February Minutes

For this month’s minutes we have a lot of stress.

Health

So my family has been sick. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. We’ve all gotten various bouts of the flu and have passed it back and forth like a ping pong ball. It’s disgraceful. But my dad also had surgery that was unexpected, so my February has been awful in terms of health. Like this house is a contamination zone. And having a loved one rushed to surgery is a harrowing experience. It really makes you re-evaluate what you’ve been doing. So for me, to help my dad recover, I put a lot of blog stuff on hold. I felt it was more important to spend time with him and do more around here. But, that meant a lot of stress for me. It was hard to hold all of my blog, myself, and my family together.

Job

Then a whole monkey wrench got thrown into it. I got a job – a six month internship at a publishing house. This meant that I couldn’t include purchase links in my reviews, but also that I would be spending less time reading (and reviewing). This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. I was trying to get a job for months, almost a year. But it just meant that I had to get things in order and tip top shape fast. So what did I do? I read a book a day until my job started so I could be ahead. I still am about two weeks ahead, but I’m not letting up. I need that time so that if life gets in the way again, I can breathe.

Mental Health

My mental health has taken a toll. I’ve been more sad, more stressed, and so more tired. My anxiety levels went through the roof. And I realized that I was incentivizing self care. I’d put it in my To Do list and it would just create more anxiety when I couldn’t get it done. I was making myself do it, but it wasn’t actually taking care of me. So it defeated the purpose. Now I have to re-evaluate how I feel and deal with self care. I’ve started by not writing things down and being more patient with myself in every aspect. But that’s tremendously difficult for me.

Discussion

What’s been up with you?

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