What the Ministers of The Republic of Tea had to say to me.

*This blog entry is due to a negative feeling that I was experiencing when I woke up to let my dog out, poor doggy, it’s really not his fault. I made the choice to let it bother me! He was just being a dog. Can’t blame him for when you got to go… You got to go!

Having just gotten up after only five hours of sleep, I find myself feeling lazy, yet pressured to do something productive. But, how can one do this on only five hours of sleep? It is interesting enough, to me at least, how what I read, whether on the web or in a book, I can relate it to what is or will be happening in my life.

Let me explain.

Last night I was reading a wonderful little book called, Success@life: A Zentrepreneur’s Guide How to Catch and Live Your Dream. It is very well written by the Ministers of The Republic of Tea: Ron Rubin and Stuart Avery Gold. In this book they talk about what it takes to make your dream a reality. Something that I have been struggling to do for, oh my whole life! But, as of late, I have been finally starting to “get it”. Anyways, back to the point! I was reading this book and I got to a part that, at first, didn’t speak to me, until, I sat down at my computer this afternoon to work on the first draft of my novel.

It was about failure. The kind Ministers of The Republic of Tea basically said that you will fail, so expect it. Now, I know all too well about failure. As I have failed many times in my life. At the time of me reading this, I thought, I know I will fail. I know that the past couple of days have been great and it won’t always last.

For you see, last week was sort of rough for me. I didn’t write much, I had gotten lazy. But, then, as the weekend neared, my mood started to lift and soon I found my spirits revived. By Monday, I was gun ho on my writing. I was refreshed, revitalized!

See, I work the night shift. I get every weekend off and most of the time I try and get a nap in before work, when I have had a few days off. But, for the past two Mondays, I have been unable to get that nap, which has resulted in a “dampened mood” at home and at work.

Now, maybe you are thinking to yourself, “Gee, this girl needs some help! She is already expecting to have a bad day, so she most likely she will!” Your right!

So when I got a three hour nap this past Monday after having slept a good five hours Sunday night/Monday morning, I was happy. Monday had been a great day of balance between: working on the first draft of my novel, cleaning the house, chatting with my son and husband, and relaxing by playing a few video games. Naturally, having gotten all that sleep, my mood was good and going to work in this state was awesome!

"What have you done different?" my husband asked. I replied with,

“I am just going with the flow. Living in the moment and enjoying each new task to its fullest.”

He smiled, and liked this idea. I remained positive and optimistic well into Tuesday.

Once again, Tuesday proved to be another great day of sleep, writing, cleaning and cooking and spending time with my family. Then I got to work, and still moods are in check, doing well. On my lunch break I picked up the book that I had mentioned above and began to read and I take this directly from their book.

"And on and on you go, standing rock solid, ready with the knowledge and insight, the earnestness and courage to do all that is necessary to succeed at life and catch and live your dream, and if you said “Yess!” to all our cogent comments and followed the criterion given, and if you know deep in your soul that the course you will take is as right as right could possibly be…Guess what?

You’re going to fail.

And that is being optimistic."

See, I had already figured this out. I knew I would fail and would have future failures.

I didn’t need a book to tell me that, I had already experienced it!

I continued to read. A chapter later, they talked about how everything is connected in this place we call our world. Duh! I knew that too! Because, you see, I had been reading books by the great Deepak Chopra. So I knew all about self awareness and had been enlightened on how we are one with our universe. But, what I didn’t realize at that moment, until now, was this book had a message for me. A warning that was trying to speak to me, but at the time I wouldn’t hear of it. It was telling me that I wasn’t going to have a good day today, Wednesday.

Now it didn’t outright say, hey you’re going to have a bad day today so be prepared. But, in around about way it did.

Let me again show you.

I came home this morning, my spirits still grand. I went to bed around 8am. I was then awakened promptly at 1pm by my dog licking my face, telling me he had to go potty. I, sleepy eyed, got up and took him out. After only five hours of somewhat decent sleep, I couldn’t go back to bed. I was, now, awake. Of course what does five hours of sleep do for a person? For some it is enough to get by on, but, for me, not so much. I was immediately cranky and in a bad mood and I immediately wanted to do nothing. I realized that this bad attitude was going to affect me the rest of the day and I just wasn’t going to have it. That was when I decided to write about it, journal it, get it out of my very being.

