Monthly Archives: June 2015

A new mission

24 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by in Being brave, Freedom, Gratitude, Mental health, Projects, Recipes, Self growth

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I would like to take the opportunity to thank every single one of you who follow, like and are inspired by I Don’t Want to be Stressed.
It started with very humble beginnings when somebody suggested it because they could not travel to see me for a session.
I don’t want to be stressed has grown in followers and in content but the time has come for it to be something more.

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I want to share more good news, more stories, more recipes and more crafts.  These are the things that keep me motivated and positive when I am stressed and I would love to be able to share them with you.

So here is the mission:

  • If anyone would like to share their story, I would be really honoured to be able to put your story right here so that other people can be inspired by you and your story of survival.  You can email your story to: andi.bengis@gmail.com
  • We are surrounded by such a lot of bad, terrible, horrific and sad news and not enough good, exciting and uplifting news – I will be on a mission to find some of this news!
  • I will share some projects for you to make (and bake) at home that may assist you in managing stress and will definitely  work on giving you a creative outlet for your stress – don’t worry if you think you are not artistic. Not everyone is an artist but everyone has the ability to create and express themselves
  • Watch this space for exciting workshops , retail opportunities (yes!) and perhaps even the long awaited I Don’t Want to be Stressed journal.

I look forward to sharing this new journey with you all!

Have faith rather than fear!

17 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by in Attitude, Being brave, Fear, Life journey

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I hear so many stories, on an almost daily basis, of people telling me what they are going to do…. if only they were not afraid, or if they had more courage, or if they had more resources, or more support.

Faith and fear cannot exist together.
Choose faith instead of fear!

  • Have faith in the fact that life is an ongoing experiment rather than something that you need to get right. Try something new and if it doesn’t work, at least you tried and you have learned what you can’t do or how not to do it.
  • Have faith in your ability to reach beyond what others expect of you and your own limitations and be bigger and bolder than what you believe you can be.
  • Have faith that today is a good enough day to start your new journey. Not tomorrow, not next year, not Monday – just one step forward today!
  • Have faith that you have a purpose (even though you may not know what it is) and that everything in your life is a step towards that purpose – and NO, your purpose is NOT to be a failure!
  • Believe that there are people who care (I do!)
  • Trust yourself – you are awesome.
  • If it is not working – do it differently.  Don’t fear that you have failed. It is really not worth thinking that you can’t do it because one way isn’t working. There may be plenty more ways that DO work.

 

Surviving “bad luck”

11 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in Attitude, Being brave

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Wow, it seems that I have gone through a string of bad luck lately!
It started with my house flooding (but then, who am I to complain? I always wanted an indoor swimming pool), and then my drains were blocked (no need for any descriptions there). Things settled down for a few days before my neighbour died and then, oh joyous day, my son broke his finger (on his right hand, which is his dominant hand that he writes with – 2 weeks before exams start)
Even as I type this out, I am laughing at myself that I thought that those were disasters.  Though while I was going through each one, I thought that there was some conspiracy against me – that some puppet master, or mafia boss, was sitting in a dodgy office somewhere laughing at my downfall.
It didn’t help that my cleaner was one hundred percent convinced that we were cursed by a witch whose sole mission it was to chase her out of my house! (Seriously!)
So now that we have survived these (so called) terrible things that were not actually that bad, I had time to reflect about how much we tend to over-dramatise things that are really not that dramatic.
Yes, there are times when things are clearly disastrous but people overcome all kinds of things – never mind being cursed by a witch.
You never truly know how much you can survive until life throws something at you and says “let’s see how you are going to deal with this!”
There is no way that you are going to go through life smooth sailing all of the time.  It just doesn’t work like that.
But you always have a choice – let life knock you down and focus on how terrible things are or say “OK, life I see you but I am not entertaining this negativity”
I really don’t believe that anyone is cursed or put on this earth to suffer or be punished.  If you feel that way, you are much more likely to get stuck in a negative space and then…. surprise, surprise… life is a negative place to be.
I’m not asking you to be in love with life – sometimes life is just not worth loving – but to be gentle enough on yourself that if things go wrong, you can gracefully deal with it and leave the drama behind.
Sometimes life even has a way of forcing you to slow down – you push yourself so hard and never take a break. Then life will say “aha – you need a break! How about lying in your lounge next to your new (temporary!) indoor swimming pool?” or “you never take a day off work, how about taking the day off to spend with your son in another hospital? A change is as good as a holiday”
Maybe one day, you too will look back at all of your disasters and say, “I am awesome to have survived that ordeal and I am a stronger person for having gone through it”.

“Promise me you’ll always remember…
You’re braver than you believe,
Stronger than you seem,
Smarter than you think,
and Loved more than you know”
– Christopher Robin to Winnie the Pooh (A. A. Milne)

 

Be kind

04 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in Advice, Moods, Positivity

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Today I took my lunch break (yes, you read that correctly – LUNCH BREAK!) at a particularly busy restaurant.
The waitress who was serving me was stressed, irritable and obviously run off her feet at the busy lunch time service.
My initial reaction was to be irritable back.  She seemed rude although she was clearly not a rude person- just a stressed person.
My choice was to be rude too or to find something to lighten her mood.  Of course I chose the latter.  And so she smiled the most beautiful smile, and then laughed, and then gave me a free taste sample of one of their new dishes that I asked about.

That experience reminded me of a quote that I read earlier this week:
“A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected”
If you treat people well and you compliment them, they will live up to your expectation.
People need to be treated well.  We are surrounded by negative people and negativity all the time but it is our job to be the one who turns that around.

Even if you want to scream at the person or if you are angry, you are not going to feel better about yourself and you are not exactly going to gain any respect from them (even if they don’t deserve it).

This week, I challenge you to be kind.
Do something nice for a random person, or even better, do something nice for somebody who doesn’t really deserve it.
Go ahead!

be kind