Five Simple Steps

Did you wake up this morning and just felt "blah"?  Did the Monday blues descent on you like a ton of bricks?  Dis you feel totally unmotivated to start the new week?  Welcome to the club!  Most of us can relate.  However, I have good news, you do not have to feel that way.  Five simple steps could get you out of the slump.

First of all, take the time to re-discover your motivation.  Why did you take the job you are currently doing? Whatever the reason, write it down in big bold letters and rejoice in it.  Maybe your answer is that it was the only job available.  Well, wonderful, that alone, in our current economical climate, is a great reason to celebrate it!  Maybe it was a stepping stone to another position? Well, awesome, you are well on your way!  You see, it is all about the eye with which we view our situation.

Next, re-evaluate and rewrite your goals.  Is your current job bringing you closer to your goal of a better position, or do you need to make another plan?  Maybe you have to enroll in night school?  Whatever it is, find new goals that will excite you and make your current situation more enjoyable.

A third plan of action to get you dislodged from the rut which you are in, is to ask yourself which goals have you achieved lately?  Maybe you have managed to use your time more productively, or maybe you have joined a gym?  Well, then, treat yourself and give yourself a pat on the shoulder.  Look for something to reward and do it.  Go have a steak, a night at the movies or a few friends over for supper.  Never neglect celebrating the small things as well as the more important things.

Next, do not forget to have fun.  No matter what you do, or what is demanded of you or how snowed under you are, make time every day for a little fun.  Share a joke with a colleague, have a milkshake, go for a stroll in the park or watch a comedy show when you get home.  Whatever lights up a smile, do it and enjoy it.  Lastly, make time for yourself.  Take a break, go to bed early or take an afternoon off.  Whatever it is that you need to do to recharge your batteries, take the time to do it.  You will find that you will return to your daily tasks feeling invigorated and excited to do it.

Blowing in the Wind

It's quite a windy day in August.  Just when we thought the day was going to be as clear as Spring with beautiful blue skies, nature reminded us that it can be quite fickle, and surprised us some with a blustering day. Most of the people I know cannot wait for the winter to pass and I myself long for the warmer days, especially when I walk into my deep-freeze kitchen.  However, it is sad that in the process we do not appreciate the beauty which makes each season a period to be treasured.

There is a serenity in an August landscape.  Beautiful, bare trees are bending in the gusts and wind swept clouds are moving across the sky.  The wind tossing my hair and whipping at my clothes actually invigorates my thoughts.

So often we are so focused on what comes next that the beauty of today, this moment, slips by us unnoticed.  Often we are wrapped up in the past with its pain and failures that we pay little attention to the present.  Even our worries about the future rob us of the simple pleasures to be found in this moment.  Every moment is a capsule of perfection and every breath a miracle.  We are surrounded by beauty.  Petals dancing in the wind, the dust motes floating in a beam of sunlight, the curl of a kitten's tail against your leg and the smell of freshly turned earth are all precious moments of beauty which pass by unnoticed in our rush to get to the next important thing.  Yes, maybe we are going through a hardship at the present moment, and it seems impossible to find any joy right now.  We pray for this moment to pass in order to get to a better time.  Yet somehow, even in the darkest hour, a moment of gratefulness can be found, if only in the thought that I still have a breath left, that this, too, shall pass. Maybe in hardship the beauty is the memories of good times, a hand holding mine or a prayer said by a loved one.

Maybe the beauty of this blustery day is the seeds carried on the wind to a new place of re-birth.  Maybe it is in the moments we linger just a little longer over a cup of coffee, savouring its heat, and noticing these glimpses of beauty that is best enjoyed at the very moment they are happening.  Maybe we should all take a deep breath, feel how it fills up our lungs and feel the warmth of it as it flows over our lips.  Just for a moment forget where you have to be in the next five minutes or what you have to cook for supper, just be present in the moment and observe, really see, where you are right now.  Do you feel the fabric of the chair you are sitting on, do you hear the hum of the florescent light and the smell of coffee brewing?  Do you hear the laughter of your teenage daughter as she talks on the phone to her best friend or feel the warmth of your puppy snuggled against you?  Don't let the moment pass by unnoticed.  Be aware of it and treasure it.  Be alive right now and be blessed.