Tag Archive | life

Look for the good {gratitude}❤

Apr2

One way to practice gratitude that is different than an ordinary gratitude list is to write a list of things that seem wrong, difficult, challenging, bad….then put a positive spin on them or make a conscious decision to see the good or create the good in them.
Here’s mine.

1.) My hemoglobin/iron level has been dropping consistently for the last six months for a reason unknown (Scary!) but I’m thankful it’s still at a safe level even though it’s considered to be at an anemic level now. It only drops slightly and only just now became anemic but it shouldn’t be dropping at all, consistently. This is an opportunity for me to get even healthier now, healthier diet, work on less stress factors, more consistent meditation, self care…This should bring it back up as long as there’s no underlying issue/illness making it drop. Hopefully it’s just that I need some dietary/lifestyle changes. I work/walk/exercise excessively, to extreme levels, and under-eat(My body weight is healthy though). I don’t have an eating disorder. And it’s not a conscious decision; it happened over time and is not something I wanted to happen. It just did. But now my body is demanding I rest and make healthier decisions in other ways. And that’s a good thing!

2.) Because of this I cannot donate blood and I’m a regular blood donor. Very disappointing. The Red Cross wont let me because it’s not safe for me to lose even a small amount of blood even though it’s safe for any recipient to get my blood, but at least I have the desire to help and try to. Sometimes that just has to be enough! And another good thing…they still let me have the free snacks!😂

3.) I have these rainshoes that cut my skin and are very uncomfortable. But so is walking around with soaked shoes & socks all day. So it’s either severe blisters or soaked, yucky shoes & socks when it rains. Both are sucky. But at least my body has the ability to heal the cuts. It’s a reminder to be thankful that it functions the way it should. I choose the soaked shoes n socks. Wet feet can dry very quickly while cuts take longer to heal and can potentially get infected. Also, I probably shouldnt be losing blood with my low hemoglobin thing going on. I tried different kinds of rainshoes and none work out.
4.) I have been struggling with very severe, absolutely debilitating health anxiety (which I never had before) for the last two months and this was before I found out about my hemoglobin issue so imagine my horror when I found this out!! That’s all I need is to hear this now! I have been convinced for two months that I’m about to die (In just a month I was convinced I had over ten different kinds of rare cancer and Google had me dead in less than a year – it may be in your best interest to stay off google if you are struggling with health anxiety! For example, I had some little thing I cant even remember now and put it in google just to check. What’s the first thing that comes up? Pancreatic cancer. Thoroughly freaked me out until Im in a near panic. I was never like this!!) and now this(low hemoglobin can be a result of cancer)! But my terrible anxiety inspired me to do something and I found a beautiful meditation that is so inspiring and full of love. So soothing, calming, peaceful, serene, healing. Stunning. Kuan Yin – Om Mani Padme Hum

It’s a short meditation just over six minutes long. We can put it on replay to meditate longer or just play it as soothing background music while doing other things.

These are a few things that are not good but either because of them I found something good or I was able to see or create the good in them. Try it! We can never go wrong with that! No matter how seemingly serious or trivial, list it and look for the positive aspect. This gets our mind into the habit of being thankful or deepens our gratitude if we’re already frequently grateful. It can be uplifting to list good things but may be helpful in another way to list “bad” things then the good in those bad things.

I hope you are having a beautiful day or night wherever in the world you are! Hugs to you if you are struggling with health anxiety or any health issues. Meditation really helps me, even just a few minutes of conscious breathing in the morning and/or at night is powerful.❤

Much love, light, & inner peace,

Kim

Small boat💙

Mar11

“Dear God, be good to me;

The sea is so wide,

And my boat is so small.”❤

I came across this beautiful prayer and it resonates with me in a deep way even though I am not someone who believes in a creator of the uni-verse or that the uni-verse has a consciousness.

It’s so true about the “sea,” which I view as symbolic of life or the world, being so wide or vast or large, and our “boat,” a symbol of our body or individual life, being so small. We are all susceptible to fear, illness, misfortune…and are all so small next to everything there is. So why not be good to one another? Underneath everything, we are all the same. Financially rich or poor, healthy or not, impressive job or none at all, no matter our skin color, physical appearance, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, intelligence level, education, political or religious views…we all can experience joy, pain, pleasure, happiness, fear, love, loss, illness, misfortune, success….we’re all so “small” in this great big life so let’s all be good to every living being we encounter! Let’s be compassionate, loving, helpful, encouraging, comforting…None of us are immune to pain/suffering and we all gravitate towards relief, joy, happiness, pleasure…No matter how much we have it together, we can all be shaken by something, be thrown into unknown territory, experience things we are fearful of and not accustomed to. It is so helpful to encounter someone who is loving and builds us up. How about being that someone for others? We’re all in our own small boat in a vast sea.

