| |
|
1BEARWIFE's Recent Blog Entries
|
 
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Good Sunday Morning to you all,
Just got back from the Attitude Adjustment breakfast meeting and Costco.
The meeting was great, and Costco was successful, for the most part.
I will start with the meeting. The topic today was "Building The Foundation".
How well I recall that, during my very beginning of this new way of living, I did not understand what they were talking about whenever they mentioned "build a strong foundation". I just figured "What the hell. Some day I might learn what they are talking about." My sponsor, Connie, had different plans for me.
Connie was one of those "You damn well BETTER" sponsors who insisted I work the steps slowly. It was my idea that I could work all 12 of them within a week or so, but oh no. Not with Connie!!
She gave me a form of Step One that needed to be written out, and while I was doing that, I had to read all of Step One and all of Tradition One every day for 30 days. I was told to take my time in writing out the form's answers and insights, and to be absolutely certain to NOT SKIP a single day of the reading.
Ok. I did that, and by the time I shared my first step with her, I KNEW what Step One was truly all about. The same pattern followed with Step Two, Step Three, etc. 30 days on each one, reading the step and Traiditon alternately twice a day. One in the morning, one in the evening.
Time passed, and one day I was at a meeting, and sure enough, the topic was "Building a Firm Foundation". This time I KNEW what they were talking about.
My dear sponsor, and others, taught me to slow down, and learn each step and tradition thoroughly. By giving myself time to absorb the true meaning and value, I had built a good, strong foundation, which is the true beginning of every day of my life.
We can change the color paint on our walls of life, rearrange it, and fill it with all sorts of window dressings. We can put in new soil, plant new seeds, and share the bounty with others.
But unless we have a strong foundation, none of that other stuff matters. It is all window dressing and fluff if we have a weak, or no, foundation.
As the years have passed by, I notice that I am relying more and more on my FOUNDATION than anything else.
It has been my FOUNDATION that has carried me through times thick and thin, happy or sad, win and loss. My foundation has never wavered, although my emotions, surroundings, attitudes, behaviors and such certainly have wavered throughout these years.
Not so with my Foundation. I learned to build it slowly, taking time to absorb every morsel of the lesson before moving on.
Even when I left California and moved up here, I was able to bring my foundation with me. It is part of my very soul, and always carries me.
However, I must remember to inspect my foundation from time to time. I must look to see if I have allowed any cracks in it, or wearing it thin in places. I must be extremely aware of my foundation, and its conditioning.
Yes, it is easy to look at the steps as they apply to me today. It is easy to look at the surface of my emotions, thinking process, and behavior of today.
It takes much more work to do a complete look at the foundation from which all the other capabilites sprung from. It takes meditation, a willingness to remember the beginning, and an honest evaluation as to where I stand today with my foundation. It is a self appraising that can sometimes be painful.
Without being aware of my foundation, I can find no true peace, can recognize no true gratitude, and can not see the truth of my being.
I must be charitable in sharing my foundational wisdom, strength and power. I must be willing to practise patience, love and tolerance of the world, exactly as it is today.
I must be diligent, and allow time to be the teacher when I want to dash off and "do it my way".
Yes, Easy Does It..........But DO IT..... comes from our FOUNDATION, not from our head! It is through constant repetition of what is good for us that builds our strength, courage and wisdom. Repetition is necessary in order for it to become part of our essence.
I wish you awareness of your foundation today.
Much love,
Sandy
Saturday, January 01, 2011
I begin by wishing you all a very Happy New Year of Less.
Now I want to talk about something serious.
My favorite team has been floundering with participation. At one point, it was pretty much dried up.
Another team member and myself decided to not let it go, and we tried to bring back some color and enthusiasm.
We had a pumpkin carving class, which was fun. It didn't last as long as we wanted it to due to weather, but it was wonderful to see inspiration sparking in eyes and meet some of the members face to face.
We set challenges, and some members participated.
We wrote blogs, and some responded.
I agreed to be part of the team leadership, and tried to inspire some interest.
