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JD's Midlife Tools For Living Practices, LLC
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My spring has been a bit overwhelming. I’ve been getting rid of weeds that over took my flower beds after a summer and fall of neglect due to my illness last year and also tending to cats with medical needs. My energy went in those directions. I am finally catching up and catching my breath. And thankfully my cats are well at the moment too.
I am not as young as I used to be and it’s not easy facing that reality. My cats aren’t either and that’s hard to face too.
Once upon a time crawling around on my hands and knees pulling weeds for hours was easily added into a day of other chores. Now it takes longer and more out of me and I’m less apt to do a bunch of other things on top of doing yard work. I have to pace myself and be realistic with what I can accomplish in a given day.
Wisdom comes with age and so does more sore muscles!
I finally got my hummingbird feeders up last weekend and was delighted when after only a couple hours I noticed that one was visited. These little birds bring me such joy as they buzz around my yard. I am grateful they’ve forgiven me for neglecting them for the last month and have returned to bring me a smile.
I do hope you will also forgive me for letting my blog sit idle for so many weeks. I appreciate your visits to my site and hope you find the resources useful enough to return again and again to see just what else you might find.
What changes are you noticing in your energy as you are getting older?
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Sears is where I visited with Santa when I was young and where we purchased our last refrigerator only a year ago. I would spend hours and hours as a child searching through their catalog for things I wanted for Christmas.
Penny’s is where sheets and towels came from in my household growing up. I registered there when we were married. I spent lots of time in their catalogues growing up and have bought many gifts and articles of clothing for myself over the years there too.
These icons are no longer to be a part of the community where I live. Sears left all ready and JC Penny’s will be gone this summer. Who will I depend on now? Where will I find what I once knew was available at these stores? How can there not be Sears and JC Penny’s just down the street?
I am sad to say goodbye to a part of my childhood and adult life with the closing of these two stores. It’s like the loss of an era. What will be next?
The world is ever changing.
At times I feel out of sync with all the change going on around me and the reality of my age hits me over the head. I really have been around awhile. There has been enormous change to adapt to over the course of my life time.
Change I can certainly count on.
It’s interesting isn’t it how different change events stir up reminders of time passing, loss and aging and challenge us to grow!
What change is a reminder that you really are getting older and challenges you to grow?
It has been a very long winter for me full of gray days both inside and out. My creative energy took a leave of absence the last month. Historically March is a hard month for me to endure. This one was especially long and as March does it teased me with hopes of spring soon dashed by falling temperatures.
Fortunately we’ve said farewell to another winter! I am welcoming spring and looking to the renewal it brings.
I spent a little time in a flower bed out front this afternoon clearing out winter foliage debris that collects and waits for me to gather it up and give it a new home. It felt awfully good to be on my hands and knees once again with fingers in the dirt.
My crocuses are blooming and their blossoms bring color as well as hope of more color to come. There are green shoots popping up in my flower beds promising renewed growth. Spring is finally here!
I am very very grateful the earth is warming up around me. The birds are happily singing and so am I!
What does spring bring to you?
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It’s not always easy or simple to figure out how to take good care of myself. Self-care is complex and can seem like a selfish thing to do.
It can be challenging to discern what I need to do to take care of myself.
Sometimes self-care involves tackling a chore or project so I see and feel the accomplishment of end result. Other times it involves down time and extra sleep and not doing much at all.
Self-care one day might involve looking at my habits either thinking or doing and making changes to better my life. And on another day, it involves accepting things just as they are including me.
At times caring for me involves reaching out and connecting with loved ones and friends. However, sometimes it involves quiet alone time to sit and just be or to do something I enjoy like reading or knitting or watching a movie that takes me to another place or time.
Some days self-care involves getting exercise and some days it involves getting rest.
Sometimes caring for myself involves eating right and sometimes it involves eating chocolate and ice cream.
Taking good care of me isn’t about being selfish it’s about having compassion and knowing that life will be richer when I am filled up once again. I get depleted. We all do. Self-care is a valid need to recognize and to honor.
To give myself care I need to pause and really consider what it is that I need, trust my wise voice inside and courageously give myself the permission to fill it.
What do I need right now to take good care of me?
Listen carefully to what your self-care need is. Then ask yourself what would fill that need up.
Do Contact Me if you would like some assistant determining and filling your self-care needs.
And, if you determine that therapy is a self-care need you have do give me a call! My specialties include Anxiety Therapy, Depression Therapy, Grief Therapy, Substance Abuse Treatment and PTSD Treatment.
JD’s Midlife Tools For Living Practices, Holland, MI
Offering Heartfelt care, Compassion and Coping Tools!
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Today I decided to have a leisurely day. I’ve read a good book, played with my cats, walked in the sunshine and will sit and knit soon watching an old movie I think.
Self care comes to those who give it to themselves!
Having a leisurely day is a way that we can take good care and recharge our batteries too. The never ending “to do” list can wait.
What does a day of leisure bring to you?
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Today I choose gratitude.
I am grateful for the beautiful blue sky and the sun that warmed the air this weekend. I took a walk in the woods at a park nearby and was transformed to what felt like another world a long way away. I needed that.
I’m grateful for the snow drop flower that has budded in my front yard. That makes two different flowers having announced their presence in anticipation of spring. It brought me hope.
