Stress

Today I attended a short session on stress. According to the facilitator, Darren Lang, 90% of the reasons we visit our doctors are related to stress.
90%.

I've always known that stress has a big impact on the quality of my life, my ability to fight illness, or bad moods, even fight pounds. But 90%? WOW. It really makes you rethink where you are at, and what you are going to do differently!

Recently I had the priviledge of hearing John Izzo speak. John Izzo spoke about making room in our lives for things that feed our souls. He reminded us that we need to know ourselves and what brings us happiness, and to invite more of that into our lives.

John Izzo talked about organizations being more cost effective when they are willing to embrace spirit: the spirit of respect, of compassion, and of dignity. That these things sustain an organization, build collaboration and are even more important when things are tough.
He challenged us to ask each day:

1. Did you play today?
2. Did you do something with someone else today?
3. Did you learn something today?
4. Did you do something for yourself today?
5. Were you mindful of what drained you?
6. Were you mindful of what energized you?
7. Were you a drainer of others' energy?
8. Were you an energizer around other people?

I think we have a lot to learn about stress, as organizations. but most importantly, as individuals. You see, in the end, it is all about choice. How I choose to respond to the stress in my life, how I choose to balance my life and manage my stress, whether or not I choose to allow someone else to 'make me' angry or to 'push my buttons, all of those come down to my own circle of influence, my ability to choose.

Robert Frost, in his famous poem, "The Road Not Taken," wrote, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-/I took the one less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference."

I'm working on finding the roads that have the positive road signs where I am responsible for my choices and I am responsible for the road I take.

Right now I like my road.
By the way, walking down a path like this, is pretty good for stress busting, too!

Sorbet

I need some summer warmth for this treat, but maybe if I write about it, the weather will cooperate?
Raspberry Sorbet

Heat 1/4 cup water, 3/4 cup sugar and 1c grape juice
stir until sugar disolves
add 1lb frozen raspberries
add 2 tbsp lemon juice and a pinch of salt
pour mixture into a shallow dish and cool
freeze for 6 hours
break into chunks
put into a food processor and puree until smooth
freeze until ready to serve
You can dress it up with a sprig of mint, and a few fresh raspberries. You can also change up the fruit and the juice.
Try bartlet pears and red wine, or strawberries
I like sorbet because it doesn't have milk in it. It probably has too much sugar, but the real fruit helps to balance that out!
I don't have my own picture for this blog, yet, but will put one in as soon as I can!

Optimism

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement." ~ Helen Keller

Bouley in New York

Sunday night in New York city...On Sunday, May 23rd we had a gastronomic adventure that may never be repeated.

We had the good fortune to meet a cousin and her husband for the first time, and joined them at their friend David Bouley's restaurant. Our time with them was absolutely wonderful. It was great to get to know them, and learn about them. They are a terrific couple and we enjoyed every minute of our time with them. The food, and our dining experience was also an absolutely incredible adventure.  There is a lot I can say about the experience.

Where to start?

First of all, the decor. The foyer of the restaurant is decorated with shelves of apples giving you a welcome greeting of apple scented air when you enter. Bouley's is filled with French influence on both of its levels.

The downstairs private dining room is patterned with stones from Versailles and wide antique doors from France, which have the fleur de lis open into the private dining room. Beams from 1751 that Bouley found in the village of Salernes are in the lobby of the restaurant.

The art of Wouter Dolk adourns the walls of the restaurant. Bouley also had arches made for the ceilings of the main floor. Many of the dining tables are round, as was the one the six of us sat at. All of the tables had fresh boquets of roses, sweet peas and peonies. Tall tapered candles lit each table.

Even the bathroom was an interesting room with stalls the size of large and elegant change rooms. Each room had large antique doors. The large outer room had beautiful sinks mirrors and plush chairs to rest in.

Here I am, at the end of the post and I haven't even talked about the food...which was the most amazing part of the visit.

Energizers and Drainers

Balance in life is always important.
One thing it's good to do is to take stock of those things and people who energize us, and those things and people who drain us.

John Izzo suggests that we maximize the energizers and consider dumping, delegating, or minimizing the drainers.

A simple exercise is to create a T graph. I can't make a T graph on this blog, but this is the basic idea:     

Energizers                                    Drainers         
positive attitudes                            negative attitudes
willingness to help                          complaining

There are, of course others, for both lists. This means two things for me. One is that I sometimes participate in draining behaviours. I drain myself, and obviously I am draining others. I want to practice more energizing behaviours. The second thing is that I want to work more at surrounding myself with more people who practice energizing behaviours.

By doing this, I would be able to strive for more balance, and more positivity in my work and life. I think it would be a good practice for me to engage in.

Procrastination

When we were little, I had to try everything that was served at the dinner table. The things I didn't like were liver and brussel sprouts. I'm still not a big fan. Another thing I didn't like was turnips. I remember having dinner at my in-laws for the first time. My mother-in-law dished up, placing a huge spoonful of mashed turnips on my plate.

Using the method adopted when I was a little girl, I quickly ate the turnips. I always ate the food I didn't like first, so that I could enjoy the food I really liked. As a consumate hostess, my mother-in-law noticed that my turnips had quickly disappeared. She jumped up and scooped another large spoonful on to my plate.

My husband hid his laughter behind his napkin as I swallowed more mouthfuls of turnips so that I could enjoy the rest of my dinner.
I try to follow that practice in my personal life, get rid of the stuff I don't like, first. Sometimes it works, but lots of times I put the stuff I don't want to do off.

A few months ago I found this video from Simple Truths: Eat That Frog It's about procrastinating. It applies that simple theory I used to use, and actually still do when it comes to eating that food I don't like too much. Luckily, I like most things.

Enjoy, Eat That Frog.

Vision

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." ~ Chinese Proverb