• I am more productive
• I have more tranquility in the morning: save myself from hurry and indecision.
• I have time for a morning devotional time
• I feel better about myself, and don’t feel so sluggish.

It’s high time for me to make this a habit.

“Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.”

Shaquille O’Neal

I found some motivation to make this a habit in Benedict’s Rule.

‘Let us therefore now at length rise up as the Scripture incites us when it says: “Now is the hour for us to arise from sleep.” And with our eyes open to the divine light, let us with astonished ears listen to the admonition of God’s voice daily crying out (…)Run while ye have the light of life, that the shades of death envelop you not.’

The Benedictine monks have a strict daily routine, started off daily with getting up early. When I was on a Benedictine retreat, I got to experience some of the benefits these monks have of:
a) rising early
b) rising the same time everyday
c) rising with a purpose

I felt so empowered, focused and proactive.
But why is it to hard for me to get up then everyday?

There’ve been times when my life wasn’t so happy and peaceful as it was right now in my 30s. As a kid, I used to have stomach aches in the morning, because I didn’t want to go to school. That’s where I learned that to snooze under the warm cozy fluffy covers was the safe thing to do.
Not anymore! I’m not in fear of anything or anyone anymore in the morning. I am able to live now! Nowadays, I have so much to look forward to:

• My Chihuahua dog greeting me heartily, like I’ve been away for two months.
• Writing with passion.
• Experiencing another start of the day: with new possibility, new strength and a clean slate.
• Connecting with God and receiving guidance.
• An awesome breakfast with a nearly perfect cappuccino or caffe latte, from my espresso machine with electric milk heater/foamer.

There is absolutely no reason to stay in the safety of my bed anymore, my life is better than it ever has been and I want to honor that life, and the Creator who gave it to me, by getting up without complaining, full of gratitude.

You snooze you lose. Live now, procrastinate later.-

Karen Salmansohn

I love quotes, they inspire me and motivate me.

My goal is to get up this week six days out of seven at 7:00. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Tips and tricks I’m gonna use:

• setting my alarm in the evening to go to bed on time
• setting my alarm clock in the morning at 7:00 (outside of my bedroom!)
• Cold-turkey rising: no snoozin’! get going immediately
• Sharing with others about it, to hold myself accountable.
• Choosing one indulgence to do for 15 minutes as a reward when I get up (for example: playing with Pinterest or Listography) as an immediate reward. Yes folks, that’s the way my brain works: instant gratification!

Please take a minute to leave a comment below, I’d really appreciate it!

And if you’d like to follow my blog, go ahead and sign up for the e-mail list or via rss. Thanks for supporting me that way!

love and peace,

Ester

You can also find me on: Facebook or Twitter.

2 more inspirational getting-up-in-the-morning quotes:

‘In he morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present- I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?’ -

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations

”Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others (…)” -

the Dalai Lama

Dear ladies,

Know that you are not alone when suddenly you want to rip someone’s head of, kick in a door, scream at your hubbie or are in puddles when you see a dead bird on the street, when all you wanna do is lie in bed, feel sorry for yourself or binge on all things sugar….and feel like a bloated hippo afterward.

Every month, a week before the Flo hits us, we become bitchy, bawling beasts: doctors call it simply: PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome), but with us and our significant others it is also known as:

Pretty Much Screwed
Potentially More Scary
Pouting, Moaning & Sleepy
Period Men Suffer
Poor Me Syndrom

On a more serious note, there’s also a more severe version of PMS called PMDD: Pre Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder*, where PMS really starts to interfere with your work, home or health. Sort of: PMS on steroids.
Symptoms include:

• markedly depressed mood, feelings of hopelessness, or self-deprecating thoughts
• marked anxiety, tension, feelings of being “keyed up” or “on edge”
• marked affective lability (e.g., feeling suddenly sad or tearful or increased sensitivity to rejection)
• persistent and marked anger or irritability or increased interpersonal conflicts
• decreased interest in usual activities (e.g., blogging, household, friends, hobbies)
• subjective sense of difficulty in concentrating
• lethargy, easy fatigability, or marked lack of energy
• marked change in appetite, overeating, or specific food cravings (sugar)
• hypersomnia or insomnia
• a subjective sense of being overwhelmed or out of control
• other physical symptoms, such as breast tenderness or swelling, headaches, joint or muscle pain, a sensation of bloating,” weight gain*

Even though with ‘regular PMS’ you have somewhat milder symptoms than the ones above: This ‘ain’t no fun’!

