Yesterday I was mid late-night blogpost when I got fed up with my train of thought and erased it all. In case you were wondering, I was writing about the bummers of being single and the struggle to keep a positive attitute about it, but mostly in specific situations. As I was writing, it occurred to me that I don't know anyone who's in a relationship who blogs.
That's probably still true.
But regardless, I've had a dramatic switch in focus since last night, and I'll continue to blog away about it.
I'm currently reading (or taking a break from reading, while the thought is still in my head) an article for my Comm class about how to be happy. It's not that I'm struggling with happiness and deseperate to find a way to pull myself out of a rut, because I'm not...but nevertheless I was pleasantly intrigued by the contents of the article. It reads, "research now suggests that 40 percent of our happiness might stem from intentional activities in which we choose to engage". My first thought was, "I bet one of those activities isn't blogging about one's unhappiness..." The article goes on to say, "...in trying to explain which activities might actually help us cultivate happiness, positive psychology keeps returning to the same concept: gratitude."
The rest of the article follows the story of a woman trying to apply the theory to her own life, first by keeping a list of all the sings she was grateful for, no matter how insignificant; second, by recording all the good moments in her day; and third, by savoring the moment whenever possible.
That last one was my favorite and I think it's so pertinent to how we develop a state of mind on a daily basis, because when we savor the moment, we're not only taking in something that might have otherwise slipped by, but we're killing two birds with one stone and being grateful for a really good thing that's right in front of our eyes.
Ever crawl your exhausted self into bed and lay there for a moment, reveling in just how good it feels? I definitely had one of those moments this morning. I savored it.
Ever spend so much time in one place and with certain people and never realize how special it is until life throws you somewhere else, and all you want to do is go back and relive a few of those moments? I'm currently sitting in the computer lab at my school and I took a moment to stop and appreciate, and I was overwhelmed by the blessing of being here. I know that 5 years from now I would give anything just to be able to sit and multi-task here, and I'll never really get this time back.
Ever go outside and do homework on a sunny day, but never really get time to chill for a minute, watch the sun flicker between the leaves, smell the smell of nature, etc, etc.?
You get the idea. Try it, it's nice.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Life gave me lemons.
"In the midst of winter I found there was, within me, an invincible summer"
Lately my circumstances have suggested that I'm not where I should be. That I'm doing something wrong or missing something because nothing seems to be turning out right. I've been so intensely focused on the subject of caring lately because I feel like those who did care turn out to be those who don't really...at all. Whether that's true or not isn't the point.
I think sometimes God brings you to low points just so that He can prove to you that He's capable of bringing you out of them. I have never felt so low since I can remember, but I also didn't realize until now that I have everything in my reach to feel so incredibly high. God is great. And I am so blessed!
I don't think I've ever really been able to see and appreciate the true friends I have and the people who care about me more than I understand. I think for a lot of my life, I've been looking for a best friend and in the process, missing all the ones that I've collected over the years. It's kind of like that one story, about a man hanging on to a rock for dear life in the middle of a river - as boat after boat rows by, he yells out, "No! I asked for God to save me, and He will!" Well, it goes something like that.
The point is, I have a God who loves me incomprehensibly, a family that would kill to make me happy (not literally), and some amazing friends who, I think, would do anything for me. ... Mmmm. I'm so overwhelmed.
In addition to all this, I've also been thinking about happiness recently. You know how you'll pass some people and you can just tell they're happy by the outward glow they radiate? You know that person had a great day, and they're ecstatic about it. I started wondering why I haven't had a day that would cause me to look the same way. Not that I'm unhappy, because I'm definitely not unhappy, but I would classify myself as being content, on a very level plane of emotion or state of being. Which is great! But at the same time, I was unhappy at my lack of...ecstatic moments, if you will.
But I dunno. As I was sitting in my friend's room tonight, I realized that my life is full of happy moments, the kind that literally make me hurt inside if I don't outwardly smile. Moments like...good conversations with a good friend, satisfactory artistic creations, listening to those songs with a bass-thundering beat and not being able to keep yourself from dancing, running and sliding on your socks in the kitchen floor, laying in the grass on a perfect summer day and knowing you can just enjoy watching the sky for a few minutes....the list could literally go on well into the night (and I'm already pushing 2 am here).
I guess....sadness is OK...for a while. But it's useless to let the rough patches deprive you of living in the blessings you've been given.
If something is making you unhappy...throw it away! Get rid of it! Chances are there are plenty of other things in your life that can take its place.
