Be Comfortable With My Age.

Not only do I need to accept my age, but also to celebrate my age. With age comes wisdom and good stories.

Redirect Negative People

Redirect people when they are being negative. I can ask them what do you want or ask them to tell you something good that has happened to them today at work etc. I have found these to be a complaint stopper when people get on a negativity kick.

Stretching Myself

Do one thing today that takes me out of my comfort zone.

Ownership Of My Health

About a month ago I was diagnosed with Osteopenia. This is often a precursor to Osteoporosis. My bone density is less than a healthy density, but it's not as severe as osteoporosis. My doctor told me I needed to take 1200mg of calcium per day, 800 IUs to 1000 IUs of Vitamin D per day, and do weight bearing exercise 5 times per week. I always thought of myself as a healthy eater. I was already walking 5 times per week, doing hand weight exercises 3 times per week and taking 1000mgs of calcium per day. Since I felt like I was already doing everything right and it didn't help, I stopped everything.

Now it is time for me to take control of my health again. I researched calcium and it turns out I was taking a form that needed to be taken with food or an acid drink such as orange juice. That wasn't mentioned on my calcium supplement, but now I know. Tomorrow, I will go out and buy a calcium citrate supplement with Vitamin D added. I will walk and do my weights. I will come up with a plan to incorporate calcium into my diet by eating calcium rich foods.

I am getting back on track to live a healthy life.

Thankful

I will spend the next week writing daily in my journal about 1 thing I am thankful for. I will write about things that I have not written about since I started on my journey of gratitude.

Update:Day 1 – I am thankful for heat on this very cold day.
Day 2 – I am thankful for moisturizer to counter the effects of wonderful, indoor heat.
Day 3 – I am thankful for leftovers for dinner after an 11 hour workday.
Day 4 – I am thankful for Christmas carols. I'm sorry, but I adore them.
Day 5 – I am thankful I remembered to slow down and enjoy this time with my daughters.
Day 6 – I am thankful for the opportunity to put on the brakes, breath, appreciate all the positive aspects of my daughter's misadventures and all the good decisions she made.
Day 7 – I am thankful for the opportunity and gift of hugging and telling the people I love how grateful I am to have them in my life.

Thanksgiving and Gratitude

The anticipation of the day, company, family and all sorts of yummy food to eat. Preparing the menu.
greeted by the smell of turkey cooking all day. An apple pie baking in the oven. Laughter in the kitchen as my girls help me prepare the big meal. The backdrop of the Macy's parade and all the oversized balloon caricatures making their way down the crowded avenues. The words of thanks from all of us sitting around the dinner table. The blessings of being surrounded by family and friends. Thoughts and feelings of gratitude and love.

What are you thankful and grateful for?

Thanksgiving and Blessings

Remember to be thankful to be surrounded by family and good friends. Overlook the negative feelings that family can sometimes evoke and instead bask in the delight of having people that care about us in our life.

Abundance

I am thankful for the abundance of food, family, friends and for shelter, clothing and warmth. I am keeping in my heart and thoughts, hope for those not so fortunate at this time and a wish for abundance in their near future.

Thankful For All Of You

Tomorrow, my eldest daughter will be home until Sunday. I am blessed. My middle daughter came home last Friday, had her wisdom teeth pulled today and is feeling well considering. My youngest finished her college essay and is ready to send in her college applications. Can life get better than this? Who cares as I am blessed to have my healthy family home, beautiful, happy and safe.

I will not wait until Thanksgiving to tell my family how grateful I am to have them in my life. Look out guys, hugs are coming.

Tough People, Good People

Look for the goodness in every person. For a challenge, look for the goodness in the people that challenge us.

Update: This is a tough one. The people that challenge me are hard for me to be around. When I am with them, I spend my time trying to practice patience.

Update: This was my 272nd activity on my journey to living a life of gratitude and I have to admit that I'm not there yet. When trying to be accepting and few genuine positiveness about those that have caused me tremendous grief in my life, I fail each time. I guess I need to continue to work on looking for the good in those I find most difficult. Oh well.. I'll need to come up with more activities that bring me further into my discomfort zone.

Don't Put Off Till Tomorrow

There are several lessons I talked about doing this week that I have not completed. These are: Evaluating my priorities and making sure it coincides with having no regrets and secondly is to make a change that will help me live in the moment. I need to do these two important lessons, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to do them.

I need to put fear aside and be intentional about completing a task that I have started.

Won't You Be My Neighbor

While cleaning out my closet, I came across an old friend. It is the book, The World According To Mister Rogers. I am going to reread this quick book. As I recall, it is a book filled with wisdom and gratitude.

Read a book about gratitude, grace, wisdom or daily meditations.

Having No Regrets

I attended the wake of the spouse of a coworker, neighbor and friend. It was particularly hard because this man and this couple could have been my husband and us. The age is the same, the marriage length is the same, the love for family and nature are the same. The joy of their time together and their harmony and even keeled personalities are the same. It hit close to home. Is life about always working to pay for college educations, cars, home, etc.? Can I fit in living for today and also continue to be the responsible person I've always been? How do we have no regrets?

