We all have that inner voice that talks to us when we're making mistakes or decisions about something. How do you talk to yourself? Are you kind and understanding? Or are you rude and impatient with yourself? Brene' Brown says to "Talk to yourself like you would talk to someone you love". I don't know about you, but my inner voice is not always that kind to me. That is something I've been working on for the last few years-being kinder to myself. I think being kinder to ourselves leads us to being kinder to others. 

I read somewhere a long time ago that what we say to children when they make mistakes is what becomes their inner voice when they grow up. I don't know if it's true or not, but it sure made me more thoughtful about what I said to children. We all make mistakes and it matters how we handle ourselves when it happens. 

How does your inner voice talk to you? 

Today would have been my brother Bill's 52nd birthday. I think about him every day but some days are especially emotional like holidays and his birthday. He was killed in a drinking and driving wreck when he was just 18 years old. 

Please remember to spend time with the people you love and tell them you love them. Life is short and tomorrow is not guaranteed.  

Well summer is here in all it's glory. Even my 6:30 a.m. walks have been pretty hot. The heat has made it harder for me to take walks during the day so I've been doing some YouTube video workouts to help get my steps in each day. My oldest daughter introduced me to Jessica Smith on You Tube and she does a "Walk and Talk" series with about 15 minutes of walking and motivational talking. I've used them and really enjoy the encouragement and motivating words. I don't think she has uploaded anything new in a while, but since I just discovered her, it's all new to me. 

What are some of your favorite workout videos? 

Today we celebrate the birth of our nation. It's not a perfect nation, but I do feel lucky and blessed to live here. 

Happy July 4th (or Firecracker Day as I called it when I was a kid lol) 

Yesterday morning I had to cut my walk short and hurry back because I was having tummy troubles. I just didn't feel good all day long and ended up taking a really long nap in the afternoon. So I didn't get my 8000-10,000 steps and a couple of other things on my list done. But I did listen to my body and rest and I feel much better this morning. I think a lot of it may have just been exhaustion. 

Here's to a better day today. Happy Friday everyone! 

Gretchen Rubin has what she calls "Secrets of Adulthood" and one of them is: "To keep going, sometimes I have to allow myself to stop". 

This is so true-sometimes we need to stop and rest in order to keep going. Sometimes we need to power through. But often we don't take the time to stop and take a few moments to relax when we need it: a few minutes reading a favorite book, or  a short walk around the block, or a short rest in your favorite chair. We need these things to keep ourselves energetic and going. I think it's just a hard balance between allowing ourselves to stop briefly to rest and just stopping completely. I use a timer quite frequently to help me stay on track and not lose momentum all together. What kind of rest and get back at it strategies do you use to help you? 

This is my 2020 Happiness Project week 26 and June wrap-up!

Recording food/blood sugar and drinking water: I did this every day this past week and every day in June.

Walking 25 minutes a day/8,000-10,000 steps per day: I walked every day in June and got over 8,000 steps on 27 of the 30 days!

De-clutter/create classes/paperwork challenges: I did this four of the seven days last week and 21 of 30 days in June.

Writing blog post/Posting in Facebook groups: I did this every day this past week and every day in June.

Fruits/veggies: I missed meeting my fruit and veggie goal one meal this past week but met it all the other meals. I met my goal 23 out of 30 days in June.

Gretchen Rubin books/course: I read the Better than Before book five of the seven days last week and 23/30 days in the month of June. I finished the 4 Tendencies course. I was asked to test her new beta version of the course so I’ll be working through the material again over the next few days.

Devotional: Did my devotional every day this past week and every day in June

House: I did my house cleaning project four of the seven days this past week and 20/30 days in June (I took weekends off from it plus missed a couple of other days)
 

July Resolution List:
My new resolution for this month is adding a Bible Study and a prayer journal to my list. I am re-doing one of my First Place 4 Health bible studies and I am going to start a prayer journal (again). I pray, but I’ve fallen out of the habit of starting my day with prayer and I want to get that habit started back again. The truth is, it’s been hard for me to talk to God because I’m angry about what Tom’s going through. I am not sure how to work through that, but I’m going to try.
I will continue with my other resolutions:

• Recording food and blood sugar/Drinking water
• Walking 25 minutes a day/getting 8,000-10,000 steps a day
• De-cluttering/paperwork (when needed)/creating classes/daily housecleaning tasks
• Write in my blog each day/post in Facebook groups each day
• Fruits/veggies: continue with my goal of a fruit at breakfast, a vegetable at lunch, and a vegetable and fruit in the evening
• Gretchen Rubin-continue reading “Better than Before” (a book about habit change)
• Daily devotional: I’ve started a devotional book by Lysa TerKeurst called “Made to Crave: 60 days to craving God, not food”. 

​Wildflowers
I love flowers of all kinds. But I’ve always had a special affinity for wildflowers. My favorite since I was a child is Indian Blankets. I’m not sure why, but I’ve just always thought they were beautiful. Maybe the way the bright red stood out in the pastures and fields. On my walks, I’ve seen some lovely yellow wildflowers blooming in a ditch just outside of town. One morning when I walked, that ditch had been mowed and many of the flowers were gone. But in one spot, they were already peeking back up. That’s what I love about wildflowers. They grow where they are. They’re strong and they come back-no matter what knocks them down. I want to be as strong and beautiful as a wildflower. I want to come back no matter what knocks me down. I think the human spirit can be like a wildflower, if we allow it to be. Let’s work on being wildflowers; bloom where we are and burst back through no matter what knocks us down. 

​This weekend is the first time since the pandemic shut down everything in March that I’m teaching a class. I’m teaching an all day Saturday and Sunday class so that means I’ll be working all day today. After this, I’m not going to do anymore long distance trips for training due to Tom’s health. I’m going to concentrate on building webinar content and setting up training closer to home that I can drive to and back in one day.
 
What are you doing today?