Have you ever experienced a meltdown… the kind where you find yourself in a messy puddle on the floor?

I have a concept called, Pennie’s DOT Theory, that states:
 “Any event that happens to us, around us, or concerns us is just one tiny Dot in the grand adventure of life. If we over-think one Dot it becomes magnified and joins with other Dots to form a mass of stress that creates imbalance and unhappiness.”
 
If we blow one Dot out of proportion it can consume us, make us irrational, and ultimately we end up in that messy puddle. The problem is we overthink a little Dot allowing it to become a big DOT. 
 
Remember this – D-O-T- DON’T OVER THINK the Dot! 
 
It happened to me. It began with a flu shot. Well, the flu shot is not responsible for the entire meltdown, but it is the Dot that began the snowball rolling. For three days after the shot, I felt tired, drained, and far from the perky, optimistic, personality, I am known for.
 
My fatigue turned into a colossal cold. Another Dot. I stopped working out, stopped meditating, stopped eating right… Dot… Dot… Dot.
 
As the days continued my snowball began rolling faster. More stressful Dots showed up. The imbalance grew. I broke dishes, forgot things, and my blood pressure went up. As the Dots continued to connect, overwhelm set in. I began allowing the profanities of human emotions to marinate with the Dots. You know the ones… words like, jealousy, resentment, anger, insecurity, and finally the big four-letter word - FEAR!
 
Then it happened. It doesn’t matter what the “IT” was, it was just another Dot, but the most dangerous kind for me… my feelings were hurt. The snowball aimed right for that new Dot. The snowball rolled around until every dirty bit of the new Dot was connected to the Dot party forming in my head. It was just the Dot to heat up the snowball enough for it to come to a full stop, a complete meltdown, and a Dot EXPLOSION!
 
The pity party wasn’t pretty. The meltdown was ugly. The Dot explosion was epic, causing a massive heart attack. You see, when you over-think little Dots they join with other Dots in the same way plaque sticks together to block your arteries. You don’t function well and it eventually leads to an attack of the heart. 
 
Thank goodness Dot heart attacks don’t send you to the hospital. Yet, they have the power to do just as much damage. Accumulating and overthinking Dots stifle your happiness. Fear takes over attacking your heart and breaking down its protective covering until an explosive meltdown occurs. A crack is formed, and your heart is scarred in hidden ways. 
 
Finally, I stepped back from the dirty puddle I was sitting in and realized I had broken my own DOT Rule. By overthinking every little Dot, I had given them the power to become huge in my mind. I allowed them to connect one by one, stripping me of my calm, my contentment, and my happiness. They blinded me and I couldn’t see anything except the huge painful mass of Dots. 
 
I had carried the Dot mass around like a collection of boulders in a backpack. Only when I dropped the backpack did they tumble out before me so I could see the tiny pebbles each of them really were. Just tiny Dots in the grand adventure of life!
                           ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                 Pennie’s Life Lesson:
                  Any event that happens to us, around us, or concerns us
                         is just one tiny Dot in the grand adventure of life.
                                             Don’t Over-Think the DOTs!
                                   ​  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

​
I got a new pair of shoes. They are red, fun, and spunky. I texted a photo of them to my grandkids to see what they would say. The texts came back… “so cute,” “Oooo I like them,” and “very drip.” I had to look that one up.
According to the new slang, if you have the drip, it means you have swagger, especially in how you look. You're hot. You're cool. You're on point. You've got the sauce.

Success! I am cool in the eyes of my grandchildren. I have stood in a lot of shoes in my life, but this is the first time I have been successful at having the sauce.

What is your definition of success? It is different for everyone and changes depending on what stage of life you are in. When I was a student success equaled graduation. As a young mother, I was satisfied if my children were healthy, well cared for, and happy. I was a successful mom. As they grew I went back to school for another graduation and reached for the success of a career. Bigger positions and bigger promotions were always the bells I stretched to ring. Along with that came bigger paychecks, bigger homes, nicer cars, and big vacations. Success! Success! Success!

Now I enjoy accolades when my writing touches people. An email from a reader is a heartwarming success- no bell ringing is needed. And when my grandchildren think I am the coolest grandma they know, that may be the biggest heart burster of success I have had.

You see, I realize success is ours to name. It all depends on what shoes you are standing in. Maybe you don’t want to always have on those climbing shoes as you step up the ladder. Maybe you don’t want to be the boss. Maybe you feel totally content and successful as an important cog in the wheel of the company. Maybe you are standing in the leader's shoes of a company, but you won’t feel successful until you have your own company.

Maybe your dream life is to travel the country in a small motor home and make enough money to buy a burger and put gas in your tank. No house, no big paycheck, no fancy cars, but standing in your shoes you feel successful. Ring the bell! 

