Just do it. . .
Back in the post from week one, I wrote about my love for treasure hunting at thrift stores, garage sales, Craigslist, and the like. I also talked about my new obsession with crafty, recreated, vintage Pinterest decor ideas. Well, this week's love ties together week one's treasure hunting love and last week's post about encouraging myself.
Last Friday I stopped into a "used to be new" home furnishings store to take a closer look at an antique dresser I had been eyeing online for a couple weeks. The dresser turned out to be a bust, but I enjoyed browsing the rest of the vendor booths at the store and thinking how fun it would be to have my own booth. Out of habit, my mind automatically said, "You can't do something like this. Who would buy your stuff? You aren't crafty enough to do this. You'll just end up wasting a bunch of money and failing." Wow self, thanks for the vote of confidence. As I kept walking around the store the small quiet voice that encouraged me last week started to whisper in my ear, "Just try it. What do you really have to lose? If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But if you don't try you'll never know. Don't sell yourself short by not even trying."
That small voice of encouragement was enough to get me to ask the owner about becoming a vendor. He said vendor turnover is pretty low in the store but that they actually had a vendor that would be leaving at the end of the month if I was interested in filling the space. I got all of the information, thanked him, and told him I would need to do a little thinking before I would be able to commit to renting the space. "A little thinking" may have been an understatement. I spent the next 16 hours letting the small encouraging voice and the loud criticizing voice duke it out in my head.
The next day I drove back to the store. I was so anxious I thought I was going to be sick. But I walked in and told the guy I wanted to rent the space. As soon as I did, I was absolutely ECSTATIC about my new endeavor. I don't know if I'll succeed or fail. But what I know right now is that I am super excited. And I'm proud of my small quiet voice for being able to encourage myself enough to try. Not to mention I now have an outlet for my treasure hunting obsession. And I definitely needed one. My house is way too small to hold all the treasures I have been collecting!
How have you loved yourself this week?
The Challenge: Reestablish a love relationship with myself by intentionally showing love to myself in some way, shape, or form once a week for a year.
March 27, 2013
March 20, 2013
Week 4 Love
Think positive. . .
I had my first horse show of the season last weekend. It was a big one, and I was nervous. All I could think about in the days leading up to the show were all the things that could go wrong and all the ways I would screw up. During one of these mini panic sessions, a thought crossed my mind. "You've been practicing a lot lately. Jameson (my horse) is riding exceptionally well this spring. You are going to do just fine at the show. It's going to be great!" Back up. . .did I actually just say something encouraging to myself? Talk about a foreign experience!
Why are we so eager to encourage and build up others and so quick to cut down and belittle ourselves? When I stop and think about it, I rarely say anything nice to myself. In fact, I'm quite hard on myself about everything. I decided after that initial random positive thought crossed my mind that I was going to intentionally keep doing it for the rest of the week leading up to the horse show. And do you know what I discovered? After the initial awkwardness, it felt good to say nice things to myself!
So did all of my positive thinking and encouragement of myself lead me to the most successful horse show I've ever competed in? Well, no. In fact, parts of it were probably the worst my horse and I have ever shown. But there were a couple great moments as well. And in the end, I chose to focus on those. Why? Because they make me feel better about myself then focusing on the bad moments and being hard on myself because of them.
I'm learning that you need to focus on the bad moments temporarily so that you can learn what you need to from them, but then. . .move on. And continue to encourage yourself for the next time. Stop cutting yourself down and start building yourself up and telling yourself how fantastic you are!
How have you loved yourself this week?
I had my first horse show of the season last weekend. It was a big one, and I was nervous. All I could think about in the days leading up to the show were all the things that could go wrong and all the ways I would screw up. During one of these mini panic sessions, a thought crossed my mind. "You've been practicing a lot lately. Jameson (my horse) is riding exceptionally well this spring. You are going to do just fine at the show. It's going to be great!" Back up. . .did I actually just say something encouraging to myself? Talk about a foreign experience!
Why are we so eager to encourage and build up others and so quick to cut down and belittle ourselves? When I stop and think about it, I rarely say anything nice to myself. In fact, I'm quite hard on myself about everything. I decided after that initial random positive thought crossed my mind that I was going to intentionally keep doing it for the rest of the week leading up to the horse show. And do you know what I discovered? After the initial awkwardness, it felt good to say nice things to myself!
So did all of my positive thinking and encouragement of myself lead me to the most successful horse show I've ever competed in? Well, no. In fact, parts of it were probably the worst my horse and I have ever shown. But there were a couple great moments as well. And in the end, I chose to focus on those. Why? Because they make me feel better about myself then focusing on the bad moments and being hard on myself because of them.
I'm learning that you need to focus on the bad moments temporarily so that you can learn what you need to from them, but then. . .move on. And continue to encourage yourself for the next time. Stop cutting yourself down and start building yourself up and telling yourself how fantastic you are!
How have you loved yourself this week?
March 12, 2013
Week 3 Love
Later. . .
This week's post is late. It's technically last weeks post, but I didn't get around to it. And honestly, I didn't even know what my love act for myself was going to be. It was Saturday and I try to do my post for the week sometime on the weekend. So I was feeling this pressure like I had to hurry up and come up with something and get the post written. I was also feeling all this pressure to get my house clean, start packing for my horse show trip this weekend, meet a friend at the barn to ride, do laundry, and about a hundred other things. Suddenly, all I really wanted to do was take a nap.
Am I the only one that ever happens to? I find that when faced with a multitude of things that seem overwhelimg, I follow one of two extreme paths. I either a) dig in, become extremely focused, and bang out the tasks like nobody's business or b) completely shut down and accomplish nothing. I really seem to have no middle ground here. And what's worse, I seem to have little control over which path I'm going to take when an overwhelming situation arrises. More often than not, the path chooses me. And this weekend, the latter path was the clear winner.
