http://www.bouncebackcafe.com Dedicated to finding useful, resilient solutions to life's adversities. Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:01:57 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2011/gen/i-need-a-time-out-2803 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2011/gen/i-need-a-time-out-2803#comments Wed, 10 Aug 2011 07:01:40 +0000 Ellie http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/?p=2803 I need a Time Out… No, I haven’t been a bad girl. I’ve just temporarily lost my connection to the topic of Transitions. My server is down… in my last three posts I explored Stage I - Letting Go, and Stage II - the Neutral Zone… I’ve been befuddled, bedazzled and creative and I’m just not ready – in oh so many ways – for contemplating and ...Continue reading » I Need a Time Out]]> http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2011/gen/i-need-a-time-out-2803/feed 0 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2011/gen/tree-d-by-troubles-2666 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2011/gen/tree-d-by-troubles-2666#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2011 07:01:36 +0000 Ellie http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/?p=2666 Worries Got You Up a Tree? Back in my tree-climbing days I pondered my troubles and nursed my hurts nestled high in the generous leaves of our front yard Alder tree. The Alder is a tree that supports and protects physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Its associations with both weapons and shields reminded the ancient Celts that part of the skill of the warrior lies in knowing when to take up the sword and when to take up the shield… The alder reminds us of the need to blend strength and courage with generosity of spirit and compassion. There is a time to challenge things and a time to hold our peace. Sequestered in my leafy bower I dreamed of the day when I would be ...Continue reading » Tree’d by Troubles]]> http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2011/gen/tree-d-by-troubles-2666/feed 0 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2011/gen/drinking-from-a-fire-hose-gulp-2487 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2011/gen/drinking-from-a-fire-hose-gulp-2487#comments Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:01:42 +0000 Ellie http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/?p=2487 From my Not-Quite-Daily-Insights-Journal: …Things that made perfect sense worrying about all night long [now] by the light of day make no sense at all; I wakefully toss and turn fretting and deciding and then about 5AM fall into a sound sleep from which I awaken with only a sense that something is wrong but try as I might I cannot resurrect the perfect sense-nonsense anymore… SIGH. Solutions so fretfully won have evaporated into confused mist. What was I thinking? ...Continue reading » Drinking from a Fire Hose – Gulp!]]> http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2011/gen/drinking-from-a-fire-hose-gulp-2487/feed 0 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2011/gen/jump-for-joy-2360 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2011/gen/jump-for-joy-2360#comments Tue, 15 Feb 2011 08:01:41 +0000 Ellie http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/?p=2360 When something you’re worried about turns out better than OK – how do you express yourself? After what seemed like a long and worrisome wait, we got GOOD news… Hearing that precious news brought us to our feet and left us babbling with elation and relief. And still, days later, our smiles are wide – we’re jumping for joy! For the sake of this post, it doesn’t matter exactly what our good news was… suffice to say that we are most happy to be once again looking at the world through the lens of hopeful optimism. ...Continue reading » Jump for Joy!]]> http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2011/gen/jump-for-joy-2360/feed 0 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2010/gen/joy-to-the-world-2217 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2010/gen/joy-to-the-world-2217#comments Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:01:44 +0000 PattiAnn http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/?p=2217 Today, Wonder Dog (WD) and I walked to the local grocery store. We were going there because I have recently discovered Redbox (www.Redbox.com). If you’re not familiar with Redbox, it’s the magic machine in most local grocery stores that lets you rent a relatively recent movie for just $1.00. What a deal, when you go out to the website you can watch trailers and reserve a movie at a particular location. Then you go pick it up and it’s due by 9:00 the next evening or, horror of horrors, you owe them… another dollar. This I can afford. But Redbox isn’t why I’m writing this post. I’m writing because I have discovered the secret of creation. I know this sounds a bit ...Continue reading » Joy to the World]]> http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2010/gen/joy-to-the-world-2217/feed 0 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2010/gen/is-this-plane-still-flying-2130 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2010/gen/is-this-plane-still-flying-2130#comments Wed, 03 Nov 2010 07:01:36 +0000 Ellie http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/?p=2130 It happens every so often – things are going really well and then – BAM! – Alarm bells go off in your head and you just know in your gut: Something’s gone terribly wrong! But before we shift directly into the high gear of crisis mode, let’s stop and assess the situation. Let’s buy ourselves a moment or two of calm while we figure out whether this is real CRISIS, a false alarm or something in-between… I got to thinking about this idea of early over-reaction and its consequences after I read Captain Alan Bean’s story about the U.S. Apollo 12 Space Mission – apparently as a part of their training, student-pilots are taught to recognize when things start to go wrong and, then, before panicking, to ask the question: ...Continue reading » Is This Plane Still Flying?]]