Rochelle Campbell's Blog: The NoteBook Blogairy, page 3

Longest Running Expo: 6th Annual GreenFestival 2017

On Sunday, June 11th, I attended the Green Festival Expo at the Javits Center in New York City.  It was pretty awesome!  Two of my children, and I, headed out on the subway not knowing what to expect but having a feeling of excitement nonetheless.

From the moment we alighted from the elevator onto the Expo’s floor, we were pleasantly bombarded with items that we could and would want to eat – including gluten free items!  The very first stop was the GoMacro Macrobar which is gluten free, and pretty darn tasty!  (Please note: some flavors contain soy.)  The server behind this booth was so Cali-zen!  He put huge smiles on our faces and made us feel at ease.

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Then, it was on to Coco-Mat, positioned to the extreme right of the escalators – perfect for grabbing attention!  We all loved the softness and the feathery lightness of this all-natural bed.  The mattresses are made from various natural materials such as: natural rubber, rubberized coconut-fiber, rubberized horsehair, seaweed, eucalyptus leaves, and cactus fiber. (Yeah!  We were amazed as well.)

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The next thing that caught our collective eye was the Kia Soul EV – a 100% electric car with 0% emissions.  Whoa.  Fully loaded?  It comes out to $36K.  Not bad.  But, it’s the perks that really had us thinking about getting behind this luxurious looking wheel.

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$7,500 in credits, rebates back from the federal government because of the money you are saving the planet because you are not using fossil fuel to power this vehicle
Money savings from state tax credits for environmental ease (not all states have these credits; Illinois does not)
120 city miles / 92 highway miles on a fully charged battery
24 hours to full charge on a 27 kWh 360 V lithium-ion battery (alternating AC1 current)
Use of recycled plastics for the car’s décor showing the manufacturer’s commitment to the environment

My whole family wants this car!  Including me.

Our next little stop was just a few steps away at the Vegan Smart booth.  This is a plant-based protein powder that comes in several different flavors. ( All flavors contain soy.)  The strawberry flavor was by far, to me, the best tasting.  Given my family’s long history using and drinking protein powders, this ranked in the pretty okay category.  It didn’t knock our socks off but it was tasty and nutritious – and it’s a Black-owned business.

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From here on, I cannot recall each and every stop we made – we saw so much!

Think we next stopped at Samina, a sleeping system (bed) company that rocked my family’s world.  The bamboo “box spring” is individually tied and affixed to the frame in such a way that the slats contour to your positioning leaving your body feeling fully supported and at ease.  For the five minutes I laid on the bare “box spring” I was in heaven.  And the person sleeping next you is in no way affected if you toss and turn.  How do I know?  My 3-year-old daughter was jumping on the Samina bed not 2 feet from where I was lying and my side of the bed did not move or vibrate at all.  It was incredible.  No, it was mind-blowing.

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Oh, did I mention that all of the wool coverings this company uses for its mattresses are from sheep that roam freely in Austria and have their wool hand-washed to preserve the wool’s ability to insulate when it’s cold and to keep you cool when it’s warm?  Therefore, you’re sleeping on disturbingly happy sheep’s wool.  I’m sure 365 days of that along is a fantastic experience!

Okay, now it gets really murky…

City Maid Green – OMG!  I am in love with these plant powered cleaners!  I was extremely skeptical about using products that did not contain – wait, dare I say it?  Okay, I will…bleach.  How the heck can you clean the tub and the face basin with plant essences?  Well, I’ve been doing it for the past 9 days and I can attest and testify that they do work.  I was a bit upset the first couple of days because the water beaded in the area that I just “cleaned.”  Then, I realized that a bit more elbow grease is needed when using green cleaning products – so I get my work out on when I clean the bathroom now!  [Did I mention the household cleaners are only $4.99 each spray bottle?] http://citymaidgreen.com/

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I would say you use a bit more product than you would a chemical cleaner but that stands to reason.  It’s the same reason why you don’t have to do much scrubbing with a chemical cleaner – why?  It strips everything, including the skin cell from your hand… (Ooops.  Did I say that out loud?)

