Tag: MentalhealthBreakNeededsoon

Reboot Break Update I

23
Jul
2019

So I’ve managed to decide on a start date for my reboot break—it will start roughly right around the Thanksgiving holiday. Many may think the timing is bad, but when you start a job right after the holidays, the contract usually ends right before it the following year. I more or less gave four months notice two weeks ago, so now I’m on a countdown clock.  I just haven’t decided on a end date for the reboot break—I know that it will at least stretch into the early part of 2020.

I’ve also decided that this is going to be a three-prong reboot break: course-correction/career reinvention, emotional/mental healing, and life enhancement. Currently I see all three as interconnecting—if I can get back on a even keel in terms of mental/physical health, I will be able to readjust my career trajectory and enhance my life at the same time.

I’m planning on spending a good part of early December trying to get my storage unit in better order; I started it last year right after the Fourth of July holiday, but haven’t had the time to repack anything that needs it. I’m hoping that in addition to repacking the boxes that have fallen apart, I will go through others and start paring down my belongings.

I’ve realized that I will probably always be living in an apartment (or condo)—I don’t really see myself trying to buy a house anytime soon. Therefore, I need to make sure that I’m not taking a lot of stuff with me that will just clutter up the space.

I’m also planning on working on my mental and physical health as well. By the time the reboot break starts, I will hopefully have finished a second round of Country Heat, the first round of Yoga Booty Ballet: Abs and Butt, and maybe be working through a second round of LIIFT4. In addition, I will start meditating twice a day (morning and evening), and writing more in my journal. By removing myself from a semi-toxic work environment, hopefully within a few weeks some of the mental cobwebs will be gone.

My traveling will probably be done during the springtime—at least one trip somewhere for enjoyment, and then one or two for networking/job hunting. I have a couple of ideas percolating for the networking trips—which one(s) I go with, will depend on the time of year, and how much groundwork I’ve done via online networking.

In addition, I have so many different e-courses that I’ve bought over the past few years, that I will finally have the time to sit down and actually go through and learn something that I can possibly use moving forward. I won’t feel guilty listening to videos taking notes on things unrelated to my current position. If I can also relearn a foreign language (such as Spanish or German)—it will allow me to travel more with a little more confidence.

So a recap:

Reboot break is starting end of November 2019. During the month of December I plan on getting my storage unit in order, starting to work through more of the e-courses, declutter things in my bedroom, and hopefully settled into a exercise/meditation routine as well (getting my mental and physical health back on track).

I will also then be planning out what I hope to accomplish during the first few months of 2020 as well. Those plans will be posted in an update, once I’ve posted pictures of the cleaned/organized storage unit and decluttered bedroom.

No Comments financesfitnessHealthLifestyle ChallengesPersonal Developmentprofessional developmentRebootBreak

Review of Scorpio Full Moon Goals

16
Jun
2019

So tomorrow, the moon moves into it’s full moon phase for June. We’re a little over halfway through the month, and there are only two weeks left before we’re through the first half of the year. Therefore it’s time to look back on the goals that I set during the May full moon, and see which ones I managed to work into my schedule and which ones I forgot about.

The goals for the May Scorpio full moon included:

            Getting back on track with my fitness and nutrition.

            Working on my transition and “reboot break” plans.

            Trying to meditate and do a daily tarot/oracle card reading.

In terms of the fitness and nutrition goal—I’m trying to make sure that I hit (and hopefully surpass) my step goal at least five out of seven days. I’m also trying to do at least one walk around Boomer Lake on the weekend (depending on the weather). I’ve realized that my mental health isn’t the greatest right now—when I fall into my depression funks, I’m never to the point of hurting myself—I just get to the point where I don’t care about things (working out and eating properly usually tanks first).

Therefore I’m happy to note that I have managed to probably lose about 2-4 pounds over the last month (I’m not sure of the exact number since I don’t weigh myself constantly—I’m just stepping on the scale currently to actually figure out how much the puppy is gaining weekly). I’m also cutting back on the sweets that I get on campus (last week I only went and got them one day, and the week before that it was only two days—so I’m slowly cutting back on that as well).

In terms of my transition and “reboot break” plans—the reboot break will be happening before the end of the year (especially since I now realize how close to complete burnout I’m getting), and may actually happen before the end of summer. I know people will scratch their heads at the idea of quitting a job without another lined up (especially since that means that you don’t get unemployment—but I think it will work out better this way—I’m not on someone else’s timeframe for finding a new job). My only potential worry is that my parents may charge rent (and how much).

The reboot break is needed, especially since I’m been thinking about just packing some clothes, my laptop, camera, e-book reader, phone, & chargers and flying off somewhere without really letting anyone know about the plans. I’ve never taken the time before to try and really focus on what I want to do with my life—I’ve just gone (for the most part) a straight path of public school to college (undergraduate degree to graduate degree) to work (academic post-doc to academic post-doc to staff position 1 to staff position 2). I love science, but I really need to figure out what I want to do in relation to both science and my other passions as well.

