Polly Campbell's Blog, page 8

Try a Side of Mindfulness

I took the third piece of pizza. It tasted good, the first bite or so. But then, I was just sick feeling and my stomach was tight and gurgling. Heck, two pieces would have been plenty, but I wasn’t thinking. Seriously, I WAS NOT THINKING. We were watching a movie, I was gobbling the food, not really experiencing it. Totally unaware. No way was I paying attention to how my body was feeling, which was to say, way full. So I grabbed that last piece.

Then, my body hurt and I felt mad at myself and even a bit guilty. Right? Because often the very thing we need to survive — food — becomes a source of punishment.

This is why a more mindful approach to eating and to life is working better for me. I’ve stopped worrying about what I eat, and I’m developing my awareness to enjoy ALL that I eat. I do want to be conscious so that I can make good choices. And, if I’m going to eat the junk I want to appreciate every salty mouthful. When I eat mindlessly I don’t because 1) I’m zoned out. 2) Because I’m zoned out I eat too much AND that makes me feel gross, which isn’t all that enjoyable.

Authors Jean Kristeller, Phd and Alisa Bowman write about this in their new book The Joy of Half a Cookie: Using Mindfulness to Lose Weight and End the Struggle with Food.

Try a Side of Mindfulness

I live with mindfulness pretty regularly. At least I’m working on it. I have a chime on my phone every hour to remind me to pause and be mindful. I meditate. I consciously pause throughout my day to become aware without judgment.

I practice this stuff and so that the habit becomes stronger BECAUSE mindfulness IS ALL THAT. It is the easiest most practical way I’ve found to ground myself so that I can freakin’ calm down, and notice my life. AND, WHEN I DO, I can savor it or give thanks for it or move into compassion or whatever moves me.

Yet the food thing has been harder for me. That’s why I think this is such a worthwhile topic. It stands to reason that if we slow down, become aware, and take note of our body and our foods we don’t have to fight against either of them. Like we can become allies with food — the very thing that actually sustains us, instead of fighting against it.

This is the basis behind mindful eating and there is plenty of science to back it up.

The authors say, Mindful Eating Is:

Deliberately paying attention to your experience of food WITHOUT JUDGING.

Becoming aware in each moment of your thoughts, emotions, hunger, flavor, the  nutritional value of food and other factors.

Appreciating the difference between real physical hunger and other triggers.

Choosing to eat foods that you enjoy AND those that nourish your body.

Experiencing the flavor of food and it evolves from one bite to the next.

Noticing how fullness develops and how it feels to be full. Ding, Ding, Ding, this one set off the alarm. Yes. Right?

Using nutritional information to make informed eating choices.

And, the capper, Mindful eating FREES ENERGY FROM WORRIES ABOUT FOOD.

So, with this list in my hot little hand, I decided to just work with these things. For lunch I just ate a piece of chicken in spicy mole sauce and it, not kidding when I say this, was one of the best meals I’ve eaten. Ever. So full of flavor and spice AND yet, I left part of that goodness on the plate.

Huh. That doesn’t happen much. Read: Never. I was taught NOT to leave anything behind. But, I felt so full and satisfied and just happy about it all, that I didn’t need ANYTHING ELSE.

Mindfulness allows you to tune into your life and that means your meals too, in an open, comforting way that allows for clarity, insight, wisdom. And peace, people, there is peace here, even if your are leaning over a big ol’ pan of brownies.

No need for judgment, guilt, self-criticism and just knowing THAT takes the pressure off and probably some of the weight too.

Lose Weight, Enjoy Your Food with Mindfulness

If you give a stressed mom a cookie… she’ll stand at the counter and eat the entire box.

Been there. Done that.

Course it doesn’t have to be cookies, or even junk food. Often when I’m pounding on the keyboard trying to get a post out or an article done, I skip eating altogether. By then, I’m starving and I must eat everything I see Like Right Now. I’ll walk to the kitchen and grab anything sitting there, and by “there” I mean in the fridge and in the cupboard and on the counter. Anything that is ready to eat quick-like – no chopping, cooking involved – I’m going to eat.

If that’s an unpeeled orange leftover from breakfast, fine, it’s as good as gone. But if it’s a few broken crackers at the end of the bag, a leftover cookie from my husband’s lunch party,or pasta set aside for tonight’s dinner, I’ll scarf it down too. Usually without noticing or tasting or enjoying.

I’ve written about that kind of mindless eating before in these pages, and I’ve talked about the antidote – mindfulness.

