Willpower and inspiration

[Kaitlin]

What do you do on bad days when willpower and inspiration are lacking? Sometimes everything's going well, crops are growing, animals flourishing and I'm making everything from scratch and feeling that this is how it should be.Then there are the other days when nothing goes right, the crops are eaten by something, the animals are sick and I find I've bought a load of convenience food from the supermarket despite all my resolutions.
Sometimes all it takes is a friendly word, a phone call or an unexpected visit and I can shake it off. Sometimes it's reading something on here or in a magazine about what someone else is doing and I can think 'Yes, this is it. This is what I want to do.'
How does everyone else get over the 'down days'?

[foxtrapper]

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

[Kris in MI]

Originally Posted by Kaitlin

Sometimes it's reading something on here or in a magazine about what someone else is doing and I can think 'Yes, this is it. This is what I want to do.'
How does everyone else get over the 'down days'?

Yes. Days, and sometimes weeks. A dose of HT helps greatly, as you have discovered.

[fishhead]

Put one foot in front of the other and remind myself that everything in life is temporary.

[Bret4207]

Just gotta keep chugging along. My "retirement" isn't working out like I wanted it to at all, Very depressing and it's my family that's the problem. Ya just gotta take the good with the bad and keep going.

[Callieslamb]

I work to accept the fact that even if I weren't trying to do all these things - life would still be up and down. It's life, not the occupation.

[MaineFarmMom]

Originally Posted by Callieslamb

I work to accept the fact that even if I weren't trying to do all these things - life would still be up and down. It's life, not the occupation.

Absolutely!

[geo in mi]

On one of those days when you just can't even hit the ground with your hat, remember, it's a marathon, not a sprint.

[Old John]

Originally Posted by Bret4207

Just gotta keep chugging along. My "retirement" isn't working out like I wanted it to at all, Very depressing and it's my family that's the problem. Ya just gotta take the good with the bad and keep going.

I have to say, my Retirement is mostly Great. I'm 7 years into it. I Turned 70 last month.
I manage to stay really busy, as I did while I was working. But, I have a lot of Hobbies....Besides playing & learning new things, on the internet. I'm home alone, a lot.
DSW Sharon is younger & still works full time, as well as doing about 12 new paintings a year for the Gallery she belongs to.

I play guitar & sing, and get together with a music friend, every once in awhile to share. And I still go play some freebies, too. It's good for the old ego.

In addition, I'm a homebrewer. That's a good, very fulfilling hobby. I never drink more'n a beer or two, in an evening. It is way too fattening. And I work to keep the old weight down.
About once a month we have a little get-together of friends, at the house. I cook dinner and we have an evening of visiting. I love to cook.

I stay busy around the house, doing all our laundry, fixing things up, just to keep from sitting around being bored. DSW appreciates my taking care of things. It frees her up to do her oil paintings. She gives me lots of thanks & care. Oh she does do a lot of the regular cleaning.

On the dreary days this Winter, I have to admit, I get some SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder. That's the time to get out a guitar or harmonica & play.
Or I take a walk out on the hills
Life is Mostly pretty Great tho.

[Old Vet]

When I need willpower and inspiration I go to the woods and watch the animals. A few minutes of this is better than a nap or a rocking chair. I realize what the animals need and worry about and that it puts things in there place.

[Beeman]

Things go wrong so often you don't even seem to notice the bad days. It makes you appreciate the good days and usually it's not a whole day.

[tinknal]

Some times I go both ways on the same day. Case in point yesterday. I've recently opened a restaurant. Things have been slow but slowly getting better. Yesterday I had a St. Patricks day special, Shepherds Pie. We went in early, cooked up a storm, and waited...... and waited.........

Here I am thinking I'd cooked up all this expensive food and I'm gonna be stuck with it. Then the evening crowd came in and it just went crazy. Pretty much sold out of the special, and a lot of other food as well. Turned into a good day.

You have to have faith to see things through the bad times or you will never have a good time.

