It's been a busy couple weeks for me, and then this weekend haven't been feeling well. Earlier last week I had a few days where I kept to myself trying to figure some things out and I wasn't the only one. I had conversations with others who were facing their own obstacles, including many who are dealing with negative people and situations in their lives. I've blogged about it before, the importance of surrounding yourself with those who will lift you up and not bring you down. While doing some meditation the other day I thought of one particular person's situation dealing with not only a negative person, but someone who is constantly mentally and emotionally hurting her and she deserves better and so much more in life, we all do. I'm not saying it's easy to face these people or these situations, but when it comes down to it only you can make the decision to stand up for yourself and remove yourself from the negativity that's holding you back from being the best YOU that you can be. I heard a quote today that I thought was a great reminder to not let what others say and do effect you in a negative way.
"Be like an eagle and soar above the mockingbird."
We all have goals and eventually we will encounter obstacles. We can either soar like an eagle to new heights and push through the obstacles and conquer our goals; or we can just stay where we are, in our comfort zone, and never know how great we can be!
Creating space for yourself is really important. I get busy with things in life and sometimes I allow it to consume me mentally and emotionally if I'm not careful. I've been doing really well the past month at creating space for myself daily; but I've been busy at work with open enrollment coming up and the past few days I haven't been taking time for myself. I've not been creating the space I need to just be alone, nor have I been doing my cardio after work. Today a good friend noticed something wasn't right and after talking about the most recent incident that upset me, we went for a walk to a coffee shop and then sat and just talked for a bit. It helped me just being able to talk, but more importantly got me refocused and remembered Michael saying sometimes we have to slow down to speed up. Maybe I haven't been going to do cardio at night, that's okay. So, after a good cup of coffee with a good friend, I was content with taking a break and slowing down this week. I might need some extra meditation time, or even some extra me time, but my balance and being will be better. Now, I'm off to create some space and color! :)
Life throws us many obstacles. There are many times we doubt our ability, and some times we even give up because we end up believing we can't get through those obstacles. But, when you are going hard and are working towards your goals, when an obstacle appears, that's when it's even more important to think positive and keep moving forward. DON'T tell yourself, "it's too hard", "I can't do this", or any other self destructive thoughts. But, instead DO tell yourself, "I've got this", "I can do this", "I will be successful". Because when it comes down to it, if you stay focused on your goals, with hard work and determination you can't be anything but successful! So, next time you're moving along and you come upon an obstacle, figure out how to get through it or around it; but whatever you do, DON'T GIVE UP!!!!!
I know me personally I used to get so wrapped up in what needed and had to be done for the day that I failed to take the time to just enjoy the simple things. Since starting Empire I've learned to keep better balance in my core4 and have learned the importance of daily meditation and creating space for myself. Some things I've been doing is running, reading more, working on this blog, just listening to my music, reading my Bible, etc. But, last night I actually discovered something else that I used to enjoy as a kid and it's something so simple!
There are some evenings Michael has his two kids at the studio and we always have fun hanging out playing, watching Netflix, drawing, hide and seek, duck duck goose, or whatever makes them happy. Not going to lie, I think they mainly like me because I'll do anything they want regardless how silly I look as long as they are having fun and then I bring snacks! :) Last night B was enthralled in the Power Rangers movie so Mars and I sat down and started coloring. You know a simple thing of just coloring was really therapeutic for me. As a kid I always loved to color and for that moment I was just enjoying being able to hang out with these two precious kids and being present in what they want to do. And what they want to do are the most simple things in life, I mean our biggest concern is which Ninja Turtle am I going to be today. I thought to myself, I love doing this and I should do it more often as part of my "me time" and how I create space for myself.
Now, I will admit, I'm not the best artist as far as actually drawing pictures (ask the kids, my Mini Mouse and Ninja Turtles are funny looking...lol); but I always enjoyed taking a picture and turning it into something pretty and colorful. It just made me realize that sometimes enjoying the simplest things in life, even things from our childhood like coloring, can be a great way to create space for ourselves and even as I mentioned before be very therapeutic. I mean, regardless of how my bad my day went, how can I not smile as I'm coloring a dancing cow in a tutu? I'm going to go buy my own set of crayons and coloring books! Take time to enjoy the simple things in life!
Social media has become a way for us to connect to others easier and more often. We are able to reconnect with long lost friends, family who we don't see often, and we are even able to help our businesses. And all of these things are great and I love how technology has allowed us to be able to do these things. I love being able to see what's going on with my friends and family, I love being able to blog to get my story and thoughts out there to help others, I love being able to share my blog on three different social media sites to reach even more people.