MJ Lemon – hand-crafted Eco-friendly skin care by founder Maheen Lemon.  She graduated from the Aveda Institute in New York City with a license in Esthetics and skin care.  She has also studied Ayurveda which enhances her line of skincare with a whole-body-mind consciousness.  All of her products are 100% natural, organic and cruelty-free.

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Twin Pines at Dover Hill – all natural body bar soaps & scrubs; the coffee-mint body scrub with the sweet little wooden scoop comes to mind readily.  They smelled and looked great!  Tell the owner, Laura Baliotti, I sent you.  Congrats on being selected as a GreenFestival Expo Brand Award Finalist!

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Element – healthful snacking that won’t leave you feeling guilty!  These rice crackers are slathered with a rich topping that is dairy-free, gluten-free and simply gosh-darn good.  We loved the strawberry flavor (Yeah, we’re berry citrus lovers.)  But, the other flavors are really really good!  Fredrik told me that this company came about because his wife has numerous allergies and she wanted a portable snack that she could enjoy without it being messy.  (Nutella on rice crackers does not travel well he mentioned to me.)  Their solution?  Element snacks, of course.

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EMFs Protect – Now, I will admit, I have to get more info on all of this but here’s the gist of it.  EMFs (electric and magnetic fields) surround us in our ever-expanding technological worlds.  While these energy fields power our devices (which we cannot seem to live without these days), the fields do not coincide well with our body’s own electromagnetic field.  In fact, EMFs interrupt and interfere with our bodies.  EMFs make our bodies weaker and susceptible to illness and disease.  Here’s more information from Roy Riggs, a geobiologist: https://bodyecology.com/articles/little-known-dangers-of-emf.php.

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So, I said all of that to now tell you that there’s this band that you can put on your wrist that will greatly reduce/dampen the EMFs around you so that your body is not affected by them.  The band contains a crystal that produces negative ions.  The folks at the booth did a demonstration with my son which seemed to show that when he was wearing the band he was stronger and was able to resist his arm being pushed down.  (Without the band, his arm much more easily was pushed down.)  [You know my son wants one of these bands, right?] http://mypowerbandz.com/order-negative-ion-bands.html

Solar Tube – brings light from outside into your attic.  It loses only 3% of light for every 10 feet of tubing.  Four hundred lumens of light is reflected in the material lining the tube (very bright!!) and there’s a layer behind this material that absorbs the heat so you are only bringing the light into your home.  And, there’s a 30% federal tax credit!

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Di Loren Acacia Silk Face Oil – this woman-owned and run company works with women in Uganda.  Desert oil is hand-harvested by the Ugandan women by sustainable methods and this extremely moisturizing oil is combined with Acacia to give you a face oil that does not clog your pores or feels heavy.  It helps to reduce wrinkles and the appearance of aging skin.  The co-founder Lauren Servin is both personable and passionate about bringing natural products for women, by women and to help heal the earth.

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I would be totally remiss if I did not rave about My Eco Bags!  I picked up a 4-bag set of these bags that you can take to the grocery store so you don’t use any more disposable plastic bags.  My Eco Bags are made from recycled yogurt containers and other types of recycled plastics and materials.  The straps are so wide and comfortable that it is not a hardship to bring home a lot of groceries in these sturdy bags.

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There was so much more but I’ll stop here.  We’ll be looking at more green products and other topics in the arena of sustainability in the weeks and months to come.

Ta-ta for now,

Rochelle

 

 

Living Your Dream

I have been neck-deep in trying to understand how wellness and I can co-exist.  However, it seems my thinking was erroneous.  It’s not that I did not invite wellness into my life, it’s more I thought that stepping away from solid wellness practices every day was okay.  Semantics you say?  Maybe.  But, it was my logic.

