Budget, breaking bad brain habits and…breathe

The featured image of cheese doesn’t really have anything to do with this post- it is just there because I am ‘grateful’ to live in a country that has an endless supply of delicious cheese. 🙂

OK, two things to start:

1. For reasons I won’t detail because I am trying to be more of a positive person- about 20% of our total funds have been “lost”. This includes what was to have been our ‘budget cushion’ and any emergency funds. (ouch)
2. Whatever your renovation budget and timeline – double them. (ouch again)

That pretty much covers the budget, which has sort of been giving me heart palpitations.  BUT we are moving forward and determined to find other avenues of income to fill that gap. As the saying goes, c’est la vie.

Which brings me to ‘breaking bad brain habits’.  Just like developing general bad habits (like smoking, biting your nails or over-filling the rubbish bin…OK, that last one might be debate-able) we can build bad ‘emotional response’ habits. I was recently reading specifically about complaining…and how it is a seemingly easy way to deal with challenges/barriers/problems – but it becomes a habitual negative response. One suggestion to try and break the negative habit is every time you complain pause and remind yourself of something be grateful for.  So it might work like this:

1. Complain: Grrr, X company is really annoying me by screwing up my account so I can’t watch Game of Thrones.
2. Pause – avoid going into an overactive tirade about being denied the opportunity to cheer on the dragon chick.
3. Shift thought – well, since I can’t watch GoT, I have the opportunity to catch up on Samantha Bee/John Oliver/Stephen Colbert – and laugh my ass off instead, and I am grateful there are people in this world who make me laugh.

I am grateful my dog recognises the Christmas tree is indoors and doesn’t feel the urge to pee on it (so far).

Yes- I realise that is a bit simplistic and my ‘gratefuls’ lately have been a bit more philosophical…more about having an opportunity to chase a dream, meet wonderful new people and live in a beautiful place.  I think you get the point.  Being negative is easy but it sucks your energy in the long run and you don’t get much done, and I have an ever-growing list of fun things I want to be doing so I need that energy; things like-  make marshmallows, bake Christmas cookies, try my hand at a terrine, plan a vegetable garden, find a pig breeder, research chicken breeds…..find out where the hell my carte de sejour is….

Now- breathe!