Posted in Attitude, Non-Fiction, Power of Attraction, Self-Improvement

Do you set your goals, or do goals set you?

Goals like: Keep Clutter from Home Environment !

I have a love/hate relationship with keeping my home clean and uncluttered to my imagined standards. I often find myself feeling guilty for not taking care of every little thing a home demands. … according to my imagined standards.

I’m writing today to share with you what I want to avoid, and that is, imbalance. When I say imbalance, I mean I am happiest when my physical world is aligned with my non-physical world. So here are my thoughts worth sharing.

Shuttering with Cluttering

Have you ever walked into a room and felt sudden irritation?

Instead of blaming others, know it is a message coming directly from you. Look around. It doesn’t seem like anyone else is bothered by the state of the room.

In every moment there is an ebb and flow of tidiness/clutter! …Leftover dishes, empty bottles on a kitchen counter, papers, pencils, clothes on the floor or over a chair, shoes scattered around, etc.

We may not realize the thoughts triggered simply by seeing a messy sink.

When someone helps around the house and everything turns back to house beautiful, you breathe with quiet satisfaction! If you demanded that someone clean up their mess, their face tells you they don’t share your private standard, and don’t understand your sudden anger.

Don’t be surprised if you feel agitation when you don’t meet your standards. Avoid escalating this emotion which is trying to help you! It says: Something is off. So, SBYS (Stop before you speak)

Most times I can keep my surroundings reasonably tidy and clean, even with lots of cooking, art projects, on-going experimental projects. Keeping myself mentally balanced and reasonable, makes life enjoyable.

But once in a while, I find myself suddenly irritated by a room that was fine with me 10 minutes ago. Now I am irritated by the clutter.

Attention! Something’s off!

If I stop and think about this (become conscious of what is going on), I will receive and listen to unsettling feelings. Nervousness, agitation is sometimes awakened in my shadow memories, alerting me to uncertainty, dissatisfaction, self-disappointment.

Agitation is an emotional message.

I try to remember not to worry whether the irritation is about the people in the room, some memory, or the mess I see in the coffee table. I feel like yelling at the person in front of me! I remember in the knick of time to pause and take a deep breath!

Better retreat to internal self! Better stop for a moment!

I am wired to observe my ups and downs in life. Yet, when I feel off, I still need to make a conscious decision, every moment, to quiet myself down and choose the direction that feels better to me. Reword the phrases coming to me into softer responses.

Tidiness and Messiness are just examples of triggering these ATTENTION feelings. I translate these alert feelings as signs. I am not living in the way I have imagined I want to live.

I can either ignore the feelings by changing my goals. I can relax my standards and feel better. I can tidy up. I can take a nap and then meet my personal standards.

What I am learning more and more is this: I am the one who sets the goals for myself, … or let others set my goals. Goals have infinite possibilities.

I can change them, improve them, take a break from them, … it is up to me. I may wish to make a big change, a small change, or even ignore the whole thing, and take a nap or go for a ride!

A messy room is seldom an emergency. Sit back, breathe, and find many ways to talk about your wish for a room and the people you live with, plus your heavy schedules. Find a more gentler way to think about clutter and tidy areas, and decide if your standards fit who your are or want to be.

SUMMARY – Facing Your Created Goal Standard!

  • LISTEN TO YOUR FEELINGS OF AGITATION
    • Something is off! You are not following your own goals OR
    • Your goals are not coming from you, they may be objectively set.
    • OR, somewhere in between
  • MAKE A PLAN OF ACTION
    • Tidy up to your happy satisfaction, OR
    • Change your standard to meet your current big picture goals
    • OR, somewhere in between.
  • BREATHE AND ENJOY YOUR ABILITY TO HEAR AND RESPOND TO YOUR FEELINGS!

Posted in Art, Blog, Commitment to Write, Communication, Poetry, Self-Improvement

Creative Writing Challenge! Motivation Stimulus

About Designs

Personalize Art & Text Creative Writing 80-pg Note Notebook

A Creative Writing Notebook. What stories to tell when your imaginary tiger becomes your pet. Seems like there is plenty of material for a fun, comic tale! Put you and the tiger into your wonderful, world of thoughts. Inspire your readers. Use the personalize template to replace the artwork with a photo of your imaginary pet, or for a gift to inspire your creative friend. Change the text with the same personalize template. 

