A matter of routine

Somehow it has taken me until this year to realise just how important it is for me to have routines in my life, but this understanding has been absolutely transformational! I posted a few weeks ago about self-care, and the new bedtime routine I was establishing, and am delighted to say that I've kept it up and it's still working for me. Having a good (but not excitingly invigorating) book to look forward to reading each evening as I settle down is a wonderful incentive if I need it, and is helping me both with catching up on some of my TBR tsundoku and with winding down ready for sleep.

Another practice which I'm trying to put into place is taking 10-15 mins each week to just sit in nature, without doing anything. I've been very hit and miss with this so far - but having realised that I'm likely to do better with it if I have a nominated day and time, I set it as a Monday lunchtime task. That way if it's pouring with rain, or I forget, I have another chance the next day. Luckily for me, we have a pond in our garden, and sitting staring at that is very soothing. I've only managed to spot one of the fish so far - hopefully at least some of the other have also survived the winter but are just being shy - but have had company from a frog or two, and am enjoying watching the tadpoles grow steadily.

The more I've thought about it, the more I've realised how many smaller routines I have in place. I take my daily medications at particular times; I go through the same sequence of actions starting work every day; my lunch is at the same time daily even though it's up to me when I take it; I even make my fresh hot drinks at fairly regular times! And of course, I have a normal time for writing and publishing blog posts to make sure I don't forget and fall out of the habit.

I'm trying to keep kayaking and canoeing as regular parts of my week too, while not overwhelming myself with ambition or activity. The canoe group's social paddle takes place weekly but I think aiming for fortnightly sessions seems realistic for me, so I went along this week after my counselling session, and remembered just how much I enjoy it, so will definitely be trying to make this a regular comittment even beyond the end of my counselling in a few weeks. Kayaking is usually a Saturday morning activity, but there are also midweek sessions, so I need to see if I can at least occasionally get along to one of these after a day when I'm working in the office and have the car so I can get there easily.

Of course routines can support and encourage bad habits as well as good - but having learned from my counselling and the small change we made to the bedtime routine, I've managed to identify an area of work where I was slipping into some unhelpful patterns. One small tweak, and that's changed both my mindset and productivity for the very much better!

One routine which I'm looking forward to changing works over a longer timeframe - but for the past 3+ years I've been living in 3-4 week patterns of blood test, hospital appointment, and treatment. Fortunately things seem to be going very well at the moment, my blood results are stable and the medication seems to be doing a good job of keeping the cancer at bay. So hopefully in the next couple of months I'll be moved onto two-monthly catchups instead of every 4 weeks. It might not sound much, but it's quite an exciting prospect, although a little daunting too! Fortunately I know there's lots of support available to me, and if I have any concerns at any point I can get in touch with the specialist nurses for advice, so it shouldn't be too scary...

Now, if only I could incorporate some of the regular household chores into my routines, wouldn't that be great! Perhaps more often than monthly, too! ;)