Jenerally Speaking

Yep – I’m back…for today, at least.

It has been a BUSY couple of months – the holidays always take up so much time, but things are slowing down a bit.  Or rather, I am learning to slow down a bit.  I have been doing so much reading about mindfulness and meditation and living in the moment…it sounds hokey, I guess, but it has made such a difference in my life.  I never realized how much time I actually spent thinking about the future or reviewing the past…and how much that actually affected my daily mood.

“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it is called the present.”

I have learned so much that I actually don’t know where to start, but one of my biggest changes is to no longer be bothered when someone “innocently inconveniences” me.  This includes the slow driver in front of me, the new checkout girl who is taking too long, the guy who connects me to the wrong number when I call for technical support, etc.  Don’t get me wrong – it’s not like I threw a hissy fit when that happened, but it would definitely cause some irritation and I was tired of feeling irritated.  Acceptance and peacefulness sure feels a lot better and definitely feels a lot more natural to me.  I used to be such a tolerant person,  but found that I have become impatient and ill-at-ease over the past few years.  It was definitely time for a different outlook. 

So, everything else is going fairly well in my life. Here’s the quick summary:

1 – I have my temporary job starting in 2 weeks.  The money from that should pay for at least one of my college courses.  I’ll only have 2 more classes to go after that.

2 – I started physical therapy last week for my neck and back.  They haven’t been feeling right since the mono last year.  I had some x-rays done and they showed a compression fracture in the middle of my back. I actually have no idea where that came from actually…the middle back only started hurting about a month ago.  I fell on my stairs about 4 years ago, so maybe it finally started hurting now?  I don’t know.  I also have muscle spasms in my neck and some osteoarthritis in my lower back and neck.  Ack!  I feel old.

3 – Meghan was taken to a natural homeopath last week.  She was still struggling with severe, but intermittent stomach pains.  It was determined that she is dealing with systemic yeast (Candida) overgrowth.  Normally the body can keep the yeast levels under control, but Meg was on birth control last year for a few months for her ovarian cyst and then she was put on 3 rounds of antibiotics for her sinus infection this fall.  That pretty much killed all the good bacteria in her system.  She also eats a lot of simple carbs and sugars, which is what the yeast feeds on.

So, how is it being treated?

Well, she’s been put on a yeast-free/sugar-free diet for the next 6 weeks.  Sugar-free also includes artificial sweeteners.  The only sweetener she can have is Stevia or xylitol.  I haven’t tried the xylitol, but Stevia can be a little bitter.  She’s having a rough time getting used to it.  Unfortunately for her I am quite a lousy cook and haven’t had a lot of luck making her meals for her.  My veggie soup came out way too salty.  My french toast tasted like cardboard and my spaghetti squash meal was gooey and gross. 

At the rate we’re going, she’s going to starve before these 6 weeks are finally over.  LOL