#101weekswithtal

[jacjulien]

Make a Difference

The choice for this week is to decide to make a difference instead of just accepting things as they are.  To me the ideas in the book focus on volunteering and helping those less fortunate than we are.  And I totally agree with that.  We do foster care for our local Boxer Rescue.  Helping animals is the area we have focused most of our volunteer work on.  Yes, at times I think we should do more and also help humans.  

 To be honest, I do not want to take any more time away from my family to help others.  That sounds pretty selfish, huh?  When the kiddos get older and they can help more I would love to do other things to help.  My first thought then was, I can offer to brighten someone’s day by sharing a smile with them. I have already been working on this, but I know I could be better.  

 It also made me think, I am one who loves to strive for being better.  I fail over and over again.  I grew up thinking that I should be good, but not be better than others.  And I should do what is expected – or the status quo. This is not cool with me.  So, then I am left wondering if motivating and helping others (including myself) reach for better in their world would also be making a difference?

 This is the first week that I am feeling a little lost and not sure where to focus or take this.  But I am going to go with it and just see where it leads me.

 Here’s to making a difference,

 JJ

 Based on-

Ben-Shahar, T. (2014). Choose the Life you Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness.

 Missed week 5?  Find it here.

[jacjulien]

Living purposefully and enjoying a dinner out! Having a shake and not feeling guilty.

[jacjulien]

Week 4 - Do It On Purpose

Hooray!  Perhaps this week will be the decline of one of my parental hypocrisy moments!  We often get caught up in the what ifs, or I should have done this or done this better.  We ruminate on what the issues are and we get sucked into that hole of focusing on the rumination.  Dr. Ben-Shahar is suggesting in this choice that we take action instead of ruminating.

 When my kiddos are having a problem hubby and I often ask them if they are contributing to the problem or finding a solution (not that we ignore the emotional aspect, but that is for another time).  Yet, I am often not working on a solution to issues that are happening in my life, particularly with my business.

 This week my goal is to be more purposeful in my business helping others with healthy minds and bodies (to find out more about what I do, contact me).  I get caught up in the idea that if I help people like I want to, I will be successful and I grew up believing that I shouldn’t be as successful as I know I can be.  But, that goes against my whole idea of embracing being a Pink Sheep.  I need to work toward being a freakin’ rock star Pink Sheep because I know deep down that is who I am.  What do you need to be more purposeful in doing?

 To doing it on purpose,

JJ

 Based on-

Ben-Shahar, T. (2014). Choose the Life you Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness.

[jacjulien]

Week 2 results

Week 2  - Mindfulness results

I hate to say it, but what I started out to do this week was pretty much a bust.  While I believe that being mindful is very helpful, it doesn’t come naturally to me.  I aimed to be mindful of my eating.  Except, my eating was messed up this week and why does it seem that meal times come in the middle of all the stressful stuff?? Ugh.

However, on the plus side I did take a few moments to be mindful of a couple situations with the kids that may have normally stressed me out.  The best one was when the kiddos woke up way too early and crawled into bed with me. I wanted to be upset (I hadn’t gotten enough sleep that night in the first place).  But I focused on the idea that I had two people who love me and want to be with me in the bed.  I was mindful of the idea that in not too long of a time they will not want to snuggle in bed with me.  It made it a joyous moment instead of one that would normally infuriate me.

 So, I’ll give this week a 3.  I didn’t stick with my what I wanted to do, but I did find some joy in times that could have been troublesome.

 Focus on the positives!

JJ

 From-

Ben-Shahar, T. (2014). Choose the Life you Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness.

[jacjulien]

Trying to be mindful of the world around me.

[jacjulien]

Mindfulness

So often we are focused on making it through the day, getting through our stressful times, just living our life. We do not take the time to enjoy the little things, to stop and smell the roses if you will.  This week the choice is to just go through life or be mindful of the little things.

 My thoughts when reading this week were that it could be overwhelming to go from just floating through life to trying to being mindful of everything little thing that happens.  Granted, I try to enjoy as many little moments during the day as I can, but there can really be a lot of little moments to enjoy.  Thus, this week I am going to focus on being mindful consistently in one area.  

 I am going to be mindful while eating.  It can be a struggle for me to make sure I am eating right and not just grabbing crap.  Prepping helps so healthy snacks are as easy to grab as fattening snacks, but sometimes salty/sugary foods just seem to call to me.  This week I am going to be mindful of my eating.  This is helpful to focus my attention on what I am actually eating.  I will focus on the smell, taste and what the food is doing for my body.  

 Here’s to minding what you are eating-

JJ

 From-

Ben-Shahar, T. (2014). Choose the Life you Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness.

[jacjulien]

I have to admit, starting this off I wasn’t sure really what I was going to do this week.  I was going to choose the positive aspect.  As it turns out, I would label that aspect for the week as grit.  Which actually is helpful for everything else in life.

 This week I ended up getting sick, so I pushed through that.  Moms don’t get sick days, right?  And the kiddos were off all week for Thanksgiving. I was not the mother I try to be. I yelled, I was selfish.  I didn’t want to play with them, I just wanted to sleep. I tried to push through as well as I could.  I chose to remind myself that I usually am a good mom, it was just a bad week.

 I also had some things happen in my business that made me feel inferior.  I felt as though I was not good enough.  I was wondering why people didn’t like me.  But I pushed through it.  I tried to remind myself that I am awesome.  I am good-enough (and then some).  

 Basically, it was a lot of reminding myself of I have the choice of how to react to the situations.  I can wallow and just go with the flow or I can choose to change my mindset and if need be, what I am doing.  I can work harder or I can give up.  I can be a pawn or I can be authentic.  While the over riding idea was pushing through, I didn’t actually realize how many choices we make in a day, not to mention a week.  Working on choices and reminding myself that I am making the choice actually made the week go much better.

 Here’s to positive choices for you-

JJ

 Based on:

Choose the Life You Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness, by Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D.

[jacjulien]

Choose to Choose

Week 1 of Choose the Life You Want: The Mindful Way to Happiness, by Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D.

 Just live your life OR Choose to Choose

 This week is about simply living your life or choosing to make choices.   Dr. Ben-Shahar points out that when we simply live our life we may actually be missing out on making the best of our life.  Maybe we feel trapped in our job, relationship, or another situation. Even if we are feeling trapped, we have choices to make.  Maybe the choice is reframing our thoughts to find something positive about our situation.  Or we can make choices to take steps out of the situation we don’t want to be in.  

 In thinking about what Dr. Ben-Shahar wrote one quote really stood out to me.  He wrote, “We must commit ourselves to the idea that there are far more possibilities than we normally see…” (p.15)  I think we tend to look at our lives in black and white.  Either we can or we can’t.  I don’t think that is true.  Sometimes we may not be able to do something at that moment.  However, we can take steps to change it.  At the very least we can throw in a Pink Sheep mindset to make the best of what we have.  Even if only our mindset changes it makes us look at the world around us differently.

 Today I declare that I am choosing to choose and actively create the kind of life that I want for myself.  To me this seems like it is a general overarching type of choice.  Something that other choices would be made easier by having made this choice.  So, I am choosing to choose.  I want to make the most of my passion (helping people live healthy – mind and body) and I am going to take the steps to get there.  My biggest obstacle is what people think of me.  I am embracing my Pink Sheepness and moving forward.      

JJ

[jacjulien]

We always have a choice. Maybe it is simply a mindset, but we always have a choice.