Social Media Break

On By Chris BuddIn Health2 Comments

Social media is ever-present in most of our lives. No matter where you go, you’ve always got that handy little device in your pocket or close at hand. How many times a day do you hear that familiar notification sound and reflexively glance at your screen to see what’s going on? Pavlovian responses. It’s something that we do so unconsciously now that we usually don’t even notice how frequently we’re doing it. I’ve been absent over the past few days from my social media platforms. I decided that I needed a bit of a break, and boy did it do some good!

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Must See TGIF

On By Chris BuddIn GeneralLeave a comment

I’ve come to realize that I’ve been much too serious in my last few blog posts. What happened to the light-hearted, fun-loving Chris of old? Yes, we’re now a full year into this global pandemic, but that’s no reason to not spend time laughing. In all honesty, laughter is the one constant in my life over the past year.

Friday nights have been sitcom viewing nights for my wife and I for a couple of years now. We record a handful of episodes over the week and then just watch them all on Friday night. On top of this, we always have a sitcom on the go that we watch on a near-daily basis.

For the purposes of this blog post, I am going to talk about some of my favourite sitcoms.

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A Phased Approach

On By Chris BuddIn MusingsLeave a comment

Following up on my last blog post, I wanted to expand on one of the realizations that have recently come to me. As I mentioned previously, I’ve recently restarted a self-development program called Reset. Over the course of 16 weeks, our coach, François Lemay, gradually introduces various concepts and exercises to help us transform our lives. This is now the fourth time I’ve participated in the program, yet it is like an entirely new program each time I take it.

As François’ understanding of the world evolves, so does the Reset program. This year, he has introduced the concept of energy phases – this is what I wanted to discuss today.

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Welcome Back

On By Chris BuddIn General, Musings3 Comments

It’s been nearly two months to the day since I’ve last posted on this blog. At first, I felt guilty not writing anything. Maybe guilty isn’t the right word. I felt like I was letting myself down. Here I was again giving up on something, a normal pattern with me. Get interested in something, dive into it for a little while (the timing varies, sometimes it lasts a week or two, sometimes a couple of months, or even years with the blog), and then just give up and stop doing it. Why do I continue to stop? What makes me give up and just walk away from all of these activities and plans? In a word, EGO.

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Un Noël comme autrefois

On By Chris BuddIn General, MusingsLeave a comment

Lors de cette saison festive du temps de COVID-19, j’ai eu l’occasion de prendre du temps pour reflechir. En toute honnêteté, j’ai eu beaucoup de temps à réfléchir. Bien que notre Noël sera probablement assez différent cette année, cela ne veut aucunement dire qu’on n’aura pas un bon Noël. On ne doit tout simplement pas avoir d’attentes.

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Christmas Traditions

On By Chris BuddIn General2 Comments

In order to allow me to better cope with the changes to our Christmas celebrations this year, I thought it would be helpful to make a list of all of the holiday traditions that I am still able to do, despite the pandemic. Sure, I may not be gathering with my entire family on Christmas Eve as usual, or attending mass, but there are still a number of yearly activities that I have been/will be able to do.

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298 Days

On By Chris BuddIn Disney, MusingsLeave a comment

If everything were to go according to plan, in 298 days, my wife and I, along with my brother and his wife, would be arriving in Walt Disney World. The purpose of our trip – twofold. Firstly, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World on October 1st. Secondly, and more importantly, to celebrate mine and Isabelle’s 10th wedding anniversary on October 1st.

Of course, our long-gestating plan may not play out as intended thanks to this lovely pandemic that we are still dealing with.

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Silent Night, COVID Night

On By Chris BuddIn General2 Comments

Yesterday, we moved back to the orange phase in this wonderful world of COVID. We are just over a month away from Christmas, and we’re regressing as this virus makes waves again. I realized that this shift to the orange phase has troubled me more than the last one, more even than the original lock-down early in the year. But why? We just went through this a month ago. The regression to orange lasted about two weeks, then we returned to yellow and life went back to our (current) normal. What’s different this time is that I am seeing the real possibility that Christmas 2020 may not be anything remotely close to what I consider normal. And that’s bothering me.

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Confronting Your Fear

On By Chris BuddIn General, Musings1 Comment

With Hallowe’en fast approaching, I thought it was time to face up to one of my fears.

As a child, I was scarred by a movie. Both scared and scarred. I had nightmares for a week following my viewing of said movie. I have not seen this movie again, until today. I’ve decided that I was tired of being a slave to this horrific nightmare that has engulfed nearly my entire life. It was time to take back the power. It was time to confront the monster.

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