So here I am, still in my pj’s typing, and thinking about how grumpy I was, but no longer am thanks to journaling and thanks to my little basset hound that was just being a good little doggy. And if I have learned anything about the Zen way, it is this:

There are no coincidences. Everything is connected. And there are very much signs that will point you in the right direction if you just learn to pay attention to them and become aware of your surroundings. For me, it was this book: Success@life: A Zentrepreneur’s Guide How to Catch and Live Your Dream. Written by two wonderful guys, Ron Rubin and Stuart Avery Gold, who have obviously failed and yet went on to have successful lives and a dream that they made a reality. I thank you, the Ministers of The Republic of Tea for reminding me of things I already knew, but refused to see whole heartily.

*For more information about The Republic of Tea you can check it out at: http://www.republicoftea.com/

Confessions of a Video Gamer

Awhile ago I had heard that there were many young kids becoming addicted to video games.
I laughed at this becuase I didn't believe that one could be addicted to video games and even if they were, was it so bad? Was playing constantly all that wrong? So what if kids were staying inside playing games. Wouldn't we rather have them do that then be out on the streets doing drugs? But, then I began to look at these kids--these gamers. Many of them lazy, over weight, and lack the drive to doing something with their lives. This seemed familiar to me in my own life.

So, I then began to examine my own life.

I soon realized that I was one of these addicts.
My playing time consisted of hours and hours of submersion into the games. Some online, chatting with other fellow gamers, and some on the ps3 or wii. I wouldn't just play for a couple of hours, but we are talking about 5-8hrs each day during the week and double that on the weekends.

It was then that I realized that I was getting little else accomplished in my own life. My writing was becoming extinct. Blogging seemed to be very little, even to find me on face book was becoming rare.

I began to watch my pattern of when I would play the most. It happen to be that I played more when I was stressed out. Just like an alcoholic, only my drug was video games.
Now your probably saying to yourself, "nothing wrong with that, its just video games." And your probably right.

It's just video games! Could be worse...Could be alcohol or drugs that I am addicted to.
But, the truth is--anything that takes you away from your life's purpose, living life, or your family is probably bad.

This was beginning to happen to me. It took my husband to get me to realize these things, but I guess I already knew it and just didn't want to face it.

So I confess it.
I am addicted to video games!

Even now, I have an online game running in the background while I blog. I also am downloading another online game to boot!

So what does one do now? How does one get control of an addiction such as this? I mean it's not really killing me. It is however keeping me from achieving my goals in life. I suppose I will just have to be strong and lay the games aside for a bit and see that games are just games. They really don't add any benefit to your life, except maybe help you to forget about your life at the time of.
There are far more important things then games. I suppose I will somehow have to find a balance between my life and games.

Creativity

Everything is changing inside of me
My thoughts, actions, and feelings all changed
I don't know when or how this came to be

The life I led so long ago
Is nothing now but a distant memory
I still have it all in tow
Yet I am complete in all my creativity

Times have changed
and so have I
My mind rearranged

My thoughts move fast
Hundreds running through
They are hard to still
I have something to prove

Where does this imagination of mine begin?
How is it born and how does it become?
It will consume me, I hope it will win

For you see
my creativity
is so very important to me
It shows my sensitivity

So with pen and paper I write
Hoping that in the end it will all make sense
and my life with take flight

I will stand
I will be strong
Come take my hand
and we can't go wrong

Let us use this thing call creativity
to show the world what is inside of us
Let us show our feelings in all its simplicity
Let it breathe if it must

You can't blot it out
you can share with the world
even if you doubt

This thing called creativity
its inside of you and me
together we can show our personality
just let it be

In the end we shall stand
together forever as one
our creativeness like a band

Bringing people together to make a difference
making them unite
a powerful tool our words can be its up to you
it's your preference

I will stress once again the change in me
that has come to be
and you will see
that you have it too
yes you are creativity

Cross that off my list please!

It's winter.

I hate it.

Well, alright, maybe not hate it. Hate is such a strong word. But, winter is definitely not my favorite time of year. Sure, during the winter holidays it's nice. But, the whole rest of the season I just can't find a need for it. All it does is seem to get me down, and I find it hard to accomplish the tasks at hand.

Just the other day a co-worker recommended, once she realized how many projects I had on my plate, that I make up a goal's list. I have made goals lists in the past, never to follow through on them. But, I thought, it had been awhile since I made up a list and at least tried to follow through on it.

What harm would come from it? What would I have to lose? I hurriedly scribbled down some projects that I really wanted to work on. The list looked something like this:

Goals for week 1 (Jan. 16 through Jan. 23)

1)Drywall- Measure and cut the ledges in bedroom #2 and apply corner beading

2)My novel- rework prologue

3)Blogging- Write one blog

4)Garage- Remove 5 book boxes


There were a few other things on my list, but now that I think about it they probably really aren't list worthy, so I left them off.
Now this list is not real big, but you have to understand that I work the night shift. So I sleep all day, well most of the time. I get up about 2-3pm est. I have no little children that demand my attention. So I have the time to complete these items on my list, yet here it is Wednesday, Jan. 21 and I have only done the one now.

