Give Peace a Chance

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself

⁃ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I love today’s activity:

…do everything peacefully. Let go of any thoughts that disturb or agitate you, express the peace you are seeking in your relationships, in your work, in your home and in your heart.

I did well at this. Well enough that I was peaceful while standing in a bus, in traffic, in rush hour after work. Slowing down and being mindful helps. And when something did go wrong, being gentle with myself, taking time to calm down helped too.

If everyone focused on being peaceful in their day to day lives, then the world would be a peaceful place.

If you’re reading this, then give it a go. Follow the book’s advice:

Be at peace.

Doing Your Best

How would your life be different if you really knew that you are always doing the best you can?

Why would anyone expect more than that? Why would you?

I used to expect more than that. I used to feel like a failure a lot more than I do now. This is not about doing your best at all times, this is about remembering that whatever you’re doing, however you’re reacting to things, you’re doing the best you can in the moment.

There may be better ways to react, other things you can do, but until you’ve learned them you can’t put them into practice. The idea that I was doing my best at the time made living with myself, liking myself easier. I can look back on my life and see how I could have done things better, but now I don’t hate myself, which makes moving forward, learning new ways to cope with things and knowing it’s okay to ask for help is possible.

I still have things I need to face, issues to work on; everyone does. But it’s amazing what’s possible when the self-loathing has gone.

Change of attitude

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.

– Maya Angelou

Another activity that I have already been working on today.

Remember you’re in control of how you think your life and therefore how you live your life.

Good and bad things happen every day. Today was about 50/50 good and bad. A few years ago I would be able to fill up this blog post with all the things that went wrong today because I would have been focused on them.

Now I have learned to focus on the good things. I focus on the things that have gone well even as “bad” things are happening, or at least being churned over in my head. Focusing on the good things not only distracts my negative thoughts, but improves my mood and makes it easier to keep going, even when I felt on the verge of a minor panic attack.

Good things don’t have to be big, just there in my thoughts. Changing my attitude to whatever is happening in my life has lead to a happier life.

Good things that happened today:

• Woman at the bus stop complimented my earring
• I managed to get my writing done before work (and this after oversleeping)
• Found the book a customer was looking for
• Met up with friends this evening

I hadn’t seen my friends for ages. It’s a great confidence boost to be told how great I look and to be able to look at how far I have come since we first met.

Back online

Nothing happens for no reason; being forced offline helped me realise that I have been putting too much pressure on myself to add to this blog every day. It’s not the end of the world if I don’t post. I began this blog to keep track of this year. It’s a way of keeping myself on track with the challenge of attempting to to do as many activities as I can from The best year of your life. That’s all. By posting online I am more likely to keep going, but it’s not worth it if I stress over it.

I have realised it’s okay to miss a day here and there. I have also realised that it’s okay not do do an activity every day. This week did I have been outside my comfort zone in other ways, taking part in events in the Oxford International Women’s Festival, so I have done fewer activities anyway.

I can blog about three though.

First, this week’s give activity was to

raise a late night smile by putting a chocolate on everyone’s pillow tonight and turning down the covers.

Living alone this isn’t an option, and I’ve already done a Give activity anyway, but I’d thought I’d post it in case anyone else wants to do this (it’s Mother’s Day in the Uk, so you could try that)

This week’s Expand activity is to begin to understand the connection between mind and body.

Today, begin to expand your understanding of the relationship between mind and body by getting hold of Louise Hay’s groundbreaking Heal Your Body book which offers a way of understanding certain ailments, aches and pains as they may relate to what’s going on with the rest of our lives.

I can recommend the book; I have had it for years. I keep this copy in my desk for easy reference, and also have a copy of You Can Heal Your Life which has the blue book information in the back.

Finally,

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

-Albert Einstein

Today believe in miracles, expect miracles and be on the lookout for miracles.

I’ve been doing this more since reading Pam Grout’s Thank and Grow Rich. It’s a wonderful habit to cultivate. For me life is just much richer since I began looking for miracles.

