u/XLittleMagpieX

I was on all the main platforms and completely addicted.

I deactivated my Facebook account 3 years ago. Twitter and TikTok followed about a year later.

Just instagram and Reddit left now but I have massively cut down on my Instagram time and now spend less than an hour on there each day (I could easily spend 4 or 5 hours per day on there in the past). I rarely post anymore.

My life has become immeasurably better especially since leaving FB and Twitter. I used to get sucked into so many arguments with ignorant strangers. I would often be left in a horrible mood. Days out were picked and curated to look good through the lens of social media. I would doom scroll Twitter and feel permanently negative.

Initially I replaced my social media time with Duolingo. I can now hold a conversation in German. I then completed a bunch of crafts that have been sat on shelves for years. I’m learning to juggle and spin staffs and poi. I work out going to aerial classes 3-4 times a week. I started to cook from scratch again. My relationship with my husband and children has improved. Days out are now enjoyed and I’ll take a photo to send to my mum and dad and then put the phone away to be in the moment.

Seeing how much life has improved makes me so sad that I wasted so much of it looking through a screen and I am still annoyed with myself even now that I can’t quite let go of instagram and reddit. I just need to take the plunge and delete them both. Even having lived with the benefits of giving it up, social media addiction has such a strong hold on me.

Hi,

I’ve been learning to juggle since around April time. I am very dyspraxic so this is a huge challenge for me but I am making slow and steady progress.

I have mixed-hand dominance but it seems with juggling I picked it up faster on my right side than my left. I can now consistently do one “round” (sorry I don’t really know the terminology but hopefully you get what I mean) starting on my right and am able to catch them all. After a couple of months of not being able to do this at all starting from my left side I can now finally also do this around 60-70% of the time.

My question is, how do I now learn to do this in a continuous cascade? So at the moment it goes like this:

Right hand starts - can catch all 3 balls. Then I have to pause. Then left hand starts and I can catch all 3 balls most of the time, but I need to pause again before the right hand continues. And so on. How do I get rid of these pauses? If I try to speed up, either hand then goes completely rogue and the balls go flying in all directions 😄

I keep going back to juggling with two balls which is smooth. I also do the exercise where you just throw one ball and don’t move your other hand at all to improve accuracy on the throw. I can now do that pretty well and am working on doing it with my eyes closed (much harder lol).

Does anyone have any tips? Or recommendations for good videos?

Also I would love to hear from fellow dyspraxic jugglers and how long it took you to master the 3 ball cascade 🙂

Thanks so much!

Hi,

I’ve been training front splits since January last year and initially made great progress, until around March this year when I‘ve stalled. I do 2 x 1 hour focused sessions a week, plus 3 aerial classes a week which are two hours - the first hour of which consists of conditioning and splits stretches form a large part of that.

My focused routine I change up a bit but is roughly as follows (sorry I don’t know the name of all the stretches but will try to describe them):

Quick cardio warm up

Side to side hip movements at 90°

A few downward dogs into upward dogs (however many feels good that day)

Active leg raises in all directions ( x 8 or 10) then repeat with just pulses and then 30 second static holds

Active lunges coming fully up to stand (x 8)

Jefferson curls with 5kg weight x 5

Then static hip flexor stretches (the ones where I’m on one knee and geab the foot behind me)

Nerve flosses in a half split position ending in a static hold in a half split for 30 seconds

More of the hip flexor stretch 30 seconds

Then finally sinking down into my maximum range in full split for 30 seconds

Then I’ll repeat the nerve flosses and hip flexor stretches and then do two more attempts of splits at maximum range on each side.

I will change this up so sometimes do more active stretching or passive stretching depending on how I feel that day.

I try to take two full rest days a week.

What am I missing? I honestly thought I would have them by now and it Is so disheartening to have put this much effort in for over 18 months and not reached my goal yet.

I’m 39 with no gymnastics or dance background, was never able to do the splits as a child.

Been one huge expense after another this year and I have a bunch of debt and no savings. Managed to find some extra work over the next couple of months so feeling optimistic that things will improve but money is TIGHT.

My lovely husband is about to turn 40 and although he’s not overly fussed about birthdays I still feel really guilty that I can’t buy anything special.

Any ideas what I can do for a budget of £50? He likes whiskey, gaming, Lego, working out and go karting.

Thanks :)

I’m quite new to performing, I‘ve done a couple of competitions and showcases before. Recently my studio has asked me to do some performances for low-key events like fairs.

I’ve been working really hard on my lines and transitions etc but one thing that I can’t seem to get right is my face 😂 I always look like I’m having the worst day of my life when I’m just concentrating. If I do remember to smile, it looks forced and I look deranged.

Internally I’m having a great time, but I forget to tell my face. How can I work on this?!

Had ultrasound, mammogram and biopsy on a mass in my breast 2 weeks ago. Both my mum and sister had breast cancer young. My dad also had cancer. The Dr performing the ultrasound thinks it’s likely to come back as a fibroadenoma. I know I should be reassured by this and I feel completely melodramatic but I am struggling so much with the wait. I can’t focus on work and I’m not sleeping well. Those who have been through this process, how did you cope with the wait? I’m just trying to keep busy and focus on the fact they said it’s likely benign. It‘s just so hard when your lived experience is that it’s *always* cancer.

I have an appointment for the results on Wednesday, just need to get through the next few days.

Had ultrasound, mammogram and biopsy on a mass 2 weeks ago. Both my mum and sister had breast cancer young. My dad also had cancer. The Dr performing the ultrasound thinks it’s likely to come back as a fibroadenoma. I know I should be reassured by this and I feel completely melodramatic but I am struggling so much with the wait. I can’t focus on work and I’m not sleeping well. How did you cope with the wait? I’m just trying to keep busy and focus on the fact they said it’s likely benign. It‘s just so hard when your lived experience is that it’s *always* cancer.

I have an appointment for the results on Wednesday, just need to get through the next few days.

For years I’ve known I was neurodivergent in some way. I have both ADHD and autistic traits but never fully felt that either of those conditions ”fit” for me. I always thought I was not quite either, that I was some sort of unknown third thing.

Someone suggested to me that I might have dyspraxia after witnessing me be completely inept at learning a new skill. I didn’t really know what it was so I‘ve been looking it up and it was a lightbulb moment. I tick almost every trait listed on the Dyspraxia Foundation UK website.

Because I am 39, I have unknowingly adapted and compensated for certain behaviours. For example, most people who don’t know me well wouldn’t automatically label me as clumsy, however I spent most of my youth/adolescence/early adulthood tripping over thin air. These days I don’t do that as much, but my ‘clumsiness’ is less obvious and shows up in things like constantly spilling food on myself, spilling drinks, dropping things, completely missing the cup when pouring from a jug etc. I kind of assumed that this was a universal experience and that everyone else is also constantly dropping food on themselves and spilling drinks, but I started observing others for this and it seems to be a me thing.

The main things that have frustrated me for a long time are executive dysfunction (I just cannot stay organised in any area of my life), my complete inability to follow any verbal instructions that involve more than 3 steps and my time blindness despite my best efforts.

I feel pretty sad today that what seems so glaringly obvious was not picked up before now. I was spectacularly bad at every sport, which others have been quick to point out/laugh about as well as other practical areas of life (took me 2 years to learn to drive). I have spent my whole life with low self esteem because I assume I will just be bad at everything and lived with the embarrassment of being the most uncoordinated person in every room and in every context. I feel sad that I did not get treated with the patience and kindness that I deserved

Finally figuring out a reason has been validating but has left me with a sense of grief too.

I am considering seeking formal diagnosis. But my husband asked me why and I don’t really have a strong reason, other than that it might be validating and that it might help quieten the voice I have in my head that tells me I‘m just a dysfunctional idiot.

Are there any other benefits to officially having the label? I’m in the UK and have read that it might offer better protections at work etc, but I work for a very supportive company and I’m not sure that any real accommodations can be made for me in my role anyway. I also can’t really afford to go private, and from what I understand the NHS pathway is either limited or non-existent depending on whereabouts you live.