Affirmations

Happy Friday!  How’d it go with those intentions this week?  I have, amazingly, met each of mine!  I should temper that by saying that I only set two and only for the weekdays.  I wanted to be realistic about my choices, and having completed them, I see that it worked.  😉 So what’s next?  As this week comes to a close, I am already considering my intentions for next week.  What about the weekend, you might ask?  Well, my time is shared on the weekend.  The activities and outcomes thus belong not only to me, but also to Jim and anyone else that happens to take part in our weekend plans.  Therefore, I am not setting any intentions, other than to be present in whatever activities we do.  Do you, too, have others that will share your intentions at times?  Spend some time thinking about ways to include them in your intention exercises..  This brings a new level of thoughtfulness to the activity. But back to my earlier question...

Today’s message is short:  Thank you!   Remember to practice gratitude each day.  We are surrounded by blessings.  Count yours and give thanks where its appropriate to do so.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed?  Perhaps you’re a student with far too many papers to write and class projects to complete and only a short time in which to do so. Or maybe you’re working and your supervisor has given you for more tasks than it seems humanly possible to complete.  What do you do when it all just becomes “too much?” In my experience, we all feel overwhelmed sometimes.  It might happen when we really have been given far more than is necessary, but sometimes we become overwhelmed with even regular life “stuff” when it gets thrown at us repeatedly.  It may not even be all that difficult to handle, but we just reach a point of overload. And the aggravation that causes is extreme! So, what can you do when it all just feels like it’s “too much?”  First off, recognize that what you are feeling is normal.  Everyone becomes overwhelmed sometimes.  Don’t build this into an even larger issue by thinking something is wrong with you.  It’s not. I...

Good morning!  In preparation for the week, I spent some time yesterday identifying and setting my intentions for the week.  What do I plan to achieve this week?  When one is a student or a working adult, there are always tasks to be completed and deadlines by which to complete them.  It’s quite easy to set daily intentions based upon those deadlines.  For example, if you are a student and you have a research paper due in two weeks, perhaps your intention for one of the early days is to create an outline of main paints you wish to address in the paper.  The next day’s intention might be to find five resources that will help you to write the paper.  And so on.  A large task, the research paper, is made easier when broken down into small, daily pieces.  I think the same can be true of any task.  If we can break it down into smaller, easier to manage portions, overall completion seems simple and even seemingly impossible jobs suddenly becom...

  I guess that with this title, the pic should be snow, but I’m sure Disney will forgive me… Do you ever find that your brain and emotions are on overload? That’s what I’m feeling today.  There are dozens of thoughts fighting for priority.  Unfortunately, at least for me, when things are like this, I can’t seem to focus on a single thought for long.  This bleeds over into my daily activities, too.  On these days, I struggle to complete simple tasks because my mind wanders and I end up bouncing from one to the next without finishing anything.  Of course, not being able to fulfill my to do list just adds another concern to the swirling mire in my mind. I’m curious how others handle these situations.  After much practice, I’ve reached the conclusion that the “Let It Go” strategy is my best defense.  The first thing I have to let go is the idea that all of my to do list must be completed.  Once I can set that aside, I move on to sorting through t...

“Work hard, but have fun!” This used to be the last thing I would tell the kids before dropping them off at sports practices.  Why, you might wonder, was this the sendoff?  I never wanted my kids to think that they “had” to play sports.  If they wanted to play, Jim and I were happy to support that by driving them to practices, tournaments, etc.  But we never wanted them to play for us.  We met plenty of parents over the years who were in the stands and had a kid on the field under duress. Their kids were being forced into the sport because it’s what the parent wanted. Due to this, we knew plenty of unhappy kids.  Some had amazing talent that never quite showed up in a game.  Instead, we saw plenty of anxiety, apathy, and sometimes even outright hostility from these troubled youth.  So, my mantra only strengthened over the years:  “Work hard, but have fun” eventually evolved into “Work hard but have fun, and if you aren’t having fun, just tell...