Tag Archives: happiness

You made the pretty pictures … now what?

by Liz on January 24, 2011 in action, create, dreaming, now, power

In my last post I showed you the visual montage I created of my Life Dreaming for 2011.

I’ve had some lovely feedback from people and I love looking at it every time I open my computer and see it on the desktop.

It makes my LD’s visible.

Now my fabulous and truly wonderful readers … if that’s all I do with the montage then I’m wasting my time.

Yes … it helps me to see what I want to do and be.

Yes … it acts as an energiser for my ‘E’ factors.

Nope … by itself it sure ain’t going to make the dreams happen.

Now what?

Let me take one of the images as a real example of what I’ve been trying to do.

Restart Tai Chi

About 20 years ago I learnt tai chi 1 to 1 on a beach once a week for about 6 weeks.

Loved it.

On January 3 this year as part of an LD activity I listed a few things I wanted to reclaim from my younger years – tai chi was one of them.

So far so good.

I didn’t expect a tai chi instructor to turn up at my door [don't get me started on Luck] … I need to make it happen.

A few constraints  seriously hampered my search for a class:

  • It needs to be in Dublin City centre so I can access it using public transport
  • It needs to happen during the day [preferably morning] as I don’t want to travel after dark

I did a good old Google search and also left a note on my Facebook page asking people to recommend Tai Chi classes.

Guess what?

Most of them are at night and out in the suburbs.

Time to give up?

Well folks, that depends on how much this LD means to me … and it appears  it means a lot. Nothing like a teeny bit of adversity to test whether something is really important in my life.

I did another search tonight and found a woman who is running a 6 week course in Dublin city centre at 10am … perfect says you … not totally says I.

It’s on Sunday’s and starts this week.

My inner self talk starts going like this ….

” Lizzy Lizzy … Sunday is your lolling day  … Sunday is too hard … it’s too soon … where will I get the 80 euro … what will I wear … wait until there’s a course starting later … blah blah blah blah”

I decided it was time to GOYA [get off your arse] and make a commitment to action …to  fulfil the promise I made to myself to connect with activities that I loved doing years ago.

I emailed the contact person and booked myself in … and for the next 6 weeks I’ll be getting up at around 8am on Sundays and reconnecting with taichi … reconnecting to the joy I used to feel when I did the different taichi movements and felt time flow in different ways … felt my spirit and body and mind and heart all just relax and ease into a kind of bliss.

It’ll be worth getting up early to feel that good … it’ll be worth the money … it’ll be worth the effort … it’ll be worth the commitment.

Dear reader … living the life you want to live means making yourself act … taking the necessary steps [and stumbles] to make the dream a reality.

I took a reasonably easy LD and I’ve made it a reality … and that gives me the resolve and confidence to tackle the biggies … moving to Bali and launching the Life Dreaming Expedition.

I feel really happy  because I’m keeping promises I made to myself … I’m not just talking … I’m doing.

Life Dreaming Activity

Is there a reasonably simple LD that you have made and can make a reality before the end of January? What’s the next step … information … research … action?

Resolve and commit to taking the next step.

If you found this useful then Share away with your friends by pressing the Like button. I’d also love to hear what your next step might be … leave a comment.

Comments ( 1 )

Is It Better to be Apathetic or Anxious?

by creativespark on December 16, 2010 in action, attitude, create, happiness

I posted this for Life Dreaming a while ago on my personal blog, before we had this website set up. But thanks to some fab comments from Maria and Mary on my previous post about busy-ness, it popped back into my mind again. So, excuse my laziness, but I thought I’d repost it as a followup to the last one.

=) Marc

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the retired head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago, has published a lot of work related to happiness and creativity, but he’s most famous for ‘Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience’, where he presented his research of the theory that people are most happy when they are in a state of flow. It’s the same concept as Sir Ken Robinson’s “being in your element”.

