Tag Archives: well-being

The smallest change in schedule can be delightful~

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4:50 a.m.

night-sky

Instead of my morning walk, I am up early to water the plants.  It is beyond dry and I’ve no intention of letting the trees and plants I’ve babied for six years go without a fight.

The stars are out and it is a brilliantly clear sky.  The wind has a chill to it and my heavy hunting jacket is necessary.  Its deep pockets give me a place to put my phone so I can keep up with the time; otherwise I’ll get into what I’m doing, begin to daydream and be out here all morning.  I have to be at work before the students begin to arrive at 7:20.

Sweet Alabama!  Today it is supposed to be in the low 80’s and that is a glorious thing.  The past few months have been unbearably hot.  Dead grass crunches beneath my work boots; it is an unpleasant sound.  Lowering my head, I put in a small request for a long, soaking rain.

There is something so calm and peaceful about being outside in the early morning when everyone else is still sleeping.  Well, actually many are not.

One day last week when I could not sleep, I got up at 2 a.m., started a pot of coffee and went for a long walk.  I was surprised at how many lights were on.  I could actually smell breakfast coming from the open windows of some.  But, the quiet, the black sky and brilliant stars with the wind gently blowing was both invigorating and calming.  I returned home, settled on the couch with coffee and books, and read and until it was time to ready for work.  It was as if I got an extra weekend morning on a weekday.  The simple change in my schedule, the positive way I had begun the morning carried over into the day.

Just One Little Change…

*****

ELIZABETH MOZLEY

@ElizabethMozley  &  @CentipedeYAread

And on Facebook – We Share the Same Sky, author Elizabeth Mozley

We Share the Same Sky, a memoir

https://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Mozley/e/B00J7KJWIU

 

Night Sky Photo: http://www.rarewallpapers.cm

WORRY, EXPECTATIONS, CONTROL – OH, MY!

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You wouldn’t carry around and nurture a rotten egg.

Yes, it is a silly thought, but it reminds me how foolish it is to worry, when worry accomplishes nothing.

For the most part I am a really happy person and I tend to wake up that way almost every day.  But, there are days that once I get going, I begin to WORRY.  And, there are other times when the blues strike for no apparent reason –not a sadness mind you, but rather a deep funk.  Thank goodness these are getting fewer and further between.

They say that women have a greater propensity for worrying than men, that we tend to over analyze things.  It’s something that once it hits, I have to get a hold on quickly.  I have learned to turn to two books: Change Your Thoughts –Change Your Life, Living the Wisdom of the Tao by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer and Peace a Day at a Time, 365 Meditations for Wisdom and Serenity by Karen Casey.

books

Although, I am a Christian, I appreciate Buddhism’s lessons on kindness, generosity and self-love.  So picking up Dyer’s book and delving into it was a given.  It is an easy read, but if you read the lessons twice you gain a deeper meaning.  The other book, Karen Casey’s, I picked up without realizing that it is a book for AA.  I simply picked it up in the bookstore when the title caught my eye, flipped to a page, read it and was hooked!  Its lessons are so short and simple that it is hard to fathom the effect they have on your thinking.  Bookmarks now fill each and I’ve underlined and written in all the margins my thoughts and feelings, little phrases that sing to me.  Both books are filled with Biblical scripture as well; and like faith, neither are one dimensional.

If I am honest, my worrying has another component that I don’t like.  I call it the ugly cousin –CONTROL.  Trying to control even the smallest of things seems almost an addiction.  I know it is poisonous.  It can make what should be non-stressful situations stressFULL and can place a hardship on even the strongest relationships.  For example, because I am an extremely punctual person (a little OCD when it comes to time, I have multiple alarm clocks) I let what should be a minor irritant –waiting on someone for what I felt was an ungodly amount of time- almost ruin a friendship.  A girlfriend told me she would meet me at a specific time, and showed up 45 minutes late; she was smiling and chipper I might add.  I was beyond ill.  What I didn’t understand at that time was that I was the one with the problem, not her.  It was my expectations that caused the problem.

Give up expectations of others, stop worrying and just find something to smile about.

It is amazing how much of this I began to understand once I read Dyer’s and Casey’s books.  By changing the way I viewed things, I changed the way I felt.

 

book

*****

ELIZABETH MOZLEY

@ElizabethMozley  &  @CentipedeYAread

And on Facebook – We Share the Same Sky, author Elizabeth Mozley

We Share the Same Sky, a memoir

https://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Mozley/e/B00J7KJWIU