Quiet Thoughtfulness
Earlier in the school year we were assigned to read a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear. The book held strong systems and ways to better yourself and your habits. I really enjoyed it. Recently we have taken a dive back into the works and ways of James Clear, to learn and strengthen ourselves in this weird time of Coronacation.
We were asked to read an article of our choice, read it, and connect it to ourselves. The article I chose to read was called
Grit: A Complete Guide on Being Mentally Tough
The article was talking about mental toughness. What is mental toughness? Well, it’s making the small victories happen so the big victories become automatic. What I mean by that is you push the easy option aside, make the small but less automatic option, and work it into becoming a habit.
For me, I will be using this system of mental toughness to better my sleep. Since joining the COVID-19 quarantine at the end of March, my sleep schedule has been all over the place. Why wouldn’t it be? I have no where I need to be. My only obligations are my online classes and most of them I could still attend without getting out of bed.
I do get out of bed though because otherwise I would never get anything done. It’s a part of my system: If I can get up, dressed, and ready in the morning then I’m a few steps closer to a productive day.
Back to my sleep schedule; I don’t like what it’s doing and where it’s going. I go to sleep at ridiculous hours of the morning only to wake up at 8:30, ignore my alarm, and get up a half hour before my first class. I don’t want to keep doing that. So, with the idea of mental toughness, I’m going to do the less automatic thing, and turn my sleep schedule around. I hope.
How?
I do the thing I don’t want to do and I deal with it. When I lay awake trying to fall asleep I won’t pick up my phone to wait until I’m tired enough I’ll just close my eyes and wait. When I wake up I will not just turn off my alarm but I’ll get up and have some breakfast. I’ll boycott the things I usually do that are ruining a good sleeping pattern and work to break the bad habits and slowly replace them with good ones.
The article talks about “Proving to yourself — in a thousand tiny ways — that you have enough guts to get in the ring and do battle with life”. That’s what I intend to do. With my sleep, and with my mindfulness in general. It’s a weird time in the world, it’s necessary to battle with life a bit to stay healthy and happy.