Monthly Archives: May 2013

The importance of pizza and other daily dilemmas

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Advice, Chocolate yeah!, Freedom

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How important is it to eat pizza?  Or chocolate, or any of the other junk food that you are craving?
Well, that all depends on whether you’re looking for a physical, psychological or spiritual answer.
Generally if you crave foods, your body is telling you something.  If you want a really good biological explanation for the craving, you could say that your body is deficient in some “nutrient” and that is why you are having cravings.  So you want pizza because you need carbohydrates, needing chocolate means that you’re low on serotonin levels.  Chilli? You need endorphins to make you feel happy…. Sugar? You’re probably low on energy and your blood sugar levels may even be low.

I could probably go on but there is no need to.  Cravings are more likely to be psychological.  You want to eat something because it makes you feel better.  It fills the psychological hole of emptiness, despair, loneliness, frustration or anger and makes you feel better for that moment.  And yet, I have never met a person who craves lettuce when they are stressed.  (If you are that person, let me know). I actually do crave salad sometimes but it is not really the salad but rather the dressing and the fancy toppings (not the lettuce) that I want!

I prefer the “spiritual” reason.  I want pizza because it makes me happy.  I want pizza because.. I want pizza.  I want to eat with my hands and watch the cheese pull into strings off the tomato-ey base.  I want something that I didn’t cook.  I want an evening off with no cooking and cleaning duties.  I want to dream of Italy.  I want to be more passionate….

Is pizza, chocolate or any other junk food good for us? No!  Is it important to sometimes just do something purely for pleasure? Yes!  Definitely!
Life shouldn’t always have to be serious, or healthy.  We shouldn’t have to have valid, scientifically proven reasons for everything that we do.
My favourite quote about pizza is from the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  It goes like this:
“I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return. I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair.”

Maybe we should all begin having an affair with life.  Loving and appreciating the things that we do, loving the blessings that we have in abundance but that we forget to notice because we take life too seriously.
Go out and (sorry Nike) just do it!

Random acts of happiness and gratitude

29 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in Gratitude, Positivity, Projects

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Inspired by the great Happsters and their Happy note a day challenge – www.happsters.com – I decided to start a new project this week.

I made thank you cards and decided to distribute them (with a lollipop) to people that I thought really deserved them – people who did great jobs but often don’t get acknowledged or even noticed for the work that they do.

blog pics 001I gave them to cleaners and security guards. I gave them to nurses, policemen and receptionists.

The response was really great and some people were so touched that they were being recognised (and who doesn’t like some positive feedback with a little gift added?)

blog pics 002The added benefit for me, and one that I didn’t even count on, was the effect that it had on me! Firstly, it feels good to give and to make somebody’s day. But more importantly for me, I am not a fan of Mondays so I decided to start my project on a Monday morning. I had something to look forward to – a new project to get my week going instead of the usual Monday routine.

Ultimately it was so, so worth it and I am certainly going to continue – so smile at me and you may just find yourself a recipient of my happiness and gratitude gift!

Who are you teaching?

23 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Advice, Life Lessons, Mindfulness

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I was really blessed to work with somebody a few weeks ago who became my “teacher”.  I was meant to be his “teacher” (therapist) and he was psychotic but his insights and small teachings were so valuable (even though most of them came from the quotes printed on sugar packets).

This particular person was watching me trying to convince people that they needed to attend therapy and I was fighting a losing battle with some of those people.  He noticed that I was getting stressed and he pulled me aside and said “When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear!”  ~ Buddha

And he was so right!  About the concept but not about the quote because apparently Buddha didn’t say anything of the sort. (www.fakebuddhaquotes.com) – an interesting site to visit by the way. Fake or real, it doesn’t really matter because it is the truth.  It is something that is really worth remembering and embracing.

How much time do we spend trying to fight with people to get them to listen to us?  You know that you are fighting a losing battle but you continue to do it because you know that you are right (or you think that you are right) and you want people to hear you.  You want to help people.  You may have amazing things to share, you may want people to understand you and all your wonderous teachings and experiences but…. they may not be in the right space to listen!

People will only listen and will only change when they are ready.

Don’t take it personally because it is not about you!  Let them go, let it go and when they are ready, they will listen.  But you can’t make them ready.

If you have something that you really feel that you need to share, just do that something quietly, live with truth and value and you will positively influence those people who are ready for it!  Those people that are not ready will learn in their own time – you may not be their teacher.  When you realise this, you start to live with more peace.

 

Making a difference

17 Friday May 2013

Posted by in Change, Freedom, Gratitude

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This week I took two days off work because it was a Jewish holiday.
The first day was really great and I relaxed and ate a lot of cheesecake (recipe to follow) and ice cream with hot chocolate sauce (the ultimate in ice cream eating, in my opinion).
On the second day, I woke up feeling anxious because I had time to think too much – time to think about my life.
There is no doubt in my mind that I am blessed with many things and I have an amazing job that I really enjoy but….
BUT!
There always seems to be a but.
But life is boring – it is about work and family responsibilities and more work and more responsibilities.
And if I think too much about it, I have this need to run away from it all.
I fantasize about living in a hut on a beach with no responsibilities and no cares.  Nothing to do except catch a fish for my dinner and stare at the beautiful view.
Then reality hits and I realise that unless I get a billionaire to sponsor my lifestyle, this really isn’t going to happen.
And more importantly, knowing myself, I would probably manage for a few days (and possibly even a few hours) before I got bored and wished that I was back in the rat race.

