Day 31-Is a mental roundhouse kick to the head your best choice?

I'm a Pollyanna and I'm okay with that. I am one of the most positive people I know.

However, I'm not blissfully-unaware-of-the-world-around-me-and-that's-how-I'm-so-happy-Pollyanna-ish. I know it gets poopy out there. 

No, the thing I like about happiness is the choice, and also the lack of outside resistance. Allow me to illustrate:

If I want to steal your hamburger, and I walk over to your table and snatch that burger right off your plate, you have some choices to make: you can roll over and show your belly and let me take the burger OR you can throw a roundhouse kick to my head and fight for the right to get that burger back into your own belly. 

So, I would WANT your burger, but you could FIGHT against my desire to have it.There's nothing I could do to control the outcome.

Alles klar?

Okay! 

Here's another:

Perhaps I wanted to get in line ahead of you at the DMV because I'm late for an appointment, and I could politely ask you to give up your place for me. You could be kind and let me, or if you're in your own sort of hurry, you could argue that and refuse my request. 

So, I would WANT your spot and you could ARGUE against that request. Again, there's nothing I could do to control that outcome.

It could go either way. 

Here's the cool thing about choosing to be happy: no one can argue your choice or desire, only you. Do you want to be happy about a situation? The only resistance will be living inside your head, which is WAY EASIER to control than any outside forces, circumstances or people. 

Isn't that deceptively simple? 

Yes, bad stuff happens to all of us. Scary stuff. Sad stuff. Overwhelming stuff. 

That is totally out of our control. 

The only thing in our control is that choice for happiness, and no one, I mean BUT NO ONE, can argue your choice. Only you. So make the choice and then support yourself.  Why argue with yourself about being happy?

I love that freedom of choice, and the fact that I can fully support myself in that choice.

We're going camping this weekend, which is GREAT for walking, but maybe not so great for being able to post my blog. So if it's not up, it means nothing more than I'm off-line. 

Enjoy your weekend walks,
Dani
 

Day 10. Day 10!

I walked out the door this morning and immediately got something in my eye. That is never fun, but for those of you that wear contact lenses, you know that the tiniest speck feels as if someone is jamming their sharp thumbnail into your eye socket. It’s rough. I stubbornly didn’t want to go back in and rinse my lenses out, so I sallied forth, one hand cupped over the bad eye as tears streamed down my face.

Needless to say, my walk didn’t begin so well, and even though whatever boulder was in my eye finally fell out, I was cranky. Instead of hearing the birds and delighting in dew on grass, I was stomping along, thinking about bills, debt, how dirty my house was—all unpleasant, and, let’s face it, unhelpful thoughts. 

Fortunately, I caught myself after about 3 blocks. Mostly because it felt bad, and this whole walking things feels good. I noticed the difference.

 

So I shook it off. And my little episode brought to mind a saying I frequently use to help my family—and myself---understand when others might behave in certain ways that don’t work for us. It’s simple in a Forrest Gump-sort of way:

 

Everybody Looks Out at the World wearing Different Glasses. 

 

It’s true. Your frames might be red, your lenses smudged, or you might put on black horn rims with spotless lenses except for one scratch in the corner. Regardless, it affects how you see the world. 

 

Even though someone might have exactly the same frames as you, their prescription is quite different. Your glasses are your belief system. Without it, things would seem unclear, out of focus. 

It doesn’t always mean that you like Janet’s cat-eye glasses on her or your conservative relative appreciates your new titanium frame-less specs. But it is important to remember that we all wear different glasses and it affects the things we do, the things that leave our lips, and how we view the things others say and do.

It doesn’t really make things easier when some jackass is, well, a jackass. But if you remember that his glasses are different than yours, then hopefully you can understand that his or her jackass-ness has little to do with you, and a lot to do with the glasses perched on the end of his nose.

By the way, today is Day 10. Day 10! I don’t think I’ve ever done any form of healthy anything for 10 whole days in a row. You know what? This feels totally doable, and totally wonderful. Anyone can do this.You can, too.

I hope you enjoy these next few days---going to be beautiful out there,

Dani

Day 2-Coaxing Ourselves into Caring for Ourselves

Tootie is one of my dogs. She's a 6-pound chihuahua.

Tootie, 6-pound dynamo

Sometimes, when I walk early in the morning, getting Tootie out the door is like putting pantyhose on a guinea pig. She looks at me forlornly with those big goggle eyes as I pry her out of her warm, steamy little nest, as if to say,"Why do you hate me so?"

Once she's in her harness and coat (hey, she gets cold), she stands there shivering and quivering while we hold her leash so she doesn't bolt back upstairs and into our bed. Today, Jeff was putting her coat on her while I put my toe-shoes on, and I heard him coo reassuringly, "C'mon, Toots, it'll be fun."

She didn't think so while I pulled her like a stubborn donkey out the door.

No way, man. 

And, she resisted to the end of our driveway, around the corner, down the street, reluctantly following me and the two other pooches.

But then, she peed, got used to the chill of dawn, and suddenly pulled out in front of us, prancing and high-stepping. Sniffing, looking, listening. Darn it all if if Jeff wasn't right--that dog was having fun. 

However, I felt the same way as Tootie this morning at 4:55 when the alarm went off. The only thing that got me up was the fact that I have this blog and want to complete my goal of walking 365 days in a row. It ended up being fun for me, too, but until I heard Jeff coaxing Tootie, I was mentally resisting the walk, as well.

Funny how often we need to be coaxed into doing something that is oh, so good for us, yet never have to convince ourselves to shove three handfuls of Cheetos into our mouths. If it were reversed, our health would be better, for sure, and our butts not as wide. It isn't, though. We have to continually make the choice, every single minute, to do something that is helpful, not harmful to ourselves, our bodies, our minds, our spirits. And that's one of the gifts we've been given. Choice. You won't be perfect in your choices, but every choice is a chance to do something that is helpful to you.

I hope your walk is wonderful today!
Dani