But, somewhere along the way I think many of us, including myself, social media has become our life. Examples of social media are: blogging, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Podcasts, Google+, YouTube, and even just your every day e-mail. And these are just the few I can think of off the top of my head. Yesterday I made the comment to someone, "If you need anything or have questions, shoot me a FB message, e-mail, text, or call me. I get all the alerts on my phone." And not only all the social media, but I have my other apps on my phone, including my music. There are times when I'm laying there, lights out, music on, and I'm in the middle of my meditation and I'll get an alert. When this happens, I don't even look at the alerts, but the issue is that the purpose of meditating is to be completely in your thoughts and away from distraction. How effective is my meditation if my thoughts are being interrupted every time a social media alert goes off? And I don't know if it's because this has been a long week, or if my social media just happen to be getting a lot of activity at that moment, but I was recently meditating and it seemed like alerts were just going off every 30 seconds to a minute. I was getting pissed and ended up ripping the headphones off and shutting my phone off.
But, this got me thinking about social media and how it plays a part in my life. The social medias I use daily are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, my blog, and e-mail; then a few others from time to time. Don't get me wrong, social media is awesome and I'm still going to use my sources to stay connected with the world, but just like anything if it becomes your life it can be distracting. This morning's meditation ended up being over social media in my life and have decided to take a social media sabbatical for the weekend. What does that mean? It means this is my last post from me on any of my social media forms until Monday, nor will I be getting on any of them to get updates. I'm still going to do what I had planned to do this weekend, workout tomorrow morning, present my carb cycling seminar, start planning and prepping for next week's meals, go to church Sunday, my Empire forms, and do everything else I normally do that doesn't involve social media. I figured those friends and family who really need me or need anything can call me because they have my phone number; and any social media updates will still be there Monday once I've returned. I want social media in my life to help stay connected with friends, family, and even to be able to help others through my blog; but what I don't want is it to become my life or a distraction in my life. So, everyone have an awesome weekend!
We've all been told people come into our lives for a reason. Sometimes we have people who are our biggest cheerleaders and you think this is a person who will always be a part of your life and close inner circle. I know I've experienced that and even thought there is no way I could do this without them. At some point, the changes I was making and the path I was going down wasn't the most positive. At the time I wasn't seeing it, I thought I truly was making the best decisions for me. But, as I continued down that path with the people I thought I couldn't survive without, I still had those other individuals that I had pushed out of my circle just waiting for me. Never judging me, never abandoning me, just giving me the space and time I needed to figure things out. As I struggled with feeling that I was alone and didn't know what to do, they stepped back into my close inner circle and I was reminded how important it is to surround yourself with those people who truly love you, motivate you, encourage you, inspire you, and would do everything they can to help you be successful and happy.
Sometimes we have to step back, do some meditation, and really evaluate the people in our lives. And as hard as it is sometimes, those people who are no longer serving your life in a positive way, it might be time to let them go. Now, I personally struggled with this, and I did have to let go of some people. But, there some I didn't want to just give up on, but really work things out. So, I did give some time before shutting certain people out, but after being hurt and disappointed so many times because they want to focus on the negative and what is best for them, I realize there were some that just weren't ever going to be able to serve me in a positive way so I had to let go.
So, who are you surrounding yourself with? Is time to evaluate the people? If you feel the relationship is worth fighting for, by all means, have a heart to heart with that person. But, if they can't respect you enough to truly support you in a positive way, it might be time to let them go. There's another quote I like, "Surround yourself with those who with lift you higher."
I love the movie, "A League Of Their Own", and this quote from the movie...."Of course it's hard. It's supposed to be hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. Hard is what makes it great."
There are days when Michael's workouts seem ridiculously hard and there are times when I'm in the middle of one and wonder if I'm going to survive it. Like the other day I had a hurricane workout and then had a finisher where I rowed so many meters EMOTM. I even made the comment I felt like my legs were going to fall off. There are even workouts that are so intense I actually get pissed at him while I'm doing the sets and would like to reach up and punch him in the face (it's okay, I'm sure he has the same feelings when I whine...lol). There have been times when he's corrected the way I do something and it ends up making the exercise harder, and normally it's something as small as just pulling my shoulders or chest back. And when I do make the comment that made it harder, he'll reply "It's supposed to be hard." or "But did you die?" And he's right, it's supposed to be hard. If it's not hard is the workout really effective? And even though I really try not to whine, I do have days I whine or complain more than others about the difficulty, but the important thing is I don't stop or give up.
One of the things I've noticed is the harder and more intense the workout is the better I feel once I've finished. I might be laying on the floor or taking my time to make my way to the showers because I'm waiting for the feeling to come back to my legs, but once I'm up and moving all I can say to myself is "That was another Epic Watkins Workout!" So, when you're working out and you feel it's too hard just remember it's supposed to be hard, that's what makes it great!
