In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Change.”
Wordless Wednesday – September 23, 2015
My 70-Day Challenge to Wellness
For most of my life, I made unhealthy choices. The consequences prevented me from living life to the fullest. I take full responsibility for opening the door to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, breast cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Now, I am fully committed to living a healthy lifestyle. It all began on June 2, 2015, when I posted this on Facebook:
“Thanks to Brenda and Peggy for sharing their 70 Day Challenge journey on Facebook. Their daily posts inspired me to begin my wellness journey, which I hope leads me to a healthy mind, body and spirit.
The Challenge, for me, has extended beyond 70 days to the remaining days of my life. No longer am I willing to wander aimlessly toward improving the quality of my life. Now, I wake up each morning self-motivated to follow a path that I know will lead to a healthy spirit, mind and body.
As a Challenger sharing my journey on Facebook, I have been further motivated by the positive and supportive comments posted on my page by family members, friends, and even the friends of my children.
Also, I am encouraged, guided and inspired by the comments made by Sister Challengers. The ones that I chose to share are from three women that I hadn’t communicated with in almost twenty years.
“Welcome to the journey my friends. It’s a journey of unimaginable beauty, strength, spirituality and peace.” (PHM)
“Go, Yvonne Thomas, great stats and a great job with sleeping. Many studies talk about the value of consistent sleep.” (BB)
“Go ahead and feel good about it! Smile be smug, and be certain to continue the Challenge.” (DJW)
After only 90+ days of participating in this Challenge, painlessly and effortlessly, I can:
- Get in and out of the bathtub
- Walk up and down stairs
- Lower to and rise from the floor
- Squat and kneel
These are things that I haven’t been able to do, without experiencing mild to severe pain, since being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in 1993.
To give you a better idea of my Challenger journey, I share a few snippets from my Facebook posts:
Day 1. I meditated for 30 minutes and followed up with a 30 minute mindfulness walk around the neighborhood. In the afternoon, I also did water aerobics for 40 minutes. At day’s end, my Fitbit device reported: 6,703 steps; 2,108 calories burned, 1,466 calories eaten, 72 oz fluids, and 8 hrs. 1 min. sleep.
Day 70. Today, is the last day of my Challenge. I plan to continue this journey toward building a healthy body, mind and spirit. I completed 30 minutes of mindfulness and meditation practices as well as physical therapy home exercises for 30 minutes.
Day 101. By choice, it was a very sedentary day in terms of physical exercise. I didn’t plank, stretch or crunch. In fact, I barely walked. The body screamed for rest and l listened. Attended early morning online church services; and, following this , I enjoyed a day of relaxation.
Lastly, just as my 70-Day Challenge was coming to an end, two of my Sister Challengers invited me to join them in a 30-Day Plank Challenge. I accepted. On Day 1, I held the Plank Pose for 30 seconds; and, by Day 30, I was able to hold three poses over the course of a day, one for 2 minutes and two for 1 minute.
Not, bad for a Seasoned Sistah who will celebrate her 73rd birthday in November.
Weekly Photo Challenge – September 18, 2015
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Grid.”
Lobby Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center, Orlando, Florida
Wordless Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Hi, I’m Back
My last blog post was July 31. The main reason I have been absent from the blogosphere world is that my laptop crashed the second week in August. It happened during my Annual Mother-Daughter Vacation in Martha’s Vineyard. It was the first time in six years of vacationing in the Vineyards that I took my laptop. My plan was to blog about my daily experiences and activities as well as share photos during the vacation.
I took a lot of photos. Actually, over the seven-day vacation in the Vineyards, I took a ridiculous number of photos. When I downloaded them to my laptop, the count was 787. The computer crashed and I feared my photos were lost. Thanks to ICloud, I didn’t lose one photo. Computer-challenged, I am not sure how, but grateful that through this technology all 11,000+ photos taken and/or retrieved from other sources over the past five years were successfully downloaded to my new laptop.
