From The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
I came across this quote this morning and it felt like a good reminder. It reminded me of how taking things personally is an aspect of my personality and it is something that I have made great progress on throughout the years. If my energy levels are low, that button is more likely to get pushed. I also have incorporated activities into my life that are grounding, making them habits—rituals to make me feel whole and lessen the sensitivity buttons that have been with me since childhood.
Lately, I’ve had my emotions all over the place. I have downloaded several Apps from the Apple store and have figured out how I will be using some of the journal writing Apps using them in a way to not only capture when I’m having an emotional or insecure moment, but to capture a whimsy, a photo—anything really, even a doodle with my finger. I used to pour my heart out on the physical page, but now I use the “Day One” App that seems a comfortable place to do this.
As far as my moods and emotions go, every lemon can become sweet. I am not a sour lemon, but sometimes I need a little sugar and that comes to me in the form of simple things, a smile; taking time for myself to recuperate from the information overload of life. Walking is always a soothing remedy, staring into the sky, losing myself in the clouds; reading and writing make me feel able to keep processing, connecting, sharing. When I stay true to myself and continue the inner work, I am better able to be a source of positive energy. I feel best when I can laugh and laugh and laugh until the laughter is out of control.
Today’s photo was taken of the small rose garden in the park outside the library. Whenever I walk by, I feel lifted. It’s nice to watch the roses go through their different stages.
Happy Writing!
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Some Apple iPhone/iPod Touch Apps I use for jotting down thoughts (As far as I know, these are all Apple Apps from the Apple iTunes store):
-Notes. I especially enjoy the simple “Notes” App that comes preinstalled. It’s simple, straightforward, I can see the list at a quick glance, and I didn’t realize until recently that when I synch up my iPod Touch with my computer, it automatically saves my notes in a folder titled “Notes” in my Yahoo Mail account.
-Wonderful Days – Diary with Style (HandyPadSoft (Tong Liu) (WFD). $2.99. This is a visually appealing writing App. As the name suggests, it helps get you writing about your day—every day. You can add photos, change the backgrounds, add a mood and weather icon. I still have some exploring to do, but I try to get something in here, some little observation for the day.
If you’d like to see a 2 minute YouTube on Wonderful Days – Diary with Style, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2caznxsNFg&hd=1
-Evernote. Free. I had downloaded Evernote some time ago and I must admit I love the bright green background of the icon and the elephant on top. Love elephants! From what I’ve read, it’s a pretty powerful App that you can record anything to including web content, photos, etc. and it synchs up and save all this information to its server—sort of like the Cloud concept. Anyhow, what made me start using it more is that Wonderful Days syncs up with it, so I have a copy saved in two places and can access it when I’m out and about.
Another feature I have begun taking advantage of is the ease of creating different “Notebooks” to organize your ideas.
It looks like Evernote actually can be downloaded to PCs and android phones.
-Day One (Bloom Built, LLC). $1.99. This has become my mood diary. I like that the interface is clean and simple and when I open it, it asks me for my password. It feels secure, like a real diary. I do my mental processing here and try to see if different themes come up or if there are any patterns that I wouldn’t otherwise be aware of. So far, it has felt great; and it’s also great that I have not had to use it too much, but just the right amount. http://dayoneapp.com/
-Project 365. Free. This is an App where you can record a photo for each day of the year. I haven’t been diligent about it, but I do have some photos that I inserted on special days or days I wanted to remember with a photo; text can also be inserted. You can then view the calendar and all your photos appear, one for each day.
-Writing Prompts. $1.99. Just for fun, I downloaded this App this morning. I haven’t explored it much yet, but it seems like a fun one when you need a little boost.
Here’s a short video clip I found on Blip.tv.
When I started this morning, with the quote, I didn’t realize I was going to talk about some of the writing Apps I’ve enjoyed, but that’s what happens. There are some poetry Apps if you do a search. Actually, there is an article that discusses some new poetry Apps and of course if you search under poetry in the Apple Apps store, you can explore what else they have. Here is the article, “Apps for Poets:”
