At a young age we learn that we need to share. For me, it was the big box of Crayons which helped me to see that you can make good friends with wax, candy and wax that tastes like candy.  You know I’m talking about you big red wax candy lips…

I’m a natural-born over-extender with Type A syndrome. I take on too much and over the past year have made a conscious effort not to spread myself too thin on projects, be they my personal ones or those of others. Sharing ‘the weight’ has been invaluable for me as knowing that I can help to empower someone makes community participation all the more rewarding. It’s really no biggie to do and I’m still far from being a good sharing citizen, but I’m getting better at it.

Share ‘the weight’. I’d love to hear your stories about how offloading has helped you or your organization.

You can check out the first episode here and take a break from all the hectic.

January 14th – Breath Quality – How are you breathing right now? If the quality of your life depends on the quality of your breath, how’s yours?

I’m a breath-holder and am not as attentive to my breathing as I’d like to be. I just inhaled a big breath and gave thought as to where in my body it emanated from. Feeling a swelling of my bagpipe-like lungs, I have the sensation of air making it’s way from deep in my belly, upwards to exit my small, Devil’s Food Cake flavoured Jelly Belly nostrils.

January 15th -“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” – Charles Dickens

Taking time to feel gratitude is something that I need to engage in more. Add onto this, the desire to share that gratitude with people in my life that constantly inspire me and take me out of my comfort zone into a space where I’m discovering more about myself than I’ve taken the time to do in some time. As a Buddhist, I’ve spend so much time engaging in self-inquiry but not applied a similar mindset to my professional life. It’s invigorating to now cast an analytical eye towards my career path. I am unemployed but I am blessed.

January 16th – “Yawn. It’s one of the best things you can do for your brain.” – Andrew Newburg for Penn Gazette (read full article here)

“Yawning is one of the best kept secrets in neuroscience” -Hmm…I must admit that this article intrigued me quite a bit as I’ve always been one to regard yawning as a sign of boredom or exhaustion but never as the gateway to heightened empathy or cognitive awareness. My pug yawns non-stop. Big, yowly, tongue-curling yawns in which his normally pug-buggy eyes disappear deep into his routund skull and he lets out a whimpered “Yaureech” sound. O.K. I’ll add more yawning to my daily repetoire and report back on the effects.

January 18th – Notice Someone- Take the time today to notice something new/different about your coworker (or a person you work with). If you work alone, notice something about yourself.

Working from home presents many challenges but the main thing I noticed from this exercise is that I drink less water at home than I do when I’m in and office setting. Not sure if it’s the lack of a water cooler that makes trips to the Brita less inspiring or if I’m simply not mindful of my space. I just scrambled from the couch to fill up my water bottle and have committed to making this a daily ritual.

- Shunryu Suzuki

courtesy of Sweep the Dust, Push the Dirt

One Item

image from the brilliant xkcd

Seeing as the last post to this blog was a long, long time ago and in it, I promised to blog a lot more it’s only fitting that I get around to posting something now. Goodness knows I tweet everyday!

Good intentions usually come about when well-meaning people promise things to others in the hopes of keeping something going. I am well-meaning to a fault at times so I’ve come to realize that I really do need to enact some restraint in getting involved in too many things to ensure that certain things don’t suffer. As much as I’d love to participate in everything that’s going on, balance is my mantra and finding that balance can be so difficult.

No 2009 resolutions. No giant revelations. Just hoping to have some simplicity this year balanced with accomplishments, learning and helping people in their own personal growth without losing sight of my own. Oh and more blogging – less tweeting. I’m certainly not the first to say this…

Not too much for a girl to ask is it?

I’m an email pack rat and really have tried to work with David Allen’s GTD system

Maybe someday…

In the meantime, I’m hoping to give focus to cleaning up my inbox clutter and will use some of Cory’s tips to help me along.

Problem #1 – I have too many email accounts!

The One-Day Sabbatical at LifeClever