Morning Meditations (help from Louise Hay)

Do you struggle with meditating like I do? Here’s my latest tool.

So, you have a busy brain? You wake up with a drumbeat in your head thinking of all that you need to do, or you struggle to get up and feel positive about your day in any way? Have you tried meditation, they ask. Ha. My busy brain struggles to meditate and needs all the help it can get. Here’s what’s working for me lately.

Last summer, my holistic friend Kim gave me a lot of journals and self-health books. Since I love books, self-help books and journaling are both things I love to spend my time with, and being a teacher on summer break allows me exactly that! I started last year with the Soul Coaching, 28 days book with focused each week on one of the elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water. Believe me, I had a few seriously negative things that I needed to get through last year, but I began to open my eyes more to God’s blessings all around me and to learn more about myself and my spirituality through them.

This year, I am using the Affirmation Journal by Louise Hay pictured above. It really centers my mind each morning on positive things that exist in my life and helps set up my mood for the day. Things are going quite well for me this year, but summer is a time I could be dangerously lazy and develop serious kinks in my neck from reading on the couch or sitting at the computer for countless hours, starting with breakfast even. Being my age, I at times struggle with focus as well and may have 20 tabs open at once, so starting my day with breakfast and writing in this Affirmation Journal helps me to get centered with a positive mindset. Another goal I have is to be more active and have several breaks from sitting, writing, or computer time. So, getting centered in the morning helps me all around.

Sure, I could Google positive thoughts or daily affirmations. No, never mind, I can’t. I would be distracted by the latest drama between two celebrities suing each other over their broken, toxic marriage, or even by Amazon telling me what I should buy now. I could read a Bible passage and reflect on that. No, some of those passages are quite confusing. I was raised on the Bible, and it has its purposes, but if you’ve read it, you know it’s confusing. I’ve had preachers preach that you can’t just pick and choose what passage you wish to read. Sometimes I do agree, other times, I may seek it out. At any rate, I have found this book helpful as it asks for my interpretation and reflection on each thought.

Here is an example based on the thought: “I now accept all good as normal and natural for me….”

I think this entry had a lot to do with gratitude as well, but accepting good things for exactly what they are has been a struggle for me at times, having “busy-brain.” I just want to share what has worked for me lately.

Blessings to you all for a happy week and great summer!

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A Word for my Intentions. #amwriting #newyear

I was reading a social media post by a young entrepreneur on New Year’s resolutions.  Instead of making resolutions, she is focusing on a key word in her New Year as she did at the start of last year.  Her results sounded amazing.

There is so much I want to do and so much I have to do to be a positive source and a strength for my family and my students.  It wears me down at times.  Sometimes I forget to tap into a source of strength for myself.  Faith is great, but I still get tired.  What do I do with my faith?  I pray that bad things don’t happen to the ones I love.  Perhaps I should be praying more often in thanks for the good that has happened, forgetting the bad and the scary road that events can take as they have in the past.  Moving forward from the past is important.

At any rate, I know the power of positive thinking.  I know that I need yoga, God and faith, my family, friends, relaxation, and healthy food.  Yet, I still could improve my attitude.  Words affect one’s attitude.  I often wake up in the morning, thinking, “Crap.  I have to get up.”  “Crap.  I can’t lay on my back anymore.” That’s a pretty crass word to use in greeting my day.  So I plan to stop making that my first word in reaction to a new day.

My key word for 2018 is going to be “Energy.”  There is so much I want to do, and I will not give up.  I plan to continue doing what I can to help others.  I will continue writing and hopefully improve my writing, publishing, and networking skills as an author.  But I  still plan to be an inspiring educator (even more than I have been), a source of strength for my son and mother, as well as a woman who is faithful to God and her own principles.  I will also know when I need to relax and give that time to myself.  These are my goals.  Energy is the word that will manifest that attitude.  I don’t have to bounce off the walls or be a gymnast.  I am talking about mental, intellectual, and psychological energy.  I will not say ‘Yes’ to everything that comes across my plate, but I will be accepting of new experiences.   (By the way, there was one year when I came close to saying yes to everything.  I don’t regret it; it was a great learning experience, but I see that it couldn’t go on forever…). I will channel my energy into achieving the results I want from life.

What’s the best that could happen?  This is what I need to focus on.  The best outcomes will be that I influence countless students to love reading and writing, that I let them leave me as more developed humans than they were before knowing me, that I become a source of strength and giving to others rather than a collector or hoarder of objects, money, or knowledge, and that I become a writer who is never out of ideas and never too beaten down to improve my craft, never too hopeless too continue or too broke to take a break from working and do what I really, truly love.  All of this is in addition to having time for my family and loved ones, enjoying time and sharing of myself with my boyfriend, friends, etc.  In doing these things, I want to feel I have some measure of control over what I am doing in my life.  I will not be a slave to money.  Or fame, or any other contest whereby I’m judged or measured up by the numbers.  This is the best that could happen.  I will not even voice the worst.  Why?  Because I am not worried about it.  It does not exist unless my thoughts can breathe life into it.  Having wasted parts of my life on worry, I see the results it can have.  I’m not going to worry about it.

