Days 10-16

Day 10: De-clutter a room or workspace.

I went through my whole room and, even though I don't have as much as I used to have, I still found items I could donate. Now, most everything I have is a necessity, an obligatory item (like family photo albums), or something I absolutely love. And even though my room positively echoes with serenity, I try to stay out of it unless I'm going to bed.

Day 11: Practice Yoga.

I used the Wii to do this, since I have essentially no knowledge about yoga (and I was too lazy to create a routine on my own online). But I'll admit, it was pleasant to simply stretch in the morning. I think if I did yoga more often my breathing would steady and make me more in sync with the poises, but for this day's sake, I'd say it went pretty well.

Day 12: Define what gives you stress.

Not being productive; I hate being idle. I'm always saying "yes" to invitations now and making sure I'm doing something,...anything.

Day 13: Watch a documentary.

I watched a documentary titled "American Nomads." It was about "people who roam the South West free from the bonds and chains of normal every day life;" Folks who are always on the go, drifters with chronic wanderlust.

Some stuff I picked up:

- There's a widespread variety of different types of wanderers: hitchhikers, loners, elderly in RVs, traveling kids, working nomads, cowboys, hobos, and mountaineers.

- 90% of the approximately 3 million Americans that live in RVs are over 55 years old.

- When it comes to traveling the way certain types of these people do, like the hobos and hitchhikers, traveling becomes all about morals. If someone is or looks threatening, you do what you have to in order to protect yourself and so on.

- People wander America because they can. The space and possibility exist.

Day 14: Groom yourself.

I have weekly dates with this guy named Jesus. I see him every Saturday evening at church and it is the one time of the week I will make myself look cute (that's code for a little bit of makeup) and tolerate putting on a dress or something nice enough to make me look like "I-don't-go-out-like-this-every-day." So naturally, this was the day I decided to take some extra time to make myself look extra nice.

I definitely enjoyed this extra time. Making myself look more put together helped me feel more put together and that is, in my opinion, one of the best feelings to have.

Day 15: Make a gratitude list.

I don't know why it was so hard for me to actually sit down and do this. I tried to tell myself, "It's just a list and I love making lists." I guess I just didn't want it to be generic. But when I hunkered down and took the time, I ended up surprising myself.

A lot of the things I listed were all abstract; Music, fresh air, colors, laughter, time, and even ideas as specific as "film directors' visions." (I was probably thinking of Baby Driver or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on that one.)

One thing that did surprise me was when I wrote, "being the middle child." I feel like that's something that I've not appreciated in the past and all this self-care has been opening me up to loving myself more.

Day 16: Clean out your email inbox.

I am the type of person who doesn't have a messy inbox, but who does have a lot of folders full of emails. So instead of cleaning out my email inboxes (plural), I plowed through all of my folders to get rid of anything that was no longer relevant.

I was astonished to see some emails dating back to 2010 and it made me wonder, "Why on earth did I think this email was important? It certainly isn't now!"

Just as I was ready wrap up what I considered a pretty easy task, I came across a folder full of notes and I was SO not ready to read through every single one. I actually had to come back another day for "round two." But it was very liberating to go through all those files that've just been taking up space.

Have you tried any of these self-care activities? Tell me if you have!

Check out Days 1-9 HERE!