Author / yojeanyi
Sparks fly when you sing the song of your people
Sparks fly when you sing the song of your people. They land into hearts- feeding warm flames.
Blaring in the bar is a historically significant song. The one you put on repeat in 8th grade. The stuffy air of gas emitting bodies become electric voices jamming along— some in tune, some in spirit…strangers united by song, even if nothing else.
You might think going to activity related clubs like food, hiking, or reading will open connections. While it’s easy to rule out people with different values or lifestyles, even among dogs, not everyone gets along.
I can never find a good reason to say “no.” This attitude took me on many adventures — like an invitation to a Himalayan pilgrimage. Some of these experiences redefined my life; others are better left in the labyrinth of my memory. Saying “yes” to the world is a golden sun with rays shooting into open horizons. Getting stung by a swarm of judicially angry bees– is diminished by the larger experience of hiking in the giant redwoods. Blisters and skin abrasions aren’t required for adventure, but a bit of smarting pain does leave an impression.
Sharing, or suffering, with like minded people is meaningful because of the communion. To put it in animal terms- we are a pack undergoing the same journey and transformation, multiplying energy.
Some people consider their families their pack. Other soloists live in their career or projects. Some find a lifestyle where they do the things that bring them joy and meaning daily.
For K dog, it was 1. feminism 2. programmer 3. musician
For P dog, it was 1. Chem Professor 2. foodie 3. lifelong learner
For Y dog, it was 1. books 2. biking 3. swimming
Their holy trinity.
Values: freedom, peace, learning, growth, green, blue, egg, fire, water, earth, wind
What about for me? I like caring, free spirited learners and doers who get energy from nature and creating. If I free write to find my BIG 3, an image forms.
I like swinging in a hammock by the bonfire.
1. swinging 2. hammock 3. bonfire
I hope the right sparks follow from living in your element. As long as you keep doing what you do, you are singing the song to find your people.
Productivity and Happiness: red flags
In the sea of unsolicited help, here are 2 red flag words to steer clear from:
1. Productivity
A classic trap is thinking productivity is a positive attribute that yields green. Yet the point in which you seek advice on how to be more productive is when you are experiencing burn out or apathy. Advice on how to “be (more) productive” feeds a vicious cycle. The focus should be on resting completely (completely), and addressing the source of the apathy.
2. Happiness
Apparently the happiest country in the world is the most realistic. When breaking down the criteria for “happiness”, participants explained that they don’t look for it, instead expecting a normal, average life. Keeping the bar within reach is key. This is not to say happiness isn’t important or doesn’t exist, but the “pursuit of happiness” will lead you away from it.
Daily practice: walk for the sun 🌄🌅 🚶♂️🚶♀️
” The sun rises. I walk. The sun sets. I walk. “
What does this simple action do? By using the sun as a marker for my day, I form a stronger connection with my own time. I wake up for the sun rise, then later I take a walk to watch the sun set. This is as reliable and constant as the earth’s orbit around the sun.
watching the giant star do a 180 into and out of your life will become the immovable image from which you base the nuisances of life as truly what they are, insignificant.
“Sunrise” and “Sundown” are markers for the start and end of a day, and it’s remarkable to observe this phenomena in person. It’s taken for granted, but this life giving orb is the basis for our entire calendar system, it’s material presence both astronomical and structural. So why not bracket our lives with its observation?
From atop a modest hill, I can see the faint light hugging the east mountains. What banality awaits me today? The thought evaporates as I see the brightening sky. Then I spend a chunk of time attending obligations. I go for my walk towards the west approximately sixty minutes before sunset.
No music. I observe sounds, my body moving footstep by footstep. The crunchy loamy sand, dusty dirt. Is my left shoulder sore? I stretch it out. Try to lose. Loosen and lose attention and stuffiness of structured living.
This activity can be considered a walking meditation or a debriefing of the day. It’s a time for reflection, but because this is not a brainstorming session, I let thoughts dissipate into mist. It’s also not exercise since this is non-goal oriented.
After months of doing this daily practice, managing the stress of life is less complicated. The practice of walking and observing the sun’s relationship in the setting of your life rescales things. If it’s cloudy, rainy, or the weather does not permit this activity, see “what to do in the event you cannot see the sun.” (coming soon) But when it’s possible, watching the giant star do a 180 into and out of your life will become the immovable image from which you base the nuisances of life as truly what they are, insignificant.
Decisions Are Just Bell Peppers
TIP #1: FRUIT OF THE SUMMER
Crunchy and refreshing with a mild sweetness. Juicy but not sticky.
