This is meant as a living document. The list below might not be exhaustive, and that’s fine. It may change over time, and that’s more than fine! Feel free to link out to separate files if you want to expand on any of the items. Also feel free to keep it really short.

1. The most important work I can do is to care for myself. My health (physical and mental) is the biggest roadblock I have to overcome in order to be a good spouse, parent, relative, friend or co-worker.

2. I have an unhealthy tendency to put others before myself. This can manifest in self-destructive ways, like working myself to death, trying to take on too much, etc. It inevitably ends badly.

3. I have few vices, but those that I do are hard to shake off. I must remain vigilant and have a strong set of strategies to handle my vices.

4. I have the tendency to put up walls and shut other people out. I must be aware of this and strive to keep up lines of communication with loved ones. Some days it’ll feel like hard work, like all I want to do is being alone and detached from the world.

5. Sometimes I need to be alone. My migraines are triggered by loud environments, by having to follow conversations in crowded rooms. It’s fine to step outside for a while, to go somewhere quiet, to be with fewer people. Don’t let it fool you into thinking you’re a bad person, or an outsider.

6. I am not an outsider. I have many people who love me and like me and enjoy my company. Many times I feel like this is false, like I don’t belong anywhere, with anyone. Understand where this feeling comes from and learn to keep it in its place, to cope with it and move over it.

7. I care about the environment and about the world. At the same time, I don’t have a lot of energy to follow the news, or to take action on the things you care about. I need to learn to balance time and attention so that I can stay tuned in without being overwhelmed. Small actions matter. I have a chance to donate, so I should do it. I can make choices every day, with my money, being mindful of where it goes. But I shouln’t beat myself up over for being compliant with a broken, horrible system.

8. I’m not sure where I fall in the political spectrum. I’d say I’m a hard leftist on certain issues (such as LGBTQ+ rights, abortion, euthanasia, the role of government in helping people, government owned utilities, etc) but do have certain centrist/right leaning tendencies, where it comes to how big government should get and how much it should dictate people’s lives. I should study politics more closely and find my exact alignment.