Not To Worry

Why is it that I think that worrying about something will affect the circumstances of the thing I'm  worrying about?

 

It's as though the more I worry about it, the more I think I can push the situation to go the way I want.

My siblings and I talk a lot about worrying and why we worry.  Like A LOT.  As in a couple of times a week.

It's a good thing I come from a family of six children so we can rotate our calls to each other and no one ends up being burnt out from the constant chatter of one person over and over.  What do we worry about?  Besides our children, most of whom are now young adults and tell us not to worry about them, we worry about our wonderful parents who are in their eighties.  We all live within a hour or two of where my parents live and only out of love do we wonder if they need more of our help.

To say that my parents are independent and free spirited is an understatement but that is also what makes them so charming and so resistant to our offers of help.  I'm sure your family is much the same as ours where aging and illness are issues that are now at the top of the worry list.  It's a bit of a  juggling act trying to know when to offer assistance and when to leave it alone and let it work itself out.

Lots of people say that worry is a waste and I suppose that's true but it doesn't feel that way when you are actively worrying about people you care about.

Worry Beads

Usually worry starts with my thoughts and then as I start thinking about a situation, I unfortunately let myself get ahead to something that hasn't happened yet and maybe it won't ever happen but I still think to myself "What if that happens?"  Do you do this too?  Or am I in a class by myself?

When my thought process starts going round and round, stuck on a thought, I find I have to apply the mental brakes on myself and distract myself with some other activity.  If I don't stop thinking about the "what if's", then the worrying will affect my mood; as in getting a very intense headache.

At that moment I realize the negative effects of worrying: all that thinking, all that concern, all that energy focused on a certain situation, doesn't change whether it will happen.  Not one little bit.  In the meantime, I've made myself a an awful wreck.  Not. good. at. all.

Just as the repetition of handling the beads on a string of worry beads can be calming and healing so does saying positive affirmations to yourself.  Affirmations can help guide you to inner peace.  Sometimes I say; "Worry is a waste." "Worry is a waste." and other times I repeat "Resist worry. Resist Fear."  or "I am safe."

Most of the time my affirmations go a long way to making me feel better about whatever is going on and when they don't I know I can always grab my trusty phone and know that an understanding sibling is just a call away!

The Magic of A Party

The Washington, DC weather on Saturday may have been rainy, foggy and dreary but it had  no affect on the atmosphere inside one cozy house in Northwest DC where it was bright, warm and full of happiness.

 

Was this house in some kind of weather bubble?

 

Yes it was because it was the site of a birthday party that my super duper spectacular friends gave for me and I can say without hesitation that it was the best birthday party ever!!  Talk about healing!  Wow!  I was feeling the love and it was totally through the stratosphere for me in terms of people, food and fun!!!

 

Me and My Fantastic Son!

Truly great friends are a treasure to have and to hold and I keep my friends near and dear to my resilient heart.  These are the incredible people who were here for me after my husband died, these are the people who have helped me keep my heart open to the future and these are the people who came together and let their creativity flow to help me celebrate my magical birthday.

 

My friends are my soul mates and they make most things in life bearable because great friends always find the time to either hold your hand, listen to your story or go out and boogie on the dance floor with you!

 

The theme?  What else?  THE BEACH!!!

 

Mini beach balls, candles, sand, shells and best of all beach food.  As in lobster rolls, spiced shrimp, crab cakes, potato salad and tomatoes and mozzarella and chopped fresh basil.  And if that wasn't enough deliciousness, dessert was a Key Lime pie and a chocolate cake with many, many candles!!!!!!!! Totally yum, yes?

 

Home Made Lobster Rolls





And just when we thought we could not eat one more forkful, it was time to crank up the tunes and dance the night away! Donna Summer you would have been proud of us!!

 

Twerking, congo lines, and a version of something called The Throwdown, were just some of the dance moves proudly performed and thoroughly enjoyed!!

 

After all these years together, we've still got it going on and I thank you my dear friends from the bottom of my heart!! 

