Mikes Thoughts

Sleep was minimal

And mostly optional too. The party went on until whatever o’clock. Not sure but it sure precluded any ability at sleep. Somewhere in bleary eyed realism I realized at 3am or so, that was it. Here is what I found works for me. I love doing restorative yoga and particularly my spin on it for 30 minutes. I started doing the practice in Hanoi Vietnam after decades of lower back pain which seemed to come on with no real reason. I could move a certain way and I was gasping and in pain. I thought then,

just getting old and nothing will help

I ended up going to a Vietnamese doctor at a hospital in Hanoi. He listened attentively and offered me two choices:

  1. Traditional pain killers, rubs, stuff to put on my back. He told me as soon as the stuff wears off I likely will again have the problem.
  2. Yoga. He told me then about this yoga practice which is just restorative yoga. He told me about the Down Dog app and also gave me a paper on some asanas he thought would help.

So faced with taking drugs and rubbing in crap into my back I opted for yoga. Nothing happened in the short term. I still had moments when my back tweaked out and I was in pain. I would still go for walks and this often helped. At some point though, something happened. It just stopped after I had reached some months doing it. I have not had those problems for years now. I also managed to lose weight somehow with no real plan to do so. I ditched about 80 pounds I believe and probably went from about 260 (I was obese!) to now about 167 or so. I round it off but my wife believes it had to be that. None of the then clothes fit me now. Collared shirts once bought for a wedding drape over me like a tent. Pants don’t stay up. I think that this helped significantly too. The final thing has to be the walking every day. I do the walk my body tells me to go do. I stopped counting steps and distances after some time still using some health app to get my steps counted. I disliked those apps because they made it a “goal” and it never was. It was life and doing a thing for its sake that made a basic difference for the better in the quality and maybe the quantity of life I have.

Now even being tired after a night of little sleep, I found myself on the floor with Spotify playing a nice medley of music for yoga and meditation. I end the practice with about 5 minutes of nothing meditation. I don’t count, focus, lose focus, do anything particularly. If a thought pops in, I just let it go by gently telling myself I’ll deal with it later. I never do. Or I do. Whatever.

now its coffee and music

I enjoy the morning coffee in the room and the morning music playlist with some nice folk and acoustic stuff. Very peaceful. My wife dances around doing some kind of dance thing to music. Good on her. She also walks daily around this big block here with friends. Years ago she said she would never do those things. Little successes. Changes. Now tired or sore or whatever she does the things. It makes her feel better but she still complains about doing it. Perhaps half heartedly.

Sipping the coffee, writing. Thinking on the walk later today for some reason. I enjoy the things daily now that take me away from the house. The house always seems a sentence. So I try to do the things every so often to put some new words to the paragraph in my journal I write often on frustrations. Last night and this morning, it was sleep. Or the lack of.

Today it will be going later in the morning. Feeling how the wonderful Cambodian sun makes me feel. The incredible sweating and lightness of life I feel with it. I love the weather elements here. Hot, rainy, whatever. I can walk through it all.

So let the sleep be minimal I think. I will still do my things. Like next up going out for some coffee. See you when I get there. I think I mean really out. Like take a passapp and just go downtown to Noi Cafe. Another place I just love to do nothing at. I’ll be writing more nonsense there.

coffee out

Sometimes there’s no real choice. I feel I must go or I will say something that incites argument or friction in the house. Easier to get PassApp with a nice coupon and just leave. Find myself at Noi Cafe. Watching whatever. Finding nothing. It’s just the going this morning that counts. Will take a walk and then do something else. Then.

I’ll take the baby steps. Like making this markdown be that blogpost.