At the end of February, I was feeling rather low. Suffice to say it’s been a long year (well, decade, really). I’m certain everyone can relate, at some point, in some way.
The arrival of spring has helped. So have the Apple Watch and Journal app, lately.
I know February 28 was a tough morning for me because of my Journal app entry from that morning.
“7:11 am, woke up around 6:40. Stressful dreams. High anxiety right now. Nervous and uneasy. Grateful for Rory.”
I also know that it was the beginning of a change-in-season for me, weeks before spring would actually replace winter on the calendar, because of this entry.
“12:33 pm, Rory walked with me and Nova to the beach and back, 2 miles, 1 hour, very grateful. He also gave me a stress-relieving plush Pop-Tart, fudge sundae flavor, closest to my cookies ’n’ cream preference. Sweet kid. Love him more than he’ll ever know.”
I know it was a distance of two miles, and that we’d been gone for one hour, because my Apple Watch logged the activity.
As for what made me invite my eight-year-old son and similarly-aged dog on a walk to the beach, well, my brain felt like the new Fight Cloud emoji:
Walking helped, a lot. The movement, the change of scenery, effects of sunlight, and all the senses that light up from the experience. It all helped. The motion also made my son a little chattier than usual, which I appreciated.
It was a good day. The next morning, March 1, was a reset. Back to Fight Cloud emoji brain.
“7:27 am, I’ve been awake for an hour. Uneasy, but not as aggressively as yesterday morning I think. Charging Rory’s iPad from zero. 52º, some but not all windows open. Can hear birds singing.”
An hour later, trending in the wrong direction.
“8:40 am, starting to feel more ‘noise’ in my head and chest and throat. Hopefully we can go walk again shortly. Rory up and watching iPad after we went over some word definitions. 62º now, closer to 70º in an hour.”
Fortunately, my son joined me in my attempt to hack my brain and take a walk, this time in a different direction.
“1:23 pm, walked with Rory and Nova to National Seashore park area, including small trail behind the trees, picking up trash along the way.”
It helped, again.
“2:01 pm, feel much more calm currently. I’ll keep up spending time outside with his Pop-Tart as he’s reminding me to do.”
Quite literally, an Emotional Support Pop-Tart; they come in batches of five, apparently.
A cold front at the start of last week reminded me, in part, why I broke the habit of motion in the first place.
It’s easier to bundle up inside than layer up and go outside when you don’t actually have to leave the house for any particular reason.
But reflecting in the Journal app and saying “yes, I’m on a walk” when my watch asks has connected the dots once again for me.
Apple’s Health app has also helpfully connected a few specific dots for me at a time when I might otherwise settle into old habits.
The Trends feature has offered encouragement now in ways that the Activity rings originally did for me.
Two or three weeks into this routine of just trying to shake loose the cobwebs in my head and see a little clearer, one notification especially encouraged me: “Your average resting heart rate decreased over the last 5 weeks.”
The graph shows a 5-week average of 46 compared to a 21-week average of 63 before that. I’ll take it.
Trending is exactly the right way for me to think about so much right now.
Years ago, I used to run daily. I loved it. Running was the best medicine. But like I said in the opening, it’s been a long decade. At some point, running became harder to make happen and eventually harder to enjoy.
I don’t doubt that I’ll run again. I’m still proud of completing seven different half-marathon races with Apple Watch. I only started running in the first place as a way to test the watch.
But it’s a different season in my life right now. At the moment, going outside and just logging a dog walk around the block at least once or twice a day is a win. On days when I have the energy and opportunity, staying gone for longer and going further is even more rewarding.
Unlike before, I’m not motivated by a daily streak or goal of closing my rings. Just the thought of maintaining a streak and trying not to break it kind of irks me.
This go-around, I’m just trying to stay in motion to feel better. The data collected by my Apple Watch and the insight compiled in the Journal app let me know that it’s working.
Motion has me moving in the right direction, and the trend is the momentum that I’m riding.
As ever, Apple Watch isn’t the thing that’s making the difference, at least not on its own. Instead, it’s a really effective tool at finding ways to surface just the right insight when you’re ready for it.
Carrying the plush Pop-Tart in my pocket and giving it an occasional squeeze doesn’t hurt, either.
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