after I had been getting myself in front of the telly. I again found it easy to not to want to switch it on. Again being able to think about what I wanted to do and aligning activities with my goals. I did a 10 minute yoga, I did some of my lego set and did some tidying up around the house. As well as a little bit of journaling. All, apart from a bit of tidying, wouldn’t have been done if I had turned on the telly.
Currently a win for my mental health and goals. I’m hoping that when it gets a few days/weeks into this experiment that I don’t go into sabotage mode in certain aspects of the experiment. But I’m taking this as a win and feel energised towards my goals.
It hadn’t been a week before I was hit was a viral infection. Allowing my body to recover, I stopped the 6 am wake up. Waking in the night coughing and lack of energy doing things in the day meant my body was in need of all the sleep it could get. I still kept to the 10 pm bedtime, with the exception of one evening when all I did was want to finish my library book.
The hardest part was to keep up with the not watching telly during the week. I have watched telly so far this week when I haven’t had the energy to do anything else. But I made sure that I had done other things first before turning it on and I have been switching it off when I felt I had enough.
What I am proud of myself for doing is thinking about what I want to do instead of watching telly. Getting myself to think about what activity will lift me up in that moment.
These last few days I have been:
Catching up on some admin and housework
Building a LOVE lego set
Playing games on the Switch
Reading - Books (physical and audio) and Magazines
Listening to podcasts
Catching on online communities
Doing some Jigsaw Puzzle
Messaging friends
Moving my library furniture around
Cancelling plans
and a lot of resting!
Having the viral infection has put a spanner in the works so to speak. However, I know that if I didn’t make these experimental goals last week, I would have just sat on the sofa and tellied myself out. None or little of what I have achieved above would have gotten done.
With me having watched telly during the week, I’m not going to automatically watch telly at the weekend. I think I’m going to do what I’ve been doing so far. If I feel like I want to watch it I will but only from a point in the afternoon having done some activities in the morning.
Once I’m back to myself again physically, I will go back to the 6 am start each morning and no telly on a week day.
Even though the experiments haven’t been 100% since I made them last week. I feel that there has been some improvement. I’m being more mindful of what I’m doing with my time even when being ill. I’ve cut off the immediately action of going straight to the telly each day.
I may be feeling sorry for myself right now with the infection but I have noticed an increase in my mood which is having a positive impact on my mental health. I have picked a pen up each day this week to write in my journal. I also decided to take a post I had written in a community space last week and extend it to being this entry.
The experiments might not have started out as I had thought but they have already had an impact. If this is what over a week has done. What could happen if I continue doing so for the rest of the year?
Whatever it is you are doing, make sure you take time to rest.
Tami x
Some great tips in that video, and a great couple for you to start with. Sorry, you're feeling under the weather, that sounds rubbish. Remember, that whilst it's good to have "rules", you can give yourself compassion, to break them until you get back into wellness and your routine again.