Finding peace and empowerment by rethinking the first, and most important, hour of your day. How I built a new routine to cultivate gratitude and start my day with purpose.
Applause to my friend Barrett for sharing your post on LinkedIn, and thank you for your questions. The past few years have been a pressure cooker of pain and mental anguish for me. My divorce, after 22 years of marriage and two beautiful young children in tow, was final a few weeks ago. We had been separated about a year and half--living together the entire time.
Betrayal is a monster, and to lose your world due to it can bring pure internal suffering (at least it did for me). I was lucky throughout the process to have so many great family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues to get me through. My job is to provide resources, connect local leaders with information, and to pick people up and motivate them to work better together as a team. The irony of my family life (which had been an awesome example of teamwork for so many years) falling apart while I was answering questions and offering advice to folks created a leveling or middle ground for me--I felt needed and dismissed at the same time.
In the past week, I realized I had begun a routine that had become beautiful for me. For about 6 weeks I would wake up, have my coffee, work out, all the while thinking of an attractive someone that I was getting to know. Then, I would send a good morning text with the sap and flattery of a lovesick teenager...and it made me feel good. That is until I realized that it was only the sap and flattery that the beauty was interested in, not me. But the process of dwelling on the beauty in my life, if just for a morning moment, has stuck and I have decided to continue and redirect to all the people I care about one at time.
Now, for your 4th question: It is good to stay current on world and local affairs just don't let the inner advocate send you into a rage. It can be hard, maybe change media outlets? Realize that the greatest day to day impact you can have will always be local, and its also the easiest to take part in. There are so many opportunities to plug in and so few people seem to understand or even care about being a part of something that supports the quality of life for their family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. I'm not talking about interest groups (such as recreational clubs or local political chapters), I'm talking about volunteering for a non-profit that you believe serves a need in your community; asking a county commissioner or city council member if there is a board that you may serve on or a need that you may fill; joining a civic club like Kiwanis or Rotary whose focus is to serve others; participating (which means showing up) or stepping up and serving on your HOA or in your neighborhood leadership; and, if you have the guts and you really want to meet people and dive head first into the issues surrounding you, run for office--school board, city council, or county commission. If you chose any one of these things to pursue, the network you can create and the friends that you will make will become your equanimity as you explore American civics.
Thanks again for the post! Great questions that are worth answering for ourselves.
Applause to my friend Barrett for sharing your post on LinkedIn, and thank you for your questions. The past few years have been a pressure cooker of pain and mental anguish for me. My divorce, after 22 years of marriage and two beautiful young children in tow, was final a few weeks ago. We had been separated about a year and half--living together the entire time.
Betrayal is a monster, and to lose your world due to it can bring pure internal suffering (at least it did for me). I was lucky throughout the process to have so many great family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues to get me through. My job is to provide resources, connect local leaders with information, and to pick people up and motivate them to work better together as a team. The irony of my family life (which had been an awesome example of teamwork for so many years) falling apart while I was answering questions and offering advice to folks created a leveling or middle ground for me--I felt needed and dismissed at the same time.
In the past week, I realized I had begun a routine that had become beautiful for me. For about 6 weeks I would wake up, have my coffee, work out, all the while thinking of an attractive someone that I was getting to know. Then, I would send a good morning text with the sap and flattery of a lovesick teenager...and it made me feel good. That is until I realized that it was only the sap and flattery that the beauty was interested in, not me. But the process of dwelling on the beauty in my life, if just for a morning moment, has stuck and I have decided to continue and redirect to all the people I care about one at time.
Now, for your 4th question: It is good to stay current on world and local affairs just don't let the inner advocate send you into a rage. It can be hard, maybe change media outlets? Realize that the greatest day to day impact you can have will always be local, and its also the easiest to take part in. There are so many opportunities to plug in and so few people seem to understand or even care about being a part of something that supports the quality of life for their family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. I'm not talking about interest groups (such as recreational clubs or local political chapters), I'm talking about volunteering for a non-profit that you believe serves a need in your community; asking a county commissioner or city council member if there is a board that you may serve on or a need that you may fill; joining a civic club like Kiwanis or Rotary whose focus is to serve others; participating (which means showing up) or stepping up and serving on your HOA or in your neighborhood leadership; and, if you have the guts and you really want to meet people and dive head first into the issues surrounding you, run for office--school board, city council, or county commission. If you chose any one of these things to pursue, the network you can create and the friends that you will make will become your equanimity as you explore American civics.
Thanks again for the post! Great questions that are worth answering for ourselves.