Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Going Mental

This is the 5 Things Journal Kevin and I write in every single night.


The two books that are inspiring me now.

My vision board.


Hey everyone. It’s been a while since I wrote in here. I have been spending a decent amount of time getting my journal entries and pictures up on the new blog I am moving to. Once I send you all to the new blog, you will see how much time I put into it. Can’t believe I left the Death and Dying entry up for so long though. Didn’t mean to bring everyone down for a long time. So it is time for me to send a surge of positivity and happiness everyone’s way. Get your smiles on.
Lately Kevin and I have been doing a lot (mentally) to change our lives and our perceptions. So far we have found so much more to enjoy and love about life. I want to share with all of you all of the things we have been doing that have been changing our lives.

1. Watching The Secret – This kind of got us started. We get inspired by watching this movie and gave us ideas of things we can do to better our lives. It’s all about the Law of Attraction. Like attracts like.

2. The 5 Things journal – I got this super cute journal for us one day. Basically, every single night we write down 5 good things about ourselves and our day. Like, one day I wrote down that I didn’t get discouraged at an event I usually would. Or I write down that someone wrote to me and told me I had helped them with their life and it made me feel good. See, it’s more than just a checklist of things you did that day. Kevin and I like to share what we write with each-other. It works in a few ways. It raises your self esteem. It lets you go to bed with good thoughts in your mind. It keeps your mind in the right place throughout the day. You pay attention to all the good things that happen throughout your day. Maybe you do some good things so you have something good to write. Nevertheless, you will feel better about yourself for doing something good.

3. You can also do a gratitude journal the same way. Write down 5 things you are grateful for every night. I like to just live my life with gratitude on my mind rather than keep a journal of it. It comes easy for me, but it might be difficult for other people. Maybe I was given a little push to think about what I have in life with the whole cancer diagnosis and all. We have to be grateful for everything we have. Maybe you have a lot and maybe you have a little. If you only have a little and you are not grateful for the little you have, how will you ever be capable of being grateful for any more? This has helped me live with an attitude of gratitude every day. It stops me from thinking about what I don’t have and focusing on what I do have.

4. Vision boards (idea from the secret) – I got a couple cork boards for both of us to add to them whatever we life. It’s supposed to contain something that symbolizes what we want to attain in life. For example (I have the picture up), I have a girl in a yoga position with her back completely arched. This is something I now, cannot do because of the tumor on my bone. One day I hope to bend that way like I used to be able to. I have a picture of the Rack Pack logo representing that I want the group to grow a lot and one day I hope my logo will be nationally recognized. (Why not?)I also have a Jeep Wrangler on there because I have always wanted one. The Honda shows no signs of stopping though (something I am grateful for because I have no payments on it) so it might be a while before I get one. The fun thing about these boards is there are no rules. You can dream about having and doing whatever you want. I have a picture of long eyelashes and long hair on a great body on the board too. (Actually the picture is from my Victoria’s Secret catalogue. I really want more of a muscular lean body, but I haven’t found the right picture yet.)

5. Love lists – even though I did this a while ago I frequently look back on it and remind myself of all the things I LOVE because they make me so happy.

6. Meditation – Give you mind some room to breathe. A calm, open and relaxed mind has the space and the patience to focus on what is important. When your mind is open you have the room to let all the good stuff flood in. I do 5 minutes a day. This way I don’t feel like I am taking a lot of my time up every day, but it is just enough to turn my mind inward and stop thinking about the past or the future.

7. The Greatest Salesman in the World – I heard a ton about this book and it had some awesome reviews. It’s more of a life lesson that a sales instruction book. I got this for Kevin for his birthday (with the intention of reading it myself). It has a bunch of passages (scrolls) you have to read. You read one three time a day for 30 days and then go to the next one. It focuses on the fact that we are slaves to our habits. (As children we were slaves to our impulses and as adults we live in habits and become slaves to our habits) You read it over and over so it becomes a habit and is in your subconscious. It teaches you good habits and in turn ends up pushing bad habits away. Genius!!

8. Jack Canfield’s Key to Living the Law of Attraction – This is a great book/workbook that shortens up the concept from the secret and gives you ideas and exercises on making the Law of Attraction work in your life. These exercises work as a way to reprogram your subconscious mind.

If anyone was looking for some ideas on good books or good exercises that can improve your mental outlook on life hopefully you found some from my list. If you have any ideas of your own I would LOVE to hear them. I’m eating all this stuff up because I am seeing such a huge difference in my life. Kevin and I have a good time talking about good things from our day every night. I think at first he did it just to appease me, but I think he sees the benefit and really likes doing these things. I think he also sees a difference in his life.

I am in the airport and on my way to Houston for the now monthly testing. I will be having 3 CT scans, a bone scan, a chest x-ray and blood work of course. I get to Paul’s at 1:00 in the morning this time. Sorry Paul. I did get him a present from the new Smith Terminal in Detroit in hopes to smooth things over when he has to stay up late to wait for me.

My port hole (aka bullet hole) is healing slowly. Now the area where the tube went to my vein is infected so I am back on meds. It’s pretty painful and red. If it gets worse I might have to get surgery again to clean it out. If the infection gets into my blood then it gets VERY SERIOUS. Crossing my fingers and keeping a close eye on it. I actually started using the garlic and olive oil method from the natural remedies I learned at Hippocrates. Only trouble is I smell like Garlic a little. We’ll see what happens.

Lastly, we are getting close to 20,000 visits on my site. How exciting!! It feels like a little while ago that I was excited about 10,000 visits. Even more exciting though is the fact that my next entry will be my 100th journal entry. How better to celebrate than to make a list of 100 things. I’ll keep you all hanging for now on what I will be listing. I have about 75 though. What is it with me and the lists? I never used to be a list person and now it is the one way I stay sane. It’s fun to do as long as it is a good list like a love list or something.

You all are going to love the new blog I move over to (I hope). I like it a lot better. The best part about it is I don’t have to color code my type like I do in Caringbridge to break up paragraphs. For some reason Caringbridge does not let me space in-between my paragraphs or lines on lists. It also doesn't let me tab. I get all frustrated and I just color code to break up my paragraphs. I bet you have been wondering why I do that. Finally, your question has been answered. I am also getting pictures to go up with every single entry so that is taking me some time. I think I might also add a few entries with pictures in the middle of my break between the first diagnosis and the second diagnosis when I took over a year long break. I had some cute short hair then. Have to get some of those pictures up. Really, I think you’ll love it.

Okay, we’re boarding. Got to go. (Love the Charlotte airport and their free WiFi.)
Shannon

1 comment:

  1. The dental insurance is a scam! I've felt your pain with the whole root canal thing as well! I paid way too much... Did you hear about AMAT's shutdowns? 4 weeks! Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and the week after! We're all gonna be tight on money during the most expensive time of the year - Christmas! Glad we could vent, and I hope your comments explode with activity!

    : )
    Mark

    ReplyDelete

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