My Struggle with Insomnia

I have insomnia. I have had erratic sleeping schedule for years and years. I have trouble falling asleep. One to two hours before falling asleep is common for me. There were even quite a few nightmarish moments when I could not fall asleep at all. The more I want sleep to come, the more agitated I feel.

As a result of this discomfort I feel exhausted during the day. Of course, all of this has had a negative impact on my life. Most of the time I am easily irritated, distracted, not one hundred percent productive.

But there are periods of time when my pattern of sleep becomes almost normal. For a couple of weeks or even months at at a time, I drop off to sleep almost immediately, compared to usual nights.

I use the following techniques adapted to my own personality for falling asleep:

• The old advice of counting sheep works for me w/o the sheep. I count things that I'm familiar with (with sheep I am obviously not), and like; such as fruits, books, clouds, flowers, trees, etc.
• I visualize in vivid details something good happening to me. I prefer to picture myself in a more sedate situation. The ultimate goal is to calm myself, not to get overexcited.
• I imagine myself laying on the ground and staring at the sun (don't try this in real life, you could easily damage your eyes) and the clouds at day, and the stars and the moon at night. The unreal spot for holidays of my imagination could be a sandy beach at the ocean, or a warm rock in the middle of the desert.
• A recording of natural sleep noises (birds chirping, water rippling, the wind ruffling the leaves of the trees.) It has a soothing effect over preoccupied minds.
  
  Beware of sounds of flowing water. They could provoke some people to lose control of their bladder.
• Reading a book. For the purpose I read something boring. If the text is interesting I am bound not to let the book down until dawn and that's the opposite of my intention.
• I do something very tiring prior to getting to bed - a workout followed by very hot shower. It has this effect on me.

I alternate the use of these methods because they work well only for a few days in a row.

MADONNA

I’m in love with the new video of Madonna - "Celebration". This woman doesn’t stop to amaze me. She is so agile and her body is so toned for her age. The song is very rhythmic and she looks great in the video, really classy.

I must follow her example and do something about my own fitness regime. I know she is constantly training and keeping a healthy diet. As for the diet, I could probably manage pretty well, as I’m eating more or less wholesome food and rarely eat junk food. But the physical training would be real torture, as I don’t have any habit whatsoever in physical exercising. But if I want to be fit, it must be done, fun or no fun.

Interestingly, I find the dances of Beyonce in "Sweet dreams", Shakira in "She Wolf", and Madonna in "Celebration" very similar. Maybe this is the new wave in dance moves, who knows? I wish I could move like them.

Message in a Bottle

Yesterday I finished reading "Message in a Bottle" - by Nicholas Sparks. I remembered seeing some parts of the trailer for the movie version, and knew the leading characters were played by Kevin Costner and Robin Wright Penn. Throughout the novel I mostly found the story slow-paced, which in this instance I saw as a shortcoming, except for some parts that were good for my taste. But the end left a great impression on me and made me understand the whole book more fully. Because the novel was made into a Hollywood movie, I expected a happy ending and was quite overwhelmed when it didn't come.

I'm not planning to watch the movie. If I happen to see a good movie based on a novel, my habit is to read the novel as well, but not the other way around.

Nonetheless, I took the time to check if the plot is changed in the movie. And indeed it is. Some of the changes, in my humble opinion, are good, some are not.

The author had other books made into movies: "The Notebook", "A Walk to Remember", "Nights in Rodhanthe". My first contact with the work of Nicholas Sparks was through the movie version of "The Notebook", which is changed a bit from the original. However, I liked them both. The second part, "The Wedding", I didn't like at all.

Generally, Nicholas Sparks is an interesting writer. I will look forward to reading others of his works.

Smoothie with Yogurt

For two or three glasses

2 glasses of yogurt

1 banana


Blend everything very well.

Time for preparing - 2/3 minutes.

Fresh Start with Hobbies

So, this is my very first blog. I've been thinking of starting it
for some time now,but I was putting if off forever. And now
that I found myself with some free time on my hands, I did
it. This coincides with a difficult period of my life. I made a
commitment to myself to start doing all the little projects I
had stored up in my mind for the indefinite future:

1.  Sew something I won't be ashamed to wear in public.
Reconstruct old clothes into something wearable.
2.  Grow a plant that will survive for more than 2 weeks.
3.  Cook something that will be edible.
4.  Learn foreign languages not only for work, but also for
the fun of it.
5.  Travel for more than one weekend.
6.  Read what I like and not what other people think I must
like.
7.  Watch good movies.
8.  Do small repairs on my home before it falls apart on its
own. Do home improvements for my own comfort.
9.  Take pictures that don't look like a horror story.
10. Start drawing, despite my limited art skills.
11. Make greeting cards from paper for family and friends.
12. Knit something for myself.

As I know myself, I will probably come up with some new
ideas before I find time to finish all of this list.