Tag Archives: positivity

Some Positives About My Move (or Not Just Focusing On The Stress)

Posted on April 28, 2022 | Comments Off on Some Positives About My Move (or Not Just Focusing On The Stress)

I feel like for the most part since I started to move my things to the condo I have really only written about the negative things such as the stress. And I’m not going to deny that the past few weeks have been extremely stressful and that a lot of it is my fault. I did a pretty bad job with planning my move and I underestimated how poorly I was organizing things. Maybe I won’t move again for a long time, but I hope I learned my lessons and I won’t make the same mistakes. I think feeling like I could move a majority of the stuff on my own was a very optimistic idea that was poorly executed because of my schedule.

And yes, the stress and other negative things really sucked. But I wanted to do a post that focuses on the things I’m so happy about now that I’m almost moved into my new place.

First, the obvious one is that I have a much bigger place that has so many upgrades compared to my last place. I used to live in a house that was 400 square feet and over 100 years old. I didn’t have a lot of space and I didn’t have a lot of things that most people probably feel are almost standard things to have these days. I didn’t have a dishwasher. My water heater was pretty small and had issues maintaining the temperature I set it to. The insulation in the house was non-existent and I had extreme temperatures year-round inside.

And now, I have all new appliances. I have a dishwasher and my own washer and dryer (doing laundry on a random weekday felt like such a luxury since the ones I shared at my old place were not cheap to use). While I do have central a/c and heat now, I haven’t turned on the thermostat because the temperature inside has been pretty consistent no matter what it is like outside. I also have better lighting inside my new place and I feel like I’m not always having to turn on every light in order to do things.

And the space I have is a huge benefit too! It is weird to see my furniture look ridiculously tiny in the new place, but I will be getting some new pieces to help fill out the space a bit. My kitchen isn’t big, but I have probably triple the counters I used to have (maybe more than triple). We got rid of some cabinets in the renovation, but there are still so many more cabinets than I had before. I can’t reach the top shelves without a little step stool, but I haven’t had to use the higher shelves yet because I barely have filled the lower ones.

I also love having office space. Right now, things are a bit unorganized because I will be buying some new furniture for this room so things might stay in boxes for a little while longer. But I have my desk pretty much set up and I love having a separate space to work from so I don’t feel like I’m always in my workspace all day long. And in my old setup, my desk faced a wall in my living room so I didn’t have a nice view. I just saw a calendar on the wall behind my computer when I looked up. But now, I have a view of the courtyard from my desk.

I do see everyone as they come and go because I have a view of the main gate, so that’s a bit distracting at times. But it’s also fun since I haven’t had a chance to meet all my new neighbors yet.

And my new neighbors are another positive. At my old place, there were only 8 units and we all knew each other pretty well. We helped each other out and looked out for everyone if things seemed off. Everyone at my old place knew I was moving and they all were offering to help me however they could. I know having a situation like that is very unusual and I never lived somewhere where I was close to all my neighbors. But in the new place, everyone I’ve met has been just as amazing. The neighbors on either side of my place have been so kind, especially since the renovation wasn’t quiet and they had to deal with the noise. And when I’ve needed help with anything, they have offered it without hesitation. And everyone else I’ve met so far has been so welcoming and really seemed like they wanted to get to know me, not just meeting me to be polite. This isn’t that big of a building (it’s under 40 units), but it’s bigger than my last place and I know it will take time to meet everyone. But I’m glad that the people I’ve met so far have all been really great.

And I think the biggest positive about my move and the new place is that this is my place. I’m not renting and have to worry about what my landlord might do. Ever since I knew my last place was being sold, I was worried about us getting eviction notices. I also couldn’t do all the things I wanted to do to the place since it wasn’t mine. I had to ask permission for things like having my a/c unit in the window or wanting to remove a screen from a window. But now, while I can’t really change the outside walls since it is a shared building, I have the freedom to do what I want to this place. The renovation already has turned it into the perfect place for me. And I have more plans for how I’m going to make this place really mine and I can’t wait to see how it looks when I have everything figured out.

