oxygen

~breathing~

@ The Elmwood Spa, Toronto

April, 2012

Blogging.  You are an enigma to me.  

I find myself deserting you and then I feel...this...lack of oxygen and I know.  I know it’s from lack of writing.  And not just empty writing but engaging writing.  Writing that digs down deep.  Writing that begins with one, one that needs to breath.

I did just that today.  Began again.  Deep in the pages of my personal and intimate journal.  One day at a time.  Inhale, exhale...breathe.

It has been a challenging week.  One where one, then two, and then three kids get sick.  And as most bouts with the bug go, after the tiring run, I start feeling that all-too-familiar itch in my throat too.  

One oxygenated day at a time.  Inhale, exhale...breathe.  

The most valuable lessons I learned (and relearned) this week come from some truly amazing teachers. I'm going to sum it all up below:

1)  Minimum Daily Requirement 

Your secret and most potent weapon is to always go back to the tried-and-tested-and-true: write some, walk some, sit a while some...and do something towards the good daily, even if it's "minimal daily requirement". ~ Julie Fleming, author of The Reluctant Rainmaker

This came after a coaching call with Julie, an almost hour long discussion on how to get back on track when feeling like crap for a long stretch of time.

2)  I am 100% responsible for my own happiness.

"I know now that I am 100% responsible for my own happiness.  It is a state of mind that is cultivated by my own choices and habits, not things or people.  Yes, my children make me happy.  Yes, sitting at the beach and watching a sunset makes me happy.  But I cannot rely on other people and my environment to make me happy.  I don’t ever want to make the mistake of thinking my happiness is dependent on something–a different job, more money, another child, wood floors, a remodeled bathroom, etc." Kelle Hampton, author of Bloom, Finding Beauty In The Unexpected via Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Blog

  

I love her book, The Happiness Project.  I love her blog, too.  Such great pick-me-ups and reminders on how to focus where we truly need to focus in this ADHD world.

3)  Big or Small

One of the things that I’ve learned, that I didn’t know before that [TEDxHouston] talk exploded, is how hard I’d been working to keep my career small. And that was a little bit heartbreaking for me, because I usually thought of myself as being pissed off because I couldn’t get my work out there enough. But really I think I was engineering that, because I was afraid of these things that actually happened, like the personal attacks. ~ Dr. Brene Brown, On Being Vulnerable

The third one hits hard and deep.  I, too, have been working very hard at keeping small.  The reasons are too many and way complicated (read: boring) to write about here.  So I won't.  

Just thought I'd share these with you today.  

One oxygenated learning/thought/day at a time.

Inhale, exhale...breathe.

Today's sharing-is-caring question: What keeps your levels of oxygen in your soul system up?