Bell peppers are fruits that can be eaten like an apple, whole or slices, and contain vitamin C and other good stuff. It always surprises me how easy they are to eat. They’re an excellent lifestyle fruit for their user friendliness.
It’s suspicious how easy they are to eat. Throw them in a backpack and they’ll be okay. Even if they are crushed, there’s only water residue- no sticky juices like those other fruits.
Maybe you prefer a dip in keeping with the settler’s summer tradition. It would be uncouth to consume a dip alone, unless it’s a light Tzatziki/ cacık dip with crushed coriander. Composed of yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, garlic, and any herbs- parsley, mint, dill– it’s wow. Munching on my bell peppers and tzaitziki dips, I have been thinking.
Despite my invisible achievements well into my third decade, I’ve navigated uncharted waters and strange crossroads. I suppose if you survive a catastrophe, that could be considered an accomplishment. Survival is not easy, yet little do we celebrate it.
Survival is not easy, yet little do we celebrate it.
TIP 2: Celebrate decisions >accomplishments > achievements
Achievements get trophies 🏆; accomplishments get checkmarks ✅; decisions get silence 🤫. Powerful decisions disappear into daily life like vegetables in vegetable chowder. You forget about them, but they’re doing all the work keeping you alive.
Decisions are harder to celebrate because they’re internal, sometimes messy and painful, and even transformative (quitting a job, leaving a relationship, starting something new).
The word “decision” comes from the latin “caedere” meaning “cutting the links.” It’s a cutting of ourselves from a “wholeness.” In the case of life, its a cutting into the wholeness of our identity and stability. Whether that’s getting out of a comfortable stagnation or an awful place, we have to slice, dice, and dip out of there ASAP. A life altering decision can suck because of the risk factor. But while there might not be reward, we need these decisions for prevention and immunity.
These “good” decisions that cut the deepest should be actively remembered in order to keep up the positive spirits; they are the silent architects of resilience, sometimes outweighing the glitter of achievements.
NUTRITIONAL BENEFITS OF DECISIONS
- Vitamin C: One medium-sized red bell pepper provides 169% of the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for vitamin C, making it one of the richest dietary sources of this essential nutrient.
- Vitamin B6: Pyridoxine is the most common type of vitamin B6, a family of nutrients important for forming red blood cells.
- Vitamin K1: A form of vitamin K, also known as phylloquinone, K1 is important for blood clotting and bone health.
- Potassium: This essential mineral may improveTrusted Source heart health.
- Folate, also known as vitamin B9, has a variety of functions in the body. Adequate folate intake is very importantTrusted Source during pregnancy.
- Vitamin E: A powerful antioxidant, vitamin E is essential for healthy nerves and muscles. The best dietary sources of this fat-soluble vitamin include oils, nuts, seeds, and vegetables.
- Vitamin A: Red bell peppers are high inTrusted Source pro-vitamin A (beta carotene), which your body converts into vitamin A.
💤😴🌛 Tip: Yyyyyy not Zzzzzzz
Welcome to another episode of “Can’t sleep?” with your host, “I Forgot to Do Something”. It’s another great night for not sleeping.
Sleeplessness shares good company with hiccups and the appendix: leftover primal functions and medical mysteries.
Sleeplessness is commonly the work of an overstimulated mind. When it’s time to knock out for the day, there’s just one last thing to finish, a nagging worry you want to address, a… memory from 14 years ago needing remembering. And then, you’ve dipped into half the required slumber you need to be “A” game.
Try this new Counting Sheep:
- Visualize: See yourself as asleep.
- Lists are known to induce drowsiness: Pretend you are telling a friend your bedtime routine, walking through it step by step.
- Describe how you wind down. Describe a body check. Toes intact. As far you as can tell, organs intact, content. Saw aloud one word descriptions of how you feel physically and emotionally.
- Like lists, dry and technical explanations bore yourself into a slumber: Pretend a child doesn’t know what “blank” is, so you explain it to them. Fill in ‘blank’ with any topic of your choice that’s 3 degrees from things you really like to talk about. What is the function of blank?
If you can’t zzzzzzzzzzzzzz then do the next best: yyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Divide your rest into a few long naps like the (g)olden times. Expect that your internal clock is going to be different for a while.
You can plan the following day’s naps. Here in this sleepless sanctuary, there are naps without judgement. Plus, if you have chronic insomnia, sleep hygiene isn’t important yet. Don’t look at the time– think nothing of calculations. Only use neutral to positive words like sandwich, upstream trout, or pink sky.
