Category: Books

  • Today’s Thoughts About Discipline, Habits, & Routines

    Discipline, Habits & Routines This morning, I read about how there are three types of discipline. Structural, reactive, and expansive. Ideally, all three are needed to achieve goals. I think I do need to work on some structural aspects of my day. When I was working, I had alarms set for all sorts of things,…

  • The Body Keeps the Score

    I read the book, The Body Keeps the Score, several years ago and did not really believe in the idea that the body stores pain from past trauma. But now I do. One year ago, I had a traumatic emotional experience. Instead of dealing with it, I internalised it just as I had internalised earlier…

  • Productivity During the Freeze

    Productivity & Weather Productivity This morning, I woke up and was determined not to watch YouTube videos for two uninterrupted hours. I love YouTube. Never really watched online videos until recently, and now I spend most of the day watching some kind of content on my television YouTube app. I especially enjoy videos about other…

  • Actually Using Self-Help Strategies in the Books I Read

    Implementing Self-Help Strategies This morning, I started reading a very short ebook, How to Trick Yourself into Doing Things You Hate: Use Psychology, Self-Discipline, & Neuroscience to Suffer Less by Peter Hollins. Initially, I thought to speed through this book, but I think I will write a blog post about what I’ve read over the…

  • Balancing My Mental Health & Fitness, Quite Literally, in One Day

    Balancing My Mental Health & Fitness, Quite Literally, in One Day

    Today, I did my first workout, other than walking, since getting the flu and perhaps some pneumonia. Mobility is something I want to improve because I once could do pilates and yoga with smooth transitions. Now that I’m heavier and almost 48 years old, I’ve noticed I’m not as agile as I once was. To…

  • Meandering Thoughts & Book on Maternal Psychosis

    Clarified Tagline for Reality Bytes I changed the tagline of my blog to say, “My Meandering Thoughts and Healthy Living Journal” after ChatGPT said I had an observer problem with my posts and the theme of the blog. To me, healthy living is about living in the moment and deriving meaning through daily actions and…

  • The Work of a Human & “Little p Purpose”

    This morning, I was lying in bed and enjoying my cotton blankets. I had slept 12 hours, which is the most I’ve slept in 2 weeks due to flu/possible pneumonia. As I lingered and enjoyed the waffled texture of my blanket, I thought about how Marcus Aurelius in his Meditations said we should not lie…

  • Recovery from Illness: What I’ve Been Up To & What I Want to Do Next Week

    Flu/ Possible Pneumonia I am recovering from an illness that began around New Year’s Eve. For the most part, I’ve been lying on the couch resting. Watching television with my daughter. Reading. I didn’t really want to blog because I didn’t feel up to it then. I’m still coughing, and I am very fatigued. Hoping…

  • Freedom of Will & Living Well

    Freedom of Will, a concept of Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy A lot of times you hear about free will in religious circles. You also hear criticism of the concept of freedom of will from those who say we are never truly free of the human condition. Viktor Frankl discovered, as a prisoner in a holocaust death…

  • Hope for the Future Keeps Us Alive

    Hope for the Future Keeps Us Alive

    Spinoza’s Ethics Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it. Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning The prisoner who had lost faith in the future—his future—was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let…