What a Life!

I think my favorite thing about the beginning of a new year is making New Year’s Resolutions. I get quite serious about it all during the month of December, trying various resolutions to see if they’re realistic or worthwhile.

This year, my New Year’s Resolution is to follow the Joy Diet. It’s a book, actually, by one of my favorite authors – The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life by Martha Beck.

I’ve read this book more than once and implemented many of the practices from time to time. The last three months have been really trying for me – I’ve had more to do than I could possibly get done, and my sanity has been on the brink. And so I’ve come back to The Joy Diet with the intention of not just keeping my sanity but flourishing.

My favorite parts of the Joy Diet at the moment are Treats and Play. Because as we all know, all work and no play makes Tana a very dull girl. The Play part is simple – I am a technical editor and I do enjoy what I do. I’m going to think of it as Play rather than “Ugh, do I have to edit another pattern?” when work appears in my inbox.

As for the Treats part…I tend to reward myself with food, which, shall we say, isn’t exactly good for the waistline. My new objective is to Substitute Inedible Nourishment – or SIN – whenever I need to recharge. In fact, I am going to commit so much SIN that recharging won’t even be an issue because I’ll keep myself fresh rather than running myself into the ground.

Here are some of the Treats I’m looking forward to enjoying:

Reading – currently I’m savoring A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations, which happen to be the current Oprah Book Club selections. And yes, I bought the official book club copy – there’s just something about the feel of a book in your hand that makes you want to read it, and this edition is even more so.

Poetry – one of the things I’ve done with Ben for school is to read a new poem every day, followed by reading the four previous days poems. Each time I read a poem, I get something new from it, and by the fifth day, I’m familiar enough with it to really enjoy listening to it. I’ve decided to do the same for myself. At the moment I’m reading through Good Poems by Garrison Keillor. Highly recommended.

There are other books I’ve got my nose in as well, books I intend to read once a week rather than daily. For instance, I want to read one topic in the Handbook of Nature Study every week. The essays in that book are quite interesting, but the book has just set on the shelf rather than being used. This year I intend to put it to good use.

I want to play the piano at least once a day, even if I just play one song…though I must admit that it’s hard to play just one song. I am going to be teaching Ben how to play the piano in the new year, and I might as well challenge myself to practice and learn a little as well.

Knitting, of course, is on the list of Treats. Right now I just want no knitting deadlines. I made some beautiful gifts for Christmas, but now I want to make some impractical things just for the fun of it. This evening I cast on a pair of socks. Yesterday I bought yarn to make myself a simple cardigan. I’m thinking of even designing it, in fact. I made my mom a cardigan for Christmas (finally!), and I want to make another sweater for Steve this year. But again, no knitting deadlines. Just knitting for fun.

Exercise is one of my Treats. Yesterday it was warm enough that I went for my walk outside. Beginning last spring, I went for an hour walk every day, but since it’s been cold, I’ve been doing stair-stepping inside. Exercise always makes me feel good, and going on my walk yesterday reminded me just how much I enjoy those daily walks. During the winter months my workout is more intense and thus takes less time, so I want to establish a weight-lifting routine so I can continue that on auto-pilot once it warms up and I can be outside again. I did this for a couple weeks in December, and it worked quite well. I’m looking forward to continuing this habit.

There are many other ideas floating around in my head, and I’ll be adding them to my list of Treats as time goes on. The rule is, you must give yourself at least two treats every day just for the sake of enjoying them. I intend to be enjoying many more than that. And yes, blogging is a Treat, too.

Here’s to the New Year filled with Joy!