Archives for posts with tag: breathe

Appreciating What I Can

January 19, 2017 //

Appreciating what I can in life seems best paired with not taking the shit I don’t appreciate at all personally. It is a decent arrangement, generally, resulting in considerable calm and contentment. This morning, I am appreciating sleep – the sleep I didn’t get last night – and I’m not taking at all personally that I didn’t get the sleep I needed, which, while I don’t appreciate that, wasn’t at all personal. Sometimes I can’t sleep through the goings on in the world, however local or remote, and sometimes I can’t sleep through what’s going on in my head. I really do enjoy deep restful quality sleep, though. 🙂

With regard to the sleep I did not get last night, it matters far more that I am awake now, alert, feeling merry, and more or less ready for the work day. With just Friday (and today) between me and the potential for sleeping in (on the weekend), this is doable. There’s no tragedy here, and barely any inconvenience. My lack of sleeping is not associated with anxiety or tinged with negative emotions. I am in a manageable, minimal, amount of pain. “My glass is more than half full”, meaning to say that I enjoyed the evening in the company of my Traveling Partner, and feel cared-for and well-loved. Even with the poor night’s sleep, the day begins well. I definitely appreciate that. 🙂

The snow melted away slowly in yesterday’s steady rain. The commute to work was treacherous and slick; the thin layer of water on all the accumulated ice was far more slippery than ice or snow alone ever could be. I skated awkwardly along the walking portions of my commute, appreciative of bus service that kept the walking portion shorter than usual, by far. As the day went on, the snow continued to melt. The journey home wasn’t especially treacherous, slippery, or complicated – just wet.

Coming home to real partnership is something I appreciate, too. My cardboard recycling had begun to pile up, bins were full after the holidays, and later an icy parking lot I could not safely cross on foot with my hands full prevented me handling things. I felt uncomfortable with the clutter, and it had begun to aggravate me. I arrived home to find that my Traveling Partner had taken care of it, and any number of other things: putting away clean dishes, hanging the closet door that so recently came loose unexpectedly in my hands, installing a replacement external hard-drive (he’d also taken time to locate as many of my old back up files and images archived on his network as he could identify, and had already put them on the new drive for me). My quality of life when I returned home was notably improved over when I departed for work in the morning. It’s lovely to be cared for. I appreciated, too, the sweet relief of connecting and sharing time in the same physical space after two weeks of being kept apart by circumstances, pain, or bad weather.

Small things that frustrate or annoy me may have been piling up over time… now, this morning, embracing a moment of appreciation for what is working, what is going well, and what I enjoy in my life, it’s hard to give any weight to small frustrations and inconveniences. It’s a nice change.

My thoughts turn to moving and I find myself wondering if my frustration with not yet finding a new place have been stalling other healthy processes; frustration is my kryptonite, and I try to be mindful of its sway over my thinking when it becomes prominent in my experience. The lease here runs out at the end of the month. The weather has been intensely crappy for house-hunting, or searching for a rental home closer to work, and there are so few hours in the day available for the purpose, at all. There is little time left. Do I sign a six month extension on the lease here? I don’t want to live here anymore. I want a place of my own – really mine, a home. I know so much more about what I want, and what I need, and what is enough… and I haven’t found it, yet. I’m also… not quite ready. I meant to be. The holiday season got in the way of being more prepared, and I made a practical decision about supporting my Traveling Partner’s goals ahead of my own, short-term. We do that for each other now and then, because… love. So… yeah. Six more months here now seems the pragmatic choice, the practical, feasible, doable decision with the least upheaval, for the time being. I would, in all honesty, prefer to move during the summer months, anyway. Less rain falling on paintings being exposed to weather, carried from residence to moving truck, from moving truck to residence. Thankfully, I have options – and an awareness of options. I make an appointment to sign the lease next Thursday, on a day I will be out of the office on other personal matters. I have another week to keep looking. Hell, I found Number 27 less than a week before I moved, back in May of 2015. 🙂

Today isn’t “perfect” – what ever is, really? It’s enough, though. Today is a good day to appreciate having enough. Being enough. Doing enough. I am content with sufficiency. Today that’s enough. 😀

Tags appreciation, be here now, be love, be the change, being and becoming, breathe, choose wisely, emotional self sufficiency, enough is enough, good self-care, I am my own cartographer, love and lovers, my home my rules my way, p.s. I love you, perspective, ptsd, recycling, relationships, sufficiency, taking care of me, TBI, The Art of Being, there are verbs involved, what matters most?

