Join Us - October is Health Month!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - and definitely something Carolyn and I take seriously, as well the many other health issues we all face on a daily basis.

In October we'll provide you with a link that will allow you to help your 'sisters' who can't afford a mammogram, we'll discuss Spot Compressions and share personal experience.

In addition, we'll be discussing Hypothyroidism and Sleep Apnea.
There will be a poll about H1N1, as well.

If there are health related items you're interested in sharing or some you're interested in learning more about, we'd love to hear from you!

5 Simple Rules To Being Happy

I had several new additions to my email inbox today; those funny, cute or thought provoking little tidbits forwarded from friends and family on a fairly regular basis, author unknown.  After a quick scan of the day's entrants, there was one in particular that caught my eye.

It was a story about an elderly gentleman who was being admitted to a nursing home and was delighted with the prospect.  He walked in the front door for a tour of his new home with a geat big smile plastered upon his face.  The lady assignd to escort him was curious why he was so happy, this was not typical, especially given the fact that he hadn't seen his room yet.  As she showed him around the facility, his smile never waivered.  Her curiosity got the better of her, so she asked him why he was so happy, to which he replied, "Every morning I get up and decide to be delighted with everything that comes my way."

His escort was intrigued with his answer, and when asked how he was able to be so positive each day, he responded with these 5 Simple Rules To Being Happy:

1.  Free your heart from hatred.

Hatred, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is an intense hostility, an aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury.

At one point in my life, there was a person who evoked feelings of intense dislike within me, to the point that my anger and 'hatred' became almost cancer-like in its ability to consume me and my ability to think rationally.  I don't think anyone particularly enjoyed my company during that period, heck, I didn't even like myseslf! 

Luckily, I tired of my justified anger and resolved to move forward.  It wasn't easy.  It took a considerable amount of time and energy and was a difficult lesson to learn; one I've never forgotten, and one I'm determined never to repeat.

2.  Free your mind from worries.

"Yea, right." How does one go about that you ask?  It seems to me that you are either a born worrier or you're not.

If you fit into the worrier category, there is hope.  It's as simple as admitting to yourself that the thing you are worrying about isn't affected, for better or for worse, by your worrying.  It is what it is. 

Think about it.  Can you remember a single instance when something you were worrying about, resolved itself as a direct result of your worrying?  No, of course not.  It's your actions that resolve situations.  Let the worry go!  All worrying ever did was raise your blood pressure, generate a few more gray hairs, or at best, give you an upset stomach to deal with.

There is a strong belief, in many circles, that our thoughts are energy, and thus attract like energy.  With that being said, if you're a worrier who is always fretting about one thing or another, you're only attracting more things to worry about into your life.  Let the worry go!

3.  Live simply.

Living a simple life means different things to each of us.  My personal philosophy of living simply is to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Do I really need 3 pots of the same size in my kitchen cabinet?  Can that old armoire be refurbished to provide a handy organizing solution for my crafting supplies?  How do you define living simply?

4.  Give more.

There are always Girl Scout cookies and Boy Scout popcorn to buy.  Each year there are school fund raisers and your favorite charities to support.

Give a friend a hug, forgive your sister/brother/parent for the 'thing' they did, read a story to a child in the hospital.  Is there an elderly or sick neighbor who could use a hot meal or help with raking leaves?  There is an endless list of ways to give more, and the cost will be no more than a little of your time.

5.  Expect less.

My greatest disappointments, and heartaches, have come as a direct result of expecting more from others than they were able or willing to give.  Because of this, I have learned to expect less.

That's not to say that I'm a  pessimist, quite the contrary.  It's simply that I've learned that holding others to my expectations is unrealistic, and perhaps even a bit egotistical on my part.  Expecting less is actually less stressful, and more enjoyable.  Give it a test, what have you go to lose?

Five little  rules - I think I can do this, what about you?  All we have to do is decide that today we're going to be delighted with everything that comes our way!

ree'J

Are You Making Time for Yourself?

When a long weekend comes around, like the Labor Day Weekend we just enjoyed, what do you typically do with the extra time off from work?  Do you spend it catching up on sleep, or housework, or running errands?  Or do you take the opportunity to do something just for yourself?

