My happiness project (1)

As Gretchen Rubin said in her 1st chapter, "boost energy" she said about:
a. go to sleep earlier
b. exercise better
c. toss, restore, and organise
d. tackle a nagging task
e. act more energetic

Since last week I've been following her suggestion about this powerful chapter one. I admitted that most of time, I feel lack of energy. I thought that my mood determines my energy, and I theoretically know that having more positive minds, will lead to more energy. This concept is rarely useful in practical actions. My pre-conclusion is, I was so unhealthy most of time. I eat less, I sleep less, I give myself pressure too much. I worried about many things, my scholarship, my professor, the urge to be successful like my other friends, my worries over language barrier, boyfriend and feeling, envious thoughts. These negative things absorbed my energy to the limit. I have nothing left but feeling tired and despair. I became more introvert and really skeptical towards life.

So, I started to re-designing my life in day to day basis. Talk about something positive, I do have positive habit that I think it helps me most of time to overcome stress. "toss, restore, and organise". I am such an anal retentive. I can't live in messy place, so I regularly decorating my room and changing something 'till I find the most efficient and ergonomic position to store my things. I count on how much resource to finish a task. I think, this is why I choose to be an industrial engineer in the first place. In short, "toss, restore, and organise" was done without any difficulty.

I also use Rubin motto, "do one-minute task right now". Sometimes it is good, and sometimes it is not. It is good because we value the important of time. We tend to do more in short period of time, and it will bring us satisfaction when we can finish them all. It is bad because we tend to lose focus. There's always something to do before the another starts. But I manage this motto only if I have plenty of leisure time. I don't think when the classes start, I will have this concept.. I usually be a deadliner.

Talk about exercise, I manage to keep 20 mins of mat-exercise everyday focused on my belly, arms, and lower back. I start go to gym to train my legs and lower back. I do some cardio to lose some weight also. Today, I saw a girl with a similar height with me but weighted 39 kg. I do feel bad about myself and also sorry for her. I want to reduce some, but I think 39 is way extreme. I do really want to burn my belly fat. I regret every junkfood I've consumed, I hate every cup of coffee I sipped. Glad that I quit coffee since last year and I quit junkfood since 6 months ago. I also want to quit shisha starting from last month. My boyfriend also starts his vegan lifestyle, while I am not. I have reasons. I have anaemic tendency and I don't think I can find good substitution for my nutrition here. I don't really cook and I know that vegan diet is difficult. Besides, I should say that eating animals aren't that bad. This life has its food chain and human is naturally somewhere upper the pyramid. I think, when we eat everything in a good balance and not excessively, we actually help this nature. I couldn't say I'll help rainforest by not consuming meat. It's way too far and animals are renewable resources so does human *okay, this out of context*. In short, I don't think being vegan is my calling. I always have something for this nature, but I prefer to call it sustainability. I reduce my plastic consumption, I know PET is bad, I try to switch off every appliances when it is not required, I always choose more healthy product, not much chemical and stuffs. I am pretty naturalist. I believe in balance.

Meanwhile, Try to sleep earlier is the hardest part to do, considering I develop sustainable long distance relationship where time does matter. I should be flexible enough to face our time differences. I try to manage my sleep 7-8 hours a day with sleeping time vary from 8pm to 4am in the morning. That's true.

The lasts two are "tackle nagging task" and "act more energetic". In this last week of holiday, I don't really have that much task, even I demand one. It seems that my prof has nothing to give to me, which is good. I am really looking for some peaceful time in my life where I can do blogging, I can read books, I can wake up late. I believe when the school starts, I will lose every advantage of having more time.

To utilise all these resources is something I consider as my goal. When people ask me about my bigger goal, to be honest, I really don't have idea. I definitely will finish master, go for conferences, and write thesis. After that I'll find a job, maybe? But these goals are, again, so stressful. To manage this stressful standard, I know that I need my happiness project on the 1st place.