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But it’s so much fun having bad habits!

There are a lot of things that can improve quality of life.  Get more sleep.  Meditate.  Exercise.  Eat a balanced diet.

The reality:  Very often we don’t do these sensible things because we’re busy doing the exact opposite.  One more cat video before bedtime.  Sit quietly?  No, I’ve got things to do and places to be (but not the gym — maybe tomorrow, when I’m not so tired).  And while I’m at it, might as well finish that last bit of ice cream in the freezer.  Waste not, want not. Continue reading “But it’s so much fun having bad habits!” →

Focus, relax, repeat

I’ve come to an odd conclusion:  I should have been my Grade 8 typing teacher.  (Come to think of it, if I had also been my Grade 3 piano teacher it would have spared me a lot of wasted time and frustration and heartache.)

I’ve been fussing about with keyboard-type devices since elementary school, but it took many years to come to an undeniable epiphany:  It takes just as long to hit the right key as it does to hit the wrong one.  Until fairly recently my typing could be described as “dirty”:  flail away and hit about 98% of the right letters, pausing to fix the wrong ones and then carrying on for another 98%. Continue reading “Focus, relax, repeat” →

When anger just gets in the way

Earlier this week I had an “Enough is enough!” moment.  It was late at night, I was trying to wind down and get to bed, and I made the mistake of reading a news story that upset me terribly.  I can’t even remember what the story was about, but I do remember that it pushed a button.

The “Offended by injustice and boiling over with rage” button.

Continue reading “When anger just gets in the way” →

X isn’t working. Time for Anti-X.

I’m not sure how long fibromyalgia has been an uninvited guest in my life.  It could have been as early as the 1980s, when an unexplained drop in energy hit me just after I had weaned off an otherwise highly successful low-carb diet.  After adjusting to the new status quo I managed to carry on with life and generally hold things together.  It wasn’t till the early 2000s, when dealing with divorce proceedings and job stress, that the second torpedo hit.  It would be a few more years before I got an official diagnosis, and it took a physiatrist and then a rheumatologist to figure it out. Continue reading “X isn’t working. Time for Anti-X.” →

The false alarm of jangling nerves

One personality quirk that I’ve been trying to fix is a tendency to overthink things.  I wouldn’t call it catastrophizing — my tendency is to lurk somewhere near the “optimist” end of the optimist/realist/pessimist spectrum — but it’s getting tiresome to stage all those blasted dress rehearsals in my brain.

It’s especially annoying when I’m trying to concentrate on something else.

It’s really, really annoying when there’s nothing whatsoever I can actually do about the things that keep popping into my mind, and all that useless rumination just sits in my muscles as unresolved tension until it’s time to take action. Continue reading “The false alarm of jangling nerves” →

That was awesome. Can I sleep now?

This week has been… interesting.  And busy.  Busier than usual, in fact.  I’ve been out every evening except Tuesday, and Tuesday was a close one — I almost jumped in the car and went out for coffee.

When I staggered up to my desk at about 11:30 this Saturday evening, it marked one long exhalation after working through a list of things to do and places that I had to be.   Continue reading “That was awesome. Can I sleep now?” →