Thoughts for the week

There have been a few sayings, expressions, mottos if you will, that have been rolling around in my head lately. Here are some of them:

1. Simplify. I love living in the country and enjoying its slower pace (if I can ignore the 50 mph traffic on route 9!). However, there are so many things that distract me from what's right in front of me. "Putting down the phone" has been one of the best things I've ever done. As soon as I pick up it back up, I get sucked into a world of back and forth emails and drama on Facebook. I don't need that. I want to Simplify.

2. Not every action requires a reaction. This has been a tough one for me to figure out over my life. I'm an Aries, after all! When something came my way that I saw as threatening or unfair, I would respond quickly. This is not so wise. When I'm seeing red, it is absolutely the worst time to respond. I am getting better at stepping back and letting the anger and frustration subside before reacting. And then there are some things in this world that don't require reactions at all. I don't have to fight every battle. I have to realize which ones are important enough to make a stand about, and let the other things wash over me.

3. The way people act towards me says more about them than it does me. This has been another hard one to learn. Yes, sometimes, when a person is acting more distantly then usual, it is because I have done something to offend them. But more often than not, it's because they're going through personal turmoil. We've all been there: when there's something difficult going on in our lives, we know we're acting "weird" around our family and friends as we try to deal with it. Something we can do for the people we love is to give them the grace to "act weird" once in a while and not take it so personally on our end.

I'm still learning, every day, how to improve myself, my relationships, and I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to finding that inner peace and strength that will get me through anything.