I am feeling rather balanced today.
I have the feeling that I am tipping precariously lower at times. But then I use one of my positive thinking affirmations and I feel myself balance right out! I've included breathing. With each affirmation, I breathe in deeply. It helps.
I often start the day with Qi Gong breathing exercises right before my hooping, but then I tend to forget about breathing the rest of the day.
I took myself out for lunch today. After watching my granddaughter this morning, I actually have the rest of the day off. Next week is the beginning of fall term. My life will get much busier. I often seem to do better emotionally when I am busy. Especially if my health is good and I am well rested.
At lunch, I pulled out my Kindle and read my affirmation of the day. Which is from the book A Year of Positive Thinking: Daily Inspiration, Wisdom, and Courage by Cyndie Spiegel. Today's affirmation had to do with letting go, not trying to control everything, and having fun. Yesterday's affirmation pretty much said to laugh and not take myself so seriously.
I looked away from my Kindle when my server brought me a cup of egg flower soup and hot tea. I was feeling a little irritated. I have been down this path before - the path of positive thinking. I find myself giving up when the "Yippy Skippy!" affrimations seem a tad bit shallow in the face of life's trials.
By the way, where did "Yippy Skippy" come from? I am most curious now!
OK. Here it is: Yippy Skippy: "a sarcastic answer to anything that you have to do or something that doesn't sound fun." (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Yippy%20Skippy)
Oh, bother. That is not what I meant at all! I meant annoyingly optimistic in a moronic way.
Be right back!
O.K. I found an article on "Shallow Optimism". Here's a quote:
I like this author's style. Light, airy, to the point and not afraid to use bad words. I am feeling on the downside of balanced, so my humor is running dark. I actually laughed out loud when I read the following:
"...even when you are dedicated to your positivity cause day in and day out, it takes time to go from Eeyore to Tigger. Add into that the self-doubt and self-hatred you feel when you have not reached level 100 instantaneously, and you will find yourself yet again holding yourself back from experiencing positivity."
(B*tch Don't Kill My Vibe: How To Stop Worrying, End Negative Thinking, Cultivate Positive Thoughts, And Start Living Your Best Life by Reese Owen)
I loved that she used Eeyore and Tigger as examples! I have long identified with Eeyore, but in my hyper manic moments I am Tigger all the way!
I am enjoying the humor in this book, but I am also gaining some insight. Much of it I have heard before, but I am finally ready to dig deeper and do some work!
One exercise I like is to begin on a positive note each morning, by declaring three positive things you anticipate about your upcoming day, before you even get out of bed. Then at night, before you go to sleep, declare three positive things that actually happened. It is similar to expressing gratitude, with the eager anticipation of good things happening. I like it!
Also she recommends reframing bad experiences. This one really hits home for me. I tend to relive negative encounters. They go round and round in my head. Dragging me down like a whirlpool. She says to take that experience and recreate the story by focusing on something positive that came out of it.
This will take some work to undo my pattern. But I am ready to work!
One of the reasons I want to purge this toxic negative side of my personality is that I want to be clear from my own junk in order to help others.
Just the other night, I was able to offer my assistance to someone in crisis. It wasn't exactly a happily ever after fairy tale, but I was able to help.
I got on the bus after choir practice. I noticed a very slender woman, probably about my age seated near the front. She had a large pit bull on a leash, sitting at her feat. The woman was moaning, her head down in her arms. I glanced at her, but was more concerned with getting around her dog. He looked very mellow, but he was blocking the aisle.
I sat near the back and pulled out my phone to check emails. Then I heard wailing, shouting and crying. It was coming from the woman with the dog. She was now on the phone. She was obviously very upset. Her words were slurred. She was screaming about it being dark and she had no place to go. She kept repeating herself, with very colorful curse words peppered throughout.
A young lady sitting opposite her looked very concerned. I quickly deduced that the screaming woman was using the young lady's phone. Finally, the young lady interjected that she would be happy to talk to the person on the phone. It turns out she had called 2-1-1 for the woman in crisis. The older woman sighed and handed over the phone. She put down her head and started to weep.
The young woman got out a piece of paper to take notes, but she didn't have a pen. I moved up closer and offered her one of mine.
To make a long story short, the older woman and her dog were kicked out of their current housing for an unknown reason. The 2-1-1 operator said there were no shelters open at this time of night (it was close to 9:00 p.m.). She recommended the woman ride the bus all night to keep warm. At that point, the bus driver pulled over and said, "C-Tran does not run all night, that is not an option!"