The stress of this move has been brutal and I really didn’t think it would be this bad. But I know it’s worth it. I’m so happy with my new home and what I have already created in this place. And this is just the beginning and I know so many good things will be coming my way.

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Forgetting To Take A Moment To Take It In (or Lots Of Back To Back Projects)

Posted on October 29, 2021 | Comments Off on Forgetting To Take A Moment To Take It In (or Lots Of Back To Back Projects)

Usually, I try to plan out what I’m going to write on here in advance. I don’t always do that, like when I’m experiencing writer’s block or something else that is making it hard for me to know what to write about. It does still shock me sometimes that I have continued to keep this up as long as I have. But there are other reasons why I end up writing some of my posts at the last minute.

This post is being written much closer to when it goes live than I would like it to be. And that’s because my life has just been a bit crazy lately. And I know that being busy is good and almost everything keeping me busy are positive things.

There have been things keeping me busy with the condo hunt/buying process. I feel like there is something new I have to review or agree to every day. And I do want to make sure I know what’s going on, but for some things, I just have to trust my parents and realtor because I don’t have as much time to read everything before needing to agree to it. I will review everything and see what I am signing, but I know I should read all the details too and I try to do that later when I have a chance.

I’ve also had a bunch of work-related projects keeping me busy. I rarely have downtime at work anymore because I’m busy doing something when I’m not focused on my primary work responsibilities. For my customer service job, I’m working on coming up with ideas on how we can take what we have to do and be more efficient. I’m looking at different procedures that we can implement and what things we do in multiple ways that can be condensed down to one way. And for my data entry job (which really isn’t data entry anymore), the work that I was done for the first part of the current contract is done and now I’m helping with more social media work and planning. Social media work can be surprising and take more time than most other things I work on. I do enjoy it, but I can easily spend hours working on something that seems simple.

And then there are the normal things that keep me busy that add to my schedule.  I don’t really do things I don’t want to do, so I try to be careful of what I have in my schedule each week. But just the things I want to do can sometimes be from 6 am-7 pm each day. That’s a lot of time each day and usually, when I’m done, I’m really done for the day. I don’t feel as motivated to do things after work because I’m tired and want to relax.

But at the same time, being this busy is also making me forget to celebrate the little wins that I have in my life. Everything with the condo has been a win so far. The things I’ve done in my workouts can be wins. The things I’ve been able to get done outside of work can be wins. But I just haven’t really had the time to sit back and reflect on those things until now. Sitting down to write this post forced me to think about what’s been happening lately. I didn’t know what to write, and I had to think back at what’s been going on. And everything I have thought about has been something really great. And I don’t know if it hit me until I wrote it out.

There have been so many benefits I’ve gotten out of writing this blog. And I guess recognizing the positives in my life is another thing I’m gaining.

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A Celebration Challenge (or Focusing On The Good and Positive)

Posted on August 3, 2021 | Comments Off on A Celebration Challenge (or Focusing On The Good and Positive)

It’s officially my birthday month! It doesn’t really feel like August, but then again it hasn’t felt like normal times for almost a year and a half now. But it is a new month and that means I have a new challenge to work on.

My challenge last month was to take more risks with my clothes and to rediscover more outfits and maybe add to what I have. And when I wrote that challenge, I honestly thought things were going to continue to get better and more events would be happening. But that wasn’t the case. I didn’t have a lot of things to attend or hangouts with friends. I did have a few things I went out to do and I was trying new outfits or to make my clothes fit differently. I also went through my closet to take a real inventory of what I own and what I might want. Unfortunately, all the online shopping that I did ended up not fitting so they had to be returned. But I’ve still got my list of what I’d like to add so I can keep searching for them either online or in stores when I’m shopping in stores again. And I’m going to continue to go out of my comfort zone with clothes when I have the chance to. It’s just that right now, there aren’t that many chances. But I’m hoping that will change soon.

