Building Small Pieces of Resilience Where I Can
In the last 3 week’s I’ve been having to try to find my resilience again. Because, in all honesty I just want to brace myself for what happens next.
Resilience - Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands. (Source: APA Dictionary of Psychology)
So for this post it’s more of an update on what I’ve been doing to keep me going.
I activated a new schema on my Burnout Buddy app that will block all social media (except for Substack) for indefinite periods of time. Honestly social media scrolls are usually a time suck for me in the first place but recently they have been also making me more prone to spiral.
Resting as much as I can. You’re girl is perpetually exhausted as it is, but also a lack of sleep will trigger a worse depression event for me and that’s not a good idea this time of year for me anyway.
Slowly getting back into old hobbies that give me more movement in my day. When I was younger my brother and I were into bo staff training as my uncle loved martial arts movies and helped us create a makeshift one. I’ve been out of practice from it over the last 20 years and it’s been long since time I get it back into my routines. I’m also hoping to get back into running and start doing pilates again especially to help get my knees back in order.
Keep working on my bachelor’s degree, because I deserve to complete a commitment to myself. And you know. Knowledge is power. The same thing applies to me working on getting my aPHR certification.
Stocked up on supplies for my cat Freya. In 2020 due to the shut downs and the logistics nightmare that came along with it, I was unable to order her food for about a year and I don’t want it to be that way again. In hopes to prevent it I’m trying to keep her supplies at a par system so if I’m down to a certain level I’ll order ahead to account for something being on back order or that I need to save up money to afford it.
I cleaned my room, did my laundry, and washed my dishes. . . because life still has to go on.
My roommate and I started a sort of two people book club. Because sometimes our world is just us and we want to continue challenging our worldview. Right now we are reading How to Read Non-Fiction Like a Professor by Thomas C Foster (link goes to Bookshop.Org) I’m hoping to do a bit of a breakdown of it on an upcoming post when we’re done as it’s a catalyst of conversations and insights of the shifts of journalism during our time, the heavy leaning into bias without being accountable for it, how we find news sources we can trust, etc. My current wishlist is long and we are intending on keeping it up even when we don’t live together anymore.
Working harder to find other ways to buy things online that isn’t through Amazon. I work from home and don’t have a car so I usually do a large amount of shopping online. It’s good to remember that Amazon itself is a marketplace at its core. Many of the brands on their site actually have a website of their own where you can purchase the items you love, and will have reward programs too! I do love a good discount and sometimes you can get the item for cheaper on the brands real website instead of on Amazon.
I keep doing my job the best I can. . . Because life still has to go on.
Slowly stocking up on things so I can go a bit longer without having to purchase if I can. No matter who you voted for, if higher tariffs are on the way, everything will get more expensive. The US is the leading importing countries in the world with it rounding to $3712.15 Billion dollars of product and supplies in 2023. (Source: Statista) Tariffs are going to be a huge impact on the US economy.
Getting back into my craft hobbies like crochet, mending, and baking. My roommate also gardens so when we no longer live together soon, we’ll set up a sort of trading system that also gives us an excuse to visit.
Getting honest with myself about my budget and how I will need to adjust it for next year. I still have plans to hit some important financial goals but I want to focus more on paying off my debt instead of just building my emergency fund.
Keep working on building my collection of physical media. I kinda only keep my streaming services for my partner and I to have our video dates where we watch things together. I’ll soon be moving in with them so once we do I will most likely be ending those for me and rely more heavily on my DVDs for my entertainment. (Xena marathons anyone?)
Try to hold onto some semblance of a routine. . . because life does still have to go on.
It hasn’t felt like a lot but writing it down makes it feel like much more. I’m hoping that I build a little bit more on it everyday. Remember, life still has to go on.
What are some ways that you are trying to build some extra resilience for what’s ahead?