Dealing With Stress

It seems to me , that dealing with stress starts with recognising things that give you stress and anticipating whether you're coping adequately on a daily basis. If you're just going on with your life, going from day to day without checking in with yourself, noticing behaviors or symptoms that usually indicate stress for you,you may wait until you are overstressed before you act. When you do that, it can take more actions to get you back on track and centered.

I can usually take changes fairly well unless they are really big changes, or thing that may really complicate my life. If it is a change that I have initiated or I'm enthusiatic about, then I usually will have "good" stress. Of course even good stress can get out of hand. Changes that are required of me, but without my choice, like new procedures at work can get stressful. Sometimes, these changes are easier than anticipated, so they go pretty well. We recently had to start using handheld scanning computers to record the products that we use in our demos. It turned out to be fairly easy and not all that stressful. The stressful part is the difference in our work orders, harder to understand and harder to figure out if you're making your sales goals or not. Since our pay raises are tied to preformance, this gets stressful. Still, you do your best and watch the stats and hope it all works out. Not the best way to manage stress.

A big stressor for me is worrying about disappointing a loved one, like maybe not being able to attend a function because of your work schedule. Hopefully,a supervisor will be accomodating, but the stress is there until the problem is resolved.

When you get several problems all giving you stress and the problems will not be solved very quickly, you may just have to have faith in yourself and the people that you deal with and in the power of Spirit. And whilr you're waiting for resolution, do something for yourself. Relax, meditate, listen to good music, plant some flowers, read a good book and be sure and laugh!

Just Musing

I had a nice birthday. My Aunts insisted in giving me more than I thought I needed, but still, it's nice adding to your wardrobe right? The weather has been as changable as is typical in Utah's springtime. We got some pretty good rain on Monday, but we're still heading for a draught this year. It seems like we only just got over one.

I just bought African Daisies and Zinnias to plant. It's nice to have a yard to grow stuff again.

I'm finally getting to the point where I have very little furniture left in my condo. I've sold or given away most of the larger stuff. There's still "stuff" there, but I'm making headway--good thing too, as my storage is pretty full.

We've got a large bush of old fashioned yellow roses in the backyard and even some Oriental Poppies coming over from the nieghbor's yard. The peonies are blooming and the roses are starting to bloom. We have Geraniums and Dianthus in pots on the steps.The tulips are finished and the Irises nearly done.Spring seems to go so fast, but I love it! Yesterday, I was coming home from Salt Lake and came over a hill and saw the Great Salt Lake. It was so blue! The air was clear and you could see many of the islands so sharply. I wish I'd had my camera, we don't always have such clear days anymore.

My oldest Grandson graduates high school this year. I have a picture of him in the living room and he's less than a year old and so cute. It seems like just a few years ago he was so small. Now he's over 6 feet tall and getting ready to venture out into the world. It really seems amazing.

Odd Musings

I thought I'd better write something, here it is mid May and I haven't posted yet. I've been working a little more, and I've been a bit lazy.

We've had only a few days of spring here, but more summer weather than spring. We've aldeady been into the ninety degree weather. The last 2 days have been in the seventies, more spring like. Tomorrow we'll be pushing back into the eighties.

My birthday is tomorrow and I'll be celebrating with a shopping trip and a lunch out. It will be nice I think. It's always good to have a little fun once in a while.

I've been thinking of planning a get-away this summer. It's been awhile since I've been anywhere. The gas prices may dictate how far I'll go, or maybe I won't be able to go at all if prices keep climbing. It's hard not to believe in some sort of conspiracy sometimes, especially with the prices going up almost daily. I mean really, the prices really are changing several times a week. What's up with that? One of these days, maybe this country will finally get it's act back on track. Well, that's my soapbox speech for today.

Progress?

Since my last post, I did manage to sell one bed, a bookcase and both the washer and dryer, all thanks to my wonderful nieghbor. I'm thinking that it is definitely time to let go of the condo if I can. I really need to cut down on trips between Tooele and Salt Lake. My last gasoline bill was $130.!....and the cost of gas keeps going up! To make matters worse, I'm working an extra day a week for the next 3 weeks. I suppose I'll make more than spend in gas, but maybe not much more.

