Art therapy- the beautiful love story from Cirque Du Soleil

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… 

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Present moment reminder from Eckhart Tolle #happiness

“Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary.”

— Eckhart Tolle

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If Werner Herzog wrote a birthday card…

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

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Harness the power of joy to overcome any obstacle #happiness #chopra

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

  4. 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.

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Art therapy- #happiness

Upward Spiral by Steve Perrault



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This week’s happiness recipe- do nothing, listen to Spotify and watch James Altucher’s TED talk

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)
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Ted talk- How to make hard choices by Ruth Chang

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.


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Jason Silva’s Shots of Awe – Existential Bummer

This video might just make and define your day, week or even a year.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
… Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Source

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31 day happiness programme/ challenge to beat the January blues

You don’t necessarily need to start on Jan 1, it’s never too late to start being happier. The UK ‘happiness experts’, as Daily Mail calls them, Andy Cope and Andy Whittaker helped compile this programme/ challenge. My top 4 must be the knickers upgrade, disagreeing with the negative inner voice, the 4 minute rule (being your best self for the first 4 minutes of doing anything) and setting yourself a HUGG (Huge Unbelievably Great Goal). Brilliant idea and brilliant checklist/ challenge/ programme. Hope this helps you survive January 🙂 Andys’ book The Art of Being Brilliant goes straight to my wishlist.

 

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Happy New Year! Fly into fireworks #magic

Fireworks are magic. My new year eve was warm and magic, I hope yours was too! In my home town (Almaty) new year eve is celebrated with the fireworks- not the public ones but the ones done by many people after the clock strikes midnight. Many, many people buy fireworks in advance and then keep firing them from their balconies and yards for a good half hour or more. This is what makes it magical for me- how everyone unites in celebration. Fireworks make me happy. How about flying into them with a drone and seeing them from a completely new angle? I can see myself coming to this video again and again. Enjoy!

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No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.

No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.

— Positively Positive

My office Christmas party is today. I spent a couple of weeks thinking about what I will wear, how I will look, looking for the right dress… You know the drill.

And then I stopped because I did not want to waste time on this anymore. So I just put on old jeans, an old blouse and a tux jacket that I never wore. I spent the time I freed submitting my script to a screenwriting competition.

In pre-Christmas rush remember what’s important…

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Different good, different bad — you are perfect

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I often find myself in situations where I propose “crazy” ideas, or people listen to what I say and go ‘ok…’ or my point of view is seen as too extreme. I usually feel guilt and regret afterwards — what’s wrong with me, why can I not just be silent or say and do things that are more practical, more ‘normal’, more what people expect. After seeing this poster (thanks, Escape the City), I decided — no more guilt or regret for being different. As long as I am not mediocre. Stay how you are. Because you are perfect.

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“The only way to get to happiness…”

Your happiness is buried underneath your ego, desires, fears and insecurities. The only way to get to happiness is by facing and overcoming those pesky little buggers.. and it’s oh-so-worth it!

— Timber Hawkeye, Buddhist Boot Camp

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“Everything is a happening, and all you do is watching it.” Guided meditation with Alan Watts.

I’ve discovered Alan Watts recently through LinkedIn out of all places. I follow Bruce Kasanoff’s mindfulness challenge, and one of his followers mentioned this meditation, which was so profound, it took me several weeks to find a moment of 100% focus to listen to it and absorb it fully. No regrets.

If you are new to meditation, if you are searching for inner peace or just have 15 min to spare, watch this beautiful guided meditation video. His take on thoughts as noise and a quote in the headline of this post is what I take out of it. Enjoy.

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Jason Silva brings awe to London and causes a ‘mindgasm’

For the last couple of weeks, Jason Silva has been exploding my brain, or as he would say, was the cause of multiple mindgasms 🙂  I had a chance to meet him in London where he did a talk at BAFTA recently (video below). He is as amazing in real life as he is on video.

The first video of Jason, the tech philosopher and futurist, that I’ve seen was the one above. I never before realised that this was indeed the driving force of many of my life decisions. Becoming aware of it helped me change my outlook on many things.

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