But there is hope, my sister!

After having been completely harrassed by the PMS-monster for the umptieth time, I decided it was time for action! (do you also hear ‘Eye of the Tiger’ playing or is that just my imagination?)

I turned the internet upside down and read a lot of stories from women with the same experiences as me.
Here are my suggestions for you! Take what you like and leave the rest.

• STOP – take a breath
• Pray for help / meditate
• Awareness Acceptance and Surrender!
• Try and enjoy a moment for yourself
• Track your pms-symptoms on a pms-tracker online and put a reminder on the estimated first day of your pms.
• Take it easy on the sugar and flour, ESPECIALLY CHOCOLATE
• Dress nicely even if you don’t feel like it.
• Only one cup of coffee a day, if you’re a regular coffee-gourmet like me
• Take candle-lit baths, loads of them: with organic or natural products or with essential oils like lavender to soothe and calm, or citrussy stuff like orange, red mandarin, grapefruit or bergamot to lift your mood**
• Stick to your daily routines even more now. You need structure to keep you sane. You can find wonderful, empowering and heartwarming tips from Flylady on the internet. ‘Fly’ stands for Finally Loving Yourself.
• Talk to other women to vent your emotions and don’t throw it all on your significant other / hubbie or journal.
• Place your expectations of yourself way lower for this period of time.
• Get some fresh air AND MOVE (dog-walking is awesome).
• Don’t handle difficult stuff: just postpone it if possible and put a reminder for your post period days to make an important decision or change.
• Play! Be creative: draw self-encouraging images or texts on paper, do origami for beginners, sew something easy and fun, read calming, inspiring books or websites.
• Stick to a healthy diet: lots of veggies, fruit, protein, complex carbs, and good fats (with healthy omegas*).
• Cuddle dog or bunnies, any animal is fine als long as it is soft and cuddly. (I mean, don’t try this with your goldfish).
• Listen to upbeat or calming music (no depressing stuff please.)
• Watch funny movies. Here’s a list.

Let me know what works for you!

Leave a comment below, on Twitter or on Facebook.

Don’t forget:

And this is for the men:

Dear men/ significant others,

• Awareness Acceptance Surrender!
• Set a reminder for when the Party begins (awareness).
• Accept your wife/partner fully (acceptance).
• Surrender to the fact that she is human and female and that it has a lot of upsides and unfortunately one downside but that it is the way it is (surrender).
• Be supportive
• Be sweet but don’t try to fix your quirky pms-princess; keep setting boundaries.
• Stay out of her way when she is cranky.
• Hide your chocolate stash extremely well!!!!
• Don’t talk about finances, difficult decisions or changes, wait until IT has passed.
• Say ‘I love you’ a little bit more often and ‘I am proud of you’.
• Use humour.
• Draw little sheep for her on paper or sticky notes (pms sheep).
• Give her a little present now and then

Thanks for being there for her: you are a ray of light to her and remember that this grumpy wild cat will return to her fluffy cuddly kitty-self after this is over.
You can do this!

* I am NOT a doctor, so please see your g.p. for any medical advice/treatment on pms/pmdd, this blog article is only written from a layman’s perspective, a fellow pms-sufferer.

** Be careful with essential oils if you’re pregnant, always consult a doctor first

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,300 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

lorianderson-quotes.blogspot.com

Lately I have been struggling greatly with Procrastination and Perfectionism. I seem to just flatline when I’m thinking I either have to be perfect or just sit in my chair, stare, do nothing and feel bad about myself. Good or bad, black or white.

Today I read something very fantastic in a daily email from www.flylady.com.
Let me first say that Flylady (FLY stands for Finally Loving Yourself) is a sweethearted lady who helps you manage your home again in tiny babysteps, while loving yourself instead of beating yourself up.
It is a very fun website with incredibly helpful tools and I am currently doing the beginner babysteps of housecleaning & organizing, to keep me from getting into the Procrastination and Perfectionism cycle.

