Getting organised

What’s your #1 priority tomorrow?

I’ve been disorganised and muddled for a while. I need to get some semblance of organisation back in my life.

So, I am trying to use my diary more, and not ignore it. I’ve got into the habit of moving things on instead of doing things. I’ve got to stop. I think I mustn’t overload myself with plans.

My main problem is procrastination. Like a rabbit caught in the headlights, I get worried about how I’m going to get something done, that leads to anxiety, and I find it easier not to do the thing that needs doing.

Life has a way of getting involved, things crop up and stop you in your tracks. Pain and anxiety mix into a cocktail of disasters. The world spins you round the wrong way and everything gets out of kilter.

So now I have to start getting over things, I need to break my fears down into achievable goals, or I will just sink into a deeper mess. Getting organised is definitely my number one priority.

Grateful

I’m still trying to keep my gratitudes diary going. I’m on day 205. The idea is you look for three small things to be grateful for. Then you write them down and it turns your thoughts to a more positive way of thinking. I’ve found it hasn’t solved my anxiety or feeling down, but I definitely think it’s helped my mood. I might be in pain, but it helps me take my mind off it.

Today’s three gratitudes? Going out for a little walk in open sandals for the first time since splitting my toenail. I went with my hubby so I felt safe. Secondly, listening to ‘the infinite monkey cage’ on BBC radio 4, thirdly having a pan au raisin and a cup of tea after shopping….

27 December

Still feeling rough

I guess this is like a diary entry. I’ve already put had this bug for probably more than two weeks. I think I caught it in a meeting that I went to, there were a lot of people I didn’t know there and at least one was coughing. I’ve tested negative again for covid, so I think I’ve caught something that must be doing the rounds. Lots of other people I know have it too. I feel I might be responsible! Symptoms include a sore throat, a cough which has really gone on my chest, and feeling shivery.

It’s only when I feel like this that I wonder how tiny viruses and bacteria can have such an affect on animals and humans. There must be a lot of them, and as your body tries to fight back does it release toxins? Bacteria and viruses try and get inside your cells and replicate, and your body tries to kill and expel them, but I don’t understand all the physiology. I just wish I was a cat and could sleep through feeling ill!

Grateful

Over ninety days ago I started writing (and drawing) three gratitudes a day. I didn’t always remember until the next day. But I’m glad and grateful that I’m doing it. I still feel sad and upset about things, but maybe not as much. By writing gratitudes I’m forcing my mind into a different path. There are so many small things I can think of, like traffic signals staying in green, to the cat coming over to sit on my lap. Grateful for small helps and support from my hubby. It makes the world feel less worrying. It helps.

Still writing gratitudes

I’m on day 66 and I’m still writing and drawing three small gratitudes a day. From getting a good night’s sleep, to playing with the cat, to reading a good book, nothing is too small to be grateful for. I’m sure over these last few weeks it has helped keep me going. Putting positive thoughts in the front of your mind isn’t always the most normal or natural thing to do, but it helps you to step back from what might be a dreadful time. I like drawing and writing, but I’ve got my hubby just writing a few lines every day. It doesn’t have to be profound, that would be amazing, but wonderful things just don’t happen everyday. So accept the small stuff….

Retraining my brain

I’m trying to be more positive and to retrain my brain at the moment. The idea is that every evening for at least twenty eight days you try and write three gratitudes to get on a more positive train if thought. They shouldn’t be massive things that are overwhelming, but small things, little things you recognise as something to cherish. I’m on day eight and I think it’s helping a bit. I’m trying to encourage my hubby to do it too. Of course I have included sketches, it makes things more real.

Gratitude

I’m due to see my doctor about anxiety and my hubby has ptsd so I need to find strategies to cope. I think counselling helps but I’m going to try and keep a gratitude diary, where you write three minor gratitudes a day every night for at least 28 days. It helps rewire your brain towards more positive thinking. I’m going to start a little sketchbook and do simple sketches of them. Like the traffic lights stayed on green for me yesterday when I was going somewhere and was late, so that was a little gratitude, I met someone who gave me this idea, that’s a small gratitude, and someone cleared away some flytipping in the alley next to our garden, that’s the third. I will add small sketches to illustrate mine. I think it might help my creativity and give me new ideas, but if it doesn’t I’m not worried because I think it will help me cope. You don’t record big things, just small gratitudes.

Gratitude for seeing beauty could be one thing for my diary.

Lost lens and Masking tape….

Screaming for help from hubby this morning. I was just cleaning my glasses but with my shaking arm I wobbled and dropped them onto the kitchen floor. I picked them up, but a lens had come out. I tried to find it but having one focused and one unfocused eye didn’t help. Started shouting, but hubby was upstairs and is deaf. I looked all around, the eye with the missing lens closed so I was just looking out of the lens still in my glasses. I moved the fridge back a couple of inches very gingerly and moved the bin, no sign. I shouted some more and went upstairs and woke my hubby. Help! Please help! He came down and straight away found it! Half way down the kitchen under the overhanging base of the sink (how did it get there? Must have skittered across the floor). The lens wouldn’t fit in very well. So.. Tape? I found masking tape, and parcel tape, then a very broad roll of sellotape. I managed to cut a thin strip. The lens is just about in place. I’m going to get the opticians to fix it later…. So of course I decided to illustrate the glasses!

In and out (or how I’m being trained by an outdoor cat)! ðŸ’•

In, 3pm, slept on the bed for four hours..

In, 11pm. Has some food, goes back out..

In 1am, goes upstairs for half an hour, then out…

Stayed up and watched a film, called him in at 3.30am….eats, goes upstairs with us, sleeps on end of bed.

Me, gets up at 6.30am for a bathroom visit. He follows, scoffs lots of food, sniffs litter trays, asks to go out…

Me, can’t go back to bed incase he wants to come back in..

7am, listening to the morning radio news…