Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Now stop browsing the information super highway and enjoy your friends and family. Don’t forget there’s a Football game on today as well. Watch the parade, eat some food, watch the game and have fun!
Making it Through the Holidays
The temperature is slowing dropping; some days there are even snowflakes falling down from the big gray clouds that loom overhead. The sun decides to go to bed earlier and earlier each night. It’s dark when you get up for work in the morning and it’s almost dark when you leave in the afternoon. One of the hardest things during this time of year is staying positive and upbeat. Seasonal depression is no joke. Too many people end their year in a bad mood because of the lack of sunlight and cabin fever caused by the chilling winds. Welcome to the holiday season!
Yes, the holiday season is upon us. The cheerful Christmas music is playing 24/7 on the radio to help the pangs of seasonal depression. Decorations and pretty lights help to illuminate the night sky that now starts at 4:30 in the afternoon. Yes, the holiday season may be “too commercial” but you have to admit, it is helping you get through one of the roughest times of the year so why not just jump right in and enjoy it?
First off you have Thanksgiving. This holiday is all about being with friends and family and eating until you explode. To help get through this feast of feasts without gaining 25 pounds, you’ll need a game-plan.
- First: You don’t need to be eating all day. Just because you ate at one party doesn’t mean you need to have an entire meal again at a second or third party.
- Second: Portion Control!!! Try using a smaller plate when you eat thanksgiving dinner. Take a little bit (1-2 bites) of everything that is available and when you are done with that, you can go back and have a little more of what you really enjoyed. The idea here is to eat slower than you normally would so that you end up finishing your plate around the same time as everyone else who is gorging themselves.
- Third: Plan ahead. If you know that you will be attending multiple parties, eat less at each. You don’t need to deprive yourself from having a great time and this way you won’t be faced with questions about why you aren’t eating. Eat less, enjoy more.
After Thanksgiving you have the biggest holiday party stretch of the year. If you are like most Americans you will have a ton of holiday parties throughout the entire month on December. This is going to be the most stressful, yet enjoyable time of the year. When it comes to overeating you just follow the same suggestions as for Thanksgiving, but instead of having to portion yourself for multiple parties on one day you need to worry about multiple parties during the week. The concept stays the same. Try to eat less crap and choose healthier options at these parties. Don’t go diving into pies every night when you have the option to munch on a veggie tray. It’s the little things that make a difference when watching your weight during the holiday season.
When it comes to the high stress levels this time of year, remember, you don’t need to be a super hero. If you find that you cannot be at every party, politely decline. If you are hosting a party and you find yourself struggling to get it all put together, don’t be afraid to ask your friends for some help. That’s what they’re there for aren’t they? This is supposed to be a happy time, not a stressful one. So remember: Ask for help and don’t stress making it to everything, you still need your “Me Time”
If you find that amongst all of the shopping, holiday card sending, decorating, partying, eating, drinking, wrapping presents, working, etc, etc, etc, you are losing your mind. Force yourself to take some time for yourself. You can refer to the post about this Here. Just do what you can to keep yourself in check this holiday season. Go ahead: eat, drink, be merry! Just don’t go overboard.
Who else is excited for Christmas?
Long days and pleasant nights,
Shoeless Joe
Am I Dreaming? It doesn’t matter…
How nice is it to have a great dream? Not a “I Have A Dream!” dream but the unconscious, sleeping dream. I love dreaming. I love having the freedom to do whatever I want to whenever I want to. In a dream you can talk to anyone you want to. In a dream, you are the one in control. If you can do the elusive Lucid Dreaming, you have even more control. A lucid dream is basically a dream that you don’t wake up from when you know that you are dreaming. If you can figure out that you are in a dream you now have complete power over that it.