Taking photos as I meander through daily life is a new passion that brings so much happiness, peace and joy to my life. Daily, capturing photos during my early morning bonding walks with the two daughters was the highlight of my Mother-Daughter Vacation this year.
Many more photos to share, over the coming weeks, as I recall and share memories of the many things that occurred during my, almost two month, absence from blogosphere.
Glad, I am back and looking forward to reconnecting with my blogging friends
Freedom Friday – Week Four: Mindfulness and Meditation Practices
Yesterday, ended Week 4 of the 8-Week Mindfulness and Mediation Program; and, I am half-way to the finish line.
The practices for Week 4:
- Ten minutes of the Breathing Anchor Meditation for six days;
- Ten minutes of the Compassionate Acceptance meditation for six days;
- Analyze Pacing Diary
- Habit Releaser, Make Peace with Gravity
In addition to the two required meditation practices, I continued the Body Scan Meditation from Week 1.
Breathing Anchor Meditation
I was introduced to this meditation in Week 2; and the repeat in Week 4, Though still a work-in-progress, I am growing in the awareness of my breath as it flows through the body. And, I am using my breath to calm the body and ease pain.
Compassionate Acceptance Meditation
This meditation as well as the assigned readings, introduced me to the author’s concept of the difference between:
- Primary Suffering – the actual unpleasant sensations to the body; and
- Secondary Suffering – the additional pain when we react and dwell on the actual unpleasant sensations.
They believe that:
“Secondary Suffering is often the greatest source of distress … mindfulness training helps you to reduce or completely overcome it by accepting the things you cannot change, Primary Suffering. and changing those you can, the Secondary Suffering.”
As a chronic pain sufferer and having connected with many others with this condition, both personally and professionally, I tend to agree with the authors on this.
Analyze Pacing Diary
My Pacing Diary got derailed with unplanned activities and unexpected visitors. As a result, all that I planned to do, didn’t get done. Initially, I experienced some degree of anxiety and stress. But, Week 4’s readings and meditation practices guided me to understanding that this was Secondary Suffering, which was within my power to change.
Through on-going mindfulness and meditation practices, I hope to let go of being “obsessive and rigid” about completing planned tasks.
When I started this 8-week program, I didn’t factor in all of my activities over the summer months, specifically, out-of-town visitors and out-of-town vacation travels, which not end until after Labor Day. Because of this, I decided to let go of the commitment to post weekly about my journey to manage and control my chronic pain condition through this mindfulness and meditation program.
I will continue to do the readings and meditation practices. I plan to complete the program within the eight weeks. If things go as planned, I will share the key points of the final four weeks in a post that I hope to publish between mid-September and early-October.
Also, I plan to regularly post on my blog, over the summer, with the new awareness of not being “obsessive and rigid.”
Habit Releaser – Make Peace with Gravity
The authors write:
“Every time you pull away from your body in an attempt to avoid feeling it, you’re unconsciously creating more suffering, strain, and exhaustion. It only makes your pain or stress worse.
I have been pretty successful in getting beyond mental or emotional pain by being still, breathing and giving into gravity. But, still a work-in-progres when it comes to physical pain.
Thank you for joining me on this journey and I look forward to sharing my final four weeks with you in the fall. A special thank you to the imanikingblog for allowing me to use Freedom Friday as the platform to document my journey.
Freedom Friday – Week Three: Mindfulness and Meditation Practices
This week, unexpected, out-of-town visitors caused a delay with the timely posting of Freedom Friday.
Even though late posting, I timely completed Week 3 of the 8-Week Mindfulness and Meditation Program, developed by Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman and presented in the book, “You Are Not Your Pain.”
I have been on a challenging journey these past three weeks. Some days, I felt like saying, “Give up, you’re never going to get through this.” Then the inner voice evolved and reminded me to focus on the journey and not the destination.
Week Three: The Journey Continues
In addition to the readings, we were assigned to do:
- Ten minutes of the Body Scan meditation for six of seven days.
