Just Keep Dancing! or, What to Do When the Universe Creates Space in Your Apple Basket

My favorite book, Feng Shui Your Mind: Four Easy Steps to Rapidly Transform Your Life!, has an exercise on page 92 called "Five Apples" that the authors urge us to use when we feel that something has been taken away from us.  Imagine you have 5 apples in a basket.  One of them is taken from the basket and you now have 4 apples in your basket.

If you focus on the apple that was taken from you, it is easy to feel as if you lost something.  Thoughts about your lost apple could go like this: That was the best apple (job, relationship, adventure, financial boon, whatever you feel you "lost") I ever had and no other apple will ever be as good.  The apples left in my basket pale in comparison with my favorite.  I must be a real loser to have let the perfect apple be snatched from me.  The loss of that apple will color the rest of my days gray and I will never accept another apple in its place.  I won't even allow myself to be happy since that one is gone from me!

These are fear-based thoughts.

But what did you receive when the apple vanished?  Look at the basket.  It has 4 apples and - space.  That space can hold anything.  That space is ripe with infinite possibility limited only by your imagination.  Space has been created where something new can flow into your life!  You get to choose what flows into that space by choosing the thoughts you think.

If you focus on the space created in your life, it is easy to see that you have gained something.  Thoughts about your new space could go like this:  Perhaps I shall try other apples and find them tastier.  Maybe I was so focused on that apple that I failed to see my true calling: Now it has room to materialize in my life!  I am so grateful for the apples I still have!  There is a blessing in this transition from 5 apples to 4, even if I cannot name it yet.  I will not waste time looking back for the lost apple.  Instead I will envision wondrous possibilities flowing into my basket and remember that all dreams are possible!

These are faith-based thoughts.

Energy follows thought.  If you focus on loss, more loss is what flows to you.  If you focus on possibility and opportunities to create, then your life becomes full of possibility and opportunities to create!

Give it a Rest!

I feel GOOD!  I just took 4 days off work and it was sheer bliss.

Self-employed people need this reminder: Take a day off!

I know it's difficult.  We do not get paid for days off  like our employed counter parts.  Also unlike folks with W2s, we usually work part of our "days off" making it more important for us to take a break!  If you are a business owner, you know what I mean.  Days off often become catch up days for bookkeeping, cleaning, inventory, re-organizing, phone calls and all the other loose ends that don't quite get done on days I see clients.

Then, of course, there is the fact that business ebbs and flows.  Right in the weeks before my days off, I got super busy!  I have enough people on my waiting list to fill a couple of days with paid appointments.  It was tempting to think of the money I could earn and go ahead and book those days.  Luckily I recognized my cluttered mind trying to tell me that I am not worth the time off and I ignored the impulse to relinquish my vacation days.

The paycheck from an extra twenty clients could not purchase what that down-time bought me!  I spent 2 days catching up on stuff for both my business and personal life.  I finished my 1st quarter books, cleaned my fish tanks, filled my pantry, ran errands, paid bills, had an acupuncture treatment and a chiropractic adjustment.  I have two days off each week and that's basically what they look like with trips to the dog park thrown in for good measure.

Then I did nothing for two days.  We had planned to go to the beach or possibly see a movie, but what I did ultimately was nothing.  I stayed in bed late.  I walked in the sunshine.  I played with my dog, started a good book, played a video game and
re-watched season one of Game of Thrones.  Nothing thrilling or earth-shattering, but completely therapeutic and valuable beyond measure.

I returned to work on Monday refreshed and revitalized and eager to serve my clients.  I was physically rested and mentally recharged in a way I have not been since I took days off at Christmas.

So take a day off!  You deserve it and so do the people you love.

Whether you are self-employed or not, don't think of days off in terms of "lost" pay.  Think of days off in terms of benefits gained!  If you focus only on the financial, then something in your life or your business will be out of balance.

Reduce your work load by one day a month.  See for yourself how increasing your fun and relaxation can simultaneously increase your productivity, revenues and the joy-factor of your life.

Life is good and just gets better.