So today I read this awesome entry about there being two other P’s associated with Perfectionism and Procrastination, so all credit for the 4-P idea goes to Karen, a Flybaby from Tennessee and to Flylady for her advice and resources.(I’ve also added a fifth P)

Pride

The first P Karen says is for Pride, which wants you to set too high standards for myself (oh yeah baby!). I tend to do that a lot with household stuff, or my to-dolist for the day or week. I always cram in way too many things.

Perfectionism

The second P is Perfectionism, which is the result of setting the bar too high in the first place. With me this is closely related to never feeling good enough. It’s definitely gotten better the last years, but when I am hungry, angry, lonely or tired, or (God forbid) PMS-ing (you ladies know what I’m talkin’ ’bout…), then I tend to slide back to this horrible P to try to regain control my life (of course, in vain).

“You cannot open a flower with a sledgehammer” -

Bob Wilson

Pressure

The third P is the inevitable selfdestructive Pressure you’ll be on then, resulting in negative self-talk, spiraling down to feeling like crap and behaving that way as well.

Procrastination

Fourthly there’s mr. Procrastination. Now I think there’s good and bad Procrastination. Good Procrastination is letting your mind wander, daydream, do nothing and get creative.

Bad Procrastination is the result of negative self-talk, self-condemnation, being stuck in a irrealisticly high expectation of yourself, perfectionistically disabling yourself from doing ANYthing ANYmore.

In this state (where I was in yesterday afternoon) my muscles turn to jell-o, and I feel like a boneless chicken , not able to think, not able to move, I was even crying out of sheer self-imposed helplessness and inertia.

Punishment

At rock bottom of this process I’d add a final and utterly sad fifth P: Punishment of myself. That’s when you actively start thinking horrible thoughts about yourself and punishing yourself in your thoughts.

Like:
“I am good for nothing; I cannot do anything right; I am worthless; I am lazy ; I am a bad person, I am not worth being on this planet.”
Recognize those bugger-thoughts?Time to turn it round!

I know that these negative thoughts are so self-destructive, they prevent me from being the me I am supposed to be, they increase my stress levels, decrease my quality of life.
Who am I to say that I am not good? I am God’s beloved creation!

Awareness, Acceptance, Action

But I know that if I am to beat this nasty P-cycle, I first have to be aware they are there, drink a cup of acceptance-tea with them, gently usher them out of the door and start praying to my God and saying healing and healthy thoughts to myself (action).

Now be nice to yourselves today and go replace them nasty P-s with nice ones!

Patience, Pleasure, Potential, Pampering, Pleased, Peacefulness, Prayer, Passion, Perseverance, Peace, Possibility, Positivity, Praise, Pureness, Playfulness and you are PRECIOUS!

If you like what you read, please take a minute to leave a comment below, follow me on Twitter or visit my Facebook page. Thank you! Spread the positive word!

Take a breath and hand it over

Lately I have been haunted by a feeling of lack of time, life slipping through my fingers. I was browsing to much aimless minutes and hours on the internet without creating something, I felt dry inside.

Then I applied the S.T.O.P.- technique: Step back, Take a breath, Observe and Proceed. I noticed my feelings by being mindful of them: I felt restless, irritable, discontent, tired and emotional.

Hurry keeps you away from feeling, emotionally and physically. The body is slow, feeling takes time. –

Rob Brandsma

I handed them over to my Higher Power whom I call God. I parked it at his Divine parking lot and waited for answers on what to change.
I started cutting down on my aimless browsing and devoted that time to creating, which made me feel more spiritually alive

Park your guilt elsewhere

Yet a feeling of guilt about accomplishing too little in a week kept nagging me, thereby locking me in a vicious circle of blocking even more.

Over the years I noticed that fear (false evidence appearing real) and guilt (go under in lame thoughts) never brought me anywhere except in misery and life block (an insidious variation on the famous writer’s block). They also lead me into my dreaded enemies procrastination and his comrade fear of failing….
This is what I did: I acknowledged my guilt, parked it again in the Mighty parking lot and waited as patiently as I could.

Rest!

One important thing was bugging me: a feeling of exhaustion.
I can be succinct about what I did about it: If I feel physically tired: I REST. It helped to clear the sky in a very lovely way. I had a siesta of a whooping 3 hours this afternoon. What a luxury!

