Two week challenge

[devin42]

Right, my panic/anxiety/depression has taken a bad turn, and I've never really done anything about...guess I'm quite lazy. But now I've decided to make some definite changes, and I thought for motivation I'd like to do 'em with other people. Woo! Haha. See if we've made progress in a fortnight?

1. Meditation - 2 sessions a day, preferably 20 minutes+. Concentrate on deep breathing and positive visualizing.

2. Exercise - 30 minutes a day, something that gets you out of breath, running, cycling, swimming etc

3. Vitamins! Omega 3 and Vit B supplement every day.

4. Something creative - draw, write, play an instrument for half an hour a day. My band page is here out of interest... http://www.facebook.com/GreatBritishWeatherOFFICIAL ;)

5. Allow as much sleep as possible - in 1 hr 30 cyles. 7 and a half, 9 or even 10 and a half hours. Don't worry if you don't sleep through all of it.

6. Help someone do something challenging every day - we can all be guilty of being a little selfish and withdrawn when angsty. Through helping others make someone else's life easier, always a good thing.

7. Understand what you have more - take the time to talk to a professional, read a book on it and learn about the effects of stress on the human mind and body. We fear what we don't understand.

8. Write down everything good that happened at the end of each day. There will likely be more than you initially thought. Write a journal of everything else too.

9. Have a relaxing bath/sauna/hot tub session as many times as you can manage. Aaaah.

BONUS SPACE:
Anything else, such as Kalms, is a great bonus. Chill that stress level out and think in new ways.


Challenge begins on the 13th of October.

[Ingenious]

I think that list is an excellent one, there are many things there which are proven to help (some proven medically beyond any doubt, such as exercise). Personally one of the things on that list that has helped for me is writing down at the end of the day a few positive things, either things I've achieved or just things I've done well. I'm rooting for you and interested to know how you get on, so do let us know :)

[devin42]

Cheers mate, I'm optimistic.

[Mr.Jitters]

I'm in, on all counts. Fantastic idea :)

[Bing1]

Thanks for posting this :)

I've been doing most on the list bar the omega 3 and creativity- I'll get the drawing pad out then tomorrow!

We can beat this wooooo hoooo lol! :shades:

[SometimesHappy]

How do you motivate yourself into doing all that? I can barely take a shower after work I'm that demotivated :(

[Bing1]

How do you motivate yourself into doing all that? I can barely take a shower after work I'm that demotivated :(


With difficulty at times! Started by taking vitamin B-100...then starting listing things I was thankful for..went for a walk today..gradually trying to incorporate activities like theses into my daily life.

It is a long list though, I agree! My motivation is a holiday I've booked for 4th Nov which I'm determined to go on. Want to beat this so much and get back 'to normal', lol was never really that normal anyway!!:wacko:

[Eva May]

I love this :) gonna try it

[akira]

It's a good list and a good idea! I started doing about half these only a couple of weeks ago. I'm going to have to buy some other Vitamin B complex because the ones I have are the size of AAA batteries! I'll have to think of something creative to do also....

[zygfried]

Wow, impressive! May the force be with you:). Don't think I can match all of that, but I'll try!

[conorf199]

Great idea, I'll give it a go, may forget to post progress in here though :doh:

[devin42]

Nice one guys! My motivation comes from the all the good times I've had, and I think we'll all be more motivated if someone's checking us every day.

It's just a harmless little challenge to see how much we can change, and to beat being lazy!

STARTS ON FRIDAY!

If you wanna begin the two weeks later that's fine, just make sure you finish the 14 days.

[devin42]

Day 1 guys! Good luck to whoever else is doing this.

[Mr.Jitters]

I'm with you, not sure how I'm going to find time to fit it all in, but I'll make time. Good luck to you, too!

[devin42]

Right, first three days have been interesting...on Friday and Saturday the panic got much worse and I was getting that sort of out-of-it goldfish bowl thing when out with my mates.
Today it's been better than those two days...hopefully it's uphill from here. I'm only managing 7-8 of these things a day as they require quite a bit of effort.

[akira]

First four days. I've managed 1,2,3 and 5 every day. I managed 7 and 6 one day. I still need to do something creative.

I've had a few big things to deal with over the last week so I might give it a better effort later.

devin42 - the band sounds good! The start of the first track reminded me of early Kyuss before they became QOTSA.

[devin42]

Cheers Akira, we have a live session here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWYtXwm6VR0

I got a bit flustered in the interview as you can tell...

But yeah, so far I'm about the same as before I started, but that's good progress to say how bad I was at the weekend. Not managing all these things but I've kept the vitamins and I'm doing more exercise. Meditation is the main thing that I need to work on.

[PanchoGoz]

WELL DONE! It makes me really happy to see someone making a change for themselves. A lot of these habbits you will keep, some you will drop, but inevitably you will find what works for you in this "trial period".
One suggestion, sleeping too much can make you feel groggy and moody so try to work out how many hours suit you most.
I meditate (well I did but I've kind of given up recently, slap on my wrist...), and it really helps put a different perspective on life. Mindfulness is often practised for anxiety as well, focusing on the outside world. I realised some quite cool things while meditating :D. In fact you have inspired me to start up again! Thanks! And good luck.

[avasnana]

I love how positive this is... Just wondered how you were getting on with your challenge? X