Sponser Lulu for Charity!

As many of my wonderful readers may already be aware, I am a martial artist. Aside from my family and being a writer that advocates for mental health and wellness, it is one of the most important parts of my life.

Martial arts changed my life. Just a year ago, I was in an awful place with myself and bipolar disorder. That’s when I walked into my first class, where I began my path as a martial artist. It started to heal me in ways that medicine and therapy just couldn’t.

Martial arts gave me a new lease on life.

Now, it’s my turn to give back.

My dojang, in affiliation with other local dojangs, is participating in the annual St. Jude’s Break-a-thon. For every $15 raised, one board is donated to the participant to break.

We break as a symbol of the strength we are hoping to provide these children in need.  I want to give these children their own new lease on life by providing them with funds so they may be able to live on.

Please, support this noble cause by sponsoring me in this event.

No donation is too small.  Every dollar that is donated goes directly to St. Jude and to the children that they treat.

And in advance, thanks for your donation.  It not only means the world to me, but it may open up a whole new world for many children in their hour of need.

Tiff Myler’s Drive Page.

Yes, that is my real name.  This is the first connection that I’ve made between my real life and my life here.  I’m proud of who I am, and I’m ready to make a difference in all areas of my life.

If you’d like to learn more about martial arts and St. Jude, visit their website.

Related articles

• What Research About Karate Can Teach You (rantabul.us)
• Different Ways to Give to Charities You Love (turbotax.intuit.com)
• 10 Facts Everyone Should Know About Bipolar Disorder (doctorbipolar.me)
• How Exercise Can Help Bipolar Disorder (doctorbipolar.me)

20 Day Challenge – Day 9

12 Facts About Me – Lulu Style

Lulu style basically means that I’m not going to give you boring facts.  I’m going to give you strange facts and quirks.

1. Feet.  I have to sleep with my feet outside of the covers.  My feet are like my temperature control, so when they’re hot, I’m miserable.
2. Tiger’s Eye.  Both my husband and I keep a tiger’s eye cufflink on our person always.  It’s a charm that brings us together.
3. Old World Maps.  I have a slight obsession with collecting old world maps, accurate or art.  There’s something mystical about the old, undiscovered world out there.
4. Obsessive Organization.  Everything in it’s right place.  Once I designate a place for something, it better damn well be there.  I do not let anyone touch any item on my dresser.  Not even my own family.
5. Internal Clock.  I have an almost paranormal internal clock.  I can usually look around me and tell you the time, even if I’m not really sure.  I guess I’m synced up with my local time pretty well, even if I feel the time slippage and reality loosening.
6. Toes.  My second toe on both of my feet is longer than my big toe.  I mean, a lot longer.  Did you know that’s actually a genetic defect?
7. Clones.  The women in my family look like little, slightly altered clones of one another.  Blonde hair, blue, green or blue / green eyes.  All of us.
8. Sister.  My sister is not biologically related to me.  She’s biologically my third cousin.  We have no legal sibling relationship.  We were just generally raised in the same household.  And we look so much alike that we used to get mistaken for twins in our youth.
9. Strange EM Field.  I believe that there is a strange electromagnetic field surrounding my house.  I live on top of one of the highest hills in my town, and I can’t seem to get cell phone reception anywhere.  And when I say hill, I really mean mountain.
10. Ghost.  I have a ghost in my house.  He’s my husband’s grandfather, and he’s a friendly ghost who turns lights off when you leave a room and forget to.  He does other stuff like shuts and locks doors too.  Nice guy!  Too bad I only am now meeting him in his afterlife.
11. Journals.  I have kept pretty consistent journals for over six years now.  That’s longer than I’ve kept a relationship!
12. Martial Arts.  I recently started martial arts as a way to get the manic energy out and keep me going during depressions.  I think it was a good idea.  It’s called Tang Soo Do, and it’s the same martial art that Chuck Norris does.