It’s okay to have a Greek yogurt for breakfast but then have a hamburger with all the fixings (sans the bread; no gluten, please!) for lunch.  Then, jump to having a big kale salad for dinner with cranberries and walnuts.  I thought this was just fine.  And for many people, it IS fine.  My body doesn’t think so.  My body wants something a bit more consistent.  Earlier this year, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune blistering disease that left my body covered in skin eruptions and blisters.  While the medication has taken care of the blisters, I am left with the marks from all of the skin activity.  So, I now have a constant reminder that my body requires something more from me in terms of health and nutrition.  I now eat smoothie bowls for breakfast and am investigating buddha bowls for lunch and dinner.  I am working towards clean eating much more on the paleo side of no packaged foods.

However, my self examination did not stop there, I continued to look at other areas of my life that may be out of sync with reality.  My career and my day job immediately came into focus.  I needed balance in this key area of my life where I spend 55 hours a week (we only have 168 hours each and every week!).  That’s a huge chunk of my time — 32.7% of my week is spent at work, or traveling to/from work.

My brain began thinking about living a life where everything comes up roses (I know, so cliche, right? But, I love roses!).  And I began to research more about living one’s dream and how to go about doing it.  I even created a life binder with a plan to help me follow my dream and, more importantly, remember my dream!  Because in the busy-ness of life, we can forget that we planned out to the nth degree every detail of our dream life.  We’re too tired to remember!

I even wrote a post about what I’ve learned.  It’s called Living Your Dream: Seeing the Roses In Your Own Life.  I hope you find 4.5 minutes of time to read it.

Happy Father’s Day!!

 

Weekend Inspiration: 2 Themes but only 1 Great Tweep

Today I had a great deal of trouble penning this post.  I have 2 pages worth of post prompts I created in the last 7 days.  I thought, I scribbled, I scratched off.  (Repeat 15x.)

Then, when I awakened this morning, it hit me.  The very first idea I had for today’s column is THE RIGHT ONE.  I scratched it off because of input I received that threw me off what I innately knew to be correct.  Therefore, there are 2 themes in today’s Weekend Inspiration.

Never allow anyone to stop you from carrying out something you feel deeply (in your gut).  Why?  Because that thing you feel?  That is your own inner connection (read: your own fabulous inner higher power) speaking directly to you.  If you consistently ignore the impulses and images this wise part of you sends your way, the direct connection begins to lessen in its intensity and accuracy.  After a time, your connection may actually fade, or go dormant.  This is not what you want!  Do your best to keep your connection open by relaxing and allowing yourself to feel all the things that you need to in order to get all of your options presented to you.  Okay?  Okay!
Now for Part 2.  My Weekend Inspiration is M. LeMont, one of my longest and oldest of Twitter buddies.  We met in 2014 and at that time @mistersalesman had less than 40K followers.  (I know, right?! Now it’s 357K…and counting!)However, because M. LeMont thinks out-of-the-box, is maddeningly creative, and has a genuine passion for helping others, M. LeMont built a system of outreach, networking, teaching and communication with thousands of people in the last 3 years!  It’s actually pretty damned astounding.How I factor in to all of this is simple.  I responded to a tweet of @mistersalesman and I received a response back within a very short time.  I was rather surprised by the response.  But, I responded in return; from there our friendship grew.

M. LeMont had high hopes for me that I would follow his lead and have hundreds upon thousands of followers (like this fabulous person does!).  However, I took myself off of the retweet train and went on my own path.

Yet, M. LeMont did not throw me away, or “banish” me to the non-loyalist party.  This fabulous tweep kept RT’ing, mentioning me, and interacting with me since 2014.  Astounding.

 

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In the last several weeks, a major health issue of mine made me re-evaluate all aspects of my life.  (This is why there’s even a Weekend Inspiration column.)

Following M. LeMont’s lead of giving of oneself freely to people we do not know IRL (Yep, to strangers!), I wanted to give back some of the love that has been shared with me since I entered the social media arena in April 2012.

This is why I would like to openly thank M. LeMont (@mistersalesman) for all of the many hundreds of tweets, RTs, mentions and the outrageously funny posts, emails and experiences we’ve shared in the last 3 years.

As I said to you earlier today, You’re Simply The Best!