Since it’s my birthday month and we are back in a bit of an uncertain time in the pandemic, I had to think about what I could do for my challenge that doesn’t depend on much outside of myself. I know I could do more projects around my house, but I’ve done so many of those. I really wanted to find something that would make me happy, even if I can’t celebrate my birthday again this year.

And that’s why I’ve decided to challenge myself to celebrate anything and everything this month. Obviously, I’m going to celebrate my birthday because getting a year older is something to celebrate. But I also want to celebrate the little things. If I have an exceptionally good workout, I want to celebrate that. If I have a good food day, I should celebrate that. If I don’t do something dumb that I was considering, that should be celebrated too. Even though I’m not able to celebrate a lot of things I normally would, I can still celebrate so much in my life. And I think that’s the perfect thing to do this month.

Celebrating the things in my life doesn’t have to be a big deal. But I should recognize when I have something to celebrate and at least remind myself that it’s a good thing. Even if I had to spend this entire month isolated in my house, there are still positives in my life. And when right now it seems like a lot of us, myself included, are focusing on the setbacks of what we recently lost it’s good to remember all the things to celebrate and be grateful for.

And hopefully by the end of this month, I will be focused much more on the good in my life and celebrating what I can. Because that is always important, even when the world seems so crazy around us.

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Doing The Opposite Of My Monthly Challenge (or Continuing To Focus On The Good)

Posted on August 4, 2020 | Comments Off on Doing The Opposite Of My Monthly Challenge (or Continuing To Focus On The Good)

My monthly challenge last month was to focus on things that made me happy. I really did want to update my happiness checklist to see if there were new things I could add and take some old things off. I have been using the same checklist for a while with very little editing. So I felt like it was time for an update.

My plan was to focus my month on what things were making me happy and keeping track of those so I could see what should be on my updated checklist. And that was a really good plan when the month started. That’s just not what happened. What I ended up doing was almost the exact opposite.

Instead of tracking what I was doing each day that made me happy, I noticed things that were not making me happy and seeing if I could eliminate them from my life. And while there are a lot of things I don’t like to do that I have to do, there were plenty of things that I could just stop doing or get rid of. For example, if there was someone annoying me on a dating app, I didn’t try to stick it out. I let them know I didn’t think we were a good match or I wasn’t interested and unmatched with them. I am starting to not feel the desperate need to try to make any match work. I know there are plenty of other guys I will match with. And when dating apps were annoying me in general, I stepped away from them. If I didn’t feel like doing dishes immediately (which I do try to do), I would rinse them off and wait a bit longer before scrubbing them. And when the entire day just felt like too much for me and I needed a break, I took a nap.

While I wasn’t necessarily finding things that made me happy, I was doing things to make my day happier. And I think that is a big accomplishment for me. My checklist might still be the same, but since the overall goal was to be happier I think I did accomplish that.

And my challenge for this month feels like a continuation of last month. I want to put focus on the good things in my life. This was inspired by a podcast I listen to that is all about the good happening in the world right now. There are good things in my life right now, even when it doesn’t feel like it. I am very lucky in many ways and I want to focus more on that.

So I’m going to work on tracking the good in my life each day. I’m going to do this along with my gratitude list that I do each evening. I’m going to try to make at least 2 of the things on my gratitude list things that are good each day. That way, even when I have a bad day I can remind myself that not everything is bad.

I need this challenge as being isolated is getting to me more and more. I don’t want my mental health to be a struggle and I can see how I can get to that point if I am not proactive about it. So this is something I am doing in order to make sure I stay more positive than pessimistic each day. I know this won’t fix everything or magically make my life better, but I know that it will at least force me to acknowledge that I do have good things in my life even when I don’t feel like that is true.

