Peace of mind is always underrated in my opinion. Believing it hasn’t stopped me from underrating it though. It’s just not enough. “…this life will hit you hard in the face, wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.”
How? Different story and not the point.
Why peace of mind?
Waking up monday morning, realizing I was almost unfit for work. The doctor suggested me to take 2 days off. So I reluctantly did so. It might as well be the worthiest sick leaves I’ve ever taken. Looking back at the past two and half months, I have been busy trying hard to be happy – going to dance classes at least 3 days a week; said yes to all possible social opportunities; the rest of my non-working hours are almost all used for catching up with old friends. Happy finally? I asked myself. I couldn’t say yes with a straight face. It felt… fast. And I’m exhausted. The 2-day leave was my only real break for 2+ months. Just like that, I decided that not taking myself too seriously isn’t enough; doing things that (I think) makes myself happy isn’t enough; I want my peace of mind.
What makes me feel calm and in peace?
- On my way home at 1am after submitting a pull request
- Reading a book
- Scrolling through my twitter feeds, with Ke, talking to mum and dad on phone, playing Alejandro on my ukulele
- Standing around with wine in hand after hash run
- Lying on bed after a productive working day
- Taking care of myself(simple things like getting a new pair of earrings, applying face masks and painting my toe nails pink)
- Listening to this American life
- Watching phillyd show
- Writing a blog entry
What makes me happy?
- Dancing
- Hash runs
- Attending fancy events
- Road trips
- Knowing that my proposal to speak on Taiwan RubyConf is accepted
- Hanging out with friends.
What’s the plan?
Take some time from doing things that make me happy to spend on things that bring me peace.
- As I am typing this post, Derrick’s email regarding mailcheck arrived in my inbox. I’m going to do my homework after putting this post up. If things pan out, more time on coding.
- Among all my projects, I’d like to pick up wiki near me after I finish up mosaic’s google calendar (*shameface* that really should have been done long time ago).
- Friday hash run is fun but is also very time consuming – it takes away 1 work hour + all after hours of Friday. Not to mention it is also physically demanding. So try to be selective and skip the on-on. (Seems like the criteria are jungle runs + less preferable choice of the on-on restaurant).
- Daily, 2 hours of reading books 1 hour for the tubes. Those are lower bounds, which means hanging/going out and dancing has a cap of ~2 hours on a regular weekday that I choose not to code after work.
- Eat more vegetables and fruits, drink less. Treat your body.
So, the peace of mind project starts today. I’m going to experiment it until the end of November, during which I will be on holidays in Australia from 11/8 - 11/17. Will report back around 12/1 ⩲2 days.
Peace
