Day 3088: What emotion do you have the most trouble expressing?

Most people have trouble expressing at least one emotion, so I had no trouble asking today’s title question on Twitter.

Other people expressed trouble expressing affection, vulnerability, joy, disappointment, and other emotions. I had no trouble expressing that they were not alone.

I have no trouble expressing my belief that it is healing to own all your emotions and to learn effective ways to express them. I also have no trouble expressing my happiness about my son Aaron’s return from Scotland to Boston today!

Can you see the emotions expressed in the rest of today’s images?

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What emotion do you have the most trouble expressing?

Here’s what I find when I search YouTube for “what emotion do you have the most trouble expressing”:

I have no trouble expressing my hope that you’ll watch “Emotional Mastery: The Gifted Wisdom of Unpleasant Emotions,” the TED talk by Dr. Joan Rosenberg.

Finally, I have no trouble expressing this emotion: my gratitude for all who help me express my emotions in these daily posts, including YOU!

Day 2869: Dancing in the streets!

Yesterday, after Joe Biden was finally projected to be the next President of the United States, there was dancing in the streets!

While there was dancing in the streets all around the world, I took these photos on a gorgeous day:

Michael didn’t dance in the streets with my friend Barbara and me, but he danced in his own way yesterday.

I’m looking forward to many more days of dancing in the streets (which I do when I listen to music, no matter what day it is). There’s sure to be a lot more hope and joy in my street dancing now.

Thanks to Barbara, Michael, everybody dancing in the streets, and YOU!

Day 2181: How to accept personal comments

How do you accept personal comments — compliments or criticism?

As we approach the end of 2018, I’m resolving to accept all personal comments the same way.

With gratitude and joy.

I’m not saying that accepting personal  comments with gratitude and joy will be easy.  Compliments and criticism can be very difficult to accept, for different reasons.

Therefore, I shall now practice this new resolution, as I imagine all sorts of people giving me personal comments.

 

 

As I embrace the preciousness of this moment, I believe accepting personal comments with gratitude and joy will be good for my self care and for the care of others.

Also, it helps me to remember that personal comments are often the reflection of the person making the comment. In other words, it’s nothing personal.

I look forward to your personal comments on this post.

As always, I’m joyfully and personally grateful to all those who helped me create today’s post and to every person who visits this blog, including YOU.

 

Day 1720: Walk this way

Walk this way, please, to see what I saw when I was walking this way yesterday.

Whenever I see “walk this way,” I’m distracted this way:

I’m also thinking this way about “walk this way” this morning:

• No matter which way you walk, that way will hold surprises,
• It’s great to walk with good people along your way,
• Try to walk this way with soul, joy, and authenticity, and
• I snap photos as I walk this way.

What brings you joy as you walk this way?

Walk this way to today’s musical selection:

Please walk this way

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to leave a comment your way.

I’d  like to thank people who help me create these posts and you (of course!) this way.

Day 284: We never know how we affect people (The Ta-Da Pose)

I think, within the last 283 days,  I wrote another blog post about this:

We never know how we affect people

However,  I can’t locate that post right now.

But that’s not really important. Here’s what I wanted to write about, today.

Many years ago, I was driving alone at night, feeling low and discouraged about something.

I can’t remember what the hell I was feeling bad about, now.  (Isn’t that usually the way it works?  Problems that seem so important at the time often fade away, as time passes,  to nothing.)

I remember I was about to exit a supermarket parking lot, and I was waiting for a pedestrian to walk by.

I remember that pedestrian, quite well.  I wish I had a picture of him that I could share with you.

But I don’t.

Let’s see if I can capture and convey the experience to you.

I think the guy was wearing something unusual. I don’t have a great visual memory, so I can’t tell you what kind of clothing he had. But I think it was casual.  Maybe it was colorful.

He wasn’t  a serious, conventional business person. I know that. He looked like a “free spirit.” Again, my visual memory, for details, is fuzzy.

Here’s what I do remember clearly. As he crossed in front of my car, he caught my eye.

And without missing a beat, he made a “Ta-Da!” gesture.  That is, he stopped, smiled, put his arms out, and maybe even jumped a little, as if he was hearing, or making, a silent, triumphant trumpet noise.

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(Just for fun,  I’m going to Google-Image “Ta Da Pose” and see what I get.  Amazing!  Here’s the first thing that comes up:

Here’s another one, with eye contact:

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That night, after the guy struck that Ta Da Pose ever-so-briefly,  he moved on.

I remember smiling back, then. Maybe I even laughed a little. (I’m not sure, because I was, after all, feeling very down.)

But I do remember this: I drove away, after this brief encounter, feeling changed.  Feeling better.

And to this day, when I am walking down the street, feeling and showing joy, I often think about that guy I met, many years ago.

He made a difference to me.

