Month: October 2017

Summit

These days, there are so many ways to get information.  There are podcasts, radio, video, social media, TV, texts, phone – and I am probably missing quite a few others.  Although I talked previously about podcasts, I wanted to talk about yet another way to learn about topics – summits.

The summits I am referring to are held online, although of course there are summits that can be done in person.  Summits can be done live online or they can be viewed after they have been recorded.  Lately I have found myself hearing more and more about summits, particularly related to health and wellness.  I imagine there are summits out there for a wide variety of topics, but the ones I have seen have been related to topics such as mental wellness, fertility, arthritis, and nutrition.  For the most part, I have not found these on my own, but rather they have popped up on my social media or I have received emails because I have signed up for certain email lists.  The summits typically will include 20 or more interviews with experts in the field being highlighted.

My guess is that you can do a Google search for these summits.  There is usually a catch or two, however.  You almost always have to give an email address, and a lot of them are only free to view for a certain time period.  After that, you can pay to view them at any time you want.  I have paid for a few of them so I could have access to the talks anytime I wanted, but some I have viewed only when they were free.  The nice thing about a lot of the summits I have seen is that a lot of times they will do them again with updated information, so if you miss one there is usually a new one right around the corner.  So, if you are looking for information, it might be worth an internet search to see if there is a summit on the topic.  It might be full of information that could be helpful to you.

Patience

As I write today’s entry, we are in the middle of planning a family trip that is coming up very soon.  And, although I am excited about having the opportunity to go on another trip, the planning part is about to drive me crazy.  We have been going over details for hours and hours, and I just want to get flights, hotels, and a rental vehicle booked.  In my mind everything else can wait – if the basics aren’t covered, then to me there is no sense in figuring out what we will do when we are there.

I’ve talked about patience (including my lack of it) before, and here it is again.  Why can’t I just go with the flow?  Why is this driving me so crazy?  I think part of the issue is that I know there are lots of other things that need to be done.  I would like to get this out of the way so we can move on.  Is that so irrational?  Probably not, but I dislike how my impatience makes me feel.

In the end, I know we will get it done.  It may take what seems like forever, but it will get done.  This is yet another reminder of how I need to slow down and start learning from patience instead of dreading it and letting it overtake me.  How I do that, though, will definitely be a marathon and not a sprint.  Hopefully just being able to acknowledge when it is happening is a good first step.  This also seems to be a good indication that I need to step up on some mindfulness and meditation practices.  This is an area I will probably always struggle with, but at least I can recognize it.  This helps to me to work with it and not against it.

Self-Awareness (or Lack Thereof)

As I write this entry, we are in the midst of allergy season.  Ragweed is one of the worst culprits during the late summer season around here, and this always seems to be the worst part of the year for me.  I have a long history of ear, nose, and sinus problems, and I have had a long history with allergies too.  I was allergy tested several years ago, and basically I was found to be allergic to everything.  This made me laugh, because somehow I had been fortunate enough to survive all of this time without an anaphylactic reaction to anything, let alone everything.  As a result of the testing I ended up giving myself allergy shots for about a year.  After that I have seemed to tolerate allergy seasons better, but it also could be that I exercise and take care of myself better than I ever did too.

Looking at all of my history with allergies and sinus issues, this year seemed to be going very well.  I sneezed some and had some drainage, but it wasn’t really bothering me that much.  Lately, though, I have had to wake up at night to drain, and again, while it didn’t bother me it bothered my husband.  So, today I went to an ENT doctor to see if there was a reason for my more frequent draining.  Turns out I have a secondary infection from my allergies.  Wow!  I had no idea!  I wasn’t really feeling all that different, but I have probably been walking around with an infection for possibly a month now.  Boy do I feel silly.  Here I thought my allergies were the best they had ever been, and I’ve had an infection.  Geez.

