I realize it is the third day of March and I haven’t posted the W.I.S.E. Principles for March. I am not a fan of excuses so let me explain. I was half thinking of ditching this project and starting the donut a day challenge, I would challenge myself to indulge daily in the yummy goodness that are donuts and post scrumptious pictures and  delicious reviews. My ass woke me up in the middle of the night with a stern “C’mon dude, you tried that with a bottle of wine a day challenge, a cupcake a day challenge and Eat an Entire Pizza Fridays and what did we get out of that?” Sometimes that ass of mine has a strong argument so I decided to stick with something for a change. I am excited to tell you a little bit about my W.I.S.E. Principles for March and the goals I have set for myself. As always I would love it if you challenge yourself, your goals will be different and your interpretation of the W.I.S.E. Principles may vary…that is OK and encouraged.

February was a bit of a Cha-cha month for me, a step forward, a step backward but all in all it was a learning experience for me. I am learning a lot about myself, a lot about the way I feel and what it takes to make me feel the way I want to feel. Recognizing real happiness and what it takes to achieve that feeling is a work in progress, and so important to me. I am an emotional person, I cry at sad movies, I cry at happy movies. I cry when my feelings are hurt and I cry when I am feeling euphoric. As an emotional person who is an emotional eater I have realized that ice cream does not make me happy…shocking I know!! It seems like a little thing but we (the human race) often use things like food (shopping, sex, drinking, gambling etc.) to try to make us happy and once we realize that they cannot possibly make us happy we can figure out what does…and do it! Instant gratification is not happiness, the ice cream may satisfy you for a moment but you won’t wake up in the morning feeling the lasting affects of the pleasure the ice cream gave you.

My W.I.S.E. Principles for March are:

Well-being– I want to be healthy and happy and live a fulfilling life, to do this I need to experience more feelings of contentment and joy as well as being confident and engaged in my own life and interacting positively with others. I want relationships that are positive and that cause happy feelings.

I know that experiencing well-being does not mean that I will never experience times of sadness, hardships or discontent but in being well I can recognize my resilience when times are tougher and I can clearly see the choices and the people that bring me the most happiness. I am learning to accept myself and all of my emotional mania because I am a person that feels a great deal, invests my feelings and in doing that I often feel hurt. I am learning to let go of my need to control all situations and realize that even though some things will be entirely out of my control, I can control how I respond to these situations. I will invest in my physical and mental well-being, to do so is akin to making daily deposits in my bank account of life that I will be able to draw from for years into the future. No one can give you well-being, you need to take action and make your own choices to find wellness. For years I wasn’t aware that it was my job to make myself happy. I thought it was important to make sure everyone else was happy. Trying to take care of everyone else and not yourself is impossible and it will leave you empty and unfulfilled.

Here are some of the ways I intend to continue to work on my well-being.

Connect-Relating with people, friends, family, colleagues, taking the time to nurture and develop these relationships. Surprisingly (for someone who writes down all her thoughts and publishes them) I am a private person and if I am struggling with something I often do so alone. I need to remind myself that everyone has struggles and people who are meant to be in my life will share in my joy and not judge my struggles.

Be Active– Being active doesn’t have to mean going to the gym. It can simply mean moving, go for a walk, take a dance class, get moving. This is a struggle or me, after walking around work all day I really just want to go home and not leave. I need to come up with a good, yoga-wine-sofa work-out!

Educate– I have always loved learning. I love knowledge and learning about people, places and ideas. In Fiction writing I have to do a fair bit of research and when I am immersed in that It really gives me a sense of achievement. My kids activities make it difficult for me to take a cooking class or a dance class (on my list) but I am going to actively seek learning opportunities.

Give-I try to go out of my way to give to others. I used to spend a great deal of time volunteering and I find that I am happiest when I am making some sort of contribution. I find more and more that I am picking and choosing where I give my time because my free time is pretty restricted as it is and I am also happiest when I do not put too many demands on my time. I think even the smallest acts can count, lend a helping hand, giving a smile, a thank you, a kind word to someone that needs it. When someone is kind to me it makes my whole day and I want to continue to pass that along.

 Mindfulness-The whole purpose of this project was mindfulness, being more aware in the present moment and being aware of my thoughts and feelings, even being aware of my body and what it takes to make my body happy. I think this awareness has had a positive affect on the way I feel on a daily basis and how I respond to life’s challenges as they are  presented. It does require constant work so I will continue to practice it this month and hopefully always.

Inner-

I want to pay attention to my internal strength; characterized by my mental, physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual life. I want to work on my internal struggles and take the power away from them so that I can strive to achieve inner peace. I think to achieve inner peace you need to find a way to have your mind, body, and soul work as one. Sounds easy enough but it is definitely something that takes a lot of work.

Strive-

Need I say more?

Embrace:

I want to truly and eagerly accept and support myself and everything that makes me ME. I want to embrace change and opportunities to be better, physically and mentally and realize that being ME is the best thing ever (besides, everyone else is already taken!)

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance ~ Oscar Wilde

Be W.I.S.E. friends, take, care of your well-being, strive for inner peace and embrace all of the rare and silly things that make you, uniquely YOU!!

P.S. Have some fun!!

xo

Michelle