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Struggling To Figure Out Challenges Right Now (or I’m Just Going To Try To Stay Hopeful)

Posted on May 1, 2020 | Comments Off on Struggling To Figure Out Challenges Right Now (or I’m Just Going To Try To Stay Hopeful)

March felt like it lasted 6 years. April felt like it just flew by. I guess that’s a sign that we are getting used to isolation and the days are starting to go quicker. But there’s no question that I’m ready to see how we try to find a new normal. It will take time and this won’t be happening overnight. But I know that it will happen. And until it does, everything I do has to be something I can do at my house.

And figuring out monthly challenges while in isolation isn’t easy. Even though very few of my challenges require me to leave my house, there is a different mindset that we are all in while isolating. Motivation isn’t the same. It’s hard to plan but at the same time, most of us have nothing but time.

That’s why last month, my challenge was to try to get a better handle on how I was handling things. I could feel my life feeling out of control. And while there are very few things that I can control right now, I spent April focusing on what I could control. And those things focused mainly on things related to a daily schedule.

I do still need to wake up at my normal time a few days a week, but I was getting into some bad sleep habits with going to bed late and sleeping in if I could. Sleeping in didn’t mean I was sleeping very late, but I wasn’t getting up with my alarm. And that is a habit that I didn’t want to start. Sleep schedules aren’t easy for me to get into, but very easy to ruin. So I wanted to make an effort to be better about that. I haven’t been perfect this past month, but it’s been much better than it was in March. I haven’t slept later than my alarm, even if I was up too late the night before. Yes, that results in me being tired sometimes. But I’m working on fixing that too.

I also wanted to get better about when I was eating. With nothing really dictating my schedule, it was hard to get into a routine. Just like with sleeping, I am still working on this. I’m pretty much having 2 meals a day (which I don’t know if that’s good). I pretty much have brunch and dinner. I eat brunch after I do my little bit of work or my workout (depending on the day). And dinner is pretty much at a normal dinner time. I’m cooking a lot, which is a good thing. But I also want to get better about what I’m cooking and adding variety to my recipes.

I’m glad that I made my monthly challenge last month to try to get things back to how they should be. I needed that sense of control and regularity in my life. And even though I still have moments that I struggle, April was much easier for me to deal with than March.

And for May, I wanted to continue working on feeling better. But I did struggle again with what I could make my challenge to be. Doing something like picking up a new skill doesn’t feel right for right now. So I decided to make it another challenge related to being in insolation and the state of the world right now.

My challenge for May is to work on staying hopeful. I want to be hopeful that things will be ok. I want to be hopeful that we will be able to be out with our friends and family again soon. I want to be hopeful that I will stay healthy and so will the people I love. And I want to stay hopeful that I will get through this and soon enough it will be just a memory. It’s not always easy to stay hopeful, but I know I need to do it. I need to work on keeping a positive mindset as much as I can. And hopefulness will do that for me.

Hopefully, when I do my recap of this challenge, we will have a better idea of when things will be changing to close to normal again. But if not, I know that day will come one day. And it’s going to be so amazing when that happens.

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Adding A Little Control In My Life (or Finding Little Ways To Be Helpful)

Posted on January 28, 2020 | Comments Off on Adding A Little Control In My Life (or Finding Little Ways To Be Helpful)

There is so much that is out of my control in my life. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more it has stressed me out. I’ve never really focused too much on that idea before. I knew that my career is out of my control in a way because I can’t control when I get auditions or when I book jobs. I can control how prepared I am for auditions, but that doesn’t guarantee I will get the job. But I never thought too much about how much in the rest of my life is out of my control.

I have tried to find control in my life in different ways, but I haven’t necessarily been successful. The main thing that comes to mind is finding a better job. I know that there isn’t a single job that can guarantee I am not at risk for losing it or feeling a bit out of control, but having a job that isn’t contract based or pays me enough to feel like I have a bit of a buffer would be helpful. But finding a job is also out of my control because I have applied for probably hundreds of jobs and rarely get interviews. I think it might be because the jobs I’m applying for don’t have super specific qualifications and they are good jobs, so a lot of people are applying for them as well. But all I can do is keep trying and hoping that something works out for me soon.

