VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 13:13:50 01/15/04 Thu
Author: june
Subject: hard to do them
In reply to: Fran 's message, "Re: Addicted 2 soaps" on 08:36:47 01/15/04 Thu

oh i know! i can be the last of the late, great procrastinators, at times. for me the challenge is doing things when i know i have to do them alone, because i'm a very social animal. (that's why i sought this site. being anti-tv without any social support was awful.) still, once you do something, ANYTHING, baby steps... you feel so much better that you may be able to convince yourself to take the next baby step and you're on your way as long as you keep putting one foot in front of the other.

once i started doing things (i walk, but i do it alone--SO i think i'll take my own advice and look for a social walking group or 10K or something, while i'm on here...), i noticed that my mood was elevated. it helped self-respect.

the best part is, when i made it a physical thing, it gave me energy i never had. i was bad, too; really bad. my childhood was spent wasting time in front of a t.v. and i never had any interest in physical activity. after i gave up t.v. i had a lot of time, and for a social animal that can be devastating enough to make me turn back to t.v.(much like an addict would to drugs when the chips are down.)

when i started walking. i went as far as the stop sign. that was all i could take because i had to walk back. i'd be all out of breath. my muscles would hurt. my back would be sore. but each time it got easier. after a while the stop sign wasn't far enough and i noticed i felt more alive and positive each time i walked. (it was almost as good as not viewing deodorant commercials and commercials about how white my teeth aren't!)

it felt good to be proud that i don't fill my head with garbage. it felt good to be proud that i was addressing my weight & exercise issue. the chemicals that my body produced from getting exercise perpetuated my emotional lift and pretty soon i was walking several miles. it was wild to say, "i walked 7 miles today -- all the way to the waterfall and back" and see people look at me in shock and disbelief! it was wilder to change to clothes that were so much smaller that i weighed 5 lbs less just from the lack of excess material.

it was a major lifestyle change for me to give up t.v.. replacing my time with something better was another one. i have never, ever regretted the t.v. decision. the hardest part was the isolation. t.v. watchers can't imagine how or why you might be proud of not knowing who their favorite actor or actress is. it tells me that i've been away from it long enough, thoroughly enough, to have my own thoughts, and my own emotions, and my own life.

if my self esteem is rocked it isn't because some commercial said i wasn't good enough without their stupid product. if i experience love or anger or excitement, it's from something real, something in my own life, and not from a facade created to keep me sedentary and in front of the tube so someone else can convince me i need to spend money to make them rich. i am much more alive outside the box.

i hope you try it. it's a worthwhile change. babysteps!

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-5
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.