September: Be patient.

September

Be patient.

- Work to see the bigger picture and remember what matters in the end.

- Envision why I’m being impatient; from there, resolve to let go or take action… either way, chill out.

- Look for patterns and try to jot them down or remember for later.
- Listen to calming music.

- Meditate longer (10-15 minutes).

- Keep things positive and in perspective.

- Breathe and count.

- Act patient, feel patient (the ol’ trick-your-brain trick).

Patience is something we could all use a little more of. As the wikiHow on patience pointed out, we’re so used to the technology of our daily routine being an instantaneous thing that when we have to rely on others to take care of something or for a process to be handled a certain way that doesn’t produce immediate results, most of us freak out. I know personally, when I’m impatient in the office, my agitation is palpable. Same for a certain officer I work with. When he wants to leave, you can feel it and it puts everyone on edge. It’s this awful cloud that hangs over all of us and makes us nervous. We don’t want to upset him but at the same time, there’s nothing we can do about it. I don’t want to be like that or have that effect on people. I don’t want people to try describing me to someone who’s never met me and say something like, “Well, she’s kind of difficult to work with. She gets impatient and it’s really awkward in the office. She puts her needs above others.”

And think about relationships. When I was with my ex and I would get impatient, it just put her on edge. She was a naturally patient person and usually saw things from multiple sides, so she was able to combat my bouts of impatience… but imagine if we were both patient people. An agitating situation would have instead been something we could have handled easily and calmly, together as a team. Instead, she usually had to work to calm me down, which would in turn just work her up. Not a great combo. In the end, I always felt like the jerk.

Patience is most definitely something I need help with. So to start my exploration, I of course ‘googled’ it. At first, I laughed at the fact that there’s a wikiHow for being patient, but after reading it, I thought there were some helpful tips. In fact, my list above mostly came from that source, because of how obvious and helpful the points were.

Working to see the bigger picture is at the top of the list because in the end, that’s what it all boils down to. I can spin myself up or get grouchy with everyone around me or make everyone uncomfortable so that I get my way… or I can slow down, assess what’s important about the situation at hand, and handle it. (“Handle your shit, Fabius, please.")

I’ll take option B.

A big part of being happy, to me, means being surrounded by positivity. If I’m doing my part to lighten the mood in my environment by remaining calm, open, and patient during times of inevitable stress, then I 100% believe in the ability to attract positive results.

Ultimately, we’re all humans, and we deserve a little slack from other humans. To me, that’s what patience really is- just giving some slack.

“Stop holding yourself and the world around you to unattainable standards. Sure, we'd all be more patient if babies didn't cry, dishes didn't break, computers didn't crash, and people didn't make mistakes - but that's never going to happen. Expecting the world to run smoothly is like beating your head against the wall. Give yourself a break!”

Thanks, wikiHow…

-Jamie

Building Steam with a Grain of Salt.

Phew. What a wild month.

Let's just say... I let things happen this month. I gave in so fully to the 'lighten up' mentality that I lost a lot of sleep to hanging out, partying, and generally being... mildly irresponsible.

Maybe that's not what being light was about originally, but I did feel satisfied in all aspects of my life. And when I'm focused more on throwing caution to the wind and rolling with things as they come up, I'm less harsh to those around me. I was more forgiving of people and their life choices while I was 'getting weird' right alongside them.

There were some downs to this month though, yes. Some things got a little dramatic. When I hear the phrase 'perception is reality,' I tend to role my eyes. Not so much anymore. A few things were brought up to my leadership at work that were totally bogus, but because the perception was there, I ended up getting in trouble. The heat was on me for something I didn't do, which really bugged me. And because of it all, I feel like I lost a group of friends. This group helped take my mind off all the things I had been dealing with. I forgot my ex existed for basically an entire month. I feel they took me all the way through the breakup, essentially. I was fine before, but I'm like... the back-on-the-horse kind of fine now.



Anywho. The drama has passed now. Interestingly enough, all the partying and lightening up and being carefree all kind of came to a head here at the end of the month. So it was a nice slow build from the start of August to a crescendo in the middle, climax of drama just a few days ago, followed by a dissipation and dying down of the wildness at the end of August. I don't think I could have set that up more perfectly to match this project, actually. Hah, nice.

Good job, Universe.

Now I'm all set up to get into the month of September. I'm at 60 straight days of meditation, doing pushups and sit-ups in the morning, picking weekly quotes and songs, maintaining check lists, and focusing on all things positive.

From the beginning, my baseline of happiness was pretty solid. It feels higher already.
-Jamie

Inevitable.

This week was dramatic.


I have nothing else to say.
-Jamie

Call me in the afternoon.

