Hello! After quite a hiatus since my last post back in February (I am sorry, paid subscribers), I’m back. Consistency is a problem for me in this phase of life, and I can’t help but think about all of the free time I used to have and squander doing meaningless things like watching Love Island or smoking weed and being lazy.
Earlier, after I put my son to bed, I was putting away clothes so that I could make my way into bed later unencumbered by the day's clothing detritus, when I was struck with an idea for a great Substack idea.
Five minutes later, when I made my way over to the computer, I couldn’t remember what my idea was to save my life.1 This is one example of my age catching up with me, and it happens at least once a week. Of course I have many other ideas, but I can’t shake the feeling that the ideas I have bouncing around my mind are not the one I had a lightning strike moment about ten minutes ago. Was the idea in question to rant about my experiences with pests as a renter? Was it one of my personal essay or short story ideas? I’m hopeful it will come back to me; sometimes my writing ideas do come back around.
Beyond the decline in my mental faculties outlined above, I’ve found fault in my physical ability as well. I am exercising more, and it has become apparent to me that I have a long way to go to recover my core post-birth. Having a weak core makes me feel old! Your core and posterior chain are meant to hold the whole body together, and I feel like my posture has gotten worse since having a baby and has stayed poor. In seeing what others on Substack have to say about aging, I came across this perfect piece - VarianaVolk: 4 Muscles to Train for Maximum Anti-Aging Effect.
Lastly, I wake up daily with lower back pain, and if I lie on the couch in one position for as little as ten minutes, my back hurts. When it comes to sleep, no matter the position in bed, I am uncomfortable and have low-grade pain. It wakes me at night and in the morning, and there is no solution. For now, I plan to focus on improving my core, back, and booty strength. If it doesn’t, I can always enlist a chiropractor and physical therapist to assist.
All this to say, there is beauty in aging, of course. My life is too full at the moment to relax and enjoy it, but I will try like hell to do so. I do find myself reflecting on my experiences, my own behavior towards others and myself more often these days. I like this, and I do think this can be attributed to age. Along with that, I am slowly but surely attempting to shift focus on improving my health through regular exercise, not purchasing as much candy or chocolate as I previously was, and addressing my vitamin/mineral deficiencies.
I like to share other Substack writers’ points of view on the topics I discuss here. So if you want to know more about the Substack discourse around aging, check out the posts below:
ixcarus - You Are Aging At A Speed You’re Choosing: The Neurobiology of Aging
Ellen Scherr - Aging Out of Fucks: The Neuroscience of Why You Suddenly Can’t Pretend Anymore
sentimental being - Everything you thought was drowning you was teaching you how to swim
The idea I mentioned at the top of this post came back to me 5 minutes after I had shut my laptop. Sometimes the mind needs a break to reset!