Positively Weightless

"I am just looking to hopefully change the world through my love of writing and my positive attitude." This sentence has been in my bio of this blog for years now. Ever since I decided to focus in on a different topic for this page, since some of you may remember that this started as a weight-loss blog, that has always been right there in the corner to the right. So why bring it up now? I have been thinking lately of just that. Changing the world. How can I, Amy Maier, 29 years old (and rapidly approaching 30, or at least it feels like it) living just a normal life. Responsibilities, hobbies, routines, etc. There is nothing all that phenomenal about my life, and I say that in the most positive way possible. You may be reading this thinking the same thing. How can me, average joe change the world, and I think that is a pretty simple answer.

I think before we answer the question we need to dive into why it is being asked. Why does the world need to be changed? I am going to do my best not to dive into politics here, because I really do not want to go there, but a lot of these topics have become political. If you take a look around you, things may seem fine on the surface, but you are one of the lucky ones. We have people living on the streets. Homeless and hungry. We have children being put into horrific situations that even grown adults would not be able to live in. We have women afraid on a daily basis doing daily tasks. There is so much darkness and loss in this world and it genuinely is so sad to see that some live with such abundance while others have nothing. Some get to live their lives unpunished for committing horrible crimes while others are punished unreasonably for lesser crimes. Evil truly does roam this earth more than it rests.

So why do I bring all this up? What can we all do? The truth of the matter is we of course cannot all singlehandedly change the world. Even if we all worked together I doubt it sadly would be possible. Life is about balance and I suppose the sad truth is that if we never experienced pain or sadness or suffering we would never truly appreciate the good things in our life. We can all strive to be better people though. We can all stop focusing solely on our lives and our needs and our suffering. This world would be an incredibly lonely place if the only person living on it was you. So sure you may not be able to change the world yourself but you absolutely can do your part to make sure it doesn't get any worse.

My entire point in bringing this up is to share my thoughts on truly changing the world as much as you can. We all have hobbies and talents and ways we let our true selves shine in this life. Maybe you love to paint and write like I do. Take my blog for example. I do not have a large following. Only about 8 official followers and I do not get too many views. I have always said and still stand by the fact that I write these posts for me and the hopes that someone stumbles around them that needs them. If I have helped anyone in their struggles that means my job here has paid off. Sure I am truly not changing the world as a whole on this page, but I may have changed one person's world and that to me is a win. If you don't focus on the bigger picture, it is much easier to see how you can have an impact. 

What do you truly enjoy to do in life? Do you like to paint like me? Share your artwork with the world somehow. Maybe you don't get a while lot of attention for it but I guarantee you will bring a smile to someone's face with it. If you write like I do share your work! Post that poem you have been working on where a friend may enjoy it. Even if you do not have any creative hobbies, do what you can to put a smile on someone's face today. Look, we have all had such a difficult year and a half. I do not know a single person that isn't struggling to some extent at this point into the pandemic, even if it is getting better in most places. Be a little kinder to one another. Show a little more love to one another. Work together because a small chain of kindness can have an amazing outcome for this cold, dark, world we all share.

 I am going to take today's post to revisit a topic I have talked about many times on this page. I am someone who firmly believes that routines are good for all of us to have. Sure we are all different and some people do better on them than others, but I think a routine is very much a big key to getting the success in your goals that you are trying to achieve. As I have mentioned I moved recently and that in a sense threw my routines into a frenzy and I had to adapt to change things up, I still am in some ways was well, so I thought now would be a great time to revisit this topic and talk about my experience with it in recent days.

Last year I think the reason a lot of us were struggling, and maybe some of you still are because you are still working from home, is because our routines were turned upside-down essentially overnight. I personally was in the office 5 days a week, went to the gym after work 4 out of those 5 days, and on Saturdays. Suddenly I was no longer going into the office and could not go to the gym for months. I was finally in a good routine with the gym and I have not fully recovered from that even today almost a year later. If you are still struggling with this, trust me you are not alone. I know a lot of people have loved working from home but others, like myself, could not stand it. I think for a lot of people that routine being completely changed around took a big toll on our mental health.