- Ten minutes of the Mindful Movement meditation for six of seven days.
- Daily Pacing Diaries.
- Daily Habit Releasers, Watch a Kettle Boil.
Body Scan Meditation
Following and being aware of the breath as it flows through my body is a new learning experience. Daily, I see improvement performing this meditation, which guides me to:
- lie on my back with hands lightly resting on the stomach;
- feel the rise and fall of the stomach which, for me, is where the awareness of the breath is strongest; and
- become more aware of the breath as it moves through other areas of my body and I am beginning to notice the breath more in my back and extremities.
I feel relaxed and the mind is free from the clutter of random thought when practicing this meditation.
It is becoming easier to welcome pain, even emotional and mental, in a loving and compassionate way.
Awareness is guiding me toward understanding that pain, as presented in:
- Week One, is “not solid, but fluid,” and
- Week Two is “like the clouds constantly changing and moving.”
Mindful Movement Meditation
Struggling through this meditation for seven days; I wasn’t able to do the simple mindful movements, with any sense of awareness, of either the wrist rotations, finger flicks, or warm hugs.
There wasn’t any physical pain. But, mentally and emotionally, I shut down and, when guided to breathe and relax, I held the breath and shut down.
As a long-time chronic pain sufferer, there have been times that I:
- refused a hug when offered by a friend or loved one;
- tensed the fingers awaiting the tools of the manicurist; or
- tightened the body, in anticipation, of the massage therapist’s hands.
I did all of this in fear that another’s touch might exacerbate my physical pain.
I plan to repeat the Mindful Movement Meditation until I am able to overcome whatever is preventing me from fully engaging in this practice.
Pacing Diaries
This assignment required keeping a, daily, diary of all activities. As a retiree, a typical day for me:
- 4:30 – 4:45 a.m. – Wake Up
- 4:45 – 5:15 a.m – Stretching
- 5:15 – 6:15 a.m. – Meditation/Mindfulness/Stillness
- 6:15 – 7:00 a.m. – Light Breakfast
- 7:00 – 8:15 a.m. – Neighborhood Walk or Exercise at Gym
- 8:15 – 12:00 noon. – Errands, Household Chores, Work at Desk, etc.
- 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. – Lunch, Read, Relax
- 2:15 – 4:45 p..m – Work at Desk and Prepare Dinner
- 5:00 – 5:30 p.m. – Jog/Walk in the Pool
- 6:00 – 7:00 – Dinner and Kitchen Cleanup
- 7:15 – 8:30 – Prepare for Bed, Relax, Read, or Watch TV
- 8:30 p.m. – Sleep
From time to time, the activities change and fluctuate, but rarely do I deviate from my:
- Wake Up Time
- Sleep Time
- Morning Stretches
- Meditation/Mindfulness
- Neighborhood Walk or Exercise at Gym
- Jog/Walk in the Pool
Pacing my activities, is a self-management tool that I have used to manage my chronic pain condition for more than twenty years. And, I feel comfortable with what I am doing in this area.
Habit Releaser
The assignment was to Watch A Kettle Boil at least one time per day. I own a bright orange kettle, which I call a teakettle, and it’s used to enhance the decor of my kitchen rather than to boil water for tea, coffee, or cocoa. I use the microwave for tea and the Keurig Coffeemaker for coffee and cocoa.
Willing to give it a try, I tried to mindfully:
- observe the water flow from the tap into the teakettle;
- imagine how the water reached me; and
- listen to the water boil in the teakettle.
After six full days of going through this process. I wasn’t able to relate. But, I am open to giving it another try in hopes of enhancing my awareness of movement and thoughts as I carry out routine daily functions.
I will be back posting Week 4 of this journey on Friday, July 31. Thanks to the imanikingblog for hosting Freedom Friday.
Wordless Wednesday – July 22, 2015
SeasonedSistah 