30-day Walking Challenge - Week-2 Recap
Wow, who else get the wrath of the Mercury retrograde? Goodness gracious me - I kinda wanna cry! Oh wait I think I did - (only pretty much almost everyday!) But then again I wasn’t too sure if I’m also just emotionally heightened as it’s also around my red days.
Oh to be a woman!
Here’s a quick recap of week 2. On most days, I noticed a drop on my step counts - but it didn’t matter as the goal is different entirely for now. It’s not about how many steps, it’s about building a habit.
If I had to summarise Week 2 - it’s a lot of learning to ride the wave, keeping restraint on emotions, really testing my hold of self on being less reactive to things that I know is happening for me.
Here’s a run down of what went and done this week.
Day 8: within our community - solo
Off to my first disaster of the week 🤦♀️. The team I onboard at the low season, trained and went on a one month leave came back for a few days then resigned.
I get it when people choose their own path, but to resign on the spot without handover and consideration of enough notice is enough for me not to even respond. I knew the heavens is whacked so I chose restraint and not let this small bump get to me. But gaaahhh - this is part of the business that sucks..
Over the years, I learned to look past things and find the silver lining. I just got off a mastermind of builders who are looking to set exponential goals and knowing where am going, today’s bump is a minor dent to the goals being set.
And yes today is hot and humid as you can see with the mist on my glasses the moment I stepped out. It also settled down as I progress to the walk.
The beauty of this challenge is it’s not really about the metrics and the count - it’s about showing up and building a consistent habit.
It also meant to feel like a leisure walk that I would happily incorporate into my evening routine and overall lifestyle.
DAY 9: West Palm beach - solo
Decided a change of scenery and I know West Palm Beach is a great choice because I always seen people walk or jog here. And also plenty options for light bites after.
Great choice - or is it? Funny story - and then again lets remember the retrograde part 😅
I was approached on a walk for a direction to the nearest club by what seemingly is a tourist.
There’s plenty of option around West Palm so I mentioned a few that I passed by. It’s Friday night and lots of people already on their weekend party mode.
As I was making my round at the end of this fountain, I saw the same tourist guy walking towards back to me and not before I can re-route he had already made small talk 😬.
Now, I can appreciate when men try to approach women the old way of getting up the courage to make friends. I think it’s a lost art and I am not one to be rude. I ended up a short company on the way back to the valet for my car. It’s a bit awkward but also in a way a strange way of friendly hospitality.
Overall it’s a walk I enjoyed. A curry laksa soup at Kokobay and a salted-caramel gelato by the street surrounded by Palm trees - I’d say despite the odd encounter is a win!
day 10: Within OUR Community - Solo
There’s a conversation that’s been pent up inside me that has been bothering me for weeks now.
Today was kinda hard. I had to show up to a meeting and work commitment feeling quite broken.
I saw something that didn’t feel right and took the courage to finally open the conversation, only to fall on deaf ears ignored. It was eating me up inside for weeks..
Here’s a lesson I always held on about consistency - you show up even on the low days, and most specially on the hard times.
I know myself that if I let a slip up while on a challenge - I might as well throw all else away, so I still went on my walk. And yes, there were tears that fell the night.. 🥺
So from what I understand, the retrograde messes up our communication, having this in mind I’m putting today’s situation behind me as there might be actions or words I say to be ireversable later down the line..
What I learned today is allowing God to guide me and giving it unto him all reigns in this situation and that has given me enough peace for tonight..
DAY 11: Warsan plant nursery - SOLO
Still feeling low (and not sure actually the heavy feeling will go away easily), I decided to add some novelty to my mundane. So I started today a Sunday breakfast somewhere nice.
I was joined by a friend to The Guild in DIFC. So remember the big 10X goal I was talking about - it’s been ruminating slowly in my head and on writing bits and pieces to connect together. As scared as I was, its the first time I shared the goal to somebody and surprisingly it’s received without a flinch and rather encouraged.
