Facilitate sanity

I woke up this morning feeling fine, and then got to work and grew a pretty sizable headache that persevered until mid-afternoon. And, my right contact was foggy all day long. My day was hectic with meetings and groups to lead, and I was/am tired at the end of the day. But, dang it, I made myself exercise. What a triumph. The facility where I work offers its employees a really great price for its fitness center, so I've been using it two to three times a week for a few weeks now. Granted, today all I did was the recumbent bike, when usually I run on the treadmill, but I still did it, right? I am happy I am trying to facilitate my own sanity; I feel so much relief after I make myself exercise. And relief is really difficult to come by. 


I can hardly believe nobody liked that picture of the labradoodle I posted yesterday. That dog doesn't even look real. 

Distraction

I was in the middle of a song today, and I suddenly thought of something I wanted to investigate that had nothing to do with the session I was leading. There are so many things going through my head lately that I have trouble focusing. This distractibility could be a sign that I am already boring myself and need to infuse more energy into work, and/or that I am failing to organize my outside thoughts. One of the topics of one of the first posts here was compartmentalization. I should re-visit it and see if I can remember what worked for me then. Any other ideas?

Oh, and I like labradoodles. They don't shed, right? Seriously, poodles don't shed. Do these?

Solo songs

The weekend was fantastic, as I expected. We were able to see a number of family members. We are so fortunate that our families live so close to each other, and that we're really not that far from them.


Musically speaking, my band (though I always have trouble saying "my band," since I didn't form it), has a show tomorrow night. Last night during one of our we-haven't-practiced-for-weeks-and-we-have-a-new-drummer-and-a-show-this-week practices, I have a very simple, but beneficial, revelation: I should incorporate the melodies I frequently "write" on any given day at any given moment into my solos. Why haven't I thought of my solos in that way before?

To home

An idea I have for my higher-functioning music therapy groups: Introduce one perhaps-new-to-them instrument weekly. Challenge with this idea: Come up with one perhaps-new-to-them instrument, other than the two I've used this week.
This weekend, we will be going to see family. There are three birthdays to celebrate, all having happened within the past week and a half.
Have a happy weekend.

My favorite read

I am entirely and decidedly unapologetically a behaviorist. I mean I consider myself a behaviorist on a personal level, not necessarily on a professional level. However, I wonder how personal philosophy doesn't seep into professional practice as a therapist. But my professional life isn't what's concerning me at the moment. 
One of my favorite pastimes is to worry, and most of the time to couple that worry with imagining the full extent of the very worst outcome of any given situation. (Ask me for the quote I used to describe myself in my senior yearbook. Hint: The picture of Janeane Garofalo has something to do with it.) I think, if I have done my best to think of the disaster that could be, then nine times out of ten I will be pleasantly surprised when such outcome does not happen. 

Janeane Garofalo, of course

I have known this about myself for quite some time, and have recently been noticing the behaviors I have when I am especially anxious. I won't describe the behaviors because, quite frankly, I have seen them listed as diagnostic criteria for a certain number of disorders in one of my favorite reads (p. 462, DSM-IV-TR). What I'm trying to explain is that I find that being conscious of my behaviors of anxiety is the first step in alleviating that anxiety, but actually stopping the behaviors or substituting others (like smiling) tricks me into believing that I am more relaxed or more happy. Breathing steadily also helps. And eating. Eating always works for me. 
Then all of this leads me to wonder, what is the difference between genuine feeling and manipulated feeling? Can your own behavioral manipulation identify the resulting affect as what is real? Chronic anxiety is not conducive to good health. So I suppose, anything I can do, like actually using the words to tell myself to smile could help my health. And yours, too, should you come across me when I haven't recently eaten.

Fitting to scale

Minor frustrations at work include:
1. Rooms full of sleeping people, likely caused by the dark and rainy day;
2. People fighting with each other, likely caused by the dark and rainy day;
3. Very sick people whom I cannot help;
4. Providing a performance-based rehearsal that I haven't ever done, which was difficult because:
A. I needed to use keyboard, and I do not fancy myself a keyboardist;
B. We are supposed to have these rehearsals weekly, however every Tuesday in March and those few in February had conflicts;
C. The residents who are in this ensemble were pretty upset that I hadn't been facilitating rehearsals, even though the schedule is not within my control;
D. I cannot tell them it was not within my control;
E. The rehearsal was not what I consider successful. 
:)
Successes at work include:
1. Providing a pretty interesting and engaging session with a resident on a one-to-one basis;
2. Facilitating the aforementioned rehearsal, even though I'd rate it a bandaged frowning face on a Likert scale;
3. Watching residents utilize a rain stick and ocean drum, which provided multi-sensory stimulation (as well as laughter and socialization);
4. Discovering I truly enjoy using yellow highlighting. 


Word: Fugacious.

7K

What a great, perfect weekend. On Saturday morning, Thomas and I ran the Get Lucky 7K, which was fantastic. I never knew I would love that race so much. My face still hurts from smiling all day. :) Perhaps I will run another race in mid-April.
On Sunday, we bottled our beer. Now we wait two weeks to taste it. We're thinking of having a party in a couple of weeks where possibly our beer will be served/drinkable.

Happy Monday to you.