It's literally been years since I updated this blog. Wow. Not that I have a following or anything, but really I enjoy writing out my thoughts - it helps spark my creativity, my love of thinking, and, well, no one can interrupt my words. 😏 So, I thought it was about time to put pen to paper (well, fingers to keys to be more literal) and get this thing up and going again. What better time to restart this thing than during a lockdown, right?! Plus, my mom actually reminded me about it cause, truth be told, I probably wouldn't have thought about it otherwise (thanks, mom).
In trying to narrow down what I wanted to write about (that's really the hardest part for me is just picking a topic!) I decided I needed to just start with a title. Well, when I finally did, that's when all the thoughts started coming to me. I was really trying to figure out how to re-introduce my blog to you all so I figured "We Begin Again" was a decent title, but after I wrote it, I started thinking of all of the 'beginning agains' we do in our lives. Often I think we look at having to start again as some sort of failure because it means we stopped doing something at some point, right? Like we stopped working out, stopped writing a blog, stopped speaking to someone, etc. This thinking is usually why we don't Begin Again. We are really good at talking ourselves out of things! I used to have a sign in my office that said "Your thoughts are your own worst enemy." How true is that?! Our thoughts literally have the power to dictate our behavior. So powerful.
So, with that in mind, what if instead of looking at it like a failure we look at it as an opportunity? An opportunity to reinvent, to reimagine, to re-do?? It actually becomes something kind of exciting now, right?! When you start to view things a different way, they literally can take on a different meaning. Another way to look at it: We can allow things to control us or we can control all.the.things. Sometimes I'm really good at this and I dominate all.the.things. and sometimes I really, really stink at it. Again, I could look at this as a failure because I have to re-start looking at all.the.things differently again...and honestly sometimes (ok, a lot of the time) I do look at it as a failure and I succumb to the anxiety and overwhelming-ness of all.the.things but eventually I get sick and tired of feeling like crap. You know that feeling? That feeling of being trapped? Being stuck? It looks different for all of us - it feels different for all of us too. But I venture to say we all have our own version of feeling trapped or stuck.
Ok, so here is where I'm going to push the envelope a little and likely make people uncomfortable....what if we started to look at this pandemic differently too? I don't mean that we avoid the reality of it and I don't mean that we should not be taking it seriously because, my friends, we do need to listen to the experts (when I say experts, I mean doctors fyi. I could go on and on about this but I'll just leave it at that so as to not make this a political post 😏) and we do need to take it seriously but what if we take this time to Begin Again? What is it that you could take the time to re-start, re-imagine, or re-do? for yourself? for your family? your community? We cannot control covid-19, that has become extremely clear over the last several months, but we can control how we choose to use this time, right?
This idea of Beginning Again also brings to mind the idea of being Born Again. In the Christian faith being Born Again represents giving one's life to Christ, thus, they are a new person because they are now living a new life; a life with Christ at the center of it, guiding their decisions and behaviors. As someone who loves Jesus and tries to follow His teachings, I think this idea of Beginning Again or being Born Again is an easy ideology for me. Don't misunderstand, the idea of it can be easy, but the practice of it is far from easy! What I'm saying is that I think, for me, having an understanding of what it means to be Born Again in the Christian faith, meaning what it means to make decisions based on what I know is good for me, decisions that honor God versus making decisions based on my emotions or feelings is one that I am familiar with. Super hard to follow through on all of the time though, right?! It requires discipline, being aware of oneself and one's patterns of behavior. Those of you who regularly work out and eat healthy know what I'm talking about, right?! I mean, not many people actually want to get up at 6:00 in the morning to run before their day actually starts! 😝
I have been seeing and hearing about amazing things people are doing all over the world to give back. There is this one woman near where my parents are building their house who is making masks. During non-pandemic life, she does craft projects that she sells and actually is a masseuse as well. But she is now literally sewing masks for 8 hours a day! I can't imagine she wakes up everyday and is always happy to go to her sewing machine. Or that she doesn't have moments in those 8 hours where she wants to stop sewing. But she keeps doing it anyway. She doesn't let her feelings stop her. She, instead, chooses to control her behavior. She re-invented her business concept to be able to control how she reacted to the pandemic. I just love it. Her story is just one of thousands around the world of people who are re-imagining themselves and even their businesses during this pandemic. So, perhaps instead of asking if we can look at the pandemic differently I should really be asking how we can all look at the pandemic differently.
Not everyone will have the same way that they Begin Again. That they re-imagine, re-do, or re-start. For some, it will be donating of their time or money. There is no right or wrong here my friends! For me, it's spending time re-making my house clean. Seriously. I never realized how much I didn't clean before but now I'm consciously aware of it. This is how I help control my anxious thoughts versus letting them control me. I bought a really awesome mop (like with a bucket that that this awesome spinner on it for wringing out the mop) and I have been mopping regularly. I am disinfecting frequently touched items in my home regularly too. I am also coming back to my love of cooking and baking by finding new recipes to enjoy and even learning how to bake with sourdough. I made sourdough cinnamon rolls the other day that didn't come out how they should have but we enjoyed them none-the-less! And I'm vowing to get that recipe right by the end of the lockdown! I am re-imagining my backyard into a space I find a little cozier( because I know I'll be spending more time at home this summer) and I even planted some tomato plants. I'm re-working how I socialize with my loved ones by becoming acquainted with video chatting with them and also using it to stay connected to my church family too. We all have different ways we will be Beginning Again. And it is likely that we will find other ways/things throughout the pandemic that we need or want to Begin Again (like me knowing that I need to re-start my yoga practice!). We will also likely stop doing one thing...or maybe even all of them...that we end up having to re-start once again. But it's ok. And it may be cliché, by we truly are all in this together.
