Top priorities

Got a visit from family this weekend that I don't get to see very often. Here's who will always be most important and always make me smile! :D

Critics (not all in my head)

Life's been quite the roller coaster lately. Short trips up followed by steep drops. How are the drops always so much longer than the trip up? I really hate roller coasters. I prefer the occasional adrenaline rush without scary heights and my stomach at my toes. On the positive side, I recently got promoted and vacation starts on Tuesday. Well, technically Monday but I have jury duty that day. I will be hoping to not get chosen for a jury. I'm making adjustments to my website that should make it unique and all mine. And just last week I helped a friend prep a novel for her indie publishing company, Three Ravens Books. Next month, classes start again. I'm looking forward to moving ever closer to a completed degree. The drops are personal issues not meant for public airing, but they make me ponder what I'm willing to accept as my fault and what I need to let go of as detrimental to my sanity.



To further the ponderings, I'm trying my hand at a couple of self-help books, to search within for solutions instead of looking for ways to escape my problems. One is "The Fresh Start Promise" by Edwige Gilbert. The other is the classic "Taming Your Gremlins" by Rick Carson. They both seem to be about changing thought processes. Gilbert uses meditations and visualizations to help the reader focus on calm, encouraging thoughts to feel anything is possible. From what I can tell so far with Carson's book (just checked out today) is the importance is awareness, recognizing and embracing your own gifts. Hopefully, between the two of them, I can quiet my inner critics and learn to know the difference between constructive criticism and emotional manipulation. As long as I am willing to let the negatives drag me down, I will never see myself any other way.