So a couple weeks ago, I saw a link passing around to a free
online class that would help you become a morning person.
“Why not?” I thought to myself, and signed up.
“Why not?” I thought to myself, and signed up.
The first class
email was sent out, and it had lots of good information on creating a simple,
attainable goal as to why you’re wanting to become a
morning person. The next email was about creating a soothing environment before
you go to bed so you have restful sleep. The following email, and the reason
for this post, was about morning stretches and positive affirmations.
This stretching lesson has been helpful in getting me up earlier, and I’m
going share the stretching secrets!
Step 1: Good Morning
Your alarm goes off. This time, you don’t hit snooze. Instead you activate your body with a good long stretch.
Point your toes and pull your arms back.
Become aware of your body as you stretch. Become aware of all the parts touching the bed.
Hold the stretch and breathe as you count to 10 in your head.
Step 2: Hip Joint Stretch
Pull your knees up towards your chest and hold (you can do one leg at a time) You’ll feel the stretch in your hip joint – where we often hold a lot of discomfort. Become aware of your body. Focus your attention on the areas where you feel the stretch.
When your mind wanders, bring it back to the stretch, notice your body responding. Pull and ease into.
Hold the stretch and breathe as you count to 10 in your head.
Step 3: Spine Stretch
With your shoulders pressed flat on the bed – twist one leg over the other to stretch and awaken the spine and hold for a slow count of 5 for each side.
Step 4: Side Stretch
Ready to get up? You will be!
This is for the side of your torso and up through your arm. Keep your bottom on the bed and gently stretch as far as it feels comfortable – without lifting your sit bones off the bed.
Keep your mind focused on your body – where do you feel the stretch? Ease into it…
Hold the stretch and breathe for a slow count of 5 on each side.
Step 5: Sitting Stretch
It’s time to get out of bed! And you’re already off to great start. Your mind is alert and focused. With one leg folded over the other, feel a great stretch from your backside along your hip and side thigh.
Step 6: Feel Grateful!
It’s the beginning of a new day. You can waste it, or use if for good. Stand up straight and strong.
Take a deep breath and smile – this will actually trigger emotions of happiness. You’re ready to go out there and do something awesome with your day.
I love having family traditions. The most recent one that happened was Christmas tea. We love to go every year! I find traditions connect me with different feelings during different times of the year. I look forward to not only the events, but the feelings I know come with them. It's also fun to talk about things that happened at the last event, a whole year ago! What traditions do you have?
It's never too late to start a tradition, and I'm excited for all the traditions of 2015!
It's never too late to start a tradition, and I'm excited for all the traditions of 2015!
So I kind of dropped the blog-ball the end of 2014, and I want to pick it back up with a few pictures from our trip to California for Thanksgiving! Forever ago, I know. But still fun pictures!
We had a great time having fun with family! It was the pups first car trip, which was for sure an adventure. I'm not too sure how they liked the road trip, but they loved California. It's always so relaxing at my grandparents' house...we can't wait for our next trip out there!
Wow! I can’t believe it’s already 2015. Hope you’re having a great new year! It's a time of goals, fresh starts, new plans, and more dreams.
I want to start this post with a story from something I read once, but can’t for the life of me remember where I read it. The few sentences stuck with me, and that’s what matters…right? If anyone knows, feel free to share.
“A teacher asked me to write what I want to be when I grow up for an assignment. I wrote that I want to be happy. She told me that I obviously didn’t understand the assignment. I told her she obviously didn’t understand life.”
Isn’t that a beautiful outlook? To have happiness be your goal? Life is amazing, special, exciting, and happiness is the key to success.
Sometimes being happy is hard though, as funny as that sounds. So make it a goal! Happiness is something we can create, and here are eight things that I think help create real happiness. Besides Disneyland, of course. ;)
Surround yourself with love.
These last few years have been the most satisfying years of my life, and, upon reflection, it’s easy to see why: I’m surrounded by so many people I love and things that make my life better, and not surrounded by people and things that don’t. Well, I mean, technically I do have things in my life that I don’t like, but I have made it a goal to not focus on them. To not give them my time. To overlook and not allow them any power over my happiness. When we focus on the things we love, we see the best parts of life. I’ve come to learn that perspective is everything, so choose to have a perspective of happiness.
Don’t take it personally.
It’s a fact that sometimes people don’t make the best choices/say the best things. We can’t control it, and we can’t change it. But what we can control and change is our response to those things. People do and say things for an infinite number of reasons, but we can respond to every one of them the same way—by not taking it personally…even if the attack is meant to be personal! By not taking things personally, you make yourself the lead in the situation. You’re in control of your reactions and happiness. It’s hard to do, but if you can master not taking things personally in your life you will be so much happier.
Stay on the positive side.
Life is hard. That makes it difficult to be happy sometimes. Things just seem to go wrong, and most of the time there is nothing you can do about it. But that doesn’t mean your outlook has to go wrong with it! If someone is doing something that bothers you, or if some situation is just not going your way, stop for a moment and think about something that person does that you like (hopefully there’s something!) or something that is going right in your life. This keeps your mind focused on the positive!
