Staying inspired, connected to Source & full of joy is my full time job. When I woke up this morning feeling depressed & like I had the flu, I knew I wasn’t doing my job very well. I eventually figured out that it must have been food poisoning, but I managed to cure myself with the following!
Eat a salad
I’ve been totally overindulging in cooked delights. Did you know that wheat gluten is like an opiate drug, producing similar feelings to endorphins in your brain? In my experience, diet is the single most important factor in mood regulation. As soon as I ate my delicious kale salad, I started feeling heaps better.
Make fractals
After my mood started improving with the salad & watching a little Esther & Jerry, I sat down to get to work. But I was still feeling blocked & tired. Lately, whenever I have that feeling, I start making fractals! This mindless creative activity always results in beautiful imagery (I made the image above today), & usually clears my mind enough to get inspired again.
Give up alcohol FOR GOOD
As you may have noticed, I perform a lot of dietary experiments on myself. I’ve been working on removing alcohol from my life for several months, & invariably I return to it during social gatherings. I imbibed at our housewarming party on Friday, which resulted in me feeling SO UNBEARABLY HORRIBLE. Compared to the previous week of unparalleled sobriety, I was in hell! Finally, I’ve experienced the contrast I needed to officially say that I. DO. NOT. DRINK. I feel such extreme relief that I never have to think about it again! Cheers!
Do what you are inspired to do
I was going to work on some website maintenance tasks this afternoon, but wasn’t feeling any joy from it. So I started making my fractal image & composing this post in my mind. I’ve been completely obsessed with Steve Pavlina’s 30 Days of Inspiration, during which he is “testing what it’s like to live without thinking or planning ahead.” He is only doing things when he is inspired to do so, & from what I’ve read the trial seems to be incredibly rewarding. I believe that following inspiration is a sure path to joy, so I’m excited to try a similar experiment on myself. My first wave of inspiration–read Kelly’s pizza post!
To truly experience the benefits of positive thinking, you have to practice it all the time. Watching (& re-watching!) inspirational films like The Secret is a great way to keep positive thoughts in the front of your mind. Last weekend, Kelly & I watched Esther & Jerry Hicks: Law of Attraction:
Discover how the power of positive thinking applies to common, real-life situations as Esther and Jerry Hicks look at the commanding law of attraction and the teachings of Abraham, the collective consciousness channeled through Esther.
It took me some time to accept the idea that Esther was channeling “Abraham”, but if you can get past that bit there is much to be learned!
1. Wouldn’t it be nice if…
If you’re having trouble figuring out how to make a situation better, try playing the “wouldn’t it be nice if…” game. When I’m bored or depressed, I can always imagine better circumstances. Once you start visualizing what would make you feel better, you actually do start feeling better.
2. Stop caring about what others think!
According to Abraham, this is the most important thing you can do when trying to achieve joy. The only responsibility you have is to match your emotional state to the person you want to become. If you want to be wealthy, you can get there by feeling like a wealthy person. (“Act as if.” “Fake it til you make it.”) When you start worrying about what other people think about what you want, then you dilute your desire. If you feel guilty about what you want, you’re worrying about what other people think. All that matters is how YOU feel. Don’t compare yourself to others. Remove fear from your decision-making. If you worry about being judged, or looking stupid, you’ll never take the leap towards your true joy!
3. Teaching is about soothing disbelief
One of the most striking conversations in the film is between Abraham & a man who does motivational speaking. The man wants to know how he can teach, motivate, inspire & heal all at once. As a teacher myself, I often wonder what my students want from me, & how I can best help them. Abraham explains that all there is to teaching is soothing disbelief. A teacher must simply help her student believe that he is capable. A teacher must inspire a reduction of resistance in her student, by helping him remove anything in the way of believing he already has what he wants.
When teaching web design & development, I often have students who are so intimidated by code that they convince themselves they just can’t understand it. Changing this mindset is what teaching is all about.
Abraham continues with some practical tips on how to have the right attitude as a teacher. Before approaching your students, believe that they will summon from you what they want to hear. Think of yourself as a catalyst to open them up to receiving. Believe that you’re ready for them & they are ready for you. Above all, teach for the fun of it!
4. Practice the art of allowing
The art of allowing is this: you gain control of your reality by letting go of control. Decide what you want, then leave it up to the universe to figure out how to get it to you. Let go of your plans, stop working towards goals, & allow the universe to bring you the things you desire & deserve.
5. Follow your impulses!
Part of the art of allowing is following your impulses. The universe constantly gives you feedback on your proximity to joy. When you feel bad, you are far from joy. When you start feeling excitement & passion, you are much closer to joy. You were born with intuition. Use it! Whenever you get a feeling that you should do something out of the ordinary, indulge yourself! You will be surprised at what joy can come from it. Trust yourself!
6. I’m doing everything right
Abraham says that most people walk around life beating a drum, saying over & over to themselves “What am I doing wrong? What am I doing wrong? What am I doing wrong?” Not surprisingly, those people have a whole lot of wrong in their lives. The other day I came up with a trick to combat this negative thought pattern: consciously walk around saying “I’m dong everything right! I’m doing everything right!” Before you know it, you will start to FEEL like you are doing everything right! That mindset is enough to change the course of your entire life.
