Six Weeks of Wellbeing: Weeks 4 and 5 Recap

First off, the obligatory happy New Year! I hope your 2014 will be lovely + bright. Don't worry though, I love New Year's Day and will be celebrating it for weeks on the blog. I'll be sharing some of my goals + plans for the year in the coming weeks! 

Today I'm recapping the last two weeks of the Six Weeks of Wellbeing project because last week was Christmas + I was too busy stuffing my face with pfeffernusse (a family fave) to write out this post. #sorrynotsorry.

My sort of game plan last time I checked in with y'all was to do good things that are hard. Meaning those things that aren't fun to do, but are good for you or pay off later. I practiced doing things right away--laundry, thank you notes, even replying to texts. I practiced making time for things I need to do but don't enjoy, like cleaning out my desk + room. I found that oftentimes the dread of doing something unpleasant is often a lot worse than the actual activity. I realized that I usually put off doing laundry for days, when I could just get it over with in a few hours. As a smallish goal for 2014, I want to focus on not putting off unpleasant chores or activities.

This coming week, the very last week of the project, I want to focus on learning way to make wellbeing a sustainable lifestyle. I'll be using a lot of the actions I shared in a previous post (Get Happy in 10 Minutes or Less) like writing random thank you cards, going outside, and stretching. Leave me a comment with suggestions on how you take time to do good for yourself!

Six Weeks of Wellbeing: Week Three Recap

Well well well. What a week. I don't even know how to define this week; it hasn't been good or bad, just kind of 'eh'. Like you know in Despicable Me (which if you haven't seen...go see it. And the second.) when young Gru is trying to impress his mom and he's like a five year old building a rocket ship and his mom's just like 'eh'? That's how I feel about this week.

But still. It's been better than last week so I'll take what I can get. I didn't have a panic attack, fail any tests, or kill anyone so I'd say I'm doing alright. This week, doing good for myself was more of a mindset than actual actions. I tried to listen to myself and do what I felt like I needed, not what someone else would say I needed to do. 

For example, Monday I just finished taking exams and was just exhausted, even though I had just had the weekend. And I really felt like I should study for the exams I had the next day, but I listened to myself and decided not to. I gave myself an hour to lay in bed, watch SVU and pretend I was cuddling with H (he's sick; I'm lonely) before I got up to study. And you know what? That wasn't being lazy. Or maybe it was, but at the very least, I think it was strategic laziness. You know, laziness is important to a degree. And I think that because I let myself take that guilt-free rest, I was able to calmly prepare for my exams the rest of the night. 

This week, I'm setting a couple concrete ideas for my fourth week of wellbeing. I'm halfway done with the project and while I feel like I'm doing good for myself, I don't feel like I'm challenging myself. I'm only doing the things that feel good for myself now. But the sort of unfortunate thing is that the things that feel best for me (or you!) in the long run are most often the exact things that aren't very fun in the moment. So in the spirit of real wellbeing, I'm going to do things this week that have delayed payoffs. Here are some examples:

+Go for a run. I really hate running until I'm about ten minutes into and I realize I'm still breathing and I look super cute in my little fleece and leggings and headband. And plus, I find that those good feelings (endorphins?) really stick with me and make me feel great for a whole day!

+Clean up my living space. This can be as simple as picking up the dirty clothes on my floor (yes I am that girl) because having a clean floor can do wonders to help me be more productive and overall happier. But I may also spend sometime cleaning off my desk so you know, I can actually use it. 

+Work on my European History book and not leave it until the last minute (is that even possible for me?!). They say proscrastination sucks but that is soo a lie. Procrastination is awesome because you get to watch New Girl and eat popcorn and sit around in your PJs and pretend you don't have work to do. The aftermath, however, is terrible. So to avoid that, maybe I should not leave this huge book until two days before class. 

Just some ideas! Help me! What are some good-for-you things that aren't always fun at first?

Six Weeks of Wellbeing: Week Two Recap

Some days, rules just need to be broken, even if you made them yourself. I promised to recap my second week in the Six Weeks of Wellbeing project today, but that's just not happening. It's been a really stressful week. I had a big research paper, not to mention exams coming up. Sometimes, despite our best intentions, our own wellbeing becomes overlooked.

But I'm not going to get mad at myself or let it bother me because that would go against the whole point of this project. I want to be good to myself, no matter the circumstances. So on that note, I want to start the next week fresh. 

I've actually pulled out a notebook (like it's actually physically sitting next to me right now) that I will use to document my self-good-doingness (totally a word) (okay, I lied, not a word). I've decided that my "theme" for the week is forgiving myself for my mistakes + learning from them, starting today. That's kind of hard for me to handle. I'm not sure how to differentiate the ideas of forgiving myself and learning from my mistakes. 

So just for starters, today I realized that I can be really rude to H when I'm stressed. It just happens. I say things to him that I don't mean unkindly but in my own preoccupation, I say things that I wouldn't say to anyone else. And part of that inevitable comes from a comfortable relationship, so that's great. But if I'm honest, I subconciously assume that I'm "more stressed" than he is or that my work is more important, even though I know neither of those are always true. And as equals in a relationship, I need to practice more respect for him because I love him. 

In the spirit of being good to myself, I'm publicly saying that I forgive myself. But that doesn't mean I'll forget about it, nor does it mean I'll act the same way (on purpose). 

How do you learn from your mistakes even if you've forgiven yourself? What can you forgive yourself for in the name of being good to yourself?

The corn on the left shows the damage that a Lepidoptera (corn pest) can have on corn. The corn on the right is the genetically modified corn that is resistant to the Lepidoptera larvae.

Bt corn is an example of how biotechnologists can manufacture genetically modified organisms (GMOs or GM foods) that aid mankind's survival. In this case, a gene from a soil bacterium (called Bacillus thuringiensis if you want to impress anyone at a dinner party) was found to produce a protein that can kill Lepidoptera larvae, a type of corn borer that likes to nom on corn. Scientists isolated this gene and inserted it into corn DNA, so then when the larvae try to eat the corn, they get poisoned (poor larvae). Farmers can use this new kind of corn as an alternative to using pesticides that target the corn borer. And less pesticides = less chemical pollutants in our water. Yay! There are risks, of course, but Bt corn is on the safer side of genetically modified organisms. 

And if the idea of eating genetically modified organisms weirds you out, just know that if you've had corn, soybeans or beets (random) today and live in the United States, you've most likely had genetically modified food.