20 Day Challenge – Day 6

15 Things I Like to Do

1. Read.  I’m an avid reader.  My secret, guilty pleasure is these teen pop novels, like The Hunger Games.  Which, by the way, I don’t think should be a teen novel.  It is pretty graphic.  Although, I think if the series was for adults, it would have been spectacular.
2. Write.  I’m always writing something.  If I’m not blogging, then I’m journaling.  Sometimes, I’ll write fan fiction for the hell of it.  Currently, I’m working on a Hunger Games fan fiction.
3. Watching Netflix.  I’m not big on TV, but I do like to watch Netflix.  It’s great.  I watch whatever I want, whenever I want.  Okay, when the boys aren’t around.  My guilty pleasure right now is Scrubs.  Yes, I’ve watched through the entire series once, and I have to say, I was not into Season 7 or 8.  Everyone started having babies and pairing off.  Bor-ring.
4. Play with my son.  I just love to see that little face scrunch up and burst with that adorable smile.
5. Watch my son and husband sleep.  Everyone you love looks like an angel when they are asleep.  All of the pain and upset is erased from their face, and they look younger, like children and babies.  My son goes back to being a soft, warm baby.  And my husband morphs back into the fresh faced young man he was when we first met and later fell in love.
6. Teach music.  I like to teach, period.  But, there’s something so primal about music.  People tell me all of the time that they can’t sing, or play an instrument.  They’re wrong.  Everyone has music in their soul.  I miss the kids.  I love teaching elementary.  And it’s something that I think about from time to time, how I miss all of those kids at my old job.
7. Look into my husband’s eyes.  I see our past.  I see each defining moment.  I see our present.  I see all of the little things I love about him.  The three freckles by his left eye.  His crows feet when I really make him laugh.  I see our son.  And I see our future.  The child that can be.  The home that we live in within each other.  I see it all.  It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
8. Make love to my husband.  Or just have regular old sex.  Whatever.  Sex is fun and intimate.
9. Sing.  I love to sing.  I especially like to take industrial songs, like songs from A Perfect Circle and do my own cover.  I think putting a female’s voice on powerful male songs is empowering.
10. Martial Arts.  It’s awesome.  Period.  I am taking classes in Tang Soo Do, the same martial arts that Chuck Norris does.  Now, I know that I’ll never be able to have the same epic beard, but maybe I’ll be able to get close to kicking some ass like him.
11. Think of psychological theories.  I just love psychology.  Many people with mental health issues go to school for psychology, because they’re dead set on figuring out their own issues.  Sure, that was a motivator.  But, I am so curious about the one thing that no scientist can pin down – humans.  Human behavior, genetics, dysfunction, neurology.  I just love it all.  What makes a person tick?  What makes a person who they are, and how did they get there?
12. Listening to new music on Youtube.  I love to start out with one artist and just go from there.  That’s how I found Paper Rival.  Awesome, awesome band.
13. Crafts.  Do I love crafts?  Is the pope Catholic?  You bet!  I’m mostly into scrapbooking, collages, and crocheting.  I love to make useful stuff.  Oh, and I really love instructibles.com
14. Long drives.  I don’t like road trips as much as I like aimless long drives.  I like to explore neighborhoods that I’ve passed dozens of times, but I’ve never been in.  I love to look at the pretty houses in a neighboring town.  I am just baffled at the amount of money that some people have and the multimillion dollar homes.  Who really needs that much space?  I’d have people hanging from the rafters.  I would be ashamed to have that much unused space, you know?  But, they are gorgeous homes.
15. Amateur photography.  Right along with my fascination with psychology, I love to take candid pictures of people.  Some of the best photos I’ve ever taken were candid.  And, of course, some of the most unflattering ever possible.  But, then again, I’ve taken some very unflattering posed ones too.  People are fascinating in their natural state.  I like to study it.  The easiest way to catch emotion in time is to get a photo.

Related articles

• Oh. You’re a Psychology major? *uncomfortable silence* (geeksparkle.com)
• Psychology ~ Why has it Gained its Credibility, It’s History in a Nutshell, When Mixed with Christianity (faithbibleministries.wordpress.com)
• Shopping for a new martial-arts school (esr.ibiblio.org)
• Through others we become ourselves… (willeke73.wordpress.com)