Bully Your Worries

Tibetans have a saying, "If there's something you can do about it, why worry? If there's nothing you can do about it. why worry?"

Birds Never Worry. They just do what needs doing. 

If you're a habitual worrier, put those worries to work. Find a container you can close with a lid. For a week, keep a notepad with you.Write each worry that trespasses or rages through your mind.

Put each in the container, close it and let the worry go. Tap the lid. Wave goodby.

In another week, before looking into the container, can you even remember all of the worries?

Open the container and read the notes. How many have happened? How did you deal with the worries that did occur? 

Revisit the worries to discover the creativity and problem solving skills they will generate for you. 

Worries keep our minds moving in aimless directions. We need to harness them as work horses for writing.

Take charge of your worries. 

Consider writing possibilities they will generate. Write them into different characters and dialogue with them. 

How would a bird deal with a worry? 

Bully worries with humor and laughter.

Play With Your Food

I edit menus, shaking my head at "fresh" to modify eggs and "freshly brewed" to define coffee.  Do they need to tell us it's not stale or old?  A sign reads, "Great bread for everybody."  What is great bread?   If you wanted an item "homemade" why go to a restaurant?  Food should sparkle with taste. Why add "tasty" to an item?

Stacked modifiers confuse readers. So many modified words get in the way of the message. Whew, breathe. Can you hold your breath long enough for: a roasted turkey Fuji apple salad.  But wait . . . The wording continues - Tossed with white balsamic Fuji apple vinagrette. 

What if Fuji apples danced with turkey twirled in vinagrette?  

How will pizza pamper the crust?

If adjectives appear on the menu, they must excite or astonish the noun. Let them add spice.

Another menu item I've seen: artisan bread baked fresh.  What does that mean?  Bread with designs on the crust?  "Simply delicious" adds nothing.  What's the meaning of baked fresh? Fruitcakes are the only breads that age with grace.

Just for fun, choose a menu in need of enchantment. Discover ways to revitalize it with nouns and verbs. Add imagery with scents and tastes. Describe the swish of celery when chewed. Cinnamon and nutmeg your sentences.  Unroll a sauce or pudding like satin to the palate. Show how the texture tingles the tongue bumps.

Omit the obvious: fresh, tasty, homemade, just baked. Go outrageous with description to tempt the reader's appetite. Revel in outrageous to make the reader salivate.

How will you energize:   Almond chicken salad on sesame semolina with all natural antibiotic free chicken, diced celery, grapes almonds and secret sauce.  Let these ingredients out to play!

Grab the taste buds with a chicken dizzied by dijon with a dapple of almonds. Tempt with mozzarella and tomato on focaccia bread.  Do they melt in a tango?

Soup in a bread bowl definitely needs attention. Let the peas sail among potato clouds.

Go ahead. Play with your food.

Power in Positivity

How do we maintain balance in a world that presses us with what’s broken, what’s dreadful, and what’s wrong?

It takes patience, perspective, and perseverance to sort out the news and waltz beyond worry.

Take time to skip looking at the catastrophe network or reading headlines for a day.

Push away from the computer. Leave your cell phone. Find hearts in shadows.

Go out in the morning and Sing!

Immerse yourself in nature.

Take a walk and replace negative thoughts and frustrations with the scents and colors that pass along the way.

Ask questions. What does a peregrine or bee do when faced with an obstacle?

Listen for different sounds.

Observe shapes and textures.

Imagine clouds with anxiety. Will the release of rain help?

Marvel at the ways the sea rants in ripples.

Distractions move the mind back to the present moment.

Rocks let the sea and sky pass over, under, around, and through.

Let nature’s wisdom seep into your thoughts and actions.

See smiles in petals.

Breathe in the majesty.

Find Power in Positivity.

Laugh On and On

True humor is fun. It does not put down, kid or mock. It makes people feel wonderful, not separate, different and cut off. True humor has beneath it the understanding that we re all in this together. - Hugh Prather

Find the unusual and connect it to humor. Play with words.

Imagine you chased a mouse in the kitchen and saved it before the refrigerator.