RT & #FF @MisterSalesman! ‘[U had me] Spellbound i couldn’t think straight u blew my mind all over & over again.’ The #best #follower EVER. pic.twitter.com/zRCjKrJ1UT

— TheNotebookBlogairy (@NotebkBlogairy) June 16, 2017

For more information about M. LeMont’s books, please click the links below.

http://www.mlemont.com/books

Twitter Marking for Promoters, Entertainers, Musicians and Artists

Epic Fail: My Finger Is Too Tough

Some years ago, I learned about eating right for your blood type.  There’s a book by the same name written by Peter D’Adamo.  There’s a swirl of conversation and controversy about this idea but I did want to review it and figure out if it has any meaning/value for me, personally.

First step is you need to know your blood type.  No problem!

I purchased the “Eat Right For Your Type” blood typing kit online at Amazon.  It’ was quite reasonable — less then $7!  The reviewers almost unanimously said that it was easy-peasy and they were able to identify their blood type in just a few minutes.

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The kit arrived in 2 days.  It looks so easy!  There’s a video you can watch online to make sure you do it just right.  Here’s the short video…

Okay, so I watched it and I felt confident.

Get home.  Set it all up.  Get to the poke-your-finger part – BAM.  A bit of a pinch, yes.  But, not bad.

Here’s the issue: I get enough blood for TWO of the FOUR circles.  Uh-huh.  Half of what I needed.  And the stabby-thing?  It’s a one-time use device.  

I asked my 17-year old to help stab me with a sterilized needle.  He couldn’t/wouldn’t.  I asked my 20-year old.  He wimped out then came back strong and wanted to cut me with a knife in the vein…(yeah, I dunno know ’bout that one).  Needless to say, I got frustrated and scraped the whole deal.

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But, I am going to re-order and try again.

However, I re-read the written instructions contained in the package (the brochure you see in the above picture), I realized I missed a step.

I needed to have soaked my finger for 2 minutes in warm water.

So, I did NOT do this one little part.

Therefore, I guess I’ll figure out my blood type another day!

Updated: Move Over Fake News, Here is Fake Food

**This article has been updated as of Mon, 6/12/17 @ 2:55 pm EDT!!**

**BCS Intl Honey has been proven to be certified!  Read below.**

It’s Sunday morning. I’m in the kitchen thinking about a good, healthy breakfast that does not come from a package. I’m new to this way of eating so it took me some time to figure out this meal:

Baked sweet potatoes
Cabbage, cucumbers and red peppers dressed with balsamic vinaigrette
Catfish and kale dressed with a light lemon balsamic reduction

So, imagine my surprise when my hubby shows me a video (in Hindu, I think) showing a man creating cabbage for human consumption!  I was flabbergasted! I immediately checked Snopes and the video was shown to be a fake. It was a video showing the process of making plastic display food for restaurant windows in Japan and China.

Whew!!

Here’s the Snopes article marking this particular video a FAKE – http://www.snopes.com/chinese-synthetic-cabbages/.

However, reporter Kate Storey writes in Delish magazine about 14 real fake foods we may have in our very own kitchens. This includes:

olive oil (cut with cheaper oils like corn, and peanut oils)
truffle oil (the pigs in Alba never even heard of the stuff we’re ingesting…)
sushi (if you think you’re getting white tuna, think again.)
honey (no industry standard! Check True Source Honey to ensure it’s real.)
parmesan cheese (make sure it says “Made in Italy)

Storey reports that many manufacturers of the above food items cut/dilute the actual products with cheaper substitutions some of which can harm our health.  Being informed, and reading labels becomes very important! You can read the full article here.

To follow-up on the note above regarding honey, you can verify that the honey in your pantry is real and registered with True Source Honey by checking its UPC bar code. There’s an orange circle in the upper right hand corner of the True Source Honey page that says, “Is Your Honey True Source? Check Here.”

Original Story Copy (Not Updated)

I checked my bottle of Natural Garden 100% Pure Natural Organic Honey that has the True Source Honey logo on the back!!! Guess what?  When I checked it on the True Source Honey page it said it was “not certified, or has not been registered” — in essence, FAKE!

I checked because I had an odd reaction to it when I used it; not quite nausea but close enough.  I fluffed it off.  However, the odd feeling stayed with me so I decided to began reading more about honey and how it’s certified.

