Carly's Ramblings Blog - Style

Possessed Possessions, Dealing With Stress & An Adventure

Today's blogs...

30 Day Blogging Challenge – War Chest Wednesday

Name a totally useless possession and tell us how you came to acquire it.

Useless possessions.... I think I have my father's watch. It does not work and stays in my Jewellery box along with a tuft of white, fuzzy cat hair. The hair belongs to a cat. These things have one thing in common... they are from loved ones that are no longer alive. They are items with memories of my father and favourite cat. Cherished, yet now just a bit of broken fuzz in memorandum.

The watch, I was given after my father died. It was something he wore and had with him all the time. I felt a closeness just having it.

The cat fuzz, I got from her cat bed (which I also still have - though we have no more cat). I wanted a piece of her.

Holding on to what is gone, yet not forgotten. Never forgotten.

Welcome To My Reality – Week Fifty – Eight

5. What tips and tricks do you have for managing stress that you can share with others?

I will often write about things that are bothering and bring them into the light of day so that I can deal with them. I can make sense of my emotions and brainstorm possible ways to approach a particular challenge.

I also take nature walks. I love to get out away from the bustle of the city and just move - one step at a time. We the world around me change - the natural world in its cycles of birth, growth, decay and death and rebirth. The birds and wildlife are fun to see. I have been lucky enough to come across deer on my ventures. I have also seen a fox and a couple of times a coyote. I move to the rhythm of the natural world and find the stress slips away.

Dealing with things when they first get to me and not setting them aside also helps particularly when in a teaching job. There is usually new things coming up all the tine, so it is to address issues as they present themselves. This is hard for me as I tend to be a procrastinator. I have to consciously practice this.

Practicing gratitude and choosing to be positive are also good for keeping me less stressed.

Deep breathing and focusing on the breathing are also great, as is practicing yoga. Practicing body consciousness and living in the present moment also help. On days that are highly stressful I need to make more of an effort to return to these practices but they are well worth it.
Listening to music - singing and dancing also help get me out of a stressful mode.

Looking all these over, I notice that many of them involve getting in touch with my body and the more natural aspects of life.

7. We are so good at looking after others that we often neglect ourselves. This week set aside one hour just for you. What did you do during this hour? How did it make you feel? Are you ready to incorporate something like this into your daily or weekly routine? Why or why not?

This is like Julia Cameron's Artist Date from her book The Artist's Way. Each week you take a chunk of time and do something for yourself, by yourself. I have gone to museums. I have gone shopping in specialty shops I would normally go into - I may buy nothing or some trinket, but it is all in fun. A way to 'fill your creative well'.

What to do this week. Last night I went out for dinner by myself to a little café I enjoy - Café 1842 in the Huther Hotel. I finished working at a school close to that area so I decided I would check out an independent bookshop I like - and bought their only copy of the Writers' Forum magazine. Then I took that and myself up to the café for a great coffee and a meal of bruschetta and cream of mushroom soup. It was very good, though I would have liked the bruschetta mixture to be heated up to make it less chilled. I savoured a truffle cake afterward. While I was there I read, wrote my blogs and watched the interesting people that tend to flood in through the front door. The place has several areas - a bar area with pool tables, a jazz bar, another bar upstairs that also has the restaurant menu and of course it has the little café with coffee and desserts and a basic sandwich menu but you can order from anything they have.

I stayed almost three hours before I headed over to my mother's for a wee visit.