There ARE Alternatives
I had to make an extreme change to my diet. At first, I was feeling a bit sorry for myself.
But then, I uncovered
There are new-diet-happy alternatives for ALL of my favorite foods! They aren’t exactly the same but they are close enough and they bring me joy.
This is often true in all aspects of life. There ARE alternatives. Losing one option often forces us to look for other options. And we tend to FIND these options when we search for them.
As the saying goes, when one door closes, another opens.
Look for the opening door!
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It Is Okay To Have A Mental Health Day
My arthritis, due to the abrupt changes in weather, has been…intense. The news has been…a lot. The weather is gray.
So I’m having a mental health day today.
I’ve cancelled all of my plans, postponed all the work I can postpone, and I will stay in bed, reading and watching movies and taking it easy.
And that’s okay, my friend.
Life isn’t a race. Our to-do lists are something WE create, not the universe demands we do. They can be to-done (as the Dear Wonderful Hubby jokingly refers to it) tomorrow. Or the next day.
If you need a mental health day and can afford to take one, take one. Refill your energy wells. Regain your happiness. Give your brain and your body a break.
You deserve it!
(smiles)
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Divide The News And Protect Your Happiness
There’s…A LOT happening in the world right now. It can be overwhelming. And the revelations are often spirit sucking.
We have to stay informed to stay safe. But we also have to protect our mental health and safeguard our joy. Happiness is precious. We have to shield it.
One thing the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I do, that has helped greatly with balancing safety and joy, is…
We divide the news between ourselves and with other loved ones.
One loved one focuses on wars and military movements, for example.
He tells us if there’s anything we should do or know here at home regarding this.
He will also say things like “It’s really bad out there.” without going into gruesome details.
And, when we’re planning travel, we’ll let him know and he’ll inform us if there’s anything we should be aware of.
My specialty is climate and the environment.
I inform loved ones if there’s something they should know or take action on regarding these.
Yes, we need to be aware of anything that might harm us. But we don’t have to be aware of EVERYTHING dire happening in this big ol’ world in grim detail.
It is okay to only be knowledgeable of pieces of it.
Protect your mental health, my friends.
(big hugs)
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Savor The Moment
There is so much to do, so many tasks to complete, places to go, people to meet with.
We often find ourselves rushing from one to another.
And this steals some of our joy from completing these tasks, visiting these places, meeting with our people.
Consider slowing down for a moment.
Sip your coffee while listening fully to a friend speak about her day. Notice the softness of the fabrics as you take your clothes out of the dryer. Take a deep breath and look around you before going to the next place on your list.
Savor this moment, my friends. It will never come around quite the same way again!
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Happy Star Wars Day!
May The Fourth Be With You!
Someone will grumpily tell you today that Star Wars Day is a silly celebration.
That is the point.
It IS a silly celebration (if you define silly as being non-serious). And silliness is greatly needed in today’s often stressful world. We need to laugh and smile and have fun. That’s essential for our mental wellbeing.
Wear your Star Wars shirt today. Mock fight children with light sabers. Play the Imperial March as you take your daily walk. Tell the neighbor “These are not the droids you’re looking for.”
Have fun with today, my friends. Make the world a sillier place!
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Leave A Compliment
A friend commented that “The internet makes it so easy to be cruel.”
She’s right.
But it also makes it so easy to be kind.
It takes less than a minute to leave a comment on a post, telling a friend the photo they posted (and was clearly proud of) is beautiful or the poem they shared speaks to our soul or the dinner they made looked delicious.
That compliment will change at least one life, make someone’s world a little bit better, a little bit happier.
And isn’t that an amazing power to have, my friends?
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Write Like No One Is Reading
Professional writers usually have a reader (representing a group of readers) in mind when we’re crafting our stories. We live off the earnings from our stories. There has to be a market for them.
This is a bit…restricting. Our characters can’t do or say or think this or that or the reader will put down the story.
My best writing, however, often happens when I write like no one, except myself, will ever read my stories.
That’s how Releasing Rage happened. I wrote that cyborg romance for myself.
And that is what I’m doing with the Super Secret Project. I’m writing it for myself.
If other readers love it and there’s a market for it, great. I’ll be happy the Super Secret Project makes them happy.
(And the Dear Wonderful Hubby will be happy to have the funds for exciting things like…food. – grins)
But it is being written like no one else will ever read it, without this mythical reader’s preferences in my head.
And it has been SO MUCH FUN.
If you can afford the time (and the loss of income), writing buddies, consider writing something (a novel, a short story, a line) purely for yourself.
This might give you joy also.
(smiles)
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Enjoy All Stages
I showed this photo to a loved one.
She said it was a shame some of the orchid blooms (we believe they’re orchids) were spent. She felt it would be a much better photo without them in it.
I think it is a much more interesting image BECAUSE the dead blooms are in it. I think there is beauty in every stage of life.
And there can be joy in every stage of life. There can be connection. There can be worth (however you define it).
Enjoy every stage of life, my friends.
(big hugs)
This life is an adventure.
And adventures don’t often proceed smoothly or easily.
But every step in this journey is temporary and will never be taken the exact same way again.
Enjoy it.
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Why The Super Secret Project Is Super Secret
I don’t talk much about the Super Secret Project…anywhere or with anyone (except the Dear Wonderful Hubby), except to say I’m writing it.
And the reason for this is
I don’t want any feedback on it.
At all.
I don’t want positive feedback on it and I definitely don’t want negative feedback on it.
Because I’m writing it from a place of joy. I’m writing it for me. I don’t want other people’s thoughts, however kind they might be, in my head. I want it to be purely for me.
Yes, I will self-publish it. Because other people might enjoy it also.
But that’s not why I’m writing it. I’m writing it to give myself joy.
And that’s okay. It’s okay to do things that solely give you joy. It’s okay not to share these things with anyone else, to protect that joy.
Do what makes you happy, my friends! You deserve happiness!
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Being A Kind Person In A Cruel World
I want to be a kind person.
The world is working against that goal right now. Many of the people in control of it seem to be terrible people. There’s a normalization of terrible, a view being established that we must be terrible to become what society deems as successful.
I don’t want to be that version of successful. I don’t want to be terrible. I don’t want to be stingy with help or cruel or uncaring or evil.
That’s not the person I want to be OR the world I want to live in.
Thankfully, the Dear Wonderful Hubby is a genuinely kind person. His first thoughts are of kindness. He trusts people until they give him reason not to trust them. He helps…everyone.
We joke that we’d never survive a zombie apocalypse because he’d be out there, trying to heal and to help the bitten. (smiles) That’s the type of person he is and I love him for this.
He is helping me, tremendously, to be kind.
I hope that you have found or will soon find at least one other being who will help you stay kind in a cruel world, my friends!
(This being could be a human friend or a rescue dog or a seedling struggling to establish itself.)
Being and staying kind is such a worthy goal!
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