Water because it cleanses my soul and my mind (and if you’ve ever visited my personal blog, you’ll no doubt have noticed that almost every photo I post has water of some sort in it.)

Music because it soothes me and because I am now, and always will be, my father’s daughter. He was a jazz man and a piano teacher, and I started playing when I was about 3 years old, and when I need soothing even now, my piano is still the first place I turn to.

This wonderful video from composer Brian Crain combines them both.

Have a wonderful day!

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If you missed part one, you can read it here: Lessons on Living For the Moment, Part 1

Lesson Three: Be Mindful of Your Choices

A lot of the fun of living in the moment comes from being able to make the choice of what to do each minute of the day. There is responsibility too, in making sure that you accept that the choice you make for this moment will have an impact on all the moments that follow it.

Being mindful of what you are doing and why you choose to spend time doing it can be a hard lesson to learn. It can be a frustrating one too if you have trouble staying focused. Take this article, for instance…

I knew that when I chose to sit down and write this article, that I would also be committing to spending the next 45 or 50 minutes with pen and paper, engaged in the task of creating something. So the choice to write an article in one moment has a definite impact on the next several minutes. It means my butt can’t leave the chair until it’s done, that my mind has to stay focused on one topice until it’s done, and any other thoughts that don’t relate to the current topic have to be set aside for the time it takes to get everything I want to say down on paper.

It also means that I have to be mindful of each and every word that goes in to the creation of this article, because it’s very easy for me to just start spewing out whatever comes to mind. And as you’ve no doubt noticed, I can ramble with the best of ‘em!

If I’m not paying attention to where my thoughts are heading, it’s easy to get dragged so far off topic that the only way back is to just stop and start over.

It’s also possible to hit a roadblock where the thoughts just stop. If you’re not mindful of the moment when that happens, you can find yourself crashing head first into the barrier. The moment has passed, and you’ve missed the train of thought you were supposed to be on.

Lesson Four: Let Go of the Past

Which brings me to the fourth lesson I’ve learned about living for the moment. Life is too darned short to live in the past.

And I’ll be perfectly honest with you here — this is the one lesson I still struggle with on a daily basis. I’m not good at letting go, and I still spend way more time than I should thinking about the past. Even though I know I can’t change it (and if I’m really honest I probably wouldn’t if I could since it’s brought me to where I am today), it’s still there rumbling around in my mind doing its level best to interrupt my present.

Learning to accept the past for what it is, is one of the biggest obstacles I’ve faced in my quest to live each day in the moment. I’ve found that sometimes the best way to handle it is to spend a few minutes wallowing in the memories, and then just say “thank you” and send them on their way.

Sometimes, too, thoughts of the past can serve as a good reminder of why it’s so important to stay focused on the present. Like those rare moments that I catch myself thinking “Gee, I wish I had a cigarette right now,” and then I remember all those cigarettes of my past and just how good they were for me. That’s when the past shoves me firmly back into the present, and in a hurry too. I have no desire to repeat those hospital visits, thank you very much.

These days I try to live for the moment and be conscious of my thoughts as often as possible. I’m still working on it, and some days are definitely better than others. One thing I’ve noticed is that the more I pay attention to each moment, the less stressed I am about what tomorrow may bring. Who knows… I might not make it to tomorrow, and that makes me determined to enjoy today’s moments to their fullest.

Thanks for spending a few of your moments reading this. Please leave a comment and let me know if you liked it, or just say hello so I know you were here.

Thanks for being here!

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One of the lessons I have learned from being a diabetic and a heart attack survivor is the importance of living for the moment. It’s so easy to become distracted by all the “stuff” of daily life that the dreams and pleasures of each moment get forgotten, or worse, set aside. We no longer live for the present moment because our thoughts get caught up in the next big problem or in rehashing something that happened years ago that we haven’t let go of. Until something comes along, like a heart attack, to remind us that this moment is really all we have, it could be our last, and if we don’t pay attention to it, it will be wasted instead of enjoyed.

As far as heart attacks go, mine was a pretty mild one. But it was enough of a wake-up call to make me want to change. Add diabetes into the mix and I got downright mad at the situation. Because even though I wanted, and still want, to be healthy and make changes and live each moment just for itself, I know I’ve not been very successful at it up to this point.

