“Don’t grow up, it’s a trap.”


This phrase couldn’t be truer. Getting older is all about finding ways to deal with responsibilities. That’s why it’s a trap. Parents may tell you about saving money and to make sure you have a good job and get paid well. But how many really sit down and educate you on how to balance your expenses with your income? How many really let you know about dealing with setbacks and how to get back on track when you encounter difficulty, all while trying to keep a household running smoothly? Stress is real and if you don’t know how to deal with it, it could be your biggest downfall.

Everyone isn’t dealt an easy hand in life. Financial and emotional problems can really take their toll, separately and when coupled, and everyone has a different way of dealing with stress. I’m a comfort eater and it sickens me. To make it worse, when I am in that mode, working out is the last thing I want to do but at the same time I get mortified at the thought of gaining more weight. Weird huh? I know. I’m trying to channel all of my stress into workouts. It’s not easy but I figured the best I could do, as a small step, is go for a walk whenever I find myself slipping food wise or feeling stressed.

There are times when you just feel so overwhelmed you just want to break down and cry and it doesn’t seem like things are looking up for you. My motto for these times is to give yourself one day. One day to have a good cry, get it all out and figure out how you want to deal with it. Crying and looking for handouts or someone to take on what you’re feeling doesn’t help you or whomever you’re trying to drag into your misery. Find some way of dealing with your problems. I also try to write how I’m feeling to get all of my feelings out, obviously, you don’t have to literally write, you can just create an online journal. But the point is to get it all out. Angry with your neighbor? Write out what you’d really say to them and give it a day to cool down. Then contact whoever you have to, neighbor, Landlord or police, in a calm manner and deal with the situation. Getting crazy doesn’t help anyone and only makes things worse for you.

I’ve been feeling at my wits end recently. I feel like I have way more on my plate than I could handle and dealing with it all is a bit stressful but I’m trying to tackle everything that comes my way with a level head instead of panicking and running to a corner to hide. I guess I’m maturing. I feel like if it’s not for me, attack it the same time and do not let it drag on. If it’s bothering me, think and try different ways to tackle it that I can move forward in a positive note. 

If we let stress get to us, we cannot perform at our best. We cannot communicate or focus in an effective manner and we only dig a hole and bury ourselves deeper into the ground. Try different forms of communicating and dealing with issues, and never forget to consider your behavior in everything that you do. You can blame everyone around you, but look at your behavior to see how you may be contributing to it, and work on it. It takes 3 weeks to create a new habit and 3 months to lose an old one. Change begins with you and you have to know how to promote positive change within yourself before you expect and demand it from others.

 

 

I’m aging…


If someone told you 5 years ago this is how your life is going to be, then asked you how are you going to handle it? Would your response be the same after those 5 years have passed? I’m happy to know and learn and grow and say I have more balls than I ever thought I would.

Maturity, when you look at it, is really about changing your response/reaction to situations as they happen the older you get. If you still act the same then obviously you have more growing to do. Bing has the following definitions if you don’t like mine:

Mature:

acting or seeming like adult: showing the mental, emotional, or physical characteristics associated with a fully developed adult person

experienced: showing qualities gained by development and experience

I’m in awe at my behaviour sometimes. Internally I’m a volcano but people don’t always see it because my head takes over my heart and what comes out surprises even me sometimes. Being able to be at peace and handle situations as they come is something I’ve grown to love about myself. If necessary I will still be a hot head but I am not rude. In my head I am! But it doesn’t come out.

Getting older, life gives you situations like this:

“Everyone is getting their Xbox, but your parent was late and you have to wait for the next shipment in a couple of months… you just sit and watch everyone get excited about theirs and play with it but and you can’t and won’t join them until you get yours.”

You’re 10 year old self will obviously throw a tantrum and sulk until the Xbox comes, but what would your 20 year old self do? If you’d still sulk, you’re an idiot. You should be out there finding ways to get one or hone your skills on a friends until you get yours. If you linger on it, my friend… you are a bitter person and you need to stop that now.

Life will always throw pissed filled snowballs at you. Get over it. Someone is always going through something worse. Count your blessings and work towards getting what you want (legally) with positive energy. The fact that you’re reading this says a lot. Someone would love a computer/phone/tablet/some electronic thing to be more “connected”.

There is nothing worse than looking back on a situation and saying you could’ve handled it differently and even worse is someone being stuck with the image of how poorly you responded to something. No Sir! We don’t want that! We want people to say that is a person who has their head on and is moving in the right direction and they want to be on your train to wherever you are going in life.

Wondering where I get these things from? LIFE! Ohhhh I could write a book… I like to think I’m an open book because I’ve realised how much I’ve grown even though I can’t share every single detail, I can, however, share how I’ve felt after the situation has passed and what I’ve learnt from it. I gave that analogy above to my husband today and he totally got it so I decided to write a post and share it. Everyone can relate to be a kid. If you can’t relate to having to wait for things, try doing it sometime and see what almost everyone goes through. And don’t take what you have for granted. Whether it’s a house, a partner, kids, a stove, shoes… someone out there would love to have it and not feel the stress of not having it.

Be thankful.

xx

February – New Beginnings


Hello!

14 more days until my birthday but I’m not counting…

I wanted to really push myself and see if I could make the lifestyle change with the no-white diet and more exercise but that’s not going as well as I hoped. I’m eating all of the Easter treats that are out already and just killing my “less sweets” diet  since they aren’t here for the rest of the year. However, besides the treats I am more aware of what I am eating. I wanted to see a difference by my birthday provided I took it seriously from Feb 1st. I still have time, but I’d probably be killing myself if I really took it seriously now. After all I do want to enjoy food and treats on my birthday. As you are seeing, I look forward to my birthday, for several reasons.

A new year is just that for me, another year. However, my birthday signals adding another year to my age. It’s me accepting I’m getting older and I feel more motivated to say I did something during a certain age than to say I did it that year. For example, after turning 21 I got my first tattoo. I can’t tell you what year I turned 21, I don’t pay attention to those things, I more remember the age range or what I was doing with my life at that time than the year. I signal the change of a new year on my birthday, and luckily for me it’s in February, so not too far off from the actual new year :). My husband would fly off to Vegas in a heartbeat to celebrate his, but I rather have a more laid back experience for mine.

I’m able to ring in this new year however I please. No pressure and I am the Queen. Within my household back home, whoever was celebrating a birthday, did NOTHING for the day. We were all “slaves” to the person. So of course that day was milked!! No chores, no arguing with them, no insults and whatever was asked of you was done humbly without protest. Who wouldn’t love that? Obviously, I’ve transferred the “royalty” treatment to my husband and myself and if he isn’t complaining then it doesn’t require change :P.

Most of all, I like to use my birthday as a fresh beginning. I take the month to do a lot of introspection – whatever I didn’t like about myself or habits that were forming and take note of the changes to be made within the coming year. I only intend to get better with age. To look back and see a progression of good habits forming and looking after myself mentally and physically. No regression whatsoever.

Taken from Real Simple
Taken from Real Simple

How do you celebrate your birthday? Do you have a tradition? I believe in traditions and looking at your birthday as a true celebration of life and living it to the fullest.

xx