Mmm, art that is good enough to eat 🙂  Les Macarons and Les poires by Agnes Lefevre put a smile on my face. The touch with ancient vases is very stylish imho. Off to have a pear now! Have a nice weekend!
I have been quiet for a bit. I had a very Mad Men’esque exit from my agency job, so that took some time and energy. The good news is I am very happy, I am at home, and not starting a new job for another couple of weeks, which means I’ll be able to actually catch up on what’s important – family, friends, art, film, house, life. I will actually be able to enjoy spring, and not from inside of the office building. Ah life!
A somewhat negative post perhaps, however this information was very useful to me in the last couple of months, when I had to deal with a lot of negativity, and a few negative people. Below is my summary of the strategies you could use to deal with someone who pisses you off. And I found a list of anti-depression herbs (my GP advised to get the same when I went complaining on stress), which could be used if nothing else helps, or in parallel.Â
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Finally, remember, negative people are the ones you need to clutch in your hugs and not let them go until they stop yelling at you 🙂  Very, very hard to do.
Strategies to deal with someone who pisses you off:
Took my breath away… Cirque du Soleil, Worlds Away. Note: this clip is not in great resolution but you can buy and stream the whole show, it is worth it…Â
As you may know, I love film. One of my favourite directors is Werner Herzog. He happens to be one of the favourite directors of a good friend of mine, whose birthday it was recently. Inspired by his lovely partner, I wrote him a birthday wish as if it was written by Herzog. Here is the grumpiest birthday wish ever 🙂
Hello,
I have to say right away- I hate birthdays. Why be joyful at the fact that a person completed another year on the arduous journey to his or her life end? I don’t really know what to say on these occasions. If it was up to me, I’d deliver you a note in person. With a dwarf. Or with a crow. Dead crow. Or better still, with a live bear. Nothing like a bear as a bearer of birthday wishes. But I have to write and even worse, I have to type. Very impersonal and I just hate it. You will have to live with this, as will I. Continue reading →
Ahh the infinite wisdom that is Mr Deepak Chopra! I am doing this exercise today, to decide what to do next with my script. See if it helps you too. And if interested, check out Chopra’s 5 week online programme called The Quest (it’s not cheap though).
Try this simple, 10-minute process for harnessing the power of joy to overcome any obstacle:
Pick one desire. Take a minute to think about one thing you’ve been striving to make happen in your life. It could be a new job you’re after, a shift in your relationship or a health goal. Whatever it is, write it down.
Make friends with your fear. Next, write down all the reasons this goal feels hard to reach and what would happen if you never did. Ask yourself how that would feel… and then accept that feeling. Strip your fear of its power by going all the way to the place of acceptance that the worst has already happened.
Find the joy and follow it. Now do the opposite. Instead of dwelling on HOW you’re going to reach that goal and why it’s going to be so HARD to accomplish. Concentrate on the part of your goal that brings a spark of joy and delight to you — the part that makes you feel energized and alive! Let yourself experience how exhilarated you will feel when you’ve reached it.
Now, close your eyes and identify the next most doable step that takes you more deeply into that joy. (Not a massive, treacherous leap to the other side of your problem.) Just one feel-good, energizing step in the direction of your heart’s joy.
Repeat. Then do it again. (And again.) Don’t listen to the voice that says you have to conquer that problem to MAKE your dreams happen… just follow the joy.
See, most of us think it’s when we’ve overcome the obstacles and come out the other side that THEN (and only then) will we feel happy.
But what if the opposite is true? (It is.) And it’s actually from our most relaxed, joyful, creative space that answers to our toughest problems will come to us with ease and everything we want in life can be ours effortlessly.
Mastering the art of harnessing joy to overcome obstacles is just one important step to living a life of effortless success and ease.
This week 3 things have been helping me to stay happy. Here they are.
Brilliant post by Swati Desai on The Importance Of Doing Nothing does not appeal to me just because I am lazy 🙂  Often staying still and letting things go (this, too, shall pass) is the best strategy. And the hardest. If you ever tried to ignore irritating people, you know. Swati Desai gives great examples and explains how meditation helps to ‘mitigate the anxious response to situations, increase will power, and increase tolerance for pain. It allows you to wait patiently in spite of the stress and the pain.’
Let go. Do not resist. Surrender.
Spotify recently launched a Guided Meditation playlist. The 3 gems I found last week there- meditations called Surrender by Krishna Das, Letting Go by Donna D’Cruz and Are You Experiencing Thoughts by Davidji.
And finally, James Altucher’s TED talk on how to be happy:
Improve your physical health (focus on exercise and diet)
Improve your emotional health (be around people that you love and trust)
Improve your spiritual health (always expressing gratitude)
Capture your brilliance (write down ten ideas every day)
And finally, give without expectation (give your ideas away)
I’ve been on a holiday. I was really looking forward to just watching the ocean waves. Ocean. Meditative. Strong. Bigger than me. Perspective giving. Forever listening. Quiet, the mind. Connect me to the universe. Accept me, lost and confused. All will be as it should be. Nothing is permanent. This, too, shall pass.
Life seems so hard in February. It’s freezing outside, mostly grey and windy. You need several layers before you can leave the house. I’ve got this crazy winter flu and everyone in my family too, so it’s like Walking Dead in this house. My first good friend is turning 40, getting the big existential questions I keep asking myself to the next level. It’s like looking up at the impossibly tall cliff and knowing you need to get to the top, somehow, then getting depressed about it before you even make the first step.
Work is not going well, because everyone is severely overworked (when did British workforce voluntarily set itself on this route to annihilation?), affected by SAD and there is this girl who, for one or another reason is very unhappy, and is projecting this negativity into day to day terror for everyone else working with her. Like poison she destroys everything around her. I keep reminding myself about 3 choices that you have when dealing with a difficult situation or a difficult someone: you can flight (run away), you can fight (change the situation) or you can change your attitude. Normally I run away or fight to change the situation, usually taking a revolutionary approach and resulting in a lot of suffering for myself and others. This time I am making it into an exercise to change my attitude instead. It never worked before, so let’s see.
Commute is also sad. How the hell do you survive this period without plunging into major depression?
This is what I do. I listen to Mahasukha Center’s lectures podcast on Buddhism during the morning walk to the train station, I meditate on the train. I wear motivational jewellery. I laugh a lot (also Spotify has an amazing comedy section now). I exercise, however moderately (tai chi and treadmill in my case). Channel 4’s ’24 hours A&E’ which I watch weekly helps put things into perspective. I engage (or in my case keep thinking about) the side projects- writing, art and tech- this helps me feel alive. And I have a winter sun holiday booked (in 3 sleeps!). Yay! Gems like this of course also help:
Stay happy, my dear nomads. Keep cheering yourselves up. And as I say to myself, unless you are faced with death, you always have a choice.
An amazing, life changing, eye opening Ted talk that I want to share with you. Let Ruth Chang, the first Chinese philosopher who is also a woman that I encounter, change your perspective on hard life choices.
I’ve been promising this for a while and finally here goes. The best posts imho for the last 6-9 months or so, which feature original content, not just reposts. Thank you for reading my blog and have a happy weekend!
January. Time when we start afresh. Resolutions and all. Many of us- myself included- vow to get back in shape. Not easy.
Being one of the laziest people ever when it comes to exercise, any sort of exercise that contains ‘lazy’ in its name immediately attracts my attention. Lazy morning yoga in bed? Yes, please!
Nomad of the Universe 