Now I’m reading this book The Joy of Half a Cookie: Using Mindfulness to Lose Weight and End the Struggle with Food, by Jean Kristeller, PhD and Alisa Bowman and it’s giving me the science behind the practice of mindful eating and plenty of things to help me slow down and become aware of what my body needs so that I can make conscious choices, enjoy my food more, AND END the STRUGGLE around food.

Did you get that? END THE STRUGGLE. This is big news because I’m so over the struggle in my life. On my best-person days, I DO NOT do it anymore, the struggle thing. I let things come and go. I feel sad if I feel sad and I keep looking for the joy, and then I take it in and savor the goodness that is always around. All the time I am learning to let go and not fight against the world. I’m looking looking for ways to meet hard with softness. I’m building in the practice of mindfulness, the habit, so when I’m prone to anger or freak out or worry, I can stop struggling even then.

I don’t think even our hardest days require struggle. We don’t have to do it that way. We can live with self-compassion and grace and mindfulness and intelligence and humor. We can assume a growth mindset and be gritty, and test drive a zillion other things that I write about and try to live by so that we can all NOT STRUGGLE.

And yet I struggle with food. I don’t hate it. I don’t obsess about. But rarely, do I give it my attention. I eat too fast. Don’t savor. I don’t eat enough, or I eat way, way too much. I’m not good with portion size. If it’s on my plate it’s going down – a habit that is not working for me.

Mostly, I want to notice the food I’m eating. To enjoy it, to make food choices that leave me feeling energized, and not too full at the end of a meal.

This is the stuff Kristeller and Bowman write about: “the middle way between mindless eating and restricting eating.”

“It’s not about shifting back and forth between one and the other,” they write. “It’s about finding the balance between these two extremes where flexibility, conscious choice, and enjoyment meet.”

Yes. This. When you identify what your body craves, and learn to savor those foods – you can actually enjoy your food more, say the writers. Yes. Please.

And get this, science shows that you can eat the foods you want like chips or a donut, without gobbling down the entire box, or feeling guilty, or out of control. We can eat, and even enjoy our fave foods and not feel guilty.

And this positive stuff keeps food freak-out at bay and can help you create greater awareness which, Kristeller and Bowman say, helps you “uncover the hidden sources of weight gain.”

So yeah, you might drop a few pounds (research says you will) by eating mindfully, AND you’ll also be living more deliberately, giving your body what it needs to feel awesome, AND eating the food you enjoy.

Serve me up a side of that. Are you ready to try a more mindful approach to eating?

 

Seeking Awe, Finding Even More

Today’s Awe = Love Notes from My Daughter

Here’s the deal: We make this happiness thing too hard. We think we have to be different, buy something new, lose weight, make more money, dress better, to feel good in life. To be good in life. Baloney.
If you want to feel a little better in your day, find a little peace and joy, you simply must notice the goodness right before you, right now.
Of course there are going to be tough things and challenges and it’s going to rain on your parade and I mean, like really rain. But even right then, in the middle of that downpour, you can notice that the cotton candy is safely tucked in a plastic bag and AREN’T YOU LUCKY?

This pen is AWESOME. It was a gift and I do feel the love when I use it and it is so cool that this little contraption can drop ink down on the page. It’s a variety of the same kind of thing Shakespeare and Dickens used for Pete’s Sake and I get to have one too.

In the midst of the mundane, in the middle of the routine, or smack-dab in the I-don’t-know-how-to-handle-this adversity, you can find something wonderful. You can discover something awesome — inside you or right there in front of you — and that will inoculate you a bit from despair. It will raise your energy and your mood just enough for you to make it through.

The Look of Every-Day Awe

It’s a rainy (again) dreary day in the Pacific Northwest and I needed a pick-me up so I decided to seek out and access the awe in every day. I challenged myself to wander around and identify things that are wonderful or beautiful or amazing and then savor them for 30 seconds — to just be still and notice how many awesome things there are in the THIS moment. Like I didn’t even have to go anywhere special, or do anything different. Heck, I didn’t even have to change clothes. I opened my peepers and took a good  look around and I found AWE everywhere. LIKE EVERYWHERE.

I’m telling you what, the first sip of my coffee this morning was awesome. I stopped what I was doing and savored it for a minute, the warmth and richness.

