The Jar of Mice

Good Morning All!

Today I got up and did my 20 minute yoga...I haven't done my morning workout in quite a few days. :( It felt sooo good. I even tried a new yoga pose..The Bridge...man that feels awesome!

A little aside here...for all you writers out there. You must read "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott. It is amazing! It's a book about writing and she has some fantastic tips. I was reading last night and I came across a paragraph that I wanted to share with you. It is about writing but you can relate it to anything in life. Whenever you do anything in life, whether its writing or losing weight, or anything at all, you always have those voices you can't get out of your head. Your mom, dad, sister, brother, friend, stranger....they all have something to say. Here is a tip to help you block those voices out and get to what is realy important...YOU.

"Close your eyes and get quiet for a minute, until the chatter starts up. Then isolate one of the voices and imagine the person apeaking as a mouse. Pick it up by the tail and drop it into a mason jar. Then isolate another voice, pick it up by the tail, drop it in the jar. And so on. Drop in any high-maintenance parental units, drop in any contractors, lawyers colleagues, children, anyone who is whining in your head. Then put the lid on, and watch all these mouse people clawing at the glass, jabbering away trying to make you feel like shit because won't do what they want--won'tgive them more money, won't be more successful, won't see them more often. Then imagine that there is a volume-control button on the bottle. Turn is all the way up for a minute, and listen to the stream of angry, neglected, guilt-mongering voices. Then turn it all the way down and watch the frantic mice lunge at the glass, trying to get to you. Leave it down, and get back to your shitty first draft.
A writer friend of mine suggests opening the jar and shooting them all in the head. But I think he's a little angry, and I'm sure nothing like this would ever occur to you."--Anne Lamott

So...next time you feel discouraged by something someone said...just turn down your mouse jar and keep doing what you are doing.