One minor miracle, though it didn’t seem like it at the time, was losing internet access. I has made me appreciate the Internet, but also rethink how I use it, and what I want to use it for. Looking back at this week, I like the blog posts I did, especially looking at the sky. But I also acknowledge the unintentional stress I have put on myself to post here. It’s a good thing to realise. I hope I don’t need a repeat of the experience to learn the lesson 😃

Look to the Sky

I have had a difficult day, so will be typing less and posting more photos than I anticipated.

Today, look up at the sky every single chance you get.

So I did:

Sorry about the random sizes, I’m too tired to do much about fixing them today.

The sky was beautiful. Blue, with gorgeous clouds.

…each time you look up, remember the billions of others living their lives under the same endless sky. I find that as I look up from my small, everyday concerns into its vastness some of the things that bother me shrink in size and seem less important than I’ve built them up to be.

I didn’t find that, but looking at the sky and thinking of all the other people living underneath it, I did get a sense of connection. When you get down to it, we’re all “only” human.

Well done me.

Sooner or later we must realise there is no station , no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip.

-Robert Hastings

I am not sure how to blog about today’s activity:

So many thinkers and teachers have sought to remind us that it’s the journey that matters. Today, don’t worry about the destination. Remind yourself often to enjoy the journey.

All I have done is to enjoy the day. Whether tidying, doing dishes, reading, I have just enjoyed having the time and energy to do things. When I didn’t have the energy I sat or I ate. Maybe that’s all you can do, find the enjoyment whatever’s going on. There’s always something. I haven’t been bored today.

This week has been good. I’ve enjoyed the snow, and mood-wise I feel more level-headed, more on track than I have for a while. I am ready for the week ahead mentally, even if not physically. I am looking forward to next week; it’s been a while since I could say that. I think this bout of low mood is on its way out.

I have done better here too. I only missed two activities, and I replaced one of them with an earlier one I missed. 6 out of 7. Well done me.😀

The Art of Looking is Underrated

When we keep ourselves tuned into the beauty of the world, life itself becomes a celebration of the senses.

– Thomas Kinkade

Today’s activity:

Today, wherever you go and whatever you do, keep yourself tuned to beauty by using all your senses.

I am still resting up, but I did get to my parents’ house. I kept today’s activity in mind and noticed more. Some things I found beautiful today:

• The feel of a grape as I ate it
• The sunlight against my closed eyes when facing the sun
• Marley’s purr
• The bay tree in the back garden

I hadn’t really noticed how much it has grown. The art of looking is underrated.

How could you love more?

One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love

– Sophocles

Today’s title is the question I journaled about for today’s activity. I think I’m doing well. I am devoting a lot of my resting time to self love. It is impossible to care for others if you don’t look after yourself.

When I was feeling ill, I took it slowly. When I stopped feeling ill, I sped up again. As a result I am more tired now than I was before. I took this morning at a slow pace, all the better to get to work.

Another self-care activity will be to only half-fill the boxes of books I carry at work! 📚

HALT or STOPP or something…

I was thinking that I would try and do every activity this week on the day it’s scheduled to be, but today’s is a continuation of one of the two activities I didn’t do last week, so I looked at Tuesday’s activity. It’s an Alcoholics Anonymous technique

HALT

The letters are a reminder that whenever we’re feeling Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired, we need to deal with that before doing anything else.

I hadn’t heard of this before, but it makes sense. When I am low, I am tired, and that means I don’t bother to eat as much (I have probably had 4 proper meals in the last week). That can affect my mood. I can become angry and I definitely withdraw from people.

I have just eaten – vegetable finger sandwiches (think fish fingers minus the fish in bread). So it’s already helping.

🥪🥪🥪🥪🥪🥪🥪🥪🥪

It reminded me of the card that I was given in the therapy group I used to be in. I keep in my wallet. It is CBT list of things to think of when I am becoming over-emotional and unable to think straight. I am still tired, so rather than typing it all up, I’ll just include a link:

STOPP

Short and sweet

Yes, there is nirvana; it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep and in writing the last line of your poem.

Kahlil Gibran

Today’s activity is to describe your ‘nirvana’ in “such simple and true terms”.

This is what I came up with:

Having enough to do and enough not to do

and

A cat, some cards and pen and paper.