 

I am still flying from the emotional high.  And that's the true magic of a party!



Home Made Chocolate Cake

Dream A Little Dream

Here is something to think about ~

You have to speak

 

Your dream out loud.

 

               ~ Kelly Corrigan

To me the importance of this beautiful powerful thought is that when you speak your dream out loud, you start to make it real.  It's the first step in owning your dream and part of owning it is making the dream and all of its possibilities yours so that it can become real. 

 

By talking about your dream out loud, you give your dream a place in your life and it becomes a real part of your life, instead of just a passing thought that sometimes you think about but then it goes away and you continue on and put your energy into other things.

 

One of my dreams for 2014 is to upgrade my kitchen and I think I have finally saved enough money to start this exciting project!

 

 

Everyone has a dream.  It can be big or small; anything that you want it to be.

 

What's yours?

Hooked -- A New Song from Pip

Yesterday was an absolute lousy day.  I arrived home from work and was not feeling good about my little world but was also looking for a way to rid myself of those negative, counter-productive feelings left over from the office.

 

While making dinner, I checked my email to see if there was some wonderful piece of news that would cheer me up.  My stressed out mood buster came in the form of an email from Pip, my cousin's talented son and singer who participated in season two of NBC's The Voice as part of  Adam Levine's team.

 

Music.  Yes, that's what I needed to erase the day's frustrations and bring me back to a relaxed state of mind.  Pip's email contained a new song and video titled "Hooked"  which I clicked on right away because I knew Pip's amazing voice and positive energy would shine through his music video and be contagious and mood changing.

It was!!  Thanks Pip!!  Check out "Hooked" for yourself below:

Wednesday Beats with Usher

I don't have much to say today.  It's Wednesday and things in DC have been tense with the government shutdown and furloughed workers.  Unfortunately, I know a handful of people who are working but unsure as to when they will get paid.

 

And that is why is it time for some uplifting music.  Did you know that music is a quick stress reliever?  I believe we can always make time for the beats and music makes almost everything bearable.

I was lucky enough to see Usher perform live earlier this year at the Inaugural Ball this past January (that seems so long ago!) and he is the real deal!! Man, oh man, does he have energy!!

If this song -- DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love -- does not get lift your mood and make you get up and move, then I don't know what will.  Here one of my favorite Usher songs:

Carry on!!!!!

Can You Hug Too Much?

Hugs......They're so healing!

We hug when we see someone we really like and haven't seen in a while; we hug when it's time to say good-bye.

We hug to show we care; we hug to let the other person know we are on their team.

We hug to send a special message to another person that they are not alone.  They have a friend; someone who cares what happens to them.

We hug to comfort.  We hug to love.

We hug because we are human and part of a larger community.

We are here to hug.  Each other.  All the time.

I saw the below message on Facebook and I'm am not sure where it came from but thought it was a great idea to get people to think about hugging.

A hug always makes me feel better!  Give one first and see what happens!

 

Hugging is good medicine.

It transfers energy and gives the person hugged an emotional lift.

You need four hugs a day for survival,

Eight for maintenance,

And twelve for growth.

Scientists say that hugging is a form of communication because it can say things you don’t have words for.

And the nicest thing about a hug is that you usually can’t give one without getting one.

A New Week

I am with you my dear readers as we begin a new week together!!!!

I hope your weekend was full of exciting adventures and laughter and love and family and friends.

Mine seemed to zip by in a blink.

While I have many things that I want to tell you about, I ran out of time to sit down and put them in complete thoughts and sentences.

There is definitely more to come but today I leave you with the below thought since change and more change seems to be the theme of my life these days:

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it,

 

move with it,

 

and join the dance

 

                         ~Alan Watts

 

 

 

 

 



Carl Hiaason

If you are looking for a book that will take you to a wickedly funny place and make you laugh out loud, then I highly recommend Carl Hiaasen's new book, Bad Monkey, to you.

