Post by: spiros on 19 Oct, 2012, 14:09:56
Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much (https://amzn.to/2SFP5NI)
Do you find yourself rushing all day? Work and kids, errands and chores-too much to do and never enough time to do it? All of us need a little time out in our busy lives, time for peace, time for quiet, and recharging those worn out batteries. Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much is for very woman who wants to slow down for a minute and make time for herself- to laugh a little, share a moment of inspiration, and remind herself that she's worth taking care of.
Mixing gentle advice and warmhearted humor, encouraging thoughts and reassuring reminders, Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much gathers together quotes from women all over the world-mothers, professional women, writers, politicians, and artists-along with wise meditations that have helped millions of busy women make time for quiet, laughter, and joy in each and every day. So relax-just for a minute-put your feet up, and let Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much breath fresh air into even your craziest days.[/color]
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365 Σκέψεις και ιδέες για την πολυάσχολη γυναίκα
Σκέψεις και ιδέες, μία για κάθε ημέρα του χρόνου, που βοηθούν τις γυναίκες στο να πάψουν να κάνουν περισσότερα απ' όσα μπορούν - για γυναίκες με το αλκολίκι της δουλειάς, για γυναίκες που συνεχώς βιάζονται και που διαρκώς φροντίζουν τους άλλους.
Πολλές από τις σημερινές γυναίκες το παρακάνουν - είναι εξαρτημένες από τη δουλειά, το τρέξιμο, την προσπάθεια να φροντίζουν για τις ανάγκες των άλλων. Με σοφία, βαθιά γνώση και χιούμορ, αυτές οι 365 σκέψεις -σχεδιασμένες με αποφθέγματα γυναικών με διαφορετικές ηλικίες, πολιτιστικό υπόβαθρο και απόψεις- θα βοηθήσουν τις γυναίκες να αντιληφθούν τι τους συμβαίνει. Οι σύντομοι στοχασμοί της Anne Wilson Schaef αποτελούν ένα ευπρόσδεκτο αντίδοτο στη σχιζοφρενική τρεχάλα της σύγχρονης ζωής και θα ανοίξουν καινούριους δρόμους για το πώς θα 'πρεπε να ζούμε.
Για όλες τις γυναίκες που κάνουν περισσότερα απ' όσα μπορούν -ανεξάρτητα από το πού και το πώς τα κάνουν αυτά τα περισσότερα- αυτές οι σκέψεις παρέχουν στήριγμα και έμπνευση και δημιουργούν τις δυνατότητες για μια θετική αλλαγή στη ζωή τους.
.:BiblioNet : 365 σκέψεις και ιδέες για την πολυάσχολη γυναίκα / Schaef, Anne Wilson (http://www.biblionet.gr/book/128556)
Post by: spiros on 10 Oct, 2020, 18:09:17
Anything worth doing is worth doing frantically.
—New proverb
We women who do too much find the ending of an old year and the beginning of a new year to be a difficult time. There is always the temptation to try to tidy up all our loose ends as the old year closes. We fall into the trap of believing that it is possible to get our entire life caught up before starting a new year, and we are determined to do it.
Also, there is the temptation to set up an elaborate set of resolutions for the coming year so that we can, at last, get it right. As workaholics, we tend to be very hard on ourselves: nothing less than perfection is enough. Hopefully, on this first day of the year, we will be able to remember that we are perfect just as we are.
I HOPE for the willingness to live this year in a way that will be gentle to myself . . . one day at a time.
January 2
COMMON SENSE
Did you ever stop to think that we women who do too much wouldn’t be able to do too much if we weren’t competent, strong, intelligent, courageous, and determined?
We might, however, be a bit lacking in common sense.
—Anne Wilson Schaef
We are powerful women with many skills. This is true even if we don’t always feel so powerful or skillful. We have strong bodies, strong minds, and strong hearts that all serve us well—maybe too well. When we use the gifts we have been given and those we have so carefully worked to earn in destructive ways, maybe we have missed something in the common sense aspect of our skill-building.
Common sense is knowing when to quit. Common sense is knowing that we are good and not always having to prove it. Common sense is listening to those parts of our being that are put there to balance intelligence, competence, and determination. Common sense is rarely taught and is more likely observed. Common sense must be learned and is usually not genetic. Common sense is all too often discovered in old age and more useful when developed when we are younger.
Common sense gives us the ability to utilize our talents while staying in balance.
WHEN WE ADD common sense to the mix, our other skills become more efficient and more constructive.
January 3
EXCUSES/CHOICES
So at an early age I witnessed the fact that work was of the first importance, and that it justified rather inhuman behavior.
