“Flexible people are happy people.”

I have a dear friend, Geralee, who has been, and continues to be an incredible source of wisdom in my life. 

She shared this thought with me several years ago, and I can’t tell you the number of times it has come to my rescue!

“Flexible people are happy people.”

A few years back, my husband and I were traveling home from a fun week at Lake Powell with some amazing friends (Geralee was one of them😊), when we hit a flash flood.  It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The road looked wet, but before we knew it, our car was engulfed and we had mud and water up to our windows. Sooo crazy!

We had left our vacation a little early to be able to get home in time to help another friend with her daughter’s wedding.  But this impeccable timing, this incredibly out of the ordinary event, drastically changed our plans.

How do you react when things don’t go your way?

Do you get uptight, stressed out and frantic when things don’t go according to plan?

Intermittent fasting is all the craze these days. 

I have to admit I love the way it makes my body feel when I shorten my eating window.  I sleep better, I maintain my weight more easily as my body is able to tap into my fat stores and I never feel bogged down or bloated.

But you know what feels even better? Giving up negative self talk.

That’s why my number one fasting recommendation is an inadequacy fast.

Inadequacy is defined as: The state or quality of being inadequate; insufficient, lack of the quantity or quality required.

When we feel inadequate, we feel deficient, like we are lacking in one way or another, or that we just don’t measure up.

The feeling of inadequacy is generated by our thinking.

Ask yourself this, “Who is doing the measuring?  Who decides the measurements on the measuring stick?”

We are often our own worst enemy, constantly barraging ourselves with criticism.

We make comparisons, analyze our flaws, judge our bodies, scrutinize our efforts and result

Bad days happen for everyone.

Life is supposed to be 50/50 right?

But when we create a bad day by indulging in a nagging thought, we are creating more negative emotion than is necessary.

We’ve all done it. 

Sometimes we even want to. 

This happened to me last week.  I had a frustrating tech issue I couldn’t figure out, and I got annoyed.  I had the thought, “This is just too hard.”

The more I told myself how hard it was, the more frustrated I became.

I started thinking of all the reasons I wasn’t going to be able to make it work. Then I started comparing myself to other colleagues who were luckier or smarter or more whatever than me.

So I decided to bag it for a while and ate some Valentine’s candy and watched an episode of This Is Us, that I’d missed.…(PS, I love that show!)

And then I got bugged at myself for eating the candy, because I was trying to get off of sugar again…

Then, my hubby came home and wanted to go to a movie, and that bugged me because I’d already wast

We all spend a lot of time and effort trying to improve our bank accounts.  We save and invest, because we know that over the years, that compounding interest will provide a nice nest egg for retirement.

But what about your kindness account?  The compounding effect over time in this account, can yield all kinds of rewards, -some much better than money!

I like to think about it like this. 

Each time I don’t react in anger, and I show compassion, I make a deposit.  Each time I direct my brain to look for the good and I express appreciation, BOOM – another deposit.  When I choose to look in the mirror and love everything I see, my kindness account grows.

Sometimes it might feel like too much of an effort.  Being angry feels more powerful, so we indulge a little and actually enjoy it in the moment.  But dang it, it always makes a hefty withdrawal from our kindness account and leaves us feeling worse.

Have you ever watched someone change over the course of many years?  When you fir

Have you ever found yourself out with friends and the topic inevitably turns to our guys?  Of course you have, it’s totally natural to share pieces of our lives with one another.  

It starts off fairly innocently… someone shares a little story or voices a small complaint,- and then we commiserate with a story of our own.  Then that reminds someone else of another issue they have, her pain resonates with yours, and suddenly it has escalated into a full blown husband bashing session.

It wasn’t our intention. All we really wanted was to talk.  It feels so nice to be able to unload your gripes, to feel heard and understood.  

Well, at least it feels good in the moment, -perhaps you even feel justified.  But when that moment has passed, what are you left with?  

Likely a little guilt or shame about having betrayed the one person you are supposed to love and care the most about.

May I make a suggestion?

Vow today to never speak poorly about your spouse again.

HE IS YOURS!

The one