Someone taught me a secret once. How to laugh at myself and make fun of myself and not take myself so seriously. To look at these crazy hurdles life puts in front of you and see them as funny little toadstools that you can just hop right over and if you land on your ass on the other side, then maybe that's HILARIOUS, maybe it doesn't have to be painful and terrible. I am forever grateful to that person. That was the first step in becoming a happy person. Learning how to laugh at myself, especially at the worst of times.
I remember the day I decided to be happy. Somehow it finally got through to me that whenever sadness and sorrow came knocking on my door, I had to tell myself I had a choice. I could either choose to feel the sorrow, and sink into the swamp where it was comfortable, where I knew how things went and how to be, where I could blame everyone else for my problems, where I could feel bad for myself and be lazy and boring and eat mac n cheese and watch a full season of Sex In The City in one day. Or I could challenge myself to feel something different. To try something more difficult. To pull my feet out of the swamp and maybe walk on some granite for a while. To go to a yoga class, or to Hawaii, or even enroll in a massage therapy program.
Some days I could do it, some days I couldn't.
But eventually the days where I could outnumbered the days where I couldn't.
I'd say it took me about three years total to become a person who is happy most of the time. Three years might seem like forever, but in the grand scheme of life, three years is not a long time to spend on figuring out how to be happy and live a happy life. Three years is how long most people spend getting a master's degree. Instead of getting a master's in physics or art, I decided to get master's degree in happiness. I can say that for me it was probably more difficult than a master's in physics, but at least it wasn't as expensive.
Someday I wish I could teach this method to others, but it won't work for everyone.
Everyone has their own secret. You can steal mine though if you want to. ;)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Eat Pray Love
My neighbor gave me Eat Pray Love to borrow to soldier me up a bit in regards to my own crazy journey. She's also taking me to see Elizabeth Gilbert speak on Thursday evening over in Marin. I have an awesome neighbor. ;)
I’ve come to believe that there exists in the universe something I call “The Physics of The Quest” – a force of nature governed by laws as real as the laws gravity or momentum. And the rule of Quest Physics maybe goes like this: “If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself….then truth will not be withheld from you.” Or so I’ve come to believe. I can’t help but believe it, given my experience. - Elizabeth Gilberthttp://www.elizabethgilbert.com
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Piedmont Spa
Happy news to share!
I was hired this week by Omar at Piedmont Spa (http://piedmontspa.com/) in North Oakland. I will be working Fridays from 11-6 to start and will hopefully be expanding my hours from there. I am quite pleased!
It's more of a massage practice than a real Spa but the business has been there for so long that when the practice was started the landlord asked that they not use the word "massage" in any of the signage due to the vast majority of massage "parlors" actually being brothels.
The practice itself reminds me a lot of Massage Therapy Works back in Somerville. Lots of great practitioners with much to offer. I am really excited to meet everyone and get to work!
I was hired this week by Omar at Piedmont Spa (http://piedmontspa.com/) in North Oakland. I will be working Fridays from 11-6 to start and will hopefully be expanding my hours from there. I am quite pleased!
It's more of a massage practice than a real Spa but the business has been there for so long that when the practice was started the landlord asked that they not use the word "massage" in any of the signage due to the vast majority of massage "parlors" actually being brothels.
The practice itself reminds me a lot of Massage Therapy Works back in Somerville. Lots of great practitioners with much to offer. I am really excited to meet everyone and get to work!
Monday, September 14, 2009
This is a dream I had the first week I moved into my little cottage here in Berkeley. When I woke up I was wishing that I was really good at animation because I'd love to see this made into a little animated short film.
I dreamt about this bug that was really beautiful, it had sort of a beetle body, with crazy antenna that were hot pink and feathered in tendrils like a moth's would be. It had an iridescent purple exoskeleton with green and orange metallic tones in it that changed as the light moved along it's body. when I touched the bug, it transformed into a lotus flower, with pink petals, and when I opened the petals I saw that inside was a small pool of water with smooth stones on the bottom. I could hear the sound of echoing water dripping in a cave and it was very soothing.
Then the bug closed up and flew and landed on my shoulder where it transformed itself into a long purple twig with hot pink and orange flowers that kind of looked like plumeria flowers. They smelled amazing. But the bug was tickling some nerve in my neck and so I flicked it off of me. It landed on a small boy and the bug turned into a long green twig with bright orange and yellow flowers. It seemed like it was sort of reading each person's energy and changing it's camouflage to suit each person. So cool!
