My boyfriend rocks!
As always: Todays post from a book I have called Better Than Chocolate - 50 Proven ways to feel Happier (purchase it here), by Siimon Reynolds
Both the Indian yoga experts and the Chinese tai chi masters agree: smooth energy flow is vital for physical and mental happiness. Our bodies contain rivers of energy, known as meridians. When these are blocked we tend to feel down in the dumps.
But we don't have to spend hours sitting in the lotus position or practicing slow, repetitive movements to improve the situation. Spending 10 minutes a day stretching your major limbs and muscles helps unblock these meridians, encouraging the body's energy (prana in Sanskrit or Chi in Mandarin) to circulate freely, improving both your health and your mood.
last year I wrote about how L.L. Bean (one of my favorite companies) had come out with a boat and toat lunch bag - and I love it- but I think they have stopped selling it. I had been wishing for a larger sized one... i usually bring 2 meals and 2 snacks to work with me and the lunch bag isn't cutting it... well now they came out with this!
Now you can have whatever sized tote you want!
this is the last of the ice on my garage... forecast for the rest of the week is nice - here's hoping its all gone by this time next week!
cali loves to roll in the snow - lets hope this is some of the last days she can do that...
I bought this small pot of lawn grass at the florist for $6 and I can't tell you how happy it has made me!! It has great texture and during the day I will reach over and put my fingers in it!!
OK well its finally over.. and honestly the stress got to us all! I decided to pass on the position in France for a variety of reasons. I initially turned down the job and they called me back and said that they would craft it whatever way I needed it crafted to make it work for me. There is not better place to be in while negotiating but travel was a requirement and I wasn't sure I could make all of that work.
IN a conversation with Jocelyn yesterday, while we were looking at what a salary increase might mean, we came to the conclusion that no amount of money would buy back the time I missed, and any increase I got would not be so significant as to change my standard of living.
This was not an easy decision to make and last night sitting in Erin's office when Matt said "I am having a hard time because I can't seem to figure out what you want" it dawned on me that I wasn't sure what I wanted.
I have taken the approach in the past that when an opportunity comes your way you take it - but there are a couple of things that are different this time around.
I love my Matty: This is the first time a big choice like this has come up and I have been in a serious relationship. This time my choice would affect that person and our relationship - good, bad or indifferent. I had to give that some thought this time and some of my old fears about making the wrong choice came into play. Matt told me he would support me whatever choice I made but what if the choice I made wasn't what he wanted.... and did I even know what I wanted?
I love my photography: It would have been one thing if I had said I want to be a international project manager, or I was interested in climbing the corporate ladder here at my job, or that I wanted to be an SVP by the time I am 45 - but I don't... i want to be a photographer and taking a job for a year in France isn't going to make my photography resume look any better, as a matter of fact is going to make it look worse since I will lose all that time I could be home shooting. I would have passed up on opportunities and weddings and experience that I could use NOW to beef up that resume and that is what is important.
I love my life: I really do....I love the plans that we have for the summer, I love my little business that is growing, I love seeing Erin every day at work, I love cooking dinner for Matt during the week, I love Hailey and Riley, we love to fly kites in the summer and go to Mi's house for dinner, I love my dog and my church and going to the movies and being able to see the people that I care about every day.. and I can't do all of that with this job. And not that I wouldn't have been able to craft a schedule that had me home a lot, it would have been that this job would be a 60 hour a week job - even when I am home. And now I have a 40 hour a week day job, and its predictable and easy and I can do the things I love much more than if I took another job.
This experience was good for us. I think Matt and I grew closer through this experience. We had to discuss things and talk about what each of us wanted, and compromise and see what fits best. I hope through all of it we were honest with each other. I think in the end we are both happy with the decision - I know I am because I like being with him and being in France means I would do that less:(
This experience also gave me an appreciation for my current job. Sure its not mentally challenging and there are some quirks but you know what it doesn't leave me tired (physically or mentally) at the end of the day so I can be ready to focus on photography. Instead of railing against what this job is not I am going to appreciate it for all that it is and what it lets me do.
I need to take all that energy I would have spent on this job and doing the French work and turn that into my photography business. This experience heightened that knowledge for me and gave me a bit of a nudge which I needed.
As always: Todays post from a book I have called Better Than Chocolate - 50 Proven ways to feel Happier (purchase it here), by Siimon Reynolds
You can set yourself two types of goals:
1. internal (quality relationships, wellbeing, personal growth, and so on)
2. external (money, power, fame, and so on)
Each type of goal is worthwhile, but research by Tim Kasser and Richard M. Ryan, professors of psychology, has shown that the more you develop yourself internally, the happier you will usually be. After interviewing hundreds of people and examining their life priorities, Kasser and Ryan concluded, "In sum, the pursuit of personal goals for money, fame and attractiveness is shown to lead to a lower quality of life than than the goals of relatedness, self acceptance and community feeling"
Take a look at your goals. Will they genuinely develop you as a person or will they merely change your outward circumstances?
As always: Todays post from a book I have called Better Than Chocolate - 50 Proven ways to feel Happier (purchase it here
), by Siimon Reynolds
Plastic Surgeon Maxwell Maltz, in his pioneering work Psycho-Cybernetics, showed that we usually behave in accordance with the image we have of ourselves. Over time he noticed that the most important factor in a person's happiness was not what they actually looked like, but their self-image. For example, if you view yourself as an unhappy person, your brain will make sure you experience life in accordance with that.
But Maltz showed that our self-image can be re-sculpted, little by little. By visualizing yourself being happy for a few minutes each day (literally watching a movie of yourself in your mind), you can improve your levels of satisfaction signifigantly.
I tried to explain to Matt that he has gotten off easy in terms of picutres... i hardly take ANY of him, and usually when I have someone around as much as he is I use that to my advantage and have a built in model.
So yesterday he looked great and the light was good in the living room so I put him through a whole 3 minutes of torture...
Its only bound to get worse now that its nice out:)
