Take care of yourself, again
The Muse Letter No. 44
Two weeks ago my new shoes arrived, the ones for the winter and the rain and the cold weather that is in many ways an all-year-round occurrence if you live in Scotland. Two weeks ago the blisters on my feet started building, today I finally managed to put plasters on them. After they soaked through many socks, made me limp for most of my walks, I finally sat down on my bed, cleaned them with antiseptic and generously applied two large and very expensive blister plasters on both heels.
I wanted to scream at myself: What took you so long? But I didn’t need to because I knew already.
My days contain of exactly two walks with my dog and I don’t want to tie him outside a shop
I have an indoor-workout routine of half an hour most days, that sounds way more elaborate than it actually is: I literally just dance and for the most part jump up and down to a generic 90s Eurodance playlist from spotify and observe every three minutes if I have achieved enough zone minutes e.g. entered a heart rate above 115 bpm on my fitness tracker.
There is hardly space for anything extra. Keeping this routine is all that I can bear at the moment. Meeting a friend, writing the Muse Letters, showing up to the writers hour every morning is a daily negotitation already. Going to the pharmacy didn’t make the cut for two weeks precisely because of that.
“We highly over-estimate our self-discipline” James Clear the author of Atomic Habits lives in my head now. A while ago I listened to his audiobook and now every time I do something, I hear him say: For this habit to stick it has to be easy, high-reward and accessible.