I am worried. I am worried about what it will mean to live on my own. I am worried that I have nothing in particular that I want to do with my life. I am worried that I am going to go to back to school to find purpose, and find too late what it is I really want to do. I am worried about what relationships will mean in my future as an arospec asexual person who craves companionship. I am worried that my cat allergies will continue to worsen. I am worried that I will never find something I love to do. I am worried that I will once again get an ingrown toenail so severe it will require minor surgery. I am worried that so many people I know are in such a similar place. I hope that we’ll all be ok.
Hoo boy, I wasn’t going to respond but then I realized that so many of my posts and even reblogs get tagged or commented with calling me out for toxic positivity.
Here’s the thing. You’re completely right. We don’t all have the same 24 hours in a day. But we still have 24 hours.
I was already finding ways to slot time for self-maintenance in the super hectic 24-hour hypothetical you gave me. I have lived like that, I promise, and you know how I managed to give myself an hour when I couldn’t drop everything for an hour?
I listened to podcasts or informative audio on YouTube or elsewhere while I cooked or cleaned.
If I wasn’t capable of absorbing information at that time (ADHD), I turned on music instead and swayed while I worked. Even a little jig and swaying is better than no workout, plus it made the activities fun. I’ve started enjoying the chores I used to hate. I also used the music to visualize different things, which helped me practice my creative expression without ever lifting anything.
On that ADHD note, when I’m feeling hyperactive and fidgety and can’t focus on anything because I’m unmedicated, I pace around my room aggressively. I don’t know the science behind it but it helps. It sorts out my thoughts, gets some steps in, and I am ready to do something productive afterward.
When I took public transportation and carpooled to work or university, I read books on the commute. When I have to drive, I would listen to an audiobook.
I would keep e-books on my phone to read if I was in the waiting room for some appointment or on standby for any reason and didn’t have anything else to do. I also read for ten minutes or so before bed at night.
While I was cleaning up after dinner and getting ready for bed, I had a face mask on.
I got my steps in and did minor weight lifting by going grocery shopping. I would flex my biceps as I lifted the heavy bags and made sure to squat properly if I was picking something off the ground.
I am a writer and, yes, making time to write is easier said than done, but I would do all my planning and development while I was moving about my day. If I came up with something huge, I would jot it down in my notes app. By the time I did find time to write, I had entire concepts figured out and just needed to get them on paper. Oh, and for that, I started setting 15-minute sprints in the morning or before bed. Just 15 minutes. That is all.
Since I had to cook anyway, I would try out new recipes that not only tested my skills in the kitchen, but exposed my taste buds to various cuisines, flavors, and textures, not to mention the nutritional diversity.
I like to wear makeup when I go out, so I started paying attention to tutorials I stumbled across online and tried to incorporate an occasional eye or lip hack into my routine.
I have arthritis, so I started waking up a bit earlier to do about 10 minutes of yoga on the mat by my bed.
I put timers and restrictions on my phone to minimize the amount of time I spent on social media. You’d be surprised at how much time you waste scrolling through your phone.
I lived in a place that had a lot of blackouts, so I started using that time to practice skills that didn’t require any electricity, like my art and tarot.
I downloaded Duolingo and did 10 minutes of practice in my targeted language whenever I was able to slot that in, even if it was 10 minutes before midnight. As of writing this post, I have a 212-day streak. I watched movies and series in my target language while I washed the dishes.
I don’t have kids or pets, but if I did, I would do all of the above while I handled that responsibility. I would plan activities and events that would not only benefit me but also them. Imagine a messy painting session that helps you try out a new hobby while testing your toddler’s motor skills. You could use this experience to teach them about the importance of cleaning up, which can be another bonding activity combined with a learning experience. I would also exercise myself and them by playing with them, which yes, is good for fitness, but it is also good for socializing for all parties involved.
These are things I have personally done or currently do. Based on my above-mentioned routine, I was working out, practicing a foreign language, eating well, learning new skills, taking care of myself, and so much more, without ever setting a timer for one hour. And when you added all of this time together, the time I took for self-maintenance was much longer than an hour.
Okay, you can’t set aside one hour in a day. No one is asking you to. But if you were to make minor adjustments to your preexisting routine, and expanded on them over time, you’d find that you’re dedicating more than an hour to your self-maintenance journey.
