The Daily Grind

Man, this posting every day thing is harder than it seems! I'm all jazzed about finishing my post, and then there's just another one to do tomorrow. Or I'm relaxing after a long day at school, eating some ice cream, when I remember that I haven't posted for the day yet. Damn. C'est la vie. At least I have a nice clicky new keyboard to type on!

In one of my classes today, we talked about the things we do to regulate ourselves. This might be something like drinking coffee to keep yourself more alert, twirling a pencil to stay awake during a meeting, or having a cup of tea to relax yourself. There was a list we could use to check off our own "sensory diet" on, but I thought of several things I do that weren't on there (maybe because I'm bizarre?).

So here's my (probably incomplete) sensory diet:

I chew on the inside of my cheek or my lips, sometimes tip of my tongue, because it really feels good on my gums (just between certain teeth). This probably both calms me and boosts my awareness.

I pop my knuckles, my hips joints and my lower back to stay awake and comfortable in class.

I stretch out in class if it's been a while. Sitting still for too long is rough.

I totally talk or sing to myself if I'm getting really stressed, or if I'm thinking about something stressful. This is probably my most socially inappropriate behavior, but I try to keep it to a minimum when possible. It's only really bad if I'm really stressed out and I start talking to myself before I even realize it. Then I try to play it off if there are people around, but they probably think I'm crazy. That's ok! There are probably tons of crazy geniuses wandering around campus talking to themselves. Right? Right? Oh, well...

There are more, but I'm tired and want to go to bed. Yawning is another self-regulating thing I do. Or I just do it because I'm tired. But I can't not do it, even if I'm in class and the professor is looking right at me. Then I just try to make it a little less obvious.