Why?

Mostly because I was afraid. For the first two years I sat in my house, afraid to do anything in case it triggered another heart attack.

Lesson One: Letting Go of the Future

The first lesson I had to learn was to let go of the future. By that I mean I had to quit worrying about what might happen before it happens. Instead of saying “I’d like to go for a walk, but what happens if I get chest pain out there and can’t make it back home,” I had to retrain myself to say “I will go for a walk today, and now is the perfect time.”

I found that if I was worried about the chest pain, I would sit back down on the couch and not move for the rest of the day. The moment to take action was wasted because I worried about what might happen before it even had a chance to happen.

But, if I accepted that I felt good in that one moment when I decided to go walking, put my shoes on and headed out the door, then I was usually fine. Sure there were, and still are, times that I have to stop and catch my breath, but now I see those moments for the gifts they are as well — a chance to really notice my surroundings.

Lesson Two: Pay Attention to Nature

Do you know what a gift it is to be able to take pleasure in the smell of wild flowers, freshly cut grass, or the river? The sight of ducks playing in the water, or a squirrel jumping from branch to branch? Or the feel of a spring breeze gently caressing your skin? There are days when I could happily spend the whole day just sitting on a rock letting the smells, sights, and feelings of being outside wash over me. My favorite moments are the ones where I am sitting on that rock, and I can take a deep breath and know that for just this one moment in time everything is absolutely perfect in my world. There is no future to worry about, no past to agonize over how I could have done things differently. There is only now, and in this moment everything is exactly as it should be.

Being in nature is a wonderful way to live for the moment. When you take the time to reconnect with nature, whether it’s to take a walk, ride a bike, or just sit on a rock, you realize that all of nature lives for the moment. We humans have got so messed up stressing over the things we can’t control. The best stress-reliever I know is to get outside and really be a part of nature, because at that point you can’t help but be in the moment.

Going back to my example of the walk, I found that no matter how crappy I was feeling at the time, the moment I opened the door and stepped on to the sidewalk, I started feeling better. Even though for the time being I have to trudge through the urban landscape of downtown to get to the green stuff, as long as I could breathe in reasonably clean air and feel the sun on my face, even those moments where I have to deal with people in my space become tolerable. Seeing them rushing about just makes me more grateful that I can choose my moments and what I do with them.

To be continued…

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I’m finding lots of new blogs today as I start my new system of using Google Reader to keep informed and organized.

One of the best so far today is Annabel Candy’s blog “Get In the Hot Spot.”

Here’s a couple of posts that I really found useful:

101 Ways To Feel Happy

How to Use Twitter as a Motivational Tool

Wanna know how I found Annabel’s blog?

Here’s the trail…

First I read a guest post by Eric Watermolen on the Dumb Little Man blog.

That led me to click on Eric’s link at the bottom of his post to check out his blog. The first post I came across there was The Campfire – A Collaborative Discussion of Happiness. This really caught my eye since the last issue of The Acorn Stash that I sent out was about Happiness so of course I had to see what everyone else has to say about the topic.

This led me to checking out everyone else’s blog who had contributed to the post, and that’s how I ended up at Annabel’s blog.

It’s also how I ended up at Patty Bechtold’s “Why Not Start Now” blog. This is another great find that I wouldn’t have stumbled across if I hadn’t been following trails and gathering acorns this morning. Her post Life As a Work of Art really made me stop and think about my writing and photography, and my relationship with my audience. (Or more accurately at this point, my lack of relationship with my audience.)

So how did all this come about? Well, I’ve been following along with Susan James’ Manifesting blog. I had planned on playing along when she started this way back in January and I completely forgot about it until just the other day. And one of the first things she says to do is to ask to be led to something to read each day. So I asked, and the result is that by reading one post on a blog I normally read, I ended up finding three new blogs and authors to follow, found four very helpful and thought-provoking articles, learned a new way to use twitter, and have the basic outline of a new article.

Not bad for a morning’s play, huh?

Hope you’re having an amazing day too!
Stay Happy!

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My mother was a very angry woman. So was her mother. Without dragging too much dirt out of the family closet, let me just say that neither of them lived a happy life. They’re favorite sayings to me were always either “Happiness doesn’t grow on trees” or “You can’t always have what you want in life.”

