I'm not sure if you noticed, but I am trying to lead my life with a better attitude. I am working on being grateful for the things around me, and working on making my mind and body healthier. I decided the one thing that makes me happy is engaging in feel good activity. I am going to start posting some of the things that bring a positive message to me. Feel good material per say. They may be magazine articles, blog posts, or inspirational photos.


I am feeling great after a really positive yoga session this week, as well as some good reading. I posted a few of my favorite articles and posts from the week. I hope you get something out of them like I did!

I would love for you to add to the feel good vibe here, so maybe in time I will offer a link up if this is something that works out.. taking risks here.. It makes me feel good... Here we go..

I really love Ember Grey's 12 Months of Bliss: Sharing Kindness over Negativity prompt for February. If we could all take as step back and be kind to one another, we would live in a happier, healthier world.

I found an article on Wanderlust called The Power of Saying No. As a society we feel guilty when we say no. Letting down people in our lives makes us feel bad, however the more we agree to things we don't always have time for the more we wear ourselves down.

One of the most humbling things I saw this week: People wrote down their biggest fears for all of New York to see. Such a brave thing to do!

And of course the cutest thing I saw which is apparently pretty old is shelter cats being mingled with a yoga class. This is near and dear to my hear as I work in a shelter and I really enjoy yoga. Think I should get Grace involved in this one?

Last year I started setting myself goals that related to a theme every month. My happiness project per say. One of the things I learned was putting to many goals into effect doesn't help. It stressed me out and burned me out. I'm taking a new appoach this year.

January's goal was to educate myself on the goals I wanted to set for the year and I think I accomplished that pretty well. February is a month of love so I want to focus my theme on all things love which includes self love folks. So onto February goals..

• My new planner has arrived. One of my goals this year is to be a better planner. February is already looking like a busy month so I am going to set planning and organizing my month as a goal. 

Short and sweet goals for the month. I figure they are something I can achieve and to me accomplished goals are better than stressed out goals. What are you planning this month?

When your child is sick, the days seem to take a toll on you. Grace (yes my kitty is my kid) had a seroma form around her spay incision that doubled in size between Thursday and Friday. I got super nervous that something was wrong that I asked a vet tech from work for some advice.


One of the fabulous shelter vets was able to see Grace on Saturday morning. She wasn't in any immediate pain or distress but I felt better having it looked at. She was calm the whole way and even came out of her carrier on her own.

Let's just say the second someone touched her belly she was not a happy camper. She became very agitated and her natural survival skills kicked into overdrive. Very upset girl.

The doctor decided to do an ultrasound to rule out a hernia. She was not a fan of that at all. The next step was to decide what to do. It was very unclear if she was herniating so the next step was to aspirate the lump. I stepped out of the room for that part.

Good news was the lump was full of fluid. Bad news is she would need to restrict her activity and stay away from the wound. Enter kitty sweater. Grace rocked a purple camo sweater to keep her away from her incision.

She got home and slept for hours before getting up a bit to eat and play. She seemed to be doing okay. Enter Sunday morning and Grace refused to get out of bed or eat. She stayed up in my bed until close to noon before making it down to the litter box.

It was slow moving from there. She didn't want to eat or drink. I was stressed.  I talked to the vet and they said it was pretty normal but to keep an eye on her. By late afternoon she seemed more like herself but was still moving slow. I fed her some of her favorite treats and left it at that.

She "killed" her bird

I am happy to report that this morning she is back to her old crazy self. Lots of purrs and snuggles in between hunting her toy bird. She's a real treat.

How was your weekend?

I believe books can serve many purposes in a person's life. They can show us new things. They can entertain us. They can transform us. And my personal favorite, they can help us through rough times. On Wednesday I talked a little about my plans for 2016 and how I am going to work on personal growth within my self and appreciating the little things. Finding gratitude. I am doing this by trying new things, falling in love with old passions, and reading lots of books.

Some of the books I have added to my reading shelf this year have a lot to do with finding happiness and appreciating things around me. I was never big into self help books, but I am on my second book this year and I am enjoying learning new ways to explore my own feelings and needs.


Here is just a taste of some of the books I am planning to explore this year:

• The Happy Stepmother: Stay Sane, Empower Yourself, Thrive in Your New Family by Rachelle Katz 

• The Gratitude Diaries: How a Year of Looking on the Bright Side Can Transform your Life by Janice Kaplan

•  The Wishing Year: An Experiment in Desire by Noelle Oxenhandler

• Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life by Gretchen Rubin

• Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and be Your Own Person by Shonda Rimes

• Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin by Norah Vincent

• Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro

• The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion by Elle Luna

What are some of the books you are planning to read this year? Have you read any of these? Any suggestions?

I hope you all have a nice and relaxing weekend!
 

It's Wednesday, my nose is stuffy and I'm currently typing this on my phone from my bed with my fluff ball Grace laying on my chest. This is the sick life. I feel very grateful for this moment. There us so much peace and quiet in this moment. I feel at ease and for once that everything will be okay.

That thought reminds me that I haven't set myself any goals for the year yet. Something I was taking the month if January to figure out. As I lay here in peace it makes me want to learn how to be grateful again, even when I've had a bad day.

I've added a slew of books to my reading list this year, in hope to retrain my thoughts to stop focusing only on the negatives.  I've already checked out 5 books from the library to help get me started. I'm planning to read them in between all of my fun reads for the year.

These books put my goals into place for me. I'm going to intertwine all my monthly goals with personal growth and gratitude. On Friday I want to share the books I'm planning to read and how they are shaping out my year.

It's time to take back the positive and make it the best year yet. How are you shaping your year?

Now I'm going back to snuggling with Grace.

Happy Wednesday :)