Much love & light,

Xoxo Kim❤

Sing.❤

Feb23

This is one of my Instagram posts I’m sharing here today!❤

“Some days there won’t be a song in your heart. Sing anyway.”❤
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#love #inspiration #wisdom #anyway #keepgoing #keepmoving #keepdreaming #beauty #mindfulness #statue #blackandwhite #sky #keepmovingforward #vibratehigher #lovevibrations #vibrationsoflove #sing #positivity #optimism #beautyallaround

Much love,

Kim

National Blood Donor Month❤

Jan13

This is an Instagram post I put on last night!

“Selfie” cam is broken so no good pics for now but January is National Blood Donor Month! The Red Cross encourages us to not only donate blood but share why we give. The reason I give blood is very simple; I have a whole body full of healthy B-negative blood and people need it to live so there’s no reason not to give it. What if my friend or family member needed my blood, I wouldn’t hesitate to give, right? So why hesitate to give to a stranger who is just as valuable! And if I needed a blood transfusion, I would be so thankful if blood were available for me! So why not give to others who need it now!
It’s a great way to give thanks, “give back,” or “pay it forward” for our own life & good health. Every 56 days we can donate to the Red Cross if we meet the requirements. The whole process takes around one hour, checking in, physical checkup, blood bag filling up, recovering with snacks. We can look at the bag of blood if we want but don’t have to. I saw mine once; it’s no big thing. I go right back to work after donating with no problems, never been lightheaded or nauseated. There is a severe shortage of blood for people in need. More people are eligible to donate blood than actually do. The Red Cross needs all the kinds of blood. O-positive is the most common & 0-neg is the universal giver so people with O have a tremendous gift of being able to save many, many lives as O is most in demand. One unit of blood can save up to three lives! Someone somewhere needs a blood transfusion every single day. We don’t have to wait for emergencies made popular in the news or wait for blood drives at work/school/special events. ❤
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#love #universallove #blooddonor #donatelife #giftoflife #giveblood #givelife #onelove❤️ #loveforall #lovesomeonetoday❤❤❤ #savealife #kindnessmatters #actofkindness #missingtype #redcross #americanredcross #universalcompassion #youresomeonestype #itsinyoutogive #givemorelife #life #give #bneg #beauty #gift #nationalblooddonormonth #joyfulgiving

Much love & light,

Xoxo Kim❤

Hey ’19!🎉

Jan5

(This is me yesterday!❤)

Hey Nineteen – Steely Dan
It’s hard times befallen soul survivors
She thinks I’m crazy but I’m just growing old
Hey nineteen
(no we got nothing in common) We can’t dance together
(no we can’t talk at all)
Please take me along when you slide on down

Happy New Year!

This is a fun song I always loved to listen to! The people singing are like my age (30 something years old I think) and they feel old upon meeting a nineteen year old girl. Even though I’m their age, I feel more like the nineteen year old! Lol I look and feel, act, and just seem much younger than my actual age. What makes us “old” or “young” and happy or not is our attitude, not our chronological age. I frequently hear/see people saying and writing that when we get to be thirty years old, our body and other things start to go downhill. It’s only true if we let it be. I’m well over 30 years old and am anything but old or going downhill. My body is strong and healthy and extremely energetic. I never get tired, except a healthy/normal tired at night, and I work seven days a week, sometimes 24 hours or nearly 24 hours non-stop!

If we have a lighthearted attitude and don’t care about age along with keeping our body as healthy as possible (physical exercise, meditation, healthy food, sleep/rest when needed…), age does not matter. When we’re old/middle aged, can we still have fun with friends and family? Yes! Can we still taste food? Yes! Can we still breathe? Yes! Can we have fun watching movies, going out, reading, doing whatever activites we like to do? Yes! Can we still exercise? Yes! Can we still work? Yes! Does our thinking process still work? Yes! Can we go out on romantic dates? Yes! Dress in sexy clothes? Yes! Try new things? Yes! Go on vacation? Yes! Change jobs! Yes! Go to school? Yes! Hook up with random strangers? Yes! (Lol) Find true love or keep true love? Yes! Help those in need? Yes!

So why does age matter? We can do all the same things as when we were young even if it’s not socially acceptable (certain fashion choices are often considered to be for young people, for example, but so what?).

