For my final self-intervention, I wanted to do something positive for myself. With stress, depression, and anxiety, this combination eats away at me. How? Well, I start not taking care of myself.
Since the beginning of the quarter, I was always focused on the negatives, with my not-really-relationship falling apart and my sexual assault by a not-anymore close friend. I never really took a pause, and instead was falling in a growing cycle of unhappiness. I stopped putting in effort on my appearance, I didn’t step foot in the gym, I never put in the effort to eat well and enough so I was losing even more weight with my already petite frame, I was always alone when I went out, and the list goes on.
For my self-intervention, I gave myself an outline of goals to achieve the last 7 days, and here are the results:
- Go to the gym for 4 days (get acquainted with weight-lifting again)
- I went to the gym every other day for an hour and a half before class. It was difficult to lift light because I used to lift heavy so it was upsetting how my strength went down.
- Eat at least 3 meals per day
- Because of going to the gym and needing to carry an extra bag for workout gear and clothes, it also gave me the option to bring containers of prepped meals and snacks. As a result, I was able to eat 3 meals per day. However, because of my weird late-night schedule with me wanting to fall asleep before my early schedule the next day, I ended up being food on campus on the days I didn’t bring enough snacks with me
- Sleep 7 to 8 hours per day
- This was difficult. For 6 out of 7 days, I found myself waking up at 3 or 4 and having a hard time falling back asleep until an hour later.
- Have a conversation with 3 relatives
- I had a conversation with 4 relatives. 4! I’m never really close with my family and don’t regularly speak with my parents compared to my friends. I spoke with my younger sister, mom, dad and my grandpa back in the Philippines.
- Eat out with friends
- Last Saturday, my friends and I had an early Friendsgiving potluck. The last time we actually ate out was the Friday after October 2nd (my B-day), so we were long overdue for some friendship bonding.
Reflection:
This experience helped me realize that putting in effort in myself and healthy relationships helps aid in my happiness. Although the other concerns in my life, as well as academics, will definitely still be there to drag me down, just accomplishing something is very rewarding. Because I am staying in SLO for the break to focus on applications, my portfolio, and a project, I will continue my self-intervention for another week.