I just finished reading it while on vacation at the beach last week and I loved it!  I can't tell you how many times I was sitting in my beach chair with my book while my friends were talking and catching up with each other.  There I was, face stuck in the book, reading Bad Monkey and literally bursting out laughing at the smart, flip and hysterical dialogue.  Truly great stuff! 

Come on.  Admit it.  You can't always read heavy, informational, historical books that you know will keep you up to date about what is happening in this crazy world of ours.  Sometimes you just have to read something for the pure unadulterated fun of it because laughing helps you de-stress and triggers positive emotions.  Laughing is definitely an energy and mood booster!  I usually experience my best laughs when I am relaxed.  Things just aren't that funny when you are tense, twisted and closed up.

 

 

Carl Hiaasen's gift to us as readers is that he always manages to create fabulous characters in all of his books and they always end up in a lot of wacky situations.  Given that Hiaasen writes a column for The Miami Herald, I have a feeling that he probably knows some of these people he writes about or has taken bits and pieces of different people's personalities he comes in contact with as a reporter and thankfully creates new people in his fabulous fiction.

 

I don't want to reveal the places in the book where I couldn't stop laughing because you really need to know the plot and the characters of Bad Monkey and allow them to cook together for a number of chapters before it truly becomes funny.  However, just to give you a flavor of Hiaasen's satire, here's a short excerpt involving the main character, Andrew Yancy, and Yancy's love interest, Rosa:

 

"Rosa looked irresistible as she walked up Yancy's front steps, but he was in too much discomfort to make a move, even after she changed into a devastating sundress.

While she inspected the knot on his skull, he said, "Know what?  We'd make a great crime-solving duo."

"How much have you had to drink?"

"Have mercy, woman.  I ran out of Advil."

"Well, I don't sleep with drunken guys.  Period."

Yancy sighed.  "So many rules."

She took notice of the shotgun propped in a corner, and Yancy told her restaurant inspections could be dangerous.  She informed him that for dinner she was doing blackened grouper with mashed sweet potatoes and a grilled Caesar, and that he was going to finish every bite or never see her again.

"I also stopped in Key Largo and got some homemade carrot cake," she said.

"From where?"

"What's the difference?"

"Rosa, you don't understand.  I see all the health reports.  I know the dirt on every kitchen."

She ordered him to be quiet while she sewed up his gnawed butt cheek.  To take his mind off the intimate unpleasantries, Yancy told the story of how he was conceived during side of one of Abbey Road.

"You mean side two," Rosa said.  "The medley."

"No, side one.  According to my mom, the big moment happened during Maxwell's Silver Hammer."

"It's all starting to make sense," said Rosa.

 

Besides Hiaasen's dry and snappy dialogue, Bad Monkey takes us on some unpredictable trips through Florida, where Hiaasen was born and raised, and also to the Bahamas where "everyting is jahmmin'."

 

Bad Monkey is a everything I wanted it to be: a great read and a fun, wonderful escape!

Carl Hiaasen never disappoints.

 

Love Somebody -- Singers From The Voice

Melanie Martinez, Mike Squillante and other singers
 from NBC's The Voice

Hello Saturday!

I've got a lot to do today and only so much time to get it done.

I bet you also have a full plate today too!

So let's pump up the volume and get it going with this new video a friend sent me yesterday featuring the energetic and talented singers from Season 3 of NBC's The Voice singing "Love Somebody" at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City:  Mike Squillante, Melanie Martinez, Bryan Keith, Andriana Louise and Suzanna Choffel:

http://bit.ly/TheVoice3_LoveSomebody

Thanks guys for the energy!!

Positive Vibes

I remind myself every day, all the time in fact, that I have a choice in how I decide to view the world.

 

I can be negative about things, which is self-perpetuating and draining and doesn't really get me anywhere.

 

Or I can choose to think positively about the amazing and beautiful world around us.

 

Positive thinking brings about positive energy which keeps me going and continually connecting with others.

 

Abraham Lincoln once said, "Most folks are about as happy as they choose to be."  Each day, I think it takes a conscious effort to emphasize the positive and disregard the negative.  Open yourself up to the positive vibes of life and try to shut the door on the negative ones. 