[GrannyG]

It even gets harder as you get older and find you can no longer do the things you are used to doing, you loose strength. I find just lifting the feed bags is getting to be a chore and keep saying "oh, my aching back". We have downsized the critters, had solid rubber put in the tractor tires this week after struggling to fix one with a flat...but one funny animal antic will make me smile and be ready to start again.

[Kaitlin]

Originally Posted by Beeman

Things go wrong so often you don't even seem to notice the bad days. It makes you appreciate the good days and usually it's not a whole day.

This is so true. It's rarely a WHOLE bad day and the even a really bad day can be lifted by a special moment -and yes, special moments are often provided by animals doing what they do!

[Wolf mom]

People beat themselves up because they believe they always have to be dong something, getting ahead on a daily basis.

It's OK not to do anything. We have to be able to give ourselves permission to rest/do nothing - and not feel guilty for doing it.

Look at nature, everything rests. There are cycles within cycles. Our batteries need regeneration - they don't run on high all the time.

The sooner we grasp our individual rhythm by listening to our mind/body connection, there'll be less depression.

[lmrose]

I used to have SAD days of depression when there was months of no sun like last year. I had stressful days when things went wrong especially when the weather doesn't co-operate and we depended on the farm for a living. I had terrible days with rebellious kids. More depression losing my son when he was 37 and died. More sad days as my relatives are dying off young. I do a lot of parying for sure.

Now I don't have any bad days and it isn't because the kids grew up or the weather co-operates either. I lost the ability to walk almost totally because of severe problems with my feet. I found out I had some potential health problems that are heredity related. I am working on correcting these problems.

Now when I get up and still can walk with the help of orthodics, I have normal cholesterol and am not diabetic because I changed how I ate, I can still partly see out of one eye even though blind in the other; I say THANKYOU LORD for letting me have another day!I am so HAPPY to be ALIVE! I only have two relatives who can say the same thing.
Life always has its ups and downs. Farming and homesteading has its share because of bad weather, predators and by-laws that choke us. However I would never want any other life. When we were raising five kids in total we never had the option of whether we should quit farming. Feeding all those kids depended alot on how well we understood farming and made it work.We had very little money and a hard time earning what we did have.We always appreciated nature and all its beauty and unpredictabilty. We were and still are thankful for everything.

I think what happened is after the kids left home I seemed to have lost some purpose for my being. So I got depressed until My feet went wacky and one day I couldn't walk. Then came blood tests saying I was almost diabetic and had high cholesterol made by my liver. I also had high blood pressure and was losing sight in my one working eye.It was all a wake up call for me!

I realized I had to take charge of my health life if I wanted to grow old gracefully without health problems. So that is what I have done the past two years. I have everything under control except the problem with my feet which I am working on fixing.

Now I am thankful for every precious moment of my life. I treasure every sunrise and sunset. I stare in awe at every new birth of a baby goat or baby chicks pecking their way out of eggs.I treasure every moment shared with my husband and the times the children and grand children come to visit and I can still see their faces.

I thank God for peace in my life and the ability to leave all the troubles in life for Him to sort out. I no longer carry the burden of the world's problems on my shoulders or worry about things I can not control. When crops go wrong because of weather I find alternative ways to do things. It is part of life but nothing to get depressed about.

Life is a precious gift to be valued. This present life goes by too fast to spend it in worry, self pity or self-doubting and second-guessing values and decisions.It took me six decades to learn how to live happy no matter what the circumstance I am in. I am so thankful to be alive and contribute in some way to make life better for others.

[Bret4207]

Originally Posted by Old John

I have to say, my Retirement is mostly Great. I'm 7 years into it. I Turned 70 last month.
I manage to stay really busy, as I did while I was working. But, I have a lot of Hobbies....Besides playing & learning new things, on the internet. I'm home alone, a lot.

John, I'd give a lot for some alone time. With me it's the old, "He's retired, he's got lots of time to...." problem.

[Kaitlin]

Originally Posted by lmrose

I thank God for peace in my life and the ability to leave all the troubles in life for Him to sort out. I no longer carry the burden of the world's problems on my shoulders or worry about things I can not control. When crops go wrong because of weather I find alternative ways to do things. It is part of life but nothing to get depressed about.

