I adopted another dog

You may or may not have noticed that since my beloved dog Ziggy passed away last August, I’ve barely been writing on this blog. I’m not sure if the two correlate but their timing matches up.

Earlier this year, I wrote about how we really ought to be forming new year habits rather than new year resolutions. Well, one of my new year habits is to write more.

Back in November, I adopted another dog. His name is Capone. He resembles Ziggy in his stature and coloring, but his personality is quiet different.

Capone is fearless. He spent the first few months of his life transferring hands from adopters to shelter employees to foster families, before finally arriving to me. He loves all people. At the adoption events, he became used to many different sounds and smells, all sorts of other animals, and humans both young and old. He’s a joy to take out in public because he makes everyone he meets feel like the most important person in the world, smothering them with hugs and kisses.

He doesn’t require much exercise at all or even training. For one, he’s a low energy dog and much prefers snuggling to running. For two, he’s extremely sensitive to commands and thus picks up quickly whenever I’m teaching him new ones.

In short, Capone is everything I could have ever hoped for in a dog. He’s perfect for me. And when I look at him, I can’t help but be reminded of God’s grace and goodness. That no matter how devastating a loss, God turns all things for good. And often, for better than we could have even imagined.

New Year Resolutions

New year resolutions are a funny thing. They’re usually abstract goals with no real objectives attached to them and thus, they rarely stick.

I think we should call them new year habits instead. Because this is what we’re really after, right? To rid ourselves of old habits that no longer serve us and form new, better and healthier habits in their place.

We’re creatures of habit. Whether we want to go to the gym more, eat healthier, or spend more time with friends, if we want the change to be long lasting, it needs to become a habit.

Research says it only takes two weeks to form a habit. So if we do something every day for two weeks, it’ll likely become a routine part of our life.

This is my hope for you, for everyone, and for myself. That we form new habits. Habits that will serve to further our goals for the year ahead.

Happy New Year!

An Oldie but A Goodie

Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive, because your words become your behaviors.
Keep your behaviors positive, because your behaviors become your habits.
Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your values.
Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny.

~ Ghandi

4 Principles to Help You Restore Your Confidence

We all have days (often weeks, months, or years) where our confidence falters. I recently received an email with a link to a Huffington Post article entitled, “4 Habits of Superbly Confident People” by Agapi Stassinopoulos. I have included an excerpt from this article below. I hope you find it as helpful as I do!

1. Affirm that you are not alone. What that means, is that we often abandon ourselves, and that creates a feeling of tremendous insecurity. You are the one who has got to have your back and heart. There are three factors to knowing you are not alone: you reach within and you grab hold of your core self; you reach outward and you ask for help; and you reach to others and offer help.

2. Move into radical self-acceptance. Start appreciating every little thing about you, reinforce the positive, and refrain from focusing on lack. When you are feeling insecure, tell yourself, “I can’t afford the luxury of indulging in my own insecurities.” I often play the Bruno Mars song “Just the Way You Are,” which energizes me (and I wonder if Bruno wrote it for me).

3. Don’t wait to be perfect before you take action. You are always going to be a work in progress. Don’t wait for perfect circumstances. We put conditions on our happiness and well-being that distract us from being open to the opportunities that are in front of us.

4. Your presence is required. Call your heart energy present as you are living your daily life. Bring it present in your conversations and all your interactions. Do not disconnect from your heart. It is what brings fulfillment in your day.

Let’s get into that sweet spot of really accepting and cherishing our vulnerabilities, our humanness and ourselves! Let’s embrace the whole package, the things we are good at and the things we are not so good at, because that is how we find our confidence and how we make the ground we walk on not only steady, but sacred.