Tuesday, February 26, 2019

My 2019 Lenten Plans... Along with a Few Surprises


I have decided to become somewhat of an "urban hermit" for this Lenten season. What does that mean? Well, in a nutshell, I want to devote myself and my time to more prayer and work (oh, hey, Benedictine ways ;)). I want to detach myself from as many worldly distractions as possible. This means no social media, checking my email twice a day (and not replying unless it's
life or death" important), long periods of not touching my laptop or anything that has internet capabilities, and seriously detachment from my smartphone and all the shiny apps it contains.

I will be rolling out the details of my plans slowly as the Lenten season progresses. You won't know what I'm doing until I've begun doing them, but here are the three major things that I needed to share with everyone with whom I communicate frequently.

I will be "breaking up" with my smartphone over a period of 30-days, which may extend a bit after Lent is over. I have the specific time frame already marked in my calendar. Friends have been warned that I will be unavailable and alternative ways of communicating have been established for those who want (really, need; e.g. editors, coworkers) to keep in touch during this time.

I am planning on doing a mini-retreat at home. I'll talk more about this when I begin but it's something that I've looked forward to doing on my own for quite some time. I want and need this time for just myself and for my relationship with God -- with no one else's comments or interference. It'll just be whatever God wants to reveal to me and what I want/need to say to him. People often feel the need to chime in on what I "have to" do or how I "have to" do it and, to be completely honest, it irritates me. My relationship with God is personal. Sure, I know I need help once in a while but that's what spiritual directors are for, right? I hope this retreat will help me focus more on God and less on what the outside world thinks I should do to better my spiritual life. Are we seeing the "urban hermit" pattern yet?

I will be updating my progress daily via this blog. No, your eyes don't deceive you; I will be blogging daily during Lent. I will be setting a specific time in the evening, every day, to update any progress (or epic fails) along the way. I've always been curious to see how people do when they cut back on social media and smartphone usage after relying on them for so long so I want to share my experience with you. Knowing myself, I will stumble more than a couple of times but that's okay. I'm giving myself permission to not be perfect; to learn from my mistakes but to also not say, "Well, I messed up so it's time to throw in the towel." Also, it'll hold me accountable for my actions, which I need.

There may also be surprises along the way but I guess you'll just have to keep coming back to find out what they are. ;)

I think I've figured out how to share these blog posts and articles published onto my social media accounts without my having to log in so some of y'all can still get the links if it's easier that way. However, I will be completely gone from the evening of Shrove Tuesday until Easter Sunday. Yes, that includes Sundays as well.

I know some of what I will share (as I roll out my plans) will seem extreme at first but, trust me, I've not only researched and planned this out for weeks. I'm doing all of this because I know I have to make some drastic changes in my life in order to put myself back on the right path. I'll also share what's been going on and why these changes were necessary later on.

Anyway, I just wanted to share these things while I had the brain capacity for them. I'm currently having another (and slightly worse than before) chronic fatigue relapse so I'm not able to concentrate for long periods of time. In fact, I'm going to take a nap as soon as I publish this post so I can focus on a couple of articles I have due (and overdue) without the crazy mental fog.

I hope you're all having a lovely start of the week thus far!

As always, thanks for reading and God bless! :)


Thursday, February 21, 2019

The Perfect Storm That Did Me In


Take one burnt-out writer constantly battling writer's block, add lack of vitamin D (and add a couple of cold winter storms for good measure), then add a giant helping of people being a little too dramatic and suffocating on social media. Mix it all together and you get someone who is so overwhelmed, she has to take nearly a month to recover... and she's not fully there yet.

Yes, this is what happened to me. No, I have not fully recovered from the burnout, yet.

It's not easy being a freelance writer, especially when you have to come up with new material every two to three days. I've felt burnt out since late December when I had one of my busiest months. It's still taking me a lot of brainstorming to come up with new article topics -- and then more time to research for each post -- but I'm slowly coming out of the writer's block fog that I've been battling for weeks.

As some of you long-time readers may remember, I was diagnosed with a severe vitamin-D deficiency mid-summer last year. That was the reason why I was so tired all the time. After getting outdoors and getting more sun, I started to recover. I wasn't oversleeping anymore. All the little symptoms associated with the deficiency started going away. I was feeling more like myself... and then the lack of sun knocked me back down.

For years I'd noticed that every winter I'd get more and more fatigued. I had simply assumed it was the cold weather lulling me to sleep. It was as if I were a bear and my body just wanted to hibernate all winter long. That or SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Now, with the diagnosis, I finally know why; my body just needs more of the vitamin than it gets.