There was quite a bit of action going on in the chat page, but that seems to have waned as of late.
I am very sad this is happening to our local team.
I have heard some grousing about the team not being active enough, as though that is up to the LEADERS FAULT.
NOT SO, DEAR SPARKIES.
A TEAM IS ONLY AS GOOD AS ITS TEAM MEMBERS' PARTICIPATION.
As a co-leader, I have spent many hours trying to inspire, entice and cajole members into action. I have tried to make this fun and exciting, and offer up varieties of activities for the team.
Very little response. I feel, for the most part, that I am attempting to get a wall to participate.
Why do we do that to our Teams? Have we become so self absorbed that we think we are "entitled" to having our team leaders do all the work without our participation, and then, not having gotten the results we want, blame it on the leaders?
True leadership does whatever possible to inspire and lift its team to higher heights and success. But that success cannot be done without PARTICIPATION.
A Leader can lay out the plan, point the team in the right direction, and head up the charge.
But unless the TEAM MEMBERS do not follow or participate, it is a losing battle.
And not the kind of losing battle we at SPARK want. We want a losing battle that consists of losing pounds, inches and a sedentary way of living.
We want SUCCESS.
Leaders cannot participate FOR you. They can only participate WITH you.
If you are not getting the results you want from your teams, ask yourself what YOU are doing to get those results.
Are you not posting?
Are you not checking in?
Are you not blogging?
Are you not working out?
In short, what are YOU bringing to the banquet table of your Team?
A truly wonderful banquet has many varieties to offer. And the variety must come from more than a few people.
So I lay down the gauntlet.
The challenge I propose is to pick up the gauntlet and participate with your local team.
I promise, your TEAM will only be as good as YOUR PARTICIPATION!
Let's have a wonderful, exciting New Year of ACTION!  
Friday, December 31, 2010
I set some goals for myself at the beginning of last year.
One of them was to talk over 700 miles this year. Another was to do a 5K.
I had a good start, until that 5K day. I was chalking up the miles, ahead of my goal schedule, and all was well.
I was signed up to do a 5k, and was doing a terrific job, until I decided to run down a hill. Right near the bottom, down I went. On my face, hip, and knees. I was so close to finishing the 5K, yet my body was having none of it.
A few days later everything really started to hurt, and hurt BAD. I went to the doctor, had some tests done, and found out I had cracked my hip and my pelvis. I was pretty laid up for a couple of months.
That dampened my enthusiasm, and my Spark was pretty low.
Then I had some other health issues that were fairly debilitating on and off for a while.
That took the wind out of my sails.
I lost my get up and get at 'em mode. I became on again, off again, with my Spark program.
I gained weight again, and gained an off-handed attitude toward my health improvement course.
I did manage to get in 524.1 miles, 175.9 under my goal.
Yes, it is a bit of a disappointment for me, but you know what? I can't remember ever walking 524.1 miles in one year ever before, so I am going to take that as a credit.
I slacked way off on tracking my food, too. Inches and pounds found their way to my body, and decided to live here rent free.
In December, I started up a goal for my team Port Angeles and Surrounding Areas, and that goal was to get ourselves into shape as a gift of love for ourselves and our family members. We were supposed to do 15 minutes of cardio a day.
For the most part, I succeeded in that. Which brings me to today.
This is the last day of this year. I have finished 20 minutes of cardio and 25 minutes of fit, firm and Fired Up workouts. (That Day 6 one is something I will have to work on, because I kept tipping over.)
I am on day 5 of a self commitment to workout 15 days in a row, like it says on the DVD.
Once again, I am amazed as to how quickly our bodies respond when we actually DO the Spark workouts!
It isn't weigh-in and measure day yet, but I already know my muscles and the rest of me is responding favorably with the past 5 workouts in a row.
I haven't set any goals for 2011 yet; I am thinking of just where I want to go with the goal setting.
I do much better when I set myself short term goals, so I suspect I will set up MONTHLY goals, rather than yearly.