With all of that being said I think it is important to talk about what to do when a routine is changed around. I no longer live at my parents house, so a lot of things have changed for me. Before if I didn't feel like cooking after work I could just have something my Mom made. Now I pretty much have to cook even if I do not want to. I am still trying to get my morning routine down since my commute to work is a bit shorter so that has been a change. I have an entire apartment I need to keep clean so I need to work the chores into my schedule as well. I am not complain at all and in some ways I love having these new responsibilities, but it very much is a change. I have been trying to embrace my new closer location to the gym and waking up early to go before work instead of after where I am struggling to find the motivation to go. 

When things get flipped around on you, embrace it! Like I said before sure I have to cook dinner every night for myself but it gives me the chance to have no rules with it. Wednesdays from now on are going to me my pizza nights and I am going to eat that pizza on the couch and watch the new episodes of Loki every week. I want to encourage you to do the same. No I don't me pizza and Disney+ every Wednesday, I mean finding a silver lining with your routines being switched around. If you are still working from home take the time you would have spent a year ago on your commute and use it for yourself. Get in a morning workout, read a bit of a book, take extra time one a healthy breakfast in the morning. I would say the most important part of your routine getting switched around is finding a way to embrace it.

How have your routines switched around in the last year? I think it is safe to say that every single one of us have had to deal with this in some way, shape, or form. As I have been saying throughout this entire post the most important thing we can do with this is handling it in a healthy way. It is not going to do anyone any good to sit around and complain about things, like SO many people have been doing throughout this entire last year. Find a way to let this change have a positive impact on your life.

Here I am sitting down to write a blog post at 8pm on a Sunday. Typically I would have had the post well written and posted by this time, but such is life right? As I talked about last week, plans do not always pan out exactly as we want them to. Sometimes our routines are mixed up and the unexpected comes to play. No matter how hard we try, some things just cannot be accommodated for. Now I could have gotten settled in for the night here and just blew off another post, but I did not want to do that. I wanted to sit down and write down my thoughts this week so I pushed forward, and even though this post will be going up late, it will still be going up.

So let's get into today's topic. I wanted to branch off of last week's post just a bit here and talk about why it can be a good thing when life takes an unexpected turn. This past week I saw a post online saying something along the lines of: If the person you were 5 years ago saw you today, what would they think? That post was unexpectant and so positive to me. To think of all I have accomplished in just those few years is pretty amazing to me. Back then I was working at a job that if I was still only making that pay I absolutely would not have been able to move into the new place I recently did. 5 years ago I did not write poetry at all and I have since had a piece published. I have gained a lot of mental and physical strength in that time as well and to think of what me 5 years ago would think if she saw me today is a pretty emotional thought to have.

I want you to sit and think of the same question to yourself. 5 years ago where were you in comparison to today? It is possible your situation is not drastically different, or perhaps you took a turn in a negative way since then. If that is the case think of the time that has passed. What got you to where you are today. What could you improve on? What can you change? I know I personally would go back and not let myself fly off the handle when it comes to my weight loss journey. I would go back and help myself change my bad habits earlier so I may not have had such a struggle last year when we were all social distancing. I would make more time for hobbies and things I love to do rather than just getting through day to day life. I think no matter how much you wish you could change in the past it is important to remember that it is never too late to make progress.

When I look at the time that has passed in my life it is a pretty beautiful thing. Sure I am getting older, but I am getting to see myself bloom as well as the people I love around me bloom. Friends are getting married and having beautiful babies. Others are moving on to new chapters of their lives, or maybe even returning to old habits they once lost sight of. We can never get time back all we can do is make the most out of what we have left. 

"If all time is eternally present. All time is unredeemable." -T.S. Elliot, Four Quartets

Do not dwell on the past, just be mindful of the fact that you from 5 years ago would likely be amazed a who you are today. If you did not make any big accomplishments in that time I think it is important to give yourself credit for the fact that you are still here. I said I wouldn't mention it again but think about the fact that you have lived over a year of a global pandemic, if anything the fact that you are here today, mentally and physically healthy after everything we have lived through in the past year is pretty darn amazing if you ask me, so do not be so hard on yourself. Remember that time is not infinite for us. We are only given so much of it in this lifetime. Do you want to sit around and dwell on what could have been? Or would you rather make the most out of it and be proud that you are here?