Enjoying Life

Today I'm thrilled to share with you a wonderful guest post from a very dear friend of mine. While I enjoy calling her Becs, some know her as Becca or... as the grand stories of her blog will also tell you, she is also known as Sheila =)   She is tremendously gifted with words (as our mutual professors and I would agree :) and I've thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Becs more and more as our College days drift further into the past.  So, here is the Saturday scoop from the writer herself, Becs:

Hello Maggie’s readers!  I’m so happy to join you on Maggie’s lovely blog today. Maggie and I met back in our Ave Maria days and our post-grad days have been filled with random spurts of letter writing and text swapping.  She’s taking over at my blog (Bec's Little Black Blog) with a Fall post so that I can join you today with…

6 Simple Steps to Enjoy Life More

I feel like I am constantly re-evaluating and re-writing out my dreams, goals, and to do lists.  I’m sure I’ll do this all my life long, but along the way I’ve found a few quick ways to take a step back and enjoy life more.  I hope they help you to enjoy life a bit more as well.

     Stop planning and just do.  Most of the time the biggest enemy I face is myself.  I get in the way of my dreams and my hopes.  I get in the way of what I really want to do and how I want to spend my time. There are many times when I don’t do things that I should do to enjoy life simply because it seems too spontaneous or it wasn’t what I had in ‘my plan’ for the day.  I think women especially struggling with the whole planning aspect of life and sometimes the biggest thing you can do to enjoy your life a little more is to give in to your spontaneous intuition for the day—whether that leads you to the nearest coffee shop to write, a park to walk or take pictures, or striking up a conversation with a random stranger.  Most of the time the things that most impact us are those that the ones we don’t plan.

     Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk.  I’m pretty sure at some point or another I have cried over spilled milk—or spilled coffee, or any other very minor flub of the hour/day/week.  Another way to enjoy life more overall is learning how to pick your battles and then letting the spilled milk be spilled milk.  Let yourself be human and make mistakes.  I would venture even to go as far as saying “learn to laugh over your spilled milk.”  A priest told me during my freshmen year of college that one of the best things I can do is to learn to laugh at myself.  Start doing this in your work life, in your relationships, and in your personal life to take away some very unnecessary stress.

     Cook A Meal.  Carefully note how this step comes after “Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk.”  Though not all of us are gifted with skills of cookery or even necessarily enjoy the time in the kitchen.  However, I am convinced that at least attempting to cook a meal or try a new recipe is automatically cathartic.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve told my good friend Sam over the phone, “The only thing I could do was come home and cook and bake.”  There’s something about it that gets creative & practical brain juices flowing in a balanced manner regardless if the meals turns out the best or not!

     QT = Quality Time.  Whether you’re extroverted or introverted, love people or hate people, everybody needs some good quality ‘me time’ to refresh, refocus, and enjoy life a little more.  Are you busy and constantly on the go?  Does your job or personal life require your constant engagement with social activity?  Learn how to say ‘no’ and schedule in some time for yourself.  Are you introverted and need down time to function in a humane fashion?  Taking a time of the day every day for yourself will be beneficial not only for you but for all those you have to work with as well.  It’s important to take care of yourself and ‘fill yourself up’ so that you can give quality time and attention to those who are important in your life, to function well at work, and to handle the unexpected encounters we face daily.  

     Unplug.  It’s almost impossible to get away from your phone, iPod, computer, TV, radio, etc.  It’s almost only possible if you make an effort to do so.  Unplugging from the virtual realm for a certain amount of time, either daily or weekly, can help you see more clearly those relationships and friendships that are in your physical vicinity.  Internet, in all its glory (that includes blogs), is fabulous, but keeping it real is much more important.  Scheduling in your plugged in time will allow you to have more time unplugged and will make your plugged in time more fruitful and focused.

     Finally, Set Goals.  There’s nothing more enjoyable at times than using that strikeout font.  Take a few minutes to write down all the practical things you need to do for the week, your personal goals (running, writing, reading, painting, photography), or your dreams (things you want to do this month/in the next two months/this year).  Put the list of goals on your fridge and enjoy your life a little more by working towards your goals.  

While all of these steps may be “simple” steps, simple doesn’t always mean “easy”!  Most of these I’m still putting into practice, but I always enjoy my life a little more when I do these simple things!   Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great weekend =)