But instead of trying to change things that are out of my control into things that are in my control, I have been focusing on finding things I know I can control and add to my life. That helps me feel a bit more in control overall. And the best thing that I have found that gives me a sense of control is being helpful to other people in my life. I know I can’t control when they will need my help, but being available to provide help feels like enough for me right now.

I’ve found lots of random ways to be helpful. For example, a friend of mine needed a place to park his car that wouldn’t be on the street. He was asking if anyone knew of a cheap place for long-term parking. I have an extra parking space at my house. I have a garage that I don’t park in plus my regular parking spot. And I’ve let other friends borrow my garage in the past when they needed it because it’s not being used normally. So I offered it to this friend and he was able to use it while he was out of town for an extended period of time. I know that this was minimal effort from my end, but I know how much my friend appreciated it and I felt really good that I was able to help.

I’ve also been sending out cards to friends randomly when I know they could use some support. Sometimes I can’t do much because my friends aren’t local, but I still want to help them in some way. So sending a card for no reason can be a small way to help improve their mood. And I know these cards do help a bit when they are feeling low. And last week, I offered to help a friend get a bit of a break when she’s been dealing with a rough pregnancy and parenting a toddler. That ended up just being us hanging out and catching up for several hours, but I did help a little bit with watching her kid when she needed to step away for a few moments. And my offer to help her out is open-ended so I am very happy to go over to babysit for free when she needs it.

Being helpful really does make me feel in control and feel a lot better about things. For a long time, I have said I would love to be doing some regular volunteer work. I did a lot of volunteer work in high school and college, but I really haven’t done much after college. I’ve done a few random things, but nothing regular. And technically, my union service work is volunteering, but I’d love to do something that benefits more than just the union. But I also have been hesitant to commit to something when I know my job situation could change. Maybe I need to stop using that as an excuse so that I can have more helpful moments in my life. Even though helping others isn’t selfish, I do love how much better it makes me feel about my life.

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Happy 4th (or Taking The Day To Be Grateful For What I Have)

Posted on July 4, 2019 | Comments Off on Happy 4th (or Taking The Day To Be Grateful For What I Have)

For those of you in the US, Happy 4th of July (Happy Thursday for anyone outside of the US)! I’m very lucky that I have today off of work so I’m spending the day relaxing and enjoying a nice day off. I’ll be sharing more about what I do today next week, but I wanted to have a quick post today about being grateful for today and this holiday.

I know that I am very lucky to live in this country. I can enjoy freedoms that not everyone has and I know that I am privileged compared to many others even if I feel like I struggle. I have a wonderful house, a job, food in my fridge, running water, electricity, and many other things that so many of us forget are not standards for everyone around the world. I do have to remind myself about how lucky I am sometimes because I forget that when I’m in a low moment. But most of the time, I do appreciate everything that I have.

It does feel like some of the freedoms we have are under attack right now, but I’m grateful that so many people continue to fight for them. I am trying to be an advocate for others to have the right to choose what they feel is best for their health or their political representation. Even if someone disagrees with what I think is best for me, they have the right to make that choice for themselves and I want them to have every opportunity to make that choice. And I am grateful that we live in a country where we can have these political differences and for the most part live in peace.

I’m so grateful for the community that I surround myself with. I have the most amazing friends in my life and they do make so much about my life better. Even if I’m not always the most social person, they make my life awesome. Just the text messages I get from my friends make me smile and always help to turn around any bad moments I’m having. I know that sometimes I’m not the best friend when I’m having a tough time, but they are still there for me when I need them. And I try to return the favor to any of them when they need a boost or some cheering up.