Today’s incident has made me feel a major lack of self-awareness.  How could I miss this?  How could I not sense that something was off?  I’ll get over it, but I think I need to work on giving myself some grace here.  Sometimes things do get missed.  Luckily, a lot of times it doesn’t affect much.  I assume eventually I would have started feeling uncomfortable and would have figured I should seek some help.  For now, I can rest in the knowledge that sometimes I will miss things, and that doing so is part of being a perfectly imperfect human.

Podcasts

Are you familiar with podcasts?  While not a formal definition, I think of podcasts as shows that you listen to – somewhat similar to talk radio.  However, the variety of topics for podcasts is pretty wide ranging, and there is bound to be a podcast on a topic that you find interesting.  The other neat thing is that with today’s technology pretty much anyone can create and distribute podcasts.  It can be a great way to share ideas, opinions and advice with others.

Where can you find podcasts?  A lot of times I hear about them from email lists that I am on.  If you read books or magazines, they may direct you to podcasts.  Doing a simple internet search for a podcast on a topic of interest can also be done.  Regardless of how you do it, it usually does not take long to find a lot of podcasts that you would enjoy listening to (assuming you enjoy this type of activity).

Of course, the next question is: when do you listen to all of these podcasts that you have found?  That can definitely be tricky.  Depending on the work you do, you may be able to listen to them while you are working.  I don’t advocate this if it impairs your ability to work, but it might be an option.  You can listen to them when you are driving, but again only if it doesn’t impair your ability to drive.  You can listen to them when you are exercising.  You can listen to them when you are doing chores around the house.  That is one of the benefits to podcasts – there are so many different opportunities to listen to them.  So, take some time today to consider what role, if any, podcasts could play in your life, as they can be a great way to learn and enjoy the world around us.

Guilt

I have been spending the last few entries talking about my recent trip to New York City.  While it was a great trip, one thing I wanted to touch on was the experience of leaving my child for an extended period of time for the first time.  Until our trip, I had spent maybe two or three single nights away from my son, and those were hard in several ways, but it was only a night.  To spend almost a whole week away?  I wasn’t so sure I had made the right decision to make this trip happen.

I can say that the anticipation of leaving was hard, and I started getting anxious about a couple of weeks before the trip.  The worst part was leaving him to go on the trip.  Then, of course, most of the time we were gone I felt guilty that I was having fun without taking care of him too.  It wasn’t all bad emotions, though.  I was excited to be on the trip, and I knew that he was being taken care of very well.  There was happy, sad, and everything else in between.  Sometimes I wasn’t even sure what I felt.  I certainly missed him, and I felt guilty about leaving him, but I continued to enjoy the trip.

Even though going to New York City wasn’t easy from this perspective, in some ways I felt like I had to do it.  Why?  Both my child and I needed to understand that others can take care of him.  That it is ok for mommy to have a life and go places every once in while.  That it is ok for my child to spend more time with others.  It is hard, but I think these are important things to understand.  It’s not fair to ask me to be someone’s entire world and vice versa, and experiences like this help to share the great fortune that we have in having a group of people who care about our child.  I’m not sure how I will feel the next time I leave my child for several nights, but I’m hoping that it will get easier for everyone involved.

Tennis

In my last entry I talked about visiting New York City.  The big reason we visited at this time of the year was so that we could go to a session of the U.S. Open professional tennis championships.  I don’t think my husband was too excited about it, but after seeing it in person he was really enjoying it.  This was also my first time watching tennis live, and I loved it, but I had already suspected that I would.

Why the U.S. Open?  I’ve actually been a fan of tennis for quite awhile.  I started watching the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open during the summers where I was old enough to stay home on my own but not old enough to work.  My brother and I would watch the matches, which helped us to learn the sport.  We even tried to play tennis sometimes, but most of the time was spent chasing after the tennis ball.  Even today, I am thinking about taking some lessons if I can find a way to fit it into my schedule.

Why tennis at all?  I’m not sure I have a great answer for that.  It has just been something that I casually enjoy, which is great, because I don’t feel all that obligated to keep up with it if I don’t want to.  It is great to have an interest that I can dabble in and out of when the mood hits me.  Tennis of course can also be great for your physical and social health, so when I do engage in playing I can get benefits as well.

