Monday, August 8, 2016

I am Powerful, I am in Control

Negative thoughts swirl through everything I do lately.  The last few years have been extremely tough and it's been very hard to keep a positive attitude.  I'm feeling it from all sides; marriage, work, kids, friends, family, the whole nine yards.  There's so many, "I should be doing things this way" thoughts floating through my head at all times.  So much guilt and self-doubt, it's hard to climb out of the emotional hole I've dug myself.

It's so out of character for me to be stuck this long.  Normally, I realize I'm doing it and start filling in the holes and rounding out my attitude.  This time, it seems that everything I try fails, even changing my outlook.  I think my unscheduled summer has had a lot to do with it and I'm hoping now that school has started, the schedule will help.  I start doing what I need to and then something comes along that's more important.  Sometimes, that thing is just going fishing with the boys or playing Minecraft with Zakk.  And those are normally really good things, they're great interruptions for getting things back on track.  But it seems that after they occur, I'm stagnant.

Fishing on the Savannah River with the boys

So going to put down a plan here and make some goals.  Because goals are my thing, I must always have a goal to work towards.  Obviously, my current goals need to be tweaked.  I'm a firm believer in positive attitude, positive life and that you are who you make yourself.  I love TED talks, they're absolutely amazing and help you reaffirm your value and self-worth.  Even if the talk is about helping to bring water into third-world countries.  They help you see that one tiny little person in this huge scope of countless universes can actually make a difference.

So one of my recent favorite TED talks is by Cesar Kuriyama, creator of the 1 Second Every Day app.  You can watch his TED talk here: One Second Every Day, but the gist of it is taking time out of every day to really appreciate where you are at that moment.  So the beginning of August, I downloaded his app, after using a free generic one for a few days to make sure it was something that would mesh with me.  It was seriously worth the paltry $4.99.   So it's been helping me enjoy at least times in my day.

But a second a day, or actually the two minutes it takes to get that second, isn't going to do it on it's own.  So I need to also take time just for my attitude.  I was doing yoga daily, then I had became involved in a huge project which took over my life for a little bit.  Yoga starts again tonight!  I love the quiet time to myself.  Most people take advantage of the mornings to prepare for the day, but I love the nights,  The kids are sleeping after their busy days and I like to take that time to "evaluate" my day and figure out how to improve it tomorrow.


Two blogs that I'm following at the moment really will help with taking back my positivity.  Elaina, from Life Before 30 (even though I may be a little past that), has some great content on finding your purpose.  Although sometimes her steps are a little big for my little world.  8 Tips to Help Create a Positive Mental Attitude from Tiny Buddha, is what I'm concentrating on right now.  "Don’t go through life expecting things to change. Life becomes hard and unfair when we decide to complain about things rather than trying to change them ourselves. Wake up to the truth that life is not a practice-run."  

All in all, I think the most important thing I need to remember right now is:




Sunday, August 7, 2016

Projects and Goals, is there ever anything else?

Less than four months between posts!  I'm getting better at this.  Last post I mentioned that I was really working on my health.  I'd proud to say I've stuck with it and I have currently cost 24 lbs since January and my blood pressure has been in normal ranges for two months straight, without any medication for either!

I actually hate weight loss medications and fad diets, or even diets in general.  I believe in diet changes and life habits instead.  Now I will once in awhile take some time off sugar and/or fats like butter, but in the long run, I like chocolate cake too much and it tastes much better with both.  My biggest lifetime diet change this year was ixnay on the energy drinks.  Cardiologist referral and energy drinks just don't mix.  Although I'll admit, I still haven't made that appointment.

Tonight I hit a nice goal, I broke my FitBit step record.  I was ready to call it a night when I noticed I was 113 steps away from my highest step count this year and decided I couldn't end the night that way.  It's the eve of the first day of school here and while we've been working on getting on a school schedule for three weeks, Zakk was still tossing and turning in anticipation of his first day of seventh grade.  So while I'm pacing the hallway trying to beat my record, my kiddo's yelling out from his room every time I walk past his door.  "Love you."  "Love you."  "I still can't sleep."  "I'm watching you."  "Love you."  "Still awake."  I finally hit over my goal, higher than the last one because my OCD demanded zeros at the end and he's passed out with his head at the foot of the bed.  It only took about 15 minutes total, but I'm sure in his head it was more like an hour.  Oh 5 am, I haven't missed you.

But while we're talking about my current projects, I do keep a list of them on the left hand side.  I've actually finished up a few of those, completed some that aren't there and started new ones.  I'll get some pictures up soon of those.  I always have projects going so there's always changes there.  Even if I'm not posting, I try to keep that list up to date.  Mostly just to remind myself what I'm supposed to be doing!  I do use Pinterest A LOT and have both an "Up Next" and a "Finished" board, so feel free to follow me: JTStripling