Of Sour Coffee and Stained Notebooks

 I am glad to inform you that it is about half past 9 am today, and I carried out my morning routine similarly to yesterday, however with one little hiccup. I checked my phone briefly before getting out of bed, and instead of the morning freshness I felt last morning, I was thrust back into the feeling that I was in a rush. A sort of thought cloud, I suppose. I managed to complete the rest of my morning routine, and a good session into the Farseer Trilogy's world has brought me back to a better mental state, but it's opened my eyes to how my headspace has been the whole time.  During days where I'd wake up in the afternoon, and I'd immediately sink myself into the waters of the internet, I'd have had no respite from this clouded feeling. It's enlightening, slightly. It's funny because it reminds me of a scene where the protagonist of Royal Assassin, Fitz, gets drugged up unintentionally and spends a good part of the day in a waking dream. I should be more aw...

 I've forgotten about this feeling. It really is something else. There can be qualms about sleep schedules, but I'm reminded of how good it feels to wake up early. Not the immediate five minutes of grogginess, obviously, but after that.  I woke up at 6am today, idling about for a good 15 minutes before I managed to go out for a run. After coming home and completing the rest of my morning routine, I came out of my meditation and looked at the clock. Only fifteen past seven. I was in no rush, so I decided to read a little before "starting my day". Maybe an hour and a half or so passed as I immersed myself in Robin Hobb's "Royal Assassin", a bit more than I intended, but I felt no guilt at all whatsoever. After a shower and breakfast, I am now glad to tell you it is now 9:26am as I am typing this. Mixing an early morning with a "Dopamine Fast" has been doing wonders for me.Not only does my mind feel "clean", but also I feel like I get to...

 Ah. The new trend that's been going around recently. Unplug from all this "Junk Food Stimulus" and you'll finally be able to live the life well lived. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for living life more mindfully, spending less time blasting your brain by scrolling on social media or playing video games all day. But I feel like it's a bit overhyped, at least in terms of how effective it can be short-term. Now I'm not sure there's any evidence to suggest that the brain will rewire itself in like, a day, but forgoing all distractions for 24 hours does have a few benefits. For one, the brain HATES boredom, and will do literally anything to not be bored. When the default options of gaming or the internet are gone, suddenly the only thing to do are more "pure" forms of passing the time, like work, exercise, meditation, reading, or whatever. It IS a bit of a productivity "hack", if you want to call it that, though it really is just a mo...

I've been in a bit of a plateau lately. While not in a complete rut for most days, I've been putting off studying and most things that I've set out to do. I'm still fighting the bad habit of cycling intensely at night for god knows what reason, waiting for something to happen(Though I don't know what). Hell, I've even stopped writing for a good two weeks or so. When you're going downwards, you don't see much of a point in doing the things you were doing when you were on a roll.  Most importantly, though, was that I was having trouble studying. I've always had motivation issues regarding school, seeing it as pointless and such. And even though the current me has a slightly more positive view on it, I still can't seem to muster up the will to just do what I needed to do, even though one of the most important exams of my life was approaching.  Maybe it was paralysis. Maybe it was the lack of discipline. But one day I decided to just text one of my c...