Day 3664: What I’ve Found

Yesterday, I found the confidence and the skill to facilitate a group for the doctors at the hospital where I work. I’ve found that I often get anxious about doing something new, especially when it’s important to me, but it usually turns out fine.

Here are other things I’ve found lately:

• my phone, after losing it on the day I wrote a blog post about losing things,
• an Artificial Intelligence website where you can chat with famous people, including Jane Austen,
• joy in the prospect of turning 70 years old on Groundhog Day,
• all the tiles for our shower remodel, and
• what’s pictured in my images for today.

I’ve found that I don’t have to work harder, for heaven’s sake, but I am telling my ex-husband (who reads this blog but sometimes just looks at the pictures of Joan) that today is Kiss a Ginger Day (since our son Aaron is a ginger). Also, I’ve found that it helps to remember my late father (also named Aaron) who was a pharmacist.

Here’s what I’ve found when I searched for “what I’ve found” on YouTube:

I’ve found reading your comments so valuable (even if it takes me some time to respond).

I’ve found gratitude for everyone who helps me create this daily blog, including YOU!

Day 3621: Making the world a better place

Yesterday, people I respect told me I was making the world a better place with my attend-when-you choose Coping and Healing therapy groups. They thought offering those groups to many more people and preserving my “legacy” (their word!) by writing an article about them would be making the world a better place.

Let’s see what the Daily Bitch Calendar has to say about making the world a better place.

It DOES sound exhausting, but I shall do my best at making the world a better place, one step at a time.

I hope the sharing images like these is making the world a better place.

Here’s what I find when I search YouTube for “making the world a better place.”

Thanks to all who are making the world a better place, including YOU.

Day 3573: That must have been scary

When I tell people about my experiences in the hospital when I was young, they often say, “That must have been scary.”

That must have been scary, I agree. However, I don’t remember being scared. I was so focused on trying to understand what was going on, connecting with others, and surviving the frequent hospitalizations and surgeries for my heart condition that I must have been disconnected from the fear.

I appreciate people saying, “That must have been scary.” That demonstrates empathy and allows me to acknowledge what I’ve been through. I may wish that people had said “that must have been scary” to me back then, but that must have been scary for them to do.

This morning, I woke up thinking about the phrase “that must have been scary” and decided to reframe that to “that must have been necessary.” Somehow, that makes things less scary for me, here and now.

Do you see anything that must have been scary or necessary in my images for today?

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Learning something new, screenings, and breast exams: all scary AND necessary.

Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “that must have been scary.”

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If you think that must have been scary searching through the videos that popped up for me on YouTube, you are correct. However, it was necessary for me to finish this blog post.

Thanks to all who help me deal with things that must have been scary, including YOU.

Day 3523: What sticks

I tell people in my Coping and Healing groups that what sticks in our minds tends to be negative, so we need to consciously let go of unhelpful and distorted thoughts and reinforce helpful reframes.

What sticks for me, here and now, is

• the new harness for my cat Joan, which uses strips of Velcro for easy on and easy off,
• that somebody on Twitter unexpectedly blocked me, and
• my gratitude for all the people who do keep me in their lives.

What sticks in my images for today?

If I stick to my healthier eating habits, I won’t be having any sticky waffles or pies today.

Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “what sticks”:

Please stick any thoughts and feelings you choose to share in the comments section, below.

What sticks at the end of my posts is my thanks to all who help me create this daily blog, including YOU.

Day 2521: How to be more self-confident

Yesterday, people in a therapy session started a list of how to be more self-confident.

I’m self-confident enough to

• ask if you know other ways to be more self-confident and
• share my other photos from yesterday.

 

One of those turkeys looks more self-confident than the other. Do you see more self-confidence in any of those other photos?

I am confident that YouTube will have a video about “How to be more self-confident.”

Since #5 is “Play Music,” here’s me playing two original songs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe three months ago:

That helps improve my self-confidence about applying to do more shows at the 2020 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Are you self-confident to leave a comment? If not, how might you be more self-confident about that?

Gratitude helps me be more self-confident, so thanks to all who help me be self-confident enough to share this daily blog, including YOU!

Day 2368: ACT

I act, every day, to

• publish a blog here at The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally  and
• encourage people to act in beneficial ways.

And yet, this is my first blog post with the word “act” in the title.  Time to act!

