Tag: dailyprompt

Challenges

What are your biggest challenges?

There are some things I know for sure about me. I know that if I view the world and my circumstances in life as a challenge, I’m pushing against what I don’t want. As a law of attraction aficionado, I know that what I resist, persists. Longing for something or viewing it as hard or difficult, only can make it grow more so. Feeling it was a challenge can create uncertainty and fear that I won’t achieve it.

That’s not to say that I get everything I want! It’s more of a mindset for me. So today’s writing prompt question asks for my biggest challenges, and I really don’t see my life that way. I can look back on my life before I learned my daily habits of appreciation and realize that I used to see a lot of the world as a challenge. But that’s the former me.

While today I might join in on a walking “challenge” or a fund-raising “challenge,” those are not struggles for me. Even if I don’t achieve what I intended at the beginning of the “challenge,” I can appreciate that I got started and did my best.

Through lots of self discipline and practice, and researching the many teachers who wrote and spoke about the law of attraction, I have developed a daily habit of appreciating people, things and situations in my life: even when things don’t go my way. Quieting the mind has been one of the best things I’ve learned in that process as well. Whether it’s actual meditation or just focusing on my breath for a few minutes, it helps create a more relaxing and happier way of life for me.

Wayne Dyer had some of the most influential writings for me that have served me in living a more joyful life and with less stress. Here are two that I feel relate well to the idea of changing how you view something as a “challenge.”

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

You are not stuck where you are unless you decide to be.

Nostalgia

What makes you feel nostalgic?

Nostalgia is a tricky thing. It can create happy feelings or sad ones, and sometimes a longing for days gone by. For me, it’s a series of memories from moments in my past that can be triggered by a sense of smell, sounds, conversations, old movies, and more. I can easily think of many things that evoke that feeling of nostalgia in my life. I can get nostalgic for moments and memories in my past that are happy more than sad, so I appreciate that! Here are come of the ones that create that feeling for me.

Old photos bring a ton of memories flowing through my mind and heart and appreciating those moments through them. I remember the people mainly, but also sometimes the occasion in which they were taken. Photos of my children are particularly powerful, as well of my parents and relatives. Suffice it to say, family is everything to me.

The contrast of today’s world can trigger moments of nostalgia for years past. In particular, dinner around the table together with family or friends without everyone on their phones can really take me back to days where we spent more time talking and listening to one another than staring at our phones. I appreciate that I have lived in a world where I didn’t have technology growing up, unlike today’s children. While I appreciate technology today, I do get nostalgic for the days when we just lived a more simpler life.

Music is one of my favorite things and I listen to music from other decades often. It brings me back to those moments in time when I was in high school and college, or studying abroad. I think most of us probably have songs that bring up memories of that time, or remind us of a person. Recently, I heard a song in the car radio that reminded me of when I was dating my ex-husband before we were married. I mentioned it to a daughter who as in the car with me at the time. I’m not sure she quite understood, since we went through a contentious divorce. Even so, the song created a lot of nice memories to cherish.

I studied abroad in Mexico, Argentina and Spain both in high school and during my undergraduate days of college. These experiences were deeply profound and life-changing for me. I spent more time in Spain and I’m often reminded of how much I loved it there. I can get nostalgic for my time there when eating certain foods, hearing music, or talking with friends I met there.

There are so many other experiences, things and people that can create a feeling of nostalgia for me. After all, they are moments in my life. I am very grateful and appreciative that I have a memory to remember them. They are a reminder to me to be present as I go through life.

Appreciating Relationships through a Daily Prompt!

What relationships have a positive impact on you?

This question is a prompt for blogging on my WordPress dot com site. I love the question!

Friends



For me, all relationships end up having a positive impact on me. While it may not appear so in the moment, or even some time years later, the unpleasant ones have had a lesson for me to learn. They all have contributed to my personal development through life and that’s a positive thing!

I really appreciate the relationships of family, including extended family. So many fun times growing up that continue to exist today, when we get together. There is always a ton of laughter with my Clark family and for that, I am very grateful.

Through all the ups and downs of a stressful divorce years ago, I really appreciate my childrens’ resilience through it all. I know it wasn’t easy at times. It was tough and I appreciate we’re on the other side of it. I appreciate that it’s now in the rear view mirror and we have no where to go but forward. I love them so much!

I love the time I’ve reconnected with childhood friends since the pandemic. We’ve got a strong friendship that’s survived many decades and are creating new memories through our almost daily chats everyday.

My Hawkeye Twitter family brings me great joy and laughter, most of the time! I’m pretty active on Twitter and there’s a strong community of Hawkeye fans there who make it always an interesting experience. I connected with some when I lived in New York City so that when I moved back to Iowa City, I was invited to check out their tailgate at 1122 Melrose. It was so great meeting people in person! It now has become my favorite tailgating spot for home football games.

These are just a few examples of relationships I appreciate. Life is about the relationships in life, so always take the time to savor them!