I slowed down, became mindful: also by rigourously single-tasking, handed over the guilt and monkey busy-ness, started to create again and took it easy, so things really shifted for me today. I feel more rested, more clear-headed, more serene, more connected to what’s good and wise and I am more happy.

How hard can it be to stick to my inspirational Bible reading everyday! No time, too tired, no patience, bad concentration, ‘naah, I don’t want to read the line of descendants, or Leviticus: it’s all too tedious!’ and the biggest deception: I can live my life in my own strength, I don’t really need this old book anyway…

Since 2006, I have been listening to the Daily Audio Bible (DAB) on the internet or on my mp3-player or iPod. Lying in bed, listening to Brian Hardin reading the Bible to me, with his slightly husky, friendly and soothing voice to a backdrop of calming meditational music and adding great little devotionals at the end of each podcast.

I witnessed the DAB growing from being one guy behind a mic with a few hundred listeners, to a movement of faith, community and mission with the daily Scripture reading in its epicenter.
Currently there are DAB podcasts in English, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish…DAB podcast for kids (English) and DAB Proverbs.
So many lives are being touched continuously and increasingly by the Word of God. Prayer is going around the world around the clock via ‘the Windfarm‘, the prayer and worship network of DAB (with a radio channel).
The internet forums are lively and crowded with people from all over the world, every nation, every tongue praying for each other, giving out encouragement and hope, spreading the gospel to one another, being family.

God is using the internet and new technologies for His glory. Brian just obeyed, when God told him in 2005 to go podcast the Bible.

Daily Audio Bible and its community have meant so much in my life, but suddenly, 1,5 years ago I stopped listening and my faith life had reached a very dry season. I withdrew slowly from Jesus and my life became increasingly self-destructive and painful. Something had to change.
A few months ago I started praying again and reading some snippets of the Bible, it was a good start…

A few weeks ago I got an email from an American DAB family member asking me to organize a DAB family get-together at Schiphol Airport Amsterdam (where I live), because Brian and his awesome wife Jill would be having a lay-over before returning to their home in the US, as well as Mike and Jason from the mission’s team. They were just returning from a mission in Africa.

And so it happened. It was a truly warm and inspirational and loving encounter with the DAB leader Brian and I also loved meeting awesome sister Jill for the first time. She is an amazing singer (Jill Parr – Me again) and her lyrics have helped me through many times.
Humble, loving, caring and sweet I found the both of them.

Family members from all across Europe flew in or drove by: from Scotland, England, Germany and the Netherlands.
Instantaneous connection took place, hugs were exchanged.

It was short but sweet!

I am so happy to be part of this community (again)! Yesterday I recommitted to listening to the DAB podcast. I was walking with my dog along a typical Dutch landscape: water, windmills (Windfarm!) and grass, with a backdrop of a fiery, passionately red sunsetting glow spun out across the sky.
I felt the Holy Spirit really living in me and moving me once again, washing over me and rekindling in me the love of Jesus and His living Word.

You won’t regret it if you’ll give it a try to listen.
Go to www.dailyaudiobible.com

‘After a week you’ll notice something shifting inside. After a month you’ll WANT to be in the Bible. After a year you won’t look in the mirror and see the same person. You will have been changed from the inside out.’

Please leave a question or comment below, suscribe to this blog via email or rss, or forward a link to this blog to people who might like it. Thanks so much! God bless.

1. She doesn’t even think about the past, although I adopted her from Canary Islands and she didn’t have a past of roses and doggiebones.
2. The thing that makes her most happy is being together with her two bosses Martin and Ester. When the pack is complete she goes bonkers with joy!
3. When she is tired she naps.
4. She loves routines and cosy dogbaskets or fluffy pillows.
5. She doesn’t think about the future much, that I know of anyway…
6. She certainly does not care about what other people may think of her!

Yesterday it all came together:
Martin, Kiara and I went upstairs to our guest/study/movie-room to watch the BBC documentary ‘Life’. As we lay on the guest bed, Kiara snuggled tightly between our legs and went into a deep doggie meditated relaxation. Snout down in the pillows and blankies.
It was so peaceful for us: the documentary, the cosy relaxed dog, romantic us. Really simple life, mindful en enjoying every minute!

Please leave a comment below or tweet me, I’d really appreciate that. What do you do to be mindful and have a simple life?

