Inspiration by Apple Watch

Note to self.  Find a much smaller company to try to promote my blog.  Google and Apple may be slightly too big.  So, how bout it trailerparks.com?  Or maybe vintagehorseshoes.com?  I have 11 people who read my blog now!  I am up 10% in 24 hours...could be a breakthrough!

Anyway, its my third day.  Ironically, I came home and really just wanted to lay down and rest...no reading for me.  Then I remembered that I had said I would do a chapter a day...publicly.  Well crap.  I turned off Netflix, went to the Chinese restaurant, talked to my mom, fed the dogs, changed my clothes, and climbed into bed.  My "getting ready to read" routine was complete.  See...re-framing my thoughts, making avoidance into a prolonged preparation phase, really worked.  Ok.  So, that wasn't in the book.  Dawn would fly to Missouri and knock that cashew chicken out of my hand if I said justification of avoidance was in her book...but it would get her here. :)

In any case, today's chapter was on Inspiration.  It was a very fast read and I actually came away from it feeling pretty good about how I do in the inspire department.  Inspiring others is something I really like to strive for in my life.  I truly want people to feel the joy and happiness I feel in many ways through simply living.  One way I have found to be very effective is something Beth wrote about.  It tied in with the kindness chapter as well.  Interesting how the good things tend to work together for good.  She shared about paying for the order of the car behind her at Starbucks (funny how I blogged about Starbucks yesterday) and then it started a cascade of people doing it for others.  I have done this myself and also had it done for me...once when I should have never been in the drive through in the first place.  Money was tight and I really wanted a Diet Coke.  I could never have paid for the car behind me that day, but I promised to do it for someone else in the future when I could.  It was a blessing I needed and made me grateful for a stranger to have done something so nice...so simple.  I want to be that stranger to people in life.  Nameless and faceless, but a blessing nonetheless.  No need to be seen or known...just my fruits giving a blessing to someone else.

Speaking of fruits, I have an Apple watch I rarely use...but really enjoy. (If you are reading right now thinking to yourself, "Did he really try to segue from fruits of giving to an Apple watch?" you are not alone.  I did.  I am also not going to go back and change it.  Desperate times call for desperate segues.  Back to the Apple watch.  When I wear it I always am looking at it because the notifications vibrate my arm.  I am usually not engaged with them, just nuisances to be recalled at some later time...or never.  However, the one that annoys me the most is "Breathe."  Ok.  Seriously.  Does my Apple watch for some reason think I am not breathing.  Does it know something I do not?  I looked it up, because it 1) annoyed me after a while and 2) made me question actually DID know something was wrong.  If you look on webMd it says that if you face this issue with your watch and do nothing about it...you guessed it...you die.  Okay, so wedMd is not going to be sponsoring my blog (marking it off my short list).  In all reality it really is just trying to make you take a minute away from your day and stop. Stop.  Breathe.  Relax.  I actually never do it.  I should.

Beth says when she meets with people she has them take three deep breaths.  It allows you to find some center and prepare yourself for what lies ahead.  Three deep breaths.  I tried it.  I know that anxiety can lead to shortness of breath, so deep breaths would lead to the opposite effect, I would assume.  To my enjoyment...it worked.  Three deep breaths, in my nose and out my mouth really relaxed me.  It was that simple.  Just three deep breaths and I kind of reset. 

So, not that I ever was questioning a company that is world a kajillion dollars, but next time I wear my Apple watch, and it tells me to breathe, I will not take its suggestion as a nuisance, but rather an opportunity to stop and relax.  Then maybe I will find myself open to new inspiration.

Until Next Time,
Peace