Learning to Live

A month ago my Grandpa Royce was boppin' around on his segway. He was 85. 85 and on a segway. It doesn't get much more legit than that, folks. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to him 2 weeks ago. His cancer came back and it came back fast. We thought he would be around forever because that's the kind of guy he was, but of course that isn't possible. It just goes to show how important it is to appreciate the time you have with your loved ones. Oddly enough we are all doing really well with how fast it all happened. Perhaps it's because it doesn't quite seem real yet, but I think it's something else. My grandpa was a fighter. He was a tough guy and I think the rest of my family would agree with me when I say that he was ready to throw the towel in. He lived one hell of a life and he knew he didn't want to live without something to live for. If he couldn't do the things he loved, then what was the sense in living? He knew this, he understand thi...

This past weekend I had the opportunity to cross something off of my bucket list that I have been wanting to for awhile now: a road trip to Chicago. When I first brought up the idea to my parents, they were like, "Okay whatever, Erin is just rambling like always," but once I got serious things quickly took a turn for the worse. My dad began to stress about every possible thing that could go wrong (typical): -My car breaking down -An accident involving my car -Triple A leaving me stranded 400 miles from home -Me being unable to drive in the city thus resulting in some sort of accident (There's a theme here if you can't tell...) -My safety (Notice what comes last) Anyway, I decided to ignore everything my dad said and go for it anyway. This was probably one of the best decisions ever. By choosing to not say no, I took control of my life and did what I wanted to do and I was rewarded with a wonderful experience that left me with so many fantastic memories. ...

The world would be such a different place if there were no expectations. There would be so much less disappointment. When you think about it, most disappointment stems from some sort of expectation. We wouldn’t fail because we couldn’t expect something to be better than reality. I know that this is fairly negative thinking and there is a completely different side to the idea of expectations but I challenge you to look at things in a different light. Imagine life as a child who knows nothing, expects nothing of the world. They live their lives in constant wonder. Life is a one big surprise to them. How cool is that? If we expect nothing from a day, then waking up is a miracle in itself. If you don’t expect anything, then every moment is a wonderful surprise and we can’t help but to be filled with joy. “Instead of filling with expectations, the joy-filled expect nothing and are filled.” If we learn to control how much we expect from the world, then every good thi...

This past weekend I heard a friend of mine say something that really stuck with me. She was talking about a previous relationship and made an excellent point when she said: "You have to learn how to be happy alone." Although this seems like something that should come naturally, we live in a society where we depend on others to be happy. We are constantly leaning on our relationships to make sure we are happy. A specific example of this is how we seem to think that we need to find that one person that will complete us and fulfill our dreams of living happily ever after. And some people are in too much of a hurry to find this person that they reach out to anyone who will throw them a bone. I'm not saying this is wrong, but it's hard to be completely happy with that one person if you don't know how to be happy just being you and doing your own thing. It seems simple, but we get caught up in life and forget about how important it is to find our own happiness. We c...

As we go through life it’s easy to get caught up in overthinking everything and making assumptions about virtually every situation we find ourselves in.   Overthinking and making assumptions can lead to unnecessary worrying. If we look at the facts and accept them for what they are, we can reduce our stress and focus on living in the now. Unfortunately, it is human nature to wonder and worry. However it does help to be aware of how often we overthink. When we force ourselves to look at the facts we are reminded that the situations we find ourselves in are often not as bad as they first appear—it’s all in our head.     As easy it is to get caught up in the situations we make up in our head, we must remind ourselves to live in the present and focus on what we know and not what we think we know.   Looking at the facts is an essential part of living in the now and accepting life as it is.

A recent conversation I had with a friend left me reflecting on how we as humans cope with stress. The conversation was focused on how we tend to worry about the future and it causes us to forget about living in the now. This chat helped open my eyes to how important it is to live life right here, right now. We should not allow our worry about the future prohibit us from a current state of happiness. My friend brought up a book by Robert M. Sapolsky titled "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers." While the book focuses on many different aspects of stress related disorders, the part my friend was focusing on dealt with how zebras live their lives. The basic gist of it goes something like this: when zebras are at the watering hole and there are lions there too, they don't stress about it. When they are getting chased by lions they freak out and run away. But as soon as the lions stop chasing them, they forget about their fear of the lions and continue to live their lives. They ...

I’m supposed to hate running. I’ve hated it forever. But I recently decided to give it a chance and it has become one of my favorite things to do. Back in December I decided to go out on a limb and sign up to run the Fargo half marathon. I think originally signed up with the intent of losing a couple pounds and even though that didn’t happen, this race meant so much more to me than I ever thought it would. Although 13.1 miles is nowhere near 26.2, it was quite a journey to get here and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Today was the day that I actually ran and it was one of the best experiences of my entire life. It was so cool to see the Fargo community come out and support the runners. There was no point during this run that I felt like I couldn’t keep going because they were constantly there cheering for us. It was insane to have that much support from people I didn’t know, and of course the people that I do know that were there to support me. I am so blessed to ha...