2023 Week 30: Intermission

July 30, 2023

2023 Week 30: Intermission

The week has been a bit of a haze, which happens when you get sick and spend most of your time staying home or within a half-mile radius of home. I don't even want to bother with a weekly summary of my days.

I don't get little colds and coughs like some people. Instead I just get super sick about twice a year - like the previous bout of Covid in February - and the illness ravages my body for a week or more. This time I had headaches and bodyaches, then a proper throat infection which moved down to my lungs (alarmingly). Now I'm recovering and just have a cough and some sniffles.

It seems to be a season of change. Apart from being physically unwell, I have also been extremely moody and irritable (continuation of early July), which leads me to complain about things I have no power over, which makes my mood worse - the vicious circle of bitterness!

However, it's only when my spirits dip this low that I can be honest with myself about what needs to change. A crisis gives me the energy to make changes to my life. And because books are an extension of my headspace, you will not be surprised to hear, therefore, that I have been reading exclusively self-improvement books about self-care, yoga, and nutrition all week.

These are a few lifestyle changes I've implemented this week:

Eating mostly vegetarian, with more fruits and vegetables. Rice + veggies has always been my dietary staple, but after coming back from the UK I got so put off by the produce here, finding them expensive and troublesome to prepare, I went off fruit and veg a little. Now I am rekindling my former ardour. We have so much more variety than the British - so many leafy veggies to choose from, and all those delightfully coloured tropical fruit.

Doing yoga at home. The latest iteration of my room features 2 mats we bought from a renovating yoga studio. Manduka mats really make a difference! And after experimenting with some offline sequencing methods - including hand-drawn asana posters and the BKS Iyengar Yoga book - it turns out that Down Dog is still the best.

Going on nighttime walks. The days have been far too hot and dehydrating for walks, so I have lately started going out at night. These began as errands to collect stuff on Olio, but I have quit Olio, so now I must start going on night walks with no objective.

Sleeping apart. My sleep hasn't been great since getting back from the UK. After a lot of agonising about it, I finally got a new bed and have started sleeping apart from Jon. We still sleep in the same room so it's companionable and nice, but I find that being on a separate bed reduces my anxiety about waking him up when I cough or move about in my sleep - which I do a lot, apparently.

On the less physical, more psychological side of things, there's one thing that I am working through at the moment - and that's saying goodbye to my old projects and committing to new ones. I will write about those in a separate post.

I must remember that my life is extraordinarily luxurious. I have not gone to work since last Saturday and will not need to return until next Thursday - that's like 11 days' MC! I have so much time to breathe and rest and think - it is unbelievable.

Okay, show and tell time.

Here's my new bed!!! I bought it on Carousell and it was quite expensive by my standards - the divan base was $70 and the mattress $72 including delivery. I do not regret the mattress - it's good - but should have gotten a cheaper base instead. Sleepful nights here I coooome.