My Happy Place

A comfort zone. A place where you feel relaxed, safe, unchallenged and, well, comfortable.

This is the place I love to live in. It's cosy and warm when the chilling winds blow through your coat. It's cool and refreshing when you're suffocating in sweat. When you've been up since 4am with a day full of mumming, it's that deliciously inviting bed that you can flop into and finally ... (deep breath in ... *sigh*) ... exhale.

Yes, the comfort zone is my happy place. I love my comfort zone.

Now my traditional comfort zone is not a place where you find a lot of strenuous exercise going on. Which means ... sadly ... hanging out in my lounge of comfort is counterproductive to my goals. 

But ... what about that awesome feeling I have both during and after said strenuous exercise? (Thank you endorphins). And what about that amazing sense of achievement and satisfaction knowing I'm doing something that is bettering me (instead of that feeling of guilt that gnaws away at me when I spend too much time in aforementioned comfort zone).

Perhaps my happy place isn't really blobbing out in front of a movie on the couch like a zombie?

What if they are both good for me?

Or ... and here is the 'a-ha' moment ... maybe exercising regularly and chilling out regularly are actually two very important activities to achieving a balanced and satisfying existence! That's it ... my truly Happy Place is a place where I can get in and out of my comfort zone, and still be .... happy!

I like this blogging thing!!

...

So in addition to putting my brainwaves of genius on 'paper', each week I'm going to record an action plan that will help me achieve my goals and report on the previous weeks' plan. This is something I learned when I was trained as a facilitator in the Stanford University Chronic Disease Self-management Program (more on that later). I wont always post up the plans because they can get quite personal, but here are this weeks' so you get an idea. 

Action plan (AP): I will find out when registration opens for the 1/4 Iron Maori on Tuesday morning after the girls go down for a nap.

Exercise plan (EP): Go for a swim at Clive pools on Tuesday (no set laps as it will be my first time back in the pool for almost a year), go for a walk at the beach on Thursday morning, and do one short resistance workout using light hand weights on Friday between 9 and 12.

Me plan (MP doing something for myself): I will put moisturiser on my face and hands in the morning after I brush my teeth on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

These plans may sound a bit strange but such are the plans of the Stanford course. I'll explain in another post but basically it's got to be achievable and I know I will not be able to achieve putting moisturiser on every day so I'll aim for 4 days and anything over that is extra kudos for me!