Five Inspiring Things Friday — Vol. 1
By Gina Briganti
Inspiration is poppin’. I hope it’s contagious.
If you’re wondering what happened to Fitness Friday, I have the answer. Five ideas for that column and unlimited ideas for Five Inspiring Things Friday made the math pretty easy. If you’re super interested in more information about fitness there’s something here for you, too.
What I am most inspired by this week is…being honest, if I wrote about everything that inspired me this week we’d be here for 64,000 lines. Let’s stick with five and start with the most important…
Those of you who read, follow, and/or clap for my heart-felt words inspire me to sit in front of the blinking cursor and let the words flow. Words are like good food — better when you share them with someone appreciative. Seeing the stats rise lifts me up and gets my natural creativity flowing like a fountain. You are the pump. Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading! On that same note, if you’re publishing here on Medium, I’d love to see what you’re writing about. Comment so I can stop by for a visit.
Flexibility. Life is full of it. We have multiples of choices that we can make every moment of the day. Like:
Run, walk, sweat, or swim — a nod to fitness Friday. We get to choose how we move our bodies, when we move our bodies, where and why and how we move our bodies. We can choose not to move our bodies or we can make a habit of moving them every thirty minutes or only when we see the moon during the day. It’s all flexible. Like our bodies.
The takeaway is to look at how you can be more flexible if you find yourself at a sticking point and are looking for solutions.
Catastrophes that weren’t. The last few weeks have been stormy, bringing rain and hail to our part of North Texas. Our first floor was flash-flooded on what would have been a quiet Sunday morning. There’s going to be remodeling happening because the walls have been slowly breaking down.
How is this inspiring?
Our neighbors helped out by getting us quick maintenance attention and we’re only replacing one out-of-pocket item if we decide to. Our belongings are intact. Because one good deed deserves another, we thanked them with a tasty treat. This vegan brownie, layered with creamy Truwhip, and fresh-sliced bananas in adorable glassware for them to keep. They flooded, too, and desserts is stressed spelled backwards. Bonus — we’re getting to know the neighbors better as we all go through the remodeling process.
Multiple Approaches To Mental Health. There are so many effective ways to balance the body/mind, either by themselves or in combination, such as: talk therapy, meditation, dietary changes, exercise, medication, hormone balancing, supplementation, sleep aids, introspection, spending time with a pet, time with family, time with friends, starting a hobby, taking a new class, and changing your scenery.
There is so much more awareness about mental health now that hopefully people are getting the understanding, help, and options they need to experience the quality of life that can so easily be taken for granted.
One of the most important steps is to recognize when mental health needs bolstering and to seek help. I’m speaking from experience here, having been diagnosed with anxiety back in 2017. I had it before then, but a couple of tough years accelerated it and I took steps to make life more functional and enjoyable.
You don’t have to know someone to love them.
From across the universe or the neighbors who moved in and out before I met them, I can love, appreciate, and wish them well, all day every day.
The ripple effect of that is inspiring. Your positive vibes could reach someone sitting in what would be horrendous traffic at the end of a hard day, and instead of cursing and spiraling, they wonder why it’s not that big a deal. They notice great music on the radio and remember that this is the perfect time to listen to that podcast they’ve been too busy for. Or a complicated problem they’ve been struggling with suddenly resolves because of new insights.
All of these are possible, along with unlimited positive scenarios. Anyone can do it.
Here are the steps:
In a quiet or busy moment (flexible!), think about all the people and animals, really any being, that you don’t know. Now wish them well and send love their way.
That’s it. Done.
Ripple effect. Power in numbers.
Of course, you can do this for every being you do know and love. Including yourself.
Happy Friday!
Your inspired friend,
Gina
A little flashback to a Zoom chat with the special ladies of the Fresh Fiction Book Club.
