THE BIG PICTURE
djmilestones
Saturday, March 18, 2023
THE BIG PICTURE
Saturday, March 11, 2023
MAGIC IN NATURE
MAGIC IN NATURE
Finding my happy place is really easy when I take the time to play and to make it colorful and to plant more flowers (which I have planned out already for the garden).
Saturday, March 4, 2023
FINDING TIME FOR ME
FINDING TIME FOR ME
Another activity that I try to use is to get on my recumbent bike for an activity. It only takes 10 - 15 minutes. Every time that I pedal away, I try to beat how far I went the last time in the same amount of minutes. I compete against myself which helps me to let out steam and then get back to work.
A very British thing to do is to have a special Tea Party for one. "ME!" Use a special flavored tea in a real china tea cup and saucer and perhaps a little butter cookie? Hmmm That always does the trick to change my hum-drum tasks that I must work on to a more engaging activity.
My last idea that helps me take a break and refocus takes a little more time than 10 - 15 minutes in total time. I figure that is ok because this is something that I use to unwind at the end of a day.
Sunday, February 26, 2023
HAPPINESS
HAPPINESS
"Happiness does not come from happiness itself, but from the journey towards achieving it." Finnish Proverb
Through observing my dogs, I have come to the conclusion that our dogs really are more on cue with self-care than most humans. Our Earth gives us so many ways to heal ourselves and to take care of ourselves, yet so many times we are too busy to take the time to notice this.
For me, especially in the winter months, a cup of tea is such a sweet thing to do for myself. I just must take the time to do this once a day. It warms my very soul. Many times, it is when I finally take a moment to put my feet up and just breathe.... which by the way is another major observation of dog behavior. They obviously can't make a cup of tea, even if they wanted it, but they do love their little treats and notice the way they breathe. It is the correct way of breathing (just like an infant). The simplicity of full body breath affects everything within us from the spinal column, to our lungs and our nervous system. I have noticed that just as each of my dogs get ready for a little rest, they take a deep breath, sort of a deep sigh. From that point on they are breathing by inhaling and their belly moves up...exhaling takes it back down again. This oxygenates our bodies and stirs up the nerves throughout our system. It is the consistent care and attentiveness to one form of self care.
"Discipline provides a constancy which is independent of what kind of day you had yesterday and what kind of day you anticipate today." Jon Kabat-Zinn
We all need to acknowledge our small moments of accomplishments and think about what courage we had to achieve our goals. Enjoy it and relish in it. Every moment won't be perfect and that is ok. That's life. We can't have it all every moment. What I like to do is to think of all of the good things that I have and go for the gold. In other words, don't save the good dishes for special occasions only. We are special and we should enjoy using it for ourselves. One specific example I read about is that if you get a box of expensive organic dark chocolate cherries and only eat a few each day. Then later you discover the others have started to rot away. One must give freely and abundantly even to ourselves. I know that my dogs do this as a second nature. It seems that the moral here is that, "While we pursue happiness we flee from contentment." This is a Hasidic proverb which really hit home with me.
Change is always inevitable. I am learning more to make do with what I have. It is enough. And it can be quite interesting. It can be a time to slow down and listen to the quiet.
Saturday, February 18, 2023
LOVE INVENTORY
LOVE INVENTORY
It can even happen in line while waiting at the grocery store. It is a form of kindness for others. Sharing a piece of yourself, not expanding only on the romantic love and finding our soulmate. The absolute chance to love and be loved can happen at just about any moment in our lives such as with friends, with family, and yes, even at times with strangers. Thinking of times when someone showed me that they cared enough to do a little something special for me. It is always fun to reciprocate that love. Then it becomes a special bond.
Saturday, February 11, 2023
HOPE AND GOOD INTENTIONS
HOPE AND GOOD INTENTIONS
Don't get me wrong. Intentions do matter, just not always so specific. I have good intentions of getting my exercise in and my own positive hope can help that happen. And I will say that if a day goes by and it is not on my things accomplished, then I make sure that I do not beat myself up about it. I am human. I look over my schedule and see what I possibly could have changed around so that it does not happen again in the next few days. It is the little steps that matter to me of what I want to accomplish so it is important to look at my intentions and did I fulfill them? Sometimes it is a matter of getting back on the right track of my "HOPE."
I need to be my own inspiration. Thinking about what will inspire me to meet my intentions. It is good to have my own inspirations, yet also I believe that it is wise to allow some others that I admire to help inspire me and to help give me hope of meeting my goals.
Many times it is the hardest thing of all just to "get started." I know that I had a task that was not going to be easy. I held high hopes that I could do it. I almost didn't go through with it at all. I am the Queen of putting it off and talking myself out of something that is scaring me to try. FINALLY, after two hours of coming up in my head with all of the reasons that I could not accomplish this task...I pulled up my big girl panties, marched to the car and I did it. And if I say so myself, I did it with confidence and my head held high. YES! I did make it happen all by myself. There are no words to use that can let others know just how proud that I was of myself. It was exhilarating.
Saturday, February 4, 2023
LOVE
LOVE HURTS
(OR DOES IT)
Just the other day I saw a quote with a picture of Liam Neeson above it. I actually believed that this must have been his quote. After a bit of research, I discovered that a Bosnian writer used this quote in one of his books. His name is Mesa Selimovic.
I believe that you may be able to see where I could have been mistaken. However, I really wanted to get into the actual quote. So, let's start with the beginning. Everyone says love hurts, but that is not true. If you remember back to the song called 'Love Hurts' sung by many different artists including The Everly Brothers, Roy Obison, and Nazareth you may believe that it does. The song states that love wounds and marks any heart not tough and strong. And on and on and on. And I suppose, literally? It can. But let's not look at it in such a way.
There are many things that hurt. Loneliness hurts.
Chemicals are released in the brain when we deal with emotions such as loneliness and rejection and envy. It is a little different than physical pain but nonetheless, it has been scientifically proven to be true. Neuroscience has concluded that it does literally hurt.
Moving on to the 'the envy' part of the quote, we all know this is not a pleasant experience. It can make us feel inferior to other people. The negative effects of envy can make us less likely to help others. So yes, envy hurts.
One more emotion that I would like to add in this blog is grief. It is hard and it hurts. It is such a personal thing and it upends our world because it is so confusing. It changes us and others may not understand what some are going through. It hits the heart and it hurts because love is real.
What is important to remember is that everyone gets these things all confused with love, but in reality love is the only thing in this world that covers up all pain and makes someone feel wonderful again. Love is the only thing in this world that does not hurt.
Although the pain of losing the love of my life has taken me through so many different phases of emotions (and I am still going through them and will be forever) I still know my love for him in my heart is what I will always need. When I think of him and feel all of our memories come to life then I know that love can make someone feel wonderful again, even if it is in a different way.