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To Think

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To Think –

I am currently teaching a men’s class on Wednesday evenings in a city that’s an hour away from home. This means on Wednesday afternoon and evening I have a bit of time on my hands. I spent most of it yesterday talking with fathers on the phone. A couple of hours to myself gives me time to think about my day, week, schedule and the materials I will be teaching and how the class went on the way back.

Thinking is a balancing act for someone like me with a Severe Anxiety Disorder. If I’m not careful thinking can turn to rumination and going over and over a situation, interaction, occasion in my mind. I described it one time to my therapist; “My over-thinking is like bubblegum. You chew on it and for a while, you get something tasty. Soon, however, all the flavor is gone and you’re chewing a piece of wet rubber.” I try to be aware of my thoughts and if I’m fixating on a particular subject. When I catch myself I turn on the radio, a podcast or music.

Wisdom tells us; “We cannot stop thoughts from entering the door of our minds
but we do not have to serve them tea.“

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

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Taking Up Space

Jun 12

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Taking Up Space –

I have a friend who has a boss who is a pain! At least that’s how they describe him. He’s often in the staff’s way, interrupting staff’s conversations with co-workers and clients, calling last-minute meetings, forcing staff to take late, early, shortened lunches and breaks. My friend is a good employee and enjoys their job and interaction with the customers but this boss makes the job unbearable at times. I told my friend that this guy doesn’t seem easy to work for but also noticed he was creeping into other conversations and being complained about excessively. “Be careful,’ I said, ‘not to let this guy take up space in your head.”

It’s easy to let other people, things, difficulties, hardships rent a place in our noggin. These are issues we must deal with, live with and are forced to confront. However, if we aren’t careful, aware, they can begin to invade the other parts of our lives. We ruminate, stew, in our negative thoughts and this takes energy and a toll on us physically, emotionally and spiritually. Learning how to deal with problems, finding solutions that help us keep them from encroaching in unwanted areas, takes wisdom, practice and awareness.

“Keep the doors to your mind open. Let problems come and go. Do not serve them tea.”
-author unknown

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Mental Health

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Tags: ##servethemtea, #aware, #awareness, #Becareful, #begin, #blessings, #boss, #comeandgo, #complained, #confront, #conversations, #creeping, #dealwith, #describe, #difficulties, #easy, #easytowork, #emotionally, #employee, #encroaching, #enjoys, #excessively, #findingsolutions, #forced, #forcing, #good, #hardships, #head, #helpuskeep, #interaction, #interrupting, #invade, #issues, #last-minute, #learning, #livewith, #meetings, #mindopen, #negativethoughts, #noggin, #noticed, #otherparts, #pain, #physically, #practice, #problems, #rentaplace, #ruminate, #spiritually, #stew, #takeupspace, #TakingUpSpace, #thewannabesaint.com, #things, #toll, #unbearable, #unwanted, #wisdom, @BrianLoging, Energy, People

Tender Touch

Mar 11

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

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Tender Touch –

I washed a friend’s hair today. That’s a sentence most people don’t type often. It was an interesting experience. Washing my hair isn’t nearly as exciting. I think it’s because I don’t have much hair but also because I do it almost every day. I know how hot I like the water, the amount of shampoo I need, the best way to move my hands and arms so I can do a good and quick job, the pressure it takes to get my head and hair clean but not so hard I hurt myself. When washing another’s hair you aren’t sure about any of these things so you are more hesitant, you listen to their instructions intently, careful you are cleaning their head and hair but not scrubbing their scalp off! I did a decent job, spilling some water on their shirt, needed more shampoo because they actually have hair, but overall they were a satisfied client.