For the longest time I bought into that philosophy. Because in one way my mother and grandmother were right — happiness doesn’t grow on trees. The problem with their philosophy was that they never explained it to me. Maybe happiness doesn’t grow on trees, but they never told me where it did grow. It was the same way with them telling me I couldn’t always have what I wanted — it was a great saying, usually trotted out when I was being told “no” about something, but they never told me WHY I couldn’t always have it.

I like to think I’m a pretty happy person, and that if I put enough effort into it I can usually get the results I’m determined to have. But it hasn’t always been easy. I had to unlearn the “glass half-empty” mindset that my family taught me, and re-learn how to be an optimistic, “glass half-full” happy person. More importantly, I had to make the choice to be happy. And that was something that neither my mother nor my grandmother could help me with, no matter how much they loved me.

Creating a happy life for yourself is a conscious choice that only you can make. And it’s not about having more or getting more stuff (even if that’s what the commercials all say). To me, having a happy life means being more… being the best person you can be each and every minute of each and ever day. And no, it’s not always easy to stay happy in the face of all the negativity and miserableness in the world. But once you make the choice there are things you can do to ensure that you keep that happy mindset going, even when the going gets tough.

Here are five quick examples of things you can do to keep yourself in a happy mindset…

1. Be grateful. Use the lemons life throws at you to make the best lemonade you can. And know that even though you may not always get what you want, what you end up with might just be better than what you wanted in the first place.

2. Cultivate a support system. The old saying, “No man is an island,” is very true. It’s much easier to be happy when you have friends and family that also care about your happiness.

3. Create a “happiness journal.” Use it to write down things that make you happy. You can also use it to record your dreams and goals and what you’re doing to make them a reality.

4. Pray or meditate. Quieting your mind and spending time with your Higher Power (regardless of what name you call Him/Her)is a great way to stay focused on the positive and happy energy around you. Sometimes just knowing there’s a bigger picture and that there’s Someone out there looking out for you is enough motivation to keep going.

5. Create an outlet for frustration and anger. Whatever you do, don’t let feelings of frustration and anger build up inside you. They’ll make you sick and undermine all your progress at being happy if you let them. Go for a run, lift some weights, or punch a bag to get the negative energy out of your system. Studies have proven that people who exercise tend to feel better about life, and about themselves. And if you’ve never had an exercise “high” what can I say… better than chocolate. :)

Having a happy life is within your reach. It’s up to you to make the choice to go for it and to take the actions you need to in order to make it your reality. Happiness may not grow on trees, but it does grow inside of you and it’s just waiting to be let out to play.

Have a Happy Life!
Thanks for being here!

For more great ideas on how to be happy check out these blogs:
42 Happiness Tips and Snidbits
Ten Common Myths About Happiness
How To Be Happy: A Pessimists Guide To Happiness>
Happiness,Backwards

And be sure to grab the Happiness issue of The Acorn Stash!

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I was looking through a storage container of partially finished projects and products this afternoon, and I came to the conclusion that I have a serious problem.

I have a hard time letting go, especially of the things I’ve created.

I want to share them… really I do. But I don’t want to let go of them to the point that’s required for them to be of actual use to anyone else. And it’s not about control. It’s all about rejection.

I remember what it was like to be the kid no one liked. The one who got made fun of, was always left off the invitation lists, and was the last one picked for baseball every day. And it sucked. I was two years younger than everyone else thanks to the wonderful accelerated learning programs of the 1960s, and so in retrospect I can understand why I never really fit in socially but I wouldn’t wish that kind of rejection on my worst enemy. And I certainly wouldn’t wish it on any child of my own.

That’s when it dawned on me that I see creations in the same way as I see children. We can birth them, and nurture them until they’re fully grown. But then we have to set them free to make their own way in the world. They’ll still always be yours and a part of you, but they’ll lead their own lives and as creators we have to be able to accept that.

But it’s hard. As parents, we want our kids to be liked and accepted even though we know that won’t always be the case. As product creators, I think it’s much the same. We know that not everyone is going to like our creations, and we know that we don’t have the answers for every single person out there. Still, it’s hard not to be protective of your “babies” when they don’t garner the response you were expecting.

