A Challenging  Challenge!

I failed…

So I, like usual, had this whole big plan about how I wanted to improve myself by incorporating more self-care into my daily routine. While scouring the internet for ways to improve self-care I came across a list of things to do for just that purpose

After seeing this article I thought it would be a fun idea to incorporate most of the ideas and some of my own into a nice little 20 day challenge for the month of February where we build up doing 20 micro self care habits a day until it gets to the point where we are doing all 20 mini self care activities for ourselves everyday.

I did really great on the first day with the one self care item, but by the second day I had forgotten to look at the list to do the second self care item, and while I still took a walk without my phone that day, I did not carry out the action I was supposed to add to that day.

The third day I did not do any of the actions because I still didn’t check the list and I wasn’t able to take a walk without my phone that day in case people in my family needed to get ahold of me for some family business that was going on.

For the past 2 days (the 4th and 5th) I had just given up on doing the challenge at this point, and by today I realized I needed to come clean and share how I had not passed the challenge.

What I’m getting right…

While I haven’t been adding on self care actions from the challenge like I should aside from doing the first action the first 2 days, I have not totally failed at improving my self-care.

I have been taking care of my hygiene every day which should be done automatically each day for people without depression, but when you are struggling with depression it can be difficult some days to find the energy or will to get up every day let alone doing something like bathing.

I have been spending far less time on my phone. While it may not seem like it to my mom, I have noticed that these past few days I have only needed to charge my phone one time a day instead of multiple, and that one time has been in the early evening even if I start the day with my phone at 50 percent like I did yesterday.

Today I even found time to be creative which was one of the things on the list of self care habits.

I see all of that as a win for me.

What I’m going to do about the failed challenge.

I am still going to start and complete the challenge the proper way, I will Just be starting on March 1st instead of February 1st. I will still be leaving the challenge up until I finish it for good and find a new challenge to start (I may even leave it up while other challenges are in progress too) so If you have already started the challenge, it will not mess you up.

To make sure the new habits don’t escape my memory, I’m going to keep the information visible in several places, Including a calendar on my wall, a note on my phone home screen, and I will be adding each action as a reminder on my phone calendar.

To hold myself accountable for completing the challenge and not ignoring a day, I’m going to tell several people about it when I am going to start doing it including both of my moms (birth and adoptive) and my cousin who is always holding me accountable for stuff I say I am going to do or not do.

I am sorry to those of you I may be letting down with this update, but I hope you will forgive me, and stick with me going forward.

P.S. I have also found a way to ensure I have more transportation around my city so I will be able to get out of my apartment and do more in my community which is another thing that will improve my self care.

And I have paid for quite a few of my subscription services for the whole year with just my Microsoft, Audible, PS+, and antivirus protection left to go plus a VPN if I decide to get one, so I will have more money to spend each month on things not related to subscriptions.

P.S.S.

I also still plan to get memberships to my local historic society museum, the Planetary Society, and my city zoo if it ever opens back up again, so that will give me more things to do and help me find good causes that I care about which will also help in terms of self-care.