My first, my last, my everything

Welcome to my very first blog entry! I know this page is rudimentary, but it gives us a jumping off point. Hopefully my content will keep you entertained, and you will overlook my poor html design skills. I promise to learn.

I'm taking a class right now that is kicking my ass, and not for the reasons you might expect. The class: Shame, Empathy and Resilience. Now, I'm not one to get all touchy feely with my inner self. In fact, I avoid it at all costs. What I've learned, and what I've honestly known, is that this is not going to work for me going forward. I'm pretty hard on myself, and I don't like to let people know it. In this class, we had to test our self-compassion level. Mine was average, but it really allowed me to see that I tend to isolate and talk down to myself. Our assignment was to develop a creative outlet for ourselves that would allow us to practice self-compassion and the three elements that comprise it.

What are the three elements, you say? Self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. Self-kindness involves realizing that things aren't always going to go my way, and that's ok. It really is. Common humanity is about not taking things so personally, and reducing my sense of isolation when things don't go my way. Mindfulness is about not suppressing or exaggerating my thoughts and feelings.

I love to write. When MySpace was big, I regularly posted to the blog section, and my readers and I had a lot of fun. That kind of trickled off, but my desire to write and share my experiences with my peers never did. I've often thought of starting a blog, but lack of design experience, fear of judgement, and the age-old excuse of lack of time have really held me back.

So here's my commitment. I'm going to use this space to explore and share different things that are going on in my life. It's not always going to be heavy, but sometimes it may be. I think that seeing my struggles written down will allow me some perspective, and let me see if I'm blowing things out of proportion, or maybe not giving it enough of my time. What I am most looking forward to is sharing with others, which satisfies the reducing isolation component. I look forward to comments and discussions that will let us all know that we're not alone in this thing called life. I'll update regularly, so please keep checking back.

Giddyup!