AbuNana.com

If you are so inclined, share some of your works with us, and/or share on your site or blog. Creativity helps encourage joy, love, play.

Creative Writing @AbuNana.com
Creative Writing @AbuNana.com
Posted in Blog, books, Featured, Power of Attraction, Self-Improvement, Uncategorized

Get Through Tough Times With Less Blaming!

In 2011 and 2018, I published Indy books to explore how we can rise above melancholy, disappointment and sadness. I still use these books to inspire and raise me above unwanted situations in my pursuit of happiness — joy, peace and love.

I try to choose my next direction by observing the present-moment and how I am feeling. I use this method:

  • STOP/PAUSE/BREATHE
  • Observe my feelings — where am I on the spectrum of feelings
    • Spectrum: excellent — great — happy — peaceful —joyful —content — fair — a bit down — sad — angry — frustrated — fearful[ — hopeless
  • Imagine how I want to feel right now
  • Use sentences containing words to match this
  • I purposely let go and choose these new thoughts until I feel better

Simply put, if in the moment I feel something bad or off, instead of focusing on external situations and attempting to physically correct the situation, I temporarily move away from the person, thing or place I am in. I reach for feelings that feel better.

My feelings are telling me about how far or close I am from my true forever-loving, best self. My feelings are a navigation tool coming from my ever-loving self: Wake up! Alert! You’re going the wrong direction! You are off!

And, what is the message to self?

The negative feeling tells me I am viewing people, places and things, quite differently than my true self sees them. I am being told by my feelings, I am way off, out of sorts, in stark contrast to my true self who lives in a balanced state of acceptance of good times and bad. I am able to allow and turn toward happy, joyful, loving thoughts in the midst of the shadows, contrasts, undesirables.

This has been my life’s Art-Board. I love feeling aligned with the feelings of my desires.

I believe feelings play an authentic part in helping me navigate through my days.

The High Sea of Life @AbuNana.com
The High Sea of Life @AbuNana.com

I am on the high sea of life, with many challenges. When I listen to and adjust my feelings I live a royal, happy life. When I find something that knocks me out of the kingdom, I find ways to remind myself how I wish to feel, which activates thoughts and words, until I feel better. I leave the worry, guilt, concern, gloom behind …. Even when it seems to be logical to remain in this negative, worrisome state.

In these senior years, I move around many layers of feelings during the day.

What continues to change for me is the fact that I would rather be happy, even in the midst of a storm from within. I have the power to change my mind and choose to do what makes me happy, even before I have achieved an external solution to a challenge.

I am confident the negative feeling attached to a particular person, place or thing, comes from within me. And, herein, is the important lesson:

  • I can wallow in the sorrow until I realize it is not in others, but in me!
  • I can choose stay in the situation and observe my feelings as I suffer.
  • I can choose to work through the situation, yet change my attitude toward the situation as something to work through with the enjoyment of improving my choices at this precise moment. …relief comes when I have chosen to leave behind whatever led me to this moment.

I spend a lot of time alone. I also reach out to others. It is in my alone time, I can get through tough times with less blaming of others.

I hope this helps you along your journey.

Posted in Art, Expressionism, Power of Attraction, Self-Improvement

Zazzle.com Opens Up Individual Creativity!

Graphic Designers, Artists, Dreamers! Check this out!

With a little help from Zazzle and their software engineers, designers (now called creators) can manifest their individual cover photo for each designed product. This is amazingly attractive to me.

The big card you see has always made me smile! You might be tempted to send me flowers and that would be nice. But I just think I would be enjoying the sentiments of this card well after the flowers have perished.

Recently at Zazzle, Creators (designers) can imagine how this card and model would become more marketable in a gnome garden, or at the seaside, or in a hospital room. There’s no end of ideas! It just tickles my fancy. And I’m having more fun than any retiree job allows. But fun it is …. Selling on-line is work, yes, but it is also so much fun and healthily creative.

A Card With A Punch!

There is no limit to creativity. It is what raises our spirit and finds the best of ourselves. Thank you, Zazzle, for making life fun!