I haven't heard from my kids who live out of state for awhile. Hopefully, they're just busy,but I can't help but worry. Time to make contact or at least try to I guess.

We are having summer here lately, though just a bit over a week ago we were back to winter for a few days after some lovely spring days. Hopefully we'll go back to spring again and get to summer gradually over weeks and not days.

Catching Up

It's been a long time between posts.I've been busy trying to finish up with my moving. It seems to take forever! I still have quite a lot of things left in the condo and very little space left in my storage unit. I really don't have any space left in my bedroom and the basement is getting full. I may have buyers for my 2 beds and even possibly for my washer and dryer. I've been thinking of ways to donate the rest that will have someone other than myself doing pick-up. One of my problems is that I can't always be available at the condo, but I have a wonderful neighbor there whom I've left with a key. I will certainly be glad when I can finally let go of the condo permanently.

Living with someone again has been good. I seem to function better when there is someone else in the household to consider. Both my Aunt and I have lived alone for quite a few years, though I did have a few years recently with my Mom. I think there are advantages to being alone, but only if you can keep active and busy,otherwise, it's too easy to spend your time in front of the TV watching things you don't even care about rather than actually doing something alone. Of course that's just where my life is now.

Changes

Earlier in March, my supervisor was wanting me to give up shifts, as there were'nt enough demos being ordered. By the end of the month, there were suddenly more demos than we had people and they all had to be done by March 31. I went from sometimes only 2 days a week to 5 days a week and working any hours I wished, as long as I worked. Since my health has finally improved, I was able to to do the work and enjoy it too. Mother Nature decided to flex her sense of humor again too..We had been having beautiful spring weather, then getting a couple of cold days with a storm most of the month, but the end of the month brought some real changes to some of us. I'm now living west of Salt Lake, though I still drive into the city for work. The city mainly got lots of rain, the the town I live in now got 12 inches of snow in 2 days. It was very wet snow and I'm still sore from shoveling. Amazingly, the desert west of us got 36 inches of snow in 1 day while the ski resorts got 18 to 20 inches. Really strange. Now it's April and the spring lowers are blooming and the sun is shining. We're still holding our breaths a bit waiting to see if we get an even later snowstorm.

Endless Moving

My last post was March 12 and here it is March 26 and I'm still trying to get the rest of my stuff out of my old condo! It doesn't help that I usually only get one or 2 days to work. This week, I'll only get one day as I am working extra hours. I did manage to sell some furniture, but still have beds, bookcases and TV and entertainment center. I still have dishes and books to take to storage. I'm beginning to think I'll never be finished, especially when you factor in all the stuff I have in storage that I'll probably never use.

I've had an idea for quite some time that we don't own our stuff, it owns us. Now, I'm pretty well convinced that this is a truth, especially with things you don't really need. They take up space, or you pay for storage. This certainly isn't economical. It also drags down your energy. I think my goal for the rest of this year is to get rid of stuff that isn't used or really wanted. That should free up both space, money and energy.

Moving

I'm sort of moved. That is, I'm now sleeping in the new place, but there's still gobs of stuff in the old place. I find myself almost hoping to be robbed. It's amazing how much "stuff" you can accumulate. The last time I moved, about 12 years ago, I had 17 years of accumulation. I sent truck loads to the dump and to charity. Still, I managed to keep a lot and accumulate more. Now, here I am again, trying to devest myself of a bunch of stuff.

I had always fantisized about moving with just a small trailer, only taking the very basics. It's hard to really throw stuff away when it comes right to it though. I did get away with very little, but now, what do I do with the rest? It would help if I still owned a truck, but I don't. I guess I'll just keep trying, or maybe hold a moving sale.

What Fun!

I went to work yesterday,not because I was healthy, but because I couldn't afford another day off. I was still having some problems with laryngitis, sometimes my voice was there, sometimes not so much. I'd originally been scheduled for a cooking demo, but my supervisor traded me to a demo of giving away a product. The product was a high quality bathroom tissue, something everyone needs. I had boxes and boxes of roles of bathroom tissue to give away on my shift. Voice or no voice, I still managed to convey to people that it was free. It was so much fun! After 6 days of being sick and basically self concerned, giving something away was just what I needed. Normally, my feet hurt half way into my shift. Last night I got home and realised that my feet hadn't bothered me. What's up with that?