Hopefully, all of you have some things to be grateful for as well. Even if you don’t have today off or are having a rough time in life, there should still be something good happening. And it’s nice to have holidays and moments like this to be able to reflect on those and remember how lucky we all are.

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Grateful For Quick Turnarounds (or Neutral Doesn’t Mean Bad)

Posted on June 27, 2019 | Comments Off on Grateful For Quick Turnarounds (or Neutral Doesn’t Mean Bad)

I just wrote about how I had my Hot Mess Day on Sunday. It was seriously an epically bad day and I just couldn’t get over how things just seemed to be working against me. I was trying to stay a little positive and try to look on the bright side, but I couldn’t force myself to believe that when I was in the middle of that day. On Sunday I had reached out to friends who told me things would improve as well as getting some messages from readers on here, but even yesterday morning I was still thinking that bad things would be coming my way.

But yesterday day I had a moment of clarity. For some reason, I was still living in the negativity of that bad day. Nothing too bad happened to me on Monday or Tuesday. I was dealing with pain and nausea, but nothing else beyond that. Those days were pretty neutral. But because nothing good was happening either, I think I was still in the mindset that they were still bad days. But when I was thinking yesterday about things, I realized that I was thinking that way and I had to snap out of it.

A neutral day does not mean I’m still in the middle of the bad days. That means that my bad day was over and I’m just not having a good day. I had to remind myself that when I usually don’t. But I think that’s because of how bad Sunday was for me. While I normally can get back to a better mindset quickly, this time I had to make a bit of an effort and take a few steps to get there. But I did get there and I’m feeling much better.

It also helps that some of the physical things are getting better. I really thought I had a significant injury to my ankle. I don’t know if it wasn’t as bad as I thought or all the things I did to make it better helped, but it’s almost back to normal. I still have a little bit of pain and tenderness sometimes while walking, especially when I get up from a chair or out of bed, but the swelling is down and it doesn’t look bruised as it did before. I was expecting to be limping and struggle all week, as well as possibly still have pain next week. It was a nice surprise when that didn’t happen. I’m still being careful and cautious so I don’t reinjure it, but at least my week isn’t being affected by it.

And my pain and nausea have been getting better each day this week. I have joked that there is a certain amount of nausea I have to experience each cycle. Sometimes it’s mild nausea for more days and sometimes it’s extreme nausea for only a few days. I know that doesn’t make sense, but that’s really what it feels like for me. And this cycle, it seems like I had extreme nausea for a few days scenario. I still have a little bit of nausea left, but when I have gotten used to such horrible days the mild ones aren’t as bad. Plus, the mild days seem to be able to be reduced further by medication when the extreme days seem to not be helped by medication at all. Again, I know that doesn’t make sense, but that’s what seems to be happening with me.

After my realization on Wednesday, I really tried to find the positives that I had over the past few days. That’s what inspired this post. I needed to remind myself that there are good things happening to me and even if there aren’t, neutral things aren’t bad. I’m sure there will be other days in my future that are like my Hot Mess Day where I can’t snap out of it like I can with a normal bad day. Hopefully I will remember what I learned yesterday about neutral days being ok and have the same turnaround that I was able to have this time.

I also just wanted to thank those of you who reached out to me. Sometimes writing these posts feel like I’m writing into a void and I don’t think about someone else reading what I wrote. I knew when I wrote that post that I was going to be ok, but I know that it didn’t necessarily read that way. I am humbled that some of you reached out to me to check in to make sure I was fine. It’s just another positive thing I have to remember when I have bad days. There are people who do care about me and will reach out to me even if I don’t directly reach out to them.

