Hiya Everyone!

Welcome to my little space in wordpress world.

For a start I’d like to just say thanks for dropping by and invite you to come back again soon as I’m learning my way around this thing.

*Big Hugs*

Be good

Belinda

My Seven Steps to Have a Happier Day

My friend is currently down a deep dark hole called depression and I risk her wrath by making this public, because she is in the stage of feeling at a complete loss as to how to dig her way out.

She’s frustrated and I can relate, because everyone who knows and loves her would dearly love to be able to wave the magic wand and be able to take her black mood away. However the hardest thing about depression is you can only change yourself. Nobody can do it for you, or to you.

Only you hold the key to your own happiness.

I have been searching the web and have found some cheap ways that may help anyone get through the day and hopefully bring a smile to a face or two.

To my friend who is most likely glaring angrily out at me from her pit of despair. Please try these things before making any excuses (or as you call them, reasons) as to why it is completely impossible to do any of the following. This comes from a place of love. You matter enough to me to do this. 

 

#1 Get up out of bed. Nothing can change for the better from bed. It is the first decision we all have to make each day, and it’s especially difficult for people with depression. If you do it early enough in the morning to watch the sun rise you’ll be getting your first burst of natural light for the day, this will help with setting your body clock over time.

“One of the largest studies on the use of light to treat clinical depression was published in 1992 in the journal Biological Psychiatry. Dr. Kripke administered light treatment to 25 depressed hospitalised patients at a VA hospital.

Patients who were exposed to natural white light were significantly less depressed than those in artificial light.”

 

#2 Take a walk, get some fresh air. You need to let your brain have some time in standby mode, and walking through the world just observing what is going on around you can help with this.

~In Europe, doctors prescribe exercise for their depression patients. I think the best is a combination of exercise and getting out in nature … along with giving your body and mind enough time of mindless walking to let the true feelings and thoughts rise to the surface. You will also see that nature has cycles, too — there are times of joy and times of hibernation. Allow your body and soul to sync with nature and you’ll automatically feel a bit better. ~

 

#3 Get a little sunshine. Vitamin D from the sun (rather than from pills) can help your body function better.

 

#4 Gardening (again with the outdoor activity) but even a cheap pot with some potting mix in it can work. Occasionally vegetable seeds can be bought quite cheaply or cultivated from produce you buy at the shops. Try things that can give you high levels of vitamin C like capsicum and tomatoes. Buying fresh veggies can be quite expensive so growing your own can be a way to save some money and feel accomplished at the same time.

As quoted by Julie Myerson

“Gardening has shaken me up and slowed me down. It’s the only activity I can still do when I’m worried or angry or sad. Tending a garden is a meditative, humbling experience: you can’t force anything, you just have to wait. And yet every time you put something in the ground, it feels like a pronouncement of faith in the future – or at least in the next few months.”

#5 Eating better can help your body chemistry become more stable. Avoid refined sugars and processed foods as much as possible. Lentils and beans can be a cost effective replacement for meat, while helping you with iron levels. Grow your own food to gain the maximum nutrients from fruits and veggies.

 

#6 Laugh. It costs nothing, and makes you feel better.

 

#7 Help someone in need. Quite often depression can cause us to lose perspective and become quite self centred. We may be too busy mentally berating ourselves over personal failures to notice someone else in need. Observe others, and remember, even helping with small things can make both you and the person you’ve helped feel better.

Sources

http://www.viva-lite.us/blog/health-happiness-and-sunlight-closely-linked/

http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/11-ways-to-beat-depression-naturally

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/mar/26/gardening-secret-of-happiness-julie-myerson

 

In the immortal words of that large corporation

No seriously, The Night Creatures REALLY will take over the world

Now my last post had cover reveals that were quite pretty, and HEAPS of work went into them, and the people at Austin Design Works should be congratulated for their champion effort.

Their cover art will now be used for e releases and prequels to the night creatures stories.

After some serious deliberation, some major discussion and a deal that will most likely propel the night creatures book into the stratosphere;  Jarek Kubicki has agreed to rework the covers only a little to allow for his lusciously rich artwork to remain the faces of these books.

And then there is the added squeeeeeeee that is the song Angel Arias, written and performed by Her Royal Madness herself,Yunyu.

If you’d like a bit of a taste of how on the mark this song is here’s a youtube clip that will give you goosebumps.

We’re now cooking with gas. I sincerely hope you’ll go find these books on Amazon and if you’re not in the mood for physical copies and owning a small piece of the artworks of Mr. Kubicki (WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU), you’ll be able to download copies of all three books in e book.

Life is beautiful today. I am so proud to be able to give you this information… and remember to share the love.

You can also go read blogs, book reviews and other randomisity I’ve contributed to www.burnbright.com.au . Our team works hard to bring you some pretty awesome stuff… but when you see the foundation we’re working from, you can understand why we love doing what we’re doing.

The Night Creatures will take over the world!!!!

Hey you!  Yep, you, looking at me. Do you know what today is?

Yeah it’s the day the Pope retired. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

Today is the day we get to see the covers for the global release of Marianne de Pierres’ Night Creatures Trilogy.

Without further ado….

