Joanna Schaefer

Maybe this goes along with my happiness/gratitude goal, but I've really been focused on reflecting on the things that are going well.  There's been a lot of sadness and illness in my family lately --not to mention the current political turmoil -- and sometimes when you're caught up in just surviving the tough times that you forget that the world is usually good.  You forget that there are still beautiful things in the world to enjoy.  You forget that you can take a few moments to listen to your body and take care of your mind.

Of course it's shocking, but it doesn't surprise me that so much food goes to waste.  One of my neighbors gleens from Trader Joe's and shares with the neighborhood, and there is always so much food. Even after the neighbors pick it over, there is so much food left over.  In doing this challenge, I've been trying to keep this in mind, and I've noticed that we really are starting to throw less away.  The garbage cans over the past few weeks have not been nearly as full as they have been.  $1500/year = $125/mo which is about 10% of my food budget.  This money could be used toward new school clothes for my daughter, this money could be used to help fund a vacation, this money could even be used to pay for nice dinners out!

It's really easy to get distracted by bad news, by health problems, by stress at work.  It's really easy to get caught up in the negatives of life and to start feeling like that's all there is.  Practicing gratitude can switch up your focus, add a bit of levity or relief to the hum-drum of a stressful life.  When you work at finding the positives in your day, and you keep doing it over and over, it becomes another habit.  A habit that calls your attention to what is and what could be.  And if you can focus on some positive outcomes -- rather than being swept up by negative ones -- you might not give up so easily on trying to achieve them.

One of the things that my spouse and I have talked about to reduce our clutter is that if we're bringing something new into the house, then something else has to leave.  While we aren't necessarily great about following this one-to-one rule, we do make deals with each other like, "This new pair of shoes will replace that old pair that's wearing out," or, "This new kitchen gadget will replace three that we already have, and create more cabinet space."  I used to be a hoarder, so this has been working okay for the past eight years or so.