Listen to Your Self

I had a chiropractor appointment this morning. These interactions are very interesting to me as she's reintroducing me to a person I've known for years: me. My chiropractor serves as a combination translator and medium for my body. She takes what I'm feeling (I feel bad) and clarifies it (where, when, how bad). She also has me move in certain ways and then listen to my body to see what it tells her.

I've been very insensitive.

That's the only conclusion I can come to. Some of the "I feel bad" sensations I can clearly attribute to the collision. Some of the "I feel bad" sensations I only notice when she has me pay attention and feel for them. It really makes me wonder what other messages my body has been sending me that I haven't been paying attention to.

Thanks to her, I've realized I need to schedule more conversations with myself.

I used to meditate fairly regularly. I had some deep relaxation sessions on my mp3 player and I'd use the time during kid practices or my lunch to just completely and totally immerse myself in my breath. It really helped me refresh and renew my focus. It looks like it might be time to start meditating again.

I'll look for the links to the meditation podcasts I used to use. If I can find them again I'll share them in the comments.

Oh, and my chiropractor has one more very important job: she makes me feel better.

Busy = Happy?

I think I'm happiest when I'm busiest. With a few footnotes...

• I need to be working on something I believe in
• I need to maintain my work/life balance

Other than that, life never seems quite so good as when I'm knee deep in stuff to do. It even makes the infrequent days on the beach so much sweeter because I can appreciate the feel of a job well done.

I hope you are happy with the level of busy-ness that today finds you at.

Do the Pieces Fit Together in Your Life?

I Get It

Malcolm Gladwell wrote in Outliers that it takes 10,000 hours or approximately 10 years to get really good at something. I'm pretty hard headed, so it might take me an extra 5,000 hours. But I think I'm starting to get it now.

You have to understand first of all that sometimes my brain amazes me. The other day I punched in the number of an old high school friend...even though I'd last dialed that number in 1992. And sometimes my brain disappoints me, like when I forget what I came into the kitchen to get even though it's just a few steps away from the living room.

Finally "getting it" also means that I'm not arguing with myself that I oughta know this already. It means accepting that for me it sometimes takes a little bit more effort. Or a lot.

I get that I have to write everything down or it may not stick in my brain.

I get that I need to have a combination of a distraction and a focal point to get repetitive tasks done. Hello Podcast!

I get that I miss interpersonal cues. For me to get a message I either have to have all my active listening skills set to "ON" or have someone hit me over the head with a 2x4. The good news is that after 15000 hours of practice I'm getting better at this. The bad news is that it's still work, and it probably always will be.

I get that sometimes I have trouble stopping myself. Those are the days when it's better to go shopping at the flea market than at the mall.

I get that adding people to my mix increases my stamina and enthusiasm. If Aunt Polly asked me to whitewash the fence by myself I'd totally pull a Tom Sawyer and try to get out of it. Well, sorta.* But if I'm working with someone else I'm like the energizer bunny and just keep going and going.

I get that I have no concept of time. Not only does everything have to go on my calendar, I have to set every single reminder option so that time doesn't get away from me.

Most of all, after 15,000 hours of turning on my ears and using my calendar and grocery shopping list and doing a load of laundry a day and checking for my keys every time I walk through a door ... I get that this is who I am and that I'm really good at being me. You see, along with the distraction comes some really cool creativity and amazing energy. Since everything new draws my attention I've had the chance to meet all kinds of really cool people and do some really neat things. I am so thankful that I've been able to remain positive through everything. Even though I haven't always been thrilled with every thing that has come my way, things really work out once you rub a little persistence, creativity, and positive energy on it.

And I finally get it.

*I couldn't exactly do like Tom and collect marbles and a dead cat while my friends whitewashed the fence. But I might tweet about it

National Blog Posting Month

I tried to do NaNoWriMo'09, which ended in a major crash and burn when our life was turned upside down and shaken, not stirred.  I simply didn't have it in me to create new stuff when real life was demanding every ounce of creativity I had.  I WANT to write, and I love the community of NaNoWriMo, life just got in the way.

Somehow November showed up on my doorstep again.  I'm still trying to figure out how that happened, but one thing I do know:  I want to write.  I need to write.  When I write I feel better in my skin.  I just don't want to commit myself to 50K words.  Debbi suggested I try NaBloPoMo instead, so here I am (and Jenn insisted that I capitalize it NaBloPoMo)

The other reason I'm trying for NaBloPoMo is that I'm not sure what direction to take Phera's Focus, and I'm hoping a month of writing and interacting will help me figure this out.

Questions I'm going to try to answer:

• Who am I?  <-- this one's a hard one for me!  You know those bio snippets on every social media site?  I hate'em.  
• What do I value?
• What inspires me?
• What do I fear?
• What do I desire most?
• What are my talents, interests, and strengths?
• Where will I be 15 years from now?

Will you explore these questions with me?  Thanks! I need the encouragement :)