Mandy-Pies
Lately my circumstances have suggested that I'm not where I should be. That I'm doing something wrong or missing something because nothing seems to be turning out right. I've been so intensely focused on the subject of caring lately because I feel like those who did care turn out to be those who don't really...at all. Whether that's true or not isn't the point.
I think sometimes God brings you to low points just so that He can prove to you that He's capable of bringing you out of them. I have never felt so low since I can remember, but I also didn't realize until now that I have everything in my reach to feel so incredibly high. God is great. And I am so blessed!
I don't think I've ever really been able to see and appreciate the true friends I have and the people who care about me more than I understand. I think for a lot of my life, I've been looking for a best friend and in the process, missing all the ones that I've collected over the years. It's kind of like that one story, about a man hanging on to a rock for dear life in the middle of a river - as boat after boat rows by, he yells out, "No! I asked for God to save me, and He will!" Well, it goes something like that.
The point is, I have a God who loves me incomprehensibly, a family that would kill to make me happy (not literally), and some amazing friends who, I think, would do anything for me. ... Mmmm. I'm so overwhelmed.
In addition to all this, I've also been thinking about happiness recently. You know how you'll pass some people and you can just tell they're happy by the outward glow they radiate? You know that person had a great day, and they're ecstatic about it. I started wondering why I haven't had a day that would cause me to look the same way. Not that I'm unhappy, because I'm definitely not unhappy, but I would classify myself as being content, on a very level plane of emotion or state of being. Which is great! But at the same time, I was unhappy at my lack of...ecstatic moments, if you will.
But I dunno. As I was sitting in my friend's room tonight, I realized that my life is full of happy moments, the kind that literally make me hurt inside if I don't outwardly smile. Moments like...good conversations with a good friend, satisfactory artistic creations, listening to those songs with a bass-thundering beat and not being able to keep yourself from dancing, running and sliding on your socks in the kitchen floor, laying in the grass on a perfect summer day and knowing you can just enjoy watching the sky for a few minutes....the list could literally go on well into the night (and I'm already pushing 2 am here).
I guess....sadness is OK...for a while. But it's useless to let the rough patches deprive you of living in the blessings you've been given.
If something is making you unhappy...throw it away! Get rid of it! Chances are there are plenty of other things in your life that can take its place.
Mandy-Pies
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Surprise Quote
“It’s funny how, even long after you’ve accepted the grief of losing someone you love and truly have gotten on with your life, every once in a while something comes up that plays “gotcha,” and for a moment or two, the scar tissue separates and the wound is raw again.” - Mary Higgins Clark, The Second Time Around
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Not raw, but medium rare
Here's a seemingly simple question: how do you go about treating someone you care about?
Recently I started asking myself if I knew which of my friends truly cared about me, not because I'm paranoid about my relationships and have a hard time trusting people, but because I believe that there are some people in every person's life who are temporary, and won't be there with you through thick and thin. It's inevitable because of the amount of people each of us are aqcuainted with, and I know I have friends that I also care very little about. Come on, it's simply selective perception, and I know too many people to have to worry about all of them.
So which ones are the keepers? Does it even matter?
Maybe it doesn't benefit anyone to know which friends are the good ones and which are the "duds", but it matters to me because it's important for me to know how to treat the people I care about, so that the people I love know I'm sticking around.
...Ok, basically, I'm just tired of wondering if people mean it when they say they care about you, or if it's just a conditioned response, because when they mean it, it's safe to let your guard drop, and when they don't, it's a risk.
So how do you treat people you care about?
-Mandie Pies
Recently I started asking myself if I knew which of my friends truly cared about me, not because I'm paranoid about my relationships and have a hard time trusting people, but because I believe that there are some people in every person's life who are temporary, and won't be there with you through thick and thin. It's inevitable because of the amount of people each of us are aqcuainted with, and I know I have friends that I also care very little about. Come on, it's simply selective perception, and I know too many people to have to worry about all of them.
So which ones are the keepers? Does it even matter?
Maybe it doesn't benefit anyone to know which friends are the good ones and which are the "duds", but it matters to me because it's important for me to know how to treat the people I care about, so that the people I love know I'm sticking around.
...Ok, basically, I'm just tired of wondering if people mean it when they say they care about you, or if it's just a conditioned response, because when they mean it, it's safe to let your guard drop, and when they don't, it's a risk.
So how do you treat people you care about?
-Mandie Pies
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