Categories Brain Injury, Free Will, Healthy Living, Love, Metaphors, Mindfulness, Moments, Perspective, Relationships, Sleepless Nights, The Art of Being, The Big 5, winter, Words

A Day for Me

January 15, 2017 //

When did you last spend an entire day caring for yourself, body, mind, and soul? The works. Like… a spa day for your whole being? Healthy, while also indulgent. Uninterrupted. Focused, and also relaxed. Purposeful, but not hurried. No pressure – your undivided attention on supporting the person in the mirror. I took a day for me, yesterday. It was strangely not at all as I planned it, but… wow. I needed that time. A day of relaxed self-care that was not also pock-marked with fretting about work in the background. A day of small favorite luxuries without any self-consciousness or doubt. A day of meditation, quiet, calm… and wow was it lovely, and soul-soothing, and magical. Well… not actually “magical”. There were verbs involved, and I did those, for me. 🙂

I had intended to enjoy the day at leisure, and this much I most definitely did do. I made a wee cherry clafoutis for my brunch, a delightful treat. I happily enjoyed more coffee than I generally allow myself, content that a late night could be followed by sleeping in. I queued up a good playlist (that I mostly didn’t listen to), and had my sketching supplies, a book I am reading, and a journal at hand. I ended up spending most of the afternoon and evening quietly meditating – not at all the plan, but as it turned out, precisely what I needed to care for me best.

It was late into the evening when the last coals of the fire in the fireplace dwindled away to nothing, and the room began to take on the night chill from a draft somewhere. That was when I realized I had passed something like 10 hours just chilling. No TV. Music only rarely. Not bothering to pick up my book. Writing a note about this or that now and then. Just relaxing with the woman in the mirror, feeling the feelings, letting the cognitive landscape shift and change, accepting the emotional weather – which changed often, and more rapidly than the icy landscape on the other side of the windows. I watched the birds. They watched me back. I sat warming my feet by the fire, and smiling, feeling content that for the moment, all is well (for me, here, right now). It was lovely. I soaked in it. Bathed in it. Wrapped myself in these all-to-brief sweet moments of calm. Savoring them for later recollections, on more difficult days.

Evening from my meditation cushion.

I don’t remember going to bed. I know I did; I woke in my bed from a deep sound sleep, feeling well-rested, and well-cared-for. That’s a thing I didn’t understand years ago; our very human feelings of neglect, inattention, shabby treatment, and even having been dealt with cruelly or abusively, can be soothed greatly by how we treat ourselves. It doesn’t stop some other person who treats us badly from being who they are, or make circumstances different than they have been, but it has tended to allow me to heal more, faster, and more completely, and to bounce back from challenges more efficiently. Totally worth taking the time to invest in skilled self-care. I’m no expert (clearly). I’ll keep practicing. 🙂

Tags a day for me, be here now, being and becoming, breathe, emotional self sufficiency, luxury self-care, meditation, mindful living, mindfulness, mindfulness for beginners, mindfulness matters, perspective, practicing the practices, ptsd, savor the calm when you've got it, sufficiency, TBI, The Art of Being, The Big 5, there are verbs involved, walking my own mile, what matters most?

Categories Anxiety, Brain Injury, Free Will, Healthy Living, Love, Metaphors, Mindfulness, Moments, Perspective, Post Traumatic Stress, Relationships, solo hiking, The Art of Being, The Big 5, winter, women, Words

What a Strange Winter Journey

January 13, 2017 //

It’s evening, and rather late. A strange time for me to be writing. I’m okay with that. There’s a warm fire crackling in the fireplace. I’m home, safe, warm, and contented. It’s definitely enough… It’s strange that I’m here, now, tonight.

I went to bed last night with a plan for the work day. I’d be up very early, with the intention of getting into the office by 6:00 am, fully expecting to commit to 12 hours to catch up what had gotten pushed to the side while I worked from home on these recent snowy days. It was a good plan, realistic and carefully considered. I set my alarm. I checked it again, as I got into bed. I had a back up alarm set on my phone. I made sure my alarms were not muted, even though my phone was on Do Not Disturb. Sleep came easily.

