This is very early to talk about some changes that I've been incorporating in my daily routine. But I finally feel truly happy ( it has been many days since I actually felt this relieved ) and I think it is worth noting down some observations and thoughts related to this. So here it goes :

Health

This area required a full reset and I knew this one was very tricky. I worked out daily, danced daily to be more precise. But then I stopped in between and from then I wanted to try some new form of workout. One reason why I stopped was that I felt I didn't have time to workout and I know this is a huge lie that I kept repeating to myself over and over again. The "precious time" that I was talking about went into watching random videos on YouTube when I was required to do important work and scroll through Twitter endlessly even when I had no reason to do so. No comments, no notifications, no messages, but still type "tw" in a New tab, hit Enter and scroll endlessly. But more on social media later.

In one of my recent posts I wrote about how I found a talk on YouTube really thought provoking. I don't know what was special about it. I can't pinpoint. But there was something in it that spoke to me. It felt like that talk was done for me. Sounds cheesy, but I genuinely believe this happened for a reason. So I started to take action. It's just been two days doing Yoga, meditating for 10 minutes and jump roping in the afternoon and I can already say that I love this practice. Working out can get tough some times, I know, especially when you're just starting out, it is easy to lose motivation. But at least for how my mental state now has drastically improved, let me say it again DRASTICALLY IMPROVED, I have no words for how happy I feel now!

Social media detox but not really a detox

I listened to a TED talk today where the speaker put himself through a social media detox and his story was different from the ones I had normally heard before. He put himself through an hour of boredom every day, doing activities that seem boring at first, but he actually calls them opportunities to let your brain wander and do whatever it likes, and that's how ideas are generated, he says. He used a term that particularly stuck with me. UNDERSTIMULATION. Under stimulate your brain. Do things that look boring at first. But slowly our brain adapts to that level of stimulation and that task is not boring anymore. And in the midst of this, there's a high chance that we might land on ideas.

So I did this today! I reminded myself "Understimulate. Understimulate. You don't need Twitter now. You don't need YouTube now". I was successful till lunch. And in the afternoon, I felt very very sleepy for some reason. It was hard to focus on my to do list. But I didn't fail. Why? Pomodoro timer to the rescue!! I told myself, just 25 minutes of work and then do what you like. I sat for one session, then a short break, followed by another and I kept going. I'm still amazed how I didn't need Twitter as much as I otherwise made myself believe. When I felt an urge to open Twitter, I wrote my thoughts down in a book or just immediately got up from my chair and went into another room and came back after some time. So basically, before I could fall into that old habit loop of pressing "tw" and then Enter, I stopped, did something else and came back when that urge resided.

But still the Afternoon slump didn't leave me alone. I found it hard to focus. I felt like I needed to open Twitter and YouTube and watch some video, see what others are tweeting about. (I'm talking like an addict. So pathetic that I was living like this for straight up 8 months. I'm so glad I'm making a change before things really get out of my hands). Coming back, what I did was stop what I was doing, took my skipping rope and started skipping. For the first time in a few months I got back to jump roping and I was tired really fast, but I felt accomplished.

I'm happy that I found how to counter that afternoon slump. Exercise. It can literally wake you up from that drowsy state in an instant.

What I think helped

A combination of social media detox and exercise along with really being aware of the sentence "Understimulate. You don't need Twitter. You don't need YouTube" is what got together to really make me feel happy. Much happier than I had felt in a few days. I wanted to do this yesterday, but it was a MAJOR FAIL. I was successful in the morning, but fell back into my previous ways by afternoon. But today, I really paid attention.

By the way, I just finished a Pomodoro session now. I told myself, if you do this, you can write this post. So now, I get back to work again!