2024-04-22
For the past two weeks I’ve been a little bit out of sorts. It funnily coincides with the the eclipse that happened on the 8th of April. “As above, so below” is what the astrologers like to say. I didn’t expect such a personal impact from the eclipse. I was bracing myself for an external event to put me off kilter but rather, it was just me that caused my own demise.
Basically, what went wrong was that I slept a lot in the past two weeks. I would finish work and go directly to bed. Or I would take three hour long naps in the middle of the day on the weekend. It really set me off of my regular schedule. I think I border on the edge of sleep deprivation. I get around 6.5 hours of sleep a night. Maybe I should really be pushing for 7 and above. But it’s so hard to squeeze everything I want to squeeze into my day without sacrificing sleep. I know, if I have a lot to do, why don’t I just cut things out?
Good question.
The two main things that occupy a chunk of my time is work and school. Work is fixed, I can’t really negotiate my hours with work. However, I do find that I often put more hours into work than I should. So maybe I need to go back to the minimum. It’s not like I’m busting my ass at work. Work is pretty chill, most of the time. But lately it has been a little stressful, especially with deadlines looming. At the same time, I also think that it’s manageable.
I try not to spend too much brain power on work because I’m also going to school at the same time. I’m currently going through some pre-requisites in my English major. The semester is finaaally winding down. I have an exam this Friday and then I’ll finally be free from the shackles of the semester. I’m still debating on whether or not I should take another course in the summer semester but a part of me is thinking to just take the free time and decompress. Reassess. Re-evaluate. Recuperate. All of the “re” words.
Understandably, work and school leaves not a lot of time for other things. But when you’re sleeping more than usual, that also means I’m procrastinating. I pulled a lot of late nights in the past two weeks when I usually did not because of my procrastination naps. Usually I’m more organized than this. But sleep was too enticing.
Astrology incoming.
I think the eclipse highlighted a part of life that I neglect too much. The eclipse was going through my fifth house of fun, creativity, leisure, and children. The eclipse square was in a close square with my Capricorn Mercury (which, natally, is under the beams). Basically, the eclipse was telling me, “you need to stop thinking too hard and enjoy life sometimes.”
And I tried my best in the past two weeks. I tried listening to more dead-brain friendly podcasts in my spare time (shout out to the Get Real podcast). I tried reading more for fun (thank you, romance manga). I even hung out with friends for the first time in a long time (we watched Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire). And I also hung out with cousins as well (we watched Dune part 2). I even caught some Coachella live-streams over the last weekend and spent some time listening to music.
Needless to say, I feel a little more refreshed now.
I think I was long overdue for a break. I’m still trying to figure out how I should be building in breaks into my routine without losing progress in regards to my goals. “They” (I don’t know who “they” is) often say that you need to guard your study time. But what about your “me” time? I think that needs to be guarded as well.
Like I said, I’ll be taking the summer break to slow down and reflect. I think I need to rework my schedule. Or revisit my studying habits. There must be some room for some efficiency improvements, somewhere. Work smarter, not harder, and so on, and so on.