Routine Adjustments

As of yesterday, I've officially returned to work full time and can reasonably say I've finally recovered from my summer of suffering. 

I don't think I want to sugar-coat the outcome of this much, I had a miserable summer and I'm kinda bitter that I had to miss out on 2 months of good weather when Saskatchewan only gets 5 good months. It's hard to practice gratitude. If I gotta be stuck inside, why can't it be in like February and March? I wouldn't miss those days. 

But I am trying to practice some resilience and see some of the silver lining coming out of this struggle. 

One of the most positive outcomes has been developing a manageable and sustainable exercise program. It came as part of my physiotherapy but it was so consice and simple that I've managed to roll it into a daily task. I'm not saying I look forward to it like those exercise freaks out there, but I do enjoy the results of the exercise and a few months on, I'm enjoying what I see in the mirror. 

As I've been returning to work, a big focus has been on adjusting and redefining my daily routines. Even before I got hurt, my morning routine was coming under attack. My bus stop changed, which stole a few minutes from my morning as I have to leave earlier to get to the bus. Liberty got diabetes so I need to feed the dogs and give him his insulin - another few minutes stolen. 

Coming back to the challenge, it's been clear that there's really only a couple of solutions: get up earlier or get to work later. Both are fully available to me, I get to work way earlier than the rest of my team, but it gives me the chance to get my day laid out before the girls come to gossip. So I've landed on moving my morning alarm from 6:00 am to 5:30 am. Yuck to be sure, but it's been working so far. 

There are a few other newish things I'm trying to pack in there and it's making me realize some of that has to move out of the morning routine into "daily routine" or "evening routine". I'm trying to start journalling again everyday and that's been successful, but not as part of my morning routine. I've been poking at it during coffee breaks at work or in the evening. Still not "routine" yet, but I have been doing it regularly. 

In fact, one of the things with my journalling is setting weekly goals and to-dos, much like I do in my work journals. This week's goal is to journal daily and maintain my routine. Maintenance of a routine seems like a weird goal but I've had a new early morning assignment added from work which - AGAIN - is cutting into my morning routine. So it's a worthy goal. 

And a challenging goal. 

The work assignment I've been given is to write what we call the "Early Edition" and send it before 7:00 am. As part of my role in media relations, we monitor the news for stories that have to do with our work or affect our work. Since we are a government Crown corporation and the fall legistlative session starts today, I need to send off an early scan of the news to my company leadership and our counterparts in government. Today, it completely eliminated my morning meditation time. So, I've spent quite a bit of time this morning trying to find a place and time to get a quick meditation in. I might actually have to do it tonight, which isn't an issue. But I'd rather find that moment of peace BEFORE I go to work .

Thankfully, the task should go smoother tomorrow, it took me longer today because I didn't have everything set up quite the way it should have been. I still think it'll cut into my morning time, but I can manage it. And maybe I need to move back that wakeup call to 5:15. 

Or maybe I skip sleeping. 

All this to say, I'm actually having some success and I'm working on being resilient to see this through. I'll add a new challenge to my week here - I need to add a list of my routine priorities to my journal. Things like coffee, meditation, exercise, feeding the dogs, showering and personal connection. It's coming along, but some days it feels like the world wants more from me than I have time for.