Ask someone why the potato crossed the road?  Well, there was a fork up ahead. 

Never miss an opportunity for humor to circulate.

Laugh on and on.

A Smile's Power

 

The smile is contagious. In a Swedish study, researchers investigated the part of the brain that controls facial expression - the cingulate cortex.  They asked subjects to respond to images portraying human emotions. Sandwiched among these pictures of anger, sadness and fear appeared images of smiling people.

When a smiliing face appeared, the researchers asked the participants to frown. Despite the request, the participants' immediate response mimicked the smile they viewed.

A smile releases a flood of feel good neuropeptides known as serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins.These molecules play a role in the emotion of happiness. All lead to an increased state of euphoria. In addition to a feeling of happiness, these chemicals lower the heart rate, improve blood pressure and alleviate physical pain.

Look to discover smiles in birds and flowers and other creatures you happen upon.

The smile's power connects individuals with confidence and optimism.

Share a smile and its power today.

Be Wilder

Deep learning happens when we are bewildered. We encounter ourselves and the world in ways that are totally unique when we are bewildered. It is one of the supreme adventures of life. The word bewilderment includes the word wild.   - Rod MacIver

Do you feel an attraction to notions and situations of bewilderment. Searching with curiosity often reveals the unpredictable. Learning occurs each time we wander into the wilderness.

Consider what bewilders you today.

Pick up a pen and write without judgment. Move into knowledge about yourself and the world.

Be wilder and move beyond bewilderment.

Rediscovery

Have you set aside or forgotten parts of your life?  Did you used to play an instrument, dance for joy, write or paint with ease?  

The greatest treasures may be things you set aside long ago. Often it pays to go back and take a look. Replay aspects of youth in a different way.

Discover something new by retrieving an idea from the past. Or rediscover a lost art.  

Eyes Wide Open

Great masses of people these days live out their lives in a dull and loveless stupor. Sensitive persons find our inartistic manner of existence oppressive and painful, and they withdraw from sight… I believe what we lack is joy. The ardor that a heightened awareness imparts to life, the conception of life as a happy thing, as a festival… But the high value put upon every minute of time, the idea of hurry-hurry as the most important objective of living, is unquestionably the most dangerous enemy of joy.  - Hermann Hesse

During my morning run, a mist bow followed my progress. The sea and sky continued as my companions

Hermann Hesse requests, "Accustom yourself every morning to look for a moment at the sky and suddenly you will be aware of the air around you, the scent of morning freshness that is bestowed on you between sleep and labor. You will find every day that the gable of every house has its own particular look, its own special lighting. Pay it some heed if you will have for the rest of the day a remnant of satisfaction and a touch of coexistence with nature."

I discover delights during communication with nature. My iPhone collaborates with art and joy combined.

Discover possibilities with eyes wide open. As Hesse said, "From there on to the fully trained artistic eye is the smaller half of the journey; the principal thing is the beginning, the opening of the eyes." 

Be Your Own Role Model

Be Your Own Role Model - Marcus Mariota

‘You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.’ ~ Alan Alda

When Abraham Maslow said, "It isn't normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement," he referred to an individual's long-term yearnings. 

Maslow focused on the all-around characteristics of what one plans to become. He also meant the qualities one looks for in allies and the feelings individuals want to experience each day.

Consider psychological achievements you wish to make.

What dilemma would you like to resolve? 

Which powers will you need to actuate?

How will you discover emotions that need a boost of ingenuity?





“Laugh at yourself, but don’t doubt yourself. Be bold. Let the strength of your desire give force and moment to your every step. Move with all of yourself. - Alan Alda

Don't let the opinions of any audience affect your purpose. As Polonious says in Hamlet, "To thine own self be true."

Bolster your vigor by tapping into innovation with creative energy.

                Make motivations spark enthusiasm rather than worry and distress.

                                    Find harmony among all your inner voices.

Negotiate for fun and flavors.

Make mistakes. Just don't let the pencil's eraser get used more than the pencil's point.

Get ready for a jolt of brilliance.

Travel beyond the wilderness. Keep upward and climb a mental mountain, rising above limitations. 

