Celebrating You - It's All Okay, Part 1

I will use this font for the agenda of the activity, things taught and learned

I will use this font for my own thoughts and (unfortunately) wandering mind

and quotes that don't have pictures

I so wish I had the memory to make sense of my notes so that I can remember all the details of what was said.  Of course I don't have the all the details.  I may have most of the highlights however.  It was a great conference . . . .

           On Saturday there was a Relief Society activity for the stake.  I'd forgotten that the dress was casual and wore my Church clothes.  Before we entered the chapel, we were each given a schedule and a colored bracelet to wear.

      I enjoyed how the RS president started out the meeting by telling us not to compare our "behind the scenes" moment to somebody else's "highlighted" reel.  I like that quote.  I don't know whether it was hers or not, but I really like it. 

            She told us about a blog called Drops of Awesomeness and gave us some suggestions from the blog.  She showed us a large jar full of pompoms - only she didn't call them pom-poms. (I didn't write down the name she used) It is to be used reward system. 

             Only good things go in. Nothing comes out.

            We were all encouraged to fill our buckets and do something great.  So often we measure ourselves by how we are seen by others.  But we need to stop and look at ourselves and view ourselves through God's eyes.

            Our RS president confessed that she is not good at keeping lists. Some people create lists of things to do, things to purchase, things to make . . . . many will cross off those things they've accomplished, purchased or made.  And if we don't do the things on the list and cross them out, perhaps we feel like failures.

            We were encouraged not to focus on the list of things we failed to do but rather the accomplishments that were crossed off.  Instead of being upset that the entire house didn't get clean, focus on that one drawer you were able to clean up.  Perhaps you aren't in shape enough to do more than two push-ups.  But hey, you did two push-ups!  Embrace that!  Focus on your accomplishments.  How many lists do we need to keep ourselves going anyway?  Recognize the good that you do and give yourselves credit! Give yourself credit for those accomplishments you have made.

            You may start out walking to the mailbox each day, and perhaps after a while you'll be motivated to walk even further down the street.  Perhaps after that you can go around the block. 

As you make routine a part of your day, you will find joy.

We then broke up into classes.  Each instructor was given 15 minutes to teach a habit of happiness found in this book by Wendy Ulrich

            The first class that I attended was taught by Sister Fitt.  Her room had been set up with a bunch of cleaning products, and she had a monitor for us to view quotes

            Again, we need to celebrate our accomplishments:

            I did do two push-ups

            I walked to the mailbox

            I can now see the two shelves that are in my closet

            I got out of bed

She then showed us a calorie chart to prove to us that we can celebrate our accomplishments.

This is not the actual chart she showed us, nor were the
posters the actual quotes.  But you get the jest, I'm sure

            The next class that I went to was taught by Sister Friend. She asked several questions about what each of us can do to "bid" on friendship.  I looked around the room and noticed that I was the only one in the group of us that attends a certain ward.  I had been putting in "bids" with each class by introducing myself - which she had asked us to do by the end of class.  She had also passed out this handout

           We were supposed to rate each area 1-7 seven being the highest number.  We were told to pick one or two with lower scores to work on.

 We then took a break from our classes to have lunch. 

            I've had Hawaiian Haystacks before, but always with chicken gravy or soup - never a ginger or teriyaki sauce.  While the chicken itself was really good, I thought the sauce was a little strong. 

            There was actually a lot of food and "birthday" cake for dessert (the Relief Society Organization will be 174 years as of March 17)    

            After lunch, I went to a class taught by Sister Bond. 

            We watched a video about a girl named Brittany who was diagnosed with a rare disease that paralyzed her digestive system.  And certainly it was a downer to learn that she could no longer eat or enjoy food as she had before. But Brittany did not let that bring her down.  Instead she allowed herself to focus on her talents of making sock monkeys and creating coloring books and finding comfort in working with others at the hospital and teaching others to make sock monkeys  (Brittany's story is found here and here)

We are told not to feel sorry for ourselves, but to reach out to others.  As our instructor was running out of time, she briefly summed up this story as told by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Just before we left for the next class, she passed out this thought: