Happiness Walking

I'm trying to get better at being active and now is such a beautiful time of year to get walking.

I have a standard walking path that gets me moving for 1 1/2 miles.

It's a lovely walk with great fall foliage, cozy homes, and wonderful black labs that come bouncing out to greet me.

Here. Take a little walk with me.



Until tomorrow....or until the snow flies!

Don't Worry. Be Happy.

My friend, Karen, told me I better get another post up - so I best get at it!

It seems that so often I let my worries and woes get the best of me.

You know how it can go....laying in bed for hours worrying about every detail of your life - or better yet - worrying about others and what they are doing. Small, panic attacks at the thought of something that totally freaks you out. Missing out on the good stuff in life because you are too busy worrying about what will happen next.

Any of that sound familiar? Unfortunately, it's all too familiar for me at times. It's during those times, that I must step back, take a deep breath, and remember the simple words below...

Excuses

I've been struggling for quite some time with health issues. Nothing life-threatening, but debilitating to me. I've barely had energy to do my basic duties let alone giving myself time to let my creative self live.

I'm working really hard to overcome this down time in my recent life and will continue to do so. But I just read this tonight and it screamed "YES" to me. I'm tired. Yes. But I'm more tired of making excuses for not living life the way I want to.

I'm going to do my very best to pull myself back around and get back to my normal self.

PS. Stayed tuned - I did a little cleaning this past weekend (yes, it's STILL my year-to-clear!) - and I found some of my first wool work. I plan on sharing a few of the pieces with you. Oh....and the Red Bowl Series will be back!

A Fruit Slushy

I'm trying to be a little better about the foods I eat.  Yes....I said better. Not perfect. I'm far from eating well - but every little bits helps, right?

So yesterday I made a yummy mixed berry and watermelon slushy. Quite a nice choice, huh, getting all those good fruits in me?

A good cupful to start with...

Yum, yum...

And the rest goes in the freezer for tomorrow night...

Oh ya, this'll be a great treat...

Ahhhh, did I mention the 3 teaspoons of sugar I added to make it j.u.s.t. right?? 

The Secrets of Pronoia

I don't know about you - but I can definitely have days where I feel like nothing.....I mean NOTHING seems to be going my way. It's like the whole world has gotten together the night before and planned how they can send as much trouble as possible to me. And by the way, the whole world always seems very pleased and proud of the success of their little Ann-project.

So I struggle and struggle, and somehow I succeed in making it through the the-whole-world-is-against-me-days, but I know there's always the possibility of another one just around the corner.

But the other day, I ran across this article  - wow - now whether I'm having a the-whole-world-is-against-me-day or just a normal, standard day - I plan to remember this article and the wisdom of it's words.

Now, keep in mind - and depending on your current mood - it can actually come across a little sickening - but I still think it's definitely worth thinking about.  It reminds me of something I heard once about miracles - and how they happen constantly around us but we become immune to them. For example, if we saw someone parting a sea of water many times a day for 100 years, we wouldn't think it was a miracle anymore....just something else in our otherwise mundane day. See what I mean?

Well head on over and read it for yourself and see what you think...

The Difference a Day Makes

Sure - I tell you at the beginning of the week not to expect any posts from me this week - and here I am getting another post out there.

But I really wanted to get this one posted this week. So let's start by saying that we have had a weird April-weather week.

Photo ONE:  Tuesday morning. Lovely, fresh, encouraging.

Photo TWO: Wednesday morning (for real!). Cold, fragile, needing shelter.

I realized after taking these photos, that my days can often be like this as well. One day I might be feeling good - like I can do most anything - like I can overcome most obstacles. And the next day I may feel like I want to hide - like I'm defeated - like I can barely breathe because I'm buried too deep.

Even though I can't control Mother Nature, I'm wondering if I can control my emotional weather in a more balanced way.

International Creativity Month

Shoot. I missed it! I was going to remember to post about this at the beginning of January - but "time" got away from me. Ok, I'll be honest, my "mind" got away from me. But at least I remembered before the next month was gone!

January is/was International Creativity Month. It was created by a man who simply wanted to remind people about the power of their own creativity.

Creativity isn't just about the typical things we think about when we say "creative" like drawing, music, sewing, or dancing, it's about exploring, embracing, and enhancing your natural gifts, even the ones you don't have a clue that you have yet.

Ideas include trying to increase your brain power (whoa - do I ever need to do this one!) by reading a new or challenging book, bringing more clarity to your life with meditation, beginning a new walking program, learning the words to a new-funky song, or just stopping and taking notice of the many great ideas you think about every day but don't follow through on. I bet you'll be surprised at how many good, creative thoughts you have all day, every day.
 
So, even though I've missed the whole darn month - that doesn't mean we can't start right now remembering to be more creative.

Feng Shui Anyone?

I was paging through a magazine earlier this week. There was a short, one-page article about Feng shui written by Jayme Barrett. As part of the article, there was a small diagram about where things should be placed in your office workspace to encourage or balance things in your life.

Wait. Let me take you back just a little further.... LAST week, my recently-former supervisor - who is very supportive of my creative work and my number one marketer - brought me an article out of a magazine that talked about a women who lost her job and in the process of finding something to keep her busy, has created an incredibly successful business through Etsy. She creates very clean, streamlined, wool laptop and ipod cases.

As she handed me the article, I asked what it was. She said "hope". I read the article and took a large black-permanent market and wrote "Hope" on the top of it. I then hung it on the bulletin board directly behind of my computer screen (which I face all day, every day).

There. Now let's jump back to the Feng shui article.

As I am reading the article, it says that the back center of your workspace represents Fame and Reputation. I quote: "This area represents who you are to the world - your character and image. Place a red lamp or candle, your business card, or an award or certificate here."  Huh. I looked up into the back center of my workspace and realized that I had done just that with my "Hope". Interesting. I just had to read more.

Taken from http://www.homedit.com/

After doing a quick online look at Jayme's website, I was even more intrigued. I loved what she wrote about as a general outlook about Feng shui. I browsed a few more posted articles and by the time I ended my web visit I had signed up for her regular email newsletter.

I'm quite sure that I will not be rearranging my home and life to totally support the Feng shui lifestyle, but I realized that I can certainly learn from the practice.  Below is content    taken from her web site that grabbed me in this - my year to clear.

Feng shui can be a lifestyle. From my point of view, arranging your environment is one piece of the puzzle. It is a beginning; an entry into a new way of discovering how energy affects you on a daily basis. You must realize that healthy energy is moving energy. If your space and mind are filled with clutter, it is extremely difficult to move forward in all aspects of your life. As you begin to clear out the old, new opportunities, people and energy come flowing in.


Jayme Barrett

Six Days

Six days.

Hard to believe.

I've gone six days without caffeine.

I've over-indulged in Diet Pepsi for way too many years.

Since my bout with the flu, I haven't had a Diet Pepsi.

I'm doing surprisingly ok (after working through headaches this past weekend). But this is kind of how the inside of my mind feels...

Choosing Our Thoughts

I'm reading a book called You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay.

It's very intense, soul searching, and getting at deep-down feelings that you may not even know you feel kind of book.

I'm only on Chapter 1. She suggests you read each chapter and then take some time to think about and work through the things talked about throughout the chapter.

One of the sections that was helpful to me is titled: Believe It or Not, We Do Choose Our Thoughts. It goes like this:  We may habitually think the same thought over and over so that it does not seem we are choosing the thought. But we did make the original choice. We can refuse to think certain thoughts. Look how often you have refused to think a positive thought about yourself. Well, you can also refuse to think a negative thought about yourself. It seems to me that everyone on this planet whom I know or have worked with is suffering from self-hatred and guilt to one degree or another. The more self-hatred and guilt we have, the less our lives work. The less self-hatred and guilt we have the better our lives work, on all levels.

Just something to ponder...

I Might Be Off The Hook

Well, here's what "my meditation guy" told me in my email today:

Meditation should not add more stress to your life.
Why meditate if you're going to get stressed about doing it right, or about whether your meditations are good enough? How do you avoid this? Forget about how well you can stay focussed, and about what's "supposed to" happen when you meditate, and simply accept whatever does happen.

Whew...

Mindfulness Meditation

If you remember, waaaay back in January I said that I was going to try to focus on taking better care of myself this year.  Since I’m not one to procrastinate (ah, ya, right), I thought that maybe I should start working on this goal soon before it's time to get the Thanksgiving turkey.

Now one of the things that I really want to be able to do successfully is meditate. I believe it can be very useful and beneficial for everyone.

Last weekend I heard a speaker talk about “mindfulness meditation” and mindfulness in general. I realized that I stink at mindfulness. I think about a million things at once, am thinking more on what I might have to add to a story than listening to someone speak, can’t sit and enjoy reading a book without thinking about other things that I should be doing, etc., etc. So I googled “mindfulness meditation” and got a few simple instructions on how to practice it. And indeed it is something that does not come easy - it has to be practiced and practiced. Heck, I even signed up for a 21-day-meditation-helpful-hints-email to assist me in this journey.

Today is day two.

Let’s review day one. Headache upon waking. All day long while working at my desk, all I could think about was laying down on my couch. I clearly focused on one thing the entire time. Mindfulness? Probably not what meditation pros would call good mindfulness even though my main focus all day was on closing my eyes and sleeping.

Finally it was meditation time. Yeah! A great excuse to close my eyes! The instructions tell me to focus on my breathing. Only my breathing. If other thoughts come into my mind, I should acknowledge them and then begin to pay attention to my breathing again.

Let’s see….breathing…breathing…breathing…wonder how I’m doing…breathing…breathing…my friend Karen would like this…breathing…breathing…I remember when I called Karen after I had my Reikki treatment…we talked about grounding ourselves…breathing…wonder if she’s tried it…I should call her…oh, she’d really like this…I have to remember to ground myself daily…I haven’t done that…wonder if it would help…oh ya, breathing…LOL, I seem to think of a lot of things other than my breathing…breathing…I should blog about this…ya, that’s a good idea…breathing…wonder if I should do it tonight or wait until tomorrow…breathing…breathing…wonder if it’s been ten minutes…breathing…….

Well, at least it's a start - but if only I could be more mindful while getting there. 

It might be a long 21 days...

Catching Colds

I’ve been down and out since last Wednesday with the flu/cold/crap and am finally feeling a little back to “normal” today. When I’ve been ill and start feeling a little improved, I immediately start to feel more appreciative of feeling “normal” while at the same time I can't help but feel a little nostalgic. And, since I’m still in a waiting-for-a-working-camera-mode, while browsing for photos, I came across this one of my sister and I from - oh - about 40 years ago. (I’m the blonde!)

Looking at the photo, I do believe that I have my seasons mixed up. It looks more like an early spring, rather than early fall photo – but I couldn’t resist.

Mom always made sure that her girls were as safe as possible. This great photo shows mom was taking her normal precautions - assuring that we would not “get sick” while out playing, we were securely bundled in the softest (from hundred's of washes) head-scarves, assuring that the wind couldn’t get in our ears. We were always kept safe from that nasty wind making us sick.

My mom has since passed away, but oh how I would love to have had her tie that cute little scarf on my head earlier this week. I’m thinking that maybe, just maybe, I wouldn’t have gotten sick…