Simple Things I Did for Myself in January
January got off to a slow start, which is exactly what I intended.
And then, about a week in, I found myself starting to panic at the slow-ness of it all [insert forehead-slapping emoji].
The good news: I was present for my panic so that I could acknowledge and address it, breathe my way through it, and even have a little laugh at myself about it. 2023 was such a sprint, with lots of work and lots of life, that it simply felt strange not to have ten things to do at all times, particularly since a lot of my big, long-term writing and editing projects wrapped at the end of last year. And, also, there always tends to be a lull at the beginning of the year in my industry when it comes to new projects. Enjoy it, I told myself every time I felt the panic start to creep in. This is what you need and you’ll regret not taking this time to slow down when things start up again.
For the most part, I was successful in this. I focused on the new little practices I had settled on incorporating into my life in January, reframed the lull as very necessary “bonus time,” and really did start to feel a little lightness of being. I was feeling good!
And then: BAM! In the middle of the month my daughter and I both got whacked with all of those January germs floating around classrooms (and generously brought home to share). We both got laid out with a one-two punch of hand foot mouth and strep throat in rapid succession. Talk about forced rest!
The good news is that because I incorporated such simple new things into my life in January, I was able to (mostly) maintain them, even on the days when we were more or less completely laid out in bed—and there were a lot of those days, more than I’ve experienced in years. And while my plan is to continue along this simple path moving forward, boy am I looking forward to moving more in Februrary!
Water
I told you I was starting simple, and I did! It’s not that I didn’t drink water previously, but I wasn’t conscious or intentional about it. I couldn’t have told you how much I was drinking on an average day, and I’m sure that it varied pretty significantly from one day to the next. I decided that my first step to feeling better in my body was to start being intentional and consistent about the amount of water I consumed.
First up was figuring out how much water that was even supposed to be! That’s easy enough to do online through a variety of sources. For me, the answer is 65.9 ounces, or just shy of three fill-ups of the water bottle I keep by my side all day. I started off just keeping track of how many times I was filling the water bottle, and then decided I wanted to add a little more pizzaz to the practice, so I looked for a water tracker app. I tried a couple, and landed on Water Llama. I’ve come to love this little app. Every day, it gives me a cute new animal to fill. I enter each drink as I go, and watch the animal fill up (it turns out that a percentage of tea and even coffee also count toward daily water intake—I had no idea!). When the animal is completely full, I get a little confetti pop, which gives me a little jolt of joy every day. On the one hand, I know that’s my iPhone working on my dopamine receptors. On the other hand: it works, and I’ll take it!
After more than a month of this, I can feel the difference of being hydrated. I’m not going to lie: it feels like a slog to get that much water in some days (especially if I don’t start drinking until later in the morning), but it’s still worth it and feels to me like it sets a great baseline for health.
Supplements
One of the things that started bothering me last year was pretty consistent discomfort in my left hip. I’m not sure if this was the result of jogging (which I picked up in fall of 2023 after a decade-plus hiatus), yoga, or aging, but it was driving me crazy. Outside of super minor injuries, I’ve never experienced any kind of limited movement in my body, and it was a big wake-up call about how I need to be more mindful about how I take care of myself. I remembered that back when I did yoga teacher training and experienced knee pain as a result of the intense repetitive movement, my dad recommended that I take glucosamine and chondroiton, and it had helped. I started taking the supplement every day and guess what? A month later and the pain is gone. (Now, the X factor here is that I’ve also been largely sedentary this month due to sickness, so we’ll have to see if this sticks next month with more activity reicorporated—but I’m hopeful).
I also added in an omega-3 fish oil capsule because it targets a lot of things I want to think about as I age: inflammation in the joints, heart health, mental health, and eye health. It’s also being studied for anti-aging in skin, again due to its anti-inflammatory properties—anecdotally, my cousin takes it and has gorgeous skin, so sign me up!
Ice Skating!
My daughter started taking an ice skating class this year, which is something I always wanted to do … theoretically. My ice skating career thus far consisted of one shaky class as a kid before leaving the rink never to return again. But watching her first couple of classes reignited that desire. Plus, I realized that I couldn’t exactly take her to free skate if I couldn’t ice skate myself. So, I signed up for a teen/adult beginners class, ready to be humbled amidst a class of teenagers. As it turns out, the class is almost all adults like me and, best of all, it’s the highlight of my week! It’s been a good reminder about how important it is to challenge myself and do new things outside of my comfort zone.
Lo-Fi News consumption
I have a love-hate relationship with the news, and swing between being all the way in or all the way out. This feels particularly relevant as we come into an election year and I’m having flashbacks to the fear and stress of the 2020 news cycle. I do feel like it’s important to be informed (at least generally), but I also want to stay present in my life with a regulated nervous system. I was discussing all of this with a friend and he recommended 1440. This super-basic daily round-up delivers the news in a text-only, non-emotional, facts-only kind of way, and also throws in some good news as well. To me, it feels like the electronic equivalent of flipping through a good ol’ fashioned newspaper. Muuuuch better way to inform myself about what’s happening in the world.