Positivity Round Up

I'm not good at creating new habits.  I'm a fairly habitual, routine oriented person, but creating new habits tends to be fraught with missteps. I do really well for the first week or so, but then as life and old habits get in the way, the new ones fall to the side.  The idea of the Positivity Project is to create new habits in my thinking, my actions and my emotional state.  The idea of the blog is to hold myself accountable to creating those new habits.  How do I hold myself accountable to updating the blog? I've never been great with journals or the like; I find it difficult to force myself to write when I am not inspired.  I will (attempt) to do better with updating my blog, even if it means shorter posts on occasion. That will be my goal for the week! 

 

I've done a mostly decent job since my last posting at the start of the month. Overall I still have a lot of negative thoughts about events and people, but I'm doing better with small tasks. I went through my clothes and got rid of a full Trader Joe's bag of items I don’t wear. As most females can relate to, I had a lot of "I don't really wear this because it doesn't fit right/falls weirdly on my body/is definitely not my style/will fit once I lose some weight/is incredibly uncomfortable but I will definitely wear it one day and I want to keep it until then" clothes. My style is relatively simple - comfort before fashion 90% of the time. I have tried to expand my wardrobechoices, convincing myself in the dressing room that I will definitely wear it if I bought it. Then, when you get home and pull it out of your closet one day, you realize you talked yourself into a dumb decision. Maybe you'll wear it once or twice, but it really was not a good purchasing choice.  For some reason, it is still really hard to part with those items! I am trying to downsize in general, because I have more than I need (except for books, I always need more books), so I really forced myself to evaluate these items I don't wear. They were all perfectly nice items, with minimum wear, and I knew that someone else could use it and appreciate it more. I dropped off the bag to Good Will.  Not only am I redusing the clutter, but hoepfully someone who needs it will find it.

 

My boyfriend has been sick this past week, so I've been attempting to nurse him back to health. This may not sound like anything impressive, but he does not take to nursing very well. Mostly he just wants to be left alone in his misery, and won't take care of himself much. I stayed up more than half the first night to force him to drink tea and honey, take lozenges, and make sure he was warm enough by building and maintaining a fire. He actually went home early from work the next day, which he never does. After an extremely long and crappy day, I went to the store, sat in an hour of traffic and proceeded to make him Italian Wedding Soup with homemade turkey meatballs so he would have something good for him to eat. I'm sure it doesn't sound likemuch, but all I wanted to do was go home, crawl in bed and watch tv alone for the rest of the night.  But I love the guy, and he does a wonderful job of taking care of me when I'm sick, so I swallowed my isolationist fantasies and did my best to help him get better. He is well on his way to the mend, if you're curious. 

 

The other weekend, boyfriend and I went to my parents for dinner. It was a hectic day and I was exhausted, but I know how much my parents miss be being around every day, so we went over for a few hours and picking up dinner on the way. I need to be better about spending more time with my family. I've seen more of the boyfriend's family the last month end half than I have mine, and I live closer to mine! I love my folks and (usually) get along with them really well. knowing how much my parents love it when I visit, I need to add it to the list of things to work on. 

 

Outside of all of that, mostly I try to just be more patient and understanding of my customers - and we've had some doozy of customers this week. I'm trying to get to know my regulars even more. I go through periods where I'm really good about it, and then I get caught up in all of my stuff to do at work, and I don't have those personal connections much with them. One olderish couple always get the same two cupcakes. I've learned to recognize the husband and the bright blue car (usually she) drives.  The other day I have them their regular for free. He was so startled and pleased, and gave me the biggest thank you. His wife even came in a minute later from the car to thank us! I know it should be the reason we do it, but it is always nice to receive a big thank you when we give out free things. The same man was in the store yesterday as I was trying to leave after another hectic, stressful day, but I stuck around to talk with him. Not just chit chat, but actually talk and get to know him. It turns out, he is kind of fascinating- he lived in Italy for 6 years and was part of the Italian protest walks! It was a really positive note to end on, after a fairly negative day.

 

I will continue to try to be happy and positive every day, and will try to be better about updating too! 

Have an awesome week, reader!