Life has been good.
Chill but Consistent Movements
It’s been a half-month of predominant light walking workouts. I think this is the time where I really learn the value of slowing down. Brain fog is gone, the junk food consumption is starting to taper off naturally, and the weight is slowly but surely shedding itself along with it. I have a 2000-step minimum daily on my temporary smartwatch, and the current challenge is maintaining good sleep hours for recovery. I still fit in some of my old gym clothes, fortunately.
My renewed interest in human anatomy has helped me learn more about the mechanics of my stretching workouts and dietary changes. I usually insert 10 minutes of these static stretches before and after my walking pad adventures. Yesterday, I included tricep dips and a few exercise band movements to straighten my back. I notice that my posture while working on my computer has improved naturally.
I like the fact that I am becoming more organic and intentional with my time and energy. It spills over to how I manage my children and our household. Unless it is a matter of life or death, I am serenely taking my time and quietly building things and engaging my senses with good things. Dialing down the Type A has been so good on my mental health.
A Pleasant Surprise
A few days ago, I went to my kids’ school for their moving up and graduation pictorial. My eldest is graduating from kindergarten and my youngest is having his first moving up ceremony. My husband and I are not too obsessed with these ceremonies, though we had our fair share of these as kids.
I actually went personally to tell the school administrator that we will be joining the ceremony via Zoom while we enjoy a weekend out of town (and attend our matchmaker’s wedding).
The school administrator’s eyes went wide as saucers. She informed me that we cannot miss the event because our son is giving the graduation speech for the kindergarten batch. He turned out to be top of his class and we will do the gold medal and everything. It was crazy.
Our kid was absent in class for almost 1.5 months because of his asthma. We had zero expectations. Even if he had perfect attendance, I prefer not to have academic expectations. Personally, I treat their enjoyment of learning as the more important metric. The grades will follow if they are sufficiently engaged.
We did not expect anything. We were so proud and delighted, just the same. We cancelled the trip. I am not going to set this achievement as a benchmark that he will always need to bring medals home, though. Whether he has them or not, we completely love and accept him.
I have been in different pursuits long enough to see the exhausting effects of being with unhealthy competitive adults. I mean those who did not outgrow the need to collect gold stars for increasing their feelings of self-worth. I know this firsthand because I used to be like that.
It is only recently that I realize that I can flow and play to my strengths than brute force myself to fit a certain yardstick defined by people who have a different measure of success and worthiness.
If my kids grow up not pinning their worth on their achievements, and simply achieving out of craftmanship and genuine love for excellence, I have done my most important life job well. That is the kind of example I’d like to set. I cannot keep holding on to my old shitty crutches and patterns. If I want to break the old ugly patterns, growth is non-negotiable.
Reading Sprint Momentum
I was not too ambitious last January, and I set only 38 books for my Kindle 2023 Reading Challenge. It’s been 8 years since I began this digital tradition, and it’s the only social media account I have maintained religiously.
I will never outgrow my passion for reading. I hit the 38th book yesterday and I have around 10 books in progress. My favorite Chrome extension Glasp also recently introduced a Kindle export function so the highlights on my Kindle make my content curation even cooler. Pair it up with my Notion knowledge management system, and I have a readily accessible tome of resources for just about anything.
I let my kids be the cute little kids they are. At the same time, I let my thirty-something human form self-indulge in what I have always loved to do as a little girl. It’s a win-win.