Putting a spin on everything.

This past week was a challenge. I took some of the tools I have learned over the summer and I tried putting them into action. Sometimes it was easy and other times it out right difficult, but here it is on Saturday and I am proud of myself never the less. One thing that I noticed this week was that practicing patience, forgiveness, kindness and empathy was one thing during my work day. But when my day was done and I was home with Preston, I stopped practicing. Just like that...I stopped. I would certainly catch myself though, and I would touch that fact and own into it. (When you recognise that you are doing something and stop, it's called 'touching it' from the teachings I've received). That is also a form of practicing; being able to confront the *shenpa. Of 5 working days, where my unhappiness is the most centered, I only blew up on someone once. The week before last I wouldn't have even been able to count how many times so that's a HUGE improvement. I practiced thinking and separation when poisonous conversation began. I smiled in the face of judgement and thanked them for the criticism. I proved to myself that with a bit of work on myself, on my own mind, I will make it to a more serene stage to play out my life. "All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become." Practice compassion, practice patience, practice so as you can become at one with yourself. So you can love all unconditionally. It's not easy and it can take a lifetime, but it's all we can do. And it's so very worth it. I love you. *Shenpa is a Tibetan word that in its' simplistic form means attachment

Tonight, I'm sitting on the couch relaxing and playing catch with Ankka, one of my kittens (she's 2). I say playing catch in the most literal sense. I'm exhausted from throwing for her, but her happiness is greater than anything else that can make my heart soar! What a fantastic night!

Surrender

Patience.

I do not have much time to write today, though I promised myself I would journal as much as possible.

Today was a great day. Not only did I continuously offer help and assistance, but I accomplished my goals for the day as well. I thought about almost everything that I said before I spoke it and that alone lessened my stress a ton. When co-workers engaged in poisonous conversation, I politely excused myself. When I made eye contact, I smiled.

Up, up from here!!! DO IT!

You make MY dreams come true. I love it!

White Noise

This is the first post in what I hope to be a satisfactory story line based on my road to simplifying life. For many years, maybe even decades, I have loved the simplicity of many lifestyles and craved to be a part of them, but there are strings (more like chains) holding me back.
Being on the work/spend treadmill, I have not been able to really put together an action plan for simplifying life. My debt is outrageous, and add to that now university loans that keep growing and growing. So instead of tackling my debt/income ratio right now, I am going to tackle the clutter. One of the largest contributors to the white noise is social media; I just can not seem to cut the tie. Instead I have cleaned it out, as if it were a closet.
Going into my FaceBook last night I found that I had 211 friends. So I though on that for a little while and what I realized was that half of these people don't actually consider me a friend, or I them. They were just the ghosts of friendships or loves past. Looking at it, I see that I really only have a handful of people I want to talk to or keep up with. My friend list shrunk more than half. That was phase one, wiping out the white noise.