Soon you’ll be able to head on over to Amazon to get yourself copies of all three of these brilliant books.

Have a great weekend everyone. Go read a book.

What I’m learning from my kid part 2

Hi I’m Belinda and I go off my nut without the facts.

Yep I’m human and the world doesn’t revolve around me. *DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN*

Got the dramas I wrote about over the weekend dealt with and nothing is bad as it seems.

Nomatter the outcome, the journey the kiddo traveled taught her life lessons and I hope she is as proud of herself for getting the guts up to put herself out there.

I cropped this picture from one hubby took. I think it pretty much says it all.

 

What I am learning from my kid growing up.

Hi, I’m Belinda and I am an only child.

This means I am extremely self centered and my moral compass is constantly spinning in circles.

If I don’t get my way, I throw manipulative tantrums, and if I feel like something is being ignored at the detriment of other people I get pissy.

I dare to believe in sexual equality and that pre teen boys probably need deportment and grooming classes more than girls of the same age.

I try not to be intimidated and assertive is my middle name on most days.

These are all reasons my daughter should not be included in the elections to become a student leader. Apparently.

 

What’s with the title of this blog?

I am learning to walk home and take the weekend to think of the things to say to certain parties in an even calm tone. To gently rip certain people a new one for projecting and prejudging my kid for MY actions. 

Also learning that general impressions and gut instincts are usually right.

If it quacks like a duck, and craps like a duck… chances are it’s either a really small placid goose or a duck.

 

On a lighter note.

1. It’s a new week. YAY!
2. The books for my cert III should turn up and I can get back to the study I started. 
3. New Review books!!!
4. Pop Asia.

Anyone else feel like looking at some pics of a spider eating?? Yep me too! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February… over half way over.

This has been such a full month already.

• I started a job ~my first ever~ for Sensible Health and Mobility Initiatives… Linked above.
• The job is also a traineeship for a Business Administration Cert III (no idea what happened to I and II) I’m waiting for my books to turn up since I opted out of doing it online… argh my eyes.

I’ve been filing, spread sheeting, typing up letters, invoicing (under supervision), website reshuffling, scooter servicing (under strict supervision), filling orders for first aid kits, restocking first aid kits, mailing, deliveries, taking photos, and making coffee.  I’m sure there’s other stuff too, but the best bit is I’m rarely standing still. Goes by in a blur and I haven’t felt the need to look at my watch.

• We’ve started Friday Ketchup again for 2013… in March we will officially begin our third season.
• I’ve entered a couple of my photos into the Sunday Mail Summer of Photography competition.  Haven’t heard anything back from them but it took courage to take the leap and submit.
• Managed to get my February Aussie spec fiction book read (Keri Arthur woohoo!)
• Vision Writers was a roaring success this month. It makes me so excited for the rest of the year.
• Kiddo has been asked to try out for the district netball team… this blew me away. We’ll have to have a family discussion about the possibilities of this happening, but I would love for her to experience something like this.

Things that make me smile this month.

News that The Night Creatures Trilogy by Marianne de Pierres is to be published world wide.

News that Diamond Eyes by Anita Bell is to be made into a movie. 

News that family members are achieving great marks for hard work.

Finding this for hubby’s Valentine’s gift

Kiss(es)

And the kiddo liked the look of this sweet little plant

And Love

There have been a few not so nice things to happen recently, but I want to keep my focus on the positive. Share the happiness and hope that what I put out, people feel they should pass along and pay it forward. Even if it’s sharing a smile with a stranger or wishing your bus driver a nice day.

 

What is making you smile this month?

New Year, New Opportunities.

It’s that time of year again. You’ve heard it all by now… resolutions. Blah!

I don’t know if I really want to make any this year. I may set a few goals, but not like I have in previous years. Ie: no more saying I’ll keep the house clean… we all know that is going to fail. So I’ll make it more specific. Without further ado here’s my lame list of goals for 2013.

• I want to read 100 books this year. At least 12 of which should be Australian Spec Fic authors.

January’s Aussie Author books so far.

1. The Skeleton Key by Tara Moss
2. Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody

• I want to do a monthly book haul (or something similar) for my Belindas Vlogs you tube channel.
• I want to ONLY use my second best china dinner set and not dip into the spares which means keeping the dishes up to date.
• I want to complete at least half the traineeship I am signing up to do over the next 2 years. YAY Employment!!
• At the end of the year I want to make Christmas a special.

On a completely different tangent I took this picture of a blur banded bee in my front garden over the weekend. Pretty little bugger isn’t he?

And for those who want to keep tabs on my reading progress. Here’s a widget to my reading challenge on goodreads.com

2013 Reading Challenge

Belinda. has
read 5 books toward her goal of 100 books.

hide

5 of 100 (5%)

view books

Have a great rest of January everyone.

Can you believe we’re almost half way through the first half of the first month already?

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 910 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

How 2012 stacks up.

~ I want to read 80 books this year. 12 of which to be Aussie. Reviewing as many as possible.

2012 Reading Challenge

Belinda. has
completed her goal of reading 80 books in 2012!

hide

104 of 80 (130%)

view books

So I managed to get one goal for 2012 done. Equating to 28286 pages read. Longest book was Aurora Teagarden Omnibus 2 with 712 Pages.