This goes back to a favored quote by Nikki Giovanni,  writer, poet, activist, and educator.  This quote spurred me on when I was a 20-year-old college student, questioning my place in the world and where my priorities lay.

 “There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don’t expect you to save the world I do think it’s not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect.” – Nikki Giovanni

If you’d like to read more about my thought process at age 20 (I sure needed a lot of work) and how she inspired me just by writing the words I needed, please see my blog entry at Nikki Giovanni, You Inspire Me! 

This year, instead of worrying on the worst that could happen, I will live a life of purpose and spend my time and my words on voicing the things I wish to come about.  All of this will be centered around the key word:  Energy.

I’ll let you know after this year how it works!  If you were to choose a key word for this year’s intentions, what would that word be?

#WeekendCoffeeShare. Summer’s Falling Action…

Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Diana at parttimemonsterblog.com.  Here we are, right at the end of the summer’s plot, getting ready to tie loose ends up.  *sigh*  If we were having coffee today on the 29th of July, I’d tell you:

I’m on the fence about summer’s ending.  It’s almost over.  I took two extra work days next week for extra pay.  Yikes!  I did get my haircut today, so I beat the back-to-school rush.  I also plan to have a full beach day with my son next week.  Yay for the beach!  Yay for family time! I’m so proud of him.  He’s doing really well at his job.

I do feel a little relieved about summer’s end though, because that means we’ll get closer to cooler weather!  Yes!  It also means I’ll get into a routine again once work starts.  I sort of had a writing, yoga, walk-the- dog routine all summer, but it’s too easy to get off schedule lately.  I get distracted.  My focus is way off!  Well, maybe this is just my way of relaxing for the summer?  Maybe I just deserve this!  Considering, we had a family crisis in May, my mother broke her arm, and I developed laryngitis that lasted two weeks.  I won’t be too hard on myself, then.  That, and, I realize it’s easier to write when the weather’s cooler and the sun is not so bright in my window.  I’m the sort who will write when the spirit moves me.  And it will!  I still get ideas constantly, and I write them down, one sentence at a time.  I’d promised myself to do cardio in addition to yoga this summer, and that didn’t pan out so well.  It’s just too darn hot!  I need an indoor hammock for reading.  Doesn’t that sound nice?  Oh, I suppose an indoor bike would be great too…

At least I have been blogging regularly.  This Weekend Coffee Share is a great way for me to catch up with fellow writers, bloggers, and readers.  I’ve been sticking to that, and I’ve done a few flash fiction challenges.  This week, I wrote “My Friend” for the Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers challenge.  You can see it here:   https://pamelascanepa.wordpress.com/2017/07/27/flash-fiction-for-aspiring-writers-my-friend/   I’ve also changed the presentation on my blog page, so that there is a category cloud.  If you want to see my poetry, you click on the word “poetry.”  I have 22 entries so far.  If you click “reflections,”  you’ll get more personal, biographical type writing about family, life, growing up, all that good stuff.  “Writing” is where the stories and flash fiction are housed, and “Publishing/Indie marketing” is where I discuss book progress, updates, and Visual Promo Graphics or character introductions.  Have a look!  I also gave a mention the other day of a chance to win a Kindle copy of my latest book, Detours in Time.  You can visit and enter the giveaway at http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d9b75bf71/

On the subject of my book, Detours in Time, which I can’t stop talking about as if it were a healthy, 9 lb. baby I just recently birthed,  let me take a moment of gratitude!  A fellow author saw a Facebook post and bought my book in paperback on Amazon.  I asked him to e-mail a photo of himself with the book for my Facebook album, and he did!  He even told me he was enjoying the book. Someone has been reading it on Kindle Unlimited this week, and there were two recent reviews.  Thank you to those who have purchased, read, or reviewed the book, and to whoever is currently reading it!  It’s my beautiful baby, and I am a proud mamma! Having said that, if someone gives me a less than 4 or 5 star review, my thought is to thank them for a review. 🙂

I’ve also been reading like crazy this summer, since I have the time.  I read on Kindle on my phone until the battery’s almost dead, then plug it up and go get another book, preferably non-fiction so it doesn’t interfere much with the story-line in my head.   I’m reading a YA fantasy story for a review group, and then interchanging it with the non-fiction when my battery dies.  I got these from the library.  Aren’t they beautiful?

That, and I started the fifth Outlander book over a week ago, but it will take me quite a while to get through that book.  I am 15% of the way through, because it has quite slow exposition with a few lovable moments with the characters I’ve gotten to know.  However, my life is going to amp up soon with full-time work, on-the-side writing/ book promo, family stuff and generally trying to be a human.  So, I may open that one on holiday weekends, maybe at Thanksgiving time or Christmas I will finish?  Either way will work.  I just can’t chain myself to the couch in order to finish that one anytime soon.

That’s my week.  How was yours?  **You can join this week’s Coffee Share on Diana’s blog or by clicking on the “InLinkz Linkup“ in her most recent entry.  I encourage you to click on the linkup button to see what’s been going on in the lives of other bloggers and join in, even if you haven’t before!