“Tired” is often the default response when asked how we are. Everywhere I go, I hear it. People who are much younger than I am are frequently complaining about being an adult and therefore so tired.

And I’m frequently seeing memes about it on social media, about how being an adult equals being tired.

(So accurate these days!! Not my photo!)

Frequently being tired or fatigued is a result of less than perfect health, being overworked, or being unhappy, stressed, distressed, imbalanced in some way…healthy, happy, balanced adults are not constantly fatigued or tired. This isn’t to say we are definitely tired if we’re stressed or something but that if we are frequently tired, something is draining us so fix it.

It’s not a good thing to just accept it as being part of adulthood.

I know a cute & sweet 87 year old lady, named Mary, who is very happy, healthy, and physically active. She frequently brags about her age and how healthy she is!😍

She’s an animal lover, very Liberal politically but loves those with opposing views.

She goes shopping, does not have much money, is single, goes to all different events, does volunteer work, decorates for holidays, cooks, hosts celebrations at her house for holidays, ballgames, her and her daughter welcome everyone, even strangers so no one has to be alone on “special” occasions…and she was even asked on a date recently by a younger man! (She said no because he is a bit younger and she doesnt know him well but at 87 years old she is still turning the heads of younger men! She also said the world is full of idiots so we should just stay single! 😂 )

Age is no excuse to be unhappy, to be always tired, to be unhealthy, to be trudging along through this life dragging and complaining!

Whatever we can do as a younger person, we can do now!

And this goes for anything we want but do not have. Without it, we can still have fun, still go out, still dress up, still love….

It can be painful to want what we do not have (to be younger, friends, kids, a romantic relationship, fulfilling job, our own house, a school degree, more money, better health….) but we do not need those things to be happy. It’s true, some of those things would bring us a kind of happiness we won’t have without them but it doesn’t mean we can’t be ultumately happy or just as happy in general without.

It’s all about the attitude. Stop thinking we’re old and we won’t be!

I’m 30 something years old, have a job I love but not a job that brings a lot of money, I’m in financial debt, do not live on my own, don’t have good in-person friends, am single, don’t have a family of my own….but am still generally happy and never tired or feeling old! It’s a good reminder for me also because sometimes I let myself get unhappy about not having lots of friends to do stuff with when most people do. I remind myself I can still have fun and be happy anyway and I can love myself even if no one else does. ❤ I do have a couple friends but not good ones and one I never see. But that’s ok!

Focus on the good, keep the body well nourished, be active, physically, do some mindfulness exercises even if for just five minutes a day, help others, don’t set unrealistic goals or have unrealistic expectations, lose the life timeline where certain things “should” be done by a certain age, stop the negative comparisons with others, say no to perfectionism, try new things, fun hobbies, get rid of the “I should be but I’m not” mentality, protect our energy….and we will be happy, energetic, and young no matter our actual age!

Much love,

Kim ❤

Strength❤

Jan1

“Just as a fletcher straightens an arrow shaft, even so the discerning man straightens his mind — so fickle and unsteady, so difficult to guard.”🕉️❤

This is one of my Instagram posts. I post there a lot more than here and will start sharing them here too. One of my favorite things is to take pictures all around the city and share them with inspiring quotes or song lyrics! I don’t take good pictures or anything as I know almost nothing about photography but the things I take pics of are beautiful!

Much love,

Xoxo Kim❤

In loving memory of sweet Boo, boo❤🐾

Dec31

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”❤

This is Boo. I was his nanny for two years. I just received heartbreaking news that he died. He was very sick and thankfully very old so he lived a long life for a kitty. His mommy & daddy gave him the best, loving furever home a kitty can have, along with his brother, a doggy.

He was the sweetest kitty, so loving and gentle. He never bit or scratched me when I would give him his medication in a syringe even though he did not like it at all. He loved treats and pets and kisses and would purr & meow happily when I visited.

I used to not handle grief & loss well. I used to view the loss of a human or animal I knew as something insurmountable, something I couldn’t possibly overcome. Often when someone would die, I wanted to die too, to stop the pain. Sometimes, I still have fleeting moments like that. To me, it’s just as devastating to lose an animal as to lose a human, although I have much more experience with losing animals and have felt it to be less traumatic than losing a human.

I have learned to see loss as a “side effect” or “byproduct” of being “given” the beautiful gift of someone to love so deeply. Instead of focusing on the loss part, I focus on the “given” part. I did not have to be “given” this pet or person in the first place. Instead of seeing it as something being taken away, I see the gift of what I got to have and hold so close.

