Creating Change

Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman ~ Maya Angelou

Today is a new day, and each day allows us to have a new beginning. I have found myself on a brand-new path. On Monday I found in my inbox Lisa Grace Byrne's (of Well grounded life) blog titled How to eliminate your overwhelm and overdrive tendencies... and I did the exercise. I was not in a very good mood, I had had a hard weekend, it was Monday and I just was in a funk. I made myself do this exercise.

It was great. She asks you to write a list of all the things you want to change in your life. From anything small to anything big. She also has a lot of good things that she says so I would suggest that you watch the video from her. She is very inspirational. I rarely actually do these exercises and this was such an eye opening change of state for me.

My list was:
weight
housing
job status
vacuum cleaner belt
furniture
Exchange my king bed for a Queen
relationship
financial situation
fix car
clothing
Balance

I took a good 5 minutes to do this, maybe longer. I thought of all the really important things that I wanted to change. I did not want to skip anything and she did say big or small. All the things that were going through my head, kind of bogging me down, I put them on the list. They all mattered to me. She then asks you to put the list into sub categories:
What I Have and Don't Want and What I Want and Don't Have.

Have and Don't Want
Weight (too much)
king bed
Fix car

Want and Don't Have
House (I live in an apartment)
Job
vacuum cleaner belt
furniture
queen bed
relationship
Balance

I was kind of surprised that I had so many thing that I wanted. I try to live my life being happy with what I have, feeling the blessing of enough. But lately I have been having a hard time and finding a lot lacking in my life. I am focusing too much on this lack, not having a job, not having a loving soul mate, not having a lot of what I am used to. I will need to start looking closely at what I do have.

Then Lisa Byrne had us do the next step, a very powerful step. She is amazing and this is the step that really turned my day around, and possibly my whole week, or life... I really want to do one of her online classes. If this is just one of the creative exercises she has you do to help you balance your life, and here I am in the middle of crisis, and it helped me, Wow is all I can say. She threw me a lifeline with this one.

The next step is to cross out what you don't have control over right now, and what you don't really care about. So simple, a second ago all those things seemed so important. Important enough to make it onto a list when my brain feels like it's going to explode with all the things I need to change and work on. Now I get to cross things off.

My list now looks like this:

Have and Don't Want
Weight (too much)
king bed
Fix car

Want and Don't Have
House (I live in an apartment)
Job
vacuum cleaner belt
furniture
queen bed
relationship
Balance

I was very surprised that I had crossed off relationship at first, my pen hovered above that one but I don't have control over that, not really. I also don't really care right now, I can't go from heartbreak to relationship in only a couple of weeks. I was also pleasantly surprised that I am okay living in my cozy little apartment, sure I want to rearrange it and make it mine, but my son and I are okay here. I can feel blessed that I have an apartment that I can afford with basically no income at the moment.

She has another step, she asks that you make a plan to change the things left on the list, take steps to change what you really care about. I made an appointment to get help writing my Curriculum Vitae and my resume. I signed up for some free local classes to help with job searching. I started walking farther plus made a plan to eat more vegetables from my plot in my community garden, whole grains, and lean proteins; all in smaller portions. I made plans to balance my life by meditating, exercising, eating well, and being present.

Change comes to you in strange ways. One must always be aware of little things that might change your entire outlook on life. This was one small video blog that really did that. I am looking into some of her other classes as well. Here is another link to her homepage  for her blog Well Grounded Life, equipping moms to to live vibrant lives: wellgroundedsite.com

Many Blessings