panic alternative: stand on a chair.

my head's been floating a little the past few days.  there are two weeks of school left.  well, scratch that.  i wanted to write this post yesterday, at which point there would have been two weeks of school left.  now, there are less than two weeks of school left.

in any normal semester, i would haven known this.  no, not only would i have known this, i would have held a celebration at two weeks.  thrown my homework in the air and made gourmet cupcakes - complete with raspberry filling and chocolate drizzled over the buttercream frosting.  but this hasn't exactly been a typical semester, has it?

this semester, i wasn't counting down.  actually, the one-month mark passed me up without my conscious awareness of it.  i didn't count because i've been insisting on a one day at a time mindset.  my philosophy was that if i only focussed on one day at a time, i wouldn't have any major panic attacks about moving to a very foreign corner of the united states with nothing but my car and a work phone {basically}.  what i hadn't considered was what would happen when the moving day came.

luckily, i came upon some wise words.  last week, i started thinking about this whole moving thing more realistically - you know, envisioning myself there and other nerdish techniques.  that's helped keep me calm, too.

however, as a testament to my floating head, the fact that i only have two weeks left in which to finish a major amount of papers and books and projects never crossed my mind.  until yesterday, that is.  so, what did i do?  i started to have a panic attack, then stopped myself.  {note, i am extremely proud of the progress that shows in everything after this point.}  i calmed-talked myself, saying things like "all i can do will be enough," and "it's not too much if you take it slowly."  i did four minutes of wall-sits, two minutes of full plank position, eighty reps of boat-pose twists with a five pound weight. . .and as a result i can barely sit in a chair today.  after all of that, i drank almost two quarts of water while standing on a kitchen chair in the middle of the kitchen and living room.  and it worked.

i'm going to remember this strategy because it kicked the up-coming panic attack in the backside!

positive affirmations + a killer workout + lots of water + standing on something really tall = a calmer and happier me!

i know the bit about me standing on a chair might seem a little strange, but i promise it works.  next time you're feeling overwhelmed, go stand on a chair or table and do some deep breathing.  when you're that high above everything, there's nothing left to close in on you.  it's magic.

so, back to these two weeks left of class: it's going to be busy.  but i also have a feeling that it might just be the best two weeks of the semester.  i'm on a roll right now - which is a good thing to be on while the semester is coming to a close.  i'm also feeling much more energetic than is typical for me come close to finals week.

so, here's the plan of attack:

• early to bed, early to rise: i need about eight hours a night to function.  these next few weeks, i'm going to shift my sleep schedule a tad bit for maximum productivity.  i'll be in bed before eleven and i'll be up and running before seven.
• exercise!  if there's anything that keeps me happy and energetic, it's a good run.  i've been laying off running the last while because of my sore feet, but i'm going to start slowly {very slowly, at the demand of my sad feet} stepping it up again.  five days a week - resting on wednesday and sunday.
• good food:  i've had a hard time trying to tinker with my diet lately.  with crazy things coming at me from all sides, if i try to buckle down i end up sitting on the floor with cinnamon and sugar toast, a bag of chocolate chips, hot chocolate, and ice cream....which is what we don't want. :)  i'm aiming for three balanced meals a day and not too much sugar.  my goal is to listen to my body.
• study: i need some major focus time.  with mornings a little more free, i'm going to really utilize my morning energy to crank out some papers.  i'll have evenings free to finish more reading while i'm feeling a little more sluggish.

so that's the plan.  it'll probably change. . .because they usually adapt to my roommate's schedules, too.

ready. . .

go!