Today has been warm. Coming up from the basement at work the heat just hit me. I am glad that my house is cool too.
Today’s activity was to say “yes” when you mean “yes” and “no” when you mean “no”; no prevarication, no complicated explanations. Looking back at today while writing this post, I guess there were times when I was asked a yes/no question that I chatted away rather than just saying “yes”; I didn’t even notice! So, something to work on. That’s fine – that’s the point of the exercise.
Wear some really “loud” jewellery today. Surprise people and surprise yourself by drawing attention to you.
I don’t have much jewellery that I could call “loud” but I wear vibrant earrings all the time, so no one really looks twice at me, though I’ve had compliments from strangers about my earrings.
I wasn’t about to go out and buy loud jewellery just for this activity, but I did stop at a charity shop on my way to work to get some large earrings I’d seen.
This is the jewellery I wore today:
The choker was chosen for its brightness, but actually it’s the exact shade of the top I was wearing, so it didn’t stand out. I can be self conscious about many things, but my jewellery isn’t one of them. I may keep an eye out in charity shops for large jewellery and try this activity again; large rings might help too, though they’re not practical for work.
So this is one of those activities that I may plan ahead for, but it’s going to be pretty outlandish jewellery that’ll make me aware of others watching me.
Today’s activity lasts all week. It’s to take a break from all newspapers and TV (and in my case, radio) news for a week.
[You will] get a week’s respite from a non-stop diet of negative messages that’s just guaranteed to bring you down.
I know this works because I do just this whenever I am feeling low. There’s no point in doing something that will make you feel miserable when you’re already low – in some cases it can be dangerous. It used to be that hearing about some news story – even just a headline – would cause my mood to plummet.
I consume less news over the winter months; I know that it can be damaging and as Jane Matthews says
If anything major happens, someone will tell you.
This activity doesn’t require much from me today, so I also did an activity I missed last week:
Today’s activity gives you a chance to build on [your self love] by drawing on your own life story to finish these statements…
The statements are:
It wasn’t easy, finishing these sentences. In some cases I went back to incidents from high school. Still, I finished every sentence as I encourage you to do the same.
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 😃
…do things a different way.
I was so tired last night that I didn’t make the usual preparations for today. Usually I put out dishes for breakfast, set the table up with my journal (by the light box in winter) and get my medicine set out for the next morning…that reminds me, I need to take my pills…. I was too tired for all that, so this morning instead of eating or journaling, I looked at the book to read today’s activity.
Divine timing because today’s activity is
This morning, when you wakes things in a different order.
So I did. I had already done my morning pages, they are best done as soon as you wake, not that I always do, but for the rest, I read, I checked Instagram. I got dressed, opened shutters then made the bed. Then I did today’s Duolingo lesson (French) then had breakfast. These are all things I do in the morning, but in a drastically different order. I have only just looked at today’s oracle cards and, as mentioned, forgot to take my pills. I was going to, but got sidetracked by sending a birthday message to my brother.
The book says
Ringing the changes, even in tiny ways, jolts is out of our lifelong habit of starting the day on automatic.
It’s good to shake things up, but at my current energy levels, a morning routine is helpful. More helpful than I realised until deliberately not doing it. I don’t always do everything, eg. check today’s blog activity, breakfast, pills, cards etc. In the same order, but by having an order I get things done that otherwise would not get done, or at least, done quicker. I need the routine particularly when I am tired, and after last night’s walk, I am tired. But I don’t ache as much as I expected to. I tend to forget how much fitter I am now.
Sometimes the activities are easier than I expect, which give me a boost, because it’s like confirmation that I’m not so bad after all; at the moment I need all the boosts to my self confidence that I can get.
Activity:
Most of us find it a lot easier to list what’s wrong with us rather than what’s right…
Grab your journal and ignoring any blushes and discomfort, write down ten things you like about your physical appearance, the way you look.
This is the list I wrote:
There are bits of my body I am learning to love, but at least I now know there are ten things that I already do.
Please have a go at this activity, I feel better having done it.
💕💕💕
Tonight I will do the daily download for the eighth time. I plan on doing it more regularly than I have done, but not every night; maybe twice a week instead.
Last night in my determination to do it I totally forgot about yesterday’s blog activity until about 1 in the morning. I have sprayed some eau de toilette on my pillows now, and report back tomorrow…
Final daily download prompt:
Things I am grateful for today are…
I usually try listing about seven.
Open a cookbook you haven’t used since you were first seduced by it’s wonderful pictures and choose a recipe to try out. Don’t be put off by a long list of ingredients, or by names of ingredients you’ve not heard of. The more different this one is from the way you approach cooking, the more that comfort zone around you is stretching.
I don’t buy cookbooks because of the photos, I buy them for the recipes. Having said that I could’ve tried a harder recipe book than this:
But I am still low and didn’t want to set myself up to fail. Anyway it’s not easy, making vegetarian sausages – though I could’ve done with a little more egg yolk and a little less egg white…
It tasted good. And I made a basic version of my tomato sauce to go with them (clue: ingredients = 1 chopped onion and 1 tin chopped tomatoes)
It’s not a great photo – by this time I just wanted to eat the things!
I don’t feel too well tonight, so I am going to stop now. I had more to write about the cooking, but I am just too tired
Today, do something naughty
Short but sweet…and open to interpretation, I ate one of these:
In case you don’t recognise the title it’s after one of the series of books I grew up with. If I have done this right there should be a link on the image below
…and there is, it should also be aligned to the centre…
…but isn’t.
Today’s activity is
Eat at least one meal with nothing but your food and yourself for company…a chance to pay attention to what you’re doing and really taste what you’re putting into your mouth.
This was difficult! I often eat on my own, but as a reader… I almost always read while having lunch. I chose lunch to do this, because dinner will be after work and I might not have the energy to think about what I am eating, even if I am doing nothing else at the time.
I had a boiled egg and tomato sandwich made with sourdough bread. It was good. The egg was just the right texture, and good bread does taste so much nicer than the cheap stuff (except when it comes to stuffing) I would have taken a photo, except that might distract me from the challenge, and it was a slog trying not to read. I had the blog book by my plate to remind me why I wasn’t reading! And I read the fridge until I caught myself. Maybe an activity to try again with something tastier?
Another busy Christmasy day. Spent most of it at my parents making Christmas cookies. No time (again) for Thursday’s activity, but a few Sunday’s activity:
Singing is a wonderful way of literally expanding, opening up our lungs and ourselves – as long as we’re not worried about anyone hearing us. Find your voice and open up today by singing to your favourite music…
I am listening to Seventh Tree as I write this, pausing to sing along to my favourites (A&E, Little Bird, Road to Somewhere). It’s easy to sing along on my own in the flat but while baking we had Pick of the Pops on (1968) and there were some good songs there – Ain’t Got No, I Got Life, Build Me Up Buttercup, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,which I sang along too. The Number one – Lily the Pink is impossible not to sing along. It became an earworm for me and Mum!
Christmas cookies fresh from the oven (I didn’t get any photos of the icing)
The Friendly Magpie 