Category: Emotional Wellness

Thankful for Body Awareness, Scarcity Creating Abundance, & Gavin’s Trumpet Solo

Day 2,996

Growth:

Awareness of my body and how it responds to different stimuli can be a very powerful tool when I pause to be attentive to it.

  • Which foods cause me to not feel well and in which ways?
  • What happens when I have a very sedentary day like yesterday versus a very active day like Friday?
  • How is my sleep impacted by eating after 6pm as opposed to eating later?
  • What happens to my resting heart rate when I get less than 7 hours of sleep?

So many little nuggets of info my body attempts to share with me. Easy to ignore, profoundly impactful when heeded.

Pause and listen to your body, it is trying to tell you everything you need to know.

Appreciation:

Nothing quite like a restriction to help us appreciate what we have but not quite as abundantly as we would like. When there is a limit or a clear definition of the finite-ness of something our minds seem to focus on it with more clarity. In many ways the shortage or scarcity causes us to pause and be more attentive. What a gift! It often seems as if we want infinite this and unlimited that, but when we have that – or, more accurately, we PERCEIVE we have that – it becomes so easy to take it all for granted!

That mindset was on full display today as I did my best to soak in and appreciate each of the limited moments we had with Dominic while he was home from school. Between lunch, our hike, and our dinner I did my best to be focused in each moment shared together. While I would of course like to have more time with him it was the restriction of how much time we had together that helped me make the most of the time we had together.

Not only did this mean I was more present with him, but I was also more present with my entire family and even with myself when I was alone with my thoughts. The clarity of scarcity kept me more focused in the moment for longer today than I would have been without it.

Scarcity created abundance. Such a beautifully simple yet complex paradigm. How can I create a sense of scarcity more often to help me better stay in the moment? Finding a way to harness the benefits of scarcity in a positive way like this would significantly improve my ability to be more fully in the moment more often.

Presence:

I was going to go in a different direction in this post as I was writing most of it while waiting for Gavin’s band concert this evening. In an effort to get a clear spot to shoot video of his duet and solo I arrived quite early and utilized the bonus quiet time I’d created for myself. When I heard his solo it changed the topic of this section.

Listening to him perform his solo was awesome on so many levels. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as he knocked out the notes on his trumpet. It was amazing! To have the courage to play all by himself for a brief moment in front of a crowd, to have worked hard to earn the opportunity to do so, and then to execute in the moment were all reasons I was so proud of him in that moment. While Gavin played I was enraptured. Such an awesome moment!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Young vs Old, Escalating Positivity, & Body Awareness

Day 2,993

Growth:

I think people get old when they stop thinking about the future. If you want to find someone’s true age, listen to them. If they talk about the past and they talk about all the things that happened that they did, they’ve gotten old. If they think about their dreams, their aspirations, what they’re still looking forward to – they’re young.”

Ric Elias quoted by Peter Attia in Outlive

Truth.

Appreciation:

Stress is going to happen in our lives. Something outside of our control happens, causes an unexpected issue, and we have to figure out how to adapt to it or how to correct it. What we can control is the way we respond, the way we choose our attitudes in those moments. What really stuck out to me today is how inspiring it is to spend time with people who smile and choose joy even in moments of stress. Their positive energy is contagious and help create more smiles for all around them. It is like an upward spiral of joy in the face of stress as one person’s positive response to a challenge inspires another to smile through their stress which in they inspire someone else to choose the same path. So awesome seeing the escalation of positivity like that!!! Seeing teammates in action like this today remind me how important it is to choose the right attitude – to help ourselves AND to help others.

Presence:

When I got out of bed this morning my legs were sore! It took a hot minute to get up the courage to step out of bed and see what I had underneath me… but then everything went very well. My legs loosened up rather quickly! Once I was on my bike and got moving it seemed as if everything was back to normal. My cadence was solid and held right at 90-95 while my resistance stayed put with where it normally is. All in all, it felt pretty good.

