Project Positive

split lip

bad days, good days, life, morning person, optimism, optimistic, Project Positive, realist, stress, sunshine

I split my lip last week.  After a big laugh this morning it was bleeding.  If I could just quit smiling it would heal faster.

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I'm sure there is someone out there that would take at look at what I have going on in my life, sort through my baggage, and inject all kinds of negative into it.  Whoever you are, stay away.  I have plenty to smile about. 

You see, I consider myself a realist.  I take the bad days with the good, you can't have one without the other.  For every bad day I experience, there are two good days to follow.  I understand and accept my limitations, and the limitations of others.  I can't expect or demand more than they can give.  I accept that.  Of course, I expect and demand more of myself, but that's another issue.

For example, when I meet someone, will they become my very best friend or my soul mate?  Most likely no.  But they might be a nice person to know, or even just talk to for a few minutes.  I'm good with that.  

Stress is part of the game.  There is nothing I can do to eliminate stress completely from my life.  But I do what I need to do to release it and let it all go.  Coping is something I do pretty well.  Sure there's an initial freak out, (I'd like to meet the person who never freaks out) but after the 30 seconds it takes to get my feet back under me, I'm off running again.  It's just the way of life.

But I also know there are two ways to look at these situations that are out of my control.  I can stomp around and be upset that it's raining today and that the sun isn't shining and that my toes are still cold.  Or I can dress appropriately and enjoy how the pink flowers pop against the gray sky and feel the cold air in my lungs and look forward to my cheeks tingling when I come back into my warm apartment.  

I learned a long time ago that my perspective on the situation has the power to almost change the situation itself.  I can sit at my desk and think “I'm so tired.  I can't believe I stayed up that late” and wish I could take the rest of the day off to go home and crawl under the covers and nap away a miserable rainy chilly day.  Or I can say “I'm tired but that conversation was so worth staying up late for” and keep trucking through the work day.

Every morning at work I chirp a highly cheerful “good morning!” with a huge grin and sparkly eyes. (I'm a morning person, I can't help it)  My friend says, “Your sunshine and rainbows are shining brightly today.” Of course they are.  It's a good day.  Why?  Because I want it to be, that's why.

It's about taking the hard stuff in stride.  The hard stuff happens, it's how you deal with it that matters.

Is there such a thing as an optimistic realist?  

So yeah, I want my lip to heal so it stops bleeding and stops hurting me.  But I'm grateful for the reminder every time I smile and laugh that there are things to smile and laugh about. Because the only person who can rain out this sunshine and rainbows is me.

Hi!

life, Project Positive

I'm back.  And I'm feeling better.  At least feeling like I can handle what's on my plate now.  I'm stayin' alive!  Stayin' alive!  (That's for you Shauna)

I did make a pilgrimage home while I was out house sitting.  I take my laundry over there and get all the big stuff washed.  Like my comforter and rugs and stuff.  On Sunday I ventured home after the laundry was all washed and clean and folded so I wouldn't have to cart it around with me on Tuesday (today).  While hauling everything up the stairs (there are two flights) I saw a really big box sitting outside my door.  I immediately wondered if I had ordered something by accident.  Seriously.  But no, I hadn't.  As it turns out, it was one of the most wonderful things that has happened to me.  I was so excited I could hardly quit dancing long enough to haul it inside.  Let alone get it out of the entry to rip it open and put it together.  Not kidding.

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Do ya see it?  Can you believe it?  And the crazy part?  I have no idea who sent it.  Yep.  Don't know.

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So to whoever (whomever?) sent this fabulous and totally wonderful chair, thank you.  A million times over.  Crazy amounts of love have been sent out into the universe.  Hopefully you can feel it.

M

Thursday: Project Positive

life, Project Positive

Yesterday I went to my first yoga class. 

This is something I've wanted to do for a long while.  I never knew where to go.  I didn't know anyone else who was going to a center and taking from a teacher.  I never went at the rec center when I used to work out regularly.  I was busy doing spinning.  And running.  

Yoga has always interested me.  The people who are hard core into yoga look exactly like the people who are hard core runners.  Long and lean.  And, while I never thought of myself as long and lean, I thought something even just a smudge similar to those results would be nice.

My friend Paula says, when the student is ready the teacher will come.

Yep.  I agree.

I talked to Paula about yoga a couple weeks ago, I knew she had gone to a retreat awhile back.  She said that she didn't take any classes right now, though she was involved in kung fu and buddhism for beginners.  (She is always taking some kind of class and involved in something interesting.)  The teacher she learned yoga from was no longer teaching, but she would ask her buddhist teacher if he knew where to find viniyoga in the valley.  

I thought about it for a couple days.  Wondering if, when I was given the information I asked for, if I would in fact act try it and take a class or two.  In effect, I had started the ball rolling, was I ready to pick it up and run with it?  Or was I going to back out because I was too afraid?  Afraid of what?  Wimp.

So I got online and googled yoga in Salt Lake City.  It's that easy people.

The Centered City Yoga center has a restore class that is based on viniyoga. I sent the link to Paula, she called the center, and a date was set.  The first class was free, so we were able to pop in one night, try it out with no commitment, and then decide if we like the class.

The class we went to was fundamentals.  I've only done yoga on a video.  And that was just ok for me.  I felt like, while it was hard and built strength, I was never doing it quite right.  It should be harder than that.  It is quite something different to have the instructor in the class to ask questions, correct your posture, and rub your head at the end while you are lying there sweaty and tired and hurting in places that don't normally hurt.  

The class was 80 minutes.  I was worn out.  Like I had just done a spinning class at the rec center.

My point of all this?  If there is a yoga center near you, try it.  Just once.  Go to a beginner class.  An easy class.  And try it.  You just might like it.  I should have done it a long time ago.

And how does this relate to Project Positive?  I feel better today than I have in a few weeks.  Exercise, it does a body good.  Even if all you can do is a walk around the block.  Get out and do it.

M