Finding Serenity during the crazy, busy times in our lives.

 I know it's been forever since I published a post on serenity but life does get a little crazy sometimes.

In the past several months life has just gotten in the way of finding my towards serenity.  My home life balance is out-of-whack, my work life balance is out-of-whack, my health balance is out-of-whack and it took until Thanksgiving for me to realize that it's absolutely exhausting.

I have always been the person who has a tendency to put others feelings and best interests first pushing my own to the side.  For a while I stopped doing that but somehow it has crept back into my being.  So what to do about this:

    a)  First and most importantly, it took some time but I recognized that behavior before it's spiraled out of control.

    b)  Now that I have recognized the issue and I can return to bringing balance back into my daily life.

As of today, as I write this blogpost I have taken back my ability to see me, put myself and my best interests in living a life that has meaning foremost in my mind.

I have found that there are times when negativity that surrounds me.  I've chosen to no longer allow it to permeate my soul.  Sometimes the best course of action is to remove yourself from the equation and that's what I'm choosing to do.  I leave the room and walk away.  I find my quiet place, deep breathe and remove the negativity from surrounding me.  Is it hard to do, absolutely, because there are times when all I want to do is answer back,  yell and try to get my point across.  But, what I've learned is that when that much negative emotions swirl you stop listening and only react. Almost never a good option.  So in that case it's best to remove myself instead.

I find it works for me, it may not solve the problem but neither will a shouting match so instead I just keep moving forward.

Life sometimes is really hard, day-to-day conflicts are draining, we watch entertainment, read books, meet up with friends, take long walks or even exercise to remove ourselves from our stressors, but at least once a day we need to quiet our minds.  

Close your eyes, Move to a quiet spot, do a couple of deep, deep breathes and find a little bit of serenity to help you face the world on a daily basis. 

Photo by Lois - Alaska trip

Finding Serenity during these times of stress

So first let me apologize for the length of time between now and my last post.  Sometimes life just gets in the way.  But that being said, know that I have still maintained my ability to find some serenity in each and every day.

These past few weeks we have been reminded that peace and serenity are extremely fragile things in our world.  But each and every night when I watch the news or read a post about the horrors that Russia has rained down on Ukraine, I marvel at the stories of hope, faith and the ability to find just a small piece of joy and serenity in their lives.  A few nights ago they showed a clip of a young woman playing her violin, last night it was a very young girl singing in Ukrainian "Let it Go" from the movie "Frozen" both huddled in bomb shelters and then the clip was the young girl singing the Ukrainian national anthem at a concert (she and her family had escaped out of Ukraine, I don't know about the violinist, through).  This is the truest form of finding serenity, one I cannot even imagine.

As I think back on the past 2 years of the pandemic, it astounds me that our world is still filled with such hatred, disrespect, violence and out right meanness.  Why, is the question that keeps going round and round in my head.  There's no easy answer to that why, but is there a way to subdue it, to lessen it?

If you have any ideas or would just like to express your concerns, please feel free to post comments.

I have learned over the past year that it's best for me to turn off the "noise" mid evening, prepare for bed, read a few chapters of a romance novel and then listen to sleep meditations to lull me into the night.  By the time the lights are off and maybe a few minutes into the mediations, I'm usually fast asleep and I wake up each morning hoping that it will be a better day.  Some days are and some are not, but I will always try to end my day by finding my serenity, finding joy in some small aspect of the day and believing that we will always try to bring that serenity to others in our circle.

Find your joy!

Find your peace!

Find your serenity!