Wow, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind. At work there have been numerous big projects "exploding" all over the place in a very good way but at the same time my stress levels seem to be on the rise. I'm not that concerned that this isn't a normal part of life and work but still in the midst of a challenge, it can be tough.
Thankfully as if some divine intervention knew that my weeks would be a little more hectic, my Be Strong Yoga class started up in mid-January. Last year was the first time I had ever tried practicing yoga and it was amazing. I have never felt so relaxed after leaving the class. This particular class combines meditations with the yoga poses and biblical reflections. A true mind, body and spirit workout!
Tonight, after things seemed to particularly wear on me a little more than they usually do for whatever reason, I decided to break out my yoga DVD and do some at-home practice.
I am finding that to be refreshed, you have to learn to find ways to unwind. I don't think it's as simple as everytime I get stressed to do a yoga workout, but I think it's important to listen to yourself. There are points where you have to push past and sometimes to just take a breather. Literally, just letting yourself breath and be aware of breathing helps soothe and refresh the mind.
Wow, it's been a LONG time since I've posted anything. I wonder if anyone really reads this anymore. I've seen a steady flow of incoming search traffic - but not sure how many people are sticking around since I haven't updated in months.
I just don't know what direction to take this blog anymore. My job transition has been pretty good and very different. My new job keeps me away from the computer more - which is refreshing but at the same time frustrating because I'm not able to keep up with the networks that I had previously.
But never fear, there is always ways to utilize your time and that is what I am doing. I am learning the ins and outs of medical manufacturing and honing my web developing and design skills. It's kinda cool to have such a challenging projects and being thrown into an industry that I know nothing about. Growth is good but it can wear a girl out at the end of those 8 hours a day.
With any job there are ups and downs but I am happy and glad for work that keeps me busy and keeps me learning and challenged.
I think that's what matters more than most things - to stay challenged. It keeps us from getting bored or complacent. So always be looking for a challenge!
Back in May, I had the pleasure of driving a good friend of mine back to the Appalachian Trail. She's hiking it from start to finish and stopped off on her way past Charlotte for a week's worth of rest. I drove her back to her journey and the whole way we talked about her experience. See, Rachel is a recent graduate and, like most graduates, they have no idea what they want to do with their lives once they leave college. Though, not many people choose 5 months of hiking in the wilderness to help them figure that out...
We had some awesome discussions about our connectivity to the earth - how when she was faced with the elements it was like feeling the Earth's emotions. When the Earth was upset, rainy, gloomy... So was she. We talked about how work can a lot of times hinder us from our hobbies, our passions and while careers are fun and important they are not the end-all-be-all of who we are. How we are constantly working to make a life for ourselves but a lot of times our work ends up BEING our life. But also how work can be so fulfilling when you're doing something that you love and care about.
These things really hit home for me considering I had recently been laid off and had a few job offers to choose from. They were all really great offers but when it came down to it, I wanted the one that best suited my life. That would best allow me to live and grow. Not just in my career path but as a person. Life is so short and we have to live it while we have it. I chose the company I now work for, for a few reasons. One of the major ones is I admire the owner. He really seems to value being ethical, understanding and appreciative of his employees, and just a good person in the community that he lives. All the other people in the company seem to completely respect him. There are so many ways that he gives back to the community that I felt like I could really learn from him and stand behind a product that is created in such an environment.
I am grateful that my friend took time to stop in Charlotte for a visit. If you'd like to follow her trip, she occasionally posts details on her adventures at her blog: Appalachian Trail Tales. I will leave you with a wonderful meditation she wrote while on her journey:
Wait. Stop and slow down. You aren´t there yet, not quite yet. Here, now. This is where you are, where you truely are.
Tomorrow´s worries and yesterday´s failures are neverending, passing and changing each moment, each day. Today´s to-do lists can wait, so can the shoulds and shouldnt´s, and the wish I could or would.
Stop and listen. Your heart opening, being shaped and molded by the precious gift of life, moving through you, each moment each day.
Really cool things being developed over at Google that were announced this week. Check out Google Wave. The presentation is a little long but really cool to see some of the features that it can do. It combines blogging, social networking, email and document sharing.
A couple of weeks ago at the 8th grade youth group session where I volunteer weekly, we talked about gossip which got the kids thinking about how we use our words. One girl even questioned, "So if we can't talk about each other then what will we have to talk about? The weather?!" It's interesting that at 13 kids don't even know what to talk about besides the goings on of their peers. Granted, they're teenagers but how many coworkers do you know that all they do is talk about everyone elses' business. Then last night we talked about social justice and it really got me thinking about how we use our money to support companies. Especially in a downturned economy, how we use our dollars, in the same way we use our words, is also a reflection of what we value.
Today when I read Scott Hepburn's post questioning how conversational Twitter really is it brought to mind some of these same thoughts. He puts a disclaimer on it saying the research isn't extensive but he's got some really good questions on how much of our involvement in social media really IS conversational and how much of it is just trying to tell people about ourselves?
As sort of an experiment, I created a Wordle image of my Twitter RSS feed. It's a cool little feature that creates a tag cloud of your conversations. (The more you use a certain word the larger the font will be in the image.) I love this little tool because it almost creates artwork out of our very own words. So here's what my Twitter updates look like: I was kind of proud to see so man @ usernames in my cloud. I guess to me that says I respond to people more than most things. Of course that doesn't necessarily mean that my conversing with people is necessarily of value to everyone or even anyone but it's still interesting Then I thought about my blog, which I have been somewhat neglecting the last few months. But I wanted to see what kind of things I've talked about here and this is what the Riveting Rosie blog looks like:
Things that stand out "love," "live," "people," "work," "just," and "purpose". It's kind of cool way to put into perspective what you write about and what it is that I'm publishing. I think in this case, these things are a pretty good reflection of what is important to me. Of course it's not really the end-all-be-all of what interests me but it's again, just interesting to think about and reflect upon.
Then moving onto how we use our money: Justin Ritchie has an awesome post called Exploring the Ramifications of a Shorter Week that touches on this idea. I just love this quote from his post:
Because our time is so limited we have to ensure that the way our money is spent truly allows us to build the life we desire. Yet, the life we desire has no fundamental need to exceed our income. We can seek to communally share expensive items among groups of friends while changing lifestyle choices to reduce our dependence on purchased items or monthly fees. Sure, my smartphone has a cool touchscreen and it can take pictures but I’ve found the functionality superfluous, it dosen’t support my life goals. After my contract ends I’ll be retreating to a less expensive solution. I have the income to support a parking space downtown but I would rather ride the bus because it is a viable alternative (even though a slightly less convenient one). But often when we make less financially independent decisions we must rely on others and in that reliance we gain a relationship of equal exchanges for a greater goal.
Americans are known for living beyond their means. It's been engrained in our culture with how much credit card debt most of us are in and the constant advertising of the latest and greatest gadget... I think it's great insight to think beyond the here and now and look towards a larger goal. To really look at the quality of our interactions and the use of our words and our finances and figuring out how that is reaching our goals.
One area that I really want to work on is supporting local food and companies. I am terrible about going to major chain restaurants, grocery stores and other companies. Granted, when I'm strapped for cash sometimes this is the best option for my budget. But if I made more conscious effort to change my spending habits like Justin's example above, maybe I'd have more room to actually achieve that goal. So it's good things to think about, reflect upon and figure out how to put into action.
What do you value? How are you portraying that in your words? In what companies you support with your money?
Hi, I'm Rosie Reilman! Welcome to my blog. This is where I talk about my thoughts on social networking, leadership, recruitment advertising, photography, and anything else that strikes my fancy.
