Day 2341: Life is a beautiful ride

Life is a beautiful ride, even in April 2019.

Life is a beautiful ride, as I’m reading all that’s around me.

Life is a beautiful ride, especially if

• I avoid the news and
• we rise up and tip the scale toward justice.

What makes life a beautiful ride for you?

Here’s “Beautiful Ride” performed by John C. Reilly as Dewey Cox from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

Life is an even more beautiful ride with participation and with gratitude, so please comment below AND accept my thanks (to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU).

Day 2278: Stress balls

What are stress balls?  Are they squishy balls that you can squeeze when you’re stressed?

Are they creatures who are feeling lots of stress?

Harley does not look like a stress ball in that photo, but usually he stresses and runs away when I try to take a picture of him.

Even stress balls, like Harley, can relax at times.

I’m a stress ball today because I have to do many things (including giving a presentation about my therapy groups, singing songs in meetings,  running a board meeting, preparing for a trip to L.A., planning a dinner in L.A., and more) all while dealing with a bout of insomnia and some ambivalence about possible choices.

What helps when you’re a stress ball, besides squeezing a stress ball? My niece Julie, of The Joy Source, suggests changing the words “have to” (see previous paragraph) to “get to.” So, it’s not that I have to do many thing (including giving a presentation, etc.) , it’s that I get to do many things (including giving a presentation, etc.).  That shifts me from being a stress ball about too many obligations to being grateful about having the opportunity to do all those things, connecting me with confidence in my skills to get things done adequately enough.

I don’t have to share my other photos from yesterday, but I’m glad I get to share them with you.

Here‘s what YouTube gives me for “stress ball song”:

 

Somehow, I’m not a stress ball any more.

What helps you be less of a stress ball?

Thanks to all who helped me stress less by stressing all the things I stressed in this “stress balls” post and — of course! — YOU.

 

 

Day 2256: Heartbreak to Happiness

Yesterday, I went from heartbreak (about my wonderful, trusted, and long-time cardiologist Dr. Mark Estes leaving Boston) to happiness about the kindness, caring, commitment, and competency of my new cardiologist, Dr. Munther Homoud.

While I was waiting to see Dr. Homoud for the first time, I noticed all this:

 

 

 

I’ve gone from heartbreak to happiness about my unusual congenital heart disorder many, many times during my almost sixty-six years on this planet.   At this point, after a miraculous and happy time when my heart reverted to a normal rhythm after my valve replacement surgery in 2016, my heart is back in atrial fibrillation for the rest of my life.  I have no heartbreak about that, only happiness because of my caring and committed team of cardiologists.

Do you see any paths from heartbreak to happiness in my other photos from yesterday?

 

 

My boyfriend Michael (who makes my heart happy  with his nutritious, delicious, low-salt home-cooked meals) helps me go from heartbreak to happiness, every day.  Last night, after a  typical heartbreak-to-happiness-to-heartbreak-to-happiness day, we danced to this:

What helps you go from heartbreak to happiness? For me, gratitude always helps.

 

Day 1984: 1984

1984 is:

• the number of today’s blog post,
• the title of today’s blog post,
• a 1949 book by George Orwell about a dystopian future,
• something I mentioned to Michael yesterday: “It seems more and more like 1984 every day,” and
• the subject of a Wikipedia entry  that includes this quote:

The introduction to the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt edition of Animal Farm and 1984 (2003) reports that the title 1984 was chosen simply as an inversion of the year 1948, the year in which it was being completed, and that the date was meant to give an immediacy and urgency to the menace of totalitarian rule.

What are your associations with 1984?

I don’t have 1984 photos to share, but I do have these:

 

What is the porpoise of this blog post?  I believe we have to purposely guard against the kind of totalitarianism George Orwell wrote about in 1984.

Here‘s 1984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four) — Thug Notes Summary and Analysis:

I hope you speak your truth, below.

This is the 1984th time I’ve expressed gratitude here at WordPress:

 

Day 1878: What does P.T. stand for?

P.T. stands for Physical Therapy for Partially Torn rotator cuffs, like mine.

P.T. also stands for the Painkiller Tramadol, Perhaps Taken Prior to Therapy Proceeding Today.

What else does P.T. stand for?

Photos Taken!

Psychotherapy Themes, Projected Thusly:

Positive Therapy:

Podiatric Therapy:

Posted Tips:

Perfectionism Tempered:

Panoramic Tableau:

Prepared Treats for Pescatarian Tastes:

P.T. also stands for President Trump and Piano Tickler Paul Tobey Playing This Peanuts Theme.

Personal Thoughts?  Please Transcribe.

Passionate Thanks to Paul Tobey and Primarily To People Taking Precious Time to Perceptively Try this P.T. Post Today (including YOU).

Day 1822: How to have fewer regrets

Yesterday, I saw this:

I didn’t write down the tips from that New York Times Magazine article, but I have no regrets about that.

I remember that  the article said regret is the second most common human emotion.  I have no regrets about that, either.

I’ve linked to the same blog post about regrets three times in this post, and I have no regrets about that.

 

Here’s one way to have fewer regrets: decide not to have them.

Another way to have fewer regrets is to spend time with people you love.

 

I have no regrets about my other photos from yesterday.

 

Think seriously and think honestly  about how to have fewer regrets.

I have no regrets about finding and sharing this YouTube video about how to have fewer regrets:

 

One more way to have fewer regrets:  Express appreciation whenever you can.

 

Day 1773: Regrets

Even though I talk to people about regrets at work, I have never written a blog post with “regrets” in the title. I guess you could say this (almost) five-year-old daily blog has no regrets.

At work — where I practice individual therapy, group therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Narrative Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing —  I invite people to let go of regrets, because regrets are about past actions (or inactions) and we cannot change the past.

In the spirit of the late Peter Sellers — who said that the only regret he had in life was seeing the movie The Magus –– the only regret I have, here and now,  is installing the latest Apple update on my iPhone.  Considering how long I’ve lived, only one regret is pretty good.

I have no regrets about the photos I took yesterday.

Here’s a Cole Porter tune about regrets, sung by the great Ethel Waters:

Any regrets?  There’s room for them (and anything else) in the comments section below.

Miss Koplow regrets she’s unable to share a new photo expressing her thanks to all who helped her create this post and — of course! — to you. She lets go of that regret by sharing an old photo.