~ Cyndi 

Practicing Happiness Daily

You deserve to feel amazing and healthy and relaxed and happy and vibrant every day of your life.

One Fish. Two Fish.

Red Fish.  Blue Fish.

Blue Fish.  Red Fish.

Blue Fish/Yellow Fish.  That makes three fish.

Red Fish.  Four Fish.  How many more fish?

Just this White Fish.  Now we have five fish!

I love betta fish!  If you've never owned bettas, Google images for them.  

They come in gorgeous shapes and colors and each of mine has a distinct personality.

First we got Tokyo.  Why Tokyo?
The cat's name is Godzilla.

Godzilla vs. Tokyo.  It's hysterical.

Tokyo is quite feisty and is used to both cats drinking the water from his bowl.

Merlin was all white iridescent when we brought him home last year.

Now he's becoming more colorful!

Moonshine came home same time as Merlin.  His tank is an eighteen-inch cylinder.

The third picture in this blog and the one here above were taken last year.  

In the picture below, see how Moonshine's fins have become more lacy over time.

Moonshine has been known to take long naps curled up in that shell pictured beneath him.

Then two more fish came home along with a larger tank.  Godzilla approved.

For about a year, Moscow had a pink tank with a big conch shell.

We recently remodeled.

And added a castle.
Now he wants us to call him King Moscow.

He likes to hang out in the window of his tower and look down on the peasant snails.

I think Honolulu is the prettiest.  We call him Lulu for short.

Lulu was feistier when we brought him home.
When he gets agitated and puffs up, he looks like a full circle.  

Now he is very zen.  Honolulu is a half-moon double-tailed betta.

Merlin and Moonshine are delta-tailed bettas.

     

Moscow (above) and Tokyo (below) have distinctive shapes that identify them as crown-tailed bettas.

I think Tokyo has a small crush on this fairy.

While blogging the fish I have decided that a golden yellow fish is required
to round out my household.  Stay posted to this blog for updates!

I hope you enjoy the pretty fish!

~ Cyndi 

Practicing Happiness Daily

You deserve to feel amazing and healthy and relaxed and happy and vibrant every day of your life.

The Clown Prince

This is the blog post of Captain Boscoe P. Jenkins.

We were not sure what the P stood for when we named him, we just knew
he was special enough to warrant a middle initial.  It's definitely Pookie.

These first two pics were listed with the ad I found
for a "chocolate dapple" mini-dachshund.

I had never seen one like him!

I wasn't quite sure I wanted a dog with blue eyes.

But then on April 7, 2011, we met Boscoe!

Isn't he just the cutest?  He was six-weeks old.

It was love at first snuggle!

But he was too tiny to leave his mommy, so we adopted him,

but left him for another two weeks.  I looked at these pictures twenty times a day!

April 21, 2011 ~ Boscoe the Adorable Wonder Dog arrived in our home.

At first he napped a lot.

Like a little Easter bunny!

 Godzilla, the fearsome hunter, was smitten instantly.

She began training the young grasshopper in the ancient art of Cat-Fu.

So the patchwork puppy's best friend is the calico cat.

Somewhere close to four-months-old, one of his blue eyes turned brown!

Completing his transformation into the world's most adorable dog!

He's so adorable they let him eat in restaurants!

Point Isabel is a place Boscoe and Jeremy and I all enjoy.

You can see why in my photos below:

Boscoe's name is known by many at Isabel because he is so friendly and distinctive.

Once Boscoe got over the "sleepy puppy" phase, 

he became VERY difficult to capture on film.  

My thanks to Mark Sandstorm at www.marksandstorm.com

for capturing the cuteness in the three photos above

at Point Isabel with a very fast shutter speed!

We still have our sleepy moments.

Mostly though, we have silly, highly-entertaining moments.

He is a clown,

a prince,

our little seal pup, eternal watcher of the cats.

Thanks for a year full of joy and laughter, Boscoe!

~ Cyndi 

Practicing Happiness Daily

You deserve to feel amazing and healthy and relaxed and happy and vibrant every day of your life.