Tag: Coping

Understanding

inspiringmax

Understanding another person’s thoughts, feelings or behaviours is part of getting to know them. It is easy to judge based on our own assumptions of what is appropriate, but life is not that simple. It can be hard sometimes to look at a situation through another’s eyes. However, from my experience, the real growth comes as you can learn about your response to the initial trigger. Without this knowledge, you will find yourself in the same situation again and again.

To help me gain understanding I regularly review situations outside of the moment. The stronger my reaction, the more important I find it is to dig deep and be honest to develop the best outcomes for every one. In the following acrostic poem I share my thoughts and experiences reviewing difficult conversations and situations.

Unveiling the uncertainty

Negativity or neglect

Discovering the depth of the drive

Educating myself to encourage and empower

Realising any resentfulness I respond with reassurance and respect 

Secure, sensitive and supportive

Treading lightly, building trust and tolerance

Aware and authentic of my feelings

No longer nervous, nasty or numb

Delighted the situation is different now

Invigorated through involvement

Nurturing and

Getting to know myself as well as you better

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/understanding/

Share Your World 2016 – Week #8

inspiringmax

What household chore do you absolutely hate doing?

I hate doing all house hold chores which is why I pay a cleaner. They enjoy it, are definitely better at it and the stress is removed. I love to come home the day the cleaners have been and just sit quietly and smell the clean silence. It rejuvenates me to think about the blogging and editing I can do at the weekend.

What was the last URL that you bookmarked?

I don’t know what this question means so I guess I don’t do it. I am really only an amateur when it comes to this technology.

Close your eyes. Listen to your body. What part of your body is seeking attention? What is it telling you?

When I closed my eyes I did so at my computer desk and put my head in my hands. At this time my body began to tingle and my head began to slightly ache. I think it was telling me thanks for stopping and are you going to feed me soon as my blood sugar levels are dropping after a long day computing and working. Message correct. I felt better after food.

Would you rather have a two-bedroom apartment in a big city of your choosing or a mansion in the country side in the state or country where you currently live?

If I could afford to not work I would rather be in country New South Wales. If I had to work I would rather be in apartment in the city close to work. I of course would be happy to give working in Canada, London or USA a go if I met the qualifications.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Last week I was grateful for the support I received during a tough week. This week I am looking forward to putting all the little illustrations back into my book before I review it with my collaborator. Editing is such a long process.

Share Your World – 2016 Week 8

 

Messy No More

inspiringmax

Write a letter to the personality trait you like least, convincing it to shape up or ship out. Be as threatening, theatrical, or thoroughly charming as is necessary to get the job done.

Dear Messiness,

You are an inherent trait with me since birth, definitely a direct descendant of both my mother and father. You are my automatic default particularly when I am busy or tired and to put it bluntly, in the end, you usually just create me more work. You are out of control and have to go. I am sick of even the small amounts of time you have taken from me, as I need to search through your mess to find what I want or need. One of the things I have noticed about you is that the busier and crazier my day is, the more out of control you get. You definitely can tell the state of my mind by the state of my desk.

WELL NO MORE.

We are parting ways. You sabotage my goals and steal my precious time. So, I have decided to be the change I want to see in the world or more importantly, my family. Over the next few months, I am going to mindfully work on eliminating you. It will take a while but you will lose. They say old habits die hard but I am looking forward to your death. You serve no positive purpose in my life and I will work hard to rebirth you using my monthly coffee catch-ups to share my success at changing my world.

From This

To This

 

Kind Regards

Max

Photo credits: Google

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/shape-up-or-ship-out/

Sink Or Swim

inspiringmax

Tell us about a time when you were left on your own, to fend for yourself in an overwhelming situation — on the job, at home, at school. What was the outcome?

I believe learning by doing is the only way to grow—it teaches skills that are never forgotten. Initially the situation may appear overwhelming particularly if it is based on dealing with a sudden crisis, however by using St Francis of Assisi’s quote I have found a way through many tough times.

St Francis of Assisi quote

The whole idea of sink or swim to me bring to mind pictures of young children being forced into the water by their parents as an act of love. The parents need to make sure they learn to get back to the side of the pool and save their life, if they fall into a swimming pool without an adult watching to rescue them. Initially, there is a lot of screaming and protesting. Then as the young child listens to the instructions, they are rewarded by the freedom of moving unaided in the water. They can swim and they are so proud. Nobody remembers the fear—they remember the success.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/sink-or-swim/

Ageing Well

inspiringmax

What are your thoughts on aging? How will you stay young at heart as you get older?

I believe has two choices when it comes to ageing.

  1. Embrace it
  2. Succumb to it

Personally, I choose to embrace it.  My life has become my own since I turned 50. Suddenly I can do many things off limits before because the families priorities needed to be different. My time and money is my own so now I can:

  • Buy what I like when I like—not that I do but I can
  • Travel overseas
  • Go away for weekends with little notice
  • Eat out for meals without considering the cost
  • Spend hours blogging
  • Spend more hours writing my book
  • Cook when it suits me
  • Start planning my retirement
  • Have an I don’t want to do anything day whenever I need to
  • Control my own sleep

Yes this old body of mine can’t do everything it used to, but my mind can do a lot more. Over my 50+ years I have developed a lot of coping strategies and emotional intelligence that I plan on using to keep my body and mind as young and active as they can be for my next 50 years. As my brain like all of the muscles in my body needs to be used daily to keep it working I will continue to focus on the positive and follow Martha Stewart’s top 10 tips on how to age well.

