World Enough and Time

Putting my money where my mouth is: I'm going to say this out loud. In December I will:

1. Write every day
   
2. Read some Esperanto every day
   
3. Consume no coffee or tea (hot chocolate is an acceptible substitute)
   
4. Eat a banana and an orange every day
   
5. Brush and floss after each meal
   

On January 1 I wrote my New Year's Resolutions. How well have I kept them?

...Not as well as I'd hoped.

I think I've done really well with the exercising (every day, and increasing); the dental floss; knitting; not so well on some of the other issues I have to work on. Like getting a job.

Still... could be worse.

From Livejournal's "Writer's Block": What, if any, resolutions did you make in 2009 and how many did you keep? Do you plan to make any resolutions for 2010? Do you find this tradition constructive or debilitating?

I love the tradition. I love making resolutions. Do it all the time. New Year's Day is just an extra-special excuse for it, a chance to take them more seriously. My intent is not to keep resolutions as an absolute, not a succeed-or-fail thing, but to improve towards worthy goals on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis. And to be mindful of what is really important to me.

So last year I resolved to:

1. Be helpful, be active, be creative, be tidy, be caring, be honest, be strong, be brave.
2. Eat well.
3. Do yoga.
4. Read.
5. Put my apartment in order.
6. Floss

Not sure how I did on item #1, but I was mindful of all those things, and that's good.

#2: I ate only too well. Not badly. I don't think I gained weight, but didn't lose much.

Did hideously badly with #3, though I really did try for a long time: did yoga daily through increasing pain and stiffness till I gave it up because of my sore back. Friday I will start daily yoga practice once more. I have been doing the chiropractic exercises diligently.

#4: Yes, did well.

#5: Done. Well, mostly done. My bedroom needs work. But this is okay.

#6: Pathetic failure.

So coming up for my 2010 resolutions: I have no fresh ideas. I could reiterate all the 2009 resolutions... but that's dull.

I have two days to think about it.

Back from the chiropractor's office. Not for a treatment, this time; he was doing a presentation about his approach to health. He did it well. He's probably the most verbal person I've met in a long time.

I learned a few words and terms:

• Homeostasis
  
• "spinal onion"
  
• Gonstead technique
  
• Activator Technique
  
• Upper Cross Syndrome
  
• Thompson Technique

I asked the doctor why he had asked about wine, chocolate and cheese. He said it was because I had mentioned acid reflux as a symptom, and they are common causes of it.

When he talked about things that can trigger problems in the nervous system and bad health in general, he talked about various bad habits and vices - alcohol, drugs, lack of exercise, bad eating, and so on - and I felt frustrated. Okay, I tend to overeat, but I am careful about nutrition and I make great efforts, even sacrifices, to get enough exercise, and I still have health problems. I can even do the yoga program I planned, to get my health and energy back. It's... annoying. I've run out of vices to give up.

Doesn't seem fair.

Resolve: to look ahead as I walk, not down.

My 2007 New Year's Resolutions

I've greatly enjoyed composing these. It doesn't really matter if I "keep" them, the reason for the exercise is thinking about how I live and how I want to live.

1. Live a yoga lifestyle, compatible with a fannish lifestyle.

I'll have to work out what this means, since I have found that some of the values of yoga and some of the goals of being a fangirl are incompatible. For instance, what does one do when, though trying to be non-acquisitive and non-materialistic, a magazine comes out with an article on Torchwood on the cover?

2. Practise tai chi with sword.

I once took this as a class, but I've forgotten the moves. So I got a video-tape: Tai Chi: The 32 Sword Forms with Dr. Paul Lam. I plan to do this on a regular basis. Learn how to tell my left foot from my right, that's the first step.

3. Daily language study.

Not much, but if I read or write in another language for a little while each day I should be able to progress. I'd like to be able to read Latin easily again; or Esperanto; or even just French. Perhaps I will try to read all of Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis. I wonder if I could translate an episode of Torchwood into Latin.

4. Write.

I always want to write more than I do. I always feel better - about myself, about the world, about everything - when I write. Must do it more.

5. Be true to myself.

6. Discard one item per day.

I did this in 2005, and I felt magnificently decluttered. I didn't do it in 2006 and things have piled up. So! Time to do it again.

7. Do Lynne's programme with weights.

Lynne is my trainer. She has worked me out an excellent tailor-made workout with weights that I can do in my living room, Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. I want to do it, and do it right. Current plan: to do hatha yoga or pilates on the mornings I am not doing Lynne's workout.

8. Develop a focussed attitude to work.

9. Be orderly.

10. To do daily: make the bed as soon as I get up; drink kombucha; floss; take pills; smile; dance.

11. Live without fear.

12. Carpe diem.