If you're like me, the first thought that runs through your mind on any weekend, but especially a long weeend, is "I get to sleep in!"  What usually happens, of course, is that I wake up at my regular time and can't go back to sleep.

Over the Labor Day weekend, my office was closed from Friday-Monday, which made it feel like a mini vacation.  Four whole days of freedom!  Four days, surely, would be more than enough time to get everyting in that I wanted to do.

I had the days all organized.  Friday morning I was going to get up, clean the house and then try out my new toy - the carpet shampooer. Later I planned to watch a movie or two on pay-per-view.  Saturday was going to be the day to pay bills and run all those pesky errands and maybe have a nice lunch out - Mexican food was calling my name.  I scheduled Sunday to make some potato salad to go along with the steaks I planned to grill, and to spend some time working on Living a Woo Hoo Life!  That would leave me Monday free and clear to do whatever I wanted, and what I wanted in the worst way, was to paint.

Well, hubby had other plans on Friday so we spent the day out running around the mall and every other store on the planet.  The day wasn't a total bust; I did get my Mexican food.  Woo Hoo!  I spent Saturday cleaning the house (only half of the carpet got cleaned, however) paying bills and watching college football.  Sunday I finished up the carpet project and then ran out to the grocery store, again, and was able to get the eggs boiled and the potatoes cooked for the salad.

This left me with one day, Monday.  The one day out of the long wekend set aside for me and me alone - to paint to my heart's content.  Instead, I finished up the potato salad, grilled the steaks, and folded laundry. 

While I didn't pick up a paint brush all weekend, I did spend an enjoyable few hours working on Living a Woo Hoo Life! - a great sustitute for a paint brush.

As women, this is a pretty typical weekend.  We spend so much of our time and energies taking care of everyone and everything, that there is little time left over for us.  If you're not sure if you're making enough time for yourself to relax, regroup and renew, then check out this quiz at iVillage

Bottom line - making time for yourself, doing the things that feed your soul, whatever they may be, are essential for good health, spiritual peace and happiness. 

Chinese Proverb:  Tension is who you think you should be.  Relaxation is who you are.

ree'J

Welcome to Living a WOO HOO Life!

Welcome to our premier blog!  This venture has been months in the making and now that the day is finally here, we couldn't be more thrilled!

Carolyn and I have discussed a variety of possible business opportunities and ways we could use our creativity, over the past two years.  At one point, we had half a dozen possible ideas swimming around in our heads.  The days passed and one idea after another was shelved; one was going to be too time consuming with our full time jobs, another just wasn't all that interesting after we thought about it, and yet another's longevity was questionable.

The one idea that seemed to consistently come to topic was blogging.  All we knew about blogs, however, was that you could google any subject and find one.  Pretty pathetic, I know.  I think we were just a wee bit intimidated by blogs, but thankfully our determination was far greater than our anxiety.

We bit the bullet and began our research.  We read anything and everything we could find about blogs and blogging.  And yes, we even bought Google Blogging for Dummies. Which by the way, became the greatest weapon in our arsenal; it shed so much light on blogging that our fears turned tail and retreated to parts unknown. 

It was decided that we were going to tackle blogging, but what kind of blog?  A couple cliches came to mind as we mulled around ideas.  You're probably familiar with the old cliche, "early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise".   While the 'early to bed' sounded pretty darn good most days, rising early is a must, not a choice.  But being 'healthy, wealthy and wise', was definitely something we could work with.  We started thinking about life; where were we and where we want to be in a few years.

The cliche. "it's not about the destination, it's all about the journey" brought home that point.  Up until now we had been primarily 'destination' driven...so, if it's all about the journey, what did we want our journey to look like?

After a few moments of quiet thought, we turned and looked at each other with grins on our faces and twinkles in our eyes, and shouted "WOO HOO!"  So, there you have it.  A blog was born, Living a Woo Hoo Life!...becoming, healthy, wealthy and wise.

We intend to put the excitement back into life while searching for things healthy, wealthy and wise along the way - with a little artistic creativity thrown in for good measure!

We're busily working behind the scenes to get everything up to speed - stay tuned, you won't be sorry!