  1. Eat well
  2. Maintain a healthy weight
  3. Be active
  4. Get quality sleep
  5. Wear sunscreen
  6. Collaborate with a good primary care doctor (GP) regularly
  7. Find a passion
  8. Connect with others
  9. Stop complaining
  10. Stay curious

What do you think is important to age well?

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/young-at-heart/

One More Time

inspiringmax

If you were able to relive one day from the last 12 months, which day would it be — and why?

Given the chance I would relive 25th November 2014. The was the day my husband and I embarked on our 6 week Canadian adventure. We were so excited. However on arrival at Sydney Airport I became suspicious that our tickets were incorrect, so I asked at the check-in counter.

“Are these tickets correct, we are going to St John’s Newfoundland?”

“Yes they are correct they just used the abbreviation” replied the counter attendant.

So I settled and didn’t think about it again.

Then we arrived in Vancouver for some reason I became suspicious again. I checked with the baggage handler only to be given the same response,  so again I settled and we continued on our journey across Canada.

By the time our flight arrived in Toronto, we had been up for more than 24 hours and were exhausted. Being smart travelers we decided to check which gate our connecting flight went from before getting food or drinks. We wandered to the departures board where I discovered our flight number and destination didn’t match. Then I realised my gut instincts had been right.  The travel agent had booked us flights from Sydney to St John, New Brunswick and not our destination—St John’s, Newfoundland. We were devastated. The only good point was that we solved the problem before either our bags or we bordered the flight.

The gentleman at Air Canada’s service desk was excellent.  After about an hour he had made a plan to get us to St John’s as quickly as possible via Halifax arriving 24 hours later than we originally planned. To add humour to this difficult situation he told us this destination was a regular mix up for overseas visitors. The other common problem is people flying into Sydney, Nova Scotia when their destination was Sydney, Australia—a much bigger problem.

The moral of this story is mistakes are easily made and part of the journey.  Trust your gut instincts, triple check your airline tickets early and always pack your sense of humour when traveling.

Photo Credit: Google

Photo Credit: Google

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/one-more-time/

Resilience

inspiringmax

What’s your most prized possession?

My most prized possession is my ability to cope with what ever comes my way. My life has been an interesting miss mash of experiences that have helped me developed my personal resilience. At times, I laughing joke that resilience is the one thing that I have achieved a high distinction in. Seriously however—personal resilience is no laughing matter. Although, it is the corner-stone of emotional intelligence. The following acrostic poem  describes some of the values my personal resilience has taught me.

Resourcefulness

Encouragement

Sincerity

Intuition

Logic

Integrity

Empowerment

Nurturance

Clarity

Empathy

To help you develop your personal resilience, look into the lessons your tough times have taught you. Moving forward they can turn into powerful tools that you can use to support yourself and others in times of need.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/pride-and-joy/

Keep Believing

inspiringmax

What is the one thing at which you are the most afraid of failing?

In general I look at life through positive thoughts so I don’t think about failing.  I believe in myself and my ability to cope with what life throws my way. If something doesn’t work out the way I planned I look for the lesson for it, make a new plan and move forward. I believe focusing on failure and what I can’t do doesn’t help and fogs up my view of my reality.

This week many things that I couldn’t control came into my life and I was reminded of the above inspirational tweet. It would have been easy for me to focus on the negative aspects however, as challenging as this was, I continued to focus on the positive and believe everything would work out. I focused on what I could do.

To succeed at not letting what I couldn’t do interfere with what I needed to I acknowledged my fears, feelings and frustrations. These were the basis of the negative things that could happen and because I am a big picture person I made a small plan—just in case. That done with support from those around me I focused on the positive. I kept believing that everything would work out.

Now as I start a new week I am grateful that things are moving forward in the right direction and non of my fears transpired. In hindsight, I am happy my mindfulness and positive thinking worked out and should a similar situation happen again, I will again follow John Wooden’s advice.

If you find yourself  focusing on what you can’t do, take a moment believe in what you can do and see where it leads you.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/must-not-fail/

Home

inspiringmax

What is home?

For many people it is where they live, however as this is regularly changing I believe the consistent factor is yourself. For me, home is a place of security and I am the only person who can be responsible for my security. I create my security in me, which is why I agree with the following quote on Twitter. Home is myself.

When I think about the factors that make home myself—I think of my personal values.

Harmony

Open-mindedness

Mindful motivation

Expressiveness

As home is myself when life gets tough I  take a few moments, recentre myself wherever I am around the world and recharge. I hold the power and can go home, wherever and whenever, I choose. It’s a powerful skill—going home for me doesn’t need to wait for my physical return to my residential address in Australia.

Things I’ve Learnt

inspiringmax

Have you ever considered what you have learnt? The following list reflects my first thoughts after pondering this topic.

  •  I can do anything I want by breaking my goal down into small practical steps
  • Adequate sleep is essential for my mental health
  • Connecting with people brings me joy–in person and in the blogging community
  • Acknowledging my feelings takes away their power over me
  • I can do anything I really set my mind to by seeking the right help and guidance
  • Asking for help is not a sign of weakness but one of strength
  • My choices need to reflect my priorities to achieve my goals
  • Mindfulness colouring-in books are great for stress relief
  • We teach others how to treat us by how we treat ourselves
  • Colour lifts my mood
  • Positive thinking is powerful
  • When life is difficult I work out what I can practically do in the moment—the rest can wait till later
  • Drinking water makes my body work better
  • Spending ME time daily is important
  • Spending time visiting others blogs is an important part of the joy of blogging
  • If I just do things instead of procrastinating about them I save time
  • When one door closes a window with a better view usually opens
  • Getting back to nature grounds me
  • Get the facts then make decisions—don’t assume
  • If in doubt—Google