All things considered, I've had a very good year. After all, I am still above ground AND vertical!
And that's all that is needed to begin the rest of my life.
Friday, December 31, 2010
I set some goals for myself at the beginning of last year.
One of them was to talk over 700 miles this year. Another was to do a 5K.
I had a good start, until that 5K day. I was chalking up the miles, ahead of my goal schedule, and all was well.
I was signed up to do a 5k, and was doing a terrific job, until I decided to run down a hill. Right near the bottom, down I went. On my face, hip, and knees. I was so close to finishing the 5K, yet my body was having none of it.
A few days later everything really started to hurt, and hurt BAD. I went to the doctor, had some tests done, and found out I had cracked my hip and my pelvis. I was pretty laid up for a couple of months.
That dampened my enthusiasm, and my Spark was pretty low.
Then I had some other health issues that were fairly debilitating on and off for a while.
That took the wind out of my sails.
I lost my get up and get at 'em mode. I became on again, off again, with my Spark program.
I gained weight again, and gained an off-handed attitude toward my health improvement course.
I did manage to get in 524.1 miles, 175.9 under my goal.
Yes, it is a bit of a disappointment for me, but you know what? I can't remember ever walking 524.1 miles in one year ever before, so I am going to take that as a credit.
I slacked way off on tracking my food, too. Inches and pounds found their way to my body, and decided to live here rent free.
In December, I started up a goal for my team Port Angeles and Surrounding Areas, and that goal was to get ourselves into shape as a gift of love for ourselves and our family members. We were supposed to do 15 minutes of cardio a day.
For the most part, I succeeded in that. Which brings me to today.
This is the last day of this year. I have finished 20 minutes of cardio and 25 minutes of fit, firm and Fired Up workouts. (That Day 6 one is something I will have to work on, because I kept tipping over.)
I am on day 5 of a self commitment to workout 15 days in a row, like it says on the DVD.
Once again, I am amazed as to how quickly our bodies respond when we actually DO the Spark workouts!
It isn't weigh-in and measure day yet, but I already know my muscles and the rest of me is responding favorably with the past 5 workouts in a row.
I haven't set any goals for 2011 yet; I am thinking of just where I want to go with the goal setting.
I do much better when I set myself short term goals, so I suspect I will set up MONTHLY goals, rather than yearly.
All things considered, I've had a very good year. After all, I am still above ground AND vertical!
And that's all that is needed to begin the rest of my life.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Today I did cardio with the gang.
We did 10 minutes on the rowing machine, vigorously. The Gang consisted of George Bizet doing "Les Toreadors from "Carmen", Anton Dvorak, not to be undone, did his "Slavonic Dance No. 8, and of course, Bizet had to answer Dvorak with "Farandole from L'Arlesienne".
They left the room, and in came the next group to do 15 vigorous minutes on the stationary bike.
Richard Wagner started it off with "Seigfried's Death and Funeral Music from Gotterdammerung", and then to really liven it up, Robert Schumann came in with his "Symphone No. 3 in E flat magor, op. 97 Rhenish.......1st movement.
That certainly got our heart rate up, so knowing I had to do cool down, I stayed on the bike after those guys left to write some more power music.
I did a five minute cool down with Peter I. Tchaikovsky while appreciating the Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor,m Op. 23 (3rd movemnt, Allegro con Fuoco).
Since the music wasn't finished by the time my heart rate was back down, I decided that Peter and I could do some yoga stretching. We had a nice, cooling, refreshing, spiritual time with that.
Ah, yes. Everyone should be so lucky to have these guys hang out and workout with, although they ARE a bit tempermental and get up and leave when they've had enough.
But the waiting room always has someone getting ready to step in to the home gym and do their "thing".
A good bunch, one and all. We all feel empowered to go on with our day.
May your day bring you music and many friends!
First Page
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
Last Page
|
|
Get An Email Alert Each Time 1BEARWIFE Posts
|
|
Member Comments About This Blog Post:
