Even though I am 100% a night person, I do enjoy getting out in the sunshine for a little bit in the late afternoon once I get up, or even early evening. When I do get away to Barbadoes, my schedule altered by about an hour or two so that I do get more sunshine.
This may interest you though. I finally after waiting and waiting for the referral to come through, got to see a psychiatrist here in Toronto. I thought it would just be a medication consultation to make sure my family physician was giving me the right meds for my depression, anxiety, and etc. But he had the whole morning set aside for me and it was an intense session, and evaluation. But one of the first things that he said to me, really surprised me. I had told him that I had been taken off my security position because of the last fight and my tendency to resort to force too quickly. I told him though that I was still keeping the same hours, staying up all night and going to bed in the morning sleeping through most of the day. He actually raised his voice in emphasis to say “ that’s good! If you’ve been a night person for the last several years, that is absolutely the healthiest choice“
Movement yeah. Problem is I’m getting up there and consuming more and more pain pills. And if I overdo it one day, I pay for it the next. But if I don’t move around at all and just sit in a chair that doesn’t work either. So I’m not quite sure what to do about that. I just try to mix them up a bit.
Gratitude. I am grateful for the good things I did have in my life, even though they are some years back already, at least I had them, most importantly, my wife, Barbara. I am grateful here in Toronto for at least one good friend whose company I enjoy just on a pure friends level. But although I am grateful for certain things, I tend to focus on the negative. But something the psychiatrist told me last week was it at least I confront my problems. In fact, I pretty much put out a search and destroy mission to deal with them. And once they are gone, I can be grateful for that.
Sorry for the long answer. But I also have to say that I am grateful for you and you’re inspiring pieces. I am not forgetting that I only started a Substack because of you and one of your posts. And now I have my own Substack and will soon be posting another story on it. So thank you very much, and I hope that you and yours are very well.
Such great observations. I think we all have periods of life were it can be harder to find things to be grateful for, but as you said even being grateful for what we had is a way to continue to be grateful even when present circumstances might make it a bit more challenging.
I do agree that we all have a natural rhythm to our “best” waking hours of the day. I’ve always been a morning person, while my husband and son have no problem functioning late into the evening. I think at the heart of it, making an attempt to get outside (whatever time of day that might be) is a healthy practice we can all try to do more of.
I hope you have a great weekend! Thanks, as always, for your support.
Thank you for your reply. It only tells you a lot about AI that in my dictation, my phone was able to spell Barbados wrong. I only saw that after I had sent the message of course.
But that is not why I am messaging you. It’s about the spending some time outdoors thing. As the weather has gotten better here in Toronto, I do what I’ve been doing every summer and go up top onto one of the decks on one of our buildings that nobody ever seems to use so it’s kind of like a secret place of mine, which is kind of cool. Now today was kind of cloudy, although the sun was out for a while, before it went behind the high-rise it is next to us. But even after the sun was gone, I stayed outside for a while, listening to my music. Today I chose to listen to lyrics rather than that it just be background, so that was kind of cool because I listened to the poetry of it. My music is not really up-to-date. I am more classic rock guy with some country, punk, blues, etc. I listen to stuff from Bette Davis eyes to the kinks rock ‘n’ roll fantasy to one of my favorites, the five finger Death Punch cover of bad company. And while the sun was still out, I listened to the full album Dr. Dixie’s Rollin’ Bones by a band. I love, but very few people have ever heard of called Dan Baird, and Homemade Sin. It was a band formed by the previous lead singer of The Georgia Satellites, as well as some other members of that group and other musicians from the south.
But as I sat with my headphones in, I got to see some of the squirrels wandering about, and a raccoon picking its way very carefully along the edge of the next deck over. Urban wildlife.
And I still do some work around here too, since I’m still staying here. I try to take some of the load off the regular cleaning people by washing up the cleaning rags and mop pads, and washing the dirty dish towels. But that kind of stuff is always been very common soothing for me. Plus, I’ve volunteered. To take responsibility for some flowers that we planted outside. Well actually, I planted some of them. I undertook to take care of them all for the summer. So that’s my main job here now.
I have to say, counting the security job that I had, and counting way back when even legal aid as a student, then Crown attorney, and then private practice, defense, lawyer.…
BEST FUCKING JOB I EVER HAD!!!!!!!!
So yeah, I love the getting outside thing. I had not planted a flower since my wife was alive. It felt great having those dirty hands that I had to wash after pressing the flowers into the planters and then filling them in with potting soil.
Sorry again for another long response; this is actually the kind of thing I should be putting on my own Substack, but I made a promise that my next one is going to be another free story. Soon. And by the way, I have kept up with doing that Jesus prayer thing before I go to sleep in the morning. It does help calm my body for sure with the oxygen intake, and my mind also by sort of settling it, in a way that I can just think about going to sleep, or if I am thinking about things just to think about one thing at a time.
It’s nice to read morning routine ideas that aren’t about ‘optimising’ ‘productivity’ or ‘self improvement’. But just about gently nourishing our minds and bodies. Thank you
Thank you, Eva! That’s exactly what I hope to share with people. Life isn’t perfect, no routine is perfect, but there are little things we can do to help nourish ourselves mentally and physically.
So simple, why don't more people do these three things every day? Including me. Are we addicted to stress? Maybe. Thanks for the inspiration. I just bought The Art of Flaneuring.
That’s a great point. Stress starts to feel like norm. We get stuck in a cycle of chaos and need to rest to remember what it’s like to have balance in our lives. I hope reading this inspires people to at least at one of these things to their daily routine.
