Check-In: 2014-12-18

According to Jane McGonigal, there are four factors to good emotional resilience and a resulting long life. They are:

• Physical - Diet, fitness, sleep, hydration, etc. 
• Willpower - The ability to focus your mind and concentrate.
• Emotional - Happiness and fulfillment vs. depression and stress.
• Social - Contact with other human beings; can even be accomplished through meditation such as gratitude meditation.

So I'm going to start checking in based on these criteria. For now, my rating system will be purely qualitative, but perhaps I'll get more scientific with practice. The main thing is that reporting on these subjects regularly will keep me thinking about them, and hopefully improving them.

Note that the date format in the title is YYYY-MM-DD, my favorite format because it sorts files nicely.

Here goes.

Physical: TOTAL WIN!

 

I walked several blocks to the grocery store and back. I did some spontaneous movement exercises (I'll cover those in a later post), as well as some kung fu stance work and some miscellaneous yoga poses. I also did a little bit of spontaneous dancing, as described under the Emotional category. Right now, my body feels happily warm from movement and exercise and I feel a good deal of body awareness too. Overall, this was only a lightly active day, but it was an active day.

I avoided overeating and my stomach felt comfortable after eating as a result. Two of my meals were 50% salad-based, and my desert for supper was a moderate dose of pineapple. I probably should have had a bit less chicken and a bit less dressing with supper, but compared to the burgers and fries I was eating a few weeks ago, this is a huge improvement.

My water consumption was pretty good, though I did get a bit dehydrated in the late afternoon and had to do a little catch-up. Now all I need is a good early bedtime.

Willpower: WIN!

 

I did several forms of meditation today, such as the spontaneous movement exercises, a traditional mind-clearing meditation, and even a "fantasy meditation" where I wrote up any wild and fantastic desire that came to mind as a self-discovery exercise. This is based on a "miracle question" exercise that I discussed with my friend Karen, where you simply give your imagination an endless supply of miracles and see what it comes up with.

I did a lot of cleaning today, or at least what a bachelor might consider a lot of cleaning. I vacuumed and mopped the floors and finished most of the unpacking from my trip. I even washed the dishes immediately after supper, which is a new thing for me.

Emotional: PASS

 

I did get to visit a cat today (the mighty Zug-Zug), which is worth a decent emotional pass. I also found an internet radio station on Google Music called Fluke and I've been half-dancing to it on and off for a couple of hours now. The fantasy meditation should also count for some emotional boost.

On the other hand, I was feeling intensely frustrated and grumpy earlier, which took a bit of time, water, exercise, and meditation to finally bring around. So I'll give myself a pass.

Social: PASS

 

When I went to the grocery store today, I was accompanied by my friend Jason, so I did get some socializing done. However, I haven't done any of the truly juicy social-wins like expressing gratitude, and I spent a good deal of the day on my own. So I'll give the social requirement a pass, but it could be improved to push it in to the win category.

Summary: GOOD DAY

 

I had a good day. All my check-ins are at pass or better. Let's see if I can sustain this through Christmas and into the long term.