One Week Later

So, it has been a week since I resurrected this blog and posted about my frustrations about the negativity in the world.  One week since I stopped news notifications, and stopped reading my news websites.

In that week,  I have found the website calm.com  A meditation website/app.  And I started to meditate every day using the meditations on that app.
I have also started going to happier.com instead of news websites.  And in general focusing on positivity.
There was one moment, where my husband showed me this awful video that was circling facebook.  While I'm not going to shut down people telling me about news, or completely ignore major news that is going on, at the same time, I don't want to watch a video about some soldier overseas that is basically bullying some poor kids in a country we are at war against.  The only reason people post videos of that sort is to get some kind of reaction.  I told my husband I don't want to see anything like that because what am I going to do? Fly overseas and slap the guy?
So, other than that moment of frustration, I have noticed a change in my attitude in this first week.  I've gone into situations with co-workers with a more open mind.  Usually I would go in with a negative "I don't want to deal with you" attitude and the entire conversation would be unpleasant.  Which really wasn't like me at all.  I would always leave the situation thinking "I used to be such a nice person"

In doing the 100happydays challenge I've stopped more through the day to acknowledge things that make me happy.  I suppose I've been more in the moment.  Now, I'm not saying I've managed a complete 180 in a week.  I still manage to get really irritated by some things.

I've been thinking during this week, that I need to get a notebook and cary it around all the time.  So that I can just write things down as I think of them.  Yes, I have many note apps on my phone, but I am just one of those people who think best on paper.  This blog is really a challenge to that, since I don't write it down on paper first.  I think by writing things down on paper, I probably would have some subjects to keep my blog going, as well as be able to transfer things either to my journal, which I am not comfortable carrying around with me everywhere. Or, if applicable, to my story that I hope to write.  Because I am of course, one of those people who is totally going to write a book someday.   And rather than carrying a bunch of different notebooks for different things, I think one in general will suffice.

Now, I have searched my house and found an old composition book I used for what looks like a creative writing class I took in collage.  So, the book is over 15 years old.  It's kinda strange, because part of me doesn't want to use it.  But it's not like I'm going to take that class again, and need it for the class.  I might as well fill it up with my thoughts, and give the blank pages the use they deserve.  Right?
So, this week will start that project.  As well as trying to actually write in my journal.

My journal is a book that was given to me in 1994. It's not a very thick book.  I've been writing in it off and on (mostly off) since then.  it's 2016, you can see how often I write in it.  I'm trying to write in it more, but I know that if I say "I will write every day!" I will fail early.  But, I feel that if I write every Sunday, I might manage.  At this time in my life, Sundays are my recover day.  I managed to do a massive amount of yard work on Saturdays at this time.  A project that will take me into October for the first part, and will start up again in spring for the second part.  This first part is exhausting.  Placing pavers in a pattern.  I can really only handle 36 at a time and the next day I feel it.  It doesn't help that I think we are still under this "heat dome" thing so I'm fighting heat exhaustion when I do this work.  Even if I wake early (which for me is hard on a Saturday) I'm still sweltering by 9am with this project.  I obviously would make a horrible construction worker.

So, because of that, my Sundays are Yoga, Meditation, and writing.  With cooking dinner and watering plants thrown in because stuff still has to get done.  So with that time frame, I believe this blog should be consistently updated on Sundays.  I know that last post was a Monday, but that last post had to get out of me before my head imploded with it.

We will see how I do carrying that notebook around.  I'll be sure to let you know how that's going next Sunday.

100 Happy Days Challenge and Hello again!

I'm resurrecting this blog today.  I have found myself wanting to write on and on about various things, but never quite having the time to put them down on paper, or computer as it were.  Most of that problem stems from the fact that I can think of about 5-10 different posts to write at any given time... although usually while I'm washing the dishes.  But, by the time I have made it to my computer I'm done for the day and don't want to think.

But lately, there has been so much going on, both in my own mind, and in the world, that I feel the need to step back into this forum, if only to get my thoughts out of my head.

So today I'm going to talk about happiness, and the 100 happy days challenge.  This isn't something I've created, but something I stumbled on today.

While I'm at work, I usually have the internet browser up.  My number one reason being that I use my google calendar for everything to keep me on track, and make sure I don't miss anything, work or personal.  Another reason is because I work in video, on an old computer.  Which means render time eats up a lot of my day, and I can't really do too much else while rendering that's going to use up a lot of computer power.  Staring at the little render line can drive a person nuts, so I usually read the news on various news websites while I wait for my computer to do it's thing.

On top of that, I have the AP app on my phone.  There are days where I have other tasks to complete that I don't look online at all.  I wanted to keep up with the national stuff.  I believe I downloaded the AP app shortly after the Sandy Hook shooting.  Then earlier this year, or late last year, I don't quite recall, I started to follow an online news outlet that is local, so I could know what was going on in my own town/state.  I had the notifications on twitter turned on so I could see anything that was posted fairly immediately.

So here I am, keeping up to date on news.  Being aware of what is going on in the world.  But today I woke up, turned my alarm off on my phone, and saw yet another shooting at a nightclub in Florida. Then at work I'm reading about this horrible thing that happened today, and that horrible thing that happened today.  Then my phone lights up with the arrests around town.  I'm not sure at what point it was that my brain said "stop".

It could be that I've been binge watching (well, listening to really) Kino Yoga (on youtube) mainly her playlist on "Living the Yogi's Life"

Who knows what the real cause was, but the moment happened this afternoon when I closed the news browser, unfollowed the news twitter account, and turned off notifications in my AP app.  Then I started to google "happy websites"  because everything that is being fed to me is misery and destruction.  Blood, bullets, bombs, killings......

I decided at that moment that, while I'm not going to plug my ears and say "lalala" when I happen upon the news, I'm also not going to binge feed my brain everything.  What if I wake up in the morning and the first thing I see isn't bad news that happened while I was sleeping?  What if it's something good?  Or, just the numbers on the clock telling me the time?

So, one of the websites I found was 100happydays.com  A website challenging you to have 100 happy days.  To take a photo of something that made you happy every day for 100 days.  I signed up and started today, using my instagram account as the source of the photo being put out into the world.  Now, I was looking later at different pages referring to it, and saw a site where someone was talking about how this was a horrible idea.  that no one has an "exciting day" everyday for 100 days.  It's something that made you happy.  Not having an exciting day.  I think that, even on the worst day of your life, there has to be a tiny spark of something that made you happy, even for a moment.  The idea is that by recognizing these sparks of happiness, that you will appreciate them, and in the end be happier for living in the moment, rather than searching for happiness.

Another part of the challenge is to take the photo of something that truly made you happy.  Not something you think others will like.  So, I have decided in my posts of this challenge, that I will not explain why something made me happy, I will not hashtag the hell out of a post, I will just list the day and the hashtag for the challenge, and that will be it.

Here's hoping that anyone who stumbles upon this will find a little more happiness in their lives.

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