Tag: #technology

Be a Stopper

I’m not very good at quitting. As soon as that thought entered my mind, another thought followed. ‘You don’t have to quit, but you can stop.’

I’m good at stopping.

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In speaking with a co-worker he said something that has been rolling around my mind for a week. We don’t know each other very well, so he had no idea my love for memes. I noticed he never posted a meme on his Facebook page. It was always a photograph with a description of the event.

He said, “People being encouraged by a saying on a meme. That is the most ridiculous thing ever!”

His comment knocked me back for a moment, but I quickly realized I’ve had that thought before.

At the time, I was scheduling an encouraging meme to post automatically the next morning. A lady thanked me for starting her day with something positive, but then I wondered…’Why are you looking through your phone for encouragement?’

I’ve done it too. Whenever I needed encouragement I’d scroll through my own Facebook page. Hah!

In 2017, I taught myself how to make memes. If you google Letitgocoach, and click images, you will see some, but once I learned, I was ready to learn something else. Making memes is a nice tool to have, but they’ve lost their sparkle in my life.

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Smith and I stopped seeing one another. We had a beautiful journey, but we stopped several times. The time between stops got longer until we knew our journey had come to a close. It was a sweet ending and then I saw a meme he posted on Facebook. He announced his single status in a joking way.

He used a meme and it was humorous, but I thought it ironic that the end of our relationship was summed up in a meme. I’m not hurt by it. I know it’s his way to lighten the seriousness of the situation with humor, so I’m happy he can do that.

I may not be a quitter, but I’m a good stopper.

Lay it Down

My favorite time to meditate is at night.

I’ve been drifting off to peaceful sleep like a child, listening to mindful sleep on Simple Habits.

Oren Jay Sofer is the narrator of this meditation and his voice alone will soothe you to sleep. Lastnight, he discussed Contentment. How does that feel?

contentment

Something he does in every session is this.

Once you find your comfortable sleep position, he suggests 3 deep breaths. Inhale and exhale until your breathing resumes a normal rhythm.

My favorite part is when he says, ‘Lay it Down.”

Anything you left unfinished today. Lay it down.

I can feel my body sink a little bit deeper into the mattress when he says, “Today is over.” Just hearing those three words gives me confirmation of where I am. Laying in bed and getting ready for sleep.

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Do you believe meditation looks like this?

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How a lot of people envision meditation.

You don’t have to sit in any one position to meditate. You can meditate while standing, walking, sitting or lying down. It doesn’t require specific clothing because I’m literally laying in bed in my pajamas.

He always goes through a full body scan, but lastnight he dug deeper into the feeling of contentment within the body. He acknowledged parts of the body and paused to thank them.

Beginning at the top with the eyes.

I take for granted what all my eyes do throughout the day. The same with most parts of my body. Just like sitting here typing and watching my fingers flutter over the keys making this post possible. The eyes and fingers are small, but do great things.

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As we did our body scan, Oren would pause on a particular body-part such as the eyes, neck, shoulders, arms or torso. Literally breaking down specific parts and he would bless them by saying…

“Thank you for all that you do. May you be strong and well.”~ Oren Jay Sofer

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So tonight my lovelies, as you prepare to fall asleep, take a moment to let it go and lay it down.

A Fresh Start

I went back to Soul Society Yoga’s Chillville.

It’s my favorite class, and is a nice way to do something my body will thank me for later.

I saw this sign hanging in Yoga class like a confirmation assuring me I was in the right space.

sign
Credit: Soul Society Yoga

I love Yoga, but now it’s beginning to love me.

The New Year is here, and it’s the year of kindness.

I’m trying to be kind to myself so kindness will spill over onto others. Going to Yoga at least once a week is a good start. After class, I spoke with the teacher. He began by going to one class a week for a year.

That’s good enough for me. He’s an instructor now.

This year, I also dove into my meditation practice.

My daughter referred me to an app called ‘Simple Habits.’ The first week of January I began doing a 30 day practice called ‘Fresh Start.’ It’s free to use, and has many free meditations. It’s wonderfulness.

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I took this screenshot yesterday.

The screenshot reveals how simple it is to create a habit. Just like Yoga, the meditation is becoming a part of my life. It feels like something’s missing without it. We can create simple habits.

Maybe you’re beating yourself up mid January on goals that aren’t being met. Be kind to yourself.

Developing personally takes time, so take the full year. Every minute of the day is a fresh start.

To Be Embraced

I’m sitting in the middle of my bed.

It’s my favorite spot. My total Zen.

I woke up early, but tried being quiet. Tiptoeing to the kitchen to make a french press of coffee, I closed my daughters bedroom door to let her sleep in.

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I came back to bed with coffee to read my new devotional. The sun is streaming through the windows lighting the room. You could hear a pin drop, it’s that still and quiet.

Are you comfortable sitting in stillness?

Do you allow your life to become quiet?

A Tale of Yesterday

Yesterday, my daughter and I went to Target. One of her favorite bands came out with a new CD, and this particular store had dibs on it’s new release.

We walked into the store and headed straight back to the electronics section. Once she found the shelf of the new releases, her heart sank. The shelf was empty. I looked at the small, empty space where the CD’s once stood, and it didn’t make sense for them to be gone. The space was so small for a band this big.

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the-1975-a-brief-inquiry-into-online-relationships.

They seemed to have plenty of people working, so I made eye contact with a young man behind the counter. He walked over and I inquired about the empty shelf. My guess was they hadn’t noticed it being empty, and probably had a stockpile of the new CD’s in the back. He walked away to find out.

