Sunday, February 26, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
These are a few of my favorite things...
I recently read something on one of my favorite websites. The writer said, "Write down 5 things that bring you joy, love, peace, relaxation, and healing. What do you do that brings these things into your life?" "Hmmm", I thought, "good question". So I sat quietly and thought of 5 things. Then I read on and it said, "You can't just think of 5 things, you need to write them down." (Busted!) "Writing it down has more impact at an unconscious level. It makes it more real. It gives you a moment to plant a seed..." So I'll wait while you get a pen. This is pretty powerful! Really, don't be lazy, get up and get a pen.
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Okay, I trust that you wrote yours down before you read mine...
Here are 5 things that bring me joy, love, peace, relaxation, and healing...
1.) Spending time with my family, laughing, dancing, eating, watching movies, listening to my kids entertain us with their music, poetry, drawings, dancing, singing, funny stories... It brings joy, love, and healing into my life.
2.) Sitting outside with a cup of coffee and looking at God's magnificent creation. It relaxes me and I feel connected to my creator. I feel peace and can reflect on where I am and where I'm going.
3.) Running. It gives me energy, health, releases stress, and invigorates me. I love to listen to spiritual podcasts while I'm running that help give me perspective about things that really matter. Or sometimes I just leave the ipod at home and just talk to God about what's going on and then just be quiet and listen... Sometimes when I'm going through something really tough, I cry while I'm running. I don't recommend this, it's really hard to breathe when I do that, but sometimes I just need a good cry!
4.) Reading and writing. I always have a book I'm reading and a whole list of books I'm going to read. I crave to learn about the things I'm passionate about, God, family, adoption, parenting... I need to write. Writing is an outlet for me. It's one of the ways I connect with God. It helps me to get honest, go deeper, and process what I'm feeling. It's very healing for me.
5.) Decorating, it's relaxing and interesting to me. I'm drawn to it like a magnet. I love to look at decorating blogs and magazines. I can remember as a little girl spending hours decorating my barbie townhouse. I love to go to Barnes and Noble and get a cup of hot tea and thumb through magazines with a friend. It's a great little escape. When I walk into a home, my eyes tend to catch all the details of a room. I can't explain how if feels to pull a room together. I love trying to figure out how to create order, balance, function, warmth, and beauty in a space with colors, fabrics, textures, shapes, and lighting. It's a rush!
Okay now, write down when the last time was that you did each one of the 5 things that you wrote down and how often you do them.
Here's mine:
1.) This weekend I laughed (and cried), ate, danced, baked, and watched movies and was thoroughly entertained by my family (see my other blog for proof!)
2.) 2 weeks ago when the weather was warm I sat on my covered deck with a hot cup of coffee enjoying the beauty and silence. Unfortunately when the weather is cold, I don't do that enough.
3.) I ran today because it's Monday. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I go running. On Monday's and Wednesday's I run with my ipod, and on Friday's I run without it. I know, I know, I'm a bit of a schedule freak. And ya wanna know what else? I only go to the grocery on Thursdays and try to only schedule appointments on Tuesdays, if I can help it. Every Friday my family goes out to dinner together and Saturday's are family time. Sunday's we have a fellowship group that meets in our home. So there, now ya know. Some may call this OCD, I like to think of it as excellent time management skills that make my life less stressful and keep my schedule from getting overbooked.
4.) I read something every day and write several times a week, whether it be blogging, journaling, emailing, or writing in the current book I'm reading. I just wrote all over one this morning and am blogging right now!
5.) I guess my last big decorating spree was over Christmas when I got new furniture. Of coarse it had a trickle effect on every room in the house. You see, when I move a room around, I have to pull things from other rooms until I get it right. But then that leaves the other rooms not right anymore. You can see my dilemma... Oh, wait, that wasn't the last time I decorated. I was just in Marietta for the weekend visiting my sisters. Whenever I come to town, their husbands see me and start fighting over whose house I will stay at (neither one want me) because they know if I stay at their house it will look different when I leave. It's like my brother-in-law Ray says, "When she walks in the room, I can see her eyes immediately start scanning the room to see what she wants to change." It's not true, I'm just taking in all the details. Besides, I can't take all the blame, when my sisters and I get together, it's like there's a force that's greater than us. Except for Dawn, it doesn't interest her in the least. Lucky Tom. As far as how often I look at decorating magazines or blogs, it's kind of like eating really fattening dessert. I try to have self control and save that for special occasions. It's like I tell my kids "Do what ya gotta do, before ya do what ya wanna do." (I got that from Denzel Washington) Or like mom and dad always told us, "You need to eat everything on your plate before you get dessert." Same principle. I treat myself to it when I feel like everything and everyone is taken care of.
I hope you enjoyed this little exercise. I actually took it a step further for myself and wrote down 5 things that ultimately steal the joy, love, peace, rest, and health from my life. Then I wrote down how often and when the last time was that I did those things. It was very eye opening. If your first and second lists are the same, you may want to rethink your first list... some things give us an illusion that they'll bring us joy, but in reality they're just fleeting pleasures that are destructive and leave us feeling empty.
