Happy Anniversary to Me

July 15 was the anniversary of my first day of retirement - it has been 9 years!  Then, July 27th will be the anniversary of my blog (8 years!).  In some ways it feels like no time at all, and in other ways, working at a full-time career feels like ancient history and my blog … Continue reading Happy Anniversary to Me

GoodBye Goldie – Hello Lissa

I’ve written in my Retirement Transition book (see link on amazon here) about understanding “what does a house mean to you?” as part of your retirement transition.  So many folks in retirement move houses, whether it is to relocate to someplace they always wanted to live, to downsize space no longer needed, or to reduce … Continue reading GoodBye Goldie – Hello Lissa

summer solstice

There’s a meme about how old you are when you realized things.  I just realized that the astrological summer season starts on the longest daylight hour day of the year, which means summer days are all about fading daylight hours. Before this I always equated summer with long daylight hours, when in fact spring has … Continue reading summer solstice

Practicing Positivity in my Retirement Years – a Reflection

In my retirement transition journey, I’ve explored the area of positive psychology in a number of different ways.  First, early on in my retirement, I intentionally tried to shift from being a critical, cynical pessimist to a more positive person.  I had a boss once say to me, ”You’ll never be happy”.  I really wanted … Continue reading Practicing Positivity in my Retirement Years – a Reflection

Forgiveness and Boundaries – Easier Said Than Done

During my grieving journey, I have been struggling with forgiveness.  I have also had a few instances where others have triggered my insecurities, resulting in me not managing my anger effectively.  Am I forgiving myself?  Forgiving others?  Setting appropriate boundaries?  A recent discussion made me realize I needed to better understand forgiveness and setting boundaries. … Continue reading Forgiveness and Boundaries – Easier Said Than Done

Spring Review and Summer Planning

This spring, for the first time in a long while, I did not create any kind of seasonal plan.  No action plan, no possibilities list.  I did continue to track “new experiences” as well as books read and new recipes tried.  I use my tracking not for goal achievement, but to allow myself to look … Continue reading Spring Review and Summer Planning

Whimsey

Although I recognize retirement, like life, is a series of transitions, it still surprises me how things change. Over my years in retirement, I’ve gone from doing consulting projects that kept me “being productive” to not doing any paid work at all. I’ve added different types of exercise into my life; some stayed and some didn't. … Continue reading Whimsey

Inner Critic versus Inner Child

In my last blog post (link here), I mentioned going down the rabbit hole on anger management.  Well, the rabbit hole continued deeper and led to podcasts on the Inner Critic (critical voice), which led to reading more on the Inner Child (wounded child).  I hadn't really separated out in my mind these two different … Continue reading Inner Critic versus Inner Child

A Grief-activated Meltdown

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know I can go down rabbit holes of exploration, looking for the "how to".  This past week started with a link to a podcast on dealing with anger and then reading various articles on anger management and self-compassion. Anger is one of the “stages” of … Continue reading A Grief-activated Meltdown

Tarot Exploration and Overthinking

I took an intriguing on-line class learning more about Tarot. (A link to Susannah Conway’s course called 78 Mirrors here)  I’m definitely a beginner in Tarot, and so my AHA’s from this course are all in the beginner’s area.  For example, I was surprised to learn that there are 3 main “systems” of Tarot, and … Continue reading Tarot Exploration and Overthinking