Here is an example of a lucid dream. It starts off with you working in a busy downtown office building. You don’t really like your job and want to be away from the office as much as possible. It’s almost your lunch time and your boss comes bumbling in. “I’m going to need you to work late today.” You look at the clock and you can’t seem to read it.* Needed to step away before you go off the handle and quit, you take your lunch break. Since your office is just a short walk to this really nice cafe you decide to go there and grab a cup of coffee. You walk past shop windows and then you see something that catches your eye. All of a sudden….WamBO!! ‘I am in a dream…I can do whatever I want!’ (And you really can! In a dream you can fulfill all of your wildest fantasies and even the most modest desires.) At this point you start tinkering with your dream. The stop lights all change in your favor, people aren’t bothering you and then…there’s that person you’ve been wanting to talk to for weeks but haven’t had the guts to do it until now (in the safety of your dream). You and your crush stop to chat about this and that, and then you ask if they want to go grab a cup of coffee. Of course they say yes, (it’s your dream) and when you finally make it to that coffee shop and sit down you wake up, you remember that it was a dream and nothing more. Your crush didn’t really want to go have coffee with you…or do they?
Why can’t we live our lives like we are in a dream? Why do we need to be so scared of rejection? How do you know that the person you like doesn’t like you back? Have you asked them? I challenge you to start living your life as if you are dreaming. Take chances you normally wouldn’t. DON’T BE STUPID! You can’t fly so don’t go jumping off of roofs, you are not Aquaman so don’t go trying to hold your breath for 20 mins under water. Keep things safe. Don’t go out and harm yourself or others. If your dream is to kill someone then you are at the wrong website. I don’t condone harmful actions or support those who do harm others. Do only good and only good will come to you. So, treat your life as if you are dreaming. If you see someone you would like to talk to, go do it! Don’t be afraid of consequences. A “NO” will hurt, I know it will, but how much more would it hurt if you didn’t make that first move and you find out years down the road that it would have been a “yes”???
*When in a dream, clocks and mirrors will have blurry images. This is a trick to recognizing that you are in a dream.
Long days and pleasant nights
Shoeless Joe
Image from: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/meyer769/myblog/writing-2/2011/10/
Posting Glitch
Good Morning! Well, isn’t this embarrassing? All the posts I had scheduled have dissappeared. I’m pretty sure this is a human error and not an error by WordPress. I haven’t been able to grasp the whole “scheduling posts” thing. All the posts are backed up on my personal computer (I’m currently on my work computer on a break) so I’ll get them back up and re-scheduled. The post that should have been up yesterday will be up this afternoon and the post for Wednesday will be up on time. Thank you for bearing through this with me!
Long days and pleasant nights,
Shoeless Joe
Weighing Your Options
When you are faced with a new opportunity you may need to weigh your options. The classic list of pros and cons comes to mind here. Let’s say you are in a job that doesn’t treat you the best, but pays fairly well. Now, you are offered a new job that will pay less but be much less stress. What do you do?
You will need to think about how much your happiness is worth. If you will be happier in a different job, should you take it even though you’ll be making less money? Do you need to be making as much as you do now to be happy? There isn’t a cut and dry way to make these decisions. The one question you really need to ask yourself is, “Does this path lead me closer to my personal legend?” If it does…then the answer may already have been made for you.
This is a short post, but time is short these days. I would expect the longer posts to return within the next week or two. Don’t forget to live each day to its fullest and enjoy what you do!
Long days and pleasant nights,
Shoeless Joe
Keeping Your Head On Straight
Sometimes life gets a little hectic. You end up burning the candle at both ends and burning out. This last week has been like that. I have had so many obligations that needed to be fulfilled that I didn’t think it could be done. But, here it is. It’s Saturday and I’m still alive. Everything that needed to be done has been done.
My band participated in an Anti-Bullying Awareness show on Thursday. It was a very touching evening. Everyone who participated did an amazing job and I hope that this is the start of something great.
Last night my band played an acoustic show in 30 degree weather for Daemen College’s Homecoming Weekend. It was so cold that my fingers were getting numb and I couldn’t feel the strings.
Add on to all of this the full and part-time jobs and it was a crazy busy week. I got through it. It wasn’t easy, but I got through it. I have to admit that by Tuesday I felt like quitting my job and running away from life. This isn’t the right mind set to have when you are trying to live life. Even though I would love to just go of into the woods and live off the land, I know that this isn’t the right thing for me to do at this point and time. What got me through this week was my close friends and “me time”.
