Mindful Quotations

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem. ~ Theodore I. Rubin

Have nothing…that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. ~ William Morris

Zazen is the self being itself by itself. ~ Kodo Sawaki Roshi

I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better. ~ Henry David Thoreau

As you breathe in cherish yourself. As you breathe out cherish all beings. ~ Dalai Lama

Every day is a new chance to be our very best. ~ Bryan Elliott

Daily Challenge

A friend from work introduced me to Daily Challenges by MeYou Health. I loved the idea and signed right up. You start with a self-assessment that covers a whole range of health areas (food, exercise, attitude) and then each day you receive a simple challenge to improve your overall well-being. I like that I can do most of them right in my office.

You earn points by interacting on the forums and completing daily challenges, and then you can turn in your points for specialty tracks. Tomorrow I’ll start the Flexibility and Posture track, since that is an area that I really need to work on (see Wednesday night’s charley horses). I also like that you can form a “pact” with someone to do five challenges together for bonus points- it’s a good way to get me to check in over the weekends!

If you’re doing the Daily Challenge, please let me know! Do you like it? I’ve been doing it for nine days now- the Everday Wellbeing tack (where everyone starts) has been a little *too* general for what I wanted- I’m looking forward to working on my physical challenges!

I Have Nothing of Substance

…which in its own way is kind of nice.

Wednesday hubby and I went to our favourite seafood place (Boston’s) for a “just because” dinner. Yum! Crabmeat stuffed mushrooms and the “mini” sampler, which was still way more food than I could eat. I love fresh, fried clams so much! Om nom nom nom… They also had red velvet cake, but I had no room. Of course, now I crave red velvet cake. Silly hubby told me someone brought one in to work and he’d have brought me home a slice if he knew I liked it.

My response?

Duh. It’s chocolate.

Now he knows better, heh.

At work, my leadership training continues well and I’m bringing quite a bit of it back to my team. The repurposed desk arrived for my new hire… and we found that it didn’t fit in the space. But my desk did. So I now I have a larger desk with a modesty panel, through no action on my part part. Yay!

Unfortunately, despite being as hands-off as possible I managed to aggravate my legs, and woke up in the middle of the night with a double charley-horse. Hubby helped me through it, but I can barely hobble today, so probably no walking today. We’ll see. If I can loosen up some it could be good, but I really don’t want to go through that again tonight, also.

Realised that I have become hyper-sensitive to one of my co-workers commenting on my cane. I dreaded her asking “What did you do NOW?” and spent more time and emotional energy trying to come up with a response that wasn’t angry or left me in tears than I care to admit. Of course, she didn’t say it at all and I was worked up about nothing, but obviously this is a sore spot for me right now. It’s so hard to explain that if I never did anything then I would still risk flares and injuries, so I might as well try and live my life. *sigh*

Another negative test result has taken some wind out of my sails. I’d really like to know what’s going on. Thankfully, no reactions in almost a week. *fingers crossed*

I Fail at Romance…

…but win at love! Hubby tried to surprise me with dinner out last night- except I was already in my workout clothes and in the middle of housework. D’oh! We’ll go to our favourite seafood place tomorrow night instead (and skip the crowds!).

I bought myself a carnation on campus from a student group raising money for breast cancer research. Did you know that February is Heart Health month? The most common symptom of a heart attack is chest pain or discomfort that can be mild or strong, but not all heart attacks start with chest pain. Visit http://www.heart.org/HEARTO… to learn the other symptoms of a heart attack.

I used to add a shot of chai syrup to my hot chocolate. I’m trying that with an unsweetened chai but it’s a little harsh (the chocolate isn’t sweet enough to balance) so I added a shot of almond milk… which actually turned out to be almond/coconut. It’s an… interesting… taste combination. I’ll try tweaking it some more tomorrow.

Well, duh! Just noticed I had accidentally bought the “no sugar added” chocolate! No wonder, lol!

My sinuses are in a uproar- I never managed to vacuum over the weekend and my body is still readjusting to antihistamines again (either that or spring allergies are kicking in and/or I just have a sinus thing happening- whee!).

I’m currently taking a leadership training workshop series and we had a choose a word that reflected our value. I chose “simplify”. They then asked if people who recognise that this is one of my values, and I had to be honest I’m nto doing a great job of living my values, so I’m working on key areas. For example, I spent almost two hours cleaning off my desktop at home last night. I caught up on bills, filing, and gave it a good wipedown. I immediately feel  more relaxed with an organised desk- I don’t know why I have to let it get so cluttered before I do something about it. Also unburied a half-finished book, so that’s my bedtime reading for the next few days.

This and That

Things I love about where I work:

Someone brought in a bunch of little plastic horses and hid them around the office. No idea who, just magically appeared one day. We’ve since been taking turns moving them around the office to appear in new and surprising locations (on top of the bulletin board outside my office):

A friend gave me these Froggie gloves- I adore them! It’s been very cold here the past two days, never thought I’d wear them so much in Florida!

I sometimes suspect that I do not do well on the red colour spectrum, because everyone seems to think that my hair is redder than I do. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just occasionally bewildering…

I did a crock-pot turkey breast. It was excellent, if a bit salty. Cleaning the crock-pot is a  major job, though. I then did a creamy chicken soup. Next time I’ll make it a bit thicker and stew-like and add the peas later.

I am making things, woo! No pictures yet, since I haven’t actually finished anything, heh.

This weekend’s adventure was going down to Tampa for a friend’s b-day. Great to catch up with people- I’ve really fallen out of touch and huge things are happening that I wish I had known about to offer support. I’m trying to get better on focusing on key relationships- slowly whittling down the noise-to-signal ratio. Closed my G+ account and cut both Fb and Twitter lists in half. It’s nice to keep up with day-to-day things, but “likes” and comments aren’t real conversation, and I’m working on quality. Family and distant friends stay, since it’s our primary way of keeping touch (I’m still terrible on the phone).

Waiting for x-ray and test results…