Can I have a redo? That was kind of a sour note to end the blog on. Let's try that again.
We get to choose the kind of life we want to live. God gives each of us that freedom. Slow down and make time for the things that bring joy, peace, relaxation, love and healing into your life and delete whatever ultimately steals those things from you. (There, that's better.)
==============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================
Okay, I trust that you wrote yours down before you read mine...
Here are 5 things that bring me joy, love, peace, relaxation, and healing...
1.) Spending time with my family, laughing, dancing, eating, watching movies, listening to my kids entertain us with their music, poetry, drawings, dancing, singing, funny stories... It brings joy, love, and healing into my life.
2.) Sitting outside with a cup of coffee and looking at God's magnificent creation. It relaxes me and I feel connected to my creator. I feel peace and can reflect on where I am and where I'm going.
3.) Running. It gives me energy, health, releases stress, and invigorates me. I love to listen to spiritual podcasts while I'm running that help give me perspective about things that really matter. Or sometimes I just leave the ipod at home and just talk to God about what's going on and then just be quiet and listen... Sometimes when I'm going through something really tough, I cry while I'm running. I don't recommend this, it's really hard to breathe when I do that, but sometimes I just need a good cry!
4.) Reading and writing. I always have a book I'm reading and a whole list of books I'm going to read. I crave to learn about the things I'm passionate about, God, family, adoption, parenting... I need to write. Writing is an outlet for me. It's one of the ways I connect with God. It helps me to get honest, go deeper, and process what I'm feeling. It's very healing for me.
5.) Decorating, it's relaxing and interesting to me. I'm drawn to it like a magnet. I love to look at decorating blogs and magazines. I can remember as a little girl spending hours decorating my barbie townhouse. I love to go to Barnes and Noble and get a cup of hot tea and thumb through magazines with a friend. It's a great little escape. When I walk into a home, my eyes tend to catch all the details of a room. I can't explain how if feels to pull a room together. I love trying to figure out how to create order, balance, function, warmth, and beauty in a space with colors, fabrics, textures, shapes, and lighting. It's a rush!
Okay now, write down when the last time was that you did each one of the 5 things that you wrote down and how often you do them.
Here's mine:
1.) This weekend I laughed (and cried), ate, danced, baked, and watched movies and was thoroughly entertained by my family (see my other blog for proof!)
2.) 2 weeks ago when the weather was warm I sat on my covered deck with a hot cup of coffee enjoying the beauty and silence. Unfortunately when the weather is cold, I don't do that enough.
3.) I ran today because it's Monday. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I go running. On Monday's and Wednesday's I run with my ipod, and on Friday's I run without it. I know, I know, I'm a bit of a schedule freak. And ya wanna know what else? I only go to the grocery on Thursdays and try to only schedule appointments on Tuesdays, if I can help it. Every Friday my family goes out to dinner together and Saturday's are family time. Sunday's we have a fellowship group that meets in our home. So there, now ya know. Some may call this OCD, I like to think of it as excellent time management skills that make my life less stressful and keep my schedule from getting overbooked.
4.) I read something every day and write several times a week, whether it be blogging, journaling, emailing, or writing in the current book I'm reading. I just wrote all over one this morning and am blogging right now!
5.) I guess my last big decorating spree was over Christmas when I got new furniture. Of coarse it had a trickle effect on every room in the house. You see, when I move a room around, I have to pull things from other rooms until I get it right. But then that leaves the other rooms not right anymore. You can see my dilemma... Oh, wait, that wasn't the last time I decorated. I was just in Marietta for the weekend visiting my sisters. Whenever I come to town, their husbands see me and start fighting over whose house I will stay at (neither one want me) because they know if I stay at their house it will look different when I leave. It's like my brother-in-law Ray says, "When she walks in the room, I can see her eyes immediately start scanning the room to see what she wants to change." It's not true, I'm just taking in all the details. Besides, I can't take all the blame, when my sisters and I get together, it's like there's a force that's greater than us. Except for Dawn, it doesn't interest her in the least. Lucky Tom. As far as how often I look at decorating magazines or blogs, it's kind of like eating really fattening dessert. I try to have self control and save that for special occasions. It's like I tell my kids "Do what ya gotta do, before ya do what ya wanna do." (I got that from Denzel Washington) Or like mom and dad always told us, "You need to eat everything on your plate before you get dessert." Same principle. I treat myself to it when I feel like everything and everyone is taken care of.
I hope you enjoyed this little exercise. I actually took it a step further for myself and wrote down 5 things that ultimately steal the joy, love, peace, rest, and health from my life. Then I wrote down how often and when the last time was that I did those things. It was very eye opening. If your first and second lists are the same, you may want to rethink your first list... some things give us an illusion that they'll bring us joy, but in reality they're just fleeting pleasures that are destructive and leave us feeling empty.
Can I have a redo? That was kind of a sour note to end the blog on. Let's try that again.
We get to choose the kind of life we want to live. God gives each of us that freedom. Slow down and make time for the things that bring joy, peace, relaxation, love and healing into your life and delete whatever ultimately steals those things from you. (There, that's better.)
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