Who knows what’s in this bottle!!!  And, my kids have eaten it!  The rest is going into the trash!

UPDATED INFORMATION ABOUT BCS INTL & NATURAL GARDEN HONEY

Hello everyone,

In conjunction with checking the website for information about BCS Intl/Natural Garden Honey yesterday, I also emailed True Source Honey directly.  And, about an hour later the Executive Director, Gordon Marks, got back to me and asked me to take additional steps and provide him more information so he can check out what was happening with this product/brand and the certification not being verified (since the bottle did have the True Source Honey logo). [Yes, the ED got back to me on as SUNDAY afternoon!!!]

After a total of 13 emails between yesterday and today, Gordon has assured me that this product is indeed a verified True Source Honey product.  Gordon shared with me in an email today at 2:38 pm EDT the reason why the uncertified/not registered message popped up on the website yesterday.

“There are primarily 2 reasons it was not in our data base; * The distributor did not wish for it to be included, * It was a relatively new item and had not yet been included.” – Gordon Marks, Executive Director, True Source Honey LLC.

So, there we have it.  This brand of honey is verified.  It is the real deal!  Whew!  I feel a lot better now.  As you can see, my household loved this honey and used almost the whole bottle!  I can rest easier tonight.  Thanks Gordon!

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Clear image of bottle’s label – BCS Intl Corp. This honey has been verified CERTIFIED by Gordon Marks, Exec Dir of True Source Honey LLC on 6/12/17.

The moral of this story? If you are serious about having good health, it’s time to put a little time and effort into finding out what goes into your body.  And, then double-check the information so you know you have the correct information.

Why?  Because you don’t want to end up like me and have your body attack healthy cells (that’s another story you can read about here) because you were not diligent to research what you’re putting into your body.

Ta-ta for now,

Rochelle

 

Move Over Fake News, Here’s Fake Food

 

It’s Sunday morning. I’m in the kitchen thinking about a good, healthy breakfast that does not come from a package. I’m new to this way of eating so it took me some time to figure out this meal:

Baked sweet potatoes
Cabbage, cucumbers and red peppers dressed with balsamic vinaigrette
Catfish and kale dressed with a light lemon balsamic reduction

So, imagine my surprise when my hubby shows me a video (in Hindu, I think) showing a man creating cabbage for human consumption!  I was flabbergasted! I immediately checked Snopes and the video was shown to be a fake. It was a video showing the process of making plastic display food for restaurant windows in Japan and China.

Whew!!

Here’s the Snopes article marking this particular video a FAKE – http://www.snopes.com/chinese-synthetic-cabbages/.

However, reporter Kate Storey writes in Delish magazine about 14 real fake foods we may have in our very own kitchens. This includes:

olive oil (cut with cheaper oils like corn, and peanut oils)
truffle oil (the pigs in Alba never even heard of the stuff we’re ingesting…)
sushi (if you think you’re getting white tuna, think again.)
honey (no industry standard! Check True Source Honey to ensure it’s real.)
parmesan cheese (make sure it says “Made in Italy)

Storey reports that many manufacturers of the above food items cut/dilute the actual products with cheaper substitutions some of which can harm our health.  Being informed, and reading labels becomes very important! You can read the full article here.

To follow-up on the note above regarding honey, you can verify that the honey in your pantry is real and registered with True Source Honey by checking its UPC bar code. There’s an orange circle in the upper right hand corner of the True Source Honey page that says, “Is Your Honey True Source? Check Here.”

I checked my bottle of Natural Garden 100% Pure Natural Organic Honey that has the True Source Honey logo on the back!!! Guess what?  When I checked it on the True Source Honey page it said it was “not certified, or has not been registered” — in essence, FAKE!

I checked because I had an odd reaction to it when I used it; not quite nausea but close enough.  I fluffed it off.  However, the odd feeling stayed with me so I decided to began reading more about honey and how it’s certified.

Who knows what’s in this bottle!!!  And, my kids have eaten it!  The rest is going into the trash!

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Clear image of bottle’s label – BCS Intl Corp.