And the crazy thing? When you start to look at life with a certain reverence and admiration (that’s AWE folks) you immediately get chased down by gratitude and appreciation and then comes curiosity, followed closely by creativity and soon, soon, like right away comes peace and well-being and love and hope.
Awe give us access into the goodness. Where will you find the awesome in your life today?







These FLOWERS outside my front door. Blooming in winter, through torrential rains and winds, freezing rain AND snow and they keep on doing their thing because they are wired that way to grow and bring beauty and I’m trying to notice and appreciate them and not just walk on by because they are awesome.

Why You Must Find the Awe in the Every Day

Last week, on a rainy Wednesday after throwing together a dinner of leftovers, I put on my good clothes (pretty much anything other than sweats) and went to Powell’s Books Cedar Hills Crossing, in Beaverton.

I was the author that night. The one invited to come talk about her book before a crowd which I expected to be my daughter and husband who I bribed to come. 

When I got there, early and a little wigged out by the road construction that I was sure would make me late, there were a few people in the room – people I didn’t even KNOW. I also saw a few friends. And, five minutes before the talk was supposed to start, Renee and April, the Powell’s Books folks who helped make all this work, were pulling out more chairs to seat all the people who showed.

The room was packed – 60 or 70 people maybe – all coming together to talk about books and ideas about how to live a more inspired life. People who came out on a dark and stormy night — love the cliche’ — to connect over ideas. How awesome! And, how hopeful too, that we can still sometimes, come together face-to-face.

Everyday Awesome

One of the things I talked about was how Awesome is all around us. Researchers say AWE is vast – usually something we experience as feeling bigger than ourselves. Of course “bigger” can be defined in a broad way something spiritual, like compassion, or amazing like a spider’s web. By big I’m thinking beyond our realm of complete understanding. AND awe requires accommodation. We’ve got to take in the experience, make sense of it, and in order to do that, often, we are changed.

I challenge folks to set the intention to discover the awe in their every-day lives, then to seek it out. Go looking for the amazing. Finally, savor it. Soak. It. Up. Hold the awesome feelings and let them drape over you for at least 30 seconds and you begin to rewire your brain in way that illuminates more of the good stuff in life.

Finding the Awe

This sounds easy to do, of course, when the sun is out and the birds are singing and the check comes in the mail and everyone is clean and lovey and polite. Harder in the rain and the snark and the traffic jams and health issues and when you are tired but you still have to find something to feed the little people in your home.

How do we find the awe in THOSE moments?  

First off, Stop doing. Stop the busyness. Slow down. Just be. Take one thing at a time and take a beat in each moment to notice what you ARE doing. Striving is not living it’s always looking for the next thing, instead of living with this thing now.

When you focus on this moment now – what you are being right now – you start to notice the awesome. AND, when you do, you’ve got a direct line to savoring, gratitude and a whole bunch of other stuff that just Makes You Feel Better. AND, then you become more resilient, more productive, healthier AND people like you more because you aren’t cranky. Seriously, don’t over think it. Just look for the awe and see what happens.

Places to Find Awe

When you are brushing your teeth in the a.m. think about how amazing it is that we have enamel in our mouth to help us eat tacos. The, you might get curious about how your body has come together in all these parts JUST to serve you so that YOU CAN LIVE YOUR DREAMS. Even if this body doesn’t work right (and I’ve got RA so mine doesn’t) it is still working enough to keep you living and breathing and reading this and when you think of ALL the shit that has to happen to make that possible. Hm. Awesome. Right there, people.

Or say, you are dealing with a cranky client and you realize, huh, isn’t it awesome you can just delete his e-mail. Or, you’ve got that great, forever friend you can call up and gripe to about the crank and in the midst of that call you are think WOW, so glad to have a friend like that and that MAKES EVERYTHING better and isn’t it awesome how we relate and connect to one another. AND, by now you are feeling better and you start again, with a new idea that cranky client might just like. And he does. HE LOVES it. 

The point, yes, there is one, is that you can experience awe and goodness and happiness right at the same time you experience doubt or upset or frustration — IF YOU GO LOOKING FOR IT.  Go looking for the goodness and when you do it buffers you from the stress. It doesn’t drop you into a bliss state, but it makes the difficult a little easier to bear until the better returns.

So, what does the awe look like in your life today? Is it a song? Is it the way your eyes are able to watch the world? Is it the giggle of your little girl, or that hummingbird in the red-flowered bush out front? That’s what it looks like in my world today.

On Wednesday, I’ll show more examples of how awe shows up in my life.

