August 2020 Check-In: What's Happening? What I've Been Doing? How's Life?

 

Hi, again! It's time for another check-in to see how I've been and such; August was a month of discovery and clarity. I learned a lot of things about myself that I didn't know before (can do a workout move without stopping, that I'm good at baking bread, etc.) and I gained some insight on something personal in my life. But I'm going to go ahead and share how this month was. 

It was a good beginning to this month and I was committing to my workouts via Summer Shape Up everyday but I hit a wall in life. I've not slowed down enough to enjoy what life has to offer. I felt I was go-go-go all the time. So as much as I didn't want to do it- I took a hiatus of being offline for what was going to be a week. Then it was another week, then another week; finally I was proud to set time offline to do some things I've been putting off and some things I've been wanting to learn. I took a 3 week social media break (the longest I've been offline is 4 months that was back in 2017) and it was a good way to hit the reset button. I stayed committed still to my workouts, made more time to rest + relax, and even learned a few recipes (made homemade whole wheat bread + vegan Mac N Cheese). But I was dealing with a couple plateaus I wasn't expecting to happen. I had a mini situation I was dealing with at home I had a hard time understand because the person was doing so good and it went right back to where it started. I hope this person gets the help it needs. And the "family drama" resurfaced one day and it affected my anxiety (like with the last situation I mentioned) and I know I handle getting over and moving past this. Letting go of the one person that I thought was someone I could talk to wasn't easy for me. I feel a little freer knowing that the person isn't in my life anymore. I've learned better to not let myself consume so much toxicity. 

Besides being offline and learning new things, I had a birthday for Hyatt (he turned 9) and I made him pupcakes (he loved them- I even let Susie have some of them too). It feels surreal that he's 9; we got Hyatt after I finished high school. I remember picking him out at the shelter and I cried the day we got him. It was my first dog at the time I had in a while (my old dog Fozzie passed when I was a sophomore in high school). It's nice having a dog with such personality + he always knows how to make me laugh. Gosh, I love dogs! As I mentioned I continued my workouts and finished the challenge just this week. It also taught that I can stick with this more. I never knew fitness would have such a good impact on my life. It helps my mental health and overall self so much better. I love the good feeling you get after it. I plan on continuing the fitness aspect of my life more into next month (I'm not leaving out the yoga and meditation either- still continuing that). 

I know taking breaks from digital life is overall great for your mental health and sainty. But I've never knew how much clarity, calm and peace I would gain from it. I've learned a bit better to have a better relationship with the digital life. Sometimes life can be a lot, and it's okay to take breaks every once in  a while.

Plus I wanted to share the music I listened to while offline:

"Heart" by Flor

"Starting Again" by Daywave

"Killer Whales" by Smallpools

"Regret Regret" by Cold War Kids

And to end this post I'll share some quotes that I hope inspire you to do and be better:

Just know this, there are better days on the horizon and those days look better than you can anticipate. I hope you all have an awesome day! See you in future posts!

Sending love + light,

Lauren

July 2020 Check In

I'm doing another monthly blog post for you today; I'm going to tell you how everything last month was for me (mentally & physically). 

Around the beginning of last month, I started fitness back up again. Every summer, a blogger I follow named Love Sweat Fitness does a fitness challenge called Summer shape up. Well, as I enjoyed it last year why don't I do it again? I've been doing that a majority of the month- it's 8 weeks of different targeted areas over the body. Lemme me honest, the first week getting back into it was rough. I was a hot mess but as soon as the weeks came through with the challenge I got a routine down. It may have not been the same everyday but that was fine with me. I do 6 days of workouts (easy follow along videos I usually repeat 2 to 3 times; the user has an app of different moves- 3 sets of 10 reps of each of the moves) plus a stretch day on Sunday's. I'm continuing this until the end of August 2020. I am also incorporating more meditation into what would be just my yoga schedule. With my mental health being more up than normal  back in June 2020, I wanted to incorporate more of it. I find that plus my workouts have been helping me clear some things inside of my head.

I got to have a nice few days to myself at home with my doggies and got to cook too. Made baked oatmeal (vegan based)- which was coffee cake baked oatmeal and the bomb! Also did a chickpea quinoa salad over a lemony dressing, too. But one night as I was getting settled in to watch a movie on Netflix I noticed my body had like a shock and I was like, "What is going on? I cannot possibly be having one at night." I had a mini anxiety moment come out of nowhere. I was hyperventilating, crying, etc; I was all over the place. It took me a while to calm down but I thankfully was fine. I had been having some nightmares while I was sleeping (IE: family drama that is still in my mind) and I've been trying to resolve them. One day, I hit a good road block- these nightmares all seemed so clear as if they stopped and didn't come back. I've been having a better outlook with these dreams (which isn't a terrible thing). As a result of that episode I mentioned, I've been trying to cut out refined sugars / chocolate at night before bed (this has been tough because I love chocolate / something decadent). But I know having these at night can have a negative effect on my sleeping pattern I usually will toss and turn and worry (plus those nightmares / confusing dreams that make no sense). And I've been trying to stop having caffeine around 2 to 3 pm (this, my friends, has also been a struggle). 

I also got to visit my grandparents this month too; I was afraid of coming up because of my anxiety with the family drama that lingered from last month. But as I mentioned, I gained clarity from it and I felt okay to go up (I had to put myself first). We even got to take one of my doggies with us (dogs are the best!) and my other doggy got to go the kennel. I still go out on occasion to get coffee and groceries / essentials (safely of course) with family. With everything going on, I've been trying to prioritize rest and slowing down some. This is tough as I am someone that cannot slow down. I even got two power naps in last month. I decided randomly one week to do a throwback sorta week- watched two concert DVDs I own of bands I love- Fall Out Boy + My Chemical Romance; even managed to find throwback funny videos of them on YouTube. Gosh I felt like I was 18 again! It was nice to bring some of that joy in my life as the world still feels dark. 

Well, I hoped you enjoyed this post! As always, I will leave you with some inspiring quotes / things I find inspiring. See you for August's post soon!

Sending lots of love + light, 

Lauren