Image from Apple Once upon a time, a friend of mine, let’s call her Rachel, felt miserable because she got realized that she got sucked back into being hooked on social media for the past few days. She had been on a social media break for months. It felt liberating not feeling that strange and persistent impulse to reach for her phone and mindlessly scroll. It felt like she got a God-given time refund of a couple of free hours each day. It was peaceful. It was peak contentment. Then she had her last day with her company, and, feeling a little sad she couldn’t say goodbye to her work friends in person, decided to add them on social media so that they could maybe keep a digital connection alive while they wait out delta before having drinks in person. She posted a picture to commemorate her last day too, her first post in almost a year. It had likes. Interesting. The feeling of wanting to check likes came back. People kept adding her. Pretty soon she found herself reaching fo...
Image from Headspace In the middle of mentally trying to survive the pandemic, a couple of big, probably lasting, realizations occurred: (a) kindness to yourself is a real thing to be done every day; and (b) “setting your intention” can be as straightforward as “still being okay at the end of the day”. Kindness to self was previously an alien subject to me. And silly. Why does one have to be intentional about being kind to yourself? It sounded like pure fluff and something that’s already automatic anyway, didn’t Nietzsche or somebody say that we are subconsciously acting out of self-interest underneath it all? What does this even mean, in practice? After months and months of being bombarded with the subject on Headspace, I realized that this means being self-aware enough to intentionally take care of yourself like how you would take care of a beloved parent, friend, partner. Making decisions about myself as if I’m another person I care about. Take a nap when I’m tired, not push myself ...
I suffered an acute ligament injury last week and now cannot walk without pain on my left leg. The doctor said it would take a month to a month and a half to heal. In the meantime, I have to wear a knee brace. I don’t have a knee brace yet and walking even a ten-foot distance makes me tear up from the pain/unsteadiness. Like every step is unsure and scares me. I led a very active lifestyle for the past year. For the past 6 or so months, I’ve been doing 3-4 HIIT workouts in a week, with brisk walking for the other days. I almost always close my exercise and activity rings on my Apple watch. I work out first thing in the morning and enjoy the day after. It’s like a safety ritual for me — I’ve worked out so it’s going to be a good day. The injury happened after my HIIT workout on Tuesday morning last week. It was a new move, like a duck walk but not just a duck walk, we were doing deep lunges while in a squat position. I felt strange then but also had the sense that it’s doable. Afterward...
Comments
Post a Comment