I am less than two weeks into the routine that I almost forgot had once existed of waking up, going to work, teaching, driving home, eating a snack or early dinner, spending some time listening to music or reading online, grading papers or planning lessons, winding down/reading, and going to bed to do it again the next day. It feels nice to be back into a routine, but it is important to keep things fresh, to keep setting goals, and to keep my mind and body active.
I have taken some steps to complete many of the goals I have set for myself during the summer and I am very satisfied with the results that I am noticing and how I feel mentally and physically. Last year I used to wake up at 6:00am and hardly have time to shower, get dressed, eat, and leave for work. I would arrive about 20 minutes early, but I still often felt rushed. For the past week and a half I have been waking up no later than 5:30 and I have been taking my time to complete my morning procedures: breathing and taking in the morning, doing push-ups, leg-raises, stretching, showering without needing to rush, getting dressed calmly, eating while SITTING down, and spending a few minutes envisioning the day, setting my goals, and thinking of what I need to accomplish.
I have found that waking up earlier adds lots of peace to your life because it provides more time to reflect and collect your thoughts. I have also had time to commit to things like exercising and stretching, which I previously made excuses for not doing due to lack of time.
Whenever a person wants to make a change in his or her life, it is important to make changes in small steps, not to drastically change everything. It is hard for a smoker or a drug addict to just quit and never look back; they need to take steps to wean off.
I feel that this "small steps"approach has been magnificently successful in my life, specifically in two areas of my life: nutrition/health and my spiritual/mental well being or sense of purpose. For over 4 years I have become health and wellness conscious and one of my top priorities is making sure I lead a healthy and purposeful lifestyle. On the healthy end of things, I made small steps 4 years ago by eliminating soda and most sugary drinks in general, as well as not using extra salt or putting mayonnaise or dressings on sandwiches. These things become second nature, and soon I began eating breakfast everyday, providing myself with the necessary energy to start my day. There have been many steps in between, but today I am at a point where I read labels, manage my plates well, am nutrient conscious, and try to avoid things like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, meats containing sodium nitrite, and any products with growth hormones or excessive preservatives. I also eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and take daily vitamins, and I have only been sick 2 or 3 times since over a year ago when I began teaching professionally and interacting with over 100 kids each day. Not too bad for a guy who had mono twice in high school and consistently found himself with nagging colds.
From graduate classes I've been taking, information I've been provided from friends, and from articles I've found independently, I have learned a lot over this past year about nutrition and have really made some significant life changes. This may be something interesting that I can speak about in the future, since I find it so important to be healthy and to live a high quality life (both now and in the future).
My spiritual or mental sense of purpose has developed a lot over this past year and there is much to be said about this; too much for me to get into currently (since I have made a personal commitment to post a blog once every two weeks), so I will save it for a future blog, but it is something that has greatly interested me and an aspect of my life that has exponentially been developed.
For now, I will end this blog with a stolen quote from someone who has greatly influenced me recently on the mental and peace-of-mind front, Richard Carlson. He ends his book Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...and it's all small stuff, with the definitive statement:
"Treasure Yourself."
