Chapter 1- Don't Sweat The Small Stuff
Writing Prompt: What is one example of "small stuff" that you let get to you.
When I was in 3rd grade, I started getting bullied by a group of my old friends. They bullied me till 7th grade. In that period, I lost the little self-confidence I had. So every since I have struggled with caring about what other people’s opinions control my life and how I live it. After reading this chapter, it made me think about and realize that it doesn't matter what other people think about you. The only thing that matters is that you feel confident and love yourself for you, not who they want you to be.
When I was in 3rd grade, I started getting bullied by a group of my old friends. They bullied me till 7th grade. In that period, I lost the little self-confidence I had. So every since I have struggled with caring about what other people’s opinions control my life and how I live it. After reading this chapter, it made me think about and realize that it doesn't matter what other people think about you. The only thing that matters is that you feel confident and love yourself for you, not who they want you to be.
Chapter 2- Make Peace with Imperfection
Writing Prompt: How does your ego distract you?
There are many things that my ego distracts me from every day, but the main this how I overthink everything. When I say everything, I mean everything. It doesn't matter if it's a test, picking a movie, or even picking out clothes. Since I overthink a lot, it leads me to have terrible anxiety, which doesn't help. I am currently taking time to myself and working on not to overthink everything. I also have a lot of support from my best friends Gracie who helps me a lot. She knows how to calm me done, and she always knows the right thing to say.
Chapter 3- Let go of the Idea that Gentle, Relaxed People Can't Be Superachievers
Writing Prompt: " When you have what you want ( inner peace), you are less distracted by your wants, needs, desires, and concerns. It's thus easier to concentrate, focus, achieve your goals, and to give back to others."
After reading the quote and taking the time to analyze it, I concluded. It is trying to say that wants you are happy with yourself, you can start focusing on other things. For example, after I got bullied, the only thing I wanted was other people’s approval, but then I realized that I just needed to be happy in my skin so I could focus on things that matter. Then when you do, it makes it easier to achieve your goals and to give back.
Chapter 4- Do you notice how your body and mind feel when your thinking is out of control.
Every day I am faced with challenges that I have to overcome most of the time by myself. One of those challenges is that I’m an over-thinker. So to answer your question yes, all the time. Every day I ask myself self was that the right thing to do and the answer is always I don’t know. But to get back to the question, my mind is out of control most of the time. I just have learned how to control it. But a wise person once told me to acknowledge the thought and then watch it live your mind.
Chapter 5 - Can you recall a time when you made something “big” and dramatic when in reality it was “small” and not that big of a deal.
There was this one time my mom and I went to the coffee house. Well, they were busy so we waited 20 minutes for a table. Someone finally got up, we were about to get the table when this person who just got there cut in front of us and stole our table. My mom got so mad and went up to them and talk to them and not so friendly way. When we should have just let it go and wait for the next table.
Chapter 6- What does your inner basket look like and will it be there tomorrow?
My inner basket looks a lot like a to-do list or my inner calendar. Like I said in previous writing prompts, we are faced with many different challenges every day. So yes my inner basket will be there tomorrow. It will be there every day that I live. Inner baskets never go away they just get lighter or heavier as you grow.
Chapter 7- Do you believe you are a strong listener or could you use some work.
When I was little I was so bad at interrupting, so bad that it became normal for me. It was hard for me to learn not to do it because my sister would always so I thought it was okay. When I grew up I quickly learned that was not the case, that is very rude and disrespectful. So for the past few years, I have been teaching myself to not interrupt. Even though I have been learning and have got a lot better, I would say I still need a little bit of work. I’m pretty good at not interrupting but it’s hard when I’m in zoom or if I get excited. I need to mostly work on to not interrupt or blurt out when I’m excited about something.
Chapter 8- Recall a time you have given, did you expect acknowledgment.
One time my best friend was really upset and even called me crying. I soon as I answered the phone I knew I had to do something to help her. So I started thinking about ways to cheer her up. I knew what she really needed is to get away from her house with me and then just let it out, but that wasn’t an option sadly. So I went to the store at like 8:00 at night and bought her a bouquet of chocolate. Then I left it at her door with a note, rang the doorbell, and drove away. I did that because I wanted her to be surprised and I didn’t want her to start crying again. She tried to take me out to lunch the next day to say thank you but I told her no because friends are there for each other especially when they are struggling.
Chapter 9
Have you ever experienced someone else “stomping’ on your story (glory)? How did it make you feel?