Despite the fact that it was a pretty universal use product, there were people who turned down the freebie. My only conclusion is that they were afraid there were strings attatched. All the manufacturer wanted was for people to take home the product and try it. If they didn't like it, they could throw it away. If they did, then it was hoped that the customer would give consideration to purchasing the product the next time they needed some. All the risk was on the manufacturer. Plainly, they have confidence in their product. Still, the power of habit in the buying public cannot be over-estimated.

The Strange Effects of Illness

I've spent the last 6 days experiencing the joys and tribulations of a major cold. Instead of getting a scratchy throat, then sneezing, then a cough, I just started right in with a persistant cough, then the sneezing and stuffiness. I even got a fever and body aches, so maybe I've got the flu. Anyway, when I get a virus that causes a cough, I generally get asthma symptons as well. It's so fun to try to sleep while listening to your own wheezing. I thought I'd go to work today, but discovered that I couldn't talk. It's funny, when you live alone, you don't really realise you have larangitis until you try to talk outloud and you don't usually talk outloud except maybe to answer the phone......very embarassing. Still, the mega-sore throat should have been some indication.

When I'm quite sick, and I finally give in to it, it seems like the world just goes away a little, or at least recedes a bit. I guess that's purposeful on my part.I only answer phone calls from people I know and want to talk to. I leave my mail in a pile, to get to later. I watch kid's shows on TV. Sometimes I wonder if I've gotten sick in order to give myself a break? If so, I may have overdone things this time. Even if I like this tiny little world I'm in right now, I've got to break out and get back to the real world, tomorrrow, hopefully.

Moving

Life just seems to go on whether we want it to or not. I guess maybe you can take a break sometimes, but then everything is just waiting for you when you come back. I'm supposed to be moving this week, but I got another cold. ( maybe there's a reason for that ) Fortunately, I have an extra day off this week, so I can postpone moving day one more day.

It's amazing how much "stuff"we accumulate in 11 years! Now I get to decide what to store for possible selling or give away, what to move, and what to throw away. The longer I work and the worse I feel, the more I throw away. Hey, maybe that's the reason for the new cold!

It's Snowing!

After the frigid weather in January we finally got temps closer to normal.This past weekend was beautiful with temps in the middle fifties. It was a great precoursor to spring, but Mother Nature was just teasing us. I got up this morning to a couple of inches of snow and it's still coming down. Not to fear, it's supposed to clear later and be warmer tomorrow. The ski resorts are probably loving the new powder for the President's Day crowd! This is my week to move, so hopefully, the weather will really do as predicted.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is about love. Today, it seems that romantic love is the most celebrated. There are hearts with arrows and little cupids flying around, but the original purpose of the day was to honor Saint Valentine,a man filled with love for all. Valentine's Day is about LOVE, in all it's forms. There is love of our children, of our families, our spouses,our fellowman,Mother Nature and the world, even love of ourselves. It's too bad we only have one day to celebrate love. We need to remember that all of the Universe and it's Creator is LOVE and we are LOVE. The strongest power in the Universe is LOVE, and our Creator loves us unconditionally. Can we do any less than to try to do the same in our lives?

Free Will or Determinism?

I just read an article from the New York Times speculating whether we have free will or are our lives predetermined? As near as I could understand in the article, if our acts are pre determined, that determining factor seems to be our subconscious mind. Excuse me, but isn't our subconscious mind a part of us? While it's true, our parents and culture tend to program certain things into our subconscious, it also gets programed by our experiences and observations as they impact our conscious mind. The article talked about genetic and evolutional programing as well, even mentioned particle physics. There was a study done where people were told to make random movements. Supposedly, the movements came a fraction before cognition, or the mind deciding the movement. The conclusion to the article was that we had enough free choice, or illusion of free choice for us to be comfortable.