Blogging.

But, at least it is one I suppose and I can cross that off my list.

So now as I sit, still in my pj's. I am feeling a bit better about myself. Maybe winter isn't so bad? Maybe I just need to remain positive and optimistic. So what if I don't meet all of my goals. Finishing one is at least something, is it not?

And when I look back over the past 9 months and see what my husband and I have accomplished I feel satisfied. We have done a lot these past months. We moved into our house last March. The house was half finished. So we had to finish the bottom level ourselves.(I think I will save that for another blog) We put in a fairly decent sized vegetable garden. Put in a yard, it was a grade level. I worked on my novel and got the prologue and first 3 chaps done, (but I am not happy with it).
Maybe it was time for a little break. It has now been nearly 2-3 months since i have really done anything, besides blog.

But, maybe today will be the first day that we return back to our projects. Just saying that gives me hope that I will in time complete all my goals.

But, for now, at least I can say, "cross that off my list please!"

Just Say No to Negativity!

Recently my husband got me interested in reading some of Deepak Chopra books. For those who do not know who Deepak Chopra is, he is a M.D. and widely known spiritual leader/author who has written a number of books on spiritual guidance. If any of you have read him, then you will know that he stresses the importance of remaining positive. For some, like myself, this can be a difficult task. Though if we try, the benefits are astounding!

If we can just say no to having negativity in our lives, think of how much happier we will be--how much better our world will be. So many times we use negativity and we don't even know it. Whether it is to make ourselves look better or feel important, it is still wrong. Gossip and back biting become so much of a focus in our lives that we don't even see it and realize that we ourselves are not happy. And isn't that the real goal here? To be happy? I like to think so.

A few weeks ago, a co-worker of mine approached me at the start of our shift at a local retirement facility. She seemed very distraught, her whole body was rigid with agitation. Right away I sensed that she was upset with some of the other staff. The words that came from her mouth were nothing but complaints and criticism targeting those that, she felt, did her wrong. Instead of joining in with her and complaining about these people, I calmly told her (as best as I could without criticizing or condemning her) that maybe if she took a step back and looked at the situation from the other person's point of view that maybe she could resolve the problem.

At first she just stared at me as though I were crazy and then continued on bantering our fellow co-workers. I gave her a few more helpful tips on dealing with difficult people before bluntly saying to her,
"Lets remain positive here." That got her attention. I smiled brightly at her and then said in a comical but serious kind of way "Just say no to negativity!"

She returned my smile with one of her own and then nodded to me, "you know your right! I am negative, maybe if I just talk with the person," she went on to explain as her mind conjured up a solution, "maybe together we can fix this," she replied.
"See," I responded.

She smiled and walked away, no longer so negative but more upbeat and positive.
Not only did she go on to have a really good rest of the shift once she resolved the situation, but she felt better about herself because she had fixed a problem with someone that didn't even know they had did her wrong.

All I did was tell her "Just say no to negativity!"

I know it's not always easy to be positive and not every situation will be easy to resolve. Too many people around us make this hard to achieve, but if we try the results will surprise you. If we pay more attention to what we say and how we say it, then we will not only be helping ourselves to be happy, but the people around us as well.

Just remember we are all part of one universe. What you say about someone else, really is a comment about your own self. For in me I will see you and in you I will see me. Think of that the next time you go to criticize or condemn someone.

To Blog or Not to Blog, That is the Question!

About a month ago, my husband had brought up the idea of blogging to me. At first I was not interested and totally threw away the idea, (like I do with a lot of his suggestions but then later find out he was right). You see I am an aspiring writer and like many new writers, I was having a problem with getting out what was in my head onto paper.

So, he thought that maybe blogging may help with all those thoughts that seemed to be trapped inside my head. Maybe it would help me practice my wonderful writing skills, which are getting better with the more I write.

Once he explained blogging to me and what it would entail, I started to think it over a bit. Maybe he was right. Maybe blogging would help my situation. So that left the one question in my brain to repeat itself over and over until I listened.

To blog or not to blog.

For most people its not too hard to answer that question. But, for me it was a real dilemma. What would I blog about? Were my thoughts really worthy of blogging? Did I have any important or good tips for my readers? And would readers, such as you, really want to hear about my ideas/thoughts?

Now as I sit here at my desk, my fingers icy cold and typing away, I know the answer to that question.

Yes I think I will blog.
Thanks to my husband all of you can now read whats inside my mind.
Come along if you dare!