Thriving or Surviving

Yesterday, I had stated that today I'd be sharing a 0-10 alternative pain scale with you. That has been taking longer to design than I had anticipated. Hopefully I'll be able to share it this weekend or early next week! Instead, let's talk about yesterday afternoon and evening and this morning.  I felt horrible. I was so nauseous! I ordered some homeopathic nausea treatment items that were supposed to be delivered same day and they DID NOT ARRIVE within the time frame promised. They were supposed to be here by 11am yesterday. By the time 11am rolled around, the shipper was promising to deliver by 10pm. 10pm came and went with a notification that my items had been returned to the processing center. As the day progressed, I'd become increasing nauseous to the point that if I moved at all I wanted to gag. Without solutions, there was no way I'd be able to go to my day job today. My regular medications have seemed to stop working and other medications have such strong s...

Today, I am committed to flossing my teeth. I have a complex relationship with dentistry and oral care due to a series of traumatic dental experiences as a child and a horrible orthodontia experience. As a result, I find flossing physically and mentally difficult which results in not flossing often. Today, I am making (and keeping) a promise to myself to floss my entire mouth.  Please note: Links in this post may include affiliate links which could result in small commissions to me at no cost to you if you purchase through these links. Thank you in advance! To some this will seem silly, but to those who also have dental trauma, it might make perfect sense: I floss my mouth in sections. I simply cannot get myself to floss my entire mouth all at once. I generally think of my teeth in quadrants and will floss one fourth of my mouth at a time. Today, I will go one fourth at a time, but over the course of the day will make sure I've flossed entirely. To be totally honest, just typing th...

Yesterday, I wrote about needing to reset my health and well-being and that I was going to seek to improve my health by 10% over the next 30 days.  Today is day 2 of 30. Everyone in my house has officially tested positive for Covid-19 and we are all symptomatic. I don't feel great, physically, but this is far less severe than every prior Covid infection I've experienced, thank goodness! I do have a fever, however, so I will not be going to work tomorrow (fingers crossed that I can go to work on Friday!).  I attribute part of my not feeling as awful as my last few Covid experiences to simply how the virus has evolved over the last several years, but also because I've been consciously paying attention to my energy levels, hydration, vitamins, supplements, and medication needs.  Before I go on, I do need to remind you, my dear reader, that anything I write here is NOT medical advice. If you feel ill or have concerns or questions about your well being or anything discussed i...

Please note: Links in this post may include affiliate links which could result in small commissions to me at no cost to you if you purchase through these links. Thank you in advance! My health has never been great. As a child, I frequently had ear and respiratory infections and other ailments.  As an adult? I'm also still sick often--more in the last two years than usual. As I write this, I am on my sixth (or seventh?) round of having Covid-19 right on the heels of a non-Covid respiratory infection that triggered some asthma symptoms. On top of that, I've also got a hip injury to contend with and mystery tummy ailments that are getting worse.  Over the past two years, I've also experienced a worsening of my vertigo and balance issues, had numerous random falls, and an episode of low enough iron reserves to warrant an iron infusion. I'm currently on more meds and supplements than I ever have been in my life as well, and they all feel essential.  That said, I am a lot hea...

On June 27th, 2024, I was given a layoff notice and 60 days to finish out my position before it would be eliminated. August 27th, I walked away without a new job lined up, despite many applications and many interviews -- a technicality in my old job's classification was getting in the way of a new job offer.  Fast forward to October 7th when I started a new job.  I was actually offered four jobs all at about the same time and had interviews for several others lined up. It felt great to know I was WANTED. I felt validated and valued! Of the four jobs I was offered: The first was offered based entirely on my resume and after only a five minute conversation. The pay, however, was low and the hours not great. The second job I was offered seemed like a great cultural fit and everyone was welcoming and warm when I did a shadow session as part of the interview process. The HR person told me that I not only could negotiate any offered salary but that I SHOULD . They offered just a tin...

This post contains affiliate links towards the end. Any purchase made through such links may result in a commission to me, but at NO COST to you. Thank you in advance! My mental health has been suffering lately. I received a layoff notice at work on June 27th and my job was officially eliminated on August 27th. Throughout the two months in between, and the month and a half since then and when I am drafting this post, I've been stressed out, anxious, and depressed. I very quickly started to binge more social media content than is normal for me, but I also realized that even before these events, I was spending a lot more time on social media than is ideal.  You can learn more about my lay off journey on YouTube HERE . Early in September, I was scrolling on Instagram, mindlessly, and realized how dissatisfied I was with my time on social media, primarily Instagram and Facebook. I really don't use much else -- I dabble in YouTube and go to Pinterest for inspiration and recipes, but...

Something interesting happened this weekend.  With only two work days left before my job is eliminated, I expected to be going into this week panicked, worried, and freaking out.  Instead, something else entirely happened. First, I started to feel calm -- calmer than I've felt in a very long time.  Second, I started to feel excited and curious about the possibilities of hours not spent at a job working for someone else.  I've spent the last two months growing increasingly anxious and depressed about my layoff, to a degree that I started to see a new therapist and have considered trying an antidepressant. Through working with my therapist and facing the elimination of my job, I've been considering what I really want out of life. Am I just pursuing certain paths because I feel like I should or because I think it's expected?  I am still looking for a new job and have had several promising interviews, but this mental shift and the possibilities raised by not having ...

I hate my current commute, but as part of a float pool, I'm stuck going to whatever work site my bosses assign me to. Last month, my bosses FORGOT to assign me and ended up sticking me at an assignment that's an hour and a half away from my home. I don't have a car, so I'm on the bus for three hours round trip Monday to Friday. It's horrible and I feel like it's slowly killing me.  I am actively looking for other jobs, but in the meantime, I'm stuck with this commute for another 9 business days -- after the 9th remaining day, my job is being eliminated. Overall, I will have been stuck with this commute for three weeks.  I know others have worse commutes -- I've had worse -- but right now, I'm struggling in several areas of life so it feels even worse than it actually is . After coming home several days in a row so exhausted that I can barely function by the time I get home, I decided to find a way to make my bus rides more tolerable and to get some t...