Life is a precious gift to be valued. This present life goes by too fast to spend it in worry, self pity or self-doubting and second-guessing values and decisions.It took me six decades to learn how to live happy no matter what the circumstance I am in. I am so thankful to be alive and contribute in some way to make life better for others.

Thankyou for this, Imrose. Wise words.

[fishhead]

Just imagine what their life would be like if you could teach that to young people.

Originally Posted by lmrose

I used to have SAD days of depression when there was months of no sun like last year. I had stressful days when things went wrong especially when the weather doesn't co-operate and we depended on the farm for a living. I had terrible days with rebellious kids. More depression losing my son when he was 37 and died. More sad days as my relatives are dying off young. I do a lot of parying for sure.

Now I don't have any bad days and it isn't because the kids grew up or the weather co-operates either. I lost the ability to walk almost totally because of severe problems with my feet. I found out I had some potential health problems that are heredity related. I am working on correcting these problems.

Now when I get up and still can walk with the help of orthodics, I have normal cholesterol and am not diabetic because I changed how I ate, I can still partly see out of one eye even though blind in the other; I say THANKYOU LORD for letting me have another day!I am so HAPPY to be ALIVE! I only have two relatives who can say the same thing.
Life always has its ups and downs. Farming and homesteading has its share because of bad weather, predators and by-laws that choke us. However I would never want any other life. When we were raising five kids in total we never had the option of whether we should quit farming. Feeding all those kids depended alot on how well we understood farming and made it work.We had very little money and a hard time earning what we did have.We always appreciated nature and all its beauty and unpredictabilty. We were and still are thankful for everything.

I think what happened is after the kids left home I seemed to have lost some purpose for my being. So I got depressed until My feet went wacky and one day I couldn't walk. Then came blood tests saying I was almost diabetic and had high cholesterol made by my liver. I also had high blood pressure and was losing sight in my one working eye.It was all a wake up call for me!

I realized I had to take charge of my health life if I wanted to grow old gracefully without health problems. So that is what I have done the past two years. I have everything under control except the problem with my feet which I am working on fixing.

Now I am thankful for every precious moment of my life. I treasure every sunrise and sunset. I stare in awe at every new birth of a baby goat or baby chicks pecking their way out of eggs.I treasure every moment shared with my husband and the times the children and grand children come to visit and I can still see their faces.

I thank God for peace in my life and the ability to leave all the troubles in life for Him to sort out. I no longer carry the burden of the world's problems on my shoulders or worry about things I can not control. When crops go wrong because of weather I find alternative ways to do things. It is part of life but nothing to get depressed about.

Life is a precious gift to be valued. This present life goes by too fast to spend it in worry, self pity or self-doubting and second-guessing values and decisions.It took me six decades to learn how to live happy no matter what the circumstance I am in. I am so thankful to be alive and contribute in some way to make life better for others.

[jen74145]

I make a pot of coffee, went out to watch the hens when I had 'em. Lately, now that it's spring, I am making myself spend a little each week on my garden. A few cheapy six packs of marigolds really cheer me, plus then I'm outside in the dirt and just.... my soul sings.

Sometimes I take a hot bath while my cat sits on the edge and purrs at me. Wrestle my toddler DS until he's giggling and red cheeked, or run a bath for him and blow bubbles at him to make him crow.

Even if I don't feel like it, I clean five days out of seven. Daily I do the usual things, but I've found a sparkling home helps my mood SO much. So Monday I might wash baseboards, Tuesday I scrub cabinets, you get the idea.

I make a point to watch the sunset each night. I eat right.

DS and I are all alone, apart from draining phone calls from relatives. DH is on the other side of the world and calls are costly, but we IM each day. Lately we've taken to saying "Money be DARNED" and calling to wake each other. I miss him terribly, and lately it's been so hard. Timely thread.

I adopted a puppy a few weeks ago who was dead of parvo within a week. Since then it has felt like the world is out to get me... I can't even have a dog, for crying out loud.

*breathe* Well, it's alright. Come June I can get a few hens again, and a rabbit or two. I can garden to my heart's content.

On that note, I need to go bring in some laundry and play in the dirt.