How about you?  Do you have a hobby that is around when you feel like dropping in and out of it?  It’s certainly not a requirement in life, but it can add to your enjoyment of it, and I encourage you to look into it if you are interested.

New York City

My husband and I recently went on a trip to New York City.  I had been there 10 years ago on a solo trip, but I was longing to get back again after really enjoying the city my first time there.  We got to experience so much on the trip, and depending on how I feel I may devote more than one blog entry to my experiences related to the trip.

Today, I want to focus on the idea of New York City and what it means to me.  When I was growing up, my perception was that New York City was very scary and very dangerous.  There would be no reason for me to go there.  But somehow, as I watched movies that took place there and songs that were sung about it, I was always attracted to this city.  Could it really be that bad?  I was left to wonder until I got to make a trip on my own.

As it turns out, New York City is probably one of the safest cities out there.  On my first visit and on this recent one, I felt safe most of the time.  And, while safety is important, the best part of New York City to me is how it makes you feel.  There is so much to see and do, and there is an energy there that you can not explain to anyone.  You have to go and feel it for yourself.  It is an energy that anything is possible.  Any idea is welcome.  Any creativity is celebrated.  That is what I love about New York City – a beautiful sense that this is where things happen.  If you ever get the chance, I encourage you to visit – I suspect that you will not be disappointed once you experience the energy and inspiration.

Girls Night Out

I recently went on a “Girls Night Out” with a couple of friends, that yes, were girls.  We met at a restaurant, had some food and drinks, and spent a few hours talking about what was going on in our lives.  It is always wonderful to catch up with friends, and there is something fun about having it be just other women.  I am not saying that is it always true, but it seems that being with only women makes the conversation different.  I think a lot of women can relate in ways that maybe men cannot.  My assumption is that the conversation for a group of all men is different as well.  Another aspect was that there were no children present, which led to less interruptions in the conversation.  Overall, I enjoyed being able to have an adult conversation with other people who understand the joys and challenges that being female can bring.

Now, everyone has different preferences, and there are certainly no rules about it, but I enjoy a girls night out.  I am sure there are also men who enjoy outings with other guys too.  It doesn’t have to have anything to do with sexism, it is just about getting to spend time with friends.  It was mentioned that we should do this at a certain frequency, so I am hoping that possibly monthly would be a place to start.   It doesn’t always have to be dinner and drinks either, but that is relatively easy to do.  Whatever it looks like, girls night out seems like a great way to stay in touch and enjoy some free time with others.

How about you?  Do you participate in any girls or guys night outs?  If so, what do you do?  If you don’t, does that idea appeal to you?  How could you make a girls or guys night out happen?

Self-Defense

Recently I had the chance to take a class related to armed self-defense.  In other words, the class was about fighting someone when you are also carrying a weapon.  I am by no means an expert in this area, and in fact I am pretty much a sponge when it comes to this information.  Shooting a gun, carrying a weapon, self-defense – these are things I have heard of but have not really made an effort to actually study.  I mean, it looks fairly straightforward on TV and the movies.  In my mind, my strategy has always been to “just kick my attacker in the crotch”, because that seemed like an effective idea.  Clearly you can see how naïve I have been about the whole self-defense thing.

While the class gave me many “a-ha!” moments, what my overall takeaway was is that there is a lot to learn about shooting guns, carrying any type of weapon, and self-defense.  There are many different strategies and considerations that come into play when defending yourself, and safety is important as well.  After all, you don’t want to end up being hurt by your own weapon if you can avoid it.

So, while I wouldn’t call it a new hobby, I have started diving deeper into self-defense.  Why?  Part of it is I want to exercise my right to bear arms.  Most of it, however, it to protect myself and/or my family if need be.  Hopefully that day will never come, but at this point in my life I think I would feel awful if something happened that I could have prevented by being more prepared to defend myself and my family.

How about you?  Have you ever wanted to learn more about self-defense?  I don’t want to scare people, because it isn’t necessarily the nicest thing to think about, but it can help to alleviate fear by being prepared.