…There may have been a moment during the wee hours when I opened my eyes briefly, and only enough to see the time on my fitness tracker, assuring myself it was not yet morning, and returning to sleep, I don’t really know for sure whether the vague recollection is actually from last night…

I woke at 6:19 am. It was much later than I planned to be up. Later than the alarm was set for. Later than I commonly sleep even when I don’t turn on an alarm. Waking was difficult. I was groggy, struggling to understand the beeping. I turned off the alarm. It didn’t go off. I shook it, as though that would do anything. I got up, aware that I was late, and began to dress hurriedly, still not awake, clumsy, awkward, stiff, stupid. I picked up my phone – the alarm was still chiming. I shut it off. I opened my work laptop and typed words intending to communicate I was on my way. Irked at myself. Shit! How could I be late, today?? I had that crazed “everything relies on right now!” angry surging roaring panic running through my bloodstream, filling my thoughts. I slowed myself down, again and again, facing the panic, facing the inwardly-turned fury. I admitted to myself that I felt disappointed in myself. Angry that maybe – just maybe – it could be self-sabotaging behavior. I stopped for breath. I inhaled deeply. Gave myself time to accept my own humanity. Gave myself a moment of compassion, sympathy, understanding – how human am I? Very. Always have been – and it’s totally okay. I got my things together, and left for work. Feeling humble. Feeling human.

Some journeys are easier than others.

I was waiting for the bus (not my original plan, either), when my Traveling Partner messaged me a good morning, and his supportive reminder that I am enough. It’s just a moment. A small thing. All totally true, and I slowly continued the commute, eventually making it in to the office at about the same time I always do.

Wait, or walk? Today I wait.

The day passed quickly and wasn’t at all what I expected. I’m glad I hadn’t built those expectations up in my head, instead choosing to let go and let the day unfold, doing my best in each moment. The day came and went quickly, and ended more or less the time it generally does. Generally speaking, a good work day. I returned home feeling mostly pretty good.

Now, I’m just relaxing here, in this quiet place, wrapped in comfort, a fire crackling away merrily, and a tasty glass of sherry that I’ve mostly overlooked, just sipping on it now and then, as the hours pass. If I’d stopped to write in that moment this morning, I would not have been able to look ahead to this delicious heady calm.

Right now, right here, it doesn’t matter at all which of the many practices I practice got me from where I was years ago, to where I am now. Yep. It’s taken years. Literal years, many practices, and a lot of verbs, and the journey stretches farther on, and beyond anything I can imagine. Years of practicing. Years of beginning again. So many verbs. Incremental change over time – it happens in increments. It takes time. I’ll keep practicing.

Tags be here now, be the change, begin again, breathe, calm, choose wisely, content, emotional self sufficiency, I am my own cartographer, incremental change over time, just keep practicing, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness for beginners, mindfulness matters, perspective, practicing the practices, ptsd, sufficiency, sufficient, TBI, The Art of Being, The Big 5, there are verbs involved

Categories Anxiety, Brain Injury, Free Will, Mindfulness, Moments, more than a little bit of bitching, Perspective, Post Traumatic Stress, Relationships, The Art of Being, The Big 5, winter, women, Words

This May Help…

January 10, 2017 //

This may be a tough week for a fair few humans. (Realistically, that may be a generically true statement…) I have a wee personal practice that I use to “lighten the load” on very busy or emotionally challenging weeks. It’s not something I thought up. You can read about it here, too. Rick Hanson, PhD, knows a thing or two about practicing practices. 🙂 Simply this, in as few words as I can manage, savor the good moments. Wait, don’t blow me off on this, don’t shrug and say you already do… pause a moment, and really think this over.

Do you spend as much time immersing yourself in the joyful, sweet, moments and simple pleasures that life affords you, as you do moments of stress, frustration, or outrage? Is every moment of irritation over some article in the news balanced by really sinking into the good feelings in other moments? You can give your soul a chance at wearing a merry grin all day, just because the weather is nice, or because someone held a door for you when your hands were full, or because you really enjoy the way the light strikes that one spot just so right after lunch. It has mattered so much for me, personally, to have made this particular practice a way of living my life. No promises, your results may vary (my often do), and a practice does imply with frankness that there are verbs involved… but this one is so… rewarding. So enriching. So quietly powerful. This one builds over time, though, so it’s helpful if you don’t go into it thinking that 10 minutes from now you’ll radiate pure love and compassion. It is, after all, a practice. So… um… practice it. lol

I keep practicing.