Online positivity is meant to be a motivator and possibly a loose template to help you get started, not a one-size-fits-all strategy that everyone is supposed to copy and paste. And it’s most certainly not color-coordinated outfits and household accessories. Obviously, your lifestyle and struggles will look different than mine. But if you have the means to access and respond to my posts on Tumblr dot com, that means that you have the means to create some form of change, no matter how small or infinitesimal it may seem.
Most critiques of online positivity seem to list 100 different reasons for why they can’t do better today than they did yesterday and why their life sucks so much. All I’m challenging you to do moving forward is find one way to do something better today.
So mugglebornheadcanon is back, and once again recruiting for mods. I know, I’m as excited as you hopefully are.
If you’d like to be a mod, please send in an application - no more than two hundred words, telling me why you want the position, what skills you would bring to the position, and an estimation of the time commitment you could provide, as well as any ideas for the future of the blog you might have. I know that this might seem too intense, but I’m really looking for people who are committed to this - last time, we got about three hundred applications, but don’t let that put you off!! I would definitely urge you to apply, but bear in mind that there will probably be quite a lot of competition for the positions, so make your applications as good as you can :)
It doesn’t matter if you’re inexperienced, as the key thing I’m looking for here is enthusiasm.
Please send in your applications by Friday 7th November to [email protected] , and if you have any questions feel free to message me either here or on my individual blog, @somewhatsapphic.
To all those who apply, I look forward to reading your applications, and to those who don’t, my very sincere thanks for sticking with both me and the blog over the past few months.
Who’s ready to get scary? SPN Eldritch bang is open for writer and artist sign ups!
Eldritch (adj.): weird, eerie, strange, or unnatural in a way that inspires fear.
As a bang, we are open to horror stories, darkfic, or tales with a gothic and eerie vibe. All ships are welcome, though none are required (we love a gen horror casefic :D) Bring us your Lovecraftian monsters, your ghost stories and haunted souls, your dark gothic romances and delightfully twisted tales. Bang posting is in October (just in time for Halloween!), so get your spook on and come join us!
Writer sign-ups will close on July 2nd and artist sign-ups will remain open until July 30th.
You should receive an email confirming your sign-up within a day or so. Once you’re officially registered, come join us at the Eldritch Bang discord. Not mandatory (all info will be posted here and our twitter) but it’s a fun way to meet some of the other writers and artists.
(Ooc: Hi this is the mod, I havent posted on this blog for like forever and I apologise for that, life caught up with me and at the time it became near impossible. I also idnt think my art was good enough at the time, I however do not care at this point. I believe this blog is incredibly dead because of this however, and revival would be unfortunate in my opinion since this was made during my angsty phase. I however do love my elsens and some characters from this blog (thier designs may chnage however) so I may restart on a new blog with them and some other monstrous characters I’ve made, once the blog is made I will reblog it onto this one. Thank you for your ongoing support! I’ll keep this blog up however, thanks! Feel free to talk to me about this if you want any more information.)
As of September this year, it’ll be 5 years since I first got into Fate/Stay Night by playing the original VN. Even if the series effectively ruined my life and made me sink a shameful and even worrying amount of wealth into the flaming pit known as gacha, I still feel like I kind of owe the series to a certain degree for making me into a better person (by this I mean cook. it made me a better cook.).
So kind of in honor of the media that shaped the last five years for me, I’m gonna try and make a conscious effort to begin updating this blog again, as well as @goodfateideasand@badfateideas. Thanks to anybody who stuck around through this long absence.
As of September this year, it’ll be 5 years since I first got into Fate/Stay Night by playing the original VN. Even if the series effectively ruined my life and made me sink a shameful and even worrying amount of wealth into the flaming pit known as gacha, I still feel like I kind of owe the series to a certain degree for making me into a better person (by this I mean cook. it made me a better cook.).
So kind of in honor of the media that shaped the last five years for me, I’m gonna try and make a conscious effort to begin updating this blog again, as well as @goodfateideasand@badfateideas. Thanks to anybody who stuck around through this long absence.
I’m a little behind on asks right now on both my blogs (mostly because I’m not happy with my answers), so if you sent them in a little patience would be nice right now! Thanks xx
Hey, guys! I know I haven’t been very active on Tumblr. Sorry about that! But I do want to signal boost this. Lucas is my friend’s kid and is trying to get funding for his top surgery. If anyone could donate or share the link to his GoFundMe, it’d be greatly appreciated!
