Day 3080: Find your happy place

Even when your place has no air conditioning during a heat wave, it’s still possible to find your happy place.

This sign was at a happy place in our local shopping mall, where we were searching for a fan to make our place a cooler and therefore happy place:

How do you find your happy place? Is it inside yourself? Is it outside?

.

Can you find your happy place shopping at a mall?

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Can you find your happy place on social media?

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Sometimes you need to find your sad place before you can find your happy place.

Very soon, I’ll be finding my happy place when I have a ZOOM call this morning with my friend Megan, who is moving to a new happy place in Connecticut with her family.

Let’s see if the Daily Bitch can find her happy place.

This is what I find on YouTube when I try to find “find your happy place.”

I find my happy place through gratitude, so thanks to everyone who helps make this blogging place happier, including YOU.

Day 2577: Not dead

Yesterday, when I was not dead, I noticed this sign at a shopping mall surrounded by hundreds of not dead people:

If plaid were Mark Twain, it might have said that reports of its death had been greatly exaggerated (or, more accurately, that the report of its death was an exaggeration).

It’s good to know that plaid’s not dead, along with

• me,
• the other people at the mall,
• you, and
• hope.

Let’s see what’s not dead in my other photos from yesterday:

I mentioned in a recent not dead post that I’ve been playing Peggle on my phone,  so that I can remain not dead and self-soothed during anxious times. I’ve been stuck on Level 105 for MANY not dead days.  I always die on the second of three very difficult “battles” and have to start over again. Yesterday, while I was Peggling at the mall, I lived through the incredibly difficult Battle 2 of Level 105, much to my amazement.   After I paused the game and then wondered if my dying phone had lost my progress, I said to my dear and not dead husband Michael, “If my phone lost this and I have to start this level over again, I’ll kill myself.”

And I stopped and thought, “WHAT did I just say?  There’s no way I’d kill myself over Peggle!”

Even better, I realized, there’s no way I’d kill myself over anything.

When we got home, I told Michael I was going to try to complete Level 105 and if  I failed and died, “You’ll hear an unearthly moan of pain.” However, when I did die almost immediately  in the much easier third battle, I neither moaned nor cared. I was happy to restart Level 105 with a new life.

As I said to Michael, “Now that I know that it’s possible, I’m fine.”

Then Michael and I danced to this not dead song (living  here on YouTube):

Edwyn Collins, as of this writing, is not dead, although he is struggling to stay alive, according to the YouTube comments.

Now it’s time for my undying gratitude to all who help me create these not dead posts, including YOU!

Day 2541: Cares

Even though I’ve rarely used the word “therapy” in a blog title, I’ve often used the word “care” (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).

Does that mean I care too much? Or have too many cares? I’m not sure, but I do care to tell you that I just woke up from a dream where I said the word “kill” (as in “Did that make you want to kill them?”) which was overheard by somebody I knew, who then dropped to the floor  in obvious emotional pain and crawled laboriously away (like a snake) down a hallway,  as her husband told me not to care about her reaction. He said, “This happens and she’s just going somewhere to pull herself together.”

I care what you make of that dream.

Care occurs twice in my photos from yesterday. Do you care to see them?

 

Do you care that I put little “easter eggs” in this blog for my caring fiancé, Michael, who sometimes reads this blog?  For example, this …

… is a reference to our first exchange over the internet, almost ten years ago, when we discussed our shared dislike for beets.  And yesterday’s video stars somebody singing “meow, meow, meow” for lyrics, which Michael does a lot, including here:

What do YOU care about, here and now?

I care about getting to work on time, so I’ll quickly end this post with care.

 

Day 2359: Self-Transformation

Yesterday, when I was having another day of self-transformation at the enormous South Shore Plaza mall accompanied by my boyfriend Michael and my son Aaron, I saw this:

And, as usual, everything else I saw spoke to me of Self-Transformation.

Those last four self-transformation images show Aaron’s father’s large-format camera and his transforming photographs of our self-transforming son.

Self-transformation can come in many forms, including

• books,
• beliefs,
• being in the moment,
• blogging, and
• those are just the b’s!

Here‘s “Self Transformation” music which has transformed a grand total of three people on YouTube:

Aaron Doughty has posted this “Higher-Self Transformation Meditation that will change your life forever…” on YouTube:

Now I have to go to work and help people with self-transformation through therapy.

Feel free to practice self-transformation in a comment, below.

Self-transforming gratitude to all those who helped me create today’s self-transformation post and — of course — to YOU.

Day 2134: _____ your way to good health

Last night, as I was window-shopping my way to good health, I saw this sign:

As I read my way to good health, I thought, “I haven’t gotten eight hours of sleep for decades!”  But I didn’t want to worry my way to bad health about that.

Instead, I figured I would blog my way to good health today by filling in the blank of “______ your way to good health” in other ways, including:

• Walk
• Talk
• Hope
• Vote
• Think
• Feel
• Share
• Create
• Smile
• Laugh
• Cry
• Eat
• Drink
• Sing
• Dance
• Write
• Read
• Work
• Rest
• Socialize
• Meditate
• Exercise
• Watch
• Participate
• Accept
• Change
• Move
• Love
• Live
• Imagine
• Express
• Act
• Believe
• Picture

Do you see ways to good health in my other pictures from yesterday?

