I was calm for 5 min 58 sec this morning!

I had a good Muse session to start the morning.  Now I’m listening to Hugh Laurie sing “You Don’t Know My Mind”.  Hugh Laurie, yes the British actor who played the main character Dr. Gregory House M.D. on the TV series “House” for many seasons.  He sings and (I’m pretty sure) plays piano.  His music is incredible!  He’s put out two albums that I know of, and I love both of them!!!  I love blues – always have – and he can sing blues that I can listen to all day long!  Very talented fellow!!!  I’m also, of course, listening to his music on my iPhone with my Trekz Titanium Aftershokz wireless earphones this morning as I write this.  I guess that says a lot about me in a very condensed paragraph…  Oh, yeah, and I’m a climber – let’s throw that in as long as we’re at it, haha!!!  “Jericho” is the song I’m listening to right now.  Fantastic!!!

The reason I’m telling you all of this is that you CAN have a lot of control over your mood and how your day goes, even if it doesn’t start out ideally.  My morning started out with me waking up from a nightmare and being bothered by it so much that I almost drowned myself washing my face in cold water to wake myself up faster!  Then I decided I didn’t want my day to go like that.  So, enter my psychiatrist’s words, “Don’t make it worse.  Do what you know works.”  Well, I know that medication works.  So I took my meds (yes, as prescribed).  Then I decided to try a 10-minute meditation session with the Muse headband on to see where my brainwaves were at.  I really worked hard at “just being”.  That didn’t work so well for me, because people with PTSD get into deep trouble really quick trying to “just be”.  I concentrated on climbing, and got 5 min 58 sec worth of Calm region and 36 birds (all-time high), resulting in 60% Calm overall.  I even got a new award in the program!  That lifted my spirits.  I never thought I’d say that about meditation, but I’m recalling the conversation with the Doc when he said, “Well, with climbing, you’re focusing on something, right?”  Right, and with my whole brain, at that.  “And you’re so focused on climbing that you can’t focus on anything else, right?  Well, that’s what meditation is about, except with people with PTSD, you can’t just focus on nothing.  You have to have something to focus on.  And that’s what you’re doing with climbing, really.  Right?  That’s what you’re doing?”  Yep, and we’re doing what works.  So, there’s another plus to offset the way I woke up.  Then I decided, since I love blogging, I’d post a blog.  And why not listen to some Hugh Laurie while I’m at it with my Aftershokz earphones?  It’s turning out to be quite a good morning so far, all things considered, since my husband cooked me breakfast on top of it all!  I fully intend on going climbing at the gym today!  I want to see those new boulder problems from the comp that I missed!  More than that, I just want to get back to climbing, still sick or not!!! This sickness has got to go!!!  I’ve had it!!!  I’ve been sick for over three weeks now!!!  That’s way too long, and I plan on changing that today!!!