Even though you have a lot on your plate you cannot forget the most important person in your life. YOU. Everyone needs to make time to have for yourself. If you make a list of what you do all day, or even keep a journal of what you do throughout a day, I can almost guarantee that you will not have enough “free time” in your schedule. Everyone has obligations to things like: school, work, friends, hobbies, etc. Now things that you may try to consider “me time” might actually not be. Taking your morning shower is an example of this. To know if this is “me time’ ask yourself, ‘When I take a shower in the morning am I thinking about what I have to do today?’ If you are, then that’s not “me time” that’s “planning time” A shower should be not only cleansing your body, but your mind and spirit as well. As the water hits you, imagine your stress and negative energy washing down from your head to your toes and then down the drain. If you spend your shower time planning and worrying about the day ahead you are just getting more flustered and frustrated than if you take that time to relax and refresh your system. Starting your day out on a positive note will echo throughout your day.
That was just one example of how to take time for yourself to make your life a little less stressful. Another thing you can do (especially if you are a stickler for schedules) is to actually schedule “me time”. Take your daily planner, your iPhone, your iPad, your Blackberry, your Droid, whatever you use to keep track of your day and schedule yourself some time for you. All you need is a half hour a day where you can do nothing and just be you. This refresh time is crucial to having a happy life and allowing your personal legend to lead you.
I understand that there are things in your life that take up a lot of your day. Kids can be the worst time draining thing in your life. But like I said earlier, you can use your morning shower as your time to relax. If you take a shower in the afternoon, do it there. Just make sure that when you take time for yourself it’s doing something that you love; something for you.
If you have any questions about this post; any comments or responses, leave one for me and I’ll try to address it.
Long days and pleasant nights,
Shoeless Joe Kenyon
Stuck in a Rut? Break the Cycle.
It’s like being stuck in a sailboat without a breeze; like wandering through a maze that has no exit. Living your life in a repetitive cycle is not enjoyable. I myself feel like I am “stuck” in my current position in life. I have had the same job for over 3 years now and not much has changed in my life during that time. Instead of just sitting around and waiting for something to happen I am being active in my own life. I am writing for Barefoot Buffalo, I have gotten my old band back together and we are playing shows again. I am doing things that make me happy and trying to find my own personal legend. I think it may be either writing a book, or it may be playing in the band. Only time will tell.
For those who do not know yet, I am taking Barefoot Buffalo and turning it into a book for the National Novel Writing Month competition. I will hopefully get the book done by December!
My plan for my hectic life right now is to take a step back and evaluate everything that’s going on. When one thing starts taking off, it may be time to put the others on the backburner. This brings me to my point this week. When you feel like the world is falling apart around you and you can do nothing to change it, take a step back and think. Your bills are piling up, your job keeps getting crappier, and you find yourself over-stressed and losing control. All these things are temporary. These problems have solutions. I know that they don’t feel like they can be fixed, but they can.
I know from experience. I was so far in debt that I was contemplating bankruptcy. I got through it. I’m not out of the hole yet, but I’m a lot farther along than I was 2 years ago. With a little patience and hard work I have made it easier to breath. Right now my job treats me like garbage and my stress levels are through the roof. I’m trying to ride out the current wave of B.S. that’s coming my way. I know that what is being done to me at work is the result of a major change taking place. This I can’t do anything about, but as for the stress? That has always been there, and I finally realized that I need to make a change. I’m working toward that change right now.
It’s been a stressful week so far and I’m started to feel a little overwhelmed. It looks like my personal legend is trying to tell me something. I need to take breath and listen to it. That is how you get through these stressful times; taking that breath and finding your options, figuring your way out of the situation.
You need to step out of your comfort zone once in a while to get comfortable in situations.
You need to step away from the cycle to break it.
Be adventurous to break up monotony.
Be who you want to be, not what others tell you to be.
Barefoot Buffalo 