—May Sarton
Workaholism, just like other addictions, is intergenerational. Many of us have learned it at home from our mothers and fathers, and we cannot even imagine any other way of being in this world. Work took precedence over everything in our households and families. We could only have fun after the work was done, and the work was never done. We could only relax and take care of our personal needs when the chores were completed and the house had been straightened up. And when that was done, we were much too tired to do anything else. Cleanliness was always next to godliness, and many times godliness seemed very far away.
Work was always tied to the necessities of life, getting ahead, and the American dream, and these ideals justified anything, even cruel and inhuman behavior in the family.
We learned our lessons well, and now we have the opportunity to break the intergenerational chain of workaholism. We have a chance to be different. We have choices.
LET ME NOTICE today how many times I use work as an excuse for my inhuman behavior.
January 4
HUMOR
Time wounds all heels.
—Jane Ace
We lose the ability to laugh at ourselves and with others.
Humor is so healing . . . and it’s fun too. We find that humor is one of the first human gifts to disappear when we do too much.
We lose the ability to laugh at ourselves and with others. We feel insulted if someone pokes fun at us, and we personalize everything, seeing it as a put-down. The more our overworking takes over, the more we make Scrooge look like a stand-up comic. Indeed, instead of being healers we have become heels . . . heels without souls.
Good humor is very inexpensive. It is one of the pleasures in life that is relatively free. I’m sure, if we try hard enough, we can remember a part of us that used to laugh and be playful.
HUMOR doesn’t die, thank goodness, it just goes underground sometimes and digs caverns for our serious selves to cave in to.
January 5
CRISIS/EXHAUSTION/CONTROL
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
—Chicken Little
Living our lives like Chicken Little can be quite exhausting. Yet so many of us live from one crisis to another! We have become so accustomed to crises and deadlines that we feel almost lost if we are not putting out some kind of fire. In fact, if we really were honest, there is something dramatic and exciting about handling a crisis. It makes us feel as if we have some modicum of control in our lives.
We have, however, on occasion wondered if all these crises are normal and if there is another way to live life that might be a little less exhausting. Even though we are exhilarated in handling these crises, they do leave us feeling drained. Could it be that these things don’t just happen to us? That we have a hand in their creation?
As we begin to take a look, we see others around us who do not live from one crisis to another, and they seem to do just fine . . . they’re even serene.
CRISIS and my illusion of control are not unrelated. I hope I will allow myself to be open to noticing the relationship between the two in my life today.
January 6
SELF-DECEPTION/ILLUSIONS
We live in a system built on illusions and when we put forth our own perceptions, we’re told we don’t understand reality. When reality is illusion and illusion is reality, it’s no wonder we feel crazy.
—Anne Wilson Schaef
So much of our world is built on illusions. The illusion of control, the illusion of perfectionism, the illusion of objectivity. Dishonesty and denial are the building blocks of doing too much. When we participate in any of these illusions, we are deceiving ourselves, and when we deceive ourselves, we lose ourselves. Why is it that we find self-deception and illusions so much more attractive than honesty? It could possibly be because we are surrounded by a society where illusion is the name of the game. Denial runs rampant at every level of our society, and there is not much support for truth speakers.
Yet, we are the only ones who can deceive ourselves. We are the only ones who can refuse to acknowledge our perceptions and lie to ourselves. The choice to deceive ourselves is ours.
THERE IS an old saying, Conscience is a cur that will let you get past it but that you cannot keep from barking. Sometimes our awareness makes funny noises to get our attention.
January 7
RIGIDITY
Changes [in life] are not only possible and predictable, but to deny them is to be an accomplice to one’s own unnecessary vegetation.
—Gail Sheehy
Part of the crazy thinking we have developed is that we will be safe if we can just get everything in order, everything in place, and keep it that way. Much of our energy is spent trying to contribute to the calcification of our lives. Unfortunately, calcified beings are brittle and break easily.
When we become rigid about anything, we lose touch with our life process and place ourselves outside of the stream of life—we die. As Lillian Smith says, when you stop learning, stop listening, stop looking and asking questions, always new questions, then it is time to die.
HAVE I already died? Am I one of the walking dead? Rigid isn’t stable, it’s just brittle.
March 12
ACCEPTANCE/MISTAKES/AMENDS
Of all the idiots I have met in my life, and the Lord knows that they have not been few or little, I think that I have been the biggest.
—Isak Dinesen
One of the ways that I can reclaim my power and my person is to admit my mistakes. Sometimes it is helpful to sit down and make a list of people that I have wronged (including myself) and to make amends to those with whom it is possible and where it would not harm them to do so. What a clean feeling it is to accept and own my life and not beat myself up for the mistakes I have made! How good it feels to let those I have harmed know that I am aware of what I have done and that I genuinely wish to own and change my behavior, and do what I can to live.