Auntie Angie's List

May was the last time I journaled here and it is September!  Because this month is about mindfulness and trying to do one thing at a time, I am not going to go back and catch you up on the past months right away, I'm going to write about this month so far.  THIS has been the hardest month, trying to be present and only do one thing at a time has been very difficult.  That is not how my mind is wired.  When I'm driving, I'm not thinking about driving, I'm thinking about my next patient or what I am planning for when I get home.  When I am doing my charting, I am updating things on my computer in the background, adding my old photos to Google photos, oh, a text, got to check that text, oh the laundry went off, gotta get that real quick!  I've always been a multi tasker and I think I always will.  Doing one thing at a time is boring and slow to me.  I am still going to try for the next part of the month, but my favorite part is that I came up with a quote that applies to this month from back in college tennis with Maureen, I would say Right HERE, and she would say RIGHT NOW!!! And then we would attack and win the point!  So, Dustin and I have been using that in tennis and I have been using it to try to focus on the here and now!  Add in the fact that we got actual written orders to Hawaii this month; it would just be laughable if I could stay away from planning for that future, for looking up jobs, houses (military, rentals, or buying!??!!), applying for my Hawaii PT license, starting to think about renting our place out, shipping our cars, when the movers will come, what travel we can fit in before hand, etc.  I have been still able to slow down and take it all in over a cup of coffee and relax and use the CALM app on my phone.  I have been able to focus unbelievably well in tennis, and the fact that we are playing more regularly helps to take the focus off of stresses and future planning and just focus on one point at a time!  Dustin and I are both LOVING tennis and we are going on a tennis weekend trip to Palm Springs in 2 weeks too!

So back to June being Nature month.....that was pretty easy...some of the highlights were conserving water by using a bucket as the water warms up and used it for plants, conserving energy by unplugging most everything not in use and trying not to use energy between 4 and 9 pm when its peak usage, walked a LOT on the beach and at the estuaries, appreciated the birds flying and the fish jumping even more than I already did, watched some nature shows like Blue Planet etc.

July was learning and growing and I did a lot of Duolingo, Lumosity, Sudoku, tried to be more informed with current events but got frustrated at that.  I did not do very well at looking things up because I would forget.  I did practice Spanish in the car with Pimsler audio and listened to some podcasts, but I could have been better.

August was finance month and Dustin and I both did very well with that month in saving, cutting down our spending, staying organized with spreadsheets on our houses, investments, etc  I planned free events like beach, parks, tennis, etc.  I also pretended like we actually had NO money and that I couldn't buy anything until Sept 1st....eat what's in the freezer, no ordering on Amazon, etc.  We completely failed one night at the Surface Warrior Navy Ball though (even though I did find a $16 dress at Ross) and paid WAY too much for our bar tab at the end of the night at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.  Whoops, but ONE bad day doesn't ruin in the for the rest of the month's successes.

Ok, so I reflected on the past in the month that I'm supposed to be focusing on the future, oh well.  Now back to September's focus of meditation walks to the bay which I have been doing and enjoying, although not frequent enough.  Some other quotes or goals I wrote down were to be present in each action.  To keep the mind quiet, "out of nowhere, the mind comes forth", Let life into your soul, connect with others even if it is just a smile, put your phone down, do yoga, have faith in what will be!!! I also set out ot do a 1 sentence journal each day and that lasted 11 days and I actually completely forgot about it until right now.  Well, gotta go, laundry just dinged.....ha!  Ok ok, I'll try 6 more days to do just one thing at a time......hmmmmmm.