M.E.D.S.

Have you taken your MEDS today?

I have been listening to a new audio series by Guy Ferry called 'Ridiculous Bliss' - it is funny and inspiring and one of his ideas that struck a chord that I thought I would share is that we should take our MEDS daily.

Now what does it stand for - well M - Meditation; E- Exercise; D - Diet; S - Sleep.

Well if all those things are working well, then you probably are experiencing Blissful happiness.  Most of us in the Western world, don't do so well on at least one of those if not all of them.

He also talks about the 'Drunken Monkey' - this is the mind chatter that lives in our head and is a leftover relic from our days of 'survival mode' - in other words situations are dangerous, so we should fight or flight. 

Most of you reading this blog have long passed survival mode - you are in improvement mode, but still the Drunken Monkey keeps working.  If someone annoys you in a traffic jam, then your Drunken Monkey comes out and attacks, if someone is mean to you then your Drunken Monkey tells you to flee.  Isn't it an interesting thought that if we think of our thoughts and behaviours as those of a Drunken Monkey who is just trying to help us survive - then maybe we will view the world in a different way. 

I will try and share more of this idea tomorrow or in another post.  If you are interested in learning more from Guy Ferry yourself, go ahead - his series is called Achieving Ridiculous Bliss and is really funny and interesting as well as informative.

Childhood Joy

This is 'Belinda' - Well not really my Belinda, but she looks just like her.
As a young girl I ownded the most beautiful baby doll in the world. Her name was Belinda. Belinda was my child. I spent all my pocket money on real baby clothes for her and she was the love of my life.
What happened to Belinda? I don't know!


Today Sarah invited me to join Granny and her in visitng the Ipswich Doll & Bear show. There were so many dolls, it was lovely. And then I spotted her. I was transfixed. It was Belinda. The lady offered her to me to hold and she felt just like her. I have no photos of Belinda, only my memories, but I once more held in my arms my perfect baby doll.

Before I could get out my purse, Mum paid for her and I just burst into tears. (I am a little emotional at the moment), but some special magic, special joy of my childhood, was back in my arms. I cried, Mum cried and the lovely couple at the craft table smiled. Belinda is a Berenguer Collectors Doll and is very beautiful.

Sarah also found a Berenguer doll that she fell in love with, so we walked out of the show, with two special treasures.

Mine the most special of all.

It finally rained!

After weeks of 35 degrees celcius plus temperatures and not a drop of rain, our weather cooled a little today, only 29 degrees predicted and about 15 minutes ago it began raining. We had 10.5mm of wonderful rain, refreshing the air and plants. It is still cloudy, so we are hoping for a little more, but are completely grateful for the little bit that we have had.

Out with the old - In with the new!

I have been in desparate need of a new handbag for ages. This however, is a very difficult project as I have a cupboard full of reject bags, that I buy and then hate once I start to use them. Elizabeth made the comment, that a good bag is one that you don't even notice using, but when it is bad, it annoys you everytime you pick it up. How True!

I have suggested to my local store that they have a 24 hour 'Try and Buy' policy, but I don't think that will work. Anyway the photo above has my old one on the left and my beautiful new leather one, in all my favourite colours on the right. And it is just perfect.

Two for Tuesday

After Ivan and Elizabeth left, I answered a few emails, blogged for the day and then headed into the shower. After my shower, I decided it was nice and quiet (Matthew and Sarah still asleep), so I hopped back into bed to do some work on my Creative Writing Tutorial.

This is my Blissing for today, studying in bed - what a treat!

Clean car blissing.

Today I drove into the local car wash to get my car cleaned.

About a month ago, I finally gave in and decided that this was going to be my personal luxury. I hate my car looking dirty and sad, so for just $11 I can get it washed and dried and so every few weeks, I now treat myself.

I was sitting in the car as it drove through the washing feeling very frustrated, as my camera was in the back and I could not get access to it, so as soon as I drove out, I stopped, hopped out, picked up my camera and took this great photo of my shiny car.

What a Blissing!