Is one path better than the other? Is path B a "bad path"? I don't think so. I think there are times when accomplishing nothing is exactly what a person needs to accomplish. So what if I didn't get my house clean or finish my laundry. So I didn't start packing for the trip yet. Big deal. So I didn't know what my love action for the week was and my blog post might be late. Oh well. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one reading this blog anyway. My friend wasn't bothered that I didn't get to the barn to ride at the same time she happened to be riding. We'll meet up again soon.
I sat there on my couch on Saturday afternoon and thought to myself "Are any of these things going to matter in a year? Heck, are any of them going to matter next week?" As soon as I realized the answer was no, I promptly laid down and took a two hour nap. And then spent the evening being lazy and clearing up some space on my very full DVR. And in doing so, I realized that I had just completed my love action for the week. I allowed myself to put off things that were making me feel overwhelmed and stressed out. Things that in the grand scheme of things, had no business making me feel stressed.
It may seem like I gave up productivity in exchange for accomplishing nothing, but in retrospect I think it was really something.
How have you loved yourself this week?
This week's post is late. It's technically last weeks post, but I didn't get around to it. And honestly, I didn't even know what my love act for myself was going to be. It was Saturday and I try to do my post for the week sometime on the weekend. So I was feeling this pressure like I had to hurry up and come up with something and get the post written. I was also feeling all this pressure to get my house clean, start packing for my horse show trip this weekend, meet a friend at the barn to ride, do laundry, and about a hundred other things. Suddenly, all I really wanted to do was take a nap.
Am I the only one that ever happens to? I find that when faced with a multitude of things that seem overwhelimg, I follow one of two extreme paths. I either a) dig in, become extremely focused, and bang out the tasks like nobody's business or b) completely shut down and accomplish nothing. I really seem to have no middle ground here. And what's worse, I seem to have little control over which path I'm going to take when an overwhelming situation arrises. More often than not, the path chooses me. And this weekend, the latter path was the clear winner.
Is one path better than the other? Is path B a "bad path"? I don't think so. I think there are times when accomplishing nothing is exactly what a person needs to accomplish. So what if I didn't get my house clean or finish my laundry. So I didn't start packing for the trip yet. Big deal. So I didn't know what my love action for the week was and my blog post might be late. Oh well. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one reading this blog anyway. My friend wasn't bothered that I didn't get to the barn to ride at the same time she happened to be riding. We'll meet up again soon.
I sat there on my couch on Saturday afternoon and thought to myself "Are any of these things going to matter in a year? Heck, are any of them going to matter next week?" As soon as I realized the answer was no, I promptly laid down and took a two hour nap. And then spent the evening being lazy and clearing up some space on my very full DVR. And in doing so, I realized that I had just completed my love action for the week. I allowed myself to put off things that were making me feel overwhelmed and stressed out. Things that in the grand scheme of things, had no business making me feel stressed.
It may seem like I gave up productivity in exchange for accomplishing nothing, but in retrospect I think it was really something.
How have you loved yourself this week?
March 3, 2013
Week 2 Love
Massage
Who doesn't love a massage? Ok, I'll admit, it takes me awhile to warm up to them. I'm one of those people that has an overly large personal space bubble. And let's be honest, if a massage therapist isn't all up in your personal space, then they aren't doing their job.
So I'm laying there on the table under this nice soft blanket, wearing nothing but my panties (nice ones of course, because even though the therapist isn't actually going to see them, I feel like I should be wearing something nice for the occasion). The room is warm, there is relaxing music playing, and I feel like I might fall asleep. Enter the massage therapist, which immediately triggers my personal bubble awareness alarm. "REALLY?" I ask my brain in that exasperated tone I take with myself sometimes. "You know this is going to feel amazing, and you know your're going to love it. So shut up, relax, and enjoy this week's display of love for yourself." Eventually my brain quiets down and I get to the point where I could care less about my personal bubble. I'm sure the aroma of the massage oils and the hot towels have something to do with it. I don't know when hot towels laying on your back became one of the most fantastic things EVER, but they are.
Thirty minutes later it was over. . .and I was jello. I spent the rest of the evening melted into my couch and then went to bed at 9pm. It was bliss. I'm pretty sure I'll work a few more massages into the next 50 weeks.
How have you love yourself this week?
Who doesn't love a massage? Ok, I'll admit, it takes me awhile to warm up to them. I'm one of those people that has an overly large personal space bubble. And let's be honest, if a massage therapist isn't all up in your personal space, then they aren't doing their job.
So I'm laying there on the table under this nice soft blanket, wearing nothing but my panties (nice ones of course, because even though the therapist isn't actually going to see them, I feel like I should be wearing something nice for the occasion). The room is warm, there is relaxing music playing, and I feel like I might fall asleep. Enter the massage therapist, which immediately triggers my personal bubble awareness alarm. "REALLY?" I ask my brain in that exasperated tone I take with myself sometimes. "You know this is going to feel amazing, and you know your're going to love it. So shut up, relax, and enjoy this week's display of love for yourself." Eventually my brain quiets down and I get to the point where I could care less about my personal bubble. I'm sure the aroma of the massage oils and the hot towels have something to do with it. I don't know when hot towels laying on your back became one of the most fantastic things EVER, but they are.
Thirty minutes later it was over. . .and I was jello. I spent the rest of the evening melted into my couch and then went to bed at 9pm. It was bliss. I'm pretty sure I'll work a few more massages into the next 50 weeks.
How have you love yourself this week?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)