Human interaction comes in all shapes and sizes. We connect with each other in a variety of ways. Hopefully, we come out the better for it afterward. Often we take these joinings for granted. We interact with each other and forget how important these linkings are to who and what we are and become. It’s a delicate dance to make sure we don’t violate each other’s space and move together allowing each one to lead and follow, instruct and listen, b secure enough in the relationship to simply be or change entirely.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #actually, #afterward, #allowing, #almost, #amount, #arms, #become, #best, #better, #blessings, #careful, #change, #cleaning, #client, #connect, #dance, #decent, #delicate, #each, #eachother, #entirely, #exciting, #experience, #follow, #forget, #good, #granted, #hands, #hesitant, #hopefully, #human, #hurt, #important, #instruct, #instructions, #intently, #interact, #interaction, #interesting, #joinings, #linkings, #move, #need, #needed, #often, #other, #pressure, #quick, #satisfied, #secure, #shapes, #simply, #sizes, #space, #spilling, #tender, #tendertouch, #thewannabesaint.com, #think, #together, #touch, #variety, #violate, #washing, #water, #way, #ways, @BrianLoging, Lead, Listen, People, Relationship

Life Lost

Feb 26

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Life Lost –

Today, I stopped by Wal-Mart for a couple of items and headed to the checkout area. I had my choice of a person checking me out or self-checkout. The self-checkout had a couple of registers open so I chose one of them. I wasn’t in a hurry, didn’t have an appointment to go to or a schedule to stay on top of, it was simply faster and mindlessly I chose it. Instead of human interaction, an opportunity to say a kind word to a cashier, a chance to stand in line and share a smile, I went with the quickest and the most isolated.

These are the choices we face in our culture. We are able to order online, having most items shipped for free or close to it to our homes, open our doors and live without interaction, relating, or sharing our lives with one another.

At a time when communication is easier than it has ever been in the history of humankind, we are lonely. In a world full of hurting and wounded people we look in another direction to avoid seeing them. On a journey we should be making together we prefer to travel alone. Instead of caring for one another we see the other as a burden to carry.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #able, #alone, #appointment, #blessings, #burden, #caring, #carry, #chance, #checkout, #choice, #chose, #communication, #direction, #easier, #face, #faster, #full, #human, #humankind, #hurry, #hurting, #interaction, #isolated, #journey, #kind, #kindword, #life, #lifelost, #live, #lonely, #lost, #mindlessly, #oneanother, #online, #opportunity, #person, #prefer, #quickest, #relating, #schedule, #self-checkout, #share, #sharing, #shipped, #simply, #smile, #step, #time, #together, #word, #wounded, Culture, History, People, Travel, World

Open for Change

Nov 9

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

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Open for Change –

Yesterday I was getting ready to go teach a class and as I was getting y shoes and belt together I stubbed my toe on a box fan. It hurt and when I yelled; “Ow!” our Siberian Husky Trooper came to investigate and ended up underneath my feet. My first reaction was to turn my pain and frustration on him. “Trooper! Get out of the way! Go to your bed!” These sentences were on the tip of my tongue but I stopped them before they came out. It wasn’t him that wasn’t paying attention, not looking where he was going, was in a hurry and should have slowed down taking a more time. That was me. So, at first through clenched teeth I said in the sweetest voice I could muster; “Troop, why don’t you go back to your bed.” He did and I rubbed my toes until they felt better.

The class lesson was on being; “Open for Change” when we communicate and interact with each other. Two of the core principles are; “Realizing changing for the better starts with you, not the other person.” The second is; “Be open to criticism.” In other words, communication, and interaction require a willingness to be corrected, told how you can become a better person. Too often we stop listening when someone begins to criticize when perhaps that’s when we should listen the most intently.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #beopen, #better, #change, #changing, #communicate, #communication, #core, #corrected, #criticism, #criticize, #feltbetter, #frustration, #intently, #interact, #interaction, #lesson, #listening, #open, #pain, #payingattention, #person, #principles, #reaction, #realizing, #require, #sentences, #sloweddown, #startswithyou, #tongue, #willingness

TheWannabeSaint.com

Essentialist, contemplative, author, advocate

Blog Archives

To Think

Taking Up Space

Tender Touch

Open for Change

Brian Loging, OSBO

@BrianLoging

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TheWannabeSaint.com

Essentialist, contemplative, author, advocate

Blog Archives

To Think

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Taking Up Space

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Tender Touch

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Life Lost

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Open for Change

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Brian Loging, OSBO

@BrianLoging

Recent Articles

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