I told the young lady I would look up shelters on my phone. I told the older woman there were some homeless shelters open in Portland. She perked up and said she would like to go to Portland, she told me of a shelter she was familiar with.
"But I have not money!", she exclaimed suddenly and started to weep again.
The bus driver printed up a ticket and gave it to her. I found the shelter the woman knew and told her the address. The young lady wrote it on her paper. But the older woman did not know which bus to take.
Luckily, I am the superhero of public transportation! I told her exactly how to get to her destination. It would take three buses and a Max train, so I had the young lady write it out for her.
Our bus got downtown Vancouver just as her bus to Portland pulled up. The young lady actually raced off of our bus to hold the Portland bus. I noticed she had left her backpack, so I waited with the bus until she came back.
The older woman and her dog made the bus to Portland. She was still crying, ranting and raving. She didn't thank us. But I felt good. It was the right thing to do. The young lady came up to me and handed me back my pen.
"Thank you", she whisper. I squeezed her shoulder and smiled at her. She had tears in her eyes.
I am now at the Vancouver Library. I went up to the front desk and told them I ride the bus and often meet people in crisis, usually homeless. They were happy to give me a pile of resource sheets and pamphlets.
I guess I have my work cut out for me. Not only am I saving the planet one bus ride at a time, I am also a superhero of mass transit!
Maybe I should start wearing a cape! And I need a slogan. Like Wonder Dog. "Here I am to Save the Day! :)
Anyway, I felt very alive that evening. I do live to serve. So I need to make sure I live long enough to be useful!
On that note, I wish you a happy Friday!
Talk to you tomorrow!
Love,
Zita
p.s. No hooping video today. I overslept. But I am hoping to make it to the gym! My positive thinking gurus say to take care of myself, be kind to myself, have fun and stop bullying myself. So in that vein, I am looking forward to a nice hot tub soak (hopefully after I pump some iron!)
I have the feeling that I am tipping precariously lower at times. But then I use one of my positive thinking affirmations and I feel myself balance right out! I've included breathing. With each affirmation, I breathe in deeply. It helps.
I often start the day with Qi Gong breathing exercises right before my hooping, but then I tend to forget about breathing the rest of the day.
I took myself out for lunch today. After watching my granddaughter this morning, I actually have the rest of the day off. Next week is the beginning of fall term. My life will get much busier. I often seem to do better emotionally when I am busy. Especially if my health is good and I am well rested.
At lunch, I pulled out my Kindle and read my affirmation of the day. Which is from the book A Year of Positive Thinking: Daily Inspiration, Wisdom, and Courage by Cyndie Spiegel. Today's affirmation had to do with letting go, not trying to control everything, and having fun. Yesterday's affirmation pretty much said to laugh and not take myself so seriously.
I looked away from my Kindle when my server brought me a cup of egg flower soup and hot tea. I was feeling a little irritated. I have been down this path before - the path of positive thinking. I find myself giving up when the "Yippy Skippy!" affrimations seem a tad bit shallow in the face of life's trials.
By the way, where did "Yippy Skippy" come from? I am most curious now!
OK. Here it is: Yippy Skippy: "a sarcastic answer to anything that you have to do or something that doesn't sound fun." (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Yippy%20Skippy)
Oh, bother. That is not what I meant at all! I meant annoyingly optimistic in a moronic way.
Be right back!
O.K. I found an article on "Shallow Optimism". Here's a quote:
"The dispensers of mindless cheer fail to instill confidence precisely because people begin to see that, like propagandists for any particular point of view, they have become blind to the reality of the situation.
Not only is this shallow optimism unrealistic; it is evil." (https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1989/09/shallow-optimism-or-reality)
A-ha! I may have some negative thinking tendencies, but at least I am not a shallow optimist! I resist evil! But I digress.
Back to my lunch:
I took a deep breath. The soup was hot, but so flavorful. I picked up my Kindle again, and opened a new digital book: B*tch Don't Kill My Vibe: How to Stop Worrying, End Negative Thinking, Cultivate Positive Thoughts, and Start Living Your Best Life by Reese Owen.I like this author's style. Light, airy, to the point and not afraid to use bad words. I am feeling on the downside of balanced, so my humor is running dark. I actually laughed out loud when I read the following:
"...even when you are dedicated to your positivity cause day in and day out, it takes time to go from Eeyore to Tigger. Add into that the self-doubt and self-hatred you feel when you have not reached level 100 instantaneously, and you will find yourself yet again holding yourself back from experiencing positivity."