There is nothing wrong with reaching for more. There is nothing wrong with being happy where you are. You name what success is to you. You decide what makes you happy and content. It isn’t anyone’s business to judge your definition of success by their interpretation of success. They don’t stand in your shoes.

As for me, I have been on top of the ladder, and I have been a happy cog. I’ve had homes that range from big to small. But today, where I stand now, I am happily wearing my fun, red, spunky shoes. I feel my swagger. I think I look hot and feel cool. I am the drip and have the sauce. And I have never felt more successful in my life!
                              ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Pennie’s Life Lesson:
                                                     Success is personal.
                        Only you can label what your success should be.
                                  Be happy standing in your own shoes. 
                                        ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

#CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
YOUR TURN...        
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below.  And please feel free to email me  at:
 [email protected]. 
                                                                 Thank you!  ​
                                      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                         All Rights Reserved
                                          Copyright © 2013-2023 Pennie Hunt
                             This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt.
Feel free to forward and share this post.  Please keep the entire message intact, including  contact, logo, and copyright information. 

I have a hard time being still. I can sit with a cup of coffee in the morning with my dogs on my lap and slowly wake up. I can do my morning meditation, read something motivational and write in my journal. But once that quiet morning time is done, I am up and running.

I rarely take a full day off. I am always writing. I am always planning my next speech or my next book. I am always thinking about ways I can help more, give more and do more.

I think many of us are like this. We are caught up in the busyness of life. We hustle from one meeting to another, one commitment to another, one task to another. It is easy to become overwhelmed with life.

When I am in this kind of perpetual movement, I forget to breathe. It isn’t intentional. It sounds odd, but I hold my breath as if that helps me go faster and get more done. When I catch myself doing this, I make myself close my eyes and breathe to reset the rhythm of my body. There have been times in my life when I didn’t pay attention and allow myself the time to be still. There have been times when I pushed too long and too hard. My body broke down, giving me no choice but to be still and heal.

Occasionally, we are given a quiet time in life. It may be a moment, a day, or a month of stillness. We may become anxious. It’s too quiet. Too slow. Too boring. Don’t confuse boredom with peace. Occasionally, we are given a purposeful pause— to feel the empty space, to hear the quiet, to stop the movement.

Be grateful for a full, happy, busy life, but never overlook the beauty of the purposeful pause. There are times when we are meant to pause. We are meant to take time. Sit still. Stand still. Be still. Be grateful for times of space, quiet, and stillness. Be grateful for a peaceful space of time just for you.

Being bored is a gift. Boredom is a time to heal. Don’t reach for distractions or numbing diversions like screens, food, alcohol, or other people. Allow the space for healing. It’s a powerful peaceful place. Boredom is a time of quiet that can turn the volume up on our happiness. Boredom is where creativity is born. Boredom is when you can silence everything else in the world and be still.

When you are running the race of life, going faster and faster, trying to keep up - stop. When you are overwhelmed with a problem and are searching for an answer – stop. When you are pushing so hard that you forget to breathe – stop. Stop before your body and mind are pushed to a limit which causes a health situation that forces you to stop.

Allow your body and your mind the space to be still. To do nothing. It is in this space that your body rejuvenates. It is in this space that your mind clears out the messy problems. It is in this space that every step of life becomes easier… one breath at a time. One moment of stillness at a time.

                                                        Pennie’s Life Lesson:
                               When you allow your mind the space to do nothing,
                                                      it is easier to do everything.

#CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt
YOUR TURN...        
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below.  And please feel free to email me  at:
 [email protected]. 
                                                                 Thank you!  ​
                                      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                         All Rights Reserved
                                          Copyright © 2013-2023 Pennie Hunt
                             This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt.
Feel free to forward and share this post.  Please keep the entire message intact, including  contact, logo, and copyright information. ​

Do you remember the feeling? Running out of the elementary school door with your backpack filled with the contents of your desk. Crinkled papers, worn crayons, and the coat you took to school but never wore at recess were all shoved inside. The zipper didn’t completely zip, but you didn’t care. You ran out into the sunshine shouting, “Free, Free, I am FREEEEE!”
 
Summer break began. The air felt fresher. The walk home seemed shorter. And the days of summer ahead appeared endless. That is how I remember it.
 
As a child both of my parents worked full-time, so summer meant my brother, sister, and I were on our own. I remember spending hours in the sandbox building roads and filling holes with water to create lakes. The cool, wet sand oozed between our toes, creating a cast of sand up to our knees. When we were done, we would run through the sprinkler in the backyard to rinse the sticky paste of sand off our legs and hands.
 