This week's note is coming in a little late. I'd say I was busy at work but uh... I wasn't. I was busy making memories and enjoying every ounce of free time I had. This past week was full of nights out to dinner, hours playing sports, working out, and staying up late drinking with some awesome people. While I can't say I slept much this week, I can say I was happy every day.


The goal of this project was to gain perspective in my life, expand my horizons, explore happiness, and try to overall be a better person. Slowly, this is all coming together. Piece by piece, I feel my life rearranging. With all the positivity I'm trying to create in my life, I believe positive things are being attracted in return- if that makes sense.

Have I mentioned the law of attraction on here? Maybe, maybe not. If I haven't, I'll just recommend that you look into it. There's no way that what's been happening for me recently could've happened any other way. Putting positive thoughts towards what I wanted made a very surreal thing happen. I didn't necessarily meditate over this one thing, it was just an idea I thought would be pretty cool. So I thought about it in a kind of past tense; like, this has already happened. And it did. Not just one thing though. Several things have happened recently because of a turn of event or something here and there, enabling me to obtain what I wanted originally. I won't go into detail, but I will sum it up by saying you should always put positive thoughts into what you want to happen. Don't focus on what you are trying to avoid.


This happiness project is working. If it's done at least one thing, it's helped me move past something I thought I'd never really get over. Alright, I'm off to continue this streak of awesome.
-Jamie

Radioactive

One wild week.

So last week, I thought, "Hey! I'm totally going to catch up on everything I'm falling behind on, I'll be great about my resolutions, and I'll keep to my checklists." That did not happen. I was busy having a blast.

Turns out, it's difficult to lighten up when you're constantly thinking about the things you have to do. So in order to fully explore this month's resolution, I realized I would just have to do what I can, when I can, and not focus on anything I have listed to do. Meditating at least once a day and doing my morning pushups and sit-ups have really been the only two constants for me this week. I still check things off lists and have my routines here and there, but I've slacked off on trying to manage everything.

Does this leave me feeling like life is a little more hectic? Yes. But do I spend more time being footloose and fancy-free? Absolutely.

We worked a ton this week, just like normal. But as soon as we were out of the office, I was off playing frisbee or volleyball, working out, cooking new foods, or partying hard with the group that's out here with us. I spent probably 70% of my awake time laughing or being happy. The other 30% doesn't mean I was unhappy or negative though.

Only one little thing snagged my week. Or big thing. Something happened that really made me think about my number one commandment: Be Jamie. I don't want to be the kind of Jamie that did what this Jamie did a few days ago. No, I'm not going to talk about it, but it definitely shook the foundations of a few morals I've held close for several years. Was I upset that it happened? Yes. Do I regret it? No.


Don't regret anything, man. There's no time for that.
I'm having a blast living life right now, and I don't expect that to change one bit any time soon.
-Jamie

Dark Blue.

Hello there! Checking in from the far east at the end of week one of month two. This month started in the middle of the week, so it was kind of awkward. I honestly didn't have time to set things up so I'd have my new quote or song of the week, unfortunately. My schedule also got kind of messed up as far as meditating every morning. But I intend on remedying that stuff this week.

We've been working so much, I barely have time to go buy groceries. They keep calling us into work for several hours even when we should have down time- which brings my big goal for this month into the spotlight. To 'lighten up' is a difficult thing for me. When people are annoying or pick on little things that I don't find important, I'm quick to brush them off. I'm quick to shut them down. But because of this month's theme, I'm fighting my worst trait every day. I consider this my worst trait because when it rears its ugly head, I cut people down and strike the match that will burn the bridge later. That's not good- for career, for friendships, for whatever you could name right now. I don't want to make it to my late 20s or 30s and realize that I treat people horribly when I don't agree with their approach or ideas.


In the office now, I have to be ever mindful of letting others speak freely without harshly retorting. When I start tensing, I just need to let all the muscles in my body relax as much as possible and be a listener. If it gets too bad, leaving the office to shake it off will be a big help, I'm sure. Not storming out though.



Today, I went with some people to a waterfall up north. The hike was short, but the waterfall was so beautiful. We hiked to the top of the waterfall after playing in its waters below for a while. As I sat on the top, instead of worrying about the time or starting to head back, I just sat on the edge and enjoyed the water rushing from the stream behind me down to the floor below. It was relaxing. No one was in a rush, everyone was enjoying the cool water on this scorching day. It was exactly the kind of thing I want to practice throughout the month, every day. People say they don't have time to lighten up or relax, they have to push through and work hard or whatever it is they complain about. Well, I'm going to change my frame of mind to, 'I don't have time to be serious.'

Especially when it doesn't matter or help the situation at all in the end.
Off to start another week of attempting a lightness I've yet to find in my life.
And I leave you with a joke:

Two cows standing next to each other in a field, Daisy says to

Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning."

"I don't believe you," said Dolly.

"It's true, no bull!"

Peace.

-Jamie