Putting on my big girl panties

I've heard and used this line a few times and this weekend had to put 'em on and pull 'em up.  When do you have to do this?  How many people like confrontation?  Personally I don't, but sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in and try to do it without causing offense.  

This weekend I got into a conversation that I certainly didn't mean to turn heated but it did.  I stood my ground, but in so doing made some of the other people in the meeting uncomfortable.  As hard as it was to speak my mind and work through the issue, it was even harder to approach the person after the meeting to "unseat" the issue.  I could have let someone else try to smooth it over; but this was my issue and so I dealt with it.  

Sometimes we don't feel like doing something and we need to anyway and we get up and get going, for me - my big girl panties are when I have to deal with others following a debate or confrontation and muddle through.  A time when I could let someone else deal with a mess for me but don't.

When have you put on your big girl panties?

The power of choice

We had such a good discussion today.  We were talking about being true to ourselves.  Whether we are acted upon are we choose to act.  With my own children I will often hear the: well he… then follows the excuse as to why they hit, yelled at etc.. their brother or sister.  There are so many choices in a day - some that seem very minute and unimportant, others that are large, but even the choices that seem small effect us or others.  One of the many small choices we seemingly make every day is how we react to others and the things we choose to think about.

My daughter once had an assignment to write down the things she thought about at the end of the day.  As we talked about it and went over the assignment, we discussed that we choose to think about/dwell on certain things.  We don't always choose what happens to us throughout the day but we choose which things we think about.  We can choose to think about all the bad stuff that might have happened to us or we can think about all the good stuff that happened to us.  Same goes for the choices and other events of the day - we can focus on "happy thoughts"

This was an interesting concept for me that we choose our memories to some extent.  We can remember things positively or negatively.  This I think is what happens with the "snowball effect."  I often have one thing go bad in the day, then another and another and before I know it my attitude is directed negatively towards many different things and even things that aren't "bad" become viewed so.  So if we can "choose" our viewpoint then we can choose to focus on the positive things and hopefully that will snowball - leading all things to be looked at in a positive viewpoint.  As we focus on the positive we are able to enjoy some things more and limit our response to others.

It's not easy to choose our response or keep our memories flooded with good, but when we do it once, we can do it again and again.  In the past I would often think about what I could do better - even vacations I would think about what went wrong etc… but since this conversation I have been thinking about what went right - and I have found a lot more that's gone right since trying to focus on it.

So choose your dwelling points, which will help choose a response and you'll be able to choose to be more happy overall.

what a lovely day

It's summer, I just did hot yoga in the sunny backyard, I feel refreshed and open to the world.  This in contrast to being overwhelmed with so much to do last week.  I came to the conclusion - I will always have one more thing to do that just can't be done.  So I took a deep breath, pulled up my big girl panties and got to work doing what I could do.  I'm awfully tired at night but I feel like I'm being the best me.

So a lovely day - I've decided isn't so much about the day but what I chose to think of it.  When faced with something irritated I laughed, when something could have brought me to tears I smiled.  I tried to be a little kinder, think the best of others and  do a little better again today.

WHAT A LOVELY DAY!!

character

One of the physicians in our practice is retiring and going on a mission to Florida.  He's had a couple of retirement parties, and spoke in church this Sunday as a farewell.  As I've listened to him talk and the tribute others have given him it makes me think about what others would say about me.  I don't so much base my life about what others think, but I wonder what words would explain my character.  If I had only a few words to describe myself, what would they be.  Would they be the words I want them to be.  What is the measure of a man? or Woman? I don't so much want to compare myself to others but there are great men and women we know, our ancestors etc that are good examples to follow.

I think I would like to be:
hardworking, playful, compassionate, understanding
It's amazing all the actions that would come from those four simple words.  I think I will take one word each day - a character word and try to behave in that manner.

What words would you want used to describe your character?