Afternoon Delight

Been a bit busy lately. It's my son's birthday today and I've been madly sorting lego. He has a huge tub and about 30 instructions which he can't use because there is too much to sort through, so I've made it a goal to sort through it all back into their sets, order in the parts we are missing and make that his birthday/Christmas present. Much better to get 30 sets back (some very large) than me buying one piddly set! Unfortunately it's a huge job and since it's not done today I must finish my Christmas!! I've also started to do some unpicking work on tutus for my daughter's ballet teacher.

Yesterday I also had a renewed second wind with my belief in myself.  Earlier this year I thought to do work as a Personal concierge, but lost track of that belief due to outside influences and my own lack of confidence. Also after looking at other concierge services, the fees are so high I thought no one would want to pay that so I gave up. Last night I had a doh! moment realising that I don't need fees that high. I'm currently wanting to live in enough comfort to be happy, not to build up a huge business - of which I wouldn't be able to run currently. So I could provide a slightly more limited service but with significantly cheaper prices. 

Today and for the next couple of weeks I will be testing how fast I can do different jobs within an hour so I know how to quote on the spot.

On to the books. I have read the forward of 'Your Child's Self-Esteem' (Step-by-Step Guidelines for Raising Responsible, Productive, Happy Children) by Dorothy Corkille Briggs

It raises the point of the increase in mental disorders in adults which can actually be prevented by raising self worth in children at the youngest age possible. No age is too late, although there are statistics showing the likelihood of mental illness against the raising of self worth and different ages. This really links with Louise Hay's belief that many things step from our childhood, however with this book we are looking at it from the other side. Louise shows how we can fix things as adults. This book shows how we as parents can help our children get to adulthood without having to fix things at the other end. 

As a mother of an autistic child, I know there are mental disorders that can not be cured. However they can be helped. My son has very low self esteem as he has moderate autism so while he can't help so many things he does, he is very aware he is different. I do believe it will help him significantly when he moves to a specialist school next year where he will be one of the more higher functioning children, so hopefully will not believe he is stupid anymore (which he most definitely is not). Most of the higher functioning children there are actually moderate rather than high functioning on the scale, however most higher functioning children with austism actually stay in the normal school system with helpers as my son has had since starting main stream school in prep.

Now I have been attempting to start the book 'Out of the Blue: Delight Comes into Our Lives' by Mark Victor Hansen & Barbara Nichols with Patty Hansen however the introduction is hard going due to the fact that every time I try to read I get the following song stuck in my head!!!

Will get to finishing it as soon as it is possible to read without this bloody annoying song on repeat!

(Sorry for getting this stuck in your head, but if I have to suffer - so does everyone else! hehehe

Dale Carnegie & Doreen Virtue

One key thing I've now started to do as a result of reading the Introduction of Doreen & Grant Virtue's "Angel Words: Visual Evidence of How Words Can Be Angels in Your Life" is to record myself saying affirmations and quotes/advice. These will be put on to two different play lists and I plan to play them throughout the day whenever possible. I try to say affirmations when ever possible, but I don't always remember - this will help during the times I would otherwise forget to be saying them.

Doreen's book discusses research  she and her son have done on the energy levels of words. Positive words have high energy and negative words have low energy. This makes a lot of sense as through reading Louise Hay I've understood the importance of stating things in a positive way. Positive leads to positive. However seeing that it is not only a feeling but an energy has made things very clear to me. I generally have very low energy and I can recognise that I quite often look to the negative. I attempted to stop this today. Lately I've been repeating my frustration at a situation with my ex and his wife to my close friends, I have no idea how many negative words I used, but there were a lot of negative thoughts. Although I got things off my chest I feel like I'm on repeat only making myself feel down when there are so many positives I could be focusing on and phrasing in regards to that same situation. I am certain I'd have a lot more energy to actually improve my lot in many different ways if I did.

Today when chatting on facebook to a very dear friend who I haven't talked to for a while, I attempted to stop myself from this negative verbal diarreah when she asked how things were going in that arena. While I wasn't able to stop myself completely I did manage to keep it short. While I'm not there yet, this shows that my brain is now actively making an effort to make changes to my way of thinking.

I've just realised how many times I've written the word negative here... and I'm already getting tired... so I'm now going to move on to my next book which I found to be a revelation!

Dale Carnegie's "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living - Time-Tested Methods for Conquering Worry" is brilliant - and this only after the first chapter! It talks about breaking time up into compartements. Yesterday has past, tomorrow is yet to come. We can only live in today. How amazing if I could focus like this. I'm full of worry about things I've done in the past and in terror of things that could happen in the future and quite frankly wasting each day when I should be living my day to the full without fear or worry. There are so many things I fear or wish for, for the future, and I often don't believe I'm good enough because of the past.  I need to remember I can be successful today if only I can shut out the others.

There are some great quotes in the chapter which I have duly recorded to listen to at a later date. This is one message that I do not want to forget.