Photos of my neighbourhood

Hello everyone,

Anyway, I know its been a while. For some reason, the year of the Rabbit has not been a calm start for me - more like a mad hatter's party :). Nothing bad. Just busy with so many other things.

This is one of the things that have been keeping me busy. I am playing around now with the Retro Camera and the Vignette camera apps on my phone (for those interested, its a HTC Desire Android). Its yet another creative outlet for me while I sort out my space for crafting and sewing. The great thing about this is that it also fits in with my need to be physically active as it gets me running around my new neighbourhood.

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the photos.

As you can see from this pic, we are still getting a steady amount of rain here at the ONC*. I have to say, after 7 years of virtually no rain, I am loving it and you can see why! My city is more and more looking like the city I remember from my childhood.

Not bad for phone pics huh!!

I do have other posts sitting as drafts but they're at the "incoherent" stage - I hope I'll be able to sort them out soon!

I hope you are well.

*ONC = Our Nation's Capital

(P.S. I would like to wish those in Christchurch and those in Libya much strength over the coming days.)

My feel good list...

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all well. A couple of days ago, I attended the launch of Sharing Young Women's Stories - a campaign run by Equality Rights Alliance to fight negative body image. It was a great night and I felt very privileged that I was able to talk to many inspiring people doing good work.

Postcards being handed out at the launch. Photo by GR from Equality Rights Alliance and published here with her permission.

One of the people at the launch, Carly Jacobs, gave a particularly great speech. She talked about her "feel good diet". After years of dieting, calorie counting and unhealthy obsession over her body type, Carly finally hit upon a feel good diet. She started to eat what made her feel good. This doesn't mean binging on junk food (that often made her feel sick, not good), it also didn't mean she starved herself. Rather she ate what made her feel healthy and energetic.

The last couple of days, I've been reflecting on what Carly said and I realised that her philosophy can be applied to so many more areas of my life - my health, my consumption of goods and also my ongoing simplification of my life.

So here is my top 20"feel good list":

1. I feel good when I hang out with my kids, my family and my friends

2. I feel good when I am outdoors, riding my bike or paddling on the lake

3. I feel good when I am at taekwondo

4. I feel good when I eat home cooked meals

5. I feel good when I eat out at a really nice restaurant

6. I feel good when I have a clean house

7. I feel good when I declutter

8. I feel good when I do a good job at work

9. I feel good when I get a good night's rest

10. I feel good when I get a letter, an email, or a comment from others

11. I feel good when I make the time to just enjoy the view from my house

12. I feel good when I help others

13. I feel good when others help me

14. I feel good when I iron (yes I know its weird but I really do enjoy it)

15. I feel good when I make the effort to look nice

16. I feel good when I play the piano and when I sing

17. I feel good when I am painting, crafting or sewing

18. I feel good when I massage other people (I think this is related to my thing with ironing - smoothing out knots and all that hehe)

19. I feel good when I read a good book, blog post or article

20. I feel good when I achieve my savings goals

The times when I have felt overwhelmed and anxious is when I do the opposite to the list above - when I don't take time out to be physically active and enjoy the space around me. When I've been frivolous and ended up with a leaner bank balance and with too much stuff that I barely use and don't really need.

Now looking over that list, I realise that basically I feel good when I respect myself and the space around me, when I connect with others and when I act in accordance to my values.

What about you? What's your top 20 feel good list?