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Tag Archives: optimism

Another resolution free New Year

30 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by laurieanichols in postaday, postaday2013, Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

optimism, postaday2013, resolutions, sadness, writing

These past few days, I have been reading a lot about other people’s New Year’s resolutions. They are everywhere; in all of the magazines, a variety of Blogs and even the Huffington Post. I suppose that resolutions and “best of” lists go hand in hand this time of year. I stopped making resolutions a long time ago. It isn’t because I think that I have achieved everything that I need to be, far from it. I just never found that making resolutions worked for me. I would eventually forget that I had made them, and if you forget about making a resolution, then really, what is the point?

My battle with control over my tendencies to fall back into anorexic behavior isn’t something that I can leave up to a once a year reckoning. This is something that I must be mindful of at all times, it goes hand in hand with my tendency to lapse into depression. Though I have to acknowledge that finding WordPress has helped me keep my depressions at bay and I am grateful for it. I know that writing has given me an outlet and I have found solace through this outlet. I may never be a writer, but writing has given me so much that it doesn’t matter.

I think that I like reading about what other’s are resolved to accomplish because I am curious, plain and simple. I am curious as to what makes people tick and making resolutions is one part of it. I know that one of the most common New Year’s resolutions is to quit smoking, I quit 6 years ago on November 1st. I had tried quitting so many times before, I probably made a New year’s resolution at one point, only to probably break it within days, but the last time has stuck. I think that my past failures with the smoking thing may have influenced my personal jaded view of resolutions.

All I know is that I have found a few strategies that help me and they are easy enough; eat a good breakfast everyday, walk briskly for at least twenty minutes every day if possible, write every day and be mindful of how my emotional and mental state are holding up. I have found that as long as my spirits are up, I can do everything that I set my mind to. It is so weird, I truly believe that at my core, I am an optimist, but I have this small part of me that is so dark, sad and heavy and it sometimes takes so much work to make it stay locked away. I seriously hate that part of my psyche, I wish that I could just flush it out, but it doesn’t work that way. Thank goodness for writing, that’s all that I have to say.

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The healing properties of cooking

27 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by laurieanichols in postaday, postaday2013, Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

cooking, darkness, food, optimism, postaday2013, sadness

I like to think of myself as an eternal optimist but this morning I woke up in an extraordinarily bleak mood. The darkness that engulfed me upon opening my eyes seemed to mirror the dark skies outside. I felt heavy and my morning coffee and oatmeal didn’t change it either; actually as I was reading the news of the day, I felt even more dismal. I got ready to go see my nurse practitioner for a follow up exam and when I was at the gas station filling up the car, I was thinking that I’m 45 years old and nothing is going to change, everyday will be the same; worrying about trivial and petty things that do seem to matter just the same, but in the grand scheme of things, shouldn’t life be deeper and bigger than that? Am I going to live my life just sweating the “small” stuff? That got me even more depressed, thinking that if I don’t get it in gear with my book, I might just miss the opportunity to leave something tangible of myself in this world. All this was rattling in my head as I was getting closer to my Ob/gyn’s office. When I went in for my follow up exam, my nurse practitioner examined me and said that everything seemed to have corrected itself and I was in better shape and my mammogram next month should verify that, but she said that I needed to keep my stress levels down.

After hearing this good news, my mood gradually lifted throughout the day and then it got much better when I started prepping dinner for my hubby who is coming home tonight. There is something so therapeutic about snapping string beans, chopping garlic, peeling and slicing potatoes. The smell of roast beef wafting though the house while at the same time the sound of drippings crackling pierces my thoughts, both act as a soothing balm to whatever worries me. By the end of today I will be right back where I ought to be, relaxed and looking forward to a new day.

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The menu is a very simple one; roast beef studded with garlic cloves rubbed in salt and pepper, a potato gratin with heavy cream, Swiss cheese, salt, pepper and fresh nutmeg, broccoli rabe sautéed with garlic and parmesan cheese and red pepper flake (that’s for me) and string beans sautéed with slivered almonds and garlic. What is even better is that there will be left overs for the baby boy, so I don’t have to plan another menu for a day or so. Hooray!

What are your five strengths?

12 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by laurieanichols in postaday, postaday2012

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

optimism, patience, postaday2012, relationships, strengths, writing

List your top five strengths.

June 12, 2012

My Top 5 Strengths

chirping birds

I would have to say optimism, patience, kindness, tenacity and discipline. The tenacity and discipline have served me with my writing and the rest have helped me with my relationships and life in general.

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