Choose happiness day after day.

Get outside and move around.  Get your heart pumping and breathe in fresh air.  Drink in the natural beauty around you.  Studies show that as little as 5 minutes of walking in a natural setting can increase your self-esteem, boost your mood, and slash high-blood pressure, according to Prevention magazine. New research also says that people who are active outdoors exercise longer than those who work out inside only.

As we move into a long holiday weekend (YEAH!!), please check out this beautifully photographed video about Mother Earth and her amazing resources.  We really do live on an incredible planet! 

Please enjoy the video which was made by the people who wrote The Secret and the calming music was composed for the clip by Jo Blakenburg.

 

A Summer Itch

I talked to one of my great friends today on the telephone.  I thought she was at home or running errands but then she said she had to get off the phone because she was getting ready to cross the Bay Bridge. 

As in the Bay Bridge over the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

Ding! Ding! Ding! She's. Going. To. The. Beach!

Right away, I began to feel the symptoms of an incurable condition called "Beach Fever."

My friend's news dovetailed perfectly with the recent warming of the sun in Washington, DC (predicted 82 degrees today!) and turning the calendar to the mojo month of May.  My thoughts of being at the beach have now been kicked into high gear and I know I am off and running and will be like this for the rest of the summer. 

  

Don't You love This Picture?
  Makes You Feel As If You Are There!

 

The past week has found me going on the internet at all times of the day and watching the Bethany Beach live cam so I can gaze at the sand dunes and a bit of the incredible ocean for myself.  I'm pathetic.  I just sit there and stare at the screen for God knows how long as my eyes travel around the screen going from the sand to the water and from the water back to the sand.

When I'm at home, I go into the linen closet and open up the brownish plastic bottle of Coppertone sun screen and smell it over and over again.  It's one of my favorite scents!!  I can't even put into words the colorful flood of memories that fill my brain when I smell Coppertone. 

And then I start to think about and of course start to crave beach food -- pizza, steamed crabs, french fries, lobster.

 

 

 

I am really ridiculous about the whole beach thing! 

It's one of the few places on the planet that totally relaxes me and helps me refill my inner reserves of patience, peace and energy.  When I am at the beach, I am all into my healing zone of reading, relaxing and being entirely off schedule.

I am an incurable beach nut and that's all there is to it!
 

A Beautiful City

This is how the weather works in Washington, DC:  a few days ago I was bundled up in a winter coat and wishing the sharp, chilly wind would die down.  Today, I am walking around the city without a coat and feeling so warm I wish I had shorts and flip flops on.
 

The temperatures in the nation's capital may turn on a dime but it doesn't affect the beauty of the city.

 

And now that it is warmer, I'm taking full advantage of all it's splendor.

Spring in Washington, DC is when you can see the city at its best.  And spending time outdoors in the city right now is so healing.  It is truly a form of stress relief!

Japanese cherry trees in full bloom near the Jefferson Memorial

Between the airy and tranquil blooms of the cherry blossom trees surrounding the Tidal Basin, the bright and cheery daffodils popping out of the grass in the various parks around the city and on the hills of Rock Creek park and the brightly colored tulips spilling over the sidewalk planters; it's hard not to take a deep breath and say, "Finally! Spring is here for sure this time and it feels great!"

 

Being outside in nature makes people instantly feel more alive.  The warmth of the sun on your skin, breathing fresh air in deeply and just looking at natural scenes activates the happy parts of my brain and give me a burst of hopefulness and relaxation.

 

I hope you are able today to go outside and connect to the natural world around you.

 

I bet you'll feel energized!

 

Closeup of Cherry Blossoms

 

 

 

Forgiveness

Someone close to me is emotionally stuck on certain negative events that happened in her life decades ago.  She talks about them in great detail and tells others how she felt when these things happened to her.  Listening over and over again to her retelling of these events doesn't seem to help her move forward and get past what happened.