And who knows?  Maybe I sometimes make a difference like that, too.

Thanks to that guy, Endorphin Dude,  pose-strikers everywhere, and to you, of course, for reading today.

Day 189: Something lifted (and movie medicine)

Yesterday, I wrote what felt like a VIP (Very Important Post).

It included a story I’ve been meaning to — perhaps yearning to —  tell, about my mother and her death.

Writing it definitely released something.

Including tears. Tears when I wrote it and tears, again, when I read the post several times throughout the day.

And yesterday, dread and anxiety left the room.

Last night, my bf, my son and I watched a movie I’ve seen only once before.  I’m not sure why I haven’t watched it more, since I LOVED it when I first saw it in the ’80s, when I was in Film School.

Here’s the film:

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Certain films, for me, are pure pleasure.  “Adam’s Rib” is one of them.

What I’d like to do, today, is name some more movies like that, for me.

My Year of Blogging Daily is half over, so it’s about time I did a Top 10 List, y’know?

Each one of these movies has been a kind of “personal medicine” for me, at some point of my life.  They’ve all given me hours of amazement and joy, and I love them all.

Here they are, alphabetically:

While it was REALLY tough to stop at 10, I think that list is good enough, for now.

Thanks for reading today. And feel free to share movies that are personal medicine, for you.

Day 170: Kicking it to work

Two days ago, I wrote about a dream I had about dancing, which included my doing some very amazing kicks.

I’ve also written posts about letting go of self-consciousness this year, as I’ve been singing out loud — and even dancing a little —  while listening to music in public. Nothing too outrageous, mind you. But it’s been freeing to realize that other people don’t notice, so much, if I  vocalize or step out a little.

Yesterday morning was a particularly beautiful day. I had some extra time for my walk to work, so I took my detour, along the banks of a little river.

Some pret-ty danceable music kept playing in my headphones on the way.  I really wanted to get into it, dancing-wise, more exuberantly than I ever had before in public —  but I still felt a little self conscious about this.  Luckily, while “It Keeps You Running” by the Doobie Brothers was playing, the coast was pretty clear in front of me (everybody was facing away):

And nobody was there, in back of me:

So I had no compunction, at all, in doing some dance moves.

I really started to get into it, doing some side steps, some kicks,  and even a grapevine or two. I had memories of dancing in my basement to musicals, when I was a kid.

I passed some geese, but they didn’t seem to care.

Geese to the right of me, geese to the left of me, all indifferent to my moves.

Then, as Michael Franks’s bouncy tune “Eggplant” started playing in my headphones, I noticed a lot of human traffic ahead.

Oh, no! I thought. I guess I’ll have to cut back on my kicking when I get close to that heavily trafficked bridge.

However, by the time I crossed that bridge, nobody else was on it. Also, the view from the bridge was nice enough to distract anybody away from my antics:

Lots of beautiful distraction, everywhere:

And when I got to the other side, the surrounding population was sparse again, making it easy to kick it, without concern.

I had so much fun walking/dancing to “Eggplant” as I continued along.

While there were waves of people moving by, they were  always in the distance and not looking in my direction.  They were focused on getting to work (or wherever else they were heading).

Then, when I reached this point in my walk …

I realized that, in order to get to work on time, I had to keep moving  forwards — deliberately, consistently, and quickly. In other words, I had to stop sashaying and really start hoofing it. One of my favorite tunes of all time, “Hard Eights” by Lyle Mays, kicked in right then. Now, THAT’s a song that always energizes and propels me.

So, I flew to work, keeping pace with the music, and with some delight on my face.  On my way, there were lots of people on the sidewalk to weave around.

Which I did, with a modicum of grace. (At least, no collisions.) I got to work in plenty of time, too.

Thanks for steppin’ along side with me today.

And, if you want to check out “Eggplant” (perhaps for a little personal kicking),  here it is:

Day 125: Feelings, briefly

I am writing this post in the evening of a day where I experienced a range of emotions, including:

1. Joy, because I reunited with a childhood friend who is writing a wonderful blog here (and was at least partially inspired by this blog) AND
2. Disappointment, because I realized that my fantasy of giving a “big” presentation in June might not turn out as I wished.

There were lots of other feelings I experienced today, but those are the ones that are standing out for me right now.

Boy, feelings can really get things going, can’t they?  And I don’t know about you, but I am more comfortable with joy than I am with disappointment.

But all the feelings of this day passed through me, just like weather moves through our atmosphere.

Which is great, because now I can be totally present in this moment, and do what I really want to do:

Post a goofy picture.

I took this photo last week, when I was driving through Watertown, MA, a town that has been in the news lately. I saw this Giant Tooth jumping around, apparently trying to sell something. When I pulled over to get a photo of him/her/it, I got two thumbs up.

We both had big smiles, then.

Thanks for reading!