The moment of presence I am grateful for was the hyper awareness of the sensations in my leg muscles and elsewhere throughout my body today. In an action as simple as turning my torso I can feel the muscles that were worked yesterday and I paid extra attention to how they were feeling. It is not often that I put that much focus into the sensations within my body, it was pretty enlightening today!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for So Many Online Resources, Quiet in a Loud Place, & Leia’s First Trail Run

Day 2,974

Growth:

Today I was working on the last of the testing and set up for recording the audio version of my book (which you can learn more about here). I’ve got the pseudo-studio in Dominic’s bedroom closet ready to go with soundproofing, I’ve got all the equipment set up, I’ve got my recording app (Audacity) all set, and did a couple of test runs to see what I’m getting myself into. At this point I know I will be able to record well and in a format that will get uploaded to ACX (Audible.com) and other websites. All I need to do now is the hard work, recording 😉

What I was reminded of today is how grateful I am for all of the online resources we have available to make projects like this easier. Being able to hop on YouTube to learn about recording, using Google to find how to upload and install a plugin for the application, and then stumbling upon advice to e more successful was a total godsend! Having such a wealth of knowledge and wisdom at our fingertips like this is something I don’t take time to appreciate often enough.

Appreciation:

For the past decade and a half our house has been a largely loud and crazy place. Whether it was chasing the boys, playing with the dogs, or hanging out with friends it seems like our house was always a place of busyness. Today it is only Leia and I. Gavin and Becky are on a trip in France and Dominic is in college. Such a crazy and drastic change!

Within this quiet has been a huge focus on productivity. I put together a fairly large list of what I want to accomplish this weekend and I’ve already made some serious headway on it. Additionally, with the definite lack of conversation there’s been so much time to think and contemplate while I am getting things done. The quiet has been uncanny – almost like when I did my solo writing retreat and solo backpacking trip – but in an even more interesting way as it is in the place which is usually the center of conversation.

I know without question that I prefer the busyness and conversations within our home, but there is a magic to this stillness that I am thankful for in small doses. It reminds me of a book I read not too long ago about someone who has almost completely withdrawn from the rest of society. He pops back in every so often just to stay sane before fading back into the wilderness. In my case it seems like I need to fade into the background of solitude every so often before jumping back into real life in order to hold more tightly to my sanity.

I miss the time with my family, but I am appreciative for the time I have alone. It is certainly a time of healing, rejuvenation, and focus – so long as I choose to utilize it that way. I am reminded of the old quote by Blaise Pascal:

All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

Blaise Pascal

Here’s to enjoying that quiet time in a room alone.

Presence:

This morning Leia and I went for a little hike on a beautiful trail just off of Fisherman’s Road and enjoyed some outside time in the sun. She took her time to sniff everything possible as we slowly worked our way along the out and back trail. It was easy to see she was loving the outside time in the woods as much (possibly even a little more than) I was.

This afternoon she was getting a little squirrelly so I thought we’d take on our second hike of the day. After a very short distance she was walking very fast and starting to pull on her leash. Even though I was not prepped for a trail run – I was wearing cargo shorts and no socks – I decided it was time to test her out with some trail running. Seeing as she’s a puppy we’ve been slowly building up her distance, I haven’t taken her for a trail run yet. I hit the gas, she smiled, and then all I saw was her backside… until she would suddenly dart off the trail to stop and smell something!

Other than her smell breaks we ran well over three quarters of the trail together and it was awesome!!! I am not sure which of us was smiling bigger by the time we were done. Definitely a moment I’ll remember forever, kind of like the time I took LuLu running solo with me back in the day. Moments like that are pure gold.

Thanks!!!

Thankful for the Purpose of My Funk, This Daily Process, & Letting Go to Create

Day 2,972

Growth:

It seems as if we all go through “funks” in our lives. You know, those times when we aren’t fully happy, we feel a little down, and like there’s almost something missing in our life. Sometimes they feel like I am in a room in which all the light bulbs have either gone out or are fading fast rather than being outside on sunny day. Regardless of how you describe them, they really kind of suck and are not where we want to hang out often.