I'd love to hear how you are all Beginning Again...please share!
In trying to narrow down what I wanted to write about (that's really the hardest part for me is just picking a topic!) I decided I needed to just start with a title. Well, when I finally did, that's when all the thoughts started coming to me. I was really trying to figure out how to re-introduce my blog to you all so I figured "We Begin Again" was a decent title, but after I wrote it, I started thinking of all of the 'beginning agains' we do in our lives. Often I think we look at having to start again as some sort of failure because it means we stopped doing something at some point, right? Like we stopped working out, stopped writing a blog, stopped speaking to someone, etc. This thinking is usually why we don't Begin Again. We are really good at talking ourselves out of things! I used to have a sign in my office that said "Your thoughts are your own worst enemy." How true is that?! Our thoughts literally have the power to dictate our behavior. So powerful.
So, with that in mind, what if instead of looking at it like a failure we look at it as an opportunity? An opportunity to reinvent, to reimagine, to re-do?? It actually becomes something kind of exciting now, right?! When you start to view things a different way, they literally can take on a different meaning. Another way to look at it: We can allow things to control us or we can control all.the.things. Sometimes I'm really good at this and I dominate all.the.things. and sometimes I really, really stink at it. Again, I could look at this as a failure because I have to re-start looking at all.the.things differently again...and honestly sometimes (ok, a lot of the time) I do look at it as a failure and I succumb to the anxiety and overwhelming-ness of all.the.things but eventually I get sick and tired of feeling like crap. You know that feeling? That feeling of being trapped? Being stuck? It looks different for all of us - it feels different for all of us too. But I venture to say we all have our own version of feeling trapped or stuck.
Ok, so here is where I'm going to push the envelope a little and likely make people uncomfortable....what if we started to look at this pandemic differently too? I don't mean that we avoid the reality of it and I don't mean that we should not be taking it seriously because, my friends, we do need to listen to the experts (when I say experts, I mean doctors fyi. I could go on and on about this but I'll just leave it at that so as to not make this a political post 😏) and we do need to take it seriously but what if we take this time to Begin Again? What is it that you could take the time to re-start, re-imagine, or re-do? for yourself? for your family? your community? We cannot control covid-19, that has become extremely clear over the last several months, but we can control how we choose to use this time, right?
This idea of Beginning Again also brings to mind the idea of being Born Again. In the Christian faith being Born Again represents giving one's life to Christ, thus, they are a new person because they are now living a new life; a life with Christ at the center of it, guiding their decisions and behaviors. As someone who loves Jesus and tries to follow His teachings, I think this idea of Beginning Again or being Born Again is an easy ideology for me. Don't misunderstand, the idea of it can be easy, but the practice of it is far from easy! What I'm saying is that I think, for me, having an understanding of what it means to be Born Again in the Christian faith, meaning what it means to make decisions based on what I know is good for me, decisions that honor God versus making decisions based on my emotions or feelings is one that I am familiar with. Super hard to follow through on all of the time though, right?! It requires discipline, being aware of oneself and one's patterns of behavior. Those of you who regularly work out and eat healthy know what I'm talking about, right?! I mean, not many people actually want to get up at 6:00 in the morning to run before their day actually starts! 😝
I have been seeing and hearing about amazing things people are doing all over the world to give back. There is this one woman near where my parents are building their house who is making masks. During non-pandemic life, she does craft projects that she sells and actually is a masseuse as well. But she is now literally sewing masks for 8 hours a day! I can't imagine she wakes up everyday and is always happy to go to her sewing machine. Or that she doesn't have moments in those 8 hours where she wants to stop sewing. But she keeps doing it anyway. She doesn't let her feelings stop her. She, instead, chooses to control her behavior. She re-invented her business concept to be able to control how she reacted to the pandemic. I just love it. Her story is just one of thousands around the world of people who are re-imagining themselves and even their businesses during this pandemic. So, perhaps instead of asking if we can look at the pandemic differently I should really be asking how we can all look at the pandemic differently.
Not everyone will have the same way that they Begin Again. That they re-imagine, re-do, or re-start. For some, it will be donating of their time or money. There is no right or wrong here my friends! For me, it's spending time re-making my house clean. Seriously. I never realized how much I didn't clean before but now I'm consciously aware of it. This is how I help control my anxious thoughts versus letting them control me. I bought a really awesome mop (like with a bucket that that this awesome spinner on it for wringing out the mop) and I have been mopping regularly. I am disinfecting frequently touched items in my home regularly too. I am also coming back to my love of cooking and baking by finding new recipes to enjoy and even learning how to bake with sourdough. I made sourdough cinnamon rolls the other day that didn't come out how they should have but we enjoyed them none-the-less! And I'm vowing to get that recipe right by the end of the lockdown! I am re-imagining my backyard into a space I find a little cozier( because I know I'll be spending more time at home this summer) and I even planted some tomato plants. I'm re-working how I socialize with my loved ones by becoming acquainted with video chatting with them and also using it to stay connected to my church family too. We all have different ways we will be Beginning Again. And it is likely that we will find other ways/things throughout the pandemic that we need or want to Begin Again (like me knowing that I need to re-start my yoga practice!). We will also likely stop doing one thing...or maybe even all of them...that we end up having to re-start once again. But it's ok. And it may be cliché, by we truly are all in this together.
I'd love to hear how you are all Beginning Again...please share!
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