So no one will ever accuse me of being connected with “big pharma.” After all, I can’t smile and give you incomplete.information at the same time, don’t have one hand in the pocket of health care administrators and the other handing politicians money, and mostly my bank account provides enough evidence lol. I will, however, borrow from the big pharma playbook right at the beginning of this. Entry (except in reverse order). So it’s caveat and disclaimer and warning to start with and. The message at the end here.... I will however, not spend half the time. With the disclaimer because. If you are. Allergic to this you already know and if your doctor doesn’t know something about this I am not.telling you to ask her about it.
Okay back to the post.... I don’t claim the starter stapes below will work for. Everyone and certainly they have not been tested in a double-blind control group study (oh wait neither are some of the meds).. These are just some ideas I offer up and use myself. Here are five things that I focus on when trying to improve the circumstances surrounding seeking peace and joy. I have. More than five, and I will share them as time goes by. It should be noted that. These have little to do with threats to the earth’s environment such as “global warming, desertification, deforestation, narrowing of biodiversity, and poor waste management”, they are just five simple things to try when you need to feel a bit more peaceful and to enjoy things a bit more. Here we go.
One—S—Sit Still
The world is sometimes like an ocean of chaos and becomes very difficult to surf for a prolonged period of time if you don’t find a place and time to sit still once in a while. I listen closely to music, pray, and meditate to assist me in sitting still. You might find other things to do like knitting or petting your. Dog. The important thing is that you do this activity without the intent to do something else while you are. Calming your spirit. No matter. How cool you are with your baggy shorts and shades you can’t surf all the chaos all the time if you don’t carve out a few minutes very regularly to sit still
2. M- Make Things
Use your hands or your computer or your oven or shop equipment. To build, coook, sew, assemble, something every day. Make it something tangible so that the world knows you saw the potential for something and put it together. The world includes you.. It doesn’t have to be creative (see below) but it needs to be concrete. The product of this. Effort to make things doesn’t have to be incredibly successful or permanent it just has to take some material and transform. It into something else. You see you are engineering change and the ability to do this is very important in seeking peace and joy.
3 I- Initiate This goes along with. “Making” but it doesn’t have to be a product. You can start a conversation in a new way or eat a meal you haven’t eaten before or almost anything, but the key is to do something differently than you usually do for the first time or for the first time in a long time. One of the biggest barriers to seeking. Peace and joy is just waiting to see what happens next. Yes earlier I said sit still, however, that doesn’t mean become frozen by fear to the extent you are sitting on the tracks wondering how fast that train is coming. This is the birthday of Thomas Edison who initiated. A lot of new inventions and stole the ideas needed to get credit for some others. The point is he started working on things and while most of them fell short, they all were starts toward a product or process that. Did create peace and joy for him.
4. L-Learn
If you always do the same thing in the same way (including thinking and feeling). Then what result do you expect? Well that’s no mystery, so why not take a shot at learning something new?
So how do you learn new things? For me it is a three or four headed monster and I devote some time to it every day. I passively listen to. Books and podcasts that provide info. The challenge with. That is finding. A variety of things that I will consume. If I am doing it passively, I usually find things that interest me or that I’m looking to agree with. I don’t mean to do that , it is just what seems to happen. So that’s not enough. I then go out and find in we land or on TV or. Google some. Things I don’t agree with and try to listen/watch/read carefully to the ideas and the trains of thought in these messages. I want to learn not sit in the echo chamber. In some instances I find the “teacher” or other press enter is headed. To the same goal but using a different form of transportation so to speak. In other instances I at least find a way to connect with someone I disagree with so that sharing on the NEXT thing might happen. This is a way to make my own knowledge more flexible and resilient.
Now it’s not enough to learn something—for me it is important to take that knowledge out for a spin and seeking peace and joy means solving. Puzzles, playing jeopardy, etc. If you know it well enough to move it around in your head quickly, then you can use it in several ways, hand parts of it to others, and you know you are ready to learn even more. But if game shows aren’t your thing then find other ways to exercise what you are learning. One of my favorites is playing with. Language and for that there’s nothing like writing a rhyme a couple times a week. To do this I just stare into the distance and pick an object or think of one and diver in. So right now...
In the distance I see a car
Is it going near or far?
Is it headed to that bar?
To hear that washed up drunk rock star?
Who can’t sing his songs or play guitar?
I just hope I don’t see something orange...lol?
Some days I just let the rhyme sit and some days I work with a word for a couple days especially if it’s part of an interesting phrase. The other day I came across the phrase “scientists and saints.” Here’s what I’ve cooked up so far...
It’s time to break through old constraints
Applied by scientists and saints
Relax the fears breathe through the faints
Paint your new smile with sparkling. Paints
Well it’s not Carl sand berg or even Ryan Sandberg but I feel a little more peaceful and joyful after stringing the words together and exercising my mind and soul.
5. E- Enjoy
Okay you are thinking. Building a healthier peace and. Joy environment HAS to include this right? True, and yet where on your calendar or to do list is the word enjoy. do your new year’s resolutions include. Eat chocolate slowly? Do you build in time to listen to your five favorite songs once a week or even one song a day? Do you watch a video with. Puppies in it? I mean do you do these things on purpose? I would. Argue that if you have time to. Put things on your schedule like getting a colonoscopy...you can find time to listen to the full length version of Alice’s Restaurant every. Now and again. Finally found all else fails and you are in a really crappy set of circumstances look around the room or listen to hear. Something that. Is your favorite color or makes a favorite or funny sound. If you don’t see something your favorite color then imagine an object you could bring into this space to add that color. For example imagine wrapping a purple bandana around the head of that former university president just for giggles. In short enjoy things with intent and intensity on a regular basis.
Well to sum all this up.. I’ll go back to the letters of the five starter steps.
S M I L E
More soon
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