Made it up Sanitas ~50 times over the course of the year

A few years ago, I wrote a similar post for my 24th birthday (funny enough, 4 days late last time too). It was a nice prompt so I’m trying something similar this year.

some learnings & reflections

How I feel is a product of many small decisions throughout my day, like what time did I go to bed? Does the sun or an alarm clock wake me? Did I eat a carby, delicious lunch or a modest chicken veggie rice bowl. Did I consume the YouTube videos on my feed, do I click open YouTube at all? How early do I get outside? How many times did I get outside? Did I break a sweat outside?
Injuries heal faster than I think, and take longer to heal than I think. It’s strange. I’m still dealing with little embodied reminders of the bike accident in places. Just gotta accept and love what is because what else is there.
When in doubt, send that email. Or text message. Even if I think the answer’s going to be no. Oftentimes, just doing it allows potential reality possibilities to collapse and free up brain space. It widens the set of the adjacent possibles. In the worst case I get rejected and judged. In the best case, it opens up the next chapter.
Check whether the country I’m flying to requires an ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization) for entry, preferably before I’ve reached the check-in desk.
Looking at my notifications in the morning after I’ve stepped outside is a massively better experience compared with looking at them before I stepped outside. This was particularly felt when I would open twitter and expose myself to the raw signal of the internet before my poor brain matter has had caffeine percolating through it.
Voice notes, particularly unscripted ones, carry emotional value. They might feel a little messier and harder to get right, but they’re also wonderful in their irreproducibility.
If I’m in a conversation where things aren’t quite making sense and I feel there are some things that aren’t being said or considered, it is a signal to consider stating those things out loud.
- Depending on where on the democratic to authoritarian spectrum the regime you inhabit falls, this may have negative consequences
Rental car Insurance just makes a lot of sense. If simply for the reduced level of background stress while navigating in a foreign country with different rules and infrastructure. It’s nice to know that my financial downside is somewhat limited.
Chopping wood and carrying water is a good shortcut to gratitude, and expanded awareness of how much we get for virtually free in modernity. It also helps break habits that might seem a bit stuck.
When given the opportunity, stop by a friend’s house on the way home. Even if it’s just 10 minutes. It might make their day. It might make their week. And it’s at virtually no cost to me.
Since touring a wastewater treatment plant I’ve been more conscious about what I put into drains and trash receptacles. It’s someone’s job somewhere to deal with that, why make their life harder than it needs to be?
When choosing between a pair of shoes that’s falling apart and one that hasn’t been broken in yet (for a trek longer than 10 miles) take the new pair. Or at least throw them in your pack, eat the weight.
Locate my next pair of contacts or my glasses before throwing out my current contacts.
Attentional negotiation is an art. Nudge it subtly and no one notices it happening. Do it loudly, and chaos emerges. Facilitation and procedure is one way of dealing with this, but the best bet is just listening and letting energy flow naturally.
Improvements to shared spaces are best done incrementally. A label here, a softer rug there. Listen to the needs of the space and quietly respond to them, rather than trying to impose order on the place.