> http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2010/gen/is-this-plane-still-flying-2130/feed 0 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2010/gen/are-you-ready-for-the-big-bad-wolf-1827 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2010/gen/are-you-ready-for-the-big-bad-wolf-1827#comments Tue, 22 Jun 2010 07:01:17 +0000 PattiAnn http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/?p=1827 Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Well, it seems we all are. In Love Beyond Reason, John Ortberg goes all the way back to the story of the Three Little Pigs to make a point. I know you remember the story, but just in case you want to watch the Disney version, you can see it here. Ortberg points out that every life has its Big Bad Wolves. No matter what we do, the Big Bad Wolf (BBW) comes to visit us many times throughout our lives. We never know what form he will take and there is no way to avoid him. In life, there are Big Bad Wolves and we need to deal with them. (Sometimes several of them gang up on us all at the same time — after all wolves, run in packs.) What to Do About All That Huffing and Puffing No matter what form the BBW takes, his focus is to huff and puff and blow your house down. The question is what have we done to ...Continue reading » Are You Ready for the Big Bad Wolf?]]> http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2010/gen/are-you-ready-for-the-big-bad-wolf-1827/feed 0 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2010/gen/what-me-worry-1742 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2010/gen/what-me-worry-1742#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 07:01:37 +0000 PattiAnn http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/?p=1742 Here at BouncebackCafe.com, Ellie and I focus on providing ideas, skills and techniques for helping you to live your best life. One of the things that I’ve found is that each person is only as open to trying some of these ideas as they are hopeful about their future. Each and every day, we are bombarded by messages about ourselves, the world around us, the future, opportunities, problems and a million other things that we’re not even aware of. Without even thinking about it, we choose which messages to accept as true and which we reject as false. If you’ve been overwhelmed by negativity, it’s hard to try new ideas. The Chicken or the Egg? This raises an interesting question. What determines which messages ...Continue reading » What – Me Worry?]]> http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2010/gen/what-me-worry-1742/feed 0 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2009/gen/living-with-confidence-1100 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2009/gen/living-with-confidence-1100#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:01:48 +0000 PattiAnn http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/?p=1100 As I sat down to think about what I should write today, I asked myself, “Self, what seems to be most lacking these days?”  And into my head came “confidence.”  If you don’t follow “the market” you may not be aware that there are certain statistics that are tracked weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly.  And when the market runs – up or down – it is often the result of one of these statistics. These days the market is obsessed with the strength of the consumer.  70% of the business that occurs in the United States is you and I buying products and services.  When we decide that we’re going to stop spending and start saving or pay off our credit cards, the overall amount of money going into the economy shrinks.  When you and I are no longer spending, ...Continue reading » Living with Confidence]]> http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2009/gen/living-with-confidence-1100/feed 0 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2009/gen/three-ways-to-quiet-worries-that-burrow-up-in-the-night-1023 http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2009/gen/three-ways-to-quiet-worries-that-burrow-up-in-the-night-1023#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:01:31 +0000 Ellie http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/?p=1023 The other night I tossed and turned, got up, went back to bed, got a cup of tea, checked my email (sheezzz!), watched the weather station, drifted back to sleep and… awakened, again as worry after worry ricocheted against the edges of my messy mind. What a waste of good sleeping time!  Not to mention brain power. These days, I’ve plodded forward “doing what needs to be done” to set various affairs to right.  And I’ve intentionally avoided some big ones.  Why?  Well, I suppose because I could, because I was pretty sure there would be no harm done in the delay, because I just wasn’t up to tackling them. Then, the day before my sleepless night, I forayed into one of those important but not urgent tasks that I’d been avoiding.  I’d figured out a few “baby steps” (as PattiAnn advised in a recent post) and felt I could do these little bits, no problem.  Well, it turns out, almost no problem, because blithely and unwittingly, I stepped into a molehill.  And stumbled in the night as fears burrowed up into my consciousness, some frivolous, some formidable, all stomping about my sleepy mind, waking me so I could worry-worry-worry. And so I fretted about: ...Continue reading » Three Ways to Quiet Worries that Burrow Up in the Night]]> http://www.bouncebackcafe.com/2009/gen/three-ways-to-quiet-worries-that-burrow-up-in-the-night-1023/feed 0