August 2016 Blog Posts (26)

Packing up a 2 bedroom condo and moving to a new big old house was very overwhelming but I did it! I am enjoying the house although it's A LOT of work. Luckily I have been helped by a few friends. I'm very happy with the neighborhood, the community, my new commute. My boys are settling nicely into their new school. I have much to be grateful for!…

Yesterday was the last day my fiancé and I could see each other before the wedding, so we worked like crazy to finish table cards, glue hemp onto mason jars, and carry everything out to the truck. We rehearsed our dance choreo one last time, and I even got 2 blogs finished as well! I don't know if I've ever worked harder in my life, but very glad we got everything finished.

"Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else." (Fred Rogers)

Well, my juicy co-creators, those of you who read some of my blogs know that I lost my dearest pit bull boyfriend of 16 years on June 15th. Unfortunately, on August 2, I had to say good-bye to my 15 year old cat, as well. If it hadn't been for the loss of my PBB (pit bull boyfriend), I probably would have noticed my cat was sick sooner, but, as it was, I attributed his…

In preparation for our wedding this Saturday, my lady-love and I found ourselves with the less-than-enviable task of cutting name and table cards by hand last night. Fortunately, I found the task to be wonderfully calming for the mind, which promptly turned off and allowed me to focus on the task. It also allowed me to be present for my fiancé when she needed to vent her wedding frustrations out some time later. Perhaps I can find a similar task to incorporate into my daily meditations.

This might be a small accomplishment for some, but it was big for me: I drove home after dropping off my partner, without using my GPS, for the first time ever. Not such an easy thing in the big city :)

I read something yesterday about becoming more conscious of your decisions. The idea is to imagine a Y shape leading out from you, with the consequences of acting or not acting at the end of each. Thinking of this probably didn't change my actions that much, but it did make me more aware of what my decisions could lead to. And that in time will help me make long-term changes

So I recently started the ‪#‎22pushups‬ for ‪#‎22KILL‬ challenge - 22 days of 22 pushups each, in support of war veterans suffering from…

Yesterday started off great, with me getting a good chunk of work done on the computer. The problem started when I began to get restless; I'd previously decided a good strategy for this would be to get up and dance for a bit to loosen up the muscles, but I found myself facing an incredible amount of resistance to doing this. Perhaps I feel practicing makes me uncomfortable? Or maybe my body is trained to feel it needs to relax more when it's stressed, not exercise a different part of the…

Being unhappy is exhausting - I don't know why, but it is. So all the more reason to focus on gratitude, event when planning or going through a difficult period. Yesterday, this strategy paid off yet again, keeping me energized enough to stay present when my fiancé was getting frustrated with our wedding dance yesterday evening. We managed to get in some practice when it could have ground to a halt, perhaps even with hurt feelings. This in turn, made the evening much more lovely. Gratitude…

I was late for an appointment with the Apple Store yesterday - I'd tried to leave as soon as I could, but I ran out of time before I'd finished the work I'd planned to do at home and tried to stretch it. I was bubbling with frustration, until I remembered the importance of changing the energy I was sending out into the universe. After all, being frustrated and impatient won't help me get there faster, will it? I focused instead on being grateful for the things around me - the subway that was…

Everyday Joy-working hard at my job-putting in a full effort. Enjoying meeting a friend at work and walking out on lunch in the Sun for a chat. Eating healthy foods all day-the taste of delicious foods. Feeling the energy to garden after work-harnessing the energy of the Sun. Feeling the joy to laugh & giggle instead of analyse. Enjoying music at night. Looking forward to a planned break away at the end of the week. Enjoying a bubble bath.

Yesterday, for the first time, I went to a long-term healthcare centre to teach the seniors there how to ballroom dance. The centre contacted me on a recommendation, to come in for a trial run to see how the patients liked me. Well, they sure did! Even though I wasn't informed they would be sitting for the whole class, I managed to adapt the class to make it fun for them. On the way out, the supervisor stopped me to tell me they'd loved having me, and would definitely be in touch. Hurray!

Yesterday in a meeting, my boss announced that we were leaving our website hosting platform in favour of another. We were also potentially looking for a new e-commerce solution, which I'd suspected would be the case. She was surprised and happy to find that I'd already researched a number of E-commerce alternatives, and could send them to her that day! I'm glad I trusted my intuition on that one.

I was talking to my lovely partner about a sensitive topic last night. She was trying to make a difficult choice, and didn't like the options either way. I suggested a third option that would make things less than ideal for me, but would save her a lot of trouble. As I said it, I realized just how much she was worth to me - I would give up a lot for her happiness, because that made me happy too. She might still go with one of her original options, but I don't regret giving her a way out.

Still feeling 'stirred up' from the weekend, but I didn't let it wreck my day yesterday. I read recently in Ask and it is Given, that you can raise your energy level by just picking things around you and being grateful for them - your tv, your lamp, your work chair. Not only that, be grateful for the people who made it, the retailers who sold it to you, the shipping service (or your car) that delivered them, without which you would not be able to appreciate them in your home. It saved…

Building self esteem for kids isn’t always the easiest task. As parents, educators, and community leaders it falls upon you to help build your kids up. How do you go about doing that though? One way is to use self esteem building activities.

Your self-image is the way you are seeing yourself in your mind. These are the internal sounds, pictures, and feelings of yourself, which you recognize as you