Go for the "constant, relentless pursuit of better," says Oregon Coach Mark Helfrich.

Relax. Relish your view.

Perception and Storytelling

"The truth of our lives is always smoke and mirrors." 

- William Giraldi

No one perceives events as they really unfold. Our ability to alter facts has enabled us to survive in this challenging world. In recall, creativity weaves in the details.

To understand how perception alters an event, consider three people who observe a car wreck from different corners of the street. Angles, moods, and times of observation change recall and affect where each person places blame.

Marcel Proust felt in order for it to be meaningful, we must change the truth a little to remember it. If we embellish for self-protection, will an event stay with us in meaningful ways?

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, “A lie may be told by a truth, or a truth conveyed through a lie. Truth to facts is not always truth to sentiment.” Stevenson continued, “To tell truth is not to state the true facts, but to convey a true impression, truth in spirit, not truth to letter, is the true veracity.”

Are we storytellers by nature?

Emotional memory differs from factual memory because of the psychological colors added. Moving away as an observer helps to process an unfortunate or stressful situation.

Write about an emotional experience. 

Play the storyteller and add texture to the scene. How does emotional distance benefit the story?

Discover The Seven Whispers

Most of us live in this paradox: we are trailing glimpses of insight, knowing why we are here, and not knowing. We both remember and forget. 

We are imbued with wonder, and sometimes consumed with loss, 

from childhood on; we pursue our purpose in a thousand ways.

        - Christina Baldwin, The Seven Whispers: A Spiritual Practice for Times Like These

The Seven Whispers

  Maintain peace of mind

  Move at the pace of guidance

  Practice certainty of purpose

  Surrender to surprise

  Ask for what you need and offer what you can

  Love the folks in front of you

  Return to the world
                 - Christina Baldwin

        

Opening into imagination enables a suspension of judgment. A move into a state of the true self occurs where reverie takes over. 

Fantasies fling us along paths to observe obstacles. We marvel at aspects of self forgotten or not considered.  

The journey enlightens and enriches. 

If lost, we acquire new ways of trail-finding while listening to our inner voice of dreams and passions. 

A step off the path merges into possibilities without fears.

Smell the colors, taste the breeze.

Attitude and Awareness provide the guidance.

Rocks along the road lead to wonder and design. 

Discover the Seven Whispers.

Explore

 

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. 

                                            - Albert Einstein 

Even the rose wants to explore beyond the fence. 

During childhood, I asked so many questions my father created stories he thought would satisfy my curiosity. Even then he often fell asleep before my questions stopped arriving like thunderbolts. 

He never said, "I don't know." Even when I had him perplexed, he'd launch into an explanation to cover the topic. 

Many years later I learned a bidet really wasn't a footbath. Endowed with curiosity, everything in life becomes possible. Linked with optimism and creativity, curiosity pushes limits. 

Ways to heighten your natural gift of curiosity: 

1. Stay open to possibilities. Nurture the ability to change your mind, unlearn and relearn. 

2. Ask questions like a reporter: Who, What, Why, When, Where, How? Don't feel content with easy answers. Ask more questions.

3. Curious individuals never feel bored. Take advantage of 'empty time' like standing in line. Observe what's going on around you. Notice people's choices and listen. Writers always carry notepads.

4. Become a perpetual learner. Make learning fun and seek beyond the obvious.
5. Read diverse publications and books. Explore what you don't know with a free mind.

Flowers and Friendships

"Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven't time - and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time.  

Well, I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower."     - Georgia O'Keefe

Grant yourself admission to delve into the depth of a flower.

Let curiosity and creativity mingle to investigate dimensions of a flower and a relationship. With courage we spelunk into the hearts of both.

How does one move beyond the color, scent and shape? 

Does it seem easy for bees and butterflies to discover the inner channels of flowers? 

What orbits of understanding occur in yellow frills? 

Take time to imagine whirly gigs of orange amidst a sherbert view.

Frills tempt in pink.

Discover the humor in an iris.

Delve into the connection between a flower's depth and a similar sensation in a relationship.