Fantastic, Fun Fridays

Ok, so the title is a work in progress. How about we put that behind us for a moment (but if you have suggestions, feel free to send them my way!), ok? So, let's be honest. By the time Friday rolls around, most of us don't want to read a heavy or heady post...we're looking for something fun. In that vain, I'm trying to develop a regular theme for my Friday's post. I'm still trying to decide all that I want to include. However, over the last few weeks, I've slowly added my "life's tiny delights"posts on Fridays, and I'm trying to think about how I want to expand this. Anything you'd like to see on Fridays.

To recap, here are some of my Life's Tiny Delights Friday Posts:

• Life's Tiny Delights: Enjoying Nature
• Life's Tiny Delights: Froyo
• Life's Tiny Delights: An Intro

Ok, now that you have a little history on the development of life's tiny delights, and growing the practice of mindfulness from moment, let's move on to a current tiny delight of mine. 

As we're busy with our to do lists and worries in life, we forget to look around and enjoy the things we are seeing in the present moment. As I was walking quickly down a street last week, I saw this little tomato plant out of the corner of my eye. I did a double take, and decided to stop and enjoy the scene. It's quaint, isn't it? I stood there and imagined different activities I could do there (coffee with friends, reading a book, or blogging to name a few!), and I found myself feeling incredibly relaxed and peaceful. 

Everyone loves looking at the fun search terms that brought people to their blog...right? I certainly love seeing what others post. I think it's also interesting to see the reoccurring subjects that regularly bring people to the blog. That being said, here are a few funny phrases that people searched and found my blog:

• chobani and activia in the same day too much (hmmm...I wonder what they were experiencing that lead them to type that...?)
• i am a fellow traveler (leading me to think...a fellow traveler in what?)
• tips for surviving the holiday lights (why do we need to survive holiday lights? Is there a chance for attack? Are they a danger? :) I'm pretty sure google took that as holiday fights...a post I did during the Christmas season. 
• identifying cognitive distortions list. (this is a very common keyword search. If you haven't read those posts yet, check them out!). 

Alright, that's all for this Friday.

Now here's what I'd like to know from you: What's the funniest keyword that has been searched on your blog this week? What would you like to see as part of a light & fun Friday post? 

FROYO: Life's Tiny Delights

Remember my post last month on Life's Tiny Delights? If you're too lazy to check the post out (hey- I don't blame you- It's FRIDAY!), I'll really quickly summarize: We get busy in life, and tend to look forward to the "big things" in life. All the while, we miss all the tiny joys in life. What if we took note of the little delights in life, became mindful of them, and took joy in these things as well.

After reading for the last few months about the frozen yogurt experiences of many blog writers, I finally had the chance to try it out for myself last weekend. Trust me, I thought of very little else the entire day leading up to the event:) The yogurt place I went to had at least 20 different flavors of yogurt and sorbet from which to choose. After filling my cup up with watermelon sorbet with a little cake batter on the side, I walked over to a long row of toppings, plus a salad bar like counter full of fresh cut up fruit. If I could eat this every day, I absolutely would.

Yup- that's fresh strawberries, pineapple, kiwi, and mango, along with brownies, cookie dough chunks, and coconut flakes. And of course topped with sprinkles. Because everything is better with sprinkles.
While the person I was with inhaled their froyo, I took my time, mindfully savoring every bite as a tiny delight in life. It was delicious.

A healthy and happy Christmas

Well, Christmas has come and gone now. I must admit, I was fairly apprehensive about the day leading up to it. My family is incredibly into traditions, so we've done Christmas pretty much the exact same way for the last 2 decades. However, due to a set of very unfortunate circumstances, we were not able to celebrate Christmas the way we normally do. As a counselor, I understand that mentally the way to deal with this is to initiate some positive thinking, and challenge the cognitive distortions that I so quickly say to myself (This will be a miserable Christmas, there's no way we can have fun, it's terrible, etc...). We each easily distort reality, which makes things far worse and miserable for ourselves. So, I started telling myself I would have a good Christmas. It was unfortunate that we couldn't celebrate the way we normally do, but it can still be fun. And guess what?
I HAD A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS! It was an absolutely wonderful day. We stayed in our pjs until dinner, opened gifts really slowly, enjoying the time we had as a family. The Christmas lights, snow outside, and the fire roaring in the fireplace created a beautiful ambiance, and the day was filled with laughter and joking. Had I not challenged those cognitive distortions, the day would not have been nearly as fun. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the day. I still wish that the set of circumstances had not occurred, but I'm thankful for the wonderful day with family that I had. And I have to say, because I was so aware of my thoughts, I think this was the most healthy Christmas I've ever had!

 I hope that each of you, my readers, had a wonderful day with your family and friends. Remember to fight those cognitive distortions that can so easily take over and put us in a grouchy mood:) Merry Christmas.

 I love Christmas lights at night-SO beautiful

Santa always "drops a present from his sleigh" leaving our house:) The youngest child is required to go get it:)