 

Letting Wonder Woman Go – It Isn’t Working Anyhow

Sunday I got bent out of shape over a wire risk. Serious stuff here people. I was feeling like I had to take care of everything, to do more because others weren’t doing their part. Then, I pulled out the whisk that another had crammed in the utensil drawer and it was twisted and bent. Needing to be fixed.

The bent whish became a metaphor for all the times during the week that I’d felt like I had to fix, manage, repair damage others had done. Like it was my job to clean up the messes left by others.

I said this to my husband, with the whole metaphor thing, and may or may not have been a little sighing and dramatic. He looked at me. Eyes unblinking.

“Wha? I don’t get what any of this has to do with a whisk,” he says.

I know. I was a bit crazy in that moment, overwhelmed and feeling like I was in fix-it mode ALL WEEK LONG and I wanted somebody to make it easier for me, for once. I wanted someone to come in and fix my stuff.

Course, I’m the only one who can fix my stuff. I am also, apparently, the only one who got my great whisk metaphor.

So this week, with greater awareness, I’m doing things differently.

Here’s how.

Drop the Wonder Woman Cape

First off, and this will come as a surprise to NOT ANYONE, but I Cannot Do it All. Right. And, seriously, I don’t want to do it all. That doesn’t feel good or grounded and I’m not very fun to live with when I try and there is so much stuff I’m not even any good that the whole notion of me trying to do it all is ridiculous and wouldn’t work well for anyone, so I’m quitting that.

Believe me when I tell you, you don’t want to see this body in a Wonder Woman suit so I need to stop playing the part in my own mind.  Bottom line is I will ask for help when I need it.

Not just for help when it comes down to the chores and shuttling kids and cooking dinner, but also when I need emotional support and comfort. This week I’m leaving room for people to take care of me a little bit, when I need it. Of course this feels vulnerable, (Brene’ Brown says we can survive this, of course, and she’s got the research to back it up and she is awesome so I totally believe her) AND it feels enlivening. It feels like a way to open up more to this life. To notice it and feel it, and engage in it, and make space for my whole self, not just the one that seems to have it all together, even as things are unraveling inside.

Part of living a more grounded life, of course, also means that I will do what aligns with my values. Working out (good health), driving my daughter to class (family time – you can cover a lot when your kids are trapped in the car) and managing the dinner and evening stuff so my husband can fit his marathon training are things that align with my values of family and health.

And, I will also take time for my own creative development and work – this may look like an hour spent reading or daydreaming, or writing or pitching agents or walking around with a camera or jotting notes in a coffee shop. Don’t know. But I do know it’s a must-do for me to remain sane AND it aligns with my value of creative expression and work. That critical value which is about ideas and learning and expression and knowledge, keeps me grounded and aware. It’s for me and it’s just as important as those things that support others.

And I know by now that even on our busiest days we feel better when we are doing things that align with our values, the things we most care about.

The day will be filled with other things of course and I’ll take them as they come accept them for what they are rather than projecting and worrying and what-iffing.

And I’ll take baby steps to keep moving in alignment my own expansion and growth. Not everything needs to be fixed in a day – most don’t need to be fixed at all. So, I’ll mind my own business and stop over-functioning so that others can step into their own capabilities. And, I’ll let the Wonder Woman act go. It only pisses me off in the end, anyhow.

 

Strength-building with Bad Days

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Sweet P has a hole in her boot.

And, I didn’t give her enough peanut butter to go with her apple.

Her partner was too noisy in the pod and the teacher told them to quiet.

AND she spilled water while feeding the cats.

Also we don’t have a puppy. AND I’ve darn near ruined her life by making her play the piano instead of watching Austin and Ally.

From what I could tell, this was the same list I’d heard  delivered 30 minutes before. Course then, it was a bit hard to make out and a whole lot more screechy and catastrophic and crying and fueled by the 20 proof brand of you-just-don’t-understand angry reserved for moms who actually parent even while fantasizing about telling their kids’ to shut up.

By now the emotion had been sopped up and wrung out and I could actually understand what she was saying as she went through her bad-day details in her monotone spelling-bee voice. 

S-O N-O-T H-A-P-P-Y.

Life is so hard some days, she says. My 9-year-old.

Yes. It IS.

Strength-building with Bad Days

Some days it feels so freakin’ hard.

And even as I admitted this truth to her, I felt a split second sear of jealously for my daughter whose biggest problems included a small portion of peanut butter.

