Whatever it is, sit with it. Be in the moment with it, savor it, adjust to it, before you react.
Are you ready to sit with my images for the day?
.
There’s a lot to sit with these days!
When I search YouTube for “sit with it,” I find this …
… and this:
What helps you sit with it?
I look forward to sitting with your comments. Thanks for sitting with this blog, here and now.
If you have trouble accepting that you’re the best, sit with it!
I used to hate myself for this and that, but no more. Now, I hate it when I hear people say “I hate myself” for anything.
Yesterday, in my office, somebody said they hated themselves for not being what they used to be.
Have you ever said, “I hate myself” for anything? I won’t hate you if you share that, below.
I’d hate it if my other photos had any hate in them.
Hate disrupts the immune system. How can we boost it? Let’s start with kind words towards ourselves and others.
During this season, I do not hate myself for
Joan Jett hates herself for loving you:
I might hate myself if I forgot to thank all those who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — YOU, but I doubt it.
Today is the 1600th day in a row of blog postings, here at the Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally. 1600 is a round number and a much bigger number than expected when I began this blogging journey back on January 1, 2013.
Do you have any reactions to round numbers? In therapy, people often describe negative reactions they have about reaching round numbers as they age. For example, somebody yesterday talked about turning 40 with a lot of self-judgment. For some reason, when people approach round numbers, they can roundly judge themselves about their accomplishments and life situations.
A round number is just a number, no more significant than any other number. And yet, here I am roundly noting it.
However, I am not going to get into a round of self-judgment about my posts. Instead, I’m going to post two musical round numbers (going round here and here on YouTube).
Here’s a round number of photos I took yesterday:
This is my blogging world, and I’ve tried to shape it as best I can.
A round of applause for the large number of people who’ve help me create these 1600 posts and — of course! — for you, on this round-number day.
It’s another day, here at the Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally, when it’s all about me.
For example, this photo was taken by me:
Yes, it’s all about me, all day.
How should Me Me Me Day be celebrated by me?
Me, I’m going to do what’s best for me and my health, which includes letting go of unhelpful thoughts about me, like these:
Whenever it’s all about me and my unhelpful thoughts, that’s a miserable “me, me, me” day for me.
To further celebrate Me Me Me Day, here are more photos taken by me.
Because it’s all about me, here’s a YouTube video created by my son Aaron — who is a person who was created by me — and which includes a scream, by me, in the first few minutes:
There are other things in that video that are all about me:
Since it’s all about me, why not leave a comment for me?
Bunches of thanks to all who helped me create this all-about-me post and to you — of course! — from me.
Yesterday, I saw the title of today’s post…
… on the inside of a greeting card.
I agree. If it isn’t one thing, it’s another.
Here’s another thing: This morning, my boyfriend Michael said to me, “Guess what Harley and I saw last night?”
I could have guessed any one of these things ..
… but I guessed another: “Was it an animal?”
It WAS an animal that Michael and Harley saw last night, outside the window.
If it wasn’t any thing I guessed, it was another:
At one point, Michael said to me, “You’re going to kick yourself when you guess it.” I replied, “Believe me. I am not going to kick myself.”
If it isn’t one thing I’ve kicked myself for, it’s another. Self-judgment has really been an albatross around my neck. Therefore, I’ve decided to kick myself no more.
Here’s another thing: I DID guess the one thing Michael and Harley saw last night, which was walking down the sidewalk. If you try to guess that one thing, it might be another.
If it isn’t one photo I take for this blog, it’s another. Here are some photos from yesterday:
If it isn’t one person making a pun around here, it’s another. Last night at Market Basket, after the fish guy gave us more fish than we asked for, he said, “What the hake.”
If it isn’t one thing I’m asking my readers to guess, it’s another. Which one of the greeting cards shown above had today’s title inside?
If it isn’t one thing I want to do on my vacation week, it’s another. It’s time to end this post with not one thing but another:
Earlier this week, somebody in my office asked
What’s wrong with me?
I immediately replied, “Nothing.”
Throughout the therapy session, I said, “What was that question again?” And she repeated
What’s wrong with me?
And each time, I responded, “Nothing.”
By the end of the session, she was asking different, more helpful questions, including:
All this week, I’ve been asking
What’s wrong with me?
And I’ve been answering myself like so:
My heart.
What’s wrong with that? I mean, I do have a a heart with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (cctga).
However, it doesn’t help me, either, to ask
What’s wrong with me?
Does it ever help you to ask
What’s wrong with me?
What’s wrong with me assuming that it doesn’t help?
What’s wrong with these pictures I took yesterday?
A better question is “What’s right with those pictures?”
What’s wrong with me asking for comments or thanking you for reading this, today?