We've been hit with rainstorm after rainstorm in Southern California since the New Year so guess who's been feeling more lethargic lately. Yep. Symptoms include fatigue, lack of concentration, and mental fog -- all which impeded my creativity and impacted my work. Cue the "Ohhh!" chorus.

The doctors said it was going to take a couple of months for me to recover from the deficiency and, unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to fully recover. Thankfully, it's nowhere near as bad as it was last year or the year before. If I know there will be a couple of hours or a day between rainstorms, I get out and I soak up as much vitamin-D as I can before the next storm hits. It's helped a lot... but the storms are getting more frequent and lasting longer so I'm dealing with some symptoms again. Can Spring (my favorite season) hurry up and get here already? Please and thank you!

Last, but not least, I was feeling overwhelmed with social media. I was already feeling physically tired but the drama on social media pushed me beyond my limits. I honestly felt like crying every time I logged in to an account and saw the notifications along with how many messages I had to attend to.

The content of the messages wasn't helping. That's not to say all messages were bad; they weren't. There was just so much bickering, so many complaints, so much gossip and badmouthing and other things that just drained me outweighing the good. It got so bad that I even had to ask my closest friends to give me a breather; no texts or messages on any kind. I needed a full-on technology break. It didn't last long -- just 2-3 days because of work -- but you'd be surprised at how much those screen-detox days helped.

During those days, I would completely shut down my phone. I wouldn't touch my laptop. If I had work to do (and I always do), I'd write down the bulk of what I was going to submit. If it was a deadline day, I'd only get on my laptop long enough to write it out and send it to my editors. Sure, it meant "wasting" more time writing and rewriting but it was worth my sanity staying intact.

That is why it took me nearly a month (3 more days to a full month) to write another blog post. That is why so many tweets and messages went (and have still gone) unanswered.

I'm going to be honest with y'all (and I hope this is a gentle reminder to those who've known me for years): I hate drama of all types. I hate gossip. I absolutely loathe people who message me solely to badmouth someone else. It drains me. Yes, we all need to vent and get stuff out of our systems, but this sort of things emotionally drains me. In person, I usually change the topic as soon as someone starts down this path but it's somehow more difficult through technological means.

What's worse was that I hadn't noticed how this was affecting how I interacted with people until I hit that wall. It was like I would absorb people's negativity, ruining my day and getting me in super cranky mood as a result of it. I was a lot more impatient with everyone, including myself. I would find myself complaining more, which I dislike intensely. I hated the way it had altered the way I thought and acted. Sure, you can say that it was just the perfect storm that did me in and that it was no wonder I was acting the way I was but, really, I don't want that to be an excuse. I should've known better.

A little over two and a half weeks ago, I attended a silent retreat at my parish and it was sheer bliss. I shut off my phone. I listened to the talks and took a copious amount of notes which I still re-read; the talks were so good! I only had to worry about writing down all the excellent content while the priest gave the talks and then focus on prayer during Mass, adoration, and the recitation of the Rosary by all the women (it was an all women's retreat) that attended the retreat.

The retreat and the overload of information from social media inspired me to make some changes in my life; changes I've already begun rolling out in small doses and will fully implement during the Lenten season. Just what they are... well, you'll have to stay tuned for the next blog post since I don't want to make this one longer than it already is.

I want to wrap up this blog post by saying that even though all of this pushed me beyond my limits, I'm grateful for it. It helped remind me that there are things more important things -- such as health (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual -- that need to be taken care of. Self-care isn't selfish and if one needs to do take a couple of days (or a couple of hours) just to sit in silence to recharge, that's perfectly fine.

I'm grateful that God reminded me to take an inventory of my priorities and challenged me to make some hard (but important) decisions in order to place my priorities in the right order.

I'm grateful to have been reminded of who I am and who I'm not; of what I value and what makes me uncomfortable. It may not suit others but that's okay. I need to do what is right for me... as long as it doesn't cause any harm or trouble for anyone else.

I'm grateful to have a new plan (well, plans; one for each situation) of action to help me recover from the burnout. As I said, I'll share these in the next blog post.

I thank God for the gift of my routine prayer life that helped keep me sane. I would retreat to a quiet spot in my apartment to pray the Liturgy of the Hours (every 3 hours while I was awake) and/or the Rosary, bringing a much-needed peaceful respite during an otherwise chaotic day.

If you feel burnt out, find out why and do what you need to do. Forget about the FOMO; it's not worth putting your health at risk.

Alright, that's it for now. I'm going to go enjoy the rest of "Fantaisie-impromptu in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 66" by Frederic Chopin before I have to go to do something else.

I hope y'all have had a lovely week thus far.

As always, thanks for reading and God bless!