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Default ThumbnailNot My Usual Workout Recap Post (or I Survived A Bad Week) Default ThumbnailAnother Downside To My Bad Week (or Just Doing Nothing) Default ThumbnailPain Distracts From Other Pain (or The Rain Isn’t Too Bad This Time) Default ThumbnailTrying To Help A Friend (or Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?) Default ThumbnailJust A Bad Day (or This Time It Wasn’t A Bad Hour) Default ThumbnailSorry For A Quick Post (or Going Through A Tough Day)

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Posted in Tough Stuff

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Too Many Complaints (or Trying To Get Back To Being Positive)

Posted on May 16, 2019 | Comments Off on Too Many Complaints (or Trying To Get Back To Being Positive)

Lately I’ve been feeling like I have so many negative things in my life. Whenever someone asks me how I’m doing, I have a list of reasons why things aren’t easy. Sometimes it’s being nauseous, sometimes it’s random pain, and sometimes it the aftermath of things I do to stay healthy. I’m not trying to complain just to complain, I’m being honest. I’ve seen how many people just say that they are fine because they don’t want to seem like they aren’t ok. But for me, I take pride in not hiding when I’m struggling or going through a tough time.

But now, it feels like I’m struggling because I’m struggling and it’s becoming a cycle. I don’t go out of my way to complain or find negative things in my life, but they seem to become the focus without me trying. Even when I’m coming up with things to write about on here, when something in wrong in my life that seems to inspire more than when good things happen.

I know I’ve had this issue before and it usually takes me becoming aware to get out of it. Sometimes I forget that being honest doesn’t have to mean sharing everything or that it can’t include good things. And I do have lots of good things in my life that I know are just as important as any of these bad things. But just knowing it doesn’t necessarily help with getting out of this funk or feeling of negativity. It does help to have something else I can try to focus on, but it doesn’t guarantee that it will happen.

And it doesn’t help with the negative things that I’m struggling with are things that I can’t avoid. If I’m in a bad mood because of something I can change, then I can work toward a better mood by changing it. But I can’t control the pain that I’m in. I am finally almost done with dealing with my back issues and the pain is only happening at random and rare moments. But I’m still worried about doing something that will bring it back so I am still being careful. And the pain I have from the temporary crown isn’t going to necessarily go away until I get the permanent one. I tried to get the appointment for that as soon as possible, but it is dependent on when the lab can complete it so I can’t make it sooner. Neither types of pain are something that I have control over or can change just because I want to. I either have to just be in this struggle or find a new way to look at it to get through it.

I don’t have any answers to that right now. I have figured out ways to work through my hip pain or nausea with a better mindset, but that’s because those things don’t go away. I have to deal with them over and over and there is really no other choice for me but to work through. I’m not always in the best mood when dealing with it, but the constant need to do it has helped. Hopefully my back won’t become a recurring issue and I won’t need a lot of dental work coming up. So I’m not sure if I don’t know how to work through these or if I’m not motivated to do the work because I shouldn’t need it again.

I am focusing on my happiness checklist and making sure that I prioritize doing those activities. I am making sure that any plans I make don’t prevent me from doing things that I know will help my mood and put me into a more positive place. And I know doing those do help, but I’m hoping that they will be helping more and sooner since I want to get out of this funk. I am also trying to do more of those things on my checklist each day even though I know I don’t have to do them all every day. But the more good I can put into my life the better.

Hopefully putting all this in writing will help turn things around for me. Sometimes you do just need to get it out to move on. But if it isn’t enough, at least I know it’s something to work on and eventually I’ll be back to my positive self.

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Default ThumbnailTrying To Get Past A Rough Patch (or I Know This Funk Is Temporary) Default ThumbnailThis Month Hasn’t Quite Gone The Way I Thought It Would (or Just Being Honest) Default ThumbnailStill Working Through The Pain (or I’m Going To Stay Positive About This) Default ThumbnailIt’s Always Unexpected (or Sending Positive Energy To A Co-Worker) Default ThumbnailUnexpected Injuries (or I’m Still Doing My 5K Tonight) Default ThumbnailPositive Thinking And Putting It Out There Worked (or Working For Another Old Boss)

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Posted in Health, Tough Stuff

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Bringing More Good Things To Me And Others (or Happiness and Self-Care)

Posted on March 1, 2019 | Comments Off on Bringing More Good Things To Me And Others (or Happiness and Self-Care)

I have had some very good monthly challenges in the past, but I’ve been feeling really good about the ones I’ve been working on for this year. I still may change things up as the year goes on, but I’ve been really focused on finding things that I think will really be beneficial. I don’t want them to just be something I can easily do or not think about. And I want the thoughts about them to all be good things and not annoyed that I need to do them.