I mean every day I have people judging me because I’m a Christian. It was the worse though when I was getting bullied in Elementary school. I got bullied from 4th grade to 7th grade. It was hard, I felt like no one cared about me. That’s one of the times I really went to God for help, but I felt like he didn’t even care. Now I look back and think maybe he didn’t do anything because sometimes you have to go through hard times to actually find the person you are meant to be.
Chapter 10
What are some ways that you work to stay in the present moment?
When I find myself drifting out of the present moment, I like to take a few minutes and not be on any technology, go to a quiet place which is usually my room, and then just think and write my thoughts done. Sometimes it’s hard to write down what I am thinking but I try my best.
Chapter 11
Think of a time when you were frustrated, now look at it as a moment of being taught...What did you learn?
One time I was fighting with my sister about a show. I know that sounds stupid but we both really like the show and we did agree on something. Now I look back and think why did we even fight, it’s just a show. I learned that it’s okay for someone to have a different opinion than you. Everyone has a different way of looking at things.
Chapter 12- Let others be “right” most of the time
When every I get into a discussion with my dad I was just back done and let him win. My dad is the type of person who thinks he is always right and that he knows everything. So most of the time I feel like there is no reason to have an argument with him because I will never win, but there is some times we will discuss something that means a lot to me. Then I feel that is important that I speak how I feel. Even though you should let the other person be right it is still important to tell the other person your opinions and how you feel.
Chapter 13- Become more patient
Sometimes people get so wrapped up in there little things that they don’t see how small they actually are in the world. I feel thats it’s important to me that if I’m in a situation like that then I need to take a step back and really thing about what small thing I’m trying to make big. There has been multiple times were I have caught myself trying to make one of my small problems and trying to bring attention to it to make it a big problem.
Chapter 14- Create “Patience Practice Periods”
Before Leadership I never really had a “manta” that I lived by, But Morty has taught me the importance behind them. I though Morty was so weird when she said we were going to be picking a rocked that had a “manta” on it. But when I pulled my rock out and read it, it spoke to me. The “manta” on my rock said “collect beautiful moments”.
Chapter 15- Be the first one to act loving or reach out
A couple of years ago one of my closest friends at the time started becoming rude towards me. At first, I just brushed it off and figured she was dealing with something. I figured she needed space so I did. But after like a week the things that she was saying to me just got worse and more hurtful. It got so bad that it turned into her bulling me so I had to end the friendship.
Chapter 16- Ask yourself this question “ Will this matter a year from now”
I hope that a year from now that we have figured out enough about Covid that we can return to school and some type of normal. I want to be in high school having the high school experience I’m supposed to be having. I want to be in Leadership as a historian taking pictures of our amazing events and school spirit.
Chapter 17- Surrender to the fact that life isn’t fair
I feel like the world should be fair to an extent. I feel like cultures and races should be equal and fair. But I feel like if we all had the same things then we wouldn’t be unique if that makes sense. I feel like it would be hard to see what is fairness in the world would look like.
Chapter 18- Do you take time to be bored?
If I’m being honest no, I don’t take time to be bored. I’m the kind of person that always has to be doing something and if I’m not it bothers me. I feel like most people don’t like to be bored. When we are bored we always try to find something to do. I don;t think we know the impact of just being bored could do to us. We kinda think of it as a bad thing.
Chapter 19- Have you been taught to believe high stress is a positive thing.
As an athlete, A lot of my coaches use high stress to motivate us. Which in those moments I believe it works in a good way. But I no it’s not because they are actually putting more stress on our bodies that isn’t needed.
Chapter 20- When is the last time you sat down and wrote a letter to someone with gratitude?
I have never actually on my own writing a letter to someone with gratitude. The only time I have done this was this year for the gratitude video but I didn’t know they were making a video out of it. We were in class when Morty told us to write a letter to someone who means a lot to us. I choose to write a really deep letter to my best friends of 7 years. Then next thing I know it, I’m in Morty’s office with a camera and lights on me. They make me call my best friends and read it to her.
Chapter 21- If you could change anything right now about your life, what would it be?
Looking back at my past years, I would change how much time I let my bullies affect my life. I spent precious years of my childhood worried about how people saw me. I spend all my time looking at myself and hating who I saw. I let some immature little kids affect my life so much that I missed important moments in my childhood. I feel like sometimes I still let it get to me when I need to let it go because I have matured into a whole new person. I struggle with the problem of trying to impress other people every day. This is a major thing I’m working on each and every day.
Chapter 22- Describe a time in your life when you turned something into an emergency.
