Starting off the day better. Feeling better and focusing on morning routine and planning the day. Thought of a new question to ask each morning: What will be better today than yesterday?
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More on depression from Headspace, Day 24 in the Depression pack:
"Today we come back to idea that first talked about that depression as it is called and talked about isn't logical or rational. It's not that you choose to feel that way. You don't choose or like feeling that way. You probably really dislike that you end up focusing so much on these thoughts and this feeling and ultimately in yourself. That is the inherent quality of depressive thinking; it's very focused on itself. Again, it's not that you're doing anything wrong we're not doing it on purpose, intentionally, it's not like that. That's the nature of it. It requires a lot of thinking and energy to maintain it. It sounds crazy; why would we want to maintain it? This is just a habit; it's a groove.
All these techniques are designed to help unwind that, move away from the feeling of being stuck in a particular way of thinking and feeling and instead move toward a more spacious mind, where there's a sense of flow and sense of ease. And as we focus more on others in Part Three, also a greater sense of empathy, that idea of shared human experience, that this isn't something we're going through on our own. This is something that most people will experience at some stage in their life. Knowing that can make a really big difference to our perspective."
Thanks Andy!
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I have started sending off questinairres to people who have told me at one time or another that I need to really pursue something more than what I'm doing. They have alternately been frustrated by my slow pace at moving on or empathetic to the situation I've been in, namely raising kids and running a business. Either way, people have commented: what's next?
I find myself at a huge crossroads. My interets are so varied, I have no idea what to relegate to a side hobby and what to pursue academically. I am working through a design-your-life type book but so far, it hasn't proven helpful.
I just read this description of the writer Noémie Lefebvre: A resident of Lyon, France, the 54-year-old author is widely educated, having studied music education, political science, and the national identity of Germany and France, before becoming a political scientist at Sciences Po Grenoble.
This article highlights her novel Blue Portrait but her varied experiences and interests are what intrigued me. Many are like this; they don't settle on one thing and manage to move well between various interests. I found it inspiring, though a little sad to reflect on what I've done at 52. Well, at least that's the ego talking; my True Self knows what I've done demands respect and even more study and attention if anything, not scorn.
For example, I just got a group text from KT, giving an allergy update on one of her kitts. The work it took for our family to enjoy being together and for Jay and I to not be divorced right now...
I find academic elites write an awful lot about dysfunctional relationships. They write about them, live them, analyze themselves and each other, but the hard work of making relationships and society work seems too gritty, too middle-class, too questionable, potentially Republican.
This topic could be viewed through any other lens, really, such as social evolution, basic psychological research, neurological development, but for whatever reason, healthy relationships seem relegated to being viewed as quaint. Yes, that's it. Just quaint, almost like to have good relationships, you have to turn your brain off to do so, and one doesn't do that. Simple folks have good relationships because they don't know there's a bigger world out there, a world where you question your crazy mother instead of just getting along with her.
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Better: the weather, my energy, my mood (TY HP movies and addressing wedding announcements), To-Do list checkmarks, friend dinner-date.