If you’re Dutch, check out my Dutch blog Groen en Lief.

Related post: about me and my rabbits: ” The spiritual power of next action thinking”.

The drawing is from awesome artist Edward Monkton. Do visit his site!

The first tip I want to share with you is how I went from being an exhausted house-mover, box-unpacker, mess-organiser to a content, mindful, rested and reasonably sane individual.
Here are the 2 key ingredients:

#1
After hitting my toe against a box, being grumpy to my dear hubbie and being crazy with exhaustion, I ran a tub full of water, stepped in, popped a Lush Bath Ballistic in it and bathed (what a luxury to even have a tub at all!!)
I even did some breathing meditation…
But!… It was no ordinary bath ball! It was the Big Blue:
Read with me and shiver with pleasure and ‘zen-ness’.

Lemon, lavender and seaweed for clear thoughts. Have you ever hankered for a minimalist space with plain walls, wooden floors, no mess, no clutter and no distractions? Escape into a world of pure, uncluttered thought by dropping a Big Blue into the bath. Lemon and lavender oils help to clear your mind, complete with skin-softening seaweed and sea salt to help you float away in your own warm, blue ocean of inspiration. (Lush)

Aaaahhh, only reading these promises beforehand made my sorry mind calmer already.

#2
Sleep

Do try this at home and tell me what you think of it!
Do you have any more ‘zen’ bathing tips?

Drop me a line in the comment section or tweet me.

At 34, I’ve come to a point where I get to lead this life for real! Ok, admittedly my handsome knight has no shining armor but dresses in casual clothing, the guinea pig farm has turned out to be a very sweet dog and two rabbits and the castle is a beautiful two storey house, a real home for me and my family (I count my pets also as my family of course).

So, now that we got this dream house, there’s the unavoidable hurdle – or challenge – of MOVING!!

On the 9th of July we’ll be moving out of our old 1 bedroom lower ground apartment! I’ve moved quite a few times over the past 16 years: I believe this will be my 9th or 10th within Amsterdam alone.

My past experiences with it have been so stressful, but this time I’m learning to live one day at a time and that takes the pressure off quite a bit.
Also, this time around I will be moving TOGETHER with my fabulous handyman-carpenter-gardener-painter-whole driller-wall filler-money accounting-drop dead gorgeous husband, who of course takes a lot of work out of my hands so I can concentrate on doing what I do best: decluttering my stuff and packing it.(oh..and buying a lot of nice new or second hand things for the house…) and revamping old furniture.

3 Tips for  relaxed, green, social and fun moving and furnishing

#1
Do the stuff YOU do best and ask your friends, family, friendly coworkers, husband/partner and others to come and help you with things THEY are good at and give them a chance to shine.
For example: my dad is an excellent furniture upholsterer and he makes great carpet linings for staircases, so we asked him for that.

Others have ample muscle power and are glad to help you with carrying boxes in and out of the van and heaving them to the attic.

Be sure though to provide for loads of tea, coffee, lemonaded water, sandwiches and succulent homemade apple-pie (my hubbie makes a great one!!)

#2
Buy used furniture from a second hand store and paint it and treat it with a nice redoing of the fabrics. It is so much fun to go hunting for what you need and conjuring up creative plans to revamp the furniture, whilst being green&sustainable by giving it a second life.
Sandpapering and painting are very mindful stress reducing activities and there’s no hurry because you can also sit on the other chairs while you’re redoing one of them. One chair at a time…

#3
Get up in the morning, think about what you are inspired about and go do just that. Being excited about your task or challenge is a good way to beat procrastinating and leaking a lot of valuable energy to resisting tasks.

Yesterday I got in a decluttering frenzy. It’s like a snowball, once it’s rolling it’s unstoppable and I declutter effortlessly. Once I sit down, the magic of the flow is gone and I have to rest and then build momentum for the next amazing thing to do#
Stay in the moment, stay in the day.

The last important thing I want to share with you today: drink a coffee in the morning and don’t forget to laugh about the things that unavoidably don’t go according to  plan! Don’t take moving house so seriously…..let alone yourself!

Please leave a comment below, ask questions or give me suggestions for new topics. You can also do that on Twitter.

# if you want to know more about this way of living life, read Focus by Leo Babauta.