The moral of this story? If you are serious about having good health, it’s time to put a little time and effort into finding out what goes into your body.  You don’t want to end up like me and have your body attack healthy cells (that’s another story you can read about here) because of things like fake honey are floating around in your system.

Ta-ta for now,

Rochelle

 

Weekend Inspiration: Melissa Bess Reed, CMA, Gluten Free

I *met* Melissa in 2014 on Twitter shortly after finding out that I had the genetic marker for Celiac Disease.  Melissa, diagnosed with Celiac in 1998, was my first role model for this new path and a new way to eat.  Her book, Gluten Free Lifestyle Series: Silly Yaks Favorite Recipes, helped me, and my family, eat healthier and in a manner that would not make me sick.

For the first post of this new weekly feature of closing out the week with an inspirational story, I just knew this inaugural article needed to feature Melissa.  She took me under her proverbial wing and shared tips and tricks on how to stop yourself from eating the wrong things.  Being armed with foods you can eat safely is the key.  Cooking at home, or from trusted sources, is a must.

At that moment in time, my main meals were the issue.  What could I eat that did not contain wheat, or any of its by-products?!?  And my prowess as a resourceful baker?  Out the window!  Who could make a light fluffy cake with a tender crumb and a buttery taste when I couldn’t use whole wheat flour?  Or, the lighter refined cake flour?

Enter Silly Yaks Favorite Recipes.  The first thing I made was the Chili Relleno Bake.  I really enjoyed them!  It was a new taste for me.  I was never a fan of chilies and cheese but this was yummy!  Next, I made Grammies Easy Jambalaya.  The whole family enjoyed this dish!! (Read about it here.)

I even live-tweeted while I was making the Jambalaya.  It was a lot of fun!  Taking pictures as I was putting it all together.  Asking questions as I went along and getting great feedback and advice during the process.  And Melissa?  She was there for the whole thing.  She supported my growth and budding enthusiasm.  She shared her knowledge without hesitation.

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I even shared my blood test results with her and Melissa felt the results pointed more to an autoimmune issue rather than an allergy/intolerance/sensitivity to gluten.  That was in 2014.  Fast forward to 2017.  I was diagnosed with an autoimmune blistering disease.

Melissa was spot in.  She tirelessly studies and keeps abreast of new findings in regards to autoimmune conditions and how what we eat can help help our bodies.  As I mentioned earlier, Melissa was diagnosed in 1998 with Celiac Disease and then in 2012, she was diagnosed with Hashimoto Thyroiditis.  Both of these autoimmune conditions medically require a gluten free diet.  Melissa did not want to be a victim so she taught herself so she could share her knowledge with others to help them ease their way into this new eating lifestyle.

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So, if you have any gluten issues, I would strongly suggest you check out Melissa’s cookbook and her blog.  She posts about new gluten free recipes, great food pairings, and sustainable living.

By having Melissa as a part of my life, I was able to grow past some pretty daunting food challenges and come out on the other side with a satisfied tummy that did not rumble in distress hours later.

From the East Coast to the sunny West Coast, I say a heartfelt, Thank you!, to my inspiration — Melissa Bess Reed.

Check out Melissa’s blog here.

Find Melissa on Twitter: @MelissaBessReed

 

Procrastination: Pickles Are Exactly Like Porcupines

Common items in life parade around making us crazy.  But, what do we do?  We ignore the elephant in the room, whatever it is, until it becomes a true problem…a porcupine; something that can potentially harm us.

Procrastination is a total thing.  Psychology Today states that “20% of people chronically avoid difficult tasks and deliberately look for distractions — which, unfortunately, are increasingly available.”  But, why?  Why do we procrastinate?  There are a ton of reasons.

Forbes magazine gives us five top reasons why we do:

Being faced with a task we don’t want to do
Something’s too easy, too difficult to do, OR too boring to do
Being overwhelmed
When we’re tired and/or need a break
When it’s too scary

Procrastination is one of the things I have to constantly work on in myself.  Currently, I am dealing with an autoimmune illness (diagnosed last month; you can read about it here) that is kicking my butt in terms of my energy.  No energy, no writing, right?  Nope, completely wrong.  I am pushing myself to follow my plan.  I missed my publishing schedule to post yesterday.  So, I am up this morning getting it done.  And, I have #GlutenFree Banana Cranberry Muffins in the oven as a treat for myself for getting back on track!

