Cleaning out the Cobwebs

Sometimes in life, it's important to clean out the cobwebs that clog up our day-to-day activities and can have a draining effect on our moods. Over the last couple of weeks, I've done some much-needed mental housekeeping. I have made peace with things that have been weighing heavily on my heart and mind for some time now, and the difference it has made is wonderful.

I'm lucky to have family, friends, co-workers, and many others who are supportive and enthusiastic about my ideas. Focusing on those things can be difficult sometimes, but I'm making a conscious effort to do so.

In college, I learned some amazing relaxation tools as part of my psychology classes. Today, I'm offering some (perhaps unsolicited) tips to improve your mood and relieve some stress, even if it's just a little.

1) Take a breath: it seems so simple, and yet, many people don't stop to take a deep breath a few times a day. Doing so can help to "reset" your mind, so to speak. I take a deep breath in the morning as soon as I wake up, just before heading out the door for work, and then periodically during the day. Try it! Close your eyes, fill your lungs with air slowly through your nose, and exhale slowly through your mouth.

2) When you lie down at night, systematically tense and relax your muscles (hold the tensed muscle for 5 seconds, slowly relaxing it) from head to toe. This one is my favorite, it almost instantly puts me to sleep.

3) There are plenty of websites out there that will allow you to choose from any number of ambient noises, such as rain, thunder, waterfalls, etc. My favorite combination is a light rolling thunder and a steady rain.

Ahhhh... relaxation. It's such a welcome luxury at the end of a busy day.

By the way, happy Halloween! Did you catch the cobweb connection?

Must...Keep...Walking

As part of the latest shenanigans at work, we have created a walking contest to encourage healthy lifestyles among the staff and their families. We got into teams of our choice and thanks to Kellogg, we have been using some donated pedometers to keep track of our steps for a little over a week now. My team is full of competitive people, and there are prizes on the line, albeit small ones (in fact, I'm not even sure what the prizes are), but prizes nonetheless!  So, we made an additional bet with another team. The team who loses must wash the cars of the winning team. Added bonus: they will do so in the parking lot at work so that everyone can see their defeat.

Needless to say, my competitive streak has kicked in and I have been really stepping up my game (see what I did there?). My calves are burning a little and frankly a 2 mile walk in heels with my team was not the greatest on my poor toes. All in the name of victory, right?

My team and I have been going on a walk each day at lunch, and it's been a great break from the norm. Often, it can be easy to forget to take a moment to breathe and relax at work. I am convinced I'm working harder simply because my concentration is better after taking a good walk.

In short, this is a great lesson in morale and health, as well as productivity. It's too easy to get caught in the daily paperwork drudgery and forget to enjoy life. How can people be expected to work without having a chance to enjoy the sunshine? There's far more to life than sitting behind a computer screen, and I'm determined to enjoy it.

Happy walking!

Productivity Burst

I don't know about you, but I tend to have what I refer to as "productivity bursts." Normally, once I get home from work, I am tired, and I mean tired. My job keeps me moving around a lot, dealing with a lot of people, demands a lot of attention to detail and a whole lot of patience. So, once I get a chance to come home, cook dinner, and finally sit down, I'm usually pretty close to exhausted.

Needless to say, my after-work productivity levels are generally fairly low. On some days, though, I surprise myself with how much I accomplish. Today was one of those days. In a nutshell, I succeeded in the following:

Two loads of laundry: check.
Dishes washed and put away: check.
Clean clothes folded: check.
Bathroom cleaned: check.
Mirrors and windows washed: check.
Dinner made: check.
Two blog posts (not including this one) completed: check.

Not bad for a Tuesday, huh? Here's to hoping this happens tomorrow too, because those clothes certainly aren't going to iron themselves.


Do you ever have productivity bursts?

...Remember Me?

I cannot believe how long it's been since I last blogged. It's horrible.

This is me trying to keep track of my life.

