It was when Ari and I visited medical clinic for our tummy problem when I saw a sign on the clinic door.
“Psychologists available.”
Along with the name of the doctors.
I might go take a visit. Perhaps after this month. I’m thinking July? August?
I have so many things in my mind with so many questions. Mostly “whys” and “hows”. Also, I really don’t want to self-diagnose myself — it’s one of the most dangerous approaches you can take on your well-being.
To have a professional looking into the Questions with me, and together we navigate the tangled ropes, would be wonderful.
I know I’m not alone.
And now, I can take up the sword and the shield, and meet the monsters. Or perhaps, it won’t be a monster. It will be me. Me looking at myself.
I like reading, but I personally feel something has been lacking lately on my reading habit.
Recently, I have been reading self-help/motivational book, and my current two favorites are Ryder Carroll’s “The Bullet Journal Method” and James Clear’s “Atomic Habit”.
You might notice those two books actually connected in some ways. “The Bullet Journal Method” gives me deeper understanding on the technical side of bullet journaling, and “Atomic Habit” puts me on track on building the habit of journaling (Ryder actually put habit-building on the bullet journal book, but “Atomic Habit” elevates the habit building level to a new heights.)
Now. The problem.
I keep forgetting some topics and discussions on the books. There are so many good notes throughout the books, but it’s really easy for me to forget about it — and I ended up re-reading the previous chapters and unable to proceed to the next ones because I keep re-reading it again and again ad infinitum.
Just recently, I learned to highlight some words on the books and put sticky notes. You might protested that you have been doing that for ages and it’s really normal and “everyone is doing it” and so on, but not me, okay 🥲 I grow up in an environment where books are considered sacred, considering how expensive they could be. Now that I have adult money, I can buy stupid stuffs and books — so yeah, the act of scribbling on books is really really new to me.
Aaaaaand yet I still forget.
It’s frustrating, really. There are some stuffs that I really want to remember and apply, but I only managed to remember it like… 80% of it? For example, to build a good habit, we should make it into three things. Make it close, make it attractive, and goddangit I forgot the third one.
… OK, I just peeked at the book and apparently I got it all wrong. Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying. I can’t confirm or deny I typed this with the book opened in front of me.
I’m asking you folks, especially the book lovers. How do you approach reading, and how do you collect the information and retain it? I would love any insights or tips.
There is this… reward-system in Animal Crossing called “Nook Miles”. When you finished a task, you will be rewarded some amount of Nook Miles — and you can use Nook Miles to buy decorations or visit treasure/resources islands on the game. One of the tasks is: “Break time at The Roost” — meaning that you go to The Roost and order a cup of coffee from Brewster.
One day, I played this game before bedtime, and since I got pressed with time (I have to finish digging dinosaur fossils and get them assessed so I can sell it for a nice sum of money at the store, and the store closed at 10 PM) I ran around the island to collect everything and cleaning out every fallen tree branch or pulled some wild weeds on the island.
“It’s just a game…”
Yes, and I found myself exhausted when I finished selling the dinosaur fossils. I decided to go to The Roost and to get my digital cup of coffee.
This is not making any sense, yes, I know, and nothing makes any sense, so please bear with me 🥲
(I once refused to have my character swimming in the ocean during last year’s winter because “IT’S SNOWING OUT THERE! IT’S COLD!” regardless of the fact that it’s a game.)
I sat down, ordered a cup of coffee (200 bells per cup), and enjoyed it.
Then it hits me.
I can have my own The Roost time. I can take a break between shifts, between my daily activities, to… I don’t know, a cup of tea, a cup of coffee, a cup of hot chocolate, even a tall glass of cold water. Just for a minute or two; not thinking about stuff.
This is a marathon, not a sprint.
And I hope, you have your The Roost time too. To sit down, take a minute to breathe, and know that you are doing really really well.
As… Risky as self-diagnosed is, sometimes you can notice some symptoms on yourself, or you have been feeling in a certain way about something, and social media helps you on recognizing such signs.
I feel like I’ve been feeling emotionally exhausted. I have difficulties in waking up (and dreading the day,) small chores/tasks becoming a burden, and I unable to enjoy things that I used to enjoy.
It has been going on for 1-2 weeks, and things just finally clicked today (I thought I’m just having lack of sleep, that’s all. Or maybe lack of sleep is part of the signs?)
Then, I checked Google and found this link: How to Refuel When You’re Feeling Emotionally Drained. When I checked Google — with keywords “how to handle emotional exhaustion,” — most of the articles are from 2017-2019, so I omitted them as I feel it’s irrelevant. We are dealing with emotional exhaustion in 2020-2021, in a really specific case: The pandemic. The HBR article above dated from the 2020, so I feel it fits.
The first step in reducing emotional resource consumption is recognizing the circumstances (e.g., situations, tasks, relationships) that deplete you, then limiting your exposure to them.
I wonder if the emotional exhaustion started when I started checking my Twitter timeline. The time frame fits, though. I used to not checking my Twitter timeline, but I have been pretty active lately — and lets just say stuffs on Twitter has not been super great lately.
We can’t order the pandemic to stop (as much as we want to!) but the discussions about it has been amplified tenfolds and even more on social media chambers. Now I wonder if it caused the unneeded stress on my end.
I still need Twitter, though. Mainly for the account itself (to check Twitter Card Validator whenever folks ask why their link didn’t display images when shared on Twitter.) But yeah, maybe less rage-scrolling.
🪴 coriander in pho 