The Surprising Thing I Discovered about Myself and an Idea

I'm really unsure about whether I capitalised the right letters in that title.

Anyway . . . I recently started a new full time job. I did two weeks of it then I had a week and a half off before I start a new project tomorrow. I can tell you that during that time off I got absolutely nothing done. I had so many plans too. I did get a chance to relax but there was always a cloud of guilt hanging over me because I knew I should be doing other things. What I have come to realise from those two weeks where I worked full time and also juggled another part time job, going out with friends, my writing course and being active is -

I LIKE BEING BUSY!

I know, shock horror. Well to me at least. I never thought I liked being busy. I thought I loved bludging too much. But I think I was wrong. During those two weeks I did so much more than I would ever have done in a week off, and I enjoyed it. For example, on Monday I worked 9-5, came home, played the piano for a while, did some writing tasks, then took my dog to the oval and did some laps with him. I felt so accomplished and fulfilled. I realised I could still do lots of things when working full time. The trick was to do little bits of everything; instead of trying to tackle all my writing homework as one huge task on the weekend I could do a little bit each day. That was a huge weight off my mind.

And being busy makes the downtime so much sweeter. I guess it helps when the things you're busy with are things you enjoy though. What about everyone else? Do you like being busy?

I think I previously felt like I had to have as much free time as possible and I was scared of time passing me by. It's like when you always thought you loved dessert, and stuffed your face with it, until one day you came to the realisation that you weren't really enjoying it at all. You were just trying to cram in as much as possible. I think I was like that with my free time. I spent my undergraduate degree bludging as much as possible, watching DVDs, reading, eating...but it was always with an element of knowing I should be doing something else. And it was all I ever did.

Don't get me wrong, I think downtime and relaxation is extremely important. I guess it's like "sometimes" foods. They are so much more enjoyable in moderate amounts, fully savoured.

Now onto the idea I had. I was thinking I would choose 2 or 3 weekly magazines like Famous, New Idea, Who etc that focus a lot on bodies and encourage an unhealthy view of ourselves. Then for 3 months or so, I would note down what their cover slogan is each week, and which celebrities they were talking about. And then at the end I would compare it all and see whether the magazines contradicted themselves from one week to the next, what the majority of their covers were focussed on and things like that. I think then I would have a  much more tangible example of how negative these magazines are and why people should STAY THE HECK AWAY FROM THEM!

And then I could write a whole post about it and hopefully discourage some people from reading this trash and instead focus on nurturing themselves and accepting all body types.

Thoughts?