Daily Check-in - 2026-05-05 Activities 🌙 Early Bedtime, ☀️ Morning Sunlight, 💧 Stayed Hydrated, 🌬️ Breathwork, 🌿 Grounding, 🌃 No Screentime at Night, 🥗 Healthy Eating, 🍺 No Alcohol, 🍬 No Added Sugar, ☕ No Late Caffeine, 🥩 Hit Protein Goal, 🥦 Ate Vegetables, 🍳 Home Cooked Meal, 🧘‍♂️ Meditation, 📝 Journaling, 💚 Gratitude Practice, 💭 Affirmations, 🎯 Deep Work, 📵 No Social Media, 🌄 No Screentime in Morning, 📅 No Meetings, 📚 Reading, 🧠 Learning, 🎓 Online Course, ❤️ Date Night, 🍽️ No Phone at Dinner, 👂 Active Listening, 💧 Hydrated, 🦷😁 Floss, 📣 Declarations, 🌳🌞 Out in Nature Scores 😊 Happiness: 7/10 ⚡ Energy: 6/10 🎯 Focus: 7/10 😌 Calmness: 8/10 🌙 Sleep Quality: 5/10 🔥 Motivation: 6/10 Reflection Did not sleep well at all. Poison Ivy issue is getting worse again. Couldn’t sleep. Got up around 2am to deal with the itching and couldn’t’ get back to sleep for a several hours. Slept in till 9 am. Woke up with a horrible headache. Getting as much protein as I can this morning. Beautiful weather, sitting on the deck in the sun, and then under an umbrella when it got too hot. Hope to get into the studio today to sort more and do something creative. Need to figure out how to get more natural light in the room so my brain doesn’t hate it in there so much. Daily Cosmic Insight The Slow Burn of Spring Fire 🌖 Today's Forecast The sky is loud and restless today, Tracy, and as a Libra, you'll feel that fire pulling at you to act, decide, move, commit. But the real undercurrent is steadier: a quiet pressure asking you to take yourself seriously, to honor the structure your life actually needs rather than the one you think you should want. The waning gibbous moon favors release over launch. You've already gathered enough. Now sort. Good For Today - Editing a plan you already started instead of starting fresh - Saying no to one thing that's been quietly draining you - Creative work in natural light, slow and unrushed - Naming what you actually want, out loud or on paper Watch For A pull toward urgency that isn't really yours. Decisions made from depletion today will feel heavier tomorrow than they need to.

First thing first: Take a breath and please don't worry about this post, but do take note. (Sorry -- if that's the right word -- for the long, careful post. Skip to the fourth paragraph, if you wish.) Second: I am neither a Western Medical Doctor nor a Oriental Medical Doctor. (I am. however, a health professional; a person with a body, mind & energy; and someone who researches what he is curious about.) And I think this could be important for your health. In the powerful class about how to love ourselves before and after sleep time, Jim expressed an appropriate, healthy respect toward the idea of changing energy with a cold shower, or at least a 30 second finish to a warm one. He accurately said it may not be for everyone. The helpful sheet on this that I now use daily, before and after bed, is compact and doesn't present those cautions. Western research agrees with the benefits. Western and Eastern approaches both say we may need to do it carefully or even give it a pass. In the West there is data that for some people, a cold plunge/shower can be dangerous for their health (and for others, not). I'm more familiar with the Eastern view. There, it's said that intense coldness can cause serious health crashes (non-tech term), especially, again, for certain health profiles. This is especially true for people who have "Kidney Meridian" imbalances, especially "Kidney Yang Deficiency" (which I have). In this hallowed healthcare, "Kidney" is associated partially with those organs, plus bladder, and also with: the entire nervous system; rest, exhaustion and overwhelm; the emotion, fear; low back pain; knee pain; bones and teeth; inner quiet and its lack, hearing; urination; sexuality; our will; and our fundamental life energy. Considering that list, I though that, as a population, ADHDers might be more prone than neuro-typical folks to these imbalances. And "Oriental MD A.I." fully and avidly agrees, and offers the specific reasons. I hesitated to say this. My inner critic used to imagine that heeding my great aversion to an otherwise therapeutic intense chill suggests that I may just be resistant and I should just do it. (I mean, I've walked on fire!) And I wouldn't want to dissuade anyone unnecessarily from the potential benefits.