Self-Worth

inspiringmax

“Think global, act local.” Write a post connecting a global issue to a personal one.

I don’t know if eating disorders are classified as a global issue but I believe they are—statistics from 2002 state 70 million people world-wide are living with one so the number would be much greater today.

Knowing these facts are one thing, but what can be done at a personal level to help protect ourselves or our children from developing a dangerous eating disorder that has the potential to kill them. The answer is increasing low self-worth to a healthy level. Self worth is defined as “the opinion you have of your self and the value you place on yourself.”

Consider your current level of self-worth—do you believe in yourself and your abilities or is your self worth low and a struggle?

Work on improving your self-worth by focusing on the following 3 areas:

  1. Listen to your self talk – ensure you tell yourself positive statements. When a negative statement comes to mind—at least turn it into a neutral statement—even if you can’t  go all the way and make it a positive one.
  2. Give yourself permission to do one fun thing or one nurturing thing a day—because you deserve it.
  3. Set a mini goal each day that works towards your longer term goals.

So lets help to spread the growth of positivity through the world, by beginning at home. Let’s focus on supporting increased self-worth in everyone we come in contact with. Ensure that if we can’t do anything to help, we don’t do anything to make the situation worth. Self worth is improved one small step at a time—it won’t happen overnight.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/think-global-act-local/

Life Changing

inspiringmax

Write about anything you’d like, but make sure the post includes this sentence:

“I thought we’d never come back from that one.”

It was 10.27 am on 28th December, 1989. Suddenly I was woken from my night duty slumber by my house shaking violently. I didn’t know what was happening, although the realisation quickly hit—Newcastle had been hit by an 5.6 magnitude earthquake—I thought we’d never come back from that one.

But Newcastle and I both have. See more detail in my earlier post here.

The following week changed my life forever. Not only did my beloved city look like a war zone but, I got engaged—it definitely was a new decade and new life for me. On one hand there was the destruction including my house and on the other hand their was the excitement of what a new life had to offer.

The lessons I learnt working in mental health in Newcastle during this tragic time have never left me—13 people died and most of the city was effected. I learnt anything can happen to anyone at anytime. It’s how you handle it that makes the long-term difference. I know with support I can and will get through anything and when I need to I follow St Francis of Assis’s advice.

St Francis of Assisi quote

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/use-it-or-lose-it/

Survival Foods

inspiringmax

You’ve being exiled to a private island, and your captors will only supply you with five foods. What do you pick?

As I am on a private island, I am assuming it is worth buying otherwise it wouldn’t be private. So my island is supplemented with tropical fruit and other items I can use at my leisure. I am also assuming that my captures are delivering me raw foods that I need to cook for myself or possibly them as well.

After serious consideration my five foods are:

  1. Flour – This I could cook over an open fire and turn it into damper, pizza base, pancakes, tortillas or a cake.
  2. Eggs – They too are versatile and can be used in various forms.
  3. Cheese – I love cheese in all its forms—especially vintage cheddar and feta.
  4. Greek yoghurt – I use this in many ways. Both as a sweet and savoury additive for meals and to cook in.
  5. Vegemite – Being an Australian I couldn’t be without this Aussie favourite. Full of vitamin B, it would help keep me well while awaiting my rescue. It may also save my food from being stolen, as anyone who isn’t Australian struggles to eat it.

Vegemite

 

While I am waiting for rescue, I will write a recipe book on the ways I find to use my 5 foods in combination with the foods I find on and around the island. The exciting thing is cooking will turn into a pleasure again as I have nothing but time to think about what i will make for each meal.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/five-a-day/

Our Journey

inspiringmax

Today’s assignment in Writing 201 Poetry is to write a limerick based around the theme of a journey. I chose a description of our failed attempt at a white Christmas last year.

 

White Christmas

This year we wanted to grow

Excited by the opportunity to show

What we had seen

But alas it was green

So we couldn’t experience the snow

 

Clone Myself – Never

inspiringmax

If you could clone yourself, how would you split up your responsibilities?

My life is fairly balanced now—I don’t want a clone. I have spent fifty years trusting my own decisions. I am not about to give over any of my responsibility to a duplicated version of myself. Yes, there are parts of my life I do not like—commuting to work—however, changing this, changes my whole life. I wouldn’t even give this job to my clone as what I do on the train makes up who I am—writing, reading and sleeping.

If I am running short of time to do the things I want—I realise it is time to reassess and prioritse what is important to me. I believe you can have time to do anything if it is important enough to you. I wrote a third of my book on my daily commute. Although now, editing doesn’t work as well on the train.