What worries me is that whenever I tell anyone how I feel, the majority of people that I speak to feel the same way.
All living these lives of routine and responsibility and all wishing that we could get away from it all.
So here is the good news:
You can!
It may not be about living on a tropical island (where truthfully, your little hut may blow over in a tropical storm) but it is about bringing change and difference to your life.
It may be as simple as just doing something different each day – like eating your lunch in a different place (step away from that desk!).
Think about volunteering somewhere to do something that is going to make you feel like you are contributing with purpose.
Do something exciting in the evenings instead of just sitting in front of the TV.
Treat yourself to a massage.
Change your hair colour.
The options are endless.

My challenge to you this week is to find something different to do, and commit to it.
You deserve this!

Listen graciously

09 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Advice, Attitude, Fear, Life Lessons

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This week, I had the honour of having a lunch date with my 9 year old son (instead of me being at work and him being at school).

He sat across the table from me and asked me what I would like to have in life– so I explained a few things to him.  He then asked me what I was afraid of, what was holding me back.  So I replied, using concepts that I thought he could easily understand, that I fear rejection. He then said to me that my fears are all about the unknown and that I always presume the worst when I should expect the best!

 Profound words from a 9 year old, and yes I think my son is a genius (of course I should, I am his mother!).  Truthfully though, most kids have amazing advice and have ways of seeing the world that we often don’t. That is because they have less fear, they have less experience of what could go wrong so they don’t see the world in the jaded way that adults do.  They trust their instincts.

But because we are adults, and they are kids, we think that we know better than them.  And we do all the talking, and sometimes shouting, and very little of the listening.

To listen to a child takes modesty.  Put aside your stubbornness  (the I’m always right and I know what is best for me part) and just listen graciously.

In the same way, we often ignore elderly people who we think are past it, or don’t understand the way that the world works these days.  They are the ones who can sometimes simplify an issue that we are complicating.

 You don’t have to go around listening to everyone’s advice – especially those people who are always trying to tell you what to do (and don’t tend to even follow their own advice), but sometimes it is good to keep quiet and just listen. Don’t resist it, it is not an insult to you.

Baz Luhrmann says in his song  Everybody’s free to wear sunscreen – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfq_A8nXMsQ

 “Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who
supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of
fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the
ugly parts and recycling it for more than
it’s worth.”

 And where does the best advice come from? From deep within you – that quiet voice that whispers “you can” when your conscious brain is shouting loudly “you can’t!”

You can!

Believe in yourself, because you are so, so worth it!

 

 

5 things to be grateful for (and don’t worry, chocolate is on the list!)

02 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Attitude, Chocolate yeah!, Gratitude, Lists

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  1. Most of you reading this have at least 2 arms and 2 legs, some of you less and hopefully none of you more.  Everytime you take a step or reach out to hold somebody’s hand, be grateful that you can.  We never really appreciate anything that we have, that we take for granted everyday.  Nick Vujicic (who has no arms and no legs) is proof of how much you can achieve, and how you can truly be a survivor despite the odds against you.  Why do we have so much, yet we still feel sorry for ourselves?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4uG2kSdd-4
  2. Be grateful to have money in your pocket, or in your wallet, or lying at the bottom of your drawer, or if you are really lucky, in the crevice of your couch.  3 billion people live on less than $2.50 per day and 22000 children die everyday because of poverty.  Even if times are really tough and you are battling financially – you probably still have something to eat and dare I say it, you could probably afford a small treat (like the chocolate mentioned below) for yourself every now and then.
  3. On the simplest level, be grateful that you can read this.  There are 1 billion people in the world today who are illiterate.  People who never got the opportunity to learn to read because of poverty, war, gender inequality and poor resources.  We are blessed to be amongst those who can enjoy being able to read – whether it is a Jane Austen classic, the latest trashy novel, a newspaper, gossip magazine or even this blog!
  4. Be thankful for the people in your life who truly care about you.  The people that you can be honest with, who are there for you no matter what.  And hold those people close to you.  Let them know how important they are to you – and not just using social media!
  5. One thing that I am truly grateful for is that the Aztecs (although they incorrectly predicted the end of the world) did discover cocoa and the joy of chocolate (that gorgeous serotonin inducing, making you feel happy snack).  And even better – thanks to Christopher Columbus who may have discovered America (or so they say) but more importantly, took cocoa beans back to Spain where the genius king of the time, Charles V decided to add sugar to it… and that was the beginning of chocolate as we know it. Mmmm….