What does “act” mean to you? To Merriam-Webster, it means:

act noun
\ ˈakt \
Definition of act
1a : the doing of a thing : DEED
an act of courage
b law : something done voluntarily
2 : the process of doing something : ACTION
caught in the act
3 : the formal product of a legislative body : STATUTE
an act of Congress
also : a decision or determination of a sovereign, a legislative council, or a court of justice
4 : one of the principal divisions of a theatrical work (such as a play or opera)
a play in three acts
5a : one of successive parts or performances (as in a variety show or circus)
a magic act
b : the performer or performers in such an act
a two-person comedy act
c : a performance or presentation identified with a particular individual or group
They took their act on the road.
d : the sum of a person’s actions or effects that serve to create an impression or set an example
a hard act to follow
6 : a display of affected behavior : PRETENSE
put on an act that deceived nobody
His friendly concern was just an act.
7 often capitalized : a formal record of something done or transacted
8 : a state of real existence rather than possibility
into the act or in on the act
: into an undertaking or situation as an active participant
saw the success they were having and wanted to get in on the act
act verb
acted; acting; acts
intransitive verb

1 : to take action : MOVE
think before acting
acted favorably on the recommendation
2 : to conduct oneself : BEHAVE
act like a fool
3a : to perform on the stage
began acting at the age of eight
b : to behave as if performing on the stage : PRETEND
seemed angry but was just acting
4 : to perform a specified function : SERVE
trees acting as a windbreak
5 : to produce an effect : WORK
wait for a medicine to act
6 : to give a decision or award
adjourned without acting on the bill
7 of a play : to be capable of being performed
a play that acts well
transitive verb

1a : to represent or perform by action especially on the stage
will act the part of Romeo in tonight’s play
b : FEIGN, SIMULATE
act indifference
c : IMPERSONATE
2 : to play the part of as if in a play
act the man of the world
3 : to behave in a manner suitable to
Act your age.
4 obsolete : ACTUATE, ANIMATE
ACT abbreviation
Definition of ACT
1 Action for Children’s Television
2 Association of Classroom Teachers
3 Australian Capital Territory

To therapists, ACT (abbreviation)  also means Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. I shall now act to quote the Wikipedia description about ACT:

The objective of ACT is not elimination of difficult feelings; rather, it is to be present with what life brings us and to “move toward valued behavior”.[6] Acceptance and commitment therapy invites people to open up to unpleasant feelings, and learn not to overreact to them, and not avoid situations where they are invoked. Its therapeutic effect is a positive spiral where feeling better leads to a better understanding of the truth.[7] In ACT, ‘truth’ is measured through the concept of ‘workability’, or what works to take another step toward what matters (e.g. values, meaning).

ACT (abbreviation) also means this:

When I was caught in the act taking that photo yesterday, I acted to smile and give a thumbs up to the ACT workers near that truck.

Here are other ways I acted yesterday:

I have to act fast to finish this post with a  Stephen Sondheim song  (which features actors avoiding action by focusing on fault).

 

It’s never just an act when I express gratitude to all who help me act to create this daily blog and — of course! — thanks to YOU.

 

Day 1948: WATCH OUT!

WATCH OUT!  This is the first post in one thousand, nine hundred, and forty-eight consecutive blogging days to be titled “WATCH OUT!” although I watch out for things and also have a lot of watches.

WATCH OUT!  Here’s the inspiration for today’s title:

What does “WATCH OUT!” mean to you?

To me, it means danger, pay attention, and also yesterday’s delivery of more unsalted sunflower seeds in the shell from nuts.com.

WATCH OUT!  I’m not going to link to the nuts.com website because ever since I reordered my latest batch of unsalted sunflower seeds in the shell, when I watch a video on YouTube it’s preceded by an advertisement from nuts.com.  WATCH OUT!  Advertisers are watching out for themselves by watching us.

WATCH OUT!  When I look for a song titled “WATCH OUT!” on YouTube, they all have explicit lyrics.  WATCH OUT!  The first line of “Watch Out” by Rich Brian is “They be salty like sodium” and the next lines are too salty for this blog (unlike the sunflower seeds from nuts.com).

WATCH OUT!  Here are all my photos from yesterday, in consecutive order.

Harley feels safer when he can watch out from a higher level.

WATCH OUT!  One of my photos inspires the choice of this musical selection, which you can watch on YouTube.

WATCH OUT!  I assumed that there was a song “Meet Me in the Dugout” by Pink, but there isn’t.

WATCH OUT! Before I decide on a song we can watch, I want to suggest that you WATCH OUT! for world leaders who tweet in upper caps.

Here‘s “Watch Out” performed by the cast of Empire.

WATCH OUT!  I’ve got to stop blogging this morning if I’m going to get to Physical Therapy on time.

WATCH OUT!  There’s always time for thanks to all who help me create these posts and — of course! — to YOU.