There are many things on the daily that I turn into emergencies. One thing that I do every day is put other people's problems as my priority. I will put all my things including my own mental health to help other people. I don’t care if I’m having the worst day of my life, I will put that on hold for other people. Some people just say I’m a really caring person but I think I need to change how I go about it. I don’t mean stop being a caring person, I just need to stop putting other people's stuff in front of my own mental health and my own personal stuff that I’m dealing with.
Chapter 23- Analyze: “It puts our quieter, softer, and sometimes most intelligent source of thinking to work for us on issues that we have no immediate answers for.”
Sometimes we are so focused on our everyday tasks or problems that we don’t take the time to ourselves to find a solution or a source to those problems. What we don’t realize is that our brain solves more problems or conflicts when we are by ourselves than when we are always trying to solve them when we are distracted.Us not realizing this just makes matters worse because we tend to just push those conflicts to the side or try to forget about them when they have not been addressed yet.
Book study 24-
At this moment the person I want to thank is my mom. She has done so much in my life including having me in the first place. My mom is strong and hardworking. My whole childhood my mom was a stay at home mom and that really impacted my life. I was able to see her 24/7 and I loved it. Now that I am older, she has gotten a job that she is doing great in and makes her happy. I do have to say sometimes it is hard without her because It has always been my mom bring me to my doctor appointments but now I have to get used to not having her there and having my dad . I’m happy for my mom though, she has always done everything I need her to do and she has been the best mom. She continues to amaze me everyday at how strong, great and beautiful she is.
25-
Well reading this chapter, my initial thought was just how much eye contact adds to a conservation. It just makes every conversation more connected and impactful. It just shows that you are engaged in what the other person has to say. It makes the other person just feel like they can talk to you and are going to actually listen. I think that a lot of people don’t realize all things eye contact and connection brings to a conversation. I think this chapter really explained the importance of it.
26-
Everyday I think it is important for anyones but especially my mental health to make sure that I leave time in my day to just be present with nothing but myself. Sometimes this is just going in my room and making sure no one is bothering me, put some music on and clean my room. Even though I hate cleaning my room or just the idea. When it comes to needing some me time it is really relaxing and lets me clear my mind. But the thing I do most of the time is take my dog for a long walk. This gives me a chance to get exercise but always just be present in life without any distractions and my dogs happy.
27-
Sometimes my parents aren’t able to pick me up from school so they ask my sister to. She normally does unless she can’t because she has plans. There was this one time that she was picking me up but she ended up being 25 minutes late. This made me really frustrated because she knew what time I got out. I was mad for a couple of minutes but then I decided to let it go because I need to be appreciative that she picked me up in general. My sister has way better things to do than pick up her 15 year old sister.
28: A time when I didn’t take time to seek understanding first was when my best friend at the time got mad at me and wouldn’t tell me why. My first reaction was to defend myself because I knew I didn’t do anything wrong but really I should have given her space and just waited till she opened up and talked to me about it. In this example I feel like we both jumped to conclusions and didn’t take time to understand one another. After I did give her space, she did tell me why she was mad at me and it was a total misunderstanding.
29: The person I know I can always talk to about anything and she is the person I go to just to let things go. This person to me is my youth leader Natalie. One time at summer camp, I just had to let some things that happened in my past go so Natalie took me on a long walk in the forest. We talked for about an hour and it was dark so we decided to go back. We cried together, laughed and she gave me some advice that changed my life and how I live it.
30: I don’t really lose my cool around people because I hate any kind of conflict. I avoid it at all costs. This to me is a good but also bad trait to have. It's good because you don’t say things to people that you don’t mean and you can control yourself when you do get mad. But it is also a good trait because you end up holding your emotions in and not expressing how you feel. This can cause a lot of negative emotions when you are by yourself.
31: I’m the type of person where if I become mad or wake up mad then my whole day is going to be off. It takes me some time to become not mad. I have to be by myself throughout the day because the littlest things will make me irritated if i'm already mad and in my family it happens a lot. I have tried and still am to let this habit go but it’s taken a lot from me emotionally.
Chapter 33
Q: You will not please everyone.. How does this statement sit with you?
- For me, I don’t like this statement because I’m a people pleaser. Most of my life I have been doing things to impress the people around me. I have seeked validation from my classmates and peers. This past year, I have done a lot of self growth and have been overcoming that negative trait of mine. Yet, I still mess up sometimes and catch myself slipping back into that habit. Having this kind of mindset is mental and emotionally tiring. It’s extremely negative towards your mental health.
Chapter 34
Q: Describe a time when you completed RAK and how did it make you feel?
- RAK is having the feeling that you are superior to everyone else around you. RAK doesn’t define me and who I am. I don’t think I’m better than anyone else. I actually try to impress everyone because of the lack of feeling at the same power as my peers.