Practice what you preach
Sounds clichéd, doesn't it?
It’s 7:45 PM on a Sunday evening. As I gently recover from a state of feeling physically and mentally exhausted, there’s one phrase that comes to mind — practice what you preach.
After relying heavily on my fallback mechanisms (more on this later), I finally have the headspace for introspection to answer the dreaded What is going on with me? question.
At this point, you might be wondering what I usually preach. Dear reader, at the cost of sounding preachy, I say it’s just general wisdom (hehe). And it’s about time I start applying them to my life.
So, what do I preach? For starters, I argue self-care isn’t selfish, emphasize the importance of delayed gratification, and highlight the importance of critical decision-making. Perhaps this edition of the newsletter is a gentle reminder (not the passive-aggressive corpspeak gentle, mind you) to practice self-compassion.
Now that we have the background and have established the premise, do I have any actionable steps to ensure I will be more compassionate to myself? Well, I could try. And I did. Here’s what I came up with:
Strengthen self-fallback mechanisms
Contrary to popular opinion, I won’t recommend involving another human being in your fallback mechanism. I’d rather look for DIY fallback mechanisms. For instance, what helped me this evening was my moody playlist and a much-needed nap for over 2 hours. Sleep really serves as a hard restart for the brain, doesn’t it?
I don’t see an area of improvement here as of now since I started playing music right when the auto was reaching my doorstep lol. But yeah, putting it out there so future me can come up with something.
Update from 10 minutes later me: Well, my first thought was to watch a movie, get drunk, and sleep, so I’m glad I found a healthier fallback mechanism. Anyway, moving on.
Say no more often
I often criticize people for being people pleasers. Perhaps I should take my advice and say no more often. Not in the mood to do something? DON’T DO IT (unless it’s a priority obviously).
Build a stimulation control system?
On the surface, this seems like a doable action item. For the first step, I’ve silenced notifications from everyone. Yes, everyone. All notifications will go directly to the notification center when I’m home. So yeah, please expect a delay in responses and give me 48 hours TAT :P
I should also proactively take things off my calendar when I’m feeling overwhelmed or overstimulated. Speaking of calendars, I’ve created a public calendar to keep track of events and gigs I find interesting in Bangalore. I’m looking for collaborators to maintain it, so please drop me an email if you’re interested!
Treat Corner 🍨
This week, I have a song recommendation for you — Valerie. I discovered this song recently when a (cute) lady was singing it outside Bangalore International Centre. I kinda sorta liked her version better, but Amy’s cover is equally good hehe.
Editor’s Note: I had the aforesaid version in drafts for a few days and listened to it while writing this post. I sorta found it a bit too overstimulating. Anyway, I found a live acoustic version (240p though) that sounds more peaceful.
I keep seeing these Amy Winehouse was a legend comments, and I’m starting to understand why. Her voice is amazing! This section of her Wikipedia page (TW: Substance abuse and mental illness) is devastating to read though.
Small Wins 🥹🌟
Introducing Small Wins, a new section where I appreciate myself for achieving smol things in life. :3 I guess this might be a mandatory section, as opposed to the optional treat corner and rant box sections. I have a niceeeee rant for this week, but I’m too tired to keyboard it now.
If you don’t see this section in the next post, you can safely assume I’ve achieved basically nothing lately :P
Umm, I have two small wins this week. I finally rekindled (no pun intended, physical books >>>>) my reading habit, thanks to a silent reading community called Lalbagh Reads. The idea originated in Cubbon Park with Cubbon Reads and since then, multiple chapters have been formed across the country and even abroad.
You know what I like about this community? It’s not a book club. Maybe they should make a tee merch with this quote (you’re welcome, Nandi Hills :3). Everyone is minding their own business and quietly reading books, making art, under a serene sky. No typical pretentious bookclub gossip discussions are happening over here, and I think that’s beautiful :)
And I bought a fancy 4-slice pop-up toaster 🥹 Haven’t unboxed it yet, but yeah, looking forward to extensively using it for productive mornings :P Hope it isn’t damaged ;-;
Until next time,
Hearts if you liked it, subs if you loved it!
Love,
Subin