Making Lemonade from Lemons

I recently had a pity party. I really don’t like them and I don’t like being invited to them, so I tend to not burden my friends with an invitation.

I found myself wallowing in the old “what am I, chopped liver?” thoughts. I went home that night and really spent time by myself, thinking. Yeah, I know, scary stuff-me thinking. But I did. And what I realized is a hurtful childhood memory was driving my pity party. Lucky me, I am pretty astute to that particular episode and the feelings that arise from the memory of it. This did help me flash forward to the present and say, “hey, wait a minute, I’m not 10 years old anymore” (haven’t been for a looong time). The realization helped bring me back to the current situation I was in and the reason for my pity party. I then thought things through carefully and sorted out my woes and felt much unburdened and refreshed when I was through and I managed to not do any emotional eating, though a Snickers was sounding mighty comforting.

I do believe that some people see life through the “glass half full” all the time or “glass half empty” all the time. I am not sure where I fall on this. I do know I am trying to be more positive and have lots of talks with myself, hmmm, that makes me sound a bit, well, let’s say that it sounds like I am one donut shy of a dozen. I guess I should say I am trying to think things through more and look at things in a more positive light. And you know it does help with how I feel about things and view the world, OK, maybe not the world, my cynicism remains intact on the world. Trying to look at things in a more positive manner can change a person’s outlook , demeanor and how we approach life’s problems.

Enough about me, let’s talk about you. How can you take life’s bitter, hard to swallow moments and make them palatable?

· Make a list with 2 columns. In one column list out what is not working for you. In the other column, list 3 possibilities. Write what matters to you, what is important, what is of interest to you. Look at the 2 side by side, you will see what is currently missing in your life. This may help you put things in perspective and even help move you forward. (Special thanks to my friend Judith for this). What I learned is, we can’t always make sweeping changes, much as we like but we can work on how to make the current “issue du jour” work for us. No easy task but a challenge to get you thinking and motivated.

· Here is another way to think about this and I do love this and take full credit for it, take a globe and hold it. I think so many of us are conditioned to look at the US where we live and maybe look east to Europe or west to Asia. Do you ever think of turning the globe over and looking at Australia, New Guinea? That is how I started looking at problem solving. We get so conditioned to doing what we are used to, and there is the old adage, “do what you’ve always done and you’ll get what you’ve always gotten” or another way “stupidity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results”.

I do my very best thinking and introspection when I am walking or riding my exercise bike. Exercise is quite good for clearing cobwebs, during or after the event. Your body is revved up and you are de-stressing which can certainly clear your mental vision. It can help you think things through.

Some other tools to help you:
· You use your Keep Track book for monitoring food consumption and physical activity. How about keeping a journal of your feelings? This can help put things in perspective for you. Reading something a few days after you wrote it down can open your eyes, especially after you have calmed down and are not in that vortex of emotions. It can open a pathway for you to make changes, or at least get you thinking about them. It can also help you if you are stress or emotional eating. “I’m mad at my spouse so I will eat this chocolate cake”. As if that is really making things better with your spouse.
· You are going through some wonderful life changes right now by participating in Lifestyle Balance. This is quite empowering. You are taking care of YOU. How great does that feel? Pretty wonderful I suspect. Savor that moment and wrap it up in your brain for a rainy day when you may be having a pity party. Open it up when you need to and enjoy it, relive it. You have taken positive action to care for number one, yes, that's you, keep it up.

30 Days to More Fruits and Veggies
http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/calendar_2007-09.pdf

Weekly Humor:

My mother taught me about JUSTICE . "One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!"