MY biggest problems that day were how to fix my arthritic hip and how to get a client to pay the $425. he owed without me going all bitchy, and how to keep the cat from jumping on the counter — seriously I hate that — AND if someone could make it better — especially the arthritis part —  with a scoop of peanut butter, I’m telling you what.

And I sat there, too,  for a second trying to let the whole peanut butter and other first-world problems go because she has got plenty of peanut butter in a world where so many people have none and apples are like gold. And it’s true.

And it’s also true that she is nine, living in this world, in this house which right now has enough peanut butter and that’s o.k. too. And so this is what was going on inside all mom internal-brain talk squawk, split-second clicking through these thoughts like moms do, until I was smacked by the biggest one of all.

We have had so much worse than this.

Thank you. Thank you that these were the big ones for today because I can deal with this. Gratitude rolling over me now.

But she’s heard it before so I keep it to myself and try to be cool, so maybe, she’ll talk to me once more before graduation, and to her I say:

“You had a lot to deal with today. That must have felt challenging and hard.”

“Mama, you don’t even know,” she says all big-eyed.

“And, what happened? I mean how did you deal with it all?” I asked.

She was confused and wary, knowing by now a lesson was in the works, but she says, finally, (and I’m so glad she went where I wanted her to go otherwise I’d be a big lesson-loser) “Well, I just made it work. I just did stuff and kept going. Like with piano I just stopped crying and started playing and then it was over.”

Yes.

Because we are all that. Humans are vast and resilient and we can take in so much challenge and we can hurt and complain and worry and at the very same time we are capable of getting through it.

We are capable of adapting, creating, persisting right up until we don’t need to anymore in which case we can take a deep breath and drink margaritas and revel in our own strength and laugh in relief.

Because we are ALL that and we can be strong and vulnerable at the very same moment. And hurting AND coping. And worried at the very same moment that we are out there working hard toward the better. We are all that. Right now. When we get that, when we know deeply our own capability, we are free.

We are strength-building with bad days.

 

Deal Better with Changing Days

Life is a dynamic, breathing, moving, expanding thing. Which is a fancy way of saying plans change. All the time. Distractions come into play, the computer quits, your mom unexpectedly drops by, or a kid gets sick and life goes from feeling like a quiet walk around the block to bouncing around like a super ball, ricocheting in the hard-to-reach corners.
I’m not so great at handling the super-ball bounce, but I’m practicing and getting better at it. When my daughter had a snow-day last week, it didn’t bother me a bit — it was soo much fun — until the second day’s two-hour delay. See? I’m getting there.
Here are four tips I use when plans have changed and I’ve got to get a handle on the super-ball schedule:
Acknowledge. First thing I do is get real about the change AND I acknowledge my discomfort. I take a good look at the things I still have to make work and evaluate which I can let go. Pretending that you can fit all the same work duties in on the day your child is home sick, for example, is super stressful and probably not realistic. Acknowledge the schedule change, notice what it requires and make an honest list about what you can still do and what you need to let go.
Manage. Then get to it. Send emails to reschedule meetings, or make a call to let the manager know you’ll be late. This can be quick and dirty. If you start juggling, figuring, hemming and hawing over what you “might” be able to do instead of what you really can do, you’ll get stuck in the super-ball stress. Take 10 minutes to tie up the things you must tie up, and move on.
Accept. So, this is the deal. Your plans have changed. Wishing they hadn’t is like wishing you could lose 20 pounds while snacking on Snickers and red wine – not gonna happen. Deal with what is now  and you’ll feel less stressed.
Have fun. Now do the day — whatever it looks like NOW. Make the most of the moments you have. A snow day is SO MUCH FUN! (if you live in Oregon where you only get a couple a year.) A corrupt computer, means you can log off and do something else worthwhile: read a book, talk to real people over coffee, paint, create, develop. During a sick day last year, that required mega-adjustments on my end and had me complaining for a bit — my daughter and I snuggled on the couch and watched Sound of Music (her first time) together. It turned out to be a great afternoon and it is now a favorite memory for both of us.
When plans change it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. If you adapt, go with the flow, and stay aware you’re apt to find possibilities that you otherwise would have missed.