There have been a handful of “funks” I’ve lived through. Each had its own suffering, but as I look back each was something I grew through. When I was much younger I descended into a deep funk and as I grew through it I learned the importance of inner happiness rather than looking outwards and focusing on the opinions of other people. Another funk in my early thirties helped me see I needed to take better care of myself physically which also led to a huge growth in self discipline. Before I turned thirty nine I was enveloped in a funk that eventually became the creation of this blog and focused my attention to appreciation and changed my life in profound ways.

In between there have been small funks which registered small growth. There’ve also been larger funks that I really don’t want to dive into in this format that led to larger growth in other directions. Throughout life there has always been, and seems that there will always be, ups and downs in my mood. Often there is joy and elation, but there are also funks.

At one point in life I’d argue that we should never be in a funk, that it is as simple as choosing happiness instead. What I’ve been learning more and more is that funks are a counterbalance to joy, but also a creation of joy. Through those difficult times we find our growth, we create future joy. They still hurt when we suffer through them, but if we pause and realize they can be a tool for us to grow closer to who we are called to be.

That’s where my head has gone this evening. I thought about those past funks and saw the growth they resulted in. Their pain is still there, but is has been numbed by the growth that has come since. As I work through what feels like the tail end of a funk my mindset changed drastically after a simple question crossed my mind.

In a moment of emotion, singing out loud to an awesome song with my moonroof open (more on that in the Presence section), the question appeared and brought a moment of absolute stillness and honest contemplation.

“What is the purpose of this funk?”

What is the purpose of this funk? What am I learning through this? How do I need to grow as highlighted by this funk? Something must be off or wrong if I am feeling this way – what is it, what caused it, how do I change it? Why is this specific funk hitting now? When I work through this how will I be closer to closing the gap between who I am and who I am called to be?

“What is the purpose of this funk?”

As I thought through the question I had several rapid fire thoughts which I will share honestly and openly. For clarity, I still have much to consider in this, but these were the starting points:

  • Learning how much is truly out of my control no matter how much I want to be in control
  • Choosing a path, being bold, not settling for the path of least resistance, not drifting, acting intentionally
  • Realizing what is truly important to me, manifesting more of the opportunities which fit my strengths
  • Making a choice rather than hedging my bets
  • Learning to let go, that I can only accomplish so much, not trying to do everything

Thinking through this list brought up so many ideas to struggle with and through. What was interesting though was that rather than feeling like I was in a funk it was an acceptance of not being 100% joyful as I would like to be and seeing that working through this would help me get closer to that state.

Another interesting insight – it is not the goal of living a perfectly joyful life, rather it is to enjoy the struggle and the journey towards that goal. Definitely an idea to come back to later.

Tonight I’m really grateful for the question – “What is the purpose of my funk?” It has helped me transform a feeling of almost helplessness into a tool for growth, a source of future joy. If you’re currently in a funk of your own try asking yourself that question, who knows where it may take you!

Appreciation:

I am grateful for the way so many moments worked out today to help create the mindset and the mental and emotional space to work through that thought above. As I type my blog I can’t help but be thankful for this process of daily journaling and blogging to help my mind work through so many of these thoughts. In the past I would have maybe had the moment of insight and then lost it into the recesses of my brain, never to be seen again. By writing this thought process down today I can come back to it in the future, I work through the concept more completely through writing, and – even though it is incredibly humbling to open myself up like this to whomever happens to read this – to live more closely into my personal purpose of brightening lives through shared experiences.

This process, this ritual, this habit… what a gift!!!

The reflection of the mountains and trees resonated with me as I wrote tonight – enjoy!

Presence:

My drive home from Menomonie was rather epic this evening! I opted for some music rather than audiobook or podcast, opened up the moonroof, and sang my butt off. It started as an opportunity to let loose some energy, to relax. What’s wild is that is was exactly at this time with my guard completely down and I was unencumbered by any intentional thought that the concept in the Growth section broke loose and became reality.

That moment of letting go to emotion completely led to some of the best thought processes I’ve had in quite some time. Force it and it doesn’t work, forget it and it comes alive. Such an eye opening reminder to let my brain relax and work its own way to where it needs to go.

Thanks!!!