Week 27/2022: The (not so great) restart

Week of 4 July 2022

The (not so) great restart

My mid-year review last week is supposed to set me up for the next three months at least and I have my three key areas to focus on during this time. I also wanted to get back into my morning walks this week, and I dragged myself out of bed every day to do it. I’m trying to rebuild my morning routine of walking, breathing and meditating without looking at my devices first thing in the morning. Walking without my phone is the first step.

Operation Fix My Back, Neck and Shoulder started this week and I had my first appointment with a professional who I hope can help me address this from a whole-body perspective. I learned a lot about how my posture is contributing to some of my issues. I also looked at a skeleton so I could see where my joints actually are, as opposed to where I thought they were. Knowing that makes it easier to see how I’m not positioning myself as well as I could be.

For Project INTP, I reviewed the first two weeks of Personality Hacker’s introductory INTP program and started work on the exercises. Some of them will feed into my “instruction manual” (thing 12) and I started to build that up with the material from the INTP productivity course material on morning rituals. It’s all connected, it’s all coming together, just slowly.

I watched the first video for the Profile Writing course (thing 19) and made some notes from that. Something that I hadn’t appreciated before starting the course that really stood out for me was the idea that when you commit a person’s story to print, it is there forever and you have frozen them in time. This is a big thing to do to someone, and it places a big responsibility on the writer. David, the course presenter, said that there is a sacredness in the art of writing about a person as opposed to writing about a meal or an event or a news story. I think that is an important thing to keep in mind if I ever decide to do this type of writing.

Lil Sis and I went to a workshop on winter skin wellness run by two local naturopaths, Caitlyn and Bec. They ran a workshop on general winter wellness a few weeks ago that I missed because I was sick. This session looked at things you can do to support your skin, both generally and specifically during winter. One thing that I noted in particular was that the skin can be a sign of other issues within your body, and will be the last place that issue will show up.

Bec and Caitlyn offered a number of suggestions for skin support, ranging from ensuring we maintain a real foods diet with a lot of plant-based foods, to dry skin brushing, and regular movement. We made a couple of skin products to take home and try out, one of which is sitting on my windowsill infusing.

I didn’t think I’d done much this week but, looking back on what I’ve just written and knowing I didn’t have a lot of free time, I think I did get a reasonable amount done, so the restart isn’t as “not great” as the title of this post might suggest.

22 for 2022 summary

• Things completed to date: 6 (8, 10, 11, 13, 18, 22)
• Things completed this week: 0
• Things I worked on this week: 3: (12, 19, 21)
• Things in progress: 4 (1, 12, 19, 21)
• Things not started: 3 (14, 17, 20)
• Things that are parked until the end of September: 7 (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 15, 16)
• Things I’m not going to do: 2 (7, 9)

What do I want to do next week?

I want to keep working on my three priorities: fixing my back, neck and shoulder, exploring my INTP personality type (and building that into my instruction manual), and completing the writing courses. I have a couple of activities I want to do for each one of those areas.

As for my shoulder I’m seeing the physiotherapist next week, and the person I’ve booked in to see is apparently something of an expert on shoulders, so I think I’m going to the right place.

Weekly summary

What did I learn this week?

I learned a lot about our skin, including that eczema can be linked to the health of our gut.

What was the best thing about this week?

There were lots of best things. I got some lovely feedback on Kramstable from one of his teachers at school (which I later found out other people in a completely different environment had also noticed and commented on to Slabs).

I went to the local book sale. Twice. There is no such thing as too many books as far as I’m concerned.

The skin workshop was great, as was learning about my neck and shoulders.

What I’m reading this week

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum
• Please Understand Me II by David Keirsey
• Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain
• Last Shot by Jock Zonfrillo

Habit tracker

• Days I went for a walk in the morning (Goal = 7): 7
• No phone at breakfast (Goal = 7): 6
• Days I did my morning planning routine at work (Goal = 5): 5
• Days I did controlled breathing (Goal = 7): 7
• No phone at lunch time (Goal = 7): 6
• Days I did my post-work pack up routine (Goal = 5): 4
• Finish work by 5.30 (Goal = 5): 5
• Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 2
• Days I read a book (Goal = 7): 7
• Days I went for a walk or did other physical activity in the afternoon (Goal = 5): 7
• Days I shut my computer down before 9.30 (Goal = 6): 7
• Weekly review at work: Yes
• Weekly review at home: Most of it