Life Lessons

During one of my many inpatient stays in 2007 one of the nurses sat me down to share with me his Life Lessons.  I am so glad that he wrote them down as there was no way that I was in the right frame of mind to take it on board.  Times like this I’m also glad I am a bit of a hoarder so I still have the book it is written in.

I was in a pretty bad place and I didn’t care about myself or anyone around me. I just wanted out and I wanted out now.  This compassionate nurse was one of many who tried to reach me and I will be forever grateful.

Lesson 1

All humans have a fundamental goal to be happy.  I can be happy.  

Lesson 2

I can recognise that the people in my life also have a goal to be happy.  Therefore we must be flexible, negotiate, compromise, collaborate and cooperate.  We all deserve to have life = win/win not lose/lose or win/lose.

Lesson 3 

I must not carry baggage from my past.  It is not hat happened to me that counts just my reaction that matters.

Lesson 4 

Keep life simple. Do not complicate life by overloading, creating conflict and trying to meet the expectations of others.  

Lesson 5

Be like the water not the rock.

Be flexible, tolerant and accept change.

I be enlightened (know the truth) closes your mind to all other possibilities.

Nothing is certain

Nothing is forever

No one has all the answers.

I still struggle daily with lesson 3 and 5.  I have a horribly good memory for all things negative.  They eat away at me every second of the day.  

One rule that he didn’t write down but I still remember is to removed the word ‘should’ from your vocabulary.  The word ‘should’ promotes guilt and a feeling of negative self worth.  

Do you have any life lessons? What’s one rule you have for yourself that you will never compromise on?

Soial Media has an Evil SIde Too

Social media aka Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Google+, you get the picture, can either be an absolute godsend or an absolute kick in the virtual guts.  

It’s filled to the brim with people who take it upon themselves to become keyboard warriors.  What is a keyboard warrior you ask. It’s simple. It’s someone who uses the internet to show aggression that they wouldn’t normally show in life.  For example being confrontational when IRL they are non confrontational.  

I’d like to think that I’m not one of those people.  I have a rule with myself that I will never say anything online that I wouldn’t say to someone’s face.  It helps me live with myself.  If at the end of the day you can look at yourself and be happy with the way that you have conducted yourself then I guess that is all you can do.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve found that not everyone lives by these standards.  Everyone likes to twist their own meanings into things and it is so easy for an offhand comment made in jest to get out of hand.  It’s so hard to convey emotions and sarcasm in the written text and you never quite know how someone is going to take something. Something that you see as hilarious, Mrs Joe Blow might find offensive.  It’s so hard to pick.

Being a keyboard warriors is more than just an accidental offensive slip because lets be honest we all have them. Yes even me, the awesomeness has them ;). A keyboard warrior is deliberately aggressive.  Antagonistic if you will.  They make idle threats and usually don’t know how to debate constructively.  A keyboard warrior tends to fall back on insults when confronted. If you are on the receiving end of a keyboard warrior you may even feel like you have time warped back to high school.

The last couple of weeks keyboard warriors have taught me a few lessons.  The biggest lesson being to take a deep breath, take a step back and not let the online world take over my real life.  Over the Easter weekend I took a complete break from social media and it was a breath of fresh air.  I’m definitely too much of an addict to give it up forever and quite frankly it does have its awesome points.  After my break I was able to come back to social media with a fresh slate.  The comments made weren’t getting to me as much and it wasn’t spilling over into my real life anymore.  

I noticed that 90% of my conversations to Paul were about my frustrations of Facebook, we weren’t having REAL conversations anymore.  We even started to argue about it.  After my break and a huge conversation things are better.  I’m sticking with the good stuff and trying to ignore the bad stuff. Both for my happiness and my family’s happiness. 

Popping my product review cherry

Sooo this is my first product review.  Be gentle with me.

I had the absolute pleasure of test driving some Aveeno lotions and bath products.  Aveeno prides themselves on being natural products so I'll have to be honest and say that I was skeptical about how effective the bath products were going to be.  Smell plays a big factor in me choosing a shampoo and bath wash so I wasn't sure how these were going to fare.

I received all four products in the Baby range in the mail last week and having been giving them a work out ever since.

I tried the "Daily Moisture Lotion" out on myself first.  I've had really bad chapped lips lately and nothing seems to soothe them.  I rubbed a little of the lotion of my smoochers and they were kissably smooth in a couple of minutes and stayed like that until I had a shower. I've been using it since and my pout has been snog worthy since.  

Dyllan has had a raging nappy rash for the last 2-3 weeks that the normal remedies has been keeping at bay until a poonami occurs (yes these are still very much possible with a toddler, they are just bigger and smellier).  I tried out the "Soothing Relief Moisture Cream" on his little but.  It didn't have much effect on keeping the rash at bay however it was the first time that I was able to rub cream on the rash without him screaming like a banshee so there was success.

Bath time meant we got to test run the other two products in the baby range, "Soothing Relief Creamy Wash" and "Wash and Shampoo".  Dyllan has a bath so I decided to see how the creamy wash would bubble up in the tub.  I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of bubbles it created.  Dyllan didn't complain so it must have been a winner.  I used it on myself later in the shower and found that it did soap up nicely on a sponge too.  It also had a pleasant, without being intrusive scent.

I was apprehensive about trying out the wash and shampoo because hair washing is a bit of a sore point in our household.  Mainly for my ear drums, as well as anyone in a 5km radius.  Dyllan hates getting his hair washed with a passion.  He screams blue murder and something (usually me) always gets headbutted.  I gingerly lathered up Dyllan's hair with the shampoo, held my breath and poured the first rinse of water over his head....there was nothing. There was no screaming, no headbutting and no madly clawing at his eyes even though no water actually goes into his eyes.  It was a success.  It was quite possibly the best hair washing experience for all involved since Dyllan learnt to sit up by himself.

Overall I was really happy with the Aveeno Baby range.  I will definitely be buying the wash and shampoo in the future.  

If you would like to give the Aveeno Baby range a whirl or know someone who might benefit from them, then head into your nearest Major Supermarket, Pharmacy or Specialty Retail Outlet. Australia Only.