Hello! This is my second self-reflection. Over the past week, I have been making an effort to improve different aspects of my well-being, and that of those around me so here is the summary.
1.) What is something you did for your body?
This past week, I have gone biking, running and done the rest of my PE for school, continued to mainly drink water and tried to continue to go to bed at a reasonable time. Just today after dinner, I went for a bike ride with my sister around the block, and for PE this week we had to do about an hour of yoga, about half an hour of a cardio exercise video, and two 1.5km runs. Additionally, every time I’m thirsty, I remind myself to drink water instead of a sugary drink like juice or pop. However, the last time we did a self-reflection I said that I was going to bed early, or at least not super late. I have tried to continue that, and the past three days I have gone to bed before midnight, but the days before that I had so much homework that I couldn’t manage to get to bed early.
2.) What is something you did for your mind?
As I just mentioned, this week I had a lot of homework. It wasn’t necessarily a lot of different homework, just a lot for a couple of projects and one final unit assignment I had instead of a test. Now, obviously none of this was something that I did for my mind, but because of how much stress I was under with what I had to do, there were many times where I would stop and take a break. I always find it very difficult to walk away from a task, even if I can’t work on it because I’ve exhausted my ability to focus. When that happens, I usually end up staring at the document or work, slowly growing more and more stressed until not only am I unable to work on it, but I am also unable to work on anything else or think about anything else because I will feel guilty for not doing the original task. Because of how much I needed to get done this week, I understood that freezing up when the work became too much would absolutely not work well for me. Instead, I mentally checked in on myself, and when I noticed that I was approaching a point where I wouldn’t be able to be productive anymore, I stepped back and went and did something else. Sometimes I went and talked to my siblings, sometimes I did other homework (although that wasn’t as effective as if I was working I might as well have been working on the important project), a couple of times I went outside and walked around, sometimes I wandered around my house, many times I started a conversation with one of my friends, and other times I read. Honestly, I probably went through all the activities I’ve been able to do during the quarantine to use as a short break, but no matter what, it definitely paid off. Overall, although I was still extremely stressed—especially as I approached the deadlines—when I did work I was always very productive, and when I had to work for long stretches without any breaks, I had enough energy and focus to finish all the necessary work.
3.) What is something you did for your happiness?
This week was a difficult week, but I did manage to do some things for my own happiness. First, one thing that I really enjoy doing (I don’t know if I mentioned this in my previous self-reflection) is writing analysis for books that I really like. However, the analysis always takes a lot of time, effort and thinking, so I hardly ever have the chance to write it. That being said, this week, while I was doing homework, I accidentally closed my tabs and ended up staring at my laptop background which is a picture of one of my favourite book characters, and one that I keep wanting to properly analyze. I wasn’t planning on writing any analysis, and definitely didn’t have time for it, but I was bored with my homework and was suddenly hit with the realization that almost everyone important to the previously mentioned character has a Bible-related name. This sent me thinking and I started writing out all of my thoughts. No, it probably wasn’t a proper analysis, but it was relaxing and exciting to figure things out about the books and characters, and I definitely enjoyed it. I only ended up with a coherent approximate 1620 words, but for a series of mid-homework revelations, I think that’s pretty good.
Otherwise, I’ve read a lot. I finished a book last Thursday and have since been reading another. It has taken me a while (of course I blame my amount of homework) but when I do read I enjoy it and it usually improves my mood. I have also started spending more time than ever with my siblings. I’m pretty sure I mentioned spending time with my family last time, but the amount of time I spend with my siblings particularly has increased significantly. For example, last night my sister and I sat on our front lawn for two hours discussing our friends, books and anything else that came up. Our conversations have become more and more frequent, and I look forward to when we can talk throughout the day, which isn’t something I think I’ve ever really honestly been able to say before. Moreover, I’ve been spending more time with my brother as well. We hardly have the same types of conversations that I can have with my sister, but if he asks me a question about his homework or something else that requires me to go to his room, we usually start to talk about other things, or I will sit in his room doing other stuff, while he does his homework. My time with my brother isn’t as frequent as my time with my sister, but I enjoy both very much.
Furthermore, I have continued to talk to my friends, both over text/other messaging, and over video calls. I have one friend who I talk to every day, even if it’s just for a small comment or question, and I look forward to when we talk. As much as being stuck at home isn’t great, I really appreciate how now I talk to my friend more than I ever did before. We’ve become closer than ever, and she has become one of the easiest people I have to talk to. So, starting conversations with her about anything, no matter how unhappy the subject, undoubtedly makes me happy and is something I do for my happiness.
4.) What is something you did for someone else?
For someone else, the main thing remains helping my siblings with their homework. I help them to the best of my abilities whenever they ask, whether it’s French grammar, understanding and translating spoken French (which is what I mentioned last time), or explaining how to fix Microsoft Teams. Also, this week one of the projects I had, the most stressful, was a group project. We had been (supposedly) working on the project since before Spring Break, but last Friday, I discovered that neither of two of my group members had done almost any of their work, and one of them didn’t even remember the title of the short story the entire project was based around. Over the course of the weekend, up until Wednesday (when the project was due), I left myself constantly available to them for any questions regarding the project or what they had to do. Throughout every day I went through their work and corrected it for them, giving them recommendations to change things or telling them what they needed to add. All of Wednesday I edited the entire project before handing it in. Now, I’m not sure how much of that necessarily counts as something I did for someone else, because all of it benefited me because it was our project together, but I think it counts somewhat because it did also benefit them.