A mental block has filled my head. Writing gives me a sense of dread!
If I start with a rhyme, it means I have a lot on my mind! The only problem is figuring out how to break it down into something creative and constructive. I just came back from a week’s vacation (hence the Saturday absence), where I remained relatively present in the moment at all times. I ate lots of great food, but it wasn’t all vegan. No yoga occurred during my five day trip. I walked most days, but didn’t track my steps much. Looking back, I fell somewhere in the 9k+ range, falling short of 10k steps by a mere walk up the stairs! What a bummer.
I can’t believe I started this year so gung-ho, only to abandon my intentions at the first opportunity. Going on vacation right into the new year really throws off my groove. I definitely felt myself relaxing into old, toxic habits while surrounded by people who love me more than they judge me. They would never think the things I think about myself when I eat dairy products, or steak. I never used to be a steak person, but in the past few months I’ve gone through a red meat phase. Nothing speaks to me about what could have caused it.
This week’s vacation led to a mental block on many things:
- No time to write.
- No time to code.
- Time spent relaxing on Instagram took away from reading time.
- No liberal strolls (my favorite way to stay active lately) meant I had no reason to turn on Audible and “read” a book.
- No exercise nor conscious effort to watch what I ate.
I also realized that I’m feeling rather uninspired to write in this blog. A part of me feels it takes away from the actual writing I wanted to complete this year. However, writing a blog should technically be, at most, four hours of my week total, if that much! Another part of me recognizes that chances are, if I chose to not write a blog post, I’d be using that time to mindlessly scroll social media. There’s not much productivity there.
See what I said just now? Not much. Truthfully, in the past two weeks, I’ve unfollowed/muted certain accounts. My feed either bores me enough to exit or excites me enough to inspire. Good vibes only on the ‘Gram!
FORESHADOWING: I think that Instagram might be on its way out of the mainstream. In the air, I feel a mass exodus could begin in Fall 2022. Time will tell!
Meanwhile, I present: the unblocking of the mental block, through positive thinking and optimism.
THE MENTAL BLOCK, BROKEN DOWN
- No time to write? Yet somehow, I got somewhere. In reading “Save the Cat! The last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need,” screenwriter and author Blake Snyder discusses the necessity for a solid logline. On my flight home, I worked out loglines for several of my concepts. Of the… eight, I like six, and really like two of them. Snyder actually includes his email address in the book, so I might just send them his way for his thoughts. I want to throw up just thinking about it. Along with that, I discussed my loglines and elaborated on my ideas with my husband, who also writes (though he could never put his epic saga into one sentence!). He liked my ideas, which is a start!
- No time to code? The day before my flight, I had my year-end evaluation with my supervisor. She praised my hard work and encouraged me to pursue PHP, one of the programming languages I want to master this year, when there’s lulls in the workday. Time dedicated to a resolution, while I’m on the clock? Score!
- Time spent relaxing took away from reading time? I scrolled Instagram quite a lot, ’tis true. But I didn’t NOT read the whole trip. I read on both flights to and from my destination, with intention, taking flags along with me to remember ideas.
- No liberal strolls = no Audible? While I didn’t take any free-wheeling strolls, I did manage to do a brief hike with my family in the snow. I got great photos of the morning, and had a great bout of clarity: nature is perfect, and little else matters!
- No exercise nor conscious effort to watch what I eat? I say no exercise, but I walked a great deal. In addition, my purpose for the vacation was a family wedding. Trust me, post “first dance” to the end of the night, I am on the dance floor. I am a dancing queen, sprinting to the floor the second ABBA kicks on the speakers. As well, I say no conscious effort, but I realize that I am capable of making good choices out of habit! I picked a veggie burger at lunch. For dessert, I ordered the vegan ice cream. I stopped eating when I felt full. The only time I ordered a root beer occurred at Friday night dinner. Plus, carrot cake is basically salad, right? Jokes aside, I did okay. It’s not good, and it’s not great. But I’m going into a year with at least one more wedding and two impending vacations. If I start out just okay in January, that means that by December, I’ll be ordering vegan salads out of habit!
I always felt that my most productive periods start on a Wednesday. T-minus three hours to get back on track! I’m looking forward to falling back into the plant-based life (I’m not quitting veganuary, even if I did blow it off for a week), and regular bike rides and running sessions. Throughout my visit, I couldn’t help but note that if Aaron and I ever returned, it would be great to go on bike rides through the town and the mountains, stopping only for vegan restaurants and bookstore coffee shops. if that’s not a sign of my changing ways, I don’t know what is!