 

It's as though she has a list in her head and she mentally checks these things off every day to remind herself that someone did something wrong to her.  It is sad and frustrating to watch someone concentrate on the same past events and yet not be able to say good-bye to them.

 

Constantly being a part of this conversation is teaching me in a new way about being positive about life and truly forgiving.  Not just saying you're sorry or accepting someone else's apology because you are expected to, but really and truly getting it out of your system and meaning it.

 

 

 

 

Bad things, unfair things and nasty things do happen to us.  Unfortunately that's what happens in life.  But great things, positive things, happy things also happen to us.  It's up to us to either choose the negative or the positive and then go ahead and live our lives.

 

A friend explained it to me this way: if you decide to hold on to something that makes you angry or "wronged," then every day you have to find the negative energy within yourself to go over that event and how it felt and what you think should have happened instead of what did actually happen.

 

That's a lot of baggage to drag around.

 

Instead, forgiveness is something you practice once.  You look at what happened, realize we are all human and make mistakes, forgive and then let it go.  Really let it go.  And then move on.

 

A colleague at work has the following saying about forgiveness taped to her desk.  The author is unknown but every time I read it I stop and think about what it means and commit to bringing the spirit of forgiveness into my life.

Here's the saying:

"Forgiveness is a decision to let go of resentment and thoughts of revenge.

It is the act of untying yourself from thoughts and feelings that bind you to the offense committed against you.

When you embrace forgiveness, you embrace peace, hope, gratitude and joy."

Peace!

Diane Von Furstenberg

You probably know of Diane Von Furstenberg from her infamous dress designs for women, especially her iconic wrap dress.  Her dresses have been worn by First Lady Michelle Obama, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow.  Today, Diane Von Furstenberg masterfully runs a global company, tastefully designing women's fashions, along with fragrances, cosmetics and home collections.

Diane Von Furstenberg

But Diane Von Furstenberg is more than a fashionista.  She is also a passionate and generous person who spends a lot of time mentoring women and distributing her grant and philanthropic money to community building, education and environmental causes, among others.

 

And if that isn't enough, she also offers support by reaching out and communicating through a column that she writes for The Cut, the high-end fashion section in New York Magazine (http://nymag.com/thecut/). 

 

Today, Diane takes a question about negative energy.  The very thing that I try extra hard to keep out of myself and my life.  Negative energy can waste time, money, talent and hurt your outlook on life.  I know it when I am with it, no matter how attractively packaged it is.  What's a person to do?  Walk away?  Feign indifference?

Here is Diane's sage advice:

Dear Diane: As someone who places a lot of focus on inner peace and happiness, how do you deal with the negative energy of others? -- Athena

The most important relationship is the one you have with yourself.  You have to build from within and you will have control.  Be honest with yourself, accept who you are.  Once you do that, you can improve yourself and like yourself.  YOU are the solution!  Look for the light and build around it.  You have the keys to your happiness.  Let others be negative, your light will shine on them!  It also helps to surround yourself with amazing women.  I am so thrilled to be in the fourth year of the DVF Awards, where we award five extraordinary women who have had the courage to fight, the power to survive, and the leadership to inspire.  I have met so many incredible women that make it easy to focus on the positive because they have so often turned hardship into opportunity.  That is the definition of grace.

And that my friends, is also positive energy!

Here Comes The Sun

Sunrise By the Washington Monument

Here comes the sun (doo doo doo doo)
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

~The Beatles

How are you doing now that we are on Daylight Savings Time?

 

Yeah!!! I'm so glad it's here!!  Winter seemed to have so many fits and starts this year -- chilly, snow then warmth, then cold again -- I think we really deserve to have Spring and a longer day finally arrive.

 

It was hard to roll out of bed Monday morning, having lost an hour and still recovering from my fall at the gas station, but I think the trade off is worth it.  A longer day means more daylight and that's a good thing because light affects my mood and maybe yours too.

 

When I leave my office building in the winter and it's already dark, that is a real downer for me.  It just doesn't feel right for it to get dark at 4:30 pm or 5 pm.  It means that it's dark when I go to work and dark when I leave work.  I do leave my office and go outside during the day either to go to run an errand or get lunch, but that's not enough. 