Flex Time

Last week I couldn’t even get the sliding door to open. The freezing rain blew against its seal welding it shut with us inside.
Not what I had planned. Not what I was banking after a two-week break. With the family. Every day with the family. A trip to the coast, games of Bounce Off and Monopoly – hours of Monopoly – and  though it was fabulous and I do adore the people I live with, Monday was the day I was planning to go it alone. For a few hours. Just a few hours, people.
I had it all planned: They would go outside to their jobs and their classes and I would stay inside, working in my office. Alone.
Then Mother Nature did her thing. The first day of gentle snow and sledding was awesome and fun and I felt like Super Mom sliding down the hill on a plastic mat that was about as thick as a cracker. I didn’t even break when I slammed into the curb to stop. Go me! I did not, however, feel like Super Mom the next day.
Day two, freezing rain, iced-up roads and trees bowing under the pressure meant I wasn’t even walking out to get the paper. Day three = two-hour delay. Day four- buses on snow routes, which means we missed ours and I ended up slip-sliding my way to school to drop my daughter off, late.
Not the week I was planning, but not a bad one either. I mean none of this was a big deal. Still, it took me some time to adjust.
I have GOT to get better at at that — adapting when plans change.
I mean, they do. All of the time, right?  Plans change. That know-it-all Mother Nature never actually asks what I have in mind before she rains on my picnic or snows on my workday. Then people go and get sick and need a day at home and cars break down and must be dropped at the shop (surprise!). All that life stuff screws with my 9 to 5 which has very little wiggle room.
Scheduling Flex Time
One reason our holiday break was so relaxed and fun this year is because I didn’t keep to a firm schedule. I set a few things in stone, work mostly. But then we just adapted and flowed with whatever came up. Movies and cupboard cleaning and Monopoly. The flex schedule felt good. Until I had a long to-do list. Then, I felt pushed and pulled trying to fit it all in.
So I’m trying something new. An experiment of sorts. I’m going to build a little flex time into my daily calendar. Leave some open hours and moments. Make room, for whatever.
Perhaps I’ll fill the time with writing or by saying ‘yes’ to a client’s rush job. Maybe I’ll run a quick errand, take a long lunch break or listen to Serial. All I know, is I’m not planning anything, so I’m ready for everything.
It doesn’t feel like the easiest thing though, I do like my schedule. But I think a little practice in adaptation will be good. It leaves me open to some grand possibilities.

Power Up: Seek Awe

 

This year, instead of resolving to change, or reinvent or remake, take a little different approach (whew, did you just feel the pressure lift?) resolve to notice the goodness that is already right here. Take in the AWE that is already part of your everyday life. Recognize the amazing that you are.
Awe happens on a need to notice basis. When you do, when you allow yourself to notice the amazing and then pause long enough to be moved by it, to appreciate, or witness, or share, or explore the intricate spider web, or the child’s giggle, or the sweetness of the homemade fudge; when you use all of your senses to take in the sweet and amazing moments of your life, you’ll recognize how awesome your life really is.
This is in itself awesome. Simply allowing ourselves to be moved by the amazing and wonder in the world uplifts our moods, lowers our blood pressure, helps us connect with others in a meaningful way and moves us toward inspiration and creativity and appreciation.
This is not little stuff. Awe is the energy of life. Recognize it. Take it in. And you’ll find the awesome within you too.


**If you want to learn more about the power of Awe, I write about it  and other topics like Potential, Purpose, Inspiration, and Resilience, in my newest book How to Live an Awesome Life: How to Live Well, Do Good, Be Happy.   If you’re curious about how these little qualities can make big differences in our lives, check it out.

Power Up: Cultivate Inspiration

 

Here’s a shocker: though the commercials tell us otherwise, the holidays don’t necessarily mean your heart will swell with love and joy every single minute. Hardly.
In fact simply watching that commercial where the kids are making cookies and the kitchen is a disaster and the mom tosses her head back and laughs makes me want to sign up for therapy. I am so not that mom.
But we can move from the stress, anxiety, frustration, and impatience that sometimes comes with the holiday hustle into a place that feels just a teeny bit better.
And a healthy dose of inspiration can help us do it, by warming our little Grinchy hearts. Inspiration isn’t something contrived, it simply happens. But, we can set ourselves up to receive more of it and more of the good, creative, energy that comes with it.
Cultivate inspiration. Draw it in by:


Engaging in life. Stop complaining and start participating. Saying “yes” to life is a big draw for inspiration.




Stay Open. Experience life without judgment. Take in all sorts of experiences and inspiration is soon to follow.




Seek out those beautiful people and things that inspire. Look at beautiful art. Watch poignant videos on Facebook. Appreciate nature. Read books that move you. Pay attention to those doing amazing things in the world.


Inspiration uplifts and energizes us and helps us hold onto amazing even within the madness.