Self-care shifts for fall #fibro

Ah arthritis season has arrived. Time to shift into my fall/winter morning routine where I need heat on my SI joints and to stretch & rotate all joints before I can even get out of bed. Joint pain is worse for me in a lot of ways than post workout pain. Sore muscles make me cranky, sure, but they don’t make me feel like my spine can’t support my body. Getting up and down, standing, carrying, lifting, walking & driving all feel precarious when my arthritis flares up. If I don’t tend to it, a fibro flare can follow which lands me in bed for extended numbers of hours.

So what’s different about my fall winter self-care than spring/summer? Heat needs to be handy at all times. I stash thermacare pads in my car, bags and office. I have to make extra time available just to get up out of bed. I warm up my joints in bed actually and then move right to my yoga mat for kundalini spine warmups and sun salutations under my sun lamp. Where the summer I did most of my workouts in the morning, my body can’t handle this now. Midday or evening workouts are better. They are longer, slower, less intense. I also pay extreme attention to posture and body mechanics to ease the strain as much as possible as I go through my day. I wear layers and keep blankets and heat handy all day. I stay as warm as possible, and I take frequent breaks to warm up my joints so they don’t get stiff. And I warm up my bed at night with heating pads, so there is no cold shock to my system when I get in.

 

An email experiment

With my new discernment about urgency and importance, I decided to do an experiment to wrangle my email inbox into something manageable. Prior to my chat with Kyeli, I was always trying to clear out the inbox before I responded to the emails that needed care and attention. I often ran out of time before I got to the important stuff.

I decided to reclaim my inbox by using Google’s Priority Inbox tool. First, I scan my full inbox, and I delete anything I have no intention of reading. (I’ve even taken myself off some lists to make this a quicker step.) Then, I move everything social (politics, my spiritual community, my friends, family) to a special folder I can indulge in when I’m not working.

Wow does that clear up a lot of emotional space for focusing on work!

Then I look for all the actual emails from live people (not newsletters or advertisements) and flag those so they pop to the top of my Priority Inbox. I star anything personal and important so it doesn’t get lost either. Finally, I demote anything that doesn’t require a response or that I want to read at some point but not right now to a Review and File folder.

Now it’s clear which emails are truly important to tend to right away - they are at the top of my list!

I work my way down though those tiers, only getting to the less important stuff if I have time for it. It’s felt so good to be tending to the important stuff and no longer being caught up in the urgency created by modern life.

I’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks now, and I’m finding myself getting a significantly larger amount of work done in less time.  Naturally, the discerning what is really important vs what is urgent or busywork has overflowed into all aspects of when I am working.  I’m staying focused on task instead of distracted by my online social life and real life.  I’m impressed with how much more efficiently I am getting work down.  

Getting more work done in less time and having more time to connect with people, relax, meditate or do art has been awesome and inspiring.  Wondering what I meant by discerning the difference between urgent and importance?Check out my blog post from last week.

Workshop with @AQSecurity4U on Financial Wellbeing for your Biz

October 19, 2011 6:45pm at The Healing Center in Beverly, MA

Learn the five biggest financial mistakes that business owners make and how to avoid them in an interactive workshop facilitated by Andrea Quagenti, an independent Certified Financial Planner TM with Financial Planning Solutions, Inc. in Newton, MA.

Come to this workshop, “The 5 Biggest Financial Mistakes Business Owners Make and How to Avoid Them,” with an open-minded perspective on your personal business practices and you’ll gain insight into successful financial practices. You will also gain knowledge about how to achieve greater success and increase your earnings potential.

Register on the North Shore Holistic Health Professionals Meetup site here. Cost: $10.

About the Speaker: Andrea M. Quagenti, an independent Certified Financial Planner TM (CFP®), takes a comprehensive approach to financial planning to help elevate her clients to new standards of living and savings. Andrea educates and inspires clients at all income levels to embrace new concepts of financial wellness. By focusing on “big picture” thinking with careful attention to detail and quantitative analysis, Andrea focuses on partnering with her clients to design customized plans that help ensure long-term financial security. Highly credentialed, Andrea offers more than 13 years of financial experience, including nearly 10 years at Fidelity Investments, along with the most thorough training available to achieve her status as a CFP®. A graduate of Salem State College with a concentration in finance, Andrea extends her passion for money management to many others. She offers pro bono financial coaching to patients of The Dana Farber Cancer Institute. For more information, visit http://www.fps2.com/.

Register on the North Shore Holistic Health Professionals Meetup site here. Cost: $10.

Looking for those missing pieces?

Does your heart ache to uncover, understand and overcome the hidden fears and habits that hold you back from success? Do you want to learn how to reliably access the wisdom, insight and intuition of your core self? Would you like to resolve the core issues blocking you from reaching your potential? Do you need insight, inspiration and a workable action plan to turn your vision into a reality? 

All of these and more are what previous clients have gained by going through the Clearing your Path for Success program. Next session starts October 15, 2011.

The 6 weeks of the Clearing your Path for Success program includes weekly lessons emailed to you, 6 class recordings that explain the weekly lessons in depth, plus the Clearing your Path for Success ebook and 5 guided meditations set to music.

Also includes FREE 6 weeks access to the Heart-Centered Entrepreneur Online Forum where you can post, share and interact with others in the program, participate in a weekly general disussion phone call (Sundays 8pm EST), submit your weekly lesson response for feedback from Joanna.  

The optional Apprenticeship Mastermind Group includes 6 weekly 1 hr group calls on Wednesdays at 12pm EST with mastermind participants to discuss the weekly lesson topics, troubleshoot roadblocks and challenges and receive live feedback from Joanna and participants about your business. Limited to 6. 

Also optional, 3 hours of Private Coaching with Joanna includes private 45 or 90 minute phone calls with Joanna to receive personalized guidance, assistance and strategy for your business. These are scheduled at your convenience. 

How to get started:

The next session starts October 16, 2011. 

All the Registration details are located here.

Or you can explore the Learn at-home version of the Clearing your Path for Success. The Learn at home program includes an e-book and 5 guided meditations for $31.99. Details here.

Did you catch my newsletter last week?

It’s all about why it’s still important to know the neighboring businesses and my theory on why heart-centered entrepreneurs are specially designed for community and collaboration instead of viewing each other as threatening competition.

Read the newsletter on the archive at Constant Contact here!