I am grateful for three sweet kitties that give me warmth and companionship and bring smiles to my face with their cuteness and the silly things that they do.
I am grateful for my husband’s constant support and love and for all the things he does for us. It is hard to imagine my life without him in it.
I am grateful for the roof over my head and the food I have to eat and the jobs we have that allow us to live a comfortable life.
Life teaches us everyday. The bad news is that we never finish growing. The good news is that we never stop learning.
I am grateful for all that life is teaching me and for all I have learned even from the rocky hard times because they definitely help me grow.
What do you choose to be grateful for today?
Guess what? Today I found a primrose blooming in my yard! What a surprise it was finding it. I’m delighted to see the pretty pink flower too. It’s a sign that winter is edging its way towards spring.
The sun popped out after a gloomy morning and the sky is a beautiful blue. It brightened my day. The cats have been basking in the sun as it streams through the windows. My husband joined me this afternoon for a walk in the sunshine. We are all soaking it in.
I’m so grateful to have a glimpse of the sun and a hint that spring is on its way.
It’s the simple things that bring meaning and pleasure to life. They are available to us every day too. We just have to take notice and let them in.
What is a simple pleasure that you are enjoying today?
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If you doubt this reality just take a look at what the statistics show:
https://ourworldindata.org/slides/war-and-violence/#/title-slide
Start by taking in some deep breaths and let your mind focus on your inhales and exhales for a minute. Then start with your forehead and notice if you are holding any tension in those muscles and relax your forehead as you exhale. Next is your jaw tense? Relax your jaw as you exhale. Is your neck tense? Relax it as you exhale. Then your shoulders, upper back, lower back, chest, stomach, upper arms, lower arms, hands and fingers, buttocks, thighs, calves, feet and toes. Just work your way slowly down your body inhaling and noticing tension and exhaling and releasing it.
In a short time you can relax your body and your anxious mind can relax too!
Do you feel safe? What will you do to relax your anxious mind?
Do Contact Me together in Anxiety Therapy we can explore life coping tools for you to incorporate into your life’s journey!
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We all have a wise mind inside us. It is that place where emotion and reason over lap. Neither one alone is enough to produce intuitive wisdom. We need them both to work together.
When I ignore that wise voice inside I generally have regretted it. Things don’t turn out so well.
I keep learning to pause and listen and respond as my wise mind suggests. Sometimes I have to quiet the noise of my emotional self with a few deep breaths before I can hear what my wise mind suggests. I can’t hear that intuitive wisdom if my emotions are too intense. They over take me. And I can end up reacting emotionally rather than wisely. So I have to calm that emotion part of my brain first.
My wise mind is there to guide me. I’ve come to trust her to steer me in a productive direction too. She helps me take the next right step I need to take! Yours can too!
How might you invite your wise mind to join you?
Do Contact Me together in therapy we can explore life coping tools for you to incorporate into your life’s journey!
By Mobilus In Mobili – Women’s March on Washington, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55796823
The Women’s March offered some inspiration and hope with so many coming together for a common purpose. We cannot fall backwards and lose the progress the world has made. We just can’t. We just won’t. Will we?
That requires us each of us to get involved.
My husband reminded me about complacency that has been hovering over this country for some time. We are quick to be outraged and quick to forget and move on too. And that includes me.
Perhaps just perhaps the best outcome of this election is a reality that we just won’t be outraged over and quick to forget and move on. But rather a reality that motivates us to come together and stay together to make certain the progress humanity has made isn’t undermined.
We the people have a power far greater than just one no matter whom that one happens to be.
It’s often hard for me to see and accept that “everything is as it should be”. Could this be the reason for the election turning out as it has… a more involved and vocal people who command a voice to let freedom ring? I certainly hope so!
Today I’m asking myself how I can get more involved. Will you?
What will you do to make your voice heard?
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West Michigan is up near the top of the areas in the country that have minimal sunshine in the winter months. Fortunately I have a light that I use in the morning while eating my breakfast that helps when it is gray outside to give me some of the elements of sun light. I feel less gray inside using it.
This time of year it is easy to find reasons not to go outside and get my daily exercise. It can be too cold or too slippery. I feel better when I deal with the elements and just do it.
On those really nasty days I have a treadmill that is agony for me to use because it seems to take so long but it does get me a walk.
I do feel better when I get some exercise—that is the prize for enduring.
Today the sun is out and is that a treat! It was easy to go for my walk and soak it in. It’s been wonderful to have the sun streaming though the windows today too.
Seeing the sun sure makes a difference! It just warms me up all over inside and out!
What helps you with the January blahs?
It’s old movie time. When it’s snowy and cold outside it is perfect for snuggling up to an old movie. I’ve seen many movies multiple times and don’t tire of seeing them again and again.
For me the really old black and white movies from the 30’s and 40’s capture my interest and warm my heart. Theses movies seem to connect me to my grandparents and parents generations. I remember watching old movies on TV after school when I was a kid. Movies connect me to my past.
A bit of nostalgia goes along with old movies. In an odd way I feel at home again watching them.
I’m transcended to a time that I can only imagine what life was like. It’s a great escape from the technology driven world I live in.
For a couple of hours the world slows down and the color fades to shades of black, white and gray. People who are long gone come alive again frozen in time.
For a time I am lost in another world where it’s not so cold and snowy and I am warm and cozy inside.
What keeps warms you up on cold winter days?
