Ah, my weak spot.
This chapter deals with the good energy that flows from free space. When you clean out the clutter, the energy is wonderful.
I know this is true - I did my kitchen cabinets and my bedroom closet a few months ago and I Can't tell you how freeing it's been.
So now, the take action challenge has me thinking about which area to tackle.
I have decided to do the hall closet. it's a freaking disaster. It needs to be done. So that's what I am targeting this weekend to do it.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Chapter 16 : Stop Look and Listen
I love this chapter. Ironically I was doing the activities in this chapter this week unwittingly.
In short, at your most busy and most stressful times, this is when you should stop and take a self care break.
Since I have been at my wits end now for two weeks straight Ripping out hair, crying, swearing, drinking - all the things I rarely get into these days.
But such is the ways of the universe, The last few days I have been taking my baths in dead sea salts with Baking Soda, Aloe, Baby Oil and some fragrance. Reading my mindless books and listening to calming ocean sounds.
I have added Yoga, pilates to my daily walks AND I bought new bras and Pajamas.
During the day, I will either exercise or nap.
So I have been adding this in all along. I'm planning to continue and pleased that I was doing this already!
(Pssst Now I am caught up!)
In short, at your most busy and most stressful times, this is when you should stop and take a self care break.
Since I have been at my wits end now for two weeks straight Ripping out hair, crying, swearing, drinking - all the things I rarely get into these days.
But such is the ways of the universe, The last few days I have been taking my baths in dead sea salts with Baking Soda, Aloe, Baby Oil and some fragrance. Reading my mindless books and listening to calming ocean sounds.
I have added Yoga, pilates to my daily walks AND I bought new bras and Pajamas.
During the day, I will either exercise or nap.
So I have been adding this in all along. I'm planning to continue and pleased that I was doing this already!
(Pssst Now I am caught up!)
So Sue me I'm behind again.... Chapter 15 Two heads run better than one
Yeah Yeah Yeah.... In the height of personal issues I abandoned the Life Makeovers. Which is the absolute WORST time to abandon it.
so I'm back doing what I do. I thank all my friends who have helped and are continuing to help me through situation.
However, I used to be the girl/woman who hid under the covers tll the ugliness passed. One of the major things I have been working on as part of ME is to handle these things better and not let my life stagnate because o f them.
So I bought my new bras and some new sleep wear and am exercising and taking care of me.
Enough. Here's Chapter 15
Two heads are better than one is a great concept that most people DO NOT DO.
It's called asking for help when you need it. As humans, we have a tendancy to try to go it alone. We struggle, we get frustrated and sometimes quit. And sometimes we re-invent the wheel.
So Without realizing it, I already did the exercise this week. And I did it in a cool way that I didn't even notice till it was over.
Here's the scoop. I have this friend, My Voice Twin. She's younger than I am by 12+ years. very bright. ridiculously talented.... but new to teaching just based on age.
Now from what I can see and from what I have heard from her, she's got a lot of potential and is very intuitive and bright, so her career is off to a good start.
What struck me most about her is two things. Her confidence in her own abilities and her ease at asking for assistance when needed. or opinions or anything. She's very confident.
So, when our annual NYSSMA festival came around - I have 4 kids going on level 3. Two were doing a song that I deemed OK but it was selected for me by the school. I hate the song, but for the kids that were doing it, it was ok. I have 2 other kids going to a later festival and they were assigned the song too.
I was talking to my voice twin and was telling her that the song was working my last nerve. And she mentioned why she doesn't like that song and it struck a nerve. In a good way though. I was pulling into one of the later festival kids homes while talking to her. When I got there I realized that I could do what Voice Twin did. Change the song! She's very smart because the timing is right and the replacement song is PERFECT.
She and I regularly trade ideas on how to deal with parents and kids and peers and songs and sight reading and all that crap that makes us successful teachers. It never even occured to me to change the song, but we have a month. And all the things that she hates about the song would have taken out the kid who I was dealing with that day. So why set her up for failure? Give her a tune she is familiar with and have her learn it instead.
I am actually much more humble now about asking for help. Though I really want to tell you that I am OK on professional stuff, and community service and pretty much anywhere BUT personal.
I am working on that too. Not quick to let people in so I have to learn some trust.
so I'm back doing what I do. I thank all my friends who have helped and are continuing to help me through situation.
However, I used to be the girl/woman who hid under the covers tll the ugliness passed. One of the major things I have been working on as part of ME is to handle these things better and not let my life stagnate because o f them.
So I bought my new bras and some new sleep wear and am exercising and taking care of me.
Enough. Here's Chapter 15
Two heads are better than one is a great concept that most people DO NOT DO.
It's called asking for help when you need it. As humans, we have a tendancy to try to go it alone. We struggle, we get frustrated and sometimes quit. And sometimes we re-invent the wheel.
So Without realizing it, I already did the exercise this week. And I did it in a cool way that I didn't even notice till it was over.
Here's the scoop. I have this friend, My Voice Twin. She's younger than I am by 12+ years. very bright. ridiculously talented.... but new to teaching just based on age.
Now from what I can see and from what I have heard from her, she's got a lot of potential and is very intuitive and bright, so her career is off to a good start.
What struck me most about her is two things. Her confidence in her own abilities and her ease at asking for assistance when needed. or opinions or anything. She's very confident.
So, when our annual NYSSMA festival came around - I have 4 kids going on level 3. Two were doing a song that I deemed OK but it was selected for me by the school. I hate the song, but for the kids that were doing it, it was ok. I have 2 other kids going to a later festival and they were assigned the song too.
I was talking to my voice twin and was telling her that the song was working my last nerve. And she mentioned why she doesn't like that song and it struck a nerve. In a good way though. I was pulling into one of the later festival kids homes while talking to her. When I got there I realized that I could do what Voice Twin did. Change the song! She's very smart because the timing is right and the replacement song is PERFECT.
