Positive Steps Challenge 2013

[Deleted User]

Hi fairyclicks, I'm happy to tell you about the Buddhist meeting. I follow a type of Buddhism called Nichiren Buddhism - I have only been practicing for a few months but I love it.

Basically we chant (if you have seen the Tina Turner movie it is the same chanting she does) Nam myoho renge kyo as our main prayer along with some other bits that I am still learning. The meeting today involved chanting as a group and then a lecture based on Nichiren's writings and then people sharing their experiences of how their lives have transformed through practice - that is the purpose of practice. We also had nice lunch:D. As I said I am new to Buddhism so I hope I have explained that ok!

Your list seems really busy. My lists seem to be getting smaller and smaller as I relax into just being on holiday. I am away for 6 days with OH at the end of this week and will really have to start some stuff for school when I get home! Right now I am just enjoying giving myself permission to chill out for a while.

fairyclicks

Oh thanks Allie - i will go search for that now Buddhism has always appealed to me but i have never heard of any meetings here or i would definitely go!

I'm always busy! I like it that way it helps me to not get really depressed when i focus on keeping busy most of the stuff i have going on at the minute revolves around clearing out the boxes of stuff i have bought over several years of having ideas of starting businesses....... thankfully most of it has helped me to clear the large debts i had so all those years of hoarding stuff has finally paid off LOL!

ScarlettMcCain

Fairy - I am in awe of your organising and selling skills!! I still haven't got round to taking 3 big bags of clothes to the charity shop, they're cluttering up my living room.....

I've thought about meditation too but (and I know this sounds silly) would far rather get everything out of my head by writing a To Do list. If I wasn't a champion procrastinator who never finishes the bloody things then all would be well

So, today's positive steps for tomorrow are:

1. Work out a really efficient way of combining all the stuff I want to do on to a minimum of To Do lists/ apps and use my sparkly new diary more!
2. Tackle the pile of paperwork which is yet again building up - see my point about procrastination - I find a million useful, yet unhelpful when sorting out a financial mess, things to do before starting on it.
3. The hot weather looks set to continue but I MUST get out of the door and do some running and/ or go to the cheap (£3.50) nearby zumba class that I've found, whilst I can still fit out of the door.....

I chased up CAP Money on Friday, they said they were a bit behind with their emails but would be contacting the creditors who had written to me. Ironically a letter then arrived on Saturday morning from my Tesco credit card and they are INCREASING my credit limit by £2000 - ridiculous - they've sent me the polite warning letters before saying that I'm only making the minimum payment and I won't clear the balance until 2090 at that rate, but clearly someone at Tesco doesn't care about that!!

Wishing everyone a lovely, positive and of course cheap week

[Deleted User]

fairyclicks wrote: »

Oh thanks Allie - i will go search for that now Buddhism has always appealed to me but i have never heard of any meetings here or i would definitely go!

To find a local meeting you could try www.sgi-uk.org or give them a call to find out if there is any meetings near to you.

SGI - Sokka Gakki International is the lay organisation of Nichiren Buddhism and the website has lots of info. Meetings are normally held in a members house and bigger meetings (called chapter study) are held in local community centres.

Like you I had always been attracted to Buddhism but was confused by all the different types. It was a friend who invited me to the meeting in her house that got me started.

The following books are also a good introduction:

The Buddha, Geoff and me - Edward Canfor-dumas

The Buddha in your mirror

The Buddha next door

The Buddha in daily Life - Richard Causton (this one is much more heavy going and detailed though)

I am having a chill out day today. I may go for a swim but that's it:D

fairyclicks

Aw Ruby just cos i write it down doesn't mean i'm organised LOL! i'm very good at putting things off too! I'm trying hard to stop procrastinating and its working a bit at least - my advice would be to recognise your patterns and challenge yourself to change them. For example i'm guessing your 'i'm going to get organised' to do's are another form of procrastination......that is one i recognise that i do all the time (i may be wrong about you here of course but thought it might be worth mentioning so you can think about it )

If you spend ages writing your to do list then i would suggest you write small lists of maybe 3 or 5 things at a time - so instead of today i will........try thinking in the next hour i will........then when you finish those you can sit and think about the next small list I use this technique when i'm feeling low, overwhelmed or demotivated and it seems to help break the cork as i call it Try it and see how you get on!

