Thursday, January 1, 2015

Hello, 2015: My "New Year's New Lifestyle"

Has anyone heard my weird bass noises yet?  I've been practicing for a bit now, and so far no complaints!  Of course, it does help that I'm using headphones so that no one actually HEARS my efforts but me...  ;-)

Anyway, I have been thinking a lot lately about how negative my outlook has become due to all the chaos that happened in 2014 (including the leaking pipes that recently caused my bathroom to be torn up yet AGAIN), and I have decided that this needs to change.  To that end, I am starting myself, not on "New Year's resolutions", which everyone ends up dumping sometime in January anyway, but on a "New Year's New Lifestyle".  (These could very easily morph into my goals for Bat Fit 2015, so stay tuned.)

I begin my New Lifestyle by dividing my life into four sections: Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual.  I've used this division before, and it works because I'm able to be clearer and more specific about what I want to do.

In my Physical Lifestyle, I am paying more attention to what I eat and how much.  I am using the pedal exerciser my mom got me every day.  I am also choosing to start taking a private tai chi/yoga class with a friend at her home.  Now I will have an "exercise buddy", and we won't have to deal with getting to and from classes in rush-hour traffic.

Mental and emotional aspects of my life often overlap, as I am sure they do with most people.  I have decided that I will put career-related activities and things to do with my personal mental health and well being into my Mental section, while things like creative writing, music, and dance will go into my Emotional section. 

In my Mental Lifestyle, I am still deciding what I want and how I will achieve it.  I guess you could call this section "Under Construction" at the moment.  While I know what my ideal job/career would be, I also need to be realistic about the limited opportunities in this place and at this time.  I need to decide how flexible I am willing to become in order to move forward, and create a viable job/career goal for now.  I am also choosing to be more positive about the job I have right now; this may be easier to do this than I thought, since I found out today that my take-home pay is over $400 more than it was before!  :-)

In my Emotional Lifestyle, I am practicing the bass at least every other night.  I'm not planning on joining a band or becoming a professional, so I don't need to push myself if there are times when that would be more harmful than helpful.  However, practicing any kind of discipline causes you to live totally in the moment while you are doing it, which is good for your emotional health.  I am also working on a very simple needlepoint project I inherited years ago; the main design is completely done, and all that remains is filling in the blank canvas that surrounds it in a plain off-white yarn.  I have done many needlepoint projects over the years, but I'm finding this one extremely soothing, simply because it's just empty space.  I need quiet, empty space in my life right now, and this is a perfect focus for it.

In my Spiritual Lifestyle, I am doing two different book studies/practices with like-minded people. The first is with The Shamanic Witch by Gail Wood.  This book combines elements of witchcraft and shamanism into a unique practice.  I've read it before, and found it very enlightening.  The second study is with Walking the Twilight Path: A Gothic Book of the Dead by Michelle Belanger.  This is also a unique practice about discovering the beauty and mystery of death, and incorporating elements into one's daily life.  I am working on combining the two practices into my own unique path.


May 2015 be a splendid, wonderful and totally gothic year for ALL of us!!  So mote it be...

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12 comments:

  1. Walking the Twilight Path sounds very interesting, Lucretia.

    I like mindless craft projects - it still gives a person that sense of flow (Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - I recommend that book!) but doesn't require a lot of thinking. I agree, sometimes we need that. :)

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    1. It IS an interesting book! And thanks for the craft book suggestion, I will have to find that one soon. It'll take me a while to finish this project, but once I'm done I'll need another!

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  2. It looks like you've got a good plan. May it bring you all that you wish for.

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    1. Thank you, Nightwind! May 2015 bring you what you wish for as well. :-)

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  3. Splitting up the areas of your life like that makes sense. It gives you decent sized goals within each area without being overwhelming. It also made me realise I didn't fully address creativity in my Bat Fit goals, other than state 'write a novel', and I may go back and revise this into some clearer steps that I can follow as I'm realising that sitting down with that blank page is frankly frightening!

    Best of luck with your goals for 2015.

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    1. Thanks! It does make it a bit easier to see what's going on where, and as you say, it's not overwhelming (most of the time, anyway!). I've been writing short stories lately, and I find it's much easier to plan steps, such as "finish story X" or "do character sketch for Jane" than to just plan to write a story in general. Good luck with your goals as well! :-)

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  4. Happy 2015!

    I like how you really focus on each aspect of you- mental, emotional, spiritual, physical. Years ago I took Tae Kwon Do but when vertigo became a health issue, I was enrolled in a course that offered Tai Chi and loved it!

    I, too, am going to have to check out _Walking the Twilight Path: A Gothic Book of the Dead_ by Michelle Belanger.

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    1. I learned about the "four rooms" approach to life while studying with a coven years ago. I ended up leaving before initiation (they were NOT the right kind of people for me!), but that was a gem I took with me. :-)

      I hope you enjoy the book! It's very different from most of the 'spiritual path' books out there, as it isn't actually a spiritual path itself. Let me know what you think. Wish you could join us for book study!

      I've done a bit of tai chi with a DVD at home, but after a while I got bored because of the constant repetition, and because I have VERY little space to work in. Now I'll have lots of space AND someone to share it with! :-)

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  5. Sounds good! Glad to hear everyone is working on themselves, hopefully we will all be even more awesome by next year!

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    1. If we aren't, it certainly won't be OUR faults! ;-)

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