Evaluate my priorities and make sure it coincides with having no regrets.

Be Kind To Myself

I am going to be kind to myself by giving myself a break. I will not be critical of myself. It is time for me to look at the positive side of who and what I am.

Anytime that negative voice starts talking to me, I will kindly remind myself that I am good person that has much to be grateful for.

Speaking Pleasantly

Do you ever notice that when a person is speaking sharply to you, that you bristle or get turned off? And, that when someone talks nicely and calmly, that you are more receptive to that person. Our tone sets up how people react to us.

Be intentional about using a pleasant voice all day long.

Make It Better

In Girl Scouts, we had a motto that you always left a place better than you found it. I like that idea and will modify it slightly by being intentional about leaving a situation better than I found it.

Practicing Graciousness

Choose a gracious quality I am really good at and do it over and over again. If I am a great listener, then I will be the best listener all day long. If I am great at giving complements, then that is what I will spend my day doing. Build on the quality I do really well and see what happens.

Other ideas are saying hello and good morning, being positive, not talking negatively about anyone, being nice, smiling and being courteous. For more ideas I can refer back to earlier postings.

Living For Today

My husband and I each went to a different wake this week where the spouse of a coworker passed away. One man was in his early 50s and the other man was in his early 40s. Their lives were taken way too early and it has caused me to be reflective of my own life, values and priorities. Would I have regrets about how I've been living, if my life was turned upside down?

I will make one change in my life so that I am living in the moment. There is nothing wrong with planning for emergencies, retirements, children's colleges, weddings etc., but I'm thinking I need to make sure I am also doing something for myself, husband and family now.

Opening My Eyes

Life is not made of only black and white. I will try to not see everything as strictly right or wrong, but rather allow for some color and some variations in what I think is acceptable.

Update: Not being so rigid in how I view right and wrong is allowing me to open my heart and be more forgiving.

The Feel Of Autumn

I love the feel of crunching leaves in my hand and wrapping myself up in a soft, snuggly afghan. The cold morning wind blowing on my face is another autumn delight. Other touch sensations I enjoy include the dripping of juice from a freshly peeled clementine and the heat on my hands flowing from the vents of a newly turned on heater. I am grateful to have taken the time to recall these memories.

There are many small treasures to be thankful for if we just take the time to smell, listen, see, taste, and touch. Thank you autumn.

Eye See Autumn

In the northeast, I associate the reds, yellows and oranges of the turning leaves with Autumn. I also love the sight of the leaves gently falling down to the ground and watching the squirrels foraging for acorns for their winter stash. I also enjoy the swarming of a multitude of blackbirds gathering on lawns and then suddenly taking off to fly to another special spot. As the weather gets nippier, the skies appear grayer, the deer graze closer to the house in their search for food and the wind whips the dry leaves in a tornado like fashion. Oh what wonderful sights!

The Taste Of Autumn

With the days getting chillier and the night skies arriving earlier, I crave the taste of warm bread fresh from the oven and delicious, slow cooked soups. I also start to think about the licorice taste of fennel I so often associate with my childhood Thanksgivings. Other fall tasty delights for me are oranges, pomegranates, clementines and fresh, crisp, locally grown apples. Also, the baked delights of apple pie and pumpkin pie. My mouth is watering now.

The Sounds Of Autumn

I am grateful for the sense of hearing and will record some of these sounds in my gratitude journal. For instance, in Fall I am grateful for the sound of dry leaves crunching under my hiking boots, fans cheering in a football stadium, a hockey puck as it makes contact with a field hockey stick and children talking as they walk to school.

Autumn Scents

As I did with summer in August, I want to remember and appreciate my 5 senses. I am grateful for all the scents of Autumn. In my gratitude journal I will record some of my favorite smells I associate with Fall such as the earthy smell released as the dry, fallen leaves crush under my shoes, the smokey scent of wood burning in the fireplace and the aroma of soup cooking on the stove. Yummy!

Health, Here You Come

One of my main values is my health. When I'm not intentional about being healthy, I physically feel off. I need to get a handle on my health. My doctor has told me that I need to increase the amount of calcium I get from my meals and continue taking calcium as a supplement. It turns out that calcium is a tough mineral to absorb. For me, eating healthy is an important step on the way to having better health.

Create a plan for a weeks worth of healthy meals and snacks and buy what is necessary to implement the meals.

With An Open Mind

Don't make assumptions about others intentions, rather observe their actions and listen to their words with an open mind.

Being Positive

Always find something nice to say. When asked for an opinion, no matter what, be positive in my response. Look for the good in everything.

Every Day Is A Gift

Wake up tomorrow and say, “Thank you for this beautiful day.” Feel the beauty of the day and know in my heart that today is a gift. I am so appreciative for another day to live, dream and to be.

Who Am I?

Answer the question, “What am I passionate about?”. Write the answers in my gratitude journal.

Nice Begets Nice.

Be the nicest person in the room today. Notice how people respond to the niceness. Do they respond in a way that brings a smile to my face?