My challenge for February was to put more positive things on Twitter. I became aware of how much news related stuff I was posting online and most of the time the news I posted was negative or scary. I don’t want to hide from the realities of the world, but I also don’t want that to be my only focus. I know I have always enjoyed to see positive posts that other people share on social media, and I wanted to do the same.

This ended up being a very easy thing for me to accomplish. I set an alarm on my phone like I have for so many other things to remind me to do a positive tweet. I usually did it before the alarm went off, but it’s always good to have the reminder. I also created a Twitter list of accounts that post positive things so it was easy for me to find something to share every day. And I loved having that list because I did use it for more than just finding what I wanted to share online. When I was having a down moment, it was a great resource to have to cheer myself up. I did find this challenge benefitted me as well as other people who saw it on my Twitter feed. And I plan to keep this up indefinitely because I liked the results it had.

This month my challenge will be something that will only benefit me, but it’s ok to have a selfish challenge from time to time. And this one is related to self-care which is something I have been working on for quite a while. I’ve been getting better at finding regular acts of self-care that I can do, but I know there are so many more things I can do that will make me feel better about myself.

I’ve been pretty good about skincare when it comes to my face. I haven’t always been amazing, but lately I’ve been really on top of things. I know this had to do with having the stitches in my face and having to be so careful with washing my face and taking care of the incision. I also love using different products on my face when I find something that isn’t quite right. I have a few different masks depending on my skin’s condition at the time and I also have different spot treatment options when I need them.

I know that skincare for your face is usually what you think about when you hear the word skincare. And honestly, I’ve been like that too. But I’ve been ignoring the rest of my skin and I’ve noticed that it’s starting to show. Growing up, I know I wasn’t as good about putting lotion on my body as I was for my face. I don’t know why I just didn’t do it, but I didn’t think about doing it. I’m much better about it now, but I know that just using lotion isn’t enough for my skin.

I do use special soap on my skin and I’m lucky that it doesn’t dry my skin out. And I have some lotions that I like and they seem to help. But I still have skin issues that aren’t managed just by washing and moisturizing my skin. I have dry skin issues and uneven skin issues too. I haven’t really looked into what I could do to fix those things before, but I’m feeling motivated to do it now.

I’m not totally sure of all the skincare things I want to do for my body, but I want to get myself into a better skincare routine. I got a dry brush a long time ago as a swag bag item and I’ve never used it before. I don’t know if using it every day will be right for me, but I want to try using it regularly so I can figure out how often I should dry brush. I also want to look into the lotions that I use and see if there is a better option for me. I have tried in-shower lotions before and I love the idea of them. But they haven’t been right for me. But I’ve been hearing about new in-shower lotion options that might be better and I know that putting lotion on immediately after showering is best (and I definitely wait too long after showering to put on lotion).

I don’t think there are masks that I would be using on my body, but I want to research other things I can do. Maybe there are things that I’m not doing correctly or skipping out on that can make a big different in the appearance and feel of my skin. I know that I’m starting from having things seem pretty decent so far, so I’m not expecting a huge difference. But I also know having the ritual of different self-care practices can be a lot more for mental health than physical health.

This will be an interesting challenge to do this month because I’m actually starting the month out-of-town (more on that next week). I don’t know how many things I will be able to do when I’m not home, but that could be good time to do some research. And hopefully by the end of the month I will have a good skincare routine I can share with you all and I will feel like my skin is looking better.

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