Loving My Life and Visual Reminders
Over the past few months, I've been really overwhelmed by circumstances, most of which are beyond my control. I need to remind myself to keep breathing. I keep reminding myself to come back to the present moment because, really, there isn't anything else. I'm tired of life on the edge but change comes slowly. I know this though... I woke up one day last week and thought "I want to be in love with my life in the way that I love the important people in my life. I want to feel passionate about my life. To love it without reservation and without conditions. I want to fall in love with my life again.
To this end, I am all about visual reminders right now. I bought inspirational calendars at the dollar store. I cut them apart and turned the pages into inspirational posters. I plastered my bedroom with them. Sure, they're glib and pithy and some might even say trite but I like them. And they are a visual reminder of the stuff I want to embody: courage, kindness, strength, love.
I spent $3 and ordered a silly donkey key chain from Amazon. Why? Because it's a visual reminder that I need to keep hauling my ass back to the present moment. The past is gone. We can neither fix it nor change it. The future is uncertain and never promised. The present is all we have. I repeat, really, there isn't anything else.
I have a tee shirt that says "Breathe". I found a sign at the thrift store that says "Where ever you go, go with your whole heart."
Sometimes we just need reminders of what we're supposed to do. We need to remember what will make us happy. We make lists. We add memos to our phones. We set alarms. These are all just reminders of what we need to do. So what if what we need to do is to reconnect with our better selves, to breathe, to remember that all we can really control is our reactions to things? This is where I'm at.
In the movie Sleepless in Seattle, they ask Tom Hanks' character what he's going to do. His wife has died. He's grieving. He's lost. He says "Well, I'm gonna get out of bed every morning... breathe in and out all day long. Then, after a while I won't have to remind myself to get out of bed every morning and breathe in and out..."
So for now, until it becomes second nature, until I'm not overwhelmed I'm going to remind myself in anyway that I can, that I want to be in love with my life again.
To this end, I am all about visual reminders right now. I bought inspirational calendars at the dollar store. I cut them apart and turned the pages into inspirational posters. I plastered my bedroom with them. Sure, they're glib and pithy and some might even say trite but I like them. And they are a visual reminder of the stuff I want to embody: courage, kindness, strength, love.
I spent $3 and ordered a silly donkey key chain from Amazon. Why? Because it's a visual reminder that I need to keep hauling my ass back to the present moment. The past is gone. We can neither fix it nor change it. The future is uncertain and never promised. The present is all we have. I repeat, really, there isn't anything else.
I have a tee shirt that says "Breathe". I found a sign at the thrift store that says "Where ever you go, go with your whole heart."
Sometimes we just need reminders of what we're supposed to do. We need to remember what will make us happy. We make lists. We add memos to our phones. We set alarms. These are all just reminders of what we need to do. So what if what we need to do is to reconnect with our better selves, to breathe, to remember that all we can really control is our reactions to things? This is where I'm at.
In the movie Sleepless in Seattle, they ask Tom Hanks' character what he's going to do. His wife has died. He's grieving. He's lost. He says "Well, I'm gonna get out of bed every morning... breathe in and out all day long. Then, after a while I won't have to remind myself to get out of bed every morning and breathe in and out..."
So for now, until it becomes second nature, until I'm not overwhelmed I'm going to remind myself in anyway that I can, that I want to be in love with my life again.
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