Acceptance

About a year ago I was moved to a new desk at work.  Pinned to the wall in my cubicle was this poem.

"Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation -- some fact of my life -- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment."

I found out it comes from the "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous.  I really liked the poem and left it up.  When I found myself getting frustrated with people and situations at work, the poem would always be right there keeping me in check.  It is a gentle reminder of what I learned in massage school many years ago, "stress" is a person's reaction to events in their life. 

The poem reminded me to take responsibility for what I can control - myself, my outlook, and those thoughts are created after the initial stressor comes onto my radar.  Eventually I left the job, and I also left the poem pinned up for the next person that would occupy the desk.  And I leave it also for you. 

Better late than never.

I took a break from blogging and it went on much longer than I planned.
Actually, in my head I never stopped.  I would have these long running internal conversations while driving, making dinner or about to fall asleep.  Such great ideas in fact, that I would rush to find a little slip of paper to jot them down before I forgot.  Unfortunately I did not carve out the time to type them here.  I won’t get into the details of how crazy my summer was and how busy my fall was.  What I will tell you is this, after I kept saying yes to yet one more "little" thing, my time budget was over extended.  I promised too much time to multiple projects and ended up borrowing time from my family, my sleep, and things that I love, writing being one of them. 

The good news is I got through it and nobody died.  I graduated from college (finally), worked enough to get ahead on financial goals.  And was also able to do some really cool projects that I will talk about later.  None of this would have been possible without the support of my husband Matt and the patience of our children.

The bad news:  it was uncomfortable and all the other areas of my life have been neglected.  I have some resting, healing, and catching up to do.  But better late than never, I suppose.

The learning that occurred outside the classroom was maybe more valuable than the credits I earned.  I learned how to push myself and found that my capabilities exceeded my expectation.  I located my threshold and learned when to pull back to a healthier pace.  I learned how to grab opportunities that come my way and how to say no.  I let some stuff go, I met new people, I learned how to have an impact on the lives of others even before I have everything figured out.  I found my passion and my voice.  (Thanks Prof. Ward for making us do a blog)

So I am back, feeling like a much different person and with an expanse of things I am excited to share about wellness.  The plan is to go beyond just finances to include many other types of personal wellness/healthy lifestyle: emotional, spiritual, physical and what ever pops up.  I want this to be a place of sharing that feeds you in some way and I hope you will be part of the conversation.

Thanks for reading!