Most of my pain when someone dies is not for me but for the one whose life was taken. But I see it the same way, life is a gift and that human or animal got to experience it even if just for a short while. Boo was happy and so well loved and always will be loved. Even though his life has ended, what matters is that he lived.

It was & is so devastating to receive the news about my sweet Boo boo but I’m so thankful I got to know and love him for the two years I did and my love for him will continue as long as I live.

His mommy & daddy wrote me a message and said they are thankful he had a nanny who loves him like my own.

This is the worst part of my job, having to say goodbye. Losing a furry client can be like losing my own. What is the difference? I come to know them and love them and take care of them. Sometimes I even have them overnight and sleep in bed with them, falling asleep with them at night and waking up with them in the morning, like living with them.

Sometimes the pain of losing them is or seems unbearable. And because there are so many of all different ages, sometimes we lose a couple so close together and I wonder what I got myself into taking a job like this.

Animals are so fragile and have naturally short lifespans so I don’t expect to have them around as long as I expect to have humans around (and I shouldn’t even really expect it of humans). In this way, it makes it not quite as traumatic or stressful as a human I know dying but it doesn’t lessen the pain of my loss either. Losing a pet is still like being gutted.

I’m so thankful not only that I get to love the furbabies I take care of but get to love their humans as well. People are always so very thankful to know that while they are away, their furkids are being loved & cared for so well. Even with the pain of loss, it is very worth it.

I knew Boo wasn’t doing very well. I always give the furbabies kisses goodbye but on my last day with Boo, I gave him one last extra kiss goodbye. I did not truly believe it would be the last day I saw him. I’m so thankful for that last kiss.

My heart goes out to Boo’s family.❤

My love goes out to all grieving the loss of a pet.❤ They are our family, our furever loves and not everyone understands our love for them and the profound pain of our loss when they must leave us.🐾❤

Much love,

Kim

Pure Compassion

Dec28

Random Act of Senseless Kindness – (song)

Today, while out for a walk with one of my furbabies, I saw a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia truck outside of a child’s house. The medical professionals were providing hospital care to a very sick child at home instead of at an actual hospital. I saw oxygen equipment inside and other life-sustaining things. Instantly, I felt the sharp contrast of health & sickness, need & wholeness. Some of us are walking around in perfect or near perfect health while others are near death/extremely ill. Some get to have completely healthy children while others have the devastation of watching theirs struggle for breath. It’s just the way it is. I felt the “blessing” of my own perfect or seemingly perfect health but not in a “grateful” way like I’m thankful to be healthy because I’m reminded others are sick. I did not feel thankful for my own health at all (there wouldnt be anything wrong if i did though) but felt the “blessing” or benefit of it. I became acutely aware of my own excellent health and an overwhelming urge to share it with someone less healthy. I want to give whatever I can to a person like that sick kid.

While there was no gratitude, there was no guilt either. It’s no one’s fault that some are healthy while some are too sick to get out of bed. It’s no one’s fault that some moms or dads get to see their healthy kids running around playing while others have to watch the life draining out of their child’s body.

I found the suffering of that child and the child’s parents absolutely unbearable but felt no sorrow or even sympathy, just compassion and a strong motivation to act. What can I do for this sick child? Most likely nothing. I would give him/her my last breath if I could. That isn’t possible though. But what about others who are sick/dying? I have healthy blood which I can donate regularly. I may have two healthy kidneys, one of which can go to a person in need and will be soon if I am found to be qualified.
All this to say, if we have what someone else needs, why not share it? Why not give it away? It doesn’t matter if that person is a friend, family member, or stranger. We are all the same!
If someone needs our time, how about sharing a bit of it? If a person in line in front of us is a few cents short, how about sharing some of ours if we have it? Healthy blood? Maybe give some to the Red Cross or whatever blood bank is close? What do you have that you can share with someone in need? It can be anything! Material things, biological things, time/understanding/hugs…
We can find the suffering or need of others unbearable but in an action kind of way, not a way that breaks us or drags us down. What better way to give thanks for our own fortune, give back, pay it forward…than performing an act of kindness to someone else?
If we see someone who needs a kind of help that we cannot or don’t want to provide, we can use that as our inspiration to go help someone else who can be helped by us in a way that we want to help. Not everyone wants to give blood or kidneys but there may be something else we want to give if not that. Not everyone agrees that it’s a good idea to help homeless people by giving them money but there is always another thing we can do to help them or another person/animal…to help, to give to.

So how about it?! Let’s put compassion into action!

I hope you are having a beautiful day or night wherever in the world you are!!❤

Xoxo Kim