I have the card to prove it!

Today I went through to the University of Queensland and got my student card. I joined all the other students in the queue and handed over my Welcome to UQ letter and Driver's licence, smiled for my photo and was handed an official 'full-time' student ID card. I was so excited and of course had to get Elizabeth to take a photo of me for my Blissings album.

We then went to the library and using 'my card' I borrowed 2 exciting texts for my essay on 'Meditation and Contemplation'. I am it! I am a student. I have done it! WOW!

Next week is Orientation week, where I get to attend information lectures, go on tours and also join all the societies that I am interested in; and then on Wednesday 4th March, my first lecture starts!

New Blogs

I have been surfing the Blogs today and found two wonderful new blogs. Amazingly, both are scrapbookers and one lovely lady is doing a 365 day project. It seems amazing that there are so many of us in the world that are documenting lives that we live on a daily basis.

I can sit here at my computer in Australia and connect with lives in the USA and in Canada and daily watch things happening in the lives of strangers, who through their blogs will become 'friends' even if they never know that I am getting to know them.

I love this amazing medium and often think that our current generation is going to be the 'Golden Age of memories'; of information about everyday life. The legacy that we leave behind, will be the daily little things, things that are missing from the major 'historical' text books of our time. The world will know us, by the things we share and talk about through our blogs.

Like my Blissings project the idea of 365 posts, that share what is happening in your life on a daily basis is wonderful.

Rain

During the night I kept waking to the sound of rain. Now we have a colour bond roof, so the sound of rain is always much louder, but last night it was so very welcome. The garden was once more beginning to need some water and knowing that it was raining on and off all night was lovely.

This morning the rain gauge registered 13mm and it is still going. What a blessing! I only wish we could blow these clouds down to Victoria to relieve their heat and fires.

Of course, today was also Sarah's swimming carnival, which I am sure will now be cancelled! She will be celebrating. I will get her to take her togs along, just in case, but I don't think they will be able to hold it in all the rain.

Amazing how beautiful the world looks and smells when the earth has been washed and cleaned with rain. So today my Blissing is rain.

Blissings

At the beginning of this year, Michelle, Julie and I started our Blissings project. For a keen photographer, scrapbooker and 'Pollyanna' like me, it sounded like a breeze. I would easily be able to take a photo every single day to capture my 'Blissing' for the day. I have discovered that it is not that easy!

So many times I find myself so busy with the day, actually living that I forget to take the time to count or even notice the good things. I have found on a couple of days that I have got to the end and thought now what could I have taken a photo of today. Luckily and 'blissedly' (yes I know I am making up new words); I have only missed one day so far, and have decided to write about the day instead!

The days that are successful are days when I concentrate from early on to try and find a photo for the day. I guess that is the secret of the whole project - It is not actually the photo, but rather the process of focusing on all the wonderful good things that I have in my life.

I have a photo for yesterday of all the children's school books, waiting to be covered and sorted. Now that was a bit of a chore, rather than a 'blissing', but the fact that we have enough money to send the children to a great school and to buy them new books, pens, pencils each year - that is truly the 'blissing!'

Today it is just 6.05am, I have made Ivan's lunch and he has left for the day. I woke at 5.30am with him and must admit that getting up was not a blissing, I just wanted to stay in bed sleeping. But, now just 35 minutes later as I sit and write and realise what a beautiful morning we have, I realise my life is filled with 'blissings'.

What will yours be today?

Absorbing sunshine!

It is 6.30am and the sun is shining!

We have had quite a few days of cloudy, overcast skies, with no rain. It has kept the weather cooler which has been a blessing, but waking this morning at 6.00am to blue skies and sunshine made me realise how much I have missed the sun! I know it will mean a far hotter day today, but these first few early hours are just beautiful.

I am taking advantage of the peace and quiet to answer emails and write on my Blog, but the sun is calling, so am planning to take my Orange Juice and breakfast out into the garden and soak some sunshine into my soul!

It will be my Blissing today, to just be warm and refreshed by the sun!