See things from another’s perspective.
It’s so easy to fall into the trap of “me.” But life isn’t all about “me,” and I’ve found that the easiest way to destroy happiness is to only think about myself. Reaching out to experience how someone else thinks and feels offers a level of compassion, understanding, and happiness not achievable by just focusing inward. So take the time to think about others—their situations, feelings, goals—and you’ll connect with the world on an even happier level.
Make time for you.
On the flipside of the previous tip, you always want to make sure you have something going on that is about you. Take a moment to reflect on how great life is, and how amazing you are. You deserve happiness. Then take that feeling and pour it back into yourself. Whether it’s a hobby, a book, game night, or a bubble bath, regenerate yourself with your passion. Spending time with good friends or going on a vacation—even if it is a simple staycation—are great ways to do this. Take a break from the everyday and do something you love. Reconnect with life. Have fun and laugh. If you invest in your happiness, you’ll have happiness to invest in others.
Overcome stress.
Everyone gets overwhelmed. It comes in many forms—something physical happening, something mental happening, and sometimes a bit of both. But being overwhelmed doesn’t mean we can’t be happy! Acknowledging things from the past, present, or future that are weighing us down, depressing us, and adding stress to our lives gives us the opportunity to change how they affect us. Doing a regular “spring cleaning” in your mind can help you overcome all the negativity, insecurity, and doubt that piles up. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it! Think about something weighing you down, and then change your focus to the simple feeling of being happy. Then make a list of things you like about yourself. Then move on to thinking about specific things in your life that make you happy. Repeat as necessary. This exercise trains your brain to replace the negative with the positive, and is a quick way to change a bad day into a good one!
Serve.
I find happiness is contagious. So, if you're feeling down and want to change that, make other people happy! It doesn't have to be big acts of service, it can be something small or quick. But whatever you do, serve from the heart. Because when you help others, you not only increase the happiness of those around you, you find new meaning in your own life.
Keep moving forward.
Josh is really good at this one. He keeps a positive attitude by focusing on the end goal, not the current stress surrounding us. This results in a can-do attitude here and now, and keeps us moving towards our goals. Reflect on the things that are stressful in your life, and then look past them to the end result you want. If you focus on that, it's easier to have a positive attitude in even the most stressful of situations! And, if life throws you a curveball, that's ok! Set a new goal and keep moving forward. This can apply to anything: work, school, marriage, hobbies, family, friends, life in general. I know people say that life's all about the journey, but don't forget why you started the journey in the first place!
There are endless ways to make your life happier, and if you focus what's truly important, everything else will
fall into place. Family is important. Laughter is important. Wonder is
important. Good friends are important. Fun is important. Risks are important. Learning is important.
Love is important.
Happiness is important!
Our new house is an old house. And there are some things that come with an old house you can't really get with a new house—like old trees. And old trees tend to be very large, and have a
lot of leaves.
A. LOT. OF. LEAVES.
Josh and I spent several hours bagging them up, and still didn't get all of them! But that's ok; it was really nice to just be out there, enjoying the day, working on a project with Josh, and having fun.
A. LOT. OF. LEAVES.
Josh and I spent several hours bagging them up, and still didn't get all of them! But that's ok; it was really nice to just be out there, enjoying the day, working on a project with Josh, and having fun.
Jeff and Olive helped a bit too by bringing us sticks (they
were always disappointed when we didn’t throw them), checking
out the newly de-leafed grass, and surveying the piles to make sure they were just right.
And Jeff loves leaves a lot more than I realized. He’d
walk himself right into a leaf pile and just hang out! Haha! He was one content pup.
Josh and I love Halloween. However, this year has been a bit
of a drag when it comes to fall holidays. Who knew not having anything in your
house would make it hard to decorate?
But we did not fail our little trick or treaters! The night before Halloween we went to our storage unit, dug out the decorations, and put them up. It was fun to have some Halloween spirit up on Halloween day, and we got a ton of trick or treaters that night!
But we did not fail our little trick or treaters! The night before Halloween we went to our storage unit, dug out the decorations, and put them up. It was fun to have some Halloween spirit up on Halloween day, and we got a ton of trick or treaters that night!
Want to hear a funny story about one particular trick or treater?
You do?! Good! But first, you need to know that if you’re
standing at our front door looking inside you can see that the house is completely
torn down to the bones.
Now, the trick or treat story.
The doorbell rang and Josh went to answer it. There an adorable little Spiderman stood, by himself, with candy bag outstretched. But instead of saying “trick or treat!" like normal, he stared past Josh into the house and said, with concern, “Are…you building your house?” Josh answered yes (because what else do you say to a 6-year-old), to which the little boy responded, “Oh ok...” and then just stood there looking into the house. Josh had to literally hand him a piece of candy so he’d leave! Haha!
I didn’t realize how strange our house looked to little kids, but apparently it was a good Halloween trick.
We better get some carpet in soon—for the children’s sake!
