Good | Bad | Rad #7

A look back at some of the best, worst and most surprising parts of my week.

The Good

High-Tech Solutions. In last week’s Good | Bad | Rad review, I mentioned that while I was happy to be sleeping, I was finding myself over-sleeping and feeling rushed and groggy in the mornings. Janine was kind enough to remind me about an iPhone app she’s been using, Sleep Cycle, that gently awakens you at the optimal time during a window you choose. I did a little research and decided on a similar but different app, MotionX-Sleep, because it was supposed to work better with a memory-foam mattress. I love it! I’m waking up gently in the morning, plus I can see a graph of the quality of sleep I’m getting during the night. This app has quickly become integral to my nights and days. There’s a lot to it for just $0.99! So much, that I’ll be posting an in-depth review of it soon.

Hummingbirds. In the last few reviews, I’ve mentioned the hummingbirds and the feeder solution I came up with. It works! The hummingbirds have been hanging out and feeding. A lot. I have to refill the feeder every few days, which involves removing the window screen and hanging out the 2nd story window, but I’m happy to do it, so I can keep seeing these amazing little birds throughout the day.

Exploring & Playing. This week was my monthly class and coaching hour. I love coming up with the topics, and how I want to present the techniques. Guiding listeners through the techniques and working with a couple of people with questions, or who want to be personally coached. Lately people have been shy about being coached, so be sure and call in if you’d like to volunteer! This month, Be Resourceful, was especially fulfilling because of all the great feedback. I had emails of praise waiting in my inbox before the call was even over.

September. This is one of my favorite times of the year, and this is a particularly gorgeous one here in Portland. We’re having warm clear days and cool evenings. Long term forecasts have this predicted for at least another week! More hikes, rides, runs and rocking without rain.

The Bad

Editing Audio. As much as I love the Explore & Play calls, I dread editing the audio. I’m not sure exactly why. Oh, sure there’s that automatic cringe you get when you hear your own voice, and hearing all those umms, but those things aren’t that bad. And re-listening to the audio, often reminds of extras I want to share with the Explore & Play More Members. But you know what happens when you dread something…you spend half your time gearing yourself up to do it! So, I’d love to practice just letting it be easy.

Feeling Guilty. Feeling guilty is bad enough, but feeling guilty over needing to rest and rejuvenate? Just plain silly. Yet, I found myself earlier this week. I wrote a whole post about it, so I won’t dig in to it too deeply here. Just suffice it to say, needing to rest, wanting to rest, is perfectly acceptable and reasonable. It is part of the natural cycles of everything. It’s time to accept it. (I’m writing that mostly for myself, but if you find it useful, by all means, embrace it!)

Forgetting Things. Like checking my calendar before making commitments! Oh, that’s so frustrating when I do that. I’ve gotten really great at remembering to write things down, and by write things down, I mean put them in my google calendar that syncs with my iPhone. I’ve finally recognized that I need to put everything in there, even if I’m sure that I’ll remember it. So now that I’m doing that, it frees up my mind for other things. Which also means that since I don’t have to remember things, because I can just look in my calendar, I need to look in my calendar. This week’s confusion ended up working out okay, but I hate starting conversations with, “I’m sorry I screwed up, can we…”

The Rad

Ear Plugs. Yes, seriously. They’re. The. Best. Thing. Ever. Ever! Why didn’t anyone ever tell me? Oh wait you have been. People have been recommending ear plugs to me for a long, long, time. But I’ve resisted them. I have a little bit of tinnitus and foam ear plugs seem to make it worse. Whenever I would try them it would get all buzzy and echo-y and just weird in my head. Plus, the pressure of the expanding foam was uncomfortable. They hurt when I’d roll over, blah, blah, blah.

But, then earlier this week I came across some wax & cotton ear plugs that my aunt gave me years, possibly decades, ago. I decided to try them. They are comfortable, they block noise, I don’t have any weird buzzy, echo-y sensation when they’re in. They let me sleep through the Friday 5:30 am cacophony of recycling, yard debris and garbage pick-ups, and all the attendant crashing, banging and back-up beeping that comes with them.

Judging from the MotionX sleep graphs, I spent more time in deep sleep and didn’t wake up at all during the night.

Another thing I was worried about with ear plugs, was not hearing something I should hear, like my alarm or boogeymen or something. I haven’t had any experience with boogeymen (while wearing ear plugs or not) but I can report that I awoke easily to the very gentle and quiet alarm of the MotionX-Sleep app.

Update: So, I’m still loving ear plugs, but I’ve switched to a different type. Now, I’m getting the best results from silicone earplugs. They work much like the wax one’s, but better. I tried a couple brands, and have settled on the local store brand version, Kroger’s, that I get at Fred Meyer.

And you?

What were the Good | Bad | Rad parts of your week? Share them here, in the comments, or on the Perception Studios Facebook page.