Thinking Out Loud

From my bedroom window, I see the sun lighting up the morning sky. The wind is rustling through the trees whose yellow-green leaves testify that Autumn is indeed upon us. I hear birds chirping as they excitedly welcome the new day. And here I am doing something different. It's a concept covered in The Joy Diet ( another great book I'm reading by Martha Beck). The gist is this, each day, do one thing different than how you've done it before. Mixing things up unlocks creativity and keeps life interesting. Additionally, as a highly routined person, it helps me find simple pleasures. Normally, the first thing I do when I get up (after using the restroom and brushing my teeth), is head straight for my yoga mat or whatever workout is on my menu for the day. I do love exercising first thing in the morning, but I don't LOVE hopping to it just like that every single day. Mixing it up can be quite nice. Yesterday, instead of popping out of bed and getting my grind on, I dow...

I just started another Martha Beck book called The Joy Diet ,  and I LOVE it! The book covers 10 daily practices you can implement to increase your happiness. I'm on practice #4 and have already started applying what I'm learning. The first principle was the art of doing nothing. For at least 15 minutes per day, Martha encourages readers to simply do nothing at all. For overachievers, go-getters, and red type personalities, this first practice is challenging. Fortunately, this wasn't the first time I've learned about the power of doing nothing. Over the past couple of years, as I've been studying mindfulness, Buddhism, and the Tao Te Ching, I've come to appreciate the art of simply "being." I'm not great at chillaxing, but I'm better than I used to be. I enjoy pondering on my commute to and from work. I have been closing my book more often on my walks so I can just look around and soak it all in. The other day, I took a 15-minute break to ...

I had never heard of musical hallucinations until I started reading  Musicophilia . I guess I've heard of people who claim to hear choirs of angels, but I, like them, thought this was some signification that they were chosen of God or spiritually blessed. Musical hallucinations, however, are neurological. They have nothing to do with divine signification and everything to do with skiwampus neurological pathways. Musicophilia  is written by renowned neurosurgeon Oliver Sacks, made famous by his earlier book  Awakenings .  In fact, if you've never seen the  movie , I highly recommend it. It's a true story featuring Robert de Niro and Robin Williams. I loved it the first time I saw it, and now that I'm enthralled with the brain, and our relatively pygmy understanding of it, I relish it even more. Witnessing the radical transformation of the lives of the patients who received the miracle drug L-dopa, gets me excited for the day when we have er...

I was watching some calisthenics videos on youtube when a video ad for  silicone rings  appeared. The ad was for  Groove Rings and was super clever. It showed burly men lifting heavy weights, waterskiing, operating machinery, etc. And guess what? All these "real men" were wearing groove silicone rings. Fast forward to the next scene which featured a bunch of old men sitting around smoking cigars in suits. Of course, they looked quite outdated and wussy. They were captioned as "dad" and "granddad." Quite naturally, they were all wearing "precious metal" rings.  The gist of the ad was this: replace your dangerous, daddy rings of 'ole with the functional, comfortable rings that allow real men to get things done. Basically, Out with the old; in with the new! It made me think about the book I started reading today:  The End of Faith   by Sam Harris.  I first discovered Sam when I was watching The God Delusion  ( a fantastic docum...

I started reading Martha Beck's book Leaving the Saints: How I lost the Mormons and Found my Faith    late last night and finished it early this morning. I simply could not put it down. I highly recommend it to every Mormon, survivor of sexual abuse, spiritual seeker, feminist, or any person who loves a great read. Martha Beck is a world-renowned life coach, New York Times best-selling author, O columnist, and Harvard trained Ph.D. sociologist. She's also an insanely intelligent, spirited, fun, and witty writer. Many have attacked her personally for publishing this book for in it she tells her story of sexual abuse at the hands of her deceased father, Hugh Nibley. She provides compelling factual and circumstantial evidence that her Mormon apologist father did indeed molest her. Additionally, she reveals his tormented and abusive childhood, coupled with WWII PTSD, and professional psychological distress. It's not a vindictive memoir. Beck is very...

I have a lump in my armpit. My right one. I noticed it last week. I thought it might go away. It hasn't. I guess I better get it checked out. I'm not worried. Cancer can only kill my body, not my soul. My soul is endless. It will go on and on and on. :)