In the last month, I have been getting accustomed to my new job, I have officially moved, spent a week (yes, WEEK!) without internet, washed more dishes/pots/pans/appliances in my new place than I care to count, and fallen asleep pathetically early during the week, only to go back to my parents' house every weekend to pack up all my stuff, attend Christmas parties, and continue on my path to the proverbial Loony Bin.

Whew.

I'm exhausted.

The holidays have completely suprise-attacked me. I am no where near as decked out in Christmas decorations at my new digs as I'd like to be, and I feel like I do not, and will never, have enough time to decorate before, you guessed it, I make the trek back home for Christmas.

It is for this reason that I have decided I need an unpaid personal assistant intern. He or she would need to feed my coffee addiction while keeping me headed in the correct direction, keep my schedule straight, and go grocery shopping for me (because honestly, it is not fun to live on a college diet of pizza and Ramen noodles anymore. It was fine before I had my dishes unpacked, but this is getting unreasonable).

And so help me if I have to make one more trip to Target to get a random assortment of things I can't seem to remember to write on my ever-growing list. I mean, come on, why do I keep forgetting to buy trash bags?! Wal-Mart bags are only going to work for so long until I get irritated with going to the dumpster every other day because the bag is full.

Ay.


As I look at the clock, I am realizing that I am in my 20s and thinking "gee, it's getting kind of late"...and it's 8:00. Must remember to negotiate a mandatory nap time meeting at work. Maybe after HR just laughed when I proposed my personal intern idea, they would go for this one. I'd consider it a Christmas miracle.

Anyone else feel blindsided by the calendar this year??

I'm A Soldier!

For a couple weeks now, I have been working at the Salvation Army with a special group of kids who need some extra direction in life. Whether that means helping with homework, tutoring, or being a consistent person in their lives, it's a big job...and I love every moment of it. Every day is overwhelming in its own way, and I come home exhausted frequently, but I am so happy working there.

Of course, it's not a career for me, but while I'm looking for something more permanent, I can't think of anything more well-suited for me. I've come to find out that the things I am best at doing are working with kids and working for a better world through philanthropy. What I love so much about this job is that I am doing both! It's the kind of thing I would do on a volunteer basis--and what's better than getting paid to do something you would do on a weekend or in your free time? Not much, I'd say.

After graduating earlier this year, I found that I wasn't, and still am not, sure "what I want to be when I grow up." Needless to say, that fact made it a little hard to figure out where to send job applications and completely lacked direction in my ever-changing life plan. I'm very grateful to the "very formidable Marcia," a local journalist's wife, and friend of my mother's who mentioned the job opening at the Salvation Army. I am quite sure I would not have thought of working there for quite some time, if at all.

Yesterday, I put in a few extra hours to help people fill out applications to be a holiday Bell Ringer, you know, the people who stand outside your local mall with donation cans. It was nearly heartbreaking to see people need help to read the application or to have people ask me to write for them since they hadn't really mastered reading and writing. However, as hard as it was to fathom a life of illiteracy, I couldn't help but admire them. Here were people who had lost jobs, some who had done time in prison for various reasons, and others who wanted to be able to buy their kids a Christmas present. They weren't too proud to stand in the frigid Michigan weather during the winter to make that happen. They weren't too proud to ask for help. They were determined. They weren't laying down and wallowing in self-pity. No, instead, they were willing to work, wherever, whenever, to start over, to have a happy Christmas, to make the next house payment.

It's one of my favorite things about America-the hard-workers who refuse to stop in the face of a bleak economic future. They give a particular zest to life that I hope I can also exude. While all the protests happen across the country, while many people are expressing their discontent by marching Wall Street or getting arrested, I have a great respect for those who take that same time to work, or at least try to. Rather than spending time asking for wages, they're actually earning them or putting in applications so they may be able to. To me, that's America. I'm here to work for my lifestyle, who's with me?

That said, I believe there are people who need a boost, and that's why I'm so passionate about philanthropy. I am willing to give some of what I have so they can have a chance at achieving their own dreams. So, I couldn't be happier to announce that I am a Salvation Army Soldier, and I hope as the holiday season approaches, we can all find it in our hearts to do something good for others while we work for our own good.