With every year we grew older, and the summer adventures grew bigger. We would wrap towels across our shoulders and ride our bikes to the community swimming pool. Swimming and splashing hours away and then pumping our bicycle pedals with tired legs to get home just before our parents arrived. There were adventures when my brother and I would ride our bikes across the entire town on trips of exploration that our parents never knew about.
 
I remember the summer days when I would hold the BB gun and a bag of pop cans on the back of my brother’s Honda 50 as he drove us to the open space behind our house. We stacked the cans on rocks and the competition began to see who had the best aim. We caught horned toads in shoe boxes and sat on the brick wall at the end of our street watching tornado clouds in the distance. We didn’t think about danger or fear. We just had fun.
 
As high schoolers, we rushed to the lake to water ski in the early hours of morning when the lake was like glass. Then we fished until we caught enough to take home and cook for dinner.
 
As jobs, car payments, and responsibilities became big parts of our lives, the sandbox, the adventures, and the freedom of summer grew smaller. The carefree feeling of childhood became blurred and filed as a sweet, simple - almost forgotten - memory.
 
What if we could remember the lessons of that time? The time when summers were simple and easy. 
What if we remember that the warm days of sunshine may feel long, but summers are short?
What if remember to run with freedom where the air is fresher, and the run is effortless?
What if we took the time to let sand ooze between our toes and run barefoot through the grass?
What if we got out of our brains and into our bodies to splash in the waters of nature and play until our legs are too tired to take another step… but then we pedal on for more fun?
What if we harnessed moments of spontaneity and took secret trips of adventure exploring places in our own community that we have never experienced before?
What if we collected treasures in shoe boxes and watched clouds dance across the sky?
What if we didn’t think about danger or fear? -- We just had fun.
 
And, what if we shared all of this with our children during their summer breaks?
What if they become sweet, simple memories that they file away- never to be forgotten?
                          ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                   Pennie’s Life Lesson:
                             Remember the fun of childhood summers and
               share the simplicity of it with your children and grandchildren.
                          ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

#CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt
YOUR TURN...        
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below.  And please feel free to email me  at:
 [email protected]. 
                                                                 Thank you!  ​
                                      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                         All Rights Reserved
                                          Copyright © 2013-2023 Pennie Hunt
                             This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt.
Feel free to forward and share this post.  Please keep the entire message intact, including  contact, logo, and copyright information. ​

I am not a great photographer. At least not like a professional photographer, who captures the ice cream as it drips off the nose of a two-year-old or the unpredictable belly laugh of a bride as her new husband kisses her neck.

I look for frames.
I see the world as frames that will hold my words, my feelings and my emotions. When I spot a frame, I snap it quickly to be used with my writing to illustrate the point I intend to convey. At times the frames I see create my words or allow my words to come together in a meaningful way to reach the heart of the viewer. One snapshot may hold a quote that speaks of peace and calmness. One photo may hold my words about love. These words travel through newspapers and through the internet to land with the person who is meant to see, and feel, the message.

What if you looked at every moment in your life as a frame?  How would you fill it to create a memory?  Do you want to frame a moment filled with experiences of happiness, examples of kindness, and feelings of love? Of course, we all do.
The problem is at times we become stuck in an uncomfortable frame. We all have snapshots in time that hold moments of being angry, sad, confused and even devastated. 

Many times people drift along believing that life is happening to them and they are helpless in the process. They feel like it is just the way it is. Their distorted view portrays a person who is an unlucky victim. They feel helpless and at the mercy of what life throws at them.

We all have those sad, lonely, unfortunate photos of hard times in life. We know they are there. It is ok and healthy to share them from time to time, but don’t let them become the only story in your photo album of life. Don’t let them minimize the memory shots that illustrate the good times, the learnings, and the spectacular events of life.

The control is in your hands. You direct the focus and what the lens of your life captures. It is up to you to search out the frames and fill them with the people and experiences YOU want to have. It is up to you to revisit the good memories and share the good times. It is up to you to remember the unfortunate memories and learn the lessons they bring.

I am not a photographer, but I see my life in frames. I fill them moment by moment, memory by memory with all that life offers me. I fill my frames with meaning, with emotion and with feeling.
​How will you fill your frames?
                                                            ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                          Pennie’s Life Lesson:
                     Frame your world moment by moment, memory by memory
                                              to create a life of joy and happiness.
                                                           ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

#CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt
YOUR TURN...        
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below.  And please feel free to email me  at:
 [email protected]. 
                                                                 Thank you!  ​
                                      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                         All Rights Reserved
                                          Copyright © 2013-2023 Pennie Hunt
                             This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt.
Feel free to forward and share this post.  Please keep the entire message intact, including  contact, logo, and copyright information. ​