I hope you enjoy the book and find it inspirational. ✨
Even though I am 100% a night person, I do enjoy getting out in the sunshine for a little bit in the late afternoon once I get up, or even early evening. When I do get away to Barbadoes, my schedule altered by about an hour or two so that I do get more sunshine.
This may interest you though. I finally after waiting and waiting for the referral to come through, got to see a psychiatrist here in Toronto. I thought it would just be a medication consultation to make sure my family physician was giving me the right meds for my depression, anxiety, and etc. But he had the whole morning set aside for me and it was an intense session, and evaluation. But one of the first things that he said to me, really surprised me. I had told him that I had been taken off my security position because of the last fight and my tendency to resort to force too quickly. I told him though that I was still keeping the same hours, staying up all night and going to bed in the morning sleeping through most of the day. He actually raised his voice in emphasis to say “ that’s good! If you’ve been a night person for the last several years, that is absolutely the healthiest choice“
Movement yeah. Problem is I’m getting up there and consuming more and more pain pills. And if I overdo it one day, I pay for it the next. But if I don’t move around at all and just sit in a chair that doesn’t work either. So I’m not quite sure what to do about that. I just try to mix them up a bit.
Gratitude. I am grateful for the good things I did have in my life, even though they are some years back already, at least I had them, most importantly, my wife, Barbara. I am grateful here in Toronto for at least one good friend whose company I enjoy just on a pure friends level. But although I am grateful for certain things, I tend to focus on the negative. But something the psychiatrist told me last week was it at least I confront my problems. In fact, I pretty much put out a search and destroy mission to deal with them. And once they are gone, I can be grateful for that.
Sorry for the long answer. But I also have to say that I am grateful for you and you’re inspiring pieces. I am not forgetting that I only started a Substack because of you and one of your posts. And now I have my own Substack and will soon be posting another story on it. So thank you very much, and I hope that you and yours are very well.
Such great observations. I think we all have periods of life were it can be harder to find things to be grateful for, but as you said even being grateful for what we had is a way to continue to be grateful even when present circumstances might make it a bit more challenging.
I do agree that we all have a natural rhythm to our “best” waking hours of the day. I’ve always been a morning person, while my husband and son have no problem functioning late into the evening. I think at the heart of it, making an attempt to get outside (whatever time of day that might be) is a healthy practice we can all try to do more of.
I hope you have a great weekend! Thanks, as always, for your support.
Thank you for your reply. It only tells you a lot about AI that in my dictation, my phone was able to spell Barbados wrong. I only saw that after I had sent the message of course.
But that is not why I am messaging you. It’s about the spending some time outdoors thing. As the weather has gotten better here in Toronto, I do what I’ve been doing every summer and go up top onto one of the decks on one of our buildings that nobody ever seems to use so it’s kind of like a secret place of mine, which is kind of cool. Now today was kind of cloudy, although the sun was out for a while, before it went behind the high-rise it is next to us. But even after the sun was gone, I stayed outside for a while, listening to my music. Today I chose to listen to lyrics rather than that it just be background, so that was kind of cool because I listened to the poetry of it. My music is not really up-to-date. I am more classic rock guy with some country, punk, blues, etc. I listen to stuff from Bette Davis eyes to the kinks rock ‘n’ roll fantasy to one of my favorites, the five finger Death Punch cover of bad company. And while the sun was still out, I listened to the full album Dr. Dixie’s Rollin’ Bones by a band. I love, but very few people have ever heard of called Dan Baird, and Homemade Sin. It was a band formed by the previous lead singer of The Georgia Satellites, as well as some other members of that group and other musicians from the south.
But as I sat with my headphones in, I got to see some of the squirrels wandering about, and a raccoon picking its way very carefully along the edge of the next deck over. Urban wildlife.
And I still do some work around here too, since I’m still staying here. I try to take some of the load off the regular cleaning people by washing up the cleaning rags and mop pads, and washing the dirty dish towels. But that kind of stuff is always been very common soothing for me. Plus, I’ve volunteered. To take responsibility for some flowers that we planted outside. Well actually, I planted some of them. I undertook to take care of them all for the summer. So that’s my main job here now.
I have to say, counting the security job that I had, and counting way back when even legal aid as a student, then Crown attorney, and then private practice, defense, lawyer.…
BEST FUCKING JOB I EVER HAD!!!!!!!!
So yeah, I love the getting outside thing. I had not planted a flower since my wife was alive. It felt great having those dirty hands that I had to wash after pressing the flowers into the planters and then filling them in with potting soil.
Sorry again for another long response; this is actually the kind of thing I should be putting on my own Substack, but I made a promise that my next one is going to be another free story. Soon. And by the way, I have kept up with doing that Jesus prayer thing before I go to sleep in the morning. It does help calm my body for sure with the oxygen intake, and my mind also by sort of settling it, in a way that I can just think about going to sleep, or if I am thinking about things just to think about one thing at a time.
It’s nice to read morning routine ideas that aren’t about ‘optimising’ ‘productivity’ or ‘self improvement’. But just about gently nourishing our minds and bodies. Thank you
Thank you, Eva! That’s exactly what I hope to share with people. Life isn’t perfect, no routine is perfect, but there are little things we can do to help nourish ourselves mentally and physically.
Thank you.
Thank YOU for stopping by! ☀️
So simple, why don't more people do these three things every day? Including me. Are we addicted to stress? Maybe. Thanks for the inspiration. I just bought The Art of Flaneuring.
That’s a great point. Stress starts to feel like norm. We get stuck in a cycle of chaos and need to rest to remember what it’s like to have balance in our lives. I hope reading this inspires people to at least at one of these things to their daily routine.
I hope you enjoy the book and find it inspirational. ✨