~ I want to do at least 12 video blogs/ reviews or tutorials this year.

No luck on this one. I think I got half way there. *shrug* I tried.

~ I want to be the best president I can be for the Vision Writers group.

I measure my success by the number of constant members and the number of people who turned up at the December gathering. Yep we made it above an average of 5 people each month and we had 5 at the end of year gathering.
Two things off the list.

~ I want to find a part time paid job.

No luck in 2012 for this one but stay tuned for possible news in 2013. Cross everything for me. No SERIOUSLY!

~ I want to aim for $500 for my fundraising for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Australia this year.

No Such luck. Bit of a suck really. I’m really not sure what the heck is going on within the ranks of Ovarian Cancer Australia, but I miss Helen.

~ I want to get my creative memories program back up and running so I can resume making pretty digital scrap booking pictures.

YEP!! I got this one done. *then had to have my laptop’s brains replaced so I have to pull it off the portable hard drive and hope it lands intact.*
Three things achieved.

~ I want to be in print again this year.

No print this year, but who knows what will happen as we head into 2013.

~ A 100 word a day base level again. (between blogs, reviews, or story writing)

I meant to see if I got this far but I am pretty sure my slacking off in November and December means a no win on this one.

~ I want to be more social.

Not quite. However I am getting slightly better at remembering names.

~Again trying to keep the housework under control.

I can see the table top and the counter tops and the floor. I think that’s a win. Right?

All up 4 things marked off the list for 2012.

I’ll have to do some serious thinking for what I want to achieve for 2013.

Love to you all and lets look forward to an exciting new year!

Grey, Grey. Go away. Come again some other day.

Over at the hoopla there’s a great highlight on the Q&A episode with Pamela Stephenson about her addiction to cosmetic surgery. You can read it here http://thehoopla.com.au/wanna-babe/

At the end of the article there are 2 REALLY thought provoking questions and I wanna add my two cents worth on this blog.

Does it take courage to age gracefully?

And

How tied is your self-esteem to your appearance?

So let’s look at the second question to begin with; as it is, in my opinion, the pivot to the answer of the first.

This is the chicken and the egg scenario for so many women. Because when you look good you feel good. Right? But don’t you look good when you feel good? Hmm such a conundrum.

I don’t think anyone has noticed when we talk about our daughters; quite often the first description we make on introduction is about appearance, and not intelligence. Ie. “This is my beautiful daughter, Betty, who just turned 1.”

How tied is your self-esteem to your appearance?

In my case, my self-esteem is tied to my appearance far more than I like to admit.

I grew up in at least one school where being a brunette, Asian looking skinny girl was so out of the ordinary I may as well have painted myself with obscene words and spat at everyone. I didn’t feel beautiful. Therefore my self-esteem was shot to hell. But I think I was more harmed by the bullying, most of which centered on my ‘out of the norm’ appearance than anything else. Because others saw me as ugly, and had no trouble telling me, I began to believe it.

I was passed over for jobs because of my appearance and have had interviewers actually tell me that THAT was the reason I missed out. It’s a form of discrimination, but who’s going to report a business for such behaviour when they are trying to land that first job? Nobody I know of. *Note* I ALWAYS dressed appropriately, so it was the body beneath, not the clothing that lost it for me.

Not being able to even land a paying job by the time I’m 30 is certainly NOT a highlight of my life. I will admit however; I did make a conscious decision years ago that I didn’t need the emotional torment of rejections based on my physical appearance, (things I can do NOTHING about), so I stopped actively looking for paid work.

Now for the first question… Does it take courage to age gracefully?

HELL YES! Should it… HELL NO!

I’m actually surprised that beauty companies aren’t outdoing IKEA when it comes to consumerism. We are all so afraid of looking older. We strive to look youthful… why for heaven’s sakes?

Less wrinkles in seconds, the 5 signs of aging, because you’re worth it, maybe she’s born with it… but most likely not.

Wrinkles, freckles, creases and dimples are signs of a glorious life lived. Smiles, pain, laughter, stresses that we’ve overcome, illness, summers where we maybe had a little too much fun etc. Do we all want to look like we’re freshly ironed? No life lessons learned, no experience, fresh out of the box?   I know I don’t.

I don’t even want to colour my hair anymore.

I’ve spent my whole life with such dark hair that going lighter will be a nice change. Why pay for streaks and foils when nature will hand them to me for free and using fewer chemicals? That and my hair is so dark naturally that the hair dyes never really showed up anyway.

Grey hair would probably be more widely accepted if more women dared to go grey. How many 50 something year old women do you know who try to keep the same colour hair they wore in their 20’s?

At a certain stage in life, the chemically dark hair just starts looking like you’re trying too hard. That you’re frantically clawing at the last strands of youth and you’re not giving up without a bloody good fight. At least if you are going to colour your hair, add some colourful streaks. Bright ones. Ones that say ’Yes I colour my hair, but I am over trying to make it look natural. Girls really do just want to have fun.’

So now, are you brave enough to age gracefully and how much is your self-esteem tied to your appearance?