The drawback of this challenge I set for myself is the evenings were already set that I have to choose between declining evening invites, or extra evening work commitments 😐.
My courtyard project is long overdue. I have been meaning to create a small herb garden.
I know in the past when I feel low I turn to activities that gives me sense of nurturing and joy - gardening is one of them. So this is really much needed diversion more than just a project. It can be healing.
Tonight’s walk is decided to be in Warsan, a tree-lined sanctuary of all plants you can find in Dubai. And what better way to walk and at the same time source for my herb garden.
I call that productively winning! 😁
DAY 12: Within the community - solo
Exhausted… physically (because I had to bring all the plants from the garage to the courtyard). Yes all 20+ or so of them! Back and forth up the stairs 🫠
I’ve only been using the health app on my phone and so all that walking up and down didn’t get counted 🤣🤦♀️
Exhausted… emotionally as well. Left unheard, left unseen is probably one of the worse things to feel. Specially if you see them digitally present.
Being ignored does jab you at your worth. I understand busy, I can also understand circumstances but there is also decency. It’s a quick message to acknowledge there are times when we are not ready to take up conversation and reply a simple “can we take this another time”. That I can respect.
But this.. this is not it. Can this retrograde finish already 😭.
This might be the lowest on record of all the days I walked - but then again like I said I did so much more earlier in the day that weren’t recorded - and that’s okay.. it just goes to show there are always things behind the scenes that don’t get acknowledged but still get done..
day 13: JLT - solo
Today’s walk is back at JLT (and might I add another teary episode 🫣 - it’s quite laughable now at this stage. 🤦♀️
But again by now - you know me and the silver lining…as I sat to catch up on my breath and the misery of it all 😅, I accidentally look back to find out the oil shop I have been meaning to visit for a long time is right behind me!! What coincidence and good use of my time while I was there. So of course I checked it out and have to get a few bottles to check for the shop!
What they say is, depending on how you look at the retrograde, it actually is there to help you gain more clarity about yourself. It exposes the things that teaches you a lesson.
I’m learning to use pain as fuel to get to the goals I’m setting for myself. This week more than ever, I feel the fire to work soooo hard to make sure the 10X goal I set last week is achieved by all means. It’s a long game and one that needs full focus and locked-in attention, so really right now I need to detach at anything that is taking away from my goal. And for that I thank and appreciate the pain. 😌
Another thing I learned on this challenge is adapting and making the circumstances work for you. The heat can be unbearable for other people, meanwhile here I am whispering, the breeze is kinda nice tonight.. I have adapted quite well with the temperature.
The heat has definitely also been helping with sweating out toxins stored in the body. So I’d say thats a good thing!
day 14: within the community - solo
So I made it to see through week 2 to what felt such a long and might I add very intense week.
It has all been solo walks. In my emotional state, I would probably not be a good company to walk with so I kept it to myself. I apologize to those who expressed interest to join this week - hope next week is better.
I’m grateful that I also have work that takes me to different places and work with many different people - that helps take mind off things too.
Excuse my oily hair and face 🤣 but I was just sharing here while on a walk that I just found a solution and double tasking to me not having time to oil my hair.
As they say, if there’s a will there’s a way 😁. So now and for the foreseeable future - I will be walking with oiled scalp to grow and nourish my hair.
I’m using the new recipes I made out of our rosemary, cloves, fenugreek, amla, rice and blackseed I am testing from our apothecary bar.
Behind the scenes there are many things happening in the background too that I am keeping off our socials until things are more settled.. but here on the blog, I promise to share our journey as open as I can.
Today, I had a meeting with a family-owned lavender farm in Turkey who found us on social and we had discussion on how we can bring their produce to the UAE.
These are some of the moments I am truly grateful for with the shop as not only we are working with people with passion for what they do - they also very much truly care for the wellbeing of the people they serve and its been good to meet and work with people like them!