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When you know what your issues are, put a plan in place for yourself so you can catch yourself before you go too far astray from what you want.  Then, reward yourself for doing that thing right when you finish the task.

Want to read more?  Here are some experts who can give you more details.

Five Tips and Skills to Manage To Manage Your Time That Actually Work (Psychology Today)

The Real Reasons You Procrastinate — And How To Stop (Huffington Post)

To Stop Procrastinating, Start By Understanding the Emotions Involved (Wall Street Journal)

Once you get to the root of your personal reason(s) why you’re procrastinating on calling your aunt/uncle/cousin/boss/best friend, you can deal with your inner demons and deal accordingly.  This way, your pickles stay crisp and tasty and the porcupines stay where they belong — out in the wilds.

Ta-ta for now,

Rochelle

“Lines in the Sand” Gets Bad Rap

From time to time, I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase ‘don’t draw lines in the sand.’  It is that line you don’t want people to cross over — or, else.  The ‘Or, Else’ is whatever you will do to them if they step over that line.

This phrase is all about not having boundaries, or limitations on how much you give/share with others.  Or, of not limiting your engagement/interaction with those folks around you for whom you may not have that warm-fuzzy feeling.

Sometimes raindrops are like mini pizzas…

Sometimes raindrops are like mini pizzas…

As they fall, they pelt you in the head and wake you up to new possibilities.  Okay, weird analogy but it woke you up, right?  And that’s precisely how Life is.  We go blithely along our merry little way thinking (careful of that word: thinking) that we have it all mapped out, planned out – efficiently.  With me?  Then, BOOM.  Something happens that is so left of what we expected that we’re dumbfounded.  All thinking stops.  We just have to pause in our forward movement and re-gain our balance because everything we were thinking previously clearly was not what was actually happening.  That’s Life.

When you think you know what’s happening, and then you find out that you never had a clue, what do you do?  How do you reconcile how off-base you were with reality?  That’s the conundrum, isn’t it?  It’s hard to face that our perceptions were wholly incorrect, or skewed.  But, this is what we need to know to correct ourselves and get us back on track with our true (higher) purpose.

We were all born to live out a great purpose.  Now, depending upon what you chose to come here to do, you may start earlier, or later in life on the path to achieve your true purpose.  But, when we get so off-track that Higher Power/God/The Creator/your preferred name here comes along and resets the whole show we do have to acknowledge our missteps and put a plan in place to ensure we don’t go that off-track again.

To help us do that, we can:

Create a vision board to help us remember our goals,
Write a poem that incorporates all of the aspects of what we need to recall to move forward,
Write an essay/letter to ourselves,
Create a life plan (based on the often used coach tool, The Wheel of Life) sectioned off into specific areas of our lives that we need to grow/develop/work on [you can use a loose leaf binder for it, or go digital],
Create a song to ourselves, for ourselves to help us remember and get through the rough patches where we tend to begin to stray away from our goals,
Sit and meditate using visualizations we put together to help us deeply seed our minds, and thoughts with the images of what we want to accomplish,
Sit and do deep breathing to fill our bodies with Chi (Qi)/light/ashe/energy/prana which will help us to remember and hold close our dreams, hopes and goals,

Or, we can choose to do nothing to get past the obstacle, or challenge that Life threw your way.  We could choose to ignore the message.  We are human.  We do have free will.  We can choose to take the comfortable way out and be “normal.”  (Whatever that means.)

It’s hard to “man up”, or “woman up;” to face our fears unabashed and move towards the unknown.  That’s damned hard to do.  And, for some of us, at particularly vulnerable times in our lives, it’s pretty impossible – or, so we would like to believe.  This is where picking something to do, at least one thing!, is important.  This one thing will help us focus and baby-step our way out of the challenge and towards our goals.

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Good luck on your baby-stepping today, and every day moving forward.