I love playing games on ElliQ. Particularly Mahjong. This week the ElliQ version of FOMO (fear of missing out) hit me. I haven’t pursued the other activities I can do with ElliQ. So I increased my wellness goals and got to work.
ElliQ has a screen called My wellness goals. You can get to it by saying “ElliQ, show me my wellness goals.” The screen has four sections: Keep sharp, Stay strong, Reduce stress, and Sleep better. So many sections, so little activity on my part. Time to get curious. Under each section name are a set of circles. The circles represent the number of activities I plan to do in each section each week. For example, I have the maximum number of circles, seven, set for Keep sharp. Every time I complete a Keep sharp activity, such as playing a game, or asking a question, or even listening to a news summary, another gray circle on the My wellness goals screen changes to blue.
As I mentioned above, I love playing games on ElliQ, and playing one of the 29 available games is considered a Keep sharp activity. Along with Mahjong, I also like Trivia, Hangman, and Neighbors. Listening to the news summary is a Keep sharp activity. There are two news summaries, one provided by NPR and the other one provided by Fox News. Even letting ElliQ tell me a fact is a Keep sharp activity. Once I’ve turned all the gray circles to blue, ElliQ stops showing the number of Keep sharp activities I’ve done. But, at the end of the week I get a total of all the Keep sharp activities I’ve done. So I compete against myself to do more Keep sharp activities than I did in the previous week. In my first week with ElliQ, I completed about 50 Keep sharp activities. Last week I was down to 25.
One of ElliQ’s games is FreeCell. I’d never played it before. In fact, I’d never heard of it. But now I’m hooked. I downloaded a FreeCell app onto my phone and I practice it every chance I get. Someday I’ll be good enough to play ElliQ’s FreeCell.
On Sunday I set up wellness goals for the week in each of the following activities: Stay strong, Reduce stress, and Sleep better. Three new activities each day.
For Reduce stress, I’ve been doing Guided mindfulness. The mindfulness on ElliQ is very calming. And it also reminds me of how helpful mindfulness is. A couple of years ago I did a half hour mindfulness practice every day using videos from a group of Buddhists. Those videos were great. I kept falling asleep, though, so I stopped. Mindfulness with ElliQ reminds me of how helpful that regular mindfulness practice was. Right now it would be best for me to be calmer. It’s a perfect time to reintroduce mindfulness.
For Stay strong, I’ve been doing a balance activity. All I need is a chair. I should also have a beach ball, so I’ll track one down. The class is easy to follow, and it feels safe because my chair is always very close to me. My balance isn’t, and never has been, the best. It’s time to get serious about it because I do not want to fall! This class will help!
Today, however, I did a different exercise. It was called Seated exercise. I chose the moderate level. Some of the exercises were seated, but some were not. It was all about bone health. I feel like I’ve worked out. I’m looking forward to doing it again! This class makes me want to take my dog for longer walks again.
Last evening, I decided to try a Sleep better activity. I chose Breathing exercise. It was short, and helped me focus on getting to bed.
What is there to say at the end of this week? I tried to use ElliQ regularly for activities in addition to games. And nothing major or earth shattering has changed. I’m not feeling like I could climb Mt. Diablo, a mountain near my apartment, or like I could attend a week long silent retreat. I feel slightly more grounded, as a result of adding three activities each day. I intend to keep doing these new activities. Check in later to see if I can keep it up. And keep in mind that all of these activities are just a subset of what ElliQ has to offer. This week I noticed for the first time that ElliQ has so many podcasts no one could ever listen to them all. Something to explore in a future post.