Nowhere in this article was there any reference to a Spiritual Element. Maybe the author didn't want to bring another source of determinism, or he was just skirting the issue. I've always believed we could be moved by Spirit, if we're open and listening, but that it was our choice as to whether we took Spirit's advise. Then again, if Spirit is really serious about us doing something, I suppose It could manage conditions in our lives to encourage us to decide to do as It suggests eventually, even if we're stubborn. There are others who believe that our Souls determine our path in each lifetime. That's probably as good an idea as any other. Maybe we'll find out all about how things work sometime. In the meantime, we'll just keep muddling through.

Mommy, Inc.: * Tea Time With Shannon: Got milk?

Mommy, Inc.: * Tea Time With Shannon: Got milk?Here is a great post by Shannon. She is getting her milk delivered by a local farmer. It's a little more money, but in return, she supports her local economy.gets really fresh milk( she can get to know her cows personally), she saves the environment as her milk doesn't get trucked in from who knows where. All of this and it tastes better too!

Negative Programming

Have you ever noticed yourself getting stuck in a negative thinking loop,where you keeping going over some mistake that you made or some hurtful remark soneone has made to you or about you? You just keep thinking of what you should have done or said that was better than what you actually did or said. It's like a part of you thinks you can change the past if only you keep thinking about it. You even realise that trying to change something that has already happened is a really crazy idea, but you keep doing it.
I've spent the past 2 and 1/2 days doing just that, knowing the futility, knowing that the smart thing to do is take what you've learned from the experience, then let it go. I know that letting go can be a little hard sometimes, but you just need to be persistant.
I don't usually hold on to something quite that long and I was upset with myself for doing it this time. I really let an incident at work almost throw me into a major depression. I guess since my private life is so unstable right now, it really bothered me to have my work life upset too, especially since it had been going pretty well.
I'm pulling myself out of my funk by focusing on the fact that there's no one single event that defines me unless I allow it to. We are more than single events or criticisms. We are more than our looks and more than any single deed that we may do, and we are all loved by God,just for existing.

The Joys and Pain of Blogging

I have another blog on a paid host. I paid for 2 years of hosting as I was hoping to achieve some financial returns on that blog. Now, I'm unable to access it due to possible problems that my host server is having. This is very frustrating to me. I actually have some people who read that blog and I assume they're not able to access it either.
Still, I can always seem to access my Blogger blog, so I can exercise my need to write something even though there may be nobody reading it. Oh well, Life isn't usually perfect.
I have read theories that we create our own reality, and I believe that we do. No 2 persons experience reality the same, it's always filtered through our own viewpoints. Maybe if we envision a "perfect" reality, it will be perfect, though different from someone else's perfection. Maybe we all ought to compare notes and figure out what we're really doing with reality.

Acceptance

One of my favorite prayers goes some thing like --God give me the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I can't and the wisdom to know the difference. I don't have it quite right, but it's known as the Serenity Prayer. It is really hard to know the difference, whether we should be butting our heads against a wall trying to change something we should be learning to accept, or if we're accepting something that could really be changed.

I think that if we're upset or irritated about some person's personality quirk or behavior, we might be better off accepting that person as he/she is or keeping away from them if possible. Sometimes a person that just drives you up a wall is a person that you work with or is otherwise pretty hard to keep away from. This person may be in your life for a purpose, to teach you something you need to learn and if you manage to keep away from them, someone else will show up that's even more irritating. Perhaps it's best to learn the lesson, then move on.

Winter Time

Here it is, just ending the first week of January and I'm ready for spring. I know, it's not gonna happen. I'm just so cold! I realise that I spent much of the summer bitching about the heat and now I'm bitching about the cold. I guess I don't do well in extremes. I'm actually okay when it's cold, even quite cold, as long as it isn't windy. The wind just cuts through any coat I've got. It blows around my neck and up from the bottom of the coat and makes me shiver. If there's snow blowing too, I really want to burrow at home under blankets with a hot cup of tea and a good book. Maybe if I practised some kind of winter sport it would help my attitude. I've thought of snowshoeing since I don't like heights and riding on a ski lift. I used to ice skate, but I'd probably wear out my butt. Oh well, spring's only a few months away right?

An Insirational Video

I get a newsletter from the owner on Images of One site. He has produced a feel good video that is free to view with no sales pitches. It has nice music, beautiful pictures, and inspirational quotes. The address http://www.imagesofone.com/fg/ Give it a look.