I thought about this one as I sank into sleep last night. It felt so incredibly good to lay down, to feel my entire body relax and settle into comfort. To feel wrapped in warm blankets. To take those deep relaxing end of day breaths. To feel utterly at ease for some moments before sleep caught up with me. It felt “better than it should” I thought at the time, and realized in that instant how much I have invested in being able to really feel that moment in such a visceral way that I can recall it easily later. Progress. I woke still smiling, figured I’d share. I’ve probably shared this one before. It’s that big of a deal, honestly. One of the two or three “major changes” I’ve made over the past 4 years, that have had the most lasting positive impact in my everyday experience. 🙂 Definitely share-worthy.

Some practices have clear names that tell what they are about. Meditation. Exercise. Self-care. This one is called “Taking in the Good” by Rick Hanson. Simply that. Today is a good day to try it out if you haven’t already. It’s a good day to begin again, if you’ve taken it up before and let it go. This one? It’s a practice that could change the world – or at least, your world. ❤

Tags be the change, begin again, being and becoming, breathe, can I share a practice with you?, emotional self sufficiency, enjoy the moment, good self-care, I am my own cartographer, it takes practice, meditation, mindful living, mindfulness, mindfulness matters, perspective, practice, practicing the practices, ptsd, savor the experience, taking care of me, taking in the good, The Art of Being, there are verbs involved, walking my own path

Categories Brain Injury, Free Will, Healthy Living, Mindfulness, Moments, Perspective, Post Traumatic Stress, The Art of Being

Ready, Set, Monday!

January 9, 2017 //

It looks icy outside, but I hear rain falling, and the temperature is above freezing. I expect things will be slushy, but not impassable and I prepare to make the commute into the office. I do all the usual waking up things, all the usual getting the day started things, and sit down with my coffee. I listen to the rain continue to fall. I think about the winter weather, and how fortunate I am to live within generally secure walls, with heat, running water, and modern conveniences like an internet connection of my own.

I meant to do more this weekend than I did. I mostly relaxed by the fire, reading. Time well-spent. I did not make the necessary treks back and forth across the icy parking lot needed to do laundry. I did not venture forth to grocery shop (although I did go out to my small garden plot at one point yesterday to harvest kale and carrots for my meal). I did not do more housekeeping than necessary to maintain order, clean counter tops, and a sink empty of dishes. I took time to relax. Just that. It was pretty luxurious – and it’s probable that had the weather been nicer, I would have chosen differently. I guess I’m glad it snowed. 🙂

I spent quite a lot of time bird-watching over the weekend. Yesterday was so icy the marsh was completely frozen over. When I put out drinking water for the birds and creatures in the afternoon, even the heron came all the way to the patio for a bite to eat and a drink of water. So many kinds of birds visited yesterday. I saw a hummingbird check the feeder; it was frozen. I quickly brought it indoors, knocked the ice out of it, and refilled it with nectar; they could at least get what they needed until it froze again. This seemed a popular choice with the handful of hummingbirds that came around within minutes, queuing up in mid-air, taking turns, and zipping away. Mine is not the only feeder being maintained through the winter; they have other stops to make.

The rain continues to fall. The sound of it holds my attention. It distracts me again and again. I enjoy the sound of it. It seems a good morning to set writing aside, and have my second coffee sitting quietly in the stillness before dawn, listening to the rain fall. Today, that’s enough. 🙂

Tags be here now, breathe, emotional self sufficiency, good self-care, Let the rain fall, listening deeply, meditation, mindfulness, perspective, practicing the practices, ptsd, TBI, The Art of Being, there are verbs involved, what matters most?

Categories Brain Injury, Free Will, Healthy Living, Mindfulness, Moments, Perspective, Post Traumatic Stress, The Art of Being, winter

Appreciating What I Can

Share this:

A Day for Me

Share this:

What a Strange Winter Journey

Share this:

This May Help…

Share this:

Ready, Set, Monday!

Share this:

Archives