Now I am looking at ways to make sure I get enough exercise in each week. I haven’t come up with a definitive plan yet but handing this responsibility over to a clone is not going to get it done the best way for me.

The other problem, of course is cloning is an identical copy of my DNA—not of everything I do. My clone would be the age of my daughter unless I was cloned at birth, but would live its own life—like Dolly the sheep—cloned in 1997. For now I will focus on rearranging my time to get what I need done and leave the scientists to worry about the cloning.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/clone-wars/

Water

inspiringmax

Today I begin Writing 201, which over the next two weeks will teach me how to write poetry. This certainly will take me out of my comfort zone—but you have to be in it to win it. Here is my first attempt at Haiku, a Japanese poem of three lines. The first line has 5 syllables, the second 7 syllables and the last line 5 syllables again.

As it is my first poem since the third grade I am pleased with my baseline—looking forward to see how many new tricks this old dog can learn.

Water

I am a swimmer

Who cannot find any water

So said my daughter

Our Home

inspiringmax

What do you display on the walls of your home — photos, posters, artwork, nothing? How do you choose what to display? What mood are you trying to create?

Over the years we have gradually decorated our home with a mixture of things that have meaning to us—either as individuals or as a family. There is no theme. When we were married my husband had a collection of Australian paintings that he loved and I had a miniature alcohol bottle collection. These two items have formed the basis of our lounge and dining area decoration in the 8 homes we have lived in.

A small selection

A small selection

Special photos  have a pride of place in our home. We have photos of people, places and activities that have were special to us. I enjoy occasionally studying them closely and letting them take me back in time—bringing a smile to my face as I remember the details surrounding the photo. This is more important when our loved one is no longer with us.

I love collections. For me there is something about having a group of similar things. It allows you to continue to make an area unique without spending a lot of money. My belief is that if you gave ten people the same 4 items to start their collection and told them to grow it to 20 items within a six months period—each collection would be different.

We currently have four collections are working on.

  • My little bottle collection that started with 4 bottles about 30 years ago.
  • My Mickey Mouse collection that I have collected for years, however, was only put together in one place earlier this year. It now sits pride of place above my desk and helps me write while at the same time bringing joy to the room.
  • Our cat collection
  • Our travel collection—this collection includes something special from each country we have visited. It is still only a small collection however, I plan on expanding it over the next few years.

For us decorating each of our homes was never a planned thing. It was always a work in progress that took on its own life. I like it this way and it seems to work for us. However you decorate your home, I think they reflect strongly who you are. This is true for us—a fun, happy eclectic mix ready for anything.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/wall-to-wall/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Symmetry

inspiringmax

This week, share an image of symmetry.

I was attracted to this sculpture close to my house first by the striking red colour and secondly by its symmetry. It stood out from a distance along the path.

 

 

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/symmetry/

Better Than Sliced Bread: Accessible Air Travel

inspiringmax

Most of us have heard the saying, “That’s the best thing since sliced bread!” What do you think is actually the best thing since sliced bread?

Live has changed dramatically since 1928 when sliced bread was first sold. However most of those changes that have affected my world have occurred since 2000’s. For me, besides the obvious—accessible internet, Google and WI-Fi hot spots—I choose increased and affordable air travel. Today, you can decide to go anywhere in the world and there would be a way to get there. Years ago, this was not the case.

I flew for the first time when I was 12. It was a school excursion so there was no choice. It has also just occurred to me that I have never flown with either parent as my next flight was to Nouméa in my twenties. During these times air travel was rare and special—something most of us saved for.

My daughter first flew at 9 to Brisbane. It was 2004.  While we were away she had her 10th birthday and a new airline was born in Australia—Jetstar Airways—bringing with them cheap flights throughout Australia, New Zealand and Asia. It was fascinating, when we landed at Brisbane airport all the check-in counters were Qantas. Then six days later, when we left majority of them had turn into Jetstar check-in counters. We flew back to Sydney on one of those Jetstar flights. This changed the cost of domestic travel in Australia. Suddenly people were choosing to fly instead of drive. A revolution had started. Because of this change, by the time my daughter was 12, she had flown so often she could check herself in and knew the procedure well.

International air travel has also reduced in price over time so the world is now our oyster. We can travel everywhere and everywhere can travel to us.  Australia is now a truly multicultural country and  has opened up as a major tourist destination for the world. A lot has changed since Paul Hogan made our most successful tourist campaign for Northern America 30 years ago.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/sliced-bread/