Monday

A couple of books I’ve read in the past year have mentioned Qi gong. The most recent of those was Rushing Woman’s Syndrome. In the section about the sympathetic nervous system, and the parasympathetic nervous system, it had an action of

Decrease your sympathetic load by reducing stressors and choosing an exercise that is done slowly and with the breath, such as Stillness Through Movement, restorative yoga, qi gong, tai chi, yoga, or the Feldenkrais Method

I’ve tried yoga, restorative yoga, and tai chi in the past, but I’ve never heard of the others. After a quick read through some articles on the web, I thought qi gong might be the easiest to start with. A quick google found me this youtube video which was easy to follow along with at home. I’m planning on adding it to my daily routine, along with meditation, and stretching, during these difficult times.

Tuesday

Day 1 of “lockdown”. In reality, the only thing I’d done since Friday evening that wasn’t on the list of permitted activities was taking the dog out for two walks on Monday. To accommodate one long walk on a work day, I shifted my hours to a two-hour lunch break. As flexible as Skitters is it doesn’t feel fair to make her wait until 5pm for her only walk of the day. And, for as long as we can manage it, I want our one permitted outing to be a full family outing - Richard, me and Skitters. This does leave me with a new working from home end-of-day ritual to find so that I can leave the working day behind me when I leave the spare room.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, I attended a virtual Mindful self-compassion practice ran by Paul who did the course I participated in last autumn. A lovely thing to be a part of. From both a community perspective and as a refresher. However, I’m struggling a bit with screen time at the moment. I spend 8 hours a day, giving my attention to a screen, so having virtual meet-ups in an evening adds to that time in front of a glowing rectangle. It sounds like this could be a regular meet-up, so I’ll keep trying until I’ve worked out better ‘end of working day’ rituals and maybe worked out better ways of handling so much screen time.

Thursday

We had our first delivery from Flour Pot. On Monday, during a day off work, I did some research into local businesses that could do delivery during this time and found that Flour Pot did. So I ordered a couple of loaves of bread and a couple of pastries. They all arrived looking gorgeous. I have over-ordered on the bread front though as I have another delivery due on Monday and we’re not going to have got through this by then! Lessons being learned all the time.

Friday

We ordered an “at home” delivery from Curry Leaf Cafe earlier in the week for delivery on Wednesday (the delivery day is based on postcode). As the food is delivered chilled ready for the fridge or freezer, we chose to save it for our Friday evening dinner. And it was great. A good quantity of food. Smelled terrific and tasted brilliant. A great option.

Saturday

More cookies. This time the recipe called Crispy from the usual book. They are thinner and crispier (obviously given their name) than previous bakes. I didn’t think I would be a fan of a crisp cookie. But they work well. I said to Richard earlier that cookie baking is likely to remain a regular feature of weekends. It’s a pleasant process - not too taxing, but needs some focus - and I find biscuits and cookies comforting. Both of those sounds like great reasons to continue.

For more Try Something New posts, and the explanation of this project/intention, visit this page.