As I watch my back,  I DO want to know how you’d fill in the blank of  “_____ your way to good health.”

Watch your way to good health with these two videos (here and here on YouTube):

Please comment your way to good health, below.

It’s time for me to thank my way to good health, so here’s gratitude for all who helped me create today’s post and for YOU.

 

Day 2093: Holy crap!

What do you say when you read the news lately?

“Holy crap” seems as good a response as any. Maybe that’s why it’s on a greeting card.

Holy crap! That card is a staff pick? Even though the staff at our local supermarket is too busy with other crap to have time to pick out cards?

Do any of my other photos from yesterday make you say, “Holy crap!”?

Holy crap! I saw such a beautiful sunset last night.

Holy crap! There’s so much “Holy crap” on YouTube today.

Holy crap! People actually have the last name “Chimera”?

I look forward to whatever holy and unholy comments I get for this blog, which I’ve been creating for — Holy crap! — almost 69 months.

Holy thanks to all who wholly helped me create today’s “Holy crap!” post and — of course! — YOU.

Day 2016: How to be more awesome

Yesterday, as I was on my way to pick up my new and more awesome laptop, I saw this:

How can we be more awesome, besides by buying new things?  There are two sides to my awesome suggestion:

1. Realize you are awesome to begin with.
2. Treat everyone you meet as if they were awesome too.

There are probably more ways to be more awesome, but I need to share my latest awesome photos so I can get to my awesome job in awesome time.

 

 

 

 

Those awesome people are Mark (the genius at the Apple Store who made my new laptop be more awesome with a total data transfer two days ahead of schedule), Megan, Corinne, and our late friend Michelle — whose awesome birthday is today and who helped everybody she met be more awesome.  At the awesome memorial/celebration party for Michelle yesterday,  we heard the song she thought was more awesome than any other song:

Being alive is more awesome with all the awesome people in the world.

More awesome thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to awesome YOU.

Day 2015: There are two sides to every adventure

Yesterday, when I was having adventures, I saw this:

Last night, there were two sides to my adventures with my non-responsive laptop at the Apple Store. On one side of the store, we met the multi-sided Apple Genius Niko (who writes children’s adventure books on the side).

Niko is showing us his smiling side there. When he looked at my well-worn laptop (which has been by my side for years of blogging adventures), he showed his concerned and worried side. When I told him that my son and I had likely accidentally switched our look-alike chargers, he said the higher wattage of my son’s charger might have been too adventurous and powerful for the charging side of my little laptop.

Here’s the side of my son’s charger:

Here’s the side of my laptop’s charger:

Watt a difference 15 watts can make. The adventures of my little laptop are over. On the one side, I’m going to miss that little adventurous laptop. On the other side, I’m getting a new, faster blogging machine on the other side of two days.

When I was having adventures on two sides of Boston’s Downtown Crossing yesterday, I recorded two musical performances with my adventurous iPhone:

There are at least two sides to every photo I share here:

I’m always having a nice day when I can express thanks to all who help me create this blog and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 2008: I’d rather be _________

How would you complete today’s blog title? Charlotte Beers  — “one of the few females to run a major ad agency’ —  has completed that sentence like so:

As one of the females to run a minor ad agency, I like to complete that sentence with whatever I am doing, in the moment.  Therefore, right now, I’d rather be blogging.  When I am facilitating groups, I sometimes tell the group members “There is nothing I’d rather be doing than this.”

As of today, July 1, 2018, I’d rather be president of the Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy.

Right now, I’d rather be sharing all these photos I took yesterday:

 

Now I’d rather be introducing you to Ray Blair …

… who was selling Yamaha pianos at a South Shore mall yesterday. Ray used to be the Dean of a local college; now he’d rather be sharing his passion for music.  Yesterday we both shared our original music with each other.

Now, I’d rather be re-sharing my first original song here at WordPress:

Finally, I’d rather be expressing thanks to all who helped me create today’s blog post and — of course! — to YOU.

 

 

 

 

Day 1975: How we make each other feel

How do you make others feel?  How do others make you feel?

How does this sign make you feel?

Actually, I feel like we (humans and, perhaps, pizzas) are all responsible for our own feelings.  In other words, nobody can really “make” someone else feel anything. (Although we can make pizza.)   Our feelings are our own — we can’t blame others for how we feel. However, people affect each other’s feelings, in many ways.

So, if you feel

• inadequate,
• sure,

• welcome,

• unwelcome,

 

• peaceful,

• good,

• coerced,

• threatened or any other feeling, ask yourself some questions.

Who might be affecting me? What am I feeling?  Why?  Do I wear those feelings well or are those feelings wearing me out?  What can I do about this?

Yesterday, Tim

at the Apple Genius Bar

affected my feelings and my son’s feelings very positively.  While Tim didn’t make me feel like a genius, he was a genius at his job.  Naturally, I made my positive feelings known to Tim and to Tim’s manager.

Speaking of naturally, here‘s Aretha Franklin telling everybody how she feels in 2015:

Feel free to express any feelings you have in a comment, below.

As always, I feel very grateful to all who helped me create this post and — of course! — to YOU.