When COVID cases started surging again last March, I felt an odd feeling taking over. It was a mix of hopeless, empty sadness and stuck-ness. I felt BLAH.
Maybe it was because we were all looking forward to our kids' online classes to be over and finally reuniting them with my parents for a much-needed vacation in the province. Dada already bought groceries and snacks for the kids to bring with them, while Lolo & Lola already stocked up their freezer with their apos' favorite seafoods and boxes of Melona ice cream. And right before the school year was over, the ECQ was implemented again and we were back to Square One. It was like Groundhog Day.
I came across a NY Times article published a few days ago and shared by a friend on her Facebook wall that there's a term for this feeling: LANGUISHING. It was as if the article described the feeling I had: I wasn't depressed... but like some of my plants, I don't feel like I'm thriving. I felt stuck and I was surprised that there are other people experiencing it too. When I read that article, I was already a few days into moving myself out of this funky blah feeling. I want to measure my progress and I am taking stock of my successful conquests in the past 7 days of tasks that I have been avoiding doing --- some for weeks, while some for years!
- mopped the kitchen floors
- cleaned and cleared the kitchen counters and island
- folded all bed sheets, curtains, and towels from the last 6 months
- folded and ironed 1-month pile of my clothes
- started cooking again: tinola, adobo, and pinakbet
- cut down wild shrubs and pulled out weeds from the garden
- recovered 10,000+ photos after sorting through over 50,000+ files from my crashed hard drive from 2014
- organized and purged my Google Drive
- played the piano a bit after many years without practice
- played Overcooked on Nintendo Switch my kids
- started a daily stretch-and-strengthen exercise and completed Day 3
Mukhang nakatulong naman. The little progress excites me to take another step everyday. I realized that in my blah-state, I have lost my sense of compulsion to finish tasks... and with these small steps, I am reacquainting myself with that euphoric and compulsive desire to see an activity to completion. Must be the tiklop achievement that re-ignited me. If I can conquer my folding, I can conquer the world! 😅