Strength in Numbers in Everyday Ramblings

Although I took this Sunday, this is exactly what it looks like outside right now. There is a cold glare filled fog sitting on us as the trees start the process of leaf bud. Generally though it is warming up kind of sort of. And spring is most definitely in full swing here. I love it and at the same time the immense amount of pollen in the air makes me draggy and slow. The combo with an amped up schedule, and the time change makes the days full and challenging.

At Women’s Circle last night our topic was our five top strengths taken from the burgeoning field of positive psychology. This is not to be confused with the concept of positive thinking. It is more a matter of where one puts one’s attention. We tend to focus on the negative a bit don’t we?

Our fearless facilitator did a great job. She had us take the Brief Strengths survey (or test) here at the University of Pennsylvania Authentic Happiness site.

About half of us did the test beforehand. It is a little confusing because basically you are rating yourself but you just answer the questions with what comes to mind first and then pick what shows up there in the first five slots. The theory as I understand it is that if you focus on doing things in your life that include the top five strengths you have a good shot at authentic happiness.

My top five were Love of Learning, Creativity, Curiosity, Open-Mindedness and Perspective. Everyone had different ones though curiosity seemed to be a trait many of us share and the one we talked about the most.

All five of these traits are engaged while I am taking my Yoga for Hormone Therapy workshop. I am truly enjoying it on many different levels. I love learning new stuff and this is wild fascinating stuff. Say you lie on the floor in this relatively simple twist but where based on placement of the feet and hands you create a connection so the body is in this kind of energetic loop and with breath and visualization you send energy in and around (and in this particular exercise emphasizing the thyroid gland).

My oldest sister is still in the hospital. Her daughter, Miss E.’s mother is taking the reins of advocacy for her right now and Kes is safely home with her marvelous boy cats and torn up kitchen. Oldest sister was quite grumpy yesterday and asked for coffee. Grumpy (while annoying) is a very good sign. It takes energetic resources to be grumpy. We are not sure if they are going to resume the chemo or let things be at this time. Everything is up in the air except that the worst of this crisis appears to be over. Whew!

My background check just came back clear and this afternoon I get my Tetanus and MMR vaccines and the first TB patch test. It looks like I might be good to teach the caregiver class for the first time next week. Wow.

Never a dull moment. I have to do my bird homework!