After many experiments in self-discipline, exercise, diet & spirituality, I’ve identified a few things that I KNOW make me happy if I do them every day. As Kelly & I ease into our next experiment in wealth, I want to bring these habits back into my life!
- Wake early. This is a really tough one, but so worth it! When we get up at 5a, we can meditate & run before it gets too hot out. Exercising in the morning totally energizes me for the rest of the day.
- Meditate. When I meditate daily, I am less anxious, more mindful, more in touch with the universe, & more focused on visualizing my desires. Meditation helps me get what I want!
- Exercise. It’s true, you can get addicted to the endorphins that come with exercise. Running, bicycling & pushups are what I’d like to do every single day!
- Eat (mostly) raw. I now know for CERTAIN that eating a raw vegan diet is what my body wants to feel its best. However, my mind often wants the comfort of warm carbohydrates, so I am willing to compromise. I eat all raw throughout the week, then allow myself a little cooked food drug on the weekends. Deprivation sucks! But eating raw is ideal for natural energy.
- Create! I know I am happiest when Kelly & I are recording the podcast & I am posting articles to this site daily. The podcast is a way for us to keep our relationship healthy & preserve memories. This site is my obsession! It’s kind of like looking in the mirror–every time I look, I find something I want to improve.
- See friends. It’s easy to get caught up in air conditioned work & hide inside, but I find that I am happiest when I socialize at least once a day. Besides, if I am the average of the 5 people I spend the most time with, I want surround myself with rawsome folks :]
- Always be grateful for what I have & visualizing what I want. When I know what I want & am grateful for what I have, I open myself up to accept abundance from the universe!
What habits make you happy? Are they hard to keep up with every day?
[recorded 5.3.10 | duration: 00:09:28 | Subscribe in iTunes]
It’s time for NEW THOUGHT! I am on a daily mission to be positive. Instead of using these videos to ruminate on sad thoughts, I’m going to use them to reflect on the positive. You can manifest whatever reality you want! Most of the world is your perception, so project your greatest hopes and dreams & make them a reality!
I try to look at each Monday as an opportunity for a fresh start. No matter how unproductive the weekend was, or how much I’d rather stab myself in the face than go to class, if I do these things I can have a pretty good attitude that lasts throughout the day.
1. Wake up as early as you can.
I’ve been getting up at 3am on Mondays lately, which seems obscene typed out, but it’s really quite sustainable. If I get enough sleep on the weekend and go to bed early Sunday night, having the couple extra hours to myself in the morning helps me prepare for the week.
2. Do pushups.
I’m getting back into the habit of daily pushups. I do 50 as soon as I wake up, right before I jump in the shower. It wakes me up, gets my muscles feeling delicious, and over time the results are super worth it.
3. Groom! Shave your legs, paint your nails, shape your brows.
If I feel sexy, I have a sexy day. And I don’t feel very sexy with chipped nail polish and hairy legs. Feminist critique aside, taking the extra 15 minutes to focus on your appearance gives you that much more confidence when you step out the door.
4. Plan your meals and calorie budget for the week.
Kel and I have been in the habit of planning our meals for a few months now. We use a whiteboard in the kitchen, and have started filling in the calories next to each meal. This has resolved so much stress in our lives! Now we know exactly what to shop for, we only have to think about what we’re going to eat once a week, and it seriously cuts down on eating out. Adding the calorie count makes me extra aware of when I go over my budget, and I’m hoping it will cut down on mindless snacking or too-big portions.
5. Make your lunch.
I always set aside time to make my lunch. It’s pretty hard to find vegan options on campus anyway, but bringing my own lunch allows me to be flexible when and where I eat. I save LOTS of money by not eating out, and I snack on apples in the morning and afternoon. Our Texas Caviar keeps great in a Tupperware and we make a double batch to last us all week.
If you are anything like me, you woke up this morning with a million things to do before the work day even started. Emails to send, paperwork to tend to, projects to work on. But maybe you hit that snooze button a few too many times, and now there’s no time to do everything you wanted before leaving the house for the day.
I hate it when this happens. I woke up this morning feeling like all sorts of shit. I ate too much this weekend, got only a couple hours of sleep, and I have an endless pile of homework and work obligations that are suffocating me. It’s raining and cold out, and I’m pretty sure I hate my haircut right now.
To this list of woes I reply: so what! It’s Monday, and it’s time to set things straight! And so I am choosing to write this post of positivity at 6:36am instead of checking off any other item on my to-do list. I want to talk about what good things are coming this week, and what I’m going to do to make them happen. I think of writing this post as meditation, and what I concentrate on now will guide the trajectory of my week.
These are the awesome things I want to focus on this week!
- trying to remove gluten from my diet! And receiving this book in the mail.
- making progress on my exhibition and thesis. I am done overthinking this! It is time to disseminate.
- creating premium content! That is all I want to do with my life! I should remember that more often.
- finishing our last week of training before the Austin Half Marathon on Sunday. Holy shit.
- recording lots of fun podcasts & staying on top of posting them.
What things do you want to get done this week? What improves your Monday morning attitude?
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