Anyhow when I woke up I was wishing I could share it with someone who does animation, and then I met a girl who does. I bought some furniture from her since she's moving back to Canada. Anyhow it was a nice sort of synchronicity. :)
Hi Natacha! www.nataschaevans.com
I dreamt about this bug that was really beautiful, it had sort of a beetle body, with crazy antenna that were hot pink and feathered in tendrils like a moth's would be. It had an iridescent purple exoskeleton with green and orange metallic tones in it that changed as the light moved along it's body. when I touched the bug, it transformed into a lotus flower, with pink petals, and when I opened the petals I saw that inside was a small pool of water with smooth stones on the bottom. I could hear the sound of echoing water dripping in a cave and it was very soothing.
Then the bug closed up and flew and landed on my shoulder where it transformed itself into a long purple twig with hot pink and orange flowers that kind of looked like plumeria flowers. They smelled amazing. But the bug was tickling some nerve in my neck and so I flicked it off of me. It landed on a small boy and the bug turned into a long green twig with bright orange and yellow flowers. It seemed like it was sort of reading each person's energy and changing it's camouflage to suit each person. So cool!
Anyhow when I woke up I was wishing I could share it with someone who does animation, and then I met a girl who does. I bought some furniture from her since she's moving back to Canada. Anyhow it was a nice sort of synchronicity. :)
Hi Natacha! www.nataschaevans.com
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Strangely enough my dream this morning was all about Mt. Rushmore.
I was canoeing under what used to be Mt. Rushmore and saw pieces of the presidential faces fallen in chunks on the gravel of this shallow river. Someone had blasted them off and replaced them with statues of the figureheads of all the world's religions. Inside the mountain they had carved out an interfaith temple for worship. It probably could have been creepy but it wasn't, it was a symbol of peace. That all people were free to worship whatever they pleased, and that the wars had stopped.
The funny part was that the only presidential face that was intact was Lincoln's and the statues on the mountain were asking him questions like "can you see anything from down there?" and he answered that he could see a bit of Teddy Roosevelt's nose and that it was more dignified than he'd thought.
The museum was amazing yesterday. I quite enjoy experiencing places like that all by myself. I get to meander all I please and take my time or hurry up depending on what I feel. The Thinker was actually larger than I had expected and quite striking as it dominated the courtyard of the museum. Here are some images:
I was canoeing under what used to be Mt. Rushmore and saw pieces of the presidential faces fallen in chunks on the gravel of this shallow river. Someone had blasted them off and replaced them with statues of the figureheads of all the world's religions. Inside the mountain they had carved out an interfaith temple for worship. It probably could have been creepy but it wasn't, it was a symbol of peace. That all people were free to worship whatever they pleased, and that the wars had stopped.
The funny part was that the only presidential face that was intact was Lincoln's and the statues on the mountain were asking him questions like "can you see anything from down there?" and he answered that he could see a bit of Teddy Roosevelt's nose and that it was more dignified than he'd thought.
The museum was amazing yesterday. I quite enjoy experiencing places like that all by myself. I get to meander all I please and take my time or hurry up depending on what I feel. The Thinker was actually larger than I had expected and quite striking as it dominated the courtyard of the museum. Here are some images:
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Free Museum Tuesday
Today many museums around the Bay Area are free. Since I am currently seeking employment I have free time on my hands to do things, but not that much money to spend on them, hence the FREE part being especially attractive to me at this time.
Today I think I'll check out the Legion of Honor and SOMA. I'm particularly interested in seeing Rodin's The Thinker in person. I have seen it replicated and made a farce of so many times in cartoons and advertisements. I wonder if it will have the same effect on me that seeing Mt. Rushmore did. I laughed out loud when I saw those faces in the mountain side. I had for so long associated it with playful jokes and satire, that seeing the real thing was quite funny at first. After about five minutes of being there, I was swept up by the nature of the place and the challenge of carving it in the first place, and was nearly tearful in my reverence. Quite the range of emotions!
Today I think I'll check out the Legion of Honor and SOMA. I'm particularly interested in seeing Rodin's The Thinker in person. I have seen it replicated and made a farce of so many times in cartoons and advertisements. I wonder if it will have the same effect on me that seeing Mt. Rushmore did. I laughed out loud when I saw those faces in the mountain side. I had for so long associated it with playful jokes and satire, that seeing the real thing was quite funny at first. After about five minutes of being there, I was swept up by the nature of the place and the challenge of carving it in the first place, and was nearly tearful in my reverence. Quite the range of emotions!
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