Month: January 2017

Weekly Check-In

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This week I dove into research and was reminded of how much self-care is really needed. All the news and emotions and divisions can be toxic in too high doses. So it’s important to take time away from screens and doing things you love.

Volunteering

  • 4 hours Crisis Text Line

Charitable Giving

  • $0  – Good things are coming!

Personal Kindness

  • This week I had an awkward meeting. The other two people were very clearly nervous and unsure about what to say or how to act. The easiest response is to feed off of their energy and that leaves everyone feeling uneasy. So I did my best to smile, be positive, and let them know with my vibe that it’s okay to be uneasy. I wanted them to know it’s okay not to know what to say, I won’t judge. I hope my vibe helped ease the situation. At the very least I didn’t take on thier unease.

Self Care

  • Knitting! I’ve been craving quiet time just knitting away and I’ve been making that time. I have a project to finish and just bought some new yarn for more projects. I also got together with some knitting friends and even though it was just an hour it was so nice.
  • Cleaning, one of my new year’s resolutions is to have a consistently cleaner house. Get rid of the clutter, not leave the folded laundry on the couch, try to keep up with the dog fur, that kind of thing. I’m not a dirty person but I find myself in a cleaning frenzy when other people are coming over. I want to clean for me not just for others.

How’d you do this week?

Beat Bad Days

On By beinggoodeIn ThoughtsLeave a comment

Keeping a bad movement from turning into a bad day seems impossible sometimes but it can make all the difference. How many of you have had a bad morning, someone cut you off in traffic, you got a hole in your pants, you got a parking ticket, the store you needed to go to was closed, you have a headache, or maybe two or three things like that happened? All of us have felt this way and normally we tell our friends and family we’re having a bad day. It takes a few bad moments and writes the rest of the day off as awful before it even gets a chance.

I’m going to share with you what happened to me last week and how I fought off the bad day. It was pouring down rain and I had to walk through puddles and arrived to work with wet feet and jeans, strike 1. I had a meeting that I was excited about and just enough time to get coffee. I waited in line at the coffee shop for 15-20, very annoying, strike 2. Moments after I got my coffee I discovered that the lid wasn’t on correctly and burned my hand pretty badly, it not only hurt but it threatened to make me late and I didn’t get my morning coffee, strike 3. Bad day right?! Not so fast. I went to the meeting I was excited about, went to the nurse for some first aid, and then talked to a friend; three counter-strikes. I told myself over and over all day that I wasn’t having a bad day just because a few bad things happened. I refused to give into it, that easy temptation to just give up on the day.

So what happened the rest of the day that I might have missed if I’d written the day off? I had a fun conversation with my Sister-in-Law, a friend shared some wonderful news with me, and I won the lottery ($12)! Now I guess these things could have happened anyway but I think that being open to and ready for them made a difference. Bad days don’t need your help or encouragement.

 

 

I’m still working on choosing my first organizations for the Purple State Challenge. #PurpleStateChallenge Stay tuned and please let me know if you have suggestions for organizations to feature.

Weekly Check-In

On By beinggoodeIn WeeklyLeave a comment

Volunteering

  • 4 hours Crisis Text Line

Charitable Giving

  • $0  – Still doing some research

Personal Kindness

  • I don’t know if this is exactly a personal kindness but this week someone said that they were inspired by me because I run/walk great distances happily. They were visiting a theme park and walking all over the place and thought to themselves, if she can do it I can do it, and it made thier walk feel better. When they told me about it I smiled from ear to ear.

Self Care

  • Most of my self care lately has been resting to recover from injuries. I’ll get back to doing some of the fun things I love… after a few more naps.

How’d you do this week?

Purple State Challenge

On By beinggoodeIn Purple State ChallengeLeave a comment

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These past months in American have been rough.

We are divided, hurt, and angry. What has struck me the most is how divided we are, what an unemphatic state we are in. So as I sat down and thought about what I could do, I came up with the Purple State Challenge. I’ve decided to reach out and pop some of these bubbles we keep hearing about and hopefully I can blur the lines a little bit between the red and blue states.

There are 52 states (plus a district and territory) and there are 52 weeks in a year. In this challenge I will find, write about, and donate to 52 local organizations across America. The goal is to find an organization helping with a local issue, let people know that I care about their issues, and try to help. I want to acknowledge why people are hurt and angry, I want to listen. It’s going to take a lot of research, hopefully you can help, but I think it’s going to be an incredibly rewarding journey. I already know and support wonderful local to me and national organizations but it’s time to pop my California bubble and see how I can help everywhere.

I hope you’ll join me. I need input from you! Tell me what means the most to you locally. Tell me about the superhero organizations that I know are out there. Comment and follow along. I’ll be starting a monthly newsletter to track my process through the Purple State Challenge.