 

I love the longer days of spring and summer.  I just feel lighter and brighter and full of possibility.  Most people feel a surge of energy from sunlight.  The warmth and brightness of the light lifts your mood and makes you feel good and ready to take on some new projects: gardening, painting or just putting away the winter coats, boots and blankets.

So, as the Beatles would say, bask in the bright light little darling.
 

Year of the Snake

 

 

Chinese Celebration of the Year of the Snake/ AFP Photo

 

Happy Year of the Snake!

 

Chinese New Year is here and millions around the world are celebrating "the Year of the Snake."  Just so you know, 2012 was the Year of the Dragon.

 

In Chinese symbology, snakes are regarded as intelligent and wise, BUT the Chinese also believe that snakes have a tendency to be somewhat unscrupulous.  Oh yeah. . . we all are familiar with someone who might have "done us wrong."  Being unscrupulous definitely has a bad vibe attached to it, which is probably why Americans say that when someone acts badly he/she is a "snake in the grass" and can't be trusted.

 

I'm not sure why a whole year of snakes is a good thing but I'm willing to think of snakes in a different way if good luck is involved.

Which makes me wonder:  does good luck just arrive in our lives like the house in the Wizard of Oz that fell from the sky and landed on top of one of the Wicked Witches or do we make opportunities for good luck to enter into our lives?

I think having good luck is a combination of making the most of my opportunities, whatever they might be, and trying to be proactive and positive about life.  I know there are a lot of things that are totally out of my control but the way I look at life is one thing I can change and try to keep as positive as possible.  Coming at life with a positive outlook is a big step in the direction of  being receptive to good luck.

We all can use a bit of good luck in our lives so I wish your coming lunar year to be one that's full of fortune, peace, prosperity and good health and lots of good luck!

January Baby

 

 

 

I am a January Baby and yesterday was my birthday.

I am happy to have a birthday (Elvis and I were born on the same day!) but I wish I had been born at a different time of the year.

 

By the time my birthday arrives, people are usually burnt out from the holidays.  Throughout the years, I have found that friends and family are either on a diet in January or they had spent too much money on Christmas so they are back on a budget in January.  Sometimes I have received gifts in Christmas wrapping paper and sometimes I have received one gift that is for Christmas and my birthday together.

 

I think it's an early January thing.

 

I like warm and/or hot weather much better than cold weather so I envy those people who have birthdays when it's warm.  They have it made in the shade so to speak!

 

But yesterday in Washington, DC it was a beautiful day.  The sun was shining and there was no snow on the ground...Yeah!!! And as I walked down the street from my office to meet a wonderful friend for a spontaneous birthday lunch (those are the best!), I thought about all of my blessings and the huge positives in my life.

 

I work hard to stay healthy and I will continue to do that this year but I also want to learn to meditate.  I think meditation would add a sense of calm to make mental being that I don't always have right now and would help me feel me more mentally fit.  There is a mind/body connection that I need to address because research -- and life experience -- shows that stress drains the body of energy, causing it to function less effectively.

 

I also have reached a stage in life where I no longer wait for things to happen.  I like to learn new things and to put myself out there a bit.  What's the worst that can happen?  Let's see...I could fail and look foolish (like that's never happened before!) or I could succeed (YES!).

 

I'm not talking about forcing a situation, rather the idea that if there is something you have always wanted to try then go ahead and try it.  You can't wait for certain circumstances to present themselves because then you might be waiting a long time.  I don't want to look back on something years later and wonder what would have happened if I done such and such a thing.

For me, the simple life, a life full of friends, family, good health and my dear readers is the life well lived.

Without those essentials I have no base or foundation of being.  Those essentials give me purpose and an endless supply of resources to celebrate the gift of life every year.

Seaching for Serenity

As we continue to deal with the tragic stories coming out in the news about the Newtown, Connecticut shootings, let us try to find a break from the pain.

