When I am on form I can make good solid decisions but when I am feeling a bit low or stressed my decision making capacity reduces substantially. At these stressful times I am tempted to just not make decisions at all.... which if you think about it (and also hubby says) deciding not to decide is a decision in and of itself! So I guess we are constantly making decision to do this or that or not do this or that ....as the case may be.
Today I am in a "not sure what job to do first" mood... I have lots of things that I could be doing and perhaps should be doing but I am struggling to decide.....
A few days ago I came across a tweet with an article by Time magazine called "The four rituals that will make you happy according to neuroscience" and it shed a little light on decision making and a few other things. These four ritual behaviours that we can do, will stimulate and effect parts of our brain to create the effect of happiness.
Number one ritual was Ask a question... The example they gave was to ask the question "What am I grateful for? ....guess what my last post was on? You got it Journalling and gratitude.....
It was raining and miserable outside and I was feeling pretty miserable and ugh inside too.... so I sat down a little earlier for a few minutes and decided to get out my gratitude journal and take a peek at what I had previously written.
I tend to go in phases at writing in my journal and the last entries I made were around March at the beginning of this year.
It was lovely to read page after page of all of the things that I had written ..... the experiences, the things, the acts of service and the people in my life that I am thankful for.
I had forgotten that in January I had also started a "52 weeks of journaling" challenge with the "365 questions" by Tami Taylor... that I had downloaded from Pinterest.
Normally I would just write a list of ten or more things for which I am thankful for on that particular day but I thought that the question prompts may add variety to my thinking and give me a wider variety of topics and subjects to be grateful for.
I found it fun to read the answers that I had put down on paper to some of the questions.... such as.....
I don't really know how to begin this post except with a warning to those who feel emotionally challenged with death and dying at this present time...
WARNING......you may not want to read this book... BUT.... you probably really should.
Once again it is an unusual choice ....and a challenging choice for a "holiday" read, as the contents are less than fickle and merely entertaining... it strikes at the heart of anyone who is watching someones decline and facing the end of their mortality AND as a consequence facing the questions and decisions that often need to be made at such a time. In Many respects it is probably a book about those who are aging/elderly and infirm but the contents can be applied equally to anyone, anywhere at any age.
Usually as I read books I love to underline the things I want to remember and
the things I find interesting and noteworthy....IF you were to pick up my
copy of this book you would find my pen marks scrawled on most
of its pages! This book spoke to me on numerous levels and It resonated with my own thoughts and feelings on how I have tried to navigate through the various emotions and
questions and scenarios we have faced with Heni...and will yet have to face...having lived with the prospect of her death over such a
prolonged period of time...
It also resonated to me on a professional level (as a Physiotherapist/Naturopathic Iridologist/Health advocate) and made me shudder at the lack of dialogue and understanding that frequently occurs by medical professionals about the wishes and desires of those who they are trying to help.
It rained on quite a few of the days we were away on holiday... and on one of the mornings we braved the weather and walked along the beach in a thunderstorm (mad I know...tell hubby that!) and got soaked to the bone! Normally we don't let weather bother us, otherwise we would never do anything, but this was HEAVY stuff and so we made alternate plans for the afternoon and decided to spend it at the cinema.
I had seen the trailer for "Inside out" and it had made it onto my list of films that I wanted to go watch. Luckily the Kino cinema in Rye was running it and so we booked some tickets and braved the weather (a second time).... and hoped we wouldn't have to sit all soaking wet throughout the film!
Some of you may have seen the film, but for those of you who know nothing about it ...
It's about a little girl called Riley who lives in Minnesota...she loves her life and when she has to move to San Francisco with her family she struggles to adapt to the changes that her new life brings.
Her emotional control centre (in the depths of her mind).... is staffed by five key emotions (characters). "Joy" is normally in the driving seat but is now struggling to help Riley adjust and with fellow characters - Anger, Disgust, Fear and Sadness she tries to lead Riley through the difficult life changing events that are taking place. Joy had always taken pride that all Riley's core memories were "golden" and joyful ..... and she worked hard to keep Riley upbeat and happy....
On our family trip to East Sussex (south coast of England) this summer we spent one of our days looking around the gorgeous little town of Rye which was located only a few miles away from our holiday accommodation. As we looked around we were lucky to find a place that catered for our food intolerance needs and so we celebrated Hubby's birthday meal at "Webbe's at the fish cafe". Seeing as THIS IS an "Eating out with food intolerances" post, I will tell you more about our experience there ....but first let me give you a taste of.....pretty little Rye town.
September is here and Autumn is truly on its way with its gradually shortening days and fresh morning air, so I wanted to reminice a little and tell you about Heni and her pool antics this summer.
Usually, with the advent of summer, longing for blue skies, sunshine and the onset and prospect of longer days ....we usually get our hopes up and get the paddling pool out from its wintery hibernation in the shed. It's an act of faith that we WILL get some kind of summer..... no matter how short.
I don't know about you but I love water....water can be a very healing and restorative element.... being near the sea, by a lake, river or stream or in a pool is very therapeutic...and lets face it, it's also a lot of fun and it feels great. So, when the weather gets hot enough over here in England we like to put the paddling pool up and have some in our own back garden!
Heni also loves water... she used to do Hydrotherapy (both at school and a local hospice) but since she started doing shorter days and moved to college she no longer gets the opportunity to be in water like she used to... with that in mind (at the beginning of the first sign of heat over here) we decided it was too long since she last had a dunk in a pool and decided to make amends.
Here is what we did.
Frivolous or a necessity?
Demands of providing full-time care for a child struggling with a
disability or a chronic illness can be overwhelming at times, even for the most committed of parents. Having a break away can help parents maintain their sense of self and sense of being a couple, by giving them time to engage in things they enjoy... like a hobby, travel, seeing friends or just resting and recouping energy. Respite breaks can help families
stay together by giving parents time to work on their
relationship (outside the demands of parenthood) instead of concentrating solely on the needs of their child. I feel therefore in answer to the above question that
Respite care is an "essential" for couples as it can reduce parental
stress and help to keep overwhelmed couples and families together.
The
Hungry boy and Daughter number 2 headed out to their girls and boys camp
a few weekends ago and so with the above in mind and Heni being well looked after at home by Gem, we decided to make the most of the time
that they were away by having a weekend respite break...just me and
hubby!
The
last time we had been away together was a year previous and the time
before that three years previous..... so we were well overdue some time
to spend as a couple.