Does this nap take place outside in coma inducing sun and breeze? To the sound of waves? or, if you’re not by water, to the smell of lemon flowers? A section of grass is prickly and damp, so you find a more dry spot, maybe a worn rocking chair, the seat a faded a tan Maple, while the backrest a less worn Acacia brown turning Olive. Swinging in a plushy hammock. It feels like the layover between flights…brick feet drag anchor eyelids to your gate…personal luggage becomes cloud. Remember the most desperate of times you wanted to knock out…an all nighter essay, morning class in a warm lecture hall, monotone ramblings in gibberish…
Be dumb: how to struggle, learn, and cross apply strategies
People learn because they want to be competent, independent, discover, and challenge themselves. If something is too hard to learn, why do it?
A boulder might kill you to move, but breaking it into tiny rocks won’t. Without knowing it, what we learn starts to connect with things we know, making our life more interesting and dynamic.
Get comfortable with feeling dumb.
I initially began taking programming classes because I wanted to make my own website and I didn’t like the readymade options out there. I struggled in my first class, barely passing. The content was not only difficult, I was also feeling overwhelmed with how little I didn’t know in the field of Computer Science. That experience prepared me for the next class– I was ready to swim in my cold dumb state. Eventually the body warms up and takes you to the other side.
What does walking and learning have in common? The cross application of different continuity or endurance strategies. Then there’s running, which is just one step further than walking. When running, you create a rhythm between your breathing and body, a metronome for the experience. Thoughts have a hard time thriving. When learning gets difficult, intrusive thoughts insert themselves- observations, feelings, and inner monologue. When in deep concentration or focus, we unconsciously hold our breath. The oxygen deprived brain starts to dislike learning the new material. It hates computer science! It hates baking! When that happens I think about walking or running, just focusing on breathing and moving forward.
When I picked up guitar, my eyes would glaze over the music sheets, so I stuck to playing tab music. The extra effort in reading music was tedious. But to expand the repertoire of songs I could play, I began seriously viewing tutorials. Stripping the outcome from the experience, the tedium went away. Fingers and strings made sounds, and that’s all I needed to think about and enjoy.
Watching foreign TV shows is a great opportunity to write down vocabulary and grammar structures from subtitles. But watching the show takes twice, sometimes three times as long. I just want to find out if Suzy gets her revenge. When does learning hijack leisure? I asked myself, isn’t my recreational time sacred? But like going to a museum or touring a landmark, which I never questioned as both educational and recreational, I realized there were more opportunities to be killing two birds with one stone.
Being a novice at something is the start of growth. Not being a novice at anything is a good way to stay stagnant. People who want safety and comfort– what the learning process threatens– might pick up something and quickly lose interest when it gets difficult. So, to avoid this, enjoy feeling and being dumb.
People are smart, much more than they know.
And only a smart person would knowingly put themselves in situations where they would struggle or feel dumb. Continuously? This phase is just until you pass benchmarks of aptitude, then you get to really enjoy the subject that you’re mastering.
Pro Tip: One Battery Cycle Per One Rotation of the Earth Around the Sun
January — named for Janus, Roman god of beginnings and transitions — is either the coldest or warmest month depending on your hemisphere.
“What are your resolutions?” someone texts me.
“Goals or hopes?”
“Either.”
“I see.”
End of conversation because my phone dies. Only the sound outside my window reaches me.
Phone past one battery cycle/day = wasteful and counterproductive. For battery health, if you recharge before 20%, call it the end of the cycle and turn it off. There’s nothing more direct than “off.”
🌬 Tip: Startle the birds with laughter
Startle the birds with your laughter. Collect strange looks with HA HA HA.
Laughing, like crying, releases endorphins. We rarely express either in public — but laughter also goes missing in private. “Lol,” “kekeke,” “that’s funny,” we text, but it’s crickets in the house.
Perfectly good endorphins — wasted. So let it out: belly chortle, heart giggle, guttural laughter, wheezing.
Like the birds that will fly away with a start.
Pretty good 2020 winter holiday trends: 6–>0 ways to live an average life
6 crusty mugs and counting while you accrue stacks of reading material you’ll never get through?
Never say never. Start from any page, like page 5. Or toss the papers and read them in order of collection.
4 hours of sleep, twice a day!
Walking in the sunlight, walking in the wind or rain, and walking in the moonlight. Those are 3 types of walks to try at your own discretion.
All I can think of is twice, so do things twice. Unless it’s a bad thing, then spread it out over time. But not the payment button.
1 fat meal just after the sun leaves for the other side. 1 fancy foil covered trout shaped milk chocolate from fancy europe.
“0 inhibitions! ZERO.” and “don’t do anything you’ll regret…” 0 inhibitions + 0 regrets is a powerful approach.”
Noon Mul 