Night Shift

@Former-Member, I've started using a 'daily activity plan' again. Not every day but on days where I can manage it. Even then I don't stick to it religiously (never have been able to manage that even when I was following it every day). I basically started it of my own accord about a year ago because I was sitting in a chair most of my daylight hours staring into space before partner came home from work and I'd have someone to keep me company. My daily activity plan is broken down into very small activities. Because I still need to do this regularly, I start with things like, 'get up', 'brush hair', 'make bed' (meaning doona pulled up over crumpled sheets if necessary), 'open blinds', 'have breakfast', 'take medications' etc. For me, the most important part, especially in the early days and when I am doing badly, are those first basic moves. What I like about it is it gives a sense of small achievement even just to do those things because they are all written out in a list. So I get to give myself ticks (as @Faith-and-Hope might do) for even small things achieved. After that, I move into more ambitious activities, like getting on the exercise bike, even for 5 minutes (actually I started with 1 minute!). Not a humorous story, but that's what your question brought to mind from my experience.

Have you had good weather @Faith-and-Hope. I have a couple of friends who have owls on their outdoor settings to scare the birds away. It works quite well. Weren't they having eagles at the footy games to keep birds away too? Sorry going off on a tangent😳

@Mazarita I guess that's what sitting around a table with a Cuppa is for sharing all things. I guess I need to start back again. It's what I'm supposed to be doing. Everytime I ask my therapist for homework she tells me to work on the basics. I still forget once I've crashed. Maybe an old fashioned hand written list is needed. I usually use my phone. How is the weather your way too?

@Former-Member,

Weather here is good. It's supposed to be beautiful one day, gorgeous the next up here. Doesn't quite live up to that reputation in winter but I am very lucky climate-wise.

If I'm not doing much on a day and can't get myself out of the flat, I often listen out for the birds, just like @Faith-and-Hope noticed the birds in her post. Or even just do the 'three things I can hear, see, feel' exercise to help me feel more grounded in the moment and less inside my own head.

Just one more mention of the activity plan, I have it on my computer and open it up first thing (when I can get to it). Might be worth mentioning to your Phams worker. Mine helped me revise mine earlier in the year so that it gave me maximum feeling of achievement. I certainly feel better on the days when I do it, even if I haven't done very much by other people's standards.

p.s. @Faith-and-Hope, those images just came through at my end. Wow, they are gorgeous!

@Former-Member @Mazarita

There are some pretty basic self-care things I do that enable me to keep my family operating when energy levels are down. One of them is to make a large salad in a big plastic box in the fridge. I use "dry" type salad vegetables like spinach, snow-peas (whole), cucumber sticks with the seeds removed, carrots sticks, cherry tomatoes, broccoli pieces, cauliflower pieces, anything else that is not very damp with juice and seeds n stuff. I don't dress it, for the same reason. It lasts up to a week, and you don't have to do anything other than serve it into a bowl and can much on it as finger food.

Getting to the fridge and back to bed is do-able @Former-Member, if that's all you have to do. Maybe you can make a list like @Mazarita's for the days you feel bed bound, with things on it like "get up, serve box salad, go back to bed" and "get up, make the bed, then get back in it" and "get up, load the washing machine, turn it on, go back to bed".

I actually do that on my pyjama days during school holidays. I work out how much I can get done using my bed as my "command centre" and run raids on the rest of the house from there, just so I can say I have actually achieved something in the day.

Fed ✅

Bed made ✅

Washing done ✅

Emails sent ✅

Checked the letterbox (in pyjamas) ✅

Yep, okay, five things is enough .... I've "had a day" .... 😏

I think that the weather being so atrocious this year is making it harder @Mazarita @Faith-and-Hope I usually like winter but this year is so cold and wet and blustery it is hard to get out at all. We have not had one like this for many years. I usually love walking with so much greenery around. Sorry whinge. Have either of you anything coming up you are looking forward to?

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@Teej wrote:

Have you had good weather @Faith-and-Hope. I have a couple of friends who have owls on their outdoor settings to scare the birds away. It works quite well. Weren't they having eagles at the footy games to keep birds away too? Sorry going off on a tangent😳

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It's a good tangent @Former-Member .... I hadn't heard that, about the eagles at the footy games (assume you're not talking about the Eagles, as in the ones kicking the football !!) but it would make sense .... and it is something they would be likely to do ....

Ditto with the images @Faith-and-Hope👍😊💜

@Former-Member, more on the bird life, here is one that is everywhere up here: raucous and in large numbers especially at dawn and dusk. They hang off each other like trapeze artists and fly around around manically. Rainbow lorikeets:

I do have something I'm looking forward to @Former-Member. The woman writer I've been collaborating with over the net on the latest video is coming up here on Friday week to interview me for her online magazine. She is one of the rare ones who lives within striking distance of me but we've not met before in real life, just on the net. Can't wait to meet her! 🙂

I love the way you operate @Faith-and-Hope I think that part of my problem is that I live so much in my head I forget to do anything. I need something to trigger me back to the real world. I'm hoping getting in the programs at the community centre will help if it ever eventuates. I'm finding that my memory and concentration are getting so much worse. But I think it's all fixable.

I actually meant real bird Eagles @Faith-and-Hope from memory at the MCG (yep just googled it).

@Mazarita Have you any new projects you are working on.