Appreciate Beauty

Today was pretty horrible.

A long drive home.
Traffic.
9 hours in the car.
With a 3 year old.
And two dogs.
And then the part where I accidentally left the back windows partially cracked during a carwash.

Good times.

Sigh.

But, there was a moment in the early afternoon, a quiet moment, that made my soul happy.

Driving through Georgia, near Augusta, there was a beautiful clearing. And hills in the distance. And a perfect soft blue sky with bright white gentle clouds. And this song popped into my head by the Weepies. It fit the moment perfectly:

"All this beauty;
You might have to close your eyes
And slowly open wide
All this beauty;
We traveled all night
We drank the ocean dry
And watched the sun rise..."

And we actually had that CD in the car...so I got to listen to it soon after.

All this beauty. Really, it's around us every day. I just need to close my eyes, and open them anew to see it sometimes. That one little moment of appreciating beauty was the saving grace of the day. (And then we did sparklers when we got home, which was pretty fun, too, but I was really exhausted, so it wasn't quite as moving!)




What song can pull you out of a funk? And what places, when you see them, can calm your spirit? There used to be this beautiful road where I grew up called Rocky Creek Drive, and it was just so gorgeous that my sister and I would go out of our way to drive on it. A real live happy place! Were we the only ones who had a place like that?

My Happiness Symbols

Yesterday, Gretchen Rubin (author of the great book The Happiness Project) posted her own "8 Auspicious Symbols" of her happiness project. For some reason, the symbols really resonated with me. I kept "seeing" her cow symbol (representing her family) throughout my work day today, and it made me want to figure out my own happiness symbols, so I could recall them and help guide my thoughts to my happiness project.

Anyway, here are my "8 Happiness Symbols" and the reasons behind them:

1. Birthday Candles - to remind me to celebrate traditions

2. Orthodox Cross - a reminder to live my priorities

3. Red Balloon - reminder to "let go"

4. Zig Zag Bridge - my happy place, a place of truly being in the moment

5. Teddy Bear - reminder to be gentle, with myself and others

6. Fish - my husband (his nickname was Fish back in the day)

7. Peacock - represents my daughter (named after Flannery O'Connor, who raised peafowl)

8. Oak Tree - representing family


Now perhaps when I'm driving in between clients, my own happiness symbols will flash into my head, and provide me with a little happiness inspiration.




What are some meaningful symbols in your life? I'm really interested to hear! (I mean it!)

Hold This Picture in Your Head

It snowed again! We made the biggest snowman on the block, as you can see. Actually, it was the only snowman on the block, can you believe it? As Flannery says, "We live in a snowy place now." So I guess the locals are bored by the snow and don't play in it like we Georgia natives do.

Today was a my-cup-runneth-over-with-happiness kind of day. We woke up to beautiful snow, had heart pancakes for breakfast, made a snowman, had cocoa, did art, I got to take a long hot bath, and then I went for a massage.

See? Cup overflowing. With marshmallowy chocolatey snowy relaxing happiness.

Anyway, what I wanted to write about today was visual images. I started thinking about this as I was getting my massage. I tried to do some mindfulness meditation while I was lying there getting massaged, but it was too complicated to try to focus on recognizing my thoughts while someone was kneading the tension out of my shoulders. So, I decided to try focusing on visualizing to increase my relaxation.

I learned about using visualizing for relaxation as an undergrad student in my Abnormal Psychology class. In class one day, we paired up with a friend, and while we took turns massaging one another's shoulders and necks, the instructor used guided imagery to help us relax. The instructor said that the more you visualized a certain scene while you were in a relaxing situation (ex: getting a massage, taking a warm long bath, etc.), the easier it would be later to just call upon the visual image to bring you the same feelings of relaxation. A little associative learning process.

So, back to the massage table. Me, lying with eyes closed, picturing people I love, places I love. Breathing. Trying to think of only the image in my mind and my breathing.

I'm sure the massage therapist thought I had fallen asleep or taken a heavy sedative before the session, because I'm generally a really chatty massage client. But I really didn't care what the therapist thought. I was getting my money's worth of relaxation!

And it really was one of the most relaxing massage sessions I've ever had. Which made my heart feel super happy. (Can you tell I've been watching Ni Hao Kai Lan a little too much?)




What pictures do you bring to mind to make you feel happy or peaceful?

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By the way, I've also been using visualizing during my daily prayer times (usually as I'm driving in my car) as a way to increase my attention and focus while I'm praying. I'll try to hold the picture of whoever I'm praying for in my head for the whole time I'm saying a prayer. It's really a lot harder than you'd think it would be! Try it! And let me know how it goes! (Unless it's super easy for you, in which case, you should really keep that to yourself so I don't feel like a weird inattentive crazy person. Which I am. But still.) ;)