Have you ever experienced people using your name as an adjective or a noun, implying they see you a certain way ?
Me neither, until yesterday, when it happened TWICE.
The first time was when one of my therapy patients said this about a relative of hers:
I think she needs an Ann in her life.
The second time was when my friend Carol said this, when I told her I was trying out for “The Voice” in February:
That’s a very Ann thing to do.
How can I know, for sure, what either of those people meant, using my name like that?
Googling “Ann” probably won’t help me, but I shall try that anyway (since, to me, that seems like a very Ann thing to do).
Here is Ann’s first result of googling “Ann definition”:
The name Anne is a Hebrew baby name. In Hebrew the meaning of the name Anne is: Favour or grace. Prayer. God has favoured me.
That’s not how I spell my name, though. Perhaps people whose name is spelled AnnE are graceful and favoured by God. Here‘s another way Google defines “Ann”:
Word Origin and History for Ann
fem. proper name, alternative form of Anna, from Latin Anna, from Greek, from Hebrew Hannah (see Hannah ). In U.S. black slang, “white woman,” also “a black woman who is considered to be acting ‘too white;’ ” also Miss Ann. She is the spouse of Mr. Charlie.
It’s true that I AM a white woman, but that’s not a particularly helpful definition, either.
If I could consult with my patient or with Carol as I’m writing this blog post, I could use the helpful skill of reality testing (see here for that and other antidotes for automatic and unhelpful thoughts). In other words, I could ask them what they meant. However, that’s not possible. Therefore, it’s up to me to decide what “Ann” might mean, when used as an adjective or noun.
I am deciding this, at 6:19 AM, Boston USA time:
Ann — when used as a noun or an adjective — is a compliment, not an insult.
I hope you can decide the same, now, about your name. Why? Because this Ann believes that’s a helpful thing for everyone to do, no matter what.
Ann is now going to check photos she took yesterday, to see if any of them are more Ann than others.
I think all those photos are equally Ann.
What do you think about that or anything else in this Ann post?
Finally, it’s very Ann to be extremely grateful that you visited here today, no matter what your name.
A couple of days before now, I put this hairy post up on my Facebook page:
So, I am tired of believing, on any level, that my lovability is connected to how young I look and/or the way I wear my hair. Therefore, I am seriously considering cutting my hair super short and letting my hair color be completely natural. So my profile picture might be looking VERY different, very soon.
Now, the amount of support I got from this post was hair-raising.
Yesterday, I went to see my beloved hair expert, Mia at MiAlisa salon (appearing now in previous blog posts here, here, here, and here). I brought along these pictures of hair:
I noticed this sign at Mia’s hair salon …
… when my hair was this length:
I could still see all the wonderful words on that sign when my hair was this length:
And despite my son Aaron’s prediction that I might judge myself negatively after radically changing my hair, I was non-judgmental when I took these photos last night …
… and I’m still non-judgmental, hair and now.
Do you have any thoughts or feelings about hair, now?
Here and now, I’m grateful to Aaron, Mia, MiAlisa Salon, Amuleto Mexican Table in Waltham and you (no matter what state your hair’s in now).
G is for groups, which I believe are quite healing,
P is for photos I hope are appealing,
E is for Excellence — for which I am striving,
W is for workshop, 12 people arriving,
K is for Karen, the coolest of neighbors,
L is for Love and is also for Labors,
N is for Now and I’m ready to say,
Here are more letters, appearing in song:
I love the idea of you singing along!
Thanks to you all as I go and prepare
For a workshop I dare to declare more than fair.*
* A is for Ann — Announcing Aspirations for Awesome!
One benefit of living one’s entire life with a chronic, eventually fatal condition (which we all have, if you think about it):
It can focus you wonderfully on what’s important in the moment.
As a result, I often hear myself saying
“I haven’t got time for this.”
For example, recently I have stated that I haven’t got time for ...
This morning, as I woke up, I had time to recognize that I was feeling dizzy and nauseated, due to a revisit from Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) … probably triggered by my being in the same position for 7 hours last week during cardiac surgery.
And, I said to myself:
I haven’t got time for this.
So, I’ll be working on asking for help to resolve that, today.
In the meantime, I do have time for:
That last photo was from a therapy session where I was inviting somebody to have (1) less time for harsh self-judgments about their body and (2) more time for feeling “just right.”
Here’s another image from yesterday, when I didn’t have time to focus:
That bumper sticker says
Something wonderful is about to happen.
I always have time for something wonderful. I wonder if that includes a comment from you?
Thanks to all that I always have time for, including people in therapy, good music, the Citgo sign near Fenway Park in Boston, helpful bumper stickers, and you!
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 