5 Questions for Everyday

I answered these 5-6 questions every day for two weeks and this is what I learned—

As someone who has been on and off antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication for 10 years, I wanted to take a more self-healing approach. In doing so, my doctor gave me some homework: answer the following questions every day, at the end of the day, for two weeks straight: 

1. How am I feeling today? 

2. What has happened in my life today? 

3. Why do I think I feel the way I do today? 

4. What’s one thing I wish I could’ve handled better? 

5. What’s something I can improve on tomorrow and how do I do it? 

After about the 7th entry, I felt like the questions towards the end were focusing too much on what I didn’t do that day. So I added a question of, “What’s something I did well today?”. I added this because I believe we are too hard on ourselves sometimes.  As a society, our tendency is to always focus on what we didn’t do  and then feel bad when we didn’t do it.  Rest days are needed. For example, during my long weekend celebrating the 4th of July I had many rest days.  In fact, I slept in every single day and then I worked out.  Not only did I check the box off for sleep, but I also made sure I did some form of self-care. Yes, perhaps I didn’t read that book that I wanted too and instead I watched hours of TV, and that’s okay. I’m listening to my body’s needs.  

Okay great, but what did I learn? Everyday I was using a different word to describe how I was feeling: Tired. Aggravated. Stressed. Anxious. Happy. Lively. Energized. Tired again. Sad. Good. Fine. Annoyed.  

And that all depended on what happened in my life that day. On the days I felt positive, I typically started my day working out (which is interesting because I used to hate working out first thing in the morning but I’ve found it starts my day feeling more energized and ready to take on anything). On the days I felt negative, it was to the affect of someone else— if someone did or said something that annoyed me, then I was annoyed.  I couldn’t seem to just let that feeling go until the next day when I didn’t think about it anymore.   

If I was feeling a certain way, I would ask myself why. Sometimes I felt like I was being pulled in so many different directions it would flare up my anxiety.  Then I was all in my head and I needed to go back to focusing on my breath.  I learned that I need to manage my time better.  If I over commit myself, I get stressed, back out of plans, and then I feel bad for backing out of said plans. I feel like I’m disappointing people and the vicious cycle continues.  

So, what are the takeaway? 

1. Start my days with a workout, even if I really don’t feel like doing it then, I know I will feel better afterwards. 

2. My feelings and emotions were affected by the feelings of those around me. 

3. I get a lot of my energy from positive people and being social. 

4. Even though I love being around my friends, don’t over-commit my time. 

5. Manage my time by always prioritizing myself and my health before anything else. 

I invite you to ask those 5-6 questions yourself at the end of every day for two weeks and see what you learn about yourself and any patterns. You may be surprised by what you find.  

There’s a tough balance between work and life and taking care of yourself.  I started thinking like this, “What am I doing today for my health?”. Be it’s working out, going to physical therapy or seeing my other doctors, stretching, sleeping, eating well, or whatever.  This has to always come first. Self-care isn’t selfish and prioritizing yourself also isn’t selfish. If you don’t take care of yourself and understand yourself and why you do the things you do, who will?