Is it appropriate for me to tell you that I’ve never written a blog post with the word “appropriate” in the title before? It is appropriate to reveal the inspiration for today’s title?
That’s a sign for a parking lot where I work. I don’t park there. Does that mean I’m not appropriate?
When I read the news these days, I see a lot of inappropriate behavior, which contributes to my sense of chaos. Is it appropriate to ask whether we can agree on what behaviors are appropriate?
Are these photos appropriate?
Is it appropriate to discuss stool/poop in mixed company? Is it appropriate to use the term “mixed company”? Was it appropriate for Michael and I to both wear that cat head at Target and then not buy it? Is it appropriate for me to share what I write during group therapy sessions about topics like self esteem? Is it appropriate for me to reveal that one of the group members talked about “dumb asses” before I wrote down some thoughts about self esteem?
Is it appropriate for me to bombard my readers with so many questions?
Is it appropriate for me to use this photo to introduce today’s music?
Please leave an appropriate comment below.
Can we agree that gratitude is an appropriate way to end all of my daily blog posts?
Several years ago, I participated in a group therapy exercise where we created a personal flag. I hope it’s okay if I ask what you would put on your personal flag.
Here’s my okay flag:
Telling myself “it’s okay” helps me deal with a lot, every day.
A few months ago, a more-than-okay person shared a variant of “it’s okay.”
It’ll be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.
It’s not the end yet, so here are my other okay pictures for today.
Here and now, I’m blogging inside that gazebo and let me tell you — IT’S OKAY!
In the one thousand and five hundred consecutive posts for this daily blog, mistakes have been the main topic at least five times, if I am not mistaken.
You can check for mistakes in previous posts about mistakes here, here, here, and here.
Yesterday, in therapy, somebody was focusing on mistakes. Make no mistake, lots of people who come to see me for individual or group therapy focus on and feel bad about mistakes. They often make the common mistake of believing that only they make mistakes every day.
Everybody makes mistakes every day. Why? Because we’re human.
Was it a mistake for me to take only four photos yesterday?
I may be mistaken, but I believe that first photo shows people on their way to yesterday’s victory parade for the New England Patriots. And make no mistake, that last photo shows my boyfriend Michael’s latest victorious meal. Michael was afraid he’d made mistakes by soaking the monkfish before trying to bread it (unsuccessfully) and then poaching the fish instead. I thought those “mistakes” resulted in a perfectly delicious meal.
When I look at the news these days, I can get upset about what I see as other people’s mistakes. Sometimes I make the common mistake of forgetting that the only behaviors I can control are my own.
What are your thoughts and feelings about mistakes?
Time for me to end this post so I can make more mistakes!
No mistake: I am grateful for Michael, my work, my blog, patriots of all kind, Amanda Joy, good food, the opportunity to make mistakes, and — of course! — you, my readers.
How would you — self motivated to read this blog — fill in this self centered blank?
Self ___
Do you have the self control to fill in that self fulfilling blank, before you read the rest of this self possessed post?
If that is not self sufficient, I self consciously include some self referential guessing music.
Self endowed, now, with an answer for self ____?
Yesterday, I had the self confidence to facilitate two self started therapy groups.
The first group had the self awareness to self protect with the topic “Self Care.”
The second group had the self esteem to self select the topic “Self Love.”
Here is my most recent self generated photo:
Doesn’t Oscar look self satisfied?
I now have the self preservation to notice that other self generated photos from yesterday could provide self contained captions for Oscar’s self satisfaction.
1.a medicine or other remedy for counteracting the effects of poison, disease, etc.
2.something that prevents or counteracts injurious or unwanted effects.
Yesterday, in individual and group therapy sessions, people came up with several valuable antidotes, including:
realizing that a worst fear is often unlikely to come true, since we are consciously and unconsciously working to prevent that,
increasing self-esteem by seeing oneself through the eyes of a beloved pet,
letting go of internalized harsh judgments about personal appearance,
imagining anxiety-provoking thoughts and images attached to balloons that float away,
affirmations of self-worth, and
realizing that traumas of the past are in the past and NOT in the here and now.
I wonder if the thirteen photos I snapped yesterday are antidotes for anything.
Here’s a possible antidote for my nervousness about trying out for The Voice in February: “singing” is the only antidote that appears twice in the lists of “What Helps” on the walls of my office.
What antidotes do you find helpful?
Here’s an all-purpose antidote for what ails us: gratitude. Thanks to all who helped me create this post and to you — of course! — for reading it.
