Katya Muscat

Aerospace Systems Engineer, space/Mars geek, pilot, webdesigner, knitter, photography enthusiast, mom, and much more!

Journal

The challenge: find 15 minutes each day for relieving stress

Nov 4, 2011

First things first: this was the second time I tried telling myself when to wake up and it worked again! However, I ran into the same problem of not getting out of bed when I woke up. I really need to work on that! I should also look at the time when I wake up to see when I actually wake up. Let’s see if I can keep this up and improve myself as the days go on.

Today’s challenge was to dedicate 15 minutes to relieving stress and make a pact with myself to do that every day from now on. It has always been difficult for me to find the time just for myself since there are so many other things to do, not to mention the fact that I felt that if I have some time, I should go to sleep early. But the Daily Challenge today was to spend 15 minutes on a stress relieving activity and I thought it would be the perfect excuse to take up knitting again, something I have missed for a long, long time.

Unfortunately, knitting didn’t work out so well since I instead decided to take a bath and read. On the other hand, this activity took quite a bit longer than 15 minutes, so I guess I still came out ahead. Despite several stressful distractions in the beginning, I managed to distress and recharge. Taking a bath has always been relaxing for me. To prove just how much I love baths, here is something to consider: when I was pregnant and felt that I should pamper myself as much as I could and rest as much as I could before a huge new responsibility came into my life, I took a bath almost every single day. Additionally, I usually spend hours soaking in the water and often refill the tub because the water gets cold. And quite often, I end up sleeping fewer hours because I forget about the passage of time and lose myself in the peace and quiet. But you know what? That’s ok! Because of the recharging properties of this relaxing activity, it almost makes up for the lost sleep.

Long story short, I loved this challenge and hope to keep this up for the future because the health benefits of even just a 15-minute relaxation greatly outweighs the lost sleep of the same amount of time. Tomorrow I will need to cast on some stitches to begin the sleeves for a wrap I started knitting two years ago. Little by little, I will finish it and be able to wear it to work as a comfy and warm companion.

Days complete: 3/30

Word count: 1541/50,000

About Me Age: 20s Studied: Aerospace Systems Engineering, Physics Current locale: Mile High City, USA Favorite locales: Mars, Colorado, Ekaterinburg, Austria, Norway
Archive Recent Entries: 2011-11-02 The challenge: train the brain to wake up at a certain time 2011-11-01 The challenge: eat breakfast within an hour of waking up 2011-02-17 In the end View Archive Read From the Beginning
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