So where am I going with all this? Honestly, I’m not really sure yet. But I read this quote that Warren Whitlock posted on twitter earlier today:

“Do one thing every day that scares you” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

And my first thought was that putting a finished product up for sale is one thing that scares the crap out of me! I know that if I’m going to actually have the year I have planned for myself, then letting go of those finished creations and sharing them with the world is a big part of that. Now I just have to figure out how to do that.

Any suggestions? Leave a comment and share your thoughts. I’d love to hear them.

Have an incredible day!
Thanks for being here,

PS… January’s issue of The Acorn Stash Newsletter is ready for download.

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I have always had a love/hate relationship with new years resolutions. There have been years when I’ve mad some really good ones and kept them. There’ve also been years where I’ve blown my resolution at about one minute past midnight on January first. Then there have been those years where my resolution has been not to make any resolutions at all. And as I’m learning quickly, there are times when not making any new years resolutions just may be a good thing.

New Year’s is such a stressful time of year. For me, it’s even more stressful than Christmas because it comes at the end of the holiday season. By this time many of us have spent a week or two (or more) eating too much, spending too much, perhaps indulging in too many cups of cheer, and spending too much time around people we’d normally avoid like the plague (aka well-meaning relatives). Sound familiar?

It leads one to ask the question — why did anyone ever think that New Year’s Day was the best time to start making lifestyle changes if they wanted a snowball’s chance in warm weather of success? That has to be one of the world’s unsolved mysteries, at least in my mind.

And let’s face it — for the majority of people making resolutions to do things like lose weight, get out of debt or quit smoking (three of the most popular new years resolutions) we are talking about serious lifestyle change.

This is something that should be done with planning, forethought, and clear intentions. It’s a true goal for improving your life and it should be given the consideration a major lifestyle change deserves. It’s not something you dive into because it’s the first thing that came to mind at the New Year’s Eve party when you were asked what your resolution for the new year would be.

Another reason why not setting a new years resolution can be a good thing is because it should be something that you choose for yourself. It’s very hard to set a clear goal about what’s best for your life when you’re being pestered and pressured by those well-meaning friends and family. Negative pressure to maintain the status quo can be just as damaging to your well-being as being urged to make changes. And we all know how hard it can be for others who are not ready to make changes to accept the fact that you want to do something to improve your life that might leave them behind.

The bottom line is, it’s okay to not make a new year’s resolution. Between the stress of the season and the pressure of people who “only want the best for you” (or at least their definition of it) sometimes you’re just better of waiting until all the hubbub from the holidays has died down. If you’ve thought about it, made your plans and decided that January first is the day you want to put your new plans into action, then by all means go for it. But if you don’t and you’d rather wait until you are clear on your intentions, then not making a new years resolution is a good thing.

When it comes down to it, every day gives you an opportunity to start a new year in your life. New Year’s Day as a holiday is just a mark on a calendar. Don’t get trapped into thinking that if you don’t quit smoking or start dieting on January first that you’re doomed to failure for the entire upcoming year. You can choose to make changes when they are right for you. Whether that’s January first or the middle of May, making a new years resolution is your choice and that’s definitely a good thing.

Did you make any new year’s resolutions? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Happy New Year!

To start the year off right and get a good start on my new year’s goal of providing more great resources for you, I’m taking part in the Self Improvement Giveaway that started today.

At last count there were over 400 gifts available on all aspects of health, wellness, and personal development for you to download free of charge. (You will have to give up your email address in exchange for the download in most cases.)

So far I’ve scanned through the first ten or so pages of gifts and while there are a few that I’ve seen before, there are also a lot of new items that I’ve not seen yet. I’ll be grabbing some of these myself, and doing reviews of them in upcoming posts. But don’t wait on me to go and check it out. The giveaway is only open from today until the 19th, so if this is something that interests you check it out today.

You can get there by clicking on the banner below:

In the interests of full disclosure, the links in this post are affiliate links and I will earn a commission if you purchase any of the special offers presented on the site.

Thanks for being here!
Have a great day,

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This week’s wallpapers have been posted over on the Wallpaper Collection blog. Here’s a sample for you.

Clicking on the image will take you to the download page for each wallpaper.

Enjoy!

Thanks for being here!

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I’m learning how to make videos, so here’s today’s experiment. :) If you like it, can you please hop on over to YouTube and rate it for me.

Thanks,

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