health
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I Don’t Like My Family… Doctor.
Dear Conscience, I am self-medicating. I haven’t been able to breathe properly for weeks now. And yet, I am not taking the step to visit my doctor. I don’t trust my family doctor. She is old, and has misdiagnosed both myself and other family members plenty of times now. Which probably means that I should Continue reading
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No Time to Fight Off Disease
Dear Conscience, I haven’t felt healthy in weeks now. O got sick, never fully rested and recovered. Too much running around, and no rest in sight either. Nose still stuffy, throat hurts, cough attacks, headache…. With a toddler who keeps bringing germs from daycare, no paid sick leave, and at most times nobody to jump Continue reading
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Body
Dear Conscience, It is Wednesday, which brings me to the theme of Body, and how to care for this body I inhabit. What’s up? I’ve neglected my body. It’s allowed me to do so, but I’ve probably shortened my healthspan as a result. I haven’t exercised, I can safely say, in decades. Apart from a Continue reading
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Just Trying to Get Through the To-Do Labyrinth
Dear Conscience, I’m on the second day of my 4-day plan to duct-tape my year together before it ends. First day wasn’t a total write-off, but it wasn’t stellar either. The first point about staying healthy was definitely ambitious — no way I will suddenly get into all these healthy habits now in the final Continue reading
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Special Circumstances
Dear Conscience, Just when I think I might be getting to a point of keeping my head above water, my daughter got sick again, and of course I’m dealing with her now. Of course this is part of life, and of course everything else is on hold. But unfortunately, my life isn’t set up well Continue reading
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Time for What?
Dear Conscience, While I am seeing a temporary improvement in the control over my time, my mind goes out to other spheres that are waiting to be tackled. Far from it that my struggles with control over how I spend my time are over. But I am getting a glimpse into a world where I Continue reading
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Salud!
Good health is something we do regularly express as a wish for other people, that in many languages the root of the word health is used in words for “hello”, “goodbye”, after sneezing, or when raising glasses (filled with alcohol usually, ironically antithetical to health). However, we rarely express this same wish for ourselves when Continue reading
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Wednesday: Body
Surprise, surprise, I’ve been neglecting my body. You may have picked up on a common theme by now, I am this week taking stock of my lifestyle woes across these 7 concepts. I’ve been able to neglect it because of a “lucky” genetic predisposition: I look fine even if I don’t take care of myself. Continue reading
About Me
I got my first nickname when I was 4 years old. It was “bakitza”, which means ‘an old lady’. I’ve always been an old lady on the inside. And as I progress towards being an old lady on the outside too, I want to take control of this journey. To reach the full fledged bakitza level with a peace of mind I always associated with that life stage. I thought it would come on it’s own with age. But now I realize that I have to take control over the mess that my life currently is in order to be a thoroughly satisfied bakitza one day.
Becoming Bakitza 