Monthly Archives: February 2015

My Change For A Ten Charities

Added the charities I’ve helped to my site

If you read about why I launched this site (look at this post), one of the reasons was to tie my own weight-loss efforts to charities in the communities I live in. I decided to make that more clear to new readers by adding a sidebar of charities I’ve worked with on the right side of my page; you can see the charities there, with links to their homepages. I’ll be adding a new charity soon, as well.

Overall, things are good. It was a hectic weekend and I’m still struggling to get my schedule completely in line with what I want. I feel better about the direction that’s headed in, though. My husband has been stressed at work but that is also getting better. And, as always, I’m staying true to my Melissa Bender Fitness workouts. That first trapeze class experience is only a few months away.

I’ll be back with more later this week. I hope everything is doing great.

Love and light.

Namaste’

Be Happy Rose Bailey

Simple but profound advice: Be happy

(Sorry I haven’t blogged in a little while. We’re still adjusting to northern California and I’ve been busy with work, some new poetry projects, and of course, the fabulous Melissa Bender workouts. Later this weekend I plan to add a list of charities that I’ve helped through this My Change For A Ten project, and I’ll be back to blogging more next week. Thank you, as always, for reading.)

The Dalai Lama says, quite simply, that the purpose of life is to be happy.

To be happy. What a wonderful concept. We are all chasing down happiness. Is there happiness in material gains? Happiness in what we achieve and how we go about doing it? Sometimes if we spend a life chasing happiness down the wrong ally we end up smack face in a dead end with nowhere to go. My friend Ted wrote about this a few times on his blog, including the idea of “being content” and the idea that happiness is actually a U-Curve.I believe happiness is love, and loving others and all creatures of the universe. Happiness can be found in nature and not a mall. Happiness is giving to others and spending out days creating rather than spending. (That’s basically why I started this blog!) Yes, the whole discussion of money and happiness is an old one. Money does offer freedom and with that freedom there are less stresses about security for the future and more time to do the endeavors you are passionate about. I get the importance of financial freedom. When that green piece of paper becomes the only thing you strive for then it becomes more of an empty goal even if your bank account is full. Balance is one of the keys to happiness. Dive into crystal clear waters, climb a tree.  Worry less, smile more.

Sometimes it takes a mere reminder to let you know how lucky you really are to be alive.I was sitting at the train station, listening to my music when my vision caught a sight from across the tracks. It was a woman in a wheel chair who obviously had no movement in any of her limbs, her companion and their adoring dog. As I sat and watched this family interact with one another, I was reminded what unconditional love is all about. I watched the lady smile from ear to ear as the man gave her a sip of something cool to drink, and the dog vying for both of their attention. The epitome’ of love and family. I was not the only one that was watching, it was apparent that this moment did not go unnoticed by the commuters surrounding me. A beautiful and poignant lesson to remind me and others of the power of life and love.
Moments like this make me realize why I love to help others, and that giving back is so rewarding. Everyone deserves to be loved and appreciated, and we are all the same connected to the core that is our humanity. I admit the last weeks have been difficult, and I have challenges I am trying to overcome. But such a moment makes me realize my challenges are just minor glitches in an otherwise life full of much abundance. My challenges can be overcome, and I am here to make a difference and help others with their larger and more monumental challenges in life.
This reminds me why I chose to combine my weight loss endeavors with giving back to society. I already enjoyed helping others, but I needed to help myself become healthy again and I feel it was the perfect marriage of giving to myself and giving back. In the process I have met myself.
I am working on my latest charity and I will announce when I am on my way to deliver what I have collected. I am keeping quiet until I am on my way, since I want to make sure everything goes as planned.
Glitches in life are just that, tests to see how we will react. It is how we overcome such snafus in life that show our true character. Today I am happy. I am breathing, I have a roof over my head and a warm cup of coffee to sooth my soul. I am happy I have a cold and not anything more detrimental. I am happy my challenges can be overcome, and I am healthy enough to give back to others who need it most. I will just be.
Be Happy.
Namaste’
Rose Bruno Bailey Poem

How do you make a bad mood good again?

Before my move to San Francisco, I had a lot of alone time — since my husband James moved a month before me. I did a lot of reading (which I always love to do). I read the book The Happiness Project by Gretchin Rubin. She took a year and found personal ways to make her life happier, and she blogged about her journey and wrote a book. Her journey was not unlike what I do about my fitness/weight loss/charity journey. I loved the book and learned a lot about the search for happiness.

It never escapes me that many people are out in the world dealing with sadness and depression. Some of us are just dealing with what I like to call situational sadness: the blues that comes on briefly (or sometimes not so briefly) related to a life issue that is not too severe but still wrecks havoc on your daily mood. For some it may be work, or the struggles of the mundane realities of life and living; stress.  I am not speaking of the bigger issues of life, but the small but seemingly monumental moments that take us to a place we may not wish to go.

I have five things I do to chase the blues away and get back to being me, in love with life and living.

1. Take care of your temple, your soul vessel, your body. Get some sleep, and get some exercise and eat right. These things combined will do so much for your mood. Sleep is a no brainer, when I am well rested everything else just comes so easy. Endorphins? It is a fact that exercise raises your happy hormones and ups the ante on your mood. Eat right, and lose weight if need be, I have noticed such a change in myself, my mood, and my self esteem since I have lost over 45 lbs. If you are trying to lose weight, my advice to you is to enjoy the journey and not worry about the destination.
2.  Listen to Happy Music. Ok I have so many genres of happy music that I could write all day about them. Big Band from the 1940’s is happy music for me. I play it while I am cooking or doing a little light writing. It puts me in place long gone by, Hollywood movies of yesteryear and war time optimism of the 1940s. It was a difficult time in our history but you would never know this by listening to swing music. I love to swing dance, and it makes me want to find a partner and lindy hop forever. I have music for running, music for dancing, music for writing. Everything I do is motivated by music. The right beat has can literally turn my cloudy skies to blue.
3. Get out into nature: I loved working out in LA outside, using the tree to do TRX. I called it mobile meditation and I still do my cardio outdoors. Running in the great outdoors, hiking up a cliff with the gift of a magestic view when you arrive at the top, walking on the beach and breathing in the sea air and listening to the waves crash against the shore. If you are in a winter climate bundle up and go sledding, just get outside daily and get some sunlight.
4. Do something for someone else: Get out of your own head and into someone else’s problems. Chances are you will really make a difference in someone’s life and in your own the realization that your issues were not so big after all.
5.Muse off how you are feeling: I write poetry and essays and now I also love to snap photographs of nature. I draw and I dance. I used to perform in Musical Theater. I love to be creative and I am always looking for an outlet to muse off of. Whatever works for you. Are you a crafter? Do you love to cook or bake? Just get up, get inspired and be creative.You are never too old, and it is never too late. As long as you wake up breathing you have a chance to be whatever you dream to be. Just be your authentic creative self.
Be fearless,  be ageless, and if need be make the changes to be happy. You can choose to be happy or choose to be miserable. You can write your own script and paint your own portrait. It is your choice to make so do not be hesitant. You have control over your life. Life is not prison, we are free to go and do as you please. Climb that mountain and move cross country.Own your own freedom and beautiful gift of life.
Happy Friday to all and Namaste’