Just Chillin’

My figure-out-how-to-sleep “Someday” is going well.  So well, in fact, I haven’t been up early most days as evidenced by the lack of posts here.  I usually write early in the morning, but for the past couple of weeks, I’ve slept past dawn too often and my writing mind feels sluggish and lazy.  But the sleep has been good!

I’m giving my husband most of the credit for my improved sleep.  He’s been on a quest for years to help me find peaceful sleep and then, just as I started this “Someday”, he learned of a product that was described as “life changing”.  He bought me the product for Mother’s Day and life hasn’t been the same since.

The product is a ChiliPad.  It isn’t cheap, but it is amazing!  And, really, what’s a good night’s sleep worth?  One of my biggest problems with sleeping well is getting too hot at night.  This isn’t just a menopausal issue – I’ve slept hot all my life, though it did get worse in my late 30s.  I believe I wake up throughout the night because I’m so uncomfortably hot and sweaty.  Yes, there’s times when it’s good to be hot and sweaty, but not repeatedly throughout the night when I’m trying to sleep.  The ChiliPad is a fairly thin pad that goes beneath the sheet on my side of the bed.  It has coils in it that connect to the ChiliPad Cube which is a little water reservoir with a motor that circulates cool water (or warm if you want – yes, some people are that crazy) throughout the ChiliPad.  The result?  Like I said, “Amazing!”

I’ll post more about the experience of getting used to my ChiliPad as well as the other sleep steps I’ve taken in a future post.  For now, my sleepy brain wants to just sit and drink a cup of coffee.  While it’s nice to be sleeping well, sleeping for several hours, and later in the morning, is going to require some adjustments to my daily routine.  That’s okay.  I’ll figure out the adjustments eventually – it’s worth it to finally be sleeping at night.

Someday Stretch

In addition to the big monthly “somedays” I’d hoped I would also tackle some smaller “somedays” along this journey.  I’ve realized I have taken on a smaller “someday” without really realizing it – I have restarted a regular stretching routine.

I used to stretch daily after my morning workout, but with our move last year and the need to get into a new routine, I simply stopped stretching regularly and, boy, does my 57-year-old body feel it!  My workouts have become primarily walking and running outside instead of inside on a treadmill.  When I arrive home from my exercise time, there are dogs to unleash, shoes and coats to shed, and the thought of heading somewhere to stretch just doesn’t cross my mind.  I kept trying to figure out how to get stretching back into my daily routine and then it happened gradually without really planning right after my morning meditation session.  At first I stretched my arms into the air after my 10-minute gong went off, then I added a child’s pose.  Within days I was doing a pretty decent stretching routine and my body feels better.

Yesterday in the paper (yes, I still read a daily newspaper of the paper variety) I noticed an ad for someone who provides instruction on resistance stretching.  I bought a book on resistance stretching, but wasn’t able to do much on my own.  Was this a new ad or did I see the ad yesterday because the idea of stretching is fresh on my mind?  I don’t know, but I will stretch my comfort level this week and call the instructor to see about making an appointment.  My year of “somedays” means not putting stuff like this off.  Maybe that is settling in as a new reality.

12 Months of Somedays

As I think about my plan of tackling a “someday” every month for a year, I realize I’ve created something similar to the 12 Days of Christmas where each day something new is added and all become cumulative.  Day One:  Partridge in a Pear Tree.  Day Two:  Two Turtle Doves AND a Partridge in a Pear Tree.  For me it’s Month One:  Daily Writing Practice.  Month Two:  Daily Meditation Practice AND Daily Writing Practice.  Next month I’ll be adding in the physical challenge of a daily four mile walk/run and it goes on from there.  I see myself at the end of the year getting up in the morning and spending the first four hours writing, meditating, walking, playing the drums (I’ll need to save that until everyone else in the house is awake), practicing Italian, etc.  This could become crazy.

I have always said “Embrace the Crazy”.  Many have said my family and I lead crazy, busy lives.  But additional craziness isn’t really on my “someday” list.  Perhaps my 366 Somedays only seems a prescription for crazy.  Perhaps it is the route to sanity…wait, would that mean my life is already crazy?

Sigh.  What a year this is shaping up to be.

Holy Moly — Reality!

Day 4 of my “366 Somedays” and today was a reality hit.  I’m sure there will be additional hits as the year goes by, but I didn’t really expect one this soon.  Day 1 was exciting – I set-up my blog and Facebook pages, I announced my plan to the world, I received some great feedback.  Day 2 I worked on the outline of the book I will write this month and the excitement from Day 1 lingered.  Yesterday, Day 3, still felt pretty invigorating.  Today, Day 4, I had a morning commitment which put me out of my routine.  I normally write in the wee hours of the morning, but I couldn’t do that today because of the meeting.  As I prepared to head out the door, I thought about what else I wanted to get done throughout the day:  some bookkeeping needs for our business, prepare some packages for mailing, further work unpacking from our recent move.  Then it hit me – I needed to make time to write!  I’ve committed to writing a book in November.  That won’t happen unless I … write!

So, even though it’s not 5:00 a.m., even though I’ve already had more coffee than should be allowed in one day, even though my little dogs are looking at me wondering why we haven’t yet gone on our walk, and even though this is not my normal writing routine, I WILL write!

Keep on reading, thinking, doing, and writing.
                                                                       –Toba Beta