She and I regularly trade ideas on how to deal with parents and kids and peers and songs and sight reading and all that crap that makes us successful teachers. It never even occured to me to change the song, but we have a month. And all the things that she hates about the song would have taken out the kid who I was dealing with that day. So why set her up for failure? Give her a tune she is familiar with and have her learn it instead.
I am actually much more humble now about asking for help. Though I really want to tell you that I am OK on professional stuff, and community service and pretty much anywhere BUT personal.
I am working on that too. Not quick to let people in so I have to learn some trust.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Chapter 14 Are we having fun yet?
This i s about stopping and having fun. We could all use a little fun and you should be able to do one actvitiy each day that will keep a smile on your face for at least 30 minutes.
The list had a wonderful assortment of options. I chose the following:
Play Video Games
Play with your friends
Play with my friends' Kids.
I love these activities and I do them already - This heightened my awareness of how good I feel after all of them. Not the video games as much, I feel accomplished on those but the other two keep a smile on my face and wonderful memories for days and weeks and years to come.
So you guys - pick an activity that's fun and do it for 30 minutes every day. Life is too short!
The list had a wonderful assortment of options. I chose the following:
Play Video Games
Play with your friends
Play with my friends' Kids.
I love these activities and I do them already - This heightened my awareness of how good I feel after all of them. Not the video games as much, I feel accomplished on those but the other two keep a smile on my face and wonderful memories for days and weeks and years to come.
So you guys - pick an activity that's fun and do it for 30 minutes every day. Life is too short!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Chapter 13 Spring into Fitness
Aptly named.
This is the week I NEED to spring into Fitness. Seriously. I just put up a post at The Life and Times of the Contessa that clearly indicates how important fitness is going to be moving forward.
Cheryl Richards puts a "Take Action Challenge" out there that's very interesting.
She asks that you find 5 obstacles to being a healthier person one day at a time and then to discover 5 solutions.
So here goes:
Obstacles:
This is the week I NEED to spring into Fitness. Seriously. I just put up a post at The Life and Times of the Contessa that clearly indicates how important fitness is going to be moving forward.
Cheryl Richards puts a "Take Action Challenge" out there that's very interesting.
She asks that you find 5 obstacles to being a healthier person one day at a time and then to discover 5 solutions.
So here goes:
Obstacles:
- Poor time management
- Tired
- Boredom
- Fear
- health
Solutions:
- I will schedule my fitness into my calendar each day
- I will go to sleep slightly earlier and wake up at the same time each day
- Add different fitness activities to keep me interested
- I will monitor myself and if I don't see a difference in 3 months of serious work, I will see a doctor again
- If I maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle I will not need to be so worried about this.
So these are my goals for this week. I am adding fitness for the main purpose of stress release. secondly, for weight loss and third for health and meditation.
Conclusion Chapter 12
This was a wonderful chapter for me but it's a technique that is slow in coming. It's working but I need to start on something smaller and work my way up.
I have a small financial burden that I need to clear up. With Tax day around the corner, I shut everything out of my mind. I didn't think about it for 2 week, then I discovered the solution. In the car while I was driving. And it will clear up everything with some left over.
I do still love this technique - I just need to start small and work my way up.
I have a small financial burden that I need to clear up. With Tax day around the corner, I shut everything out of my mind. I didn't think about it for 2 week, then I discovered the solution. In the car while I was driving. And it will clear up everything with some left over.
I do still love this technique - I just need to start small and work my way up.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Chapter 12 - Giving your mind a rest
I absolutely LOVE this chapter.
It deals with wisdom and congnitive thinking.
We use Cognitive thinking all day in our jobs, putting together things, figuring out solutions etc.
She used a wonderful example of trying to find hte solution to a problem but keep hitting a brick wall. Or why suddenly you get the solution in the shower, or swimming in the ocean, or the middle of the night.
Why is it people who have been on vacation, by the end, are so relaxed and ful of brilliant ideas?
Because we allow the cognitive part of our brains to rest. This allows the wisdom we have to come forth.
The take action challenge is pretty interesting. It is asking for you to choose a problem that is giving you a hard time solving and suggesting that you not think about it for a specified amount of time. Be finite with the time and day. If your brain strays there during the time you aren' t thimking about it, prepare a mantra that you will use to remind your self nont to think about it until your time/date.
Mine is my issues at work with my incompetent leadership. Looking for a short-term and long term solution.
I have given myself until sunday at 3PM to come up with a solution based on wisdom.
I will not think about it again until that time and if I do, I will say to myself - this will be adressed on Sunday, don't worry about it now.
I love this plan. So much less stress!
It deals with wisdom and congnitive thinking.
We use Cognitive thinking all day in our jobs, putting together things, figuring out solutions etc.
She used a wonderful example of trying to find hte solution to a problem but keep hitting a brick wall. Or why suddenly you get the solution in the shower, or swimming in the ocean, or the middle of the night.
Why is it people who have been on vacation, by the end, are so relaxed and ful of brilliant ideas?
Because we allow the cognitive part of our brains to rest. This allows the wisdom we have to come forth.
The take action challenge is pretty interesting. It is asking for you to choose a problem that is giving you a hard time solving and suggesting that you not think about it for a specified amount of time. Be finite with the time and day. If your brain strays there during the time you aren' t thimking about it, prepare a mantra that you will use to remind your self nont to think about it until your time/date.
Mine is my issues at work with my incompetent leadership. Looking for a short-term and long term solution.
I have given myself until sunday at 3PM to come up with a solution based on wisdom.
I will not think about it again until that time and if I do, I will say to myself - this will be adressed on Sunday, don't worry about it now.
I love this plan. So much less stress!
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