My daughter was probably holding her breath while the salesman was gone, but I decided to walk around and enjoy my surroundings. I found myself staring at a wall of books. It’s good as a writer to see what is popular. Then, I saw it. This one book….

Be Still. There is More.

How are you with waiting?

We could have just left the store when we saw the empty shelf, but I wanted my daughter to see me ask for help. To dig deeper into the situation.

We live in a microwave based world. Technology has conditioned us to want what we want and receive it immediately.

I’m completely guilty of downloading books to my Kindle. It’s fast and easy. The eBook is saturating our world. Will technology replace holding a real book in our hands? Will bookstores become extinct?

The book that caught my gaze while waiting for the salesman, was a recommendation by Kindle months ago. I didn’t download it, and then forgot about it. It was one of those books that needed to be held.

embraced

Thank you for your time.

The salesman returned holding a CD.

I was so excited holding the book, and seeing he had the CD, I jumped up and gave him a huge embrace! I shouted, “I love you”!, not expecting a response.

But you know what? He shouted, “I love you!” back. My heart was full seeing God move in Target.

Thank you for spending your time here with me today. My hope is you feel fully embraced.

Battery Saving Mode

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In the morning, I unplug my laptop to sit at the coffee table and read, or catch up with friends. 

I use it’s battery as my timer.

Doing things online drains our internal battery along with the laptop.

Right before the battery dies, it gives me a warning and goes into battery saving mode. At that point, I finish what I’m doing and plug it in to recharge.

While it recharges, so can I. 

My daughter and I were standing in line at a restaurant. It’s a very popular one around here, and it was lunchtime. Almost every person in line was scrolling through their phone. It was a sad sight.

How many were in battery saving mode? 

What would happen if we spent that time with the person standing next to us? Engage in conversation, or simply ask, “How are you today”, and really listen. 

This morning, a friend wrote a Blog about social media being draining. That is the biggest time and energy vampire of all. She set boundaries around it, and you can ready her inspiring post here. 

Writing this post used 60% battery, so I wish you a beautiful day! Step away from the screen and enjoy real life. Don’t live in battery saving mode. 

Giving Me Practice

I went shopping yesterday and left my phone at home. It was intentional, just to check myself and make sure it didn’t bother me, and it didn’t.

I spent years addicted to my phone.

The day I deactivated my Facebook accounts was the day they congratulated me for spending six years with them. They sent a notification, and I was mortified. Six years, and what did I have to show for it?

Thank you for all of your kind comments on my Blog posts recently. They absolutely terrify me.

It takes time for me to respond, because I still overthink the response. I don’t have the WordPress app on my phone, so I don’t receive immediate notification. I let notifications run my life for years.

The past couple of weeks, I’ve been sharing things with you that took a long time to admit. It may look like Blogging tips, but for me it was painful lessons.

It’s not even about me, it’s about the lessons, and being used by God to prevent someone else from going through the same heartache. It’s by God’s grace that I’m able to sit here and share. Palms sweaty and hands shaking along the keyboard.

I don’t realize all the activity on my Blog without the app. Two or three times a day, I open my laptop, logon to this site, and see that you have visited.

I read the Blogs in my Reader, and love on others. It’s natural to give love, and leave comments on what you write, but I stare at the screen in awe when that same love and kindness is returned.

Sometimes I don’t know what to say, so I just ‘like’ the comment, and come back later to respond. I don’t know how people do it that have 100’s of comments a day. I would be so overwhelmed.

I enjoy living a calm, quiet life, but to live that way, I turn off all notifications, and my phone is usually in another room of the house. I’m not quite ready to tell you exactly how bad it got with 6 social media accounts giving me a feeling of importance.

Wow. That slipped out.

I don’t run my Blog in the normal way, because if I did, it would begin to run me. Thank you for your love and kindness, and taking time to comment.

It’s becoming less terrifying with every response, and you are giving me practice.

Quiet is Good

My life is quiet. I created it that way on purpose.

Some people cannot embrace the quiet. They have to stay busy. The stillness of life is a beautiful thing.

Have you practiced just sitting in it?

Sometime last year, I took all the apps off of my phone that made noise. I have an undying love for Google, so the Google family of apps stayed.

My phone may be quiet, but my mind is not.

I’m always thinking, and this was disturbing my sleep. It would take so long for my brain to shut off, I started dreading bedtime. Plus, I would wake up the next day tired from trying to get some sleep!

I tried a lot of things to prepare my mind for bed.

My daughter recommended Melatonin, but that just knocked me out. This is the same daughter that told me, “You look tired.” I longed for a good night’s sleep. That feeling of drifting off to dreamland.

The other night, I laid in bed and listened to my breathing. In my mind, I heard my Yoga instructor say as if to remind me, “It’s all in the breath.”

I’ve been practicing Yoga and meditation all year.

I’ve been doing both of them wrong.

Yoga was a form of exercise for me, but that is not it’s main purpose. That is more like a fringe benefit.

I could never get my mind quiet long enough to meditate. Guess what? I’m not supposed to. It’s okay to be mindful of your thoughts during meditation.

thoughts

This is when I tried Headspace for 10 days straight.

My daughter mentioned I was ‘sighing’ a lot, but it wasn’t a sigh. It was controlled breathing. I was sorting through my thoughts with each breath.

Two nights ago, guess how I fell asleep?

By counting my breath. Just being aware of my breath, and counting each inhale and exhale.

I felt myself drifting off to sleep. Quiet is good.