(B*tch Don't Kill My Vibe: How To Stop Worrying, End Negative Thinking, Cultivate Positive Thoughts, And Start Living Your Best Life by Reese Owen)
I loved that she used Eeyore and Tigger as examples! I have long identified with Eeyore, but in my hyper manic moments I am Tigger all the way!
I am enjoying the humor in this book, but I am also gaining some insight. Much of it I have heard before, but I am finally ready to dig deeper and do some work!
One exercise I like is to begin on a positive note each morning, by declaring three positive things you anticipate about your upcoming day, before you even get out of bed. Then at night, before you go to sleep, declare three positive things that actually happened. It is similar to expressing gratitude, with the eager anticipation of good things happening. I like it!
Also she recommends reframing bad experiences. This one really hits home for me. I tend to relive negative encounters. They go round and round in my head. Dragging me down like a whirlpool. She says to take that experience and recreate the story by focusing on something positive that came out of it.
This will take some work to undo my pattern. But I am ready to work!
One of the reasons I want to purge this toxic negative side of my personality is that I want to be clear from my own junk in order to help others.
Just the other night, I was able to offer my assistance to someone in crisis. It wasn't exactly a happily ever after fairy tale, but I was able to help.
I got on the bus after choir practice. I noticed a very slender woman, probably about my age seated near the front. She had a large pit bull on a leash, sitting at her feat. The woman was moaning, her head down in her arms. I glanced at her, but was more concerned with getting around her dog. He looked very mellow, but he was blocking the aisle.
I sat near the back and pulled out my phone to check emails. Then I heard wailing, shouting and crying. It was coming from the woman with the dog. She was now on the phone. She was obviously very upset. Her words were slurred. She was screaming about it being dark and she had no place to go. She kept repeating herself, with very colorful curse words peppered throughout.
A young lady sitting opposite her looked very concerned. I quickly deduced that the screaming woman was using the young lady's phone. Finally, the young lady interjected that she would be happy to talk to the person on the phone. It turns out she had called 2-1-1 for the woman in crisis. The older woman sighed and handed over the phone. She put down her head and started to weep.
The young woman got out a piece of paper to take notes, but she didn't have a pen. I moved up closer and offered her one of mine.
To make a long story short, the older woman and her dog were kicked out of their current housing for an unknown reason. The 2-1-1 operator said there were no shelters open at this time of night (it was close to 9:00 p.m.). She recommended the woman ride the bus all night to keep warm. At that point, the bus driver pulled over and said, "C-Tran does not run all night, that is not an option!"
I told the young lady I would look up shelters on my phone. I told the older woman there were some homeless shelters open in Portland. She perked up and said she would like to go to Portland, she told me of a shelter she was familiar with.
"But I have not money!", she exclaimed suddenly and started to weep again.
The bus driver printed up a ticket and gave it to her. I found the shelter the woman knew and told her the address. The young lady wrote it on her paper. But the older woman did not know which bus to take.
Luckily, I am the superhero of public transportation! I told her exactly how to get to her destination. It would take three buses and a Max train, so I had the young lady write it out for her.
Our bus got downtown Vancouver just as her bus to Portland pulled up. The young lady actually raced off of our bus to hold the Portland bus. I noticed she had left her backpack, so I waited with the bus until she came back.
The older woman and her dog made the bus to Portland. She was still crying, ranting and raving. She didn't thank us. But I felt good. It was the right thing to do. The young lady came up to me and handed me back my pen.
"Thank you", she whisper. I squeezed her shoulder and smiled at her. She had tears in her eyes.
I am now at the Vancouver Library. I went up to the front desk and told them I ride the bus and often meet people in crisis, usually homeless. They were happy to give me a pile of resource sheets and pamphlets.
I guess I have my work cut out for me. Not only am I saving the planet one bus ride at a time, I am also a superhero of mass transit!
Maybe I should start wearing a cape! And I need a slogan. Like Wonder Dog. "Here I am to Save the Day! :)
Anyway, I felt very alive that evening. I do live to serve. So I need to make sure I live long enough to be useful!
On that note, I wish you a happy Friday!
Talk to you tomorrow!
Love,
Zita
p.s. No hooping video today. I overslept. But I am hoping to make it to the gym! My positive thinking gurus say to take care of myself, be kind to myself, have fun and stop bullying myself. So in that vein, I am looking forward to a nice hot tub soak (hopefully after I pump some iron!)
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