For today i am still working on my previous list......I will start with finishing moving the stuff i have all over the place downstairs to the upstairs room. done

Then i want to:

change the bed - stripped! - done
pack up ebay sales - done
wash the dishes - done
check psych appointment cos i think its tomorrow - done
post ebay sales - done
sort a bit more of the stuff i have for selling into more manageable chunks

that will do to start with

Ok adding a few more things now:

empty car
list 3 things on the bay and facebook
water the garden - done
do a wash - done
make hair appointment
hoover downstairs
sort clean clothes and put away - done

fairyclicks

[Deleted User] wrote:

To find a local meeting you could try www.sgi-uk.org or give them a call to find out if there is any meetings near to you.

SGI - Sokka Gakki International is the lay organisation of Nichiren Buddhism and the website has lots of info. Meetings are normally held in a members house and bigger meetings (called chapter study) are held in local community centres.

Like you I had always been attracted to Buddhism but was confused by all the different types. It was a friend who invited me to the meeting in her house that got me started.

The following books are also a good introduction:

The Buddha, Geoff and me - Edward Canfor-dumas

The Buddha in your mirror

The Buddha next door

The Buddha in daily Life - Richard Causton (this one is much more heavy going and detailed though)

I am having a chill out day today. I may go for a swim but that's it:D

Oh thanks so much for that i will have a read later or i will get nothing done - it can be my reward for doing something

Hope you enjoy your swim

ScarlettMcCain

Hi Fairy - am feeling very overwhelmed now - got home to find a letter from First Direct demanding immediate repayment of the £3K I owe them I suspect it's more of a scaring letter than anything to make people wake up to the fact that they aren't making any payments (you can write back with a repayment proposal) but still, it was a horrible thing to come home to.

Rang FD and they were very nice, said they couldn't tell me why it had been sent out as they have now had correspondence from CAP Money to say they were dealing with everything so I have to speak to CAP direct, but I don't have to do anything with the letter. Am totally confused now, why send it if I don't have to respond and in fact CAP have all the info and should be passing it on to me?!

Rubbish day at work, really cross with my OH and am tired & headachey. I think the sooner I can go to bed today the better

ScarlettMcCain

Aarrgghhh. Staring at a big pile of paperwork and don't even know where to begin :eek:

I didn't realise it had got this bad, it's only been a few days since I last dealt with it!!

I'm panicking already and really wish CAP Money were open evenings.....

fairyclicks

Rubyslippers77 wrote: »

Aarrgghhh. Staring at a big pile of paperwork and don't even know where to begin :eek:

I didn't realise it had got this bad, it's only been a few days since I last dealt with it!!

I'm panicking already and really wish CAP Money were open evenings.....

OK ruby, first of all breathe! It is ok i promise. I got all sorts of letters when first started the DMP and it scared the pants off me too. I would suggest if you haven't already done so that you ring each of your debt account holders and say you are in the process of setting up a DMP with CAP - this will keep them informed of what is happening and explain why no payments have been received. They will record it on your file and hopefully this will stop any demanding letters (though these do get sent out automatically from some companies).

If not already given the information i would ask CAP for details of who they have contacted and the responses. DO NOT worry if any of the companies have said the payments are not enough - i got that and once the payments started they backed off.

I would also ask for details of when they will be sending the first payments - i'm guessing you have agreed an amount of monthly payment to CAP.

RE the paperwork you have - the only paperwork you now need to deal with is from CAP. They will do all of the communicating with your debt companies from now on. The only thing to do is as i suggested contact each company to say you are starting a DMP - this is because there will be a delay in the contact from CAP and the companies will not know what is happening and assume you are just not paying.

I hope that helps! xxxxx

[Deleted User]

Morning All. My positive steps today:
1. Have a walk
2. Healthy eating - aiming to eat only fruit/veg today
3. Shop for said fruit and veg. I may go to local garden centre for lunch who serve up a fab salad.
4. Swim