Practicing What I Preach

December 22, 2010

No matter what the weather is like where you are, may you have a wonderful holiday this week and into the new year.

My daughter will be arriving from the airport within an hour, but I think I have just enough time to finish this post. I am, however, as the title of this states, taking my own advice about not making myself do more than I have time to do.

Yesterday I finished a video as a greeting to my family and friends and decided I would use that video as a greeting to readers of my blog as well. After all, even though I may not personally know you, I feel friendly toward the people for whom I write, so I’ll consider you friends.

Earlier this week, I thought that I might be able to create a special video just for the blog, but now time has run out. And I adhere to the admonishment that grandmothers should not spend their time in the office when grandchildren come to visit, especially when the visits are few.

Be sure to have your sound turned on so you can hear the rain.

Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Kwanzaa. Generally Cheerful Winter Celebrations.

Discriminating Between Need and Desire

December 13, 2010

No matter what time of year, you can better balance your budget (and your time) if you are clear that what you are buying (or doing) is something you really need to buy (or do), rather than something you can easily live without. That is especially true at holiday time.

Stress-free Suggestion Number Four

If you haven’t read the introduction to this series of suggestions for a guilt-free, stress-free holiday, read Talking Back to the Voice of Unhealthy Guilt.

Then write the following on a piece of paper and put it where you can see it throughout the day:

My needs are met to the best of my ability because I discriminate between my needs and desires and the needs and desires of others.

Ask Yourself: If you put this affirmation into practice, how would that affect your relationships?

See explanation on the left

This guy with the time of 8:49 pm on his tongue comes from the website Human Clock and was selected for the time that the post was put online. Actually, it slightly off because I had to put the screen shot into Fireworks (my photo program) and then upload to the site and then type this. But the time comes close enough.

Decided it would give me a nice way to have a graphic without spending a lot of time designing my own. (Remember, I am determined to not have any more stress this holiday than I have to.) If you’ve never been to that site, you may want to check it out. There are some outrageous and clever ways to display the time.