We begin a new work week and also find that Christmas is just a week away. The juxtaposition of the Newtown stories, the dialogue online and on television and in the newspapers this weekend about gun control, the state of mental health and parenting issues in the United States and Christmas decorations and music is jarring.

I found myself turning off the television and only reading parts of stories because it all became too much to digest.

I am not ignoring what has happened but at a certain point, my mind needs a rest.  My mental break consists of finding a place where I can close my eyes, take a deep breath and mentally think of a calming image in nature such as an isolated beach, rolling green hills or a field of flowers.

Breath.  Listen to your heartbeat.  Breath.  Think of the ocean and the calming sound of the waves as they meet the sandy shore.  Take another deep breath.

What is serenity in a time of turmoil?  It can be a place of inner peace and a way of finding hope and healing even while experiencing pain.

I found this short explanation about serenity on www.wisdomcommons.org and thought I would share it with you.  I hope you find it helpful:

 Serenity means maintaining a sense of inner peace even in difficult situations.

 

We gain serenity by accepting the things we cannot change and focusing our energy where we can make a difference.

 

Fear, anger or desire can create a sense of urgency that triggers us to react impulsively. When this happens, we risk undermining our goals, damaging relationships--even violating our deepest values. By contrast, when we cultivate serenity, we don’t fear our emotions, but we do keep them in balance. We govern ourselves rather than being ruled by external circumstances and our feelings about them.

 

Meditative practices, contemplation, physical exercise and self-regulation skills all can help us to maintain a serene, peaceful state of mind. This mental state in turn frees us to live thoughtfully and intentionally.

 

When we hold onto our own sense of serenity, we help others to keep theirs.

                                                       

Take Care

Vick's: A Quick Home Remedy

I am fighting a cold and a cough.  I thought it was a 24-hour thing but it has lasted longer than I expected.  I probably caught it from someone in my office because lately there are a lot of sneezers and coughers around me.

 

This is not the time of the year to feel sick.  I have been constantly washing my hands to prevent picking up germies but obviously this wasn't enough.  I haven't started my Christmas shopping; I have ideas but haven't yet gone online to find the particular gifts I have in mind.  Plus, the work pace has stepped up because people are trying to wrap things up before the end of the year.

 

I need energy and positive thoughts.

 

What to do?

 

Number one on my list is Vick's VapoRub.  It is mentholated and contains eucalyptus and the combination of the two ingredients is magical.  You might remember this from your childhood.  It comes in a little blue jar and you can find it at any drugstore.  Last night I could not breath through my nose at all and my son reminded me that I used to give him Vick's when he was little and he was stuffed up.  Presto!  After a few applications, I can breath again and my cough is getting a little better.

 

After that, the only tried and true things I can suggest are: hot tea (with honey, if you like), lots of fluids such as juices and soups, soft tissues (there are some that have Vick's in them) and rest, rest, and more rest.

 

I went to bed early, slept through the night (thank you Vick's) and I am glad that I did because I know my body needs all the energy it can get to fight this bugger.

 

Be careful out there and please take care of youself!

 

Good luck!

Beers With Friends

 

 

 

 

A good friend of mine posted the below story on her Facebook page but there was no source of authorship so I don't know who wrote it or where it came from.

 

But I thought it was wonderful story, definitely asking me to think about how I spend my time and how I prioritize my life: family, friends, my health, my passions.  Do I get a sense of meaning from my work, daily activities and relationships?  Maybe I am letting the small stuff get in the way of the more important stuff?

 

It's always healthy to reassess yourself.

 

I try to create a healthy and loving life for myself and to give thanks every day.  I find when I go out of my way to promote a positive mental attitude within myself that I then find it's a little easier to focus on the  satisfaction in what life gives me.  If I'm always working against what is happening around me, then that's when I'm out of tune with myself.

 

The simpler I make my life, the less turmoil I cause myself.

 

I think the professor would agree.  Here's his story:

 

 

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise  jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed..

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.. The sand is everything else---the small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn.

Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.' The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.