In terms of meditating daily and also doing a daily tarot/oracle card reading—I’ve been probably an even fifty to sixty percent of the time. I know where the inconsistency in regards to this goal is coming from—my blah mood. I usually can meditate nightly, but doing the card reading is something that I just can’t force myself to do (and I’ve also realized that I’ve lost several followers on instagram because of it as well). I’m hoping to get back into the grove of doing nightly readings (I don’t do them in the morning—mainly because I don’t want to get up any earlier than what I’m already doing), and posting them to social media.

So it wasn’t one hundred percent on the goals this past month—but at least I was making slow forward progression with each one. I know where I need to try to focus first—my mental and physical health (and if you are struggling—know that you aren’t alone, and if you need to see professional help—please do so (personally I’m stubborn and not really one to talk about their feelings and thoughts with others)). I know that when I get those two aspects of my life back on steady ground, everything else should hopefully also start falling into place.

Pretty soon it’s going to be time for me to step out of my comfort zone in order to figure out what I want to do with my life. As much as I want time to slow down, I know that it isn’t going to—which means I need to start actually trying to live my life for myself, and not staying in the shadow of others.

No Comments AstrologyfitnessFull Moon GoalsHealthPersonal Developmentprofessional development

May Full Moon Goals: The actual Scorpio Full Moon

18
May
2019

So today marks the full moon for May, and it is actually passing through the Scorpio constellation. So I guess that I will be doing a double Scorpio goal period (since that is how I treated last month).

The questions that I would need to be answering are the same ones that I answered last month, but I think that my answers now are actually slightly different from what I had written last month.

So looking at the book “Moonlogy: Working with the magic of the lunar cycles” by Yasmin Boland, for questions that one should be asking themselves during this time the questions would include:

Have I been jealous, vengeful, suspicious, or otherwise behaved toxically?

Have I been living out of fear rather than joy?

Have I been brooding and dark: focusing on the negative rather than the positive?

Have I been cruel or cunning?

Am I having the sex I need to feel good about myself? (Of course, some people need no sex at all!)

If I were to number the questions one to five, my answers would be:

  1. This depends on what how one defines toxic—towards other people or toward oneself. I don’t think that I’ve been acting toxically towards other people—I try to be polite and cordial at work and at home (yes, I probably have unfriendly thoughts towards others, but I try not to act on them). Have I been acting toxically towards myself—I’d have to say unfortunately yes I have been. I know that I should be eating better and working out more, but I haven’t been and I’ve been allowing myself to use really lame things as excuses for both bad behaviors.
  2. Depending on how you would define both terms—but yes, I have been living out of fear rather than joy quite often. I know that I should probably just quit my job so that I have more time to focus on job searching (namely networking and figuring out the exact path that I want to pursue), but I haven’t since most people usually try to have the replacement job lined up before they quit their current one.
  3. With the way the world is currently going, it is sometimes hard not to dwell on the negative. I do try to look for the positive daily, though sometimes this is hard to do (especially when one is in a job that is less than fulfilling).
  4. No I haven’t been cruel or cunning—that takes too much work and effort. Currently I’m more apathetic and at times I really don’t care too much about what is going on—I just try to get through the day without losing my temper or my cool. This answer hasn’t changed at all from last month.
  5. As the second statement says—Some people need no sex at all to feel good about themselves. I’m in that boat currently—I have no time for a relationship (especially since I’m planning on leaving the state & I really don’t have the time to try to do a long distance relationship), and I’m not really the type for just having random hookups. Again, this answer hasn’t changed from last month either.

So this month marks the moon moving into Scorpio, and actually moving into my first house as well—this is our image zone. This is where one can reflect on both one’s personal and professional lives, and determine if there are things that could be worked on and changed. Getting to go through this zone “twice” is helpful, as I need the reminder that I should be trying to put myself first every so often, and that there really aren’t that many people looking out for my best interests (job wise and personal life wise).

So goals for this full moon period are going to be slightly similar to the ones from last month and include:

            Getting my fitness and nutrition routine back on track (I haven’t done a full week’s worth of workouts in over a month, and I need to start cutting back on the sweets, this will also help me save money as well), but also remember that I only need to try to be better than yesterday—progress over perfection. Hopefully I can figure out better ways of handling stress than buying sweets on campus, and since the cable/wifi problem has been fixed I should be able to stream my workouts in the evenings.

            Professionally I need to continue working on both my professional transition plan, and my “reboot break” plan. I’m also going to try to finish reading “The Renaissance Soul: How to make your passions your life” by Margaret Lobensteine & “Designing Your Life: How to build a well-lived joyful life” by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans. Having finished reading “Reboot Your Life: Energize your career & life by taking a break” by Catherine Allen, Nancy Bearge, Rita Foley, & Jaye Smith I’ve realized that taking a break is needed and needs to happen before the end of the calendar year.

            Continue trying to work on a daily meditation and tarot/oracle card reading. I’ve noticed that these do help with trying to wind down at the end of the day, and I sometimes sleep better after having done them.

So the goals are similar, but a little different from last month—sometimes the major difference is just acknowledging that we are in a self-destruction loop and trying to step off that track just a little to readjust ourselves and get back to the healthier habits.

No Comments AstrologyFull Moon GoalsHealthmoney saving challengesno spend challengesPersonal Developmentprofessional development