Where Sir Ken is the compassionate, politically aware social scientist, Dr Csikszentmihalyi is very much the hard-data research geek. Here’s what many, many years of study reveal:

There’s a lot to love about this visualisation. It shows that it’s quite easy to be “comfortable”. Most zones are some kind of comfort zone. It’s only when skills are low and challenges are medium or high that anxiety sets in. Following movements around the graph has got me thinking about a number of things.

In 2004 Dr Csikszentmihalyi gave a talk at Ted, Creativity, Fulfillment and Flow, and he opened with the observation that most adults find it hard to cope with hardship and tragedy. It seems to me, looking at the graph, that what is happening is that a sharp, dramatic rise in challenges immediately puts you into a worry or anxiety zone. This seems especially topical and relevant now, when so many people are feeling that spike. The good news, I think, is that if you can find the coping mechanisms (skills), it can be an opportunity to move through arousal to find your flow.

And no-one wants to feel apathetic or bored, but that’s what’s likely if you don’t challenge yourself or work on the development of your own skills.

So, if you look at flow as being the “happiness zone”, how do you know if you’re on the right track? Dr Csikszentmihalyi has found 7 factors that hint that you’re in the zone:

1. You’re completely involved in what you’re doing, focused, concentrated
2. You feel a sense of ecstacy
3. You experience great inner clarity, knowing what needs to be done and how you are doing
4. You know that the activity is doable
5. You have a sense of serenity, a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of ego
6. There’s timelessness, you’re thoroughly focused on the present and hours seem to go by in minutes
7. Your motivation is intrinsic, the activities producing the flow are their own rewar

ps. If you’re not familiar with Sir Ken Robinson’s work on being in your element, take a look at this great talk.

I think there’s lots to think about in this model. What I’m wondering is… do you think we need a mix of Relaxation, Control and Flow modes in our life to make us happy? Or could we be equally happy with all-Relaxation or all-Flow?

Comments ( 2 )

Life Dreaming … Are you Happy yet?

by Liz on September 14, 2010 in attitude, belief, choice, dreaming, happiness, now, power

I’ve had times in my life when I’ve said to myself … when ‘x’ happens … then I’ll be happy.

alone

[kay nielson - in the midst of the gloomy wood]

When I:

  • lose weight
  • earn more money
  • have no debts
  • start that new business
  • exercise more
  • find that person who will be my soulmate

Thankfully, I say that less and less in my life these days.

Why?

Because I choose to be creative, content and bloody grateful every single day … regardless of my circumstances.

I’ve written before about a quote I read when I was 30 or 31 by a guy called Victor Frankl. He wrote an amazing book called Man’s Search for Meaning and one quote in particular changed my life

Everything can be taken from you but one thing: the last of the human freedoms … to choose your attitude in any given set of circumstances. To choose one’s own way. 1959.

Let me put that quote and the man in some perspective for you.

He wrote this book after he had spent many years in a nazi concentration camp … where everything is taken from you. He decided that we all have the power to create meaning in our lives regardless of how bad [or good] our external circumstances look.

That quote shifted the axis of my world when I was 30 and has been at the core of me ever since.

In 2008 and 2009 I experienced the cutting edge of the recession here in Ireland … nothing like being a trailblazer!

The clients I worked with in the non profit charity sector had their budgets decimated and they couldn’t hire me.

In those 2 years my income nearly disappeared … money was really really tight. In 2009 I couldn’t pay my rent for many months and heating the house in the winter was difficult.

I sound a little like the match stick girl in the snow … but I wasn’t.

When I saw what was happening I knew I would find ways to cut back, create new revenue, find ways to stay warm and eat … I see myself as very resilient and able to deal with the shit when it happens. And I asked and received different kinds of help and support in that time.

That wasn’t the core thing I did to thrive [notice I didn't say just survive] in those challenging times.

I sat myself down and had a chat with myself and this is kind of how it went …

(more…)

Comments ( 1 )