When I happen upon a shared goal or reflection read, I find I respond in a could different ways. The first and best is, “Yes! Thank you! You get it.” This usually comes when I am feeling I am up to the challenge, have already made strides towards achieving the goal, or am just so encouraged by finding a like mind, that I’m beside myself. As I wrote, the best reaction. Not so good is when I’m struggling with accomplishing something big or small and realize ‘champagne toast,’ (could be anyone) is leaps and bounds ahead, sharing about how yes it was a struggle but he/she has a healthier diet/schedule/etc. now and you can too. I want to love the improvements anyone makes on their life to be healthier in any of the ways one can be healthy, but it sucks to feel like I’m always a little late to the game in being the one to make improvements. I’ve been in this stuck place before, I don’t remain there constantly but it’s an underlying tension I live with. Lived with. Currently, partially live with?

Oh, right the title of the post. Let’s bring it back to ‘best reactions.’ So there are very few blogs I read by folks I don’t know but I happened upon an entry by ‘Just a Titch,’ off of a link from my friend’s blog and I loved two of the points she made, particularly because I’m working at them myself. I feel encouraged by reading goals that I haven’t articulated in quite this way before. These points were under the heading, “So Why Don’t You?”

“Turn off the TV, music, phone, Kindle, etc. for five minutes? Light a candle and enjoy the quiet? Write in a journal instead of watching or listening to something? Sit with your own thoughts and take deep breaths?”

Yes, to quiet, yes to journal-ing yes to sitting with my own thoughts. There is not enough of this in my life, nor has there been in forever.

“Start a nightly routine? Settle in with a book, some tea and a candle? Take a bath or shower, followed with yummy lotion? Snuggle with your pet or special person? Ban anything with a screen for the last 30 minutes of the night?”

Hm. Candles in both of these entries. Guess I should get on that. I have some, they just don’t get lit. Why? Because, since college I haven’t spent much of my waking time in my bedroom, but it’s not just the time, it’s that it requires a level of unwinding that hasn’t been on my radar for awhile. I have fun, I have people over for games or a chat, I go out. I have a rich social life (and I’m talking real friendships here), but I don’t let myself stop until the end of the day. If there’s room in my schedule, then it’s up for grabs. Was up for grabs. I’m starting to learn.

I’ve been reading more these last c0uple months (I read a heck of a lot this summer, but that was required reading), I wrote a goodly batch of Christmas cards (sure there wasn’t a picture or a tri-fold yearly update, but I wrote a personal message in each), and I’m giving more attention to my cat (though I still have a ways to go there in her estimation). I am moving forward in ways I haven’t in a long time by slowing down and even stopping.