May 20th, 2021- On getting my first shot of Moderna vaccine and trying our luck in other countries

Hello dear May,

how does it feel to get my first shot of Moderna vaccine? Well, my left arm hurts a bit and I feel kind of tired (but this could be due to other stuff).

While I was going back home, I had a conversation with a taxi driver whose young daughter dreams of studying and living in Japan. Sounds like a great idea, although, and sorry my Japanese friends, I don’t know how are things now for foreign women trying to have a life and a career in Japan. What is the place of women nowadays?

So, study, I said definitely for this great culture, and then go and see if whatever she proposes will find a welcoming reception.

I know something about trying to make it in different places from where we have been born. And I have had roadblocks, cultural shocks etc

One essential thing has been not to insist past a certain point. When our basic values, or actions clash with a cultural or sociopolitical system, there is no need to insist and we need to take a shortcut. Or a long cut. Another way, in other words.

The essential thing is to keep walking!

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April 18 to 29th- doing something new every day for 35 days, mission accomplished!

Hello April,

yes, I did it! I have done something new every day for the last 30 days, actually 35 days, and now I intend to prolong it to 66 days, so that the habit sticks with me!!!

What exactly? A lot had to do with food: trying different types of milk for the latte (soya, almond and coconut milk) was one version. And I ended up with coconut milk latte, but I admit that my guilty pleasure is cow milk for a delicious latte with chocolate and cinnamon.

I have also tried all the varieties of coffee I could have access to: Kenya, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Brazil.

Next thing? Different types of tea and herbal tea (chamomile, and all the possible herbs and blends). Great stuff!

I have taken up colouring for adults, and today I am to buy my second colouring book. And offer colouring books to members of my household.

I have started dancing in the morning, using “Just dance” workouts.

I have gone out with my glasses instead of my contact lenses (because I had a minor eye infection). And I realised how difficult it is to breath with glasses and face mask.

I have decided to try new recipes for our lunch. Vegetable burgers, shrimp spaghetti, I had never cooked before, …

And some other new stuff that take more time:

I have mentioned statistics before, so yes, now I know my way around multiple regression! (more or less, less or more).

I have looked for presents to my godson.

And yes, I feel that doing something new everyday is definitely making me more creative, fun and motivated!

Now I decided to upgrade this challenge to 66 days.

Doing something new and exciting every day here we are!!!

doing

March 27, 2021- Doing something new for 30 days, day 3

Hello March,

yes, I am looking for something new today, while I start working on a presentation I have on Tuesday. And yes, I still learn the rules to play the “Isle of cats”, my new board game.

So, what new? Learn something I have never heard of?

After reading lists, soul-searching and wondering if I should learn something new, or declutter and put some order in my closet, … I end up deciding to check and declutter old magazines, and to cut out inspiring pictures.

This combines a physical aspect and decluttering because I can throw away the rest.

A few hours later:

It feels somehow exhausting, but at least I got something out of these fashion magazines I opened once and then I wasn’t sure what to make of them… wait for the day I will appear as a civilised female, ready to go to work -not at home-?

Apparently loose trousers are fashionable, but while working from home I prefer stretch and comfy.

In any case, I just HOPE that my effort to declutter the pile of magazines today will make me feel better sometime in the near future!

Right now I am moderetaly satisfied with this idea …

March 25, 2021-One new experience every day for the next 30 days- day 1- Mandala game

Hello March,

After trying a “feel good journal”, intermittently for at least two weeks, I can say that the time I most enjoy is when I feel free to let my imagination run wild, with no restrictions nor guilt.

Blogging, journaling, walking around, day dreaming, etc.

If I don’t give myself some creative space, I just don’t want to focus on anything mundane.

This is the truth, and I’d better accept it.

Then, I make one hundred plans, and feel guilty of not fulfilling them all. Or that they go slower than I would have wanted them to.

Maybe this is it: I could just take steps, and stop worrying about the outcome.

Easier said, than done.

What if everyday life is bringing urgent issues to resolve, and we feel a bit stuck?

What if we recover from something, or wonder if we will see the end of the tunnel?

I came to the conclusion, that we need to feed our inner wolves. All of them. To keep the balance.

And to acknowledge what really makes us happy and incorporate it into our everyday life.

Next step, I decided to try a new experience every day.

For today, I have ordered a new board game, to play with my family.

https://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=927

January 31st, 2021- Monthly update and post-a-day

Hello January,

how has it been this month? Well I ended up with some vertigo, possibly because I felt having too many things on my plate, and too many screen hours working from home.

Yes, that’s why I wasn’t on a post-a-day basis the last week. But I have been journaling a phrase or two on my paper journal.

I wanted to eat less sugar: this is accomplished, although I still have some chocolates and mini cup-cates.

Rest and Sleep? Kind of ok, although rest is also not having my eyes fixated on the computer screen 14 hours a day. More progress is possible.

Exercise? I have done some, but need to go more outdoors (related to less screen time)

Learning? Yes, new things but I need to learn how to be confident during the learning process.

Journaling every day? Yes, even though not always blogging.

Any difficulties?

I felt overwhelmed when I received some negative critique, and forgot the positive one. Apparently we need 5 times more positive feedback to forget a negative one.

And, not confident during learning process, that’s how I panicked.

So, now what?

February, goal no 1:

1. Boost Self-Confidence
2. Reduce screen time, meaning not watching series and films and try audio-books and outdoors activities, such as… walking!

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/281874

January 22, 2021-Post-a-day, day 14 out of 70- conquering bureaucracy

Hello January,

do you also have any type of bureaucracy or administration where you live? Because be it France, UK or elsewhere, I find myself obliged to gather documents and create files so that I can prove my case: it could be to ask for a fellowship, or to apply for a job, or … and this, I have to admit is something I don’t like.

Time consuming, making you go backwards and forwards for a tiny little thing you forgot; in any case, I have tried all the possible moods: anger, exasperation, disappointment, despair, etc. Then, a form of learned helplessness.

To finish with a kind of detached mood I have adopted: I’ll do something every Thursday, for example, for an hour and that will be it. Independently of how long this will take.

What if you are in a rush? If it is urgent? Somehow, bureaucracy doesn’t care about it. So, trying to speak the same language and be less emotional involved, independently of the high stakes, is the only solution.

And somehow, step by step, even a bureaucratic mountain can be conquered!

Yes we can!!!

10 Steps to Take Action and Eliminate Bureaucracy

January 9, 2021- Post-a-day no 5: How to be in advance- wisdom

Hello January,

is it possible to be in advance? To prepare effectively before something happens. Isn’t this why some people like horoscopes and others calculate risks, or elaborate strategies?

On the other hand, things happen, that imagination might not predict. For a lot of people, a lockdown was not imaginable a year ago. Yet, it happened, with all the changes in our lives.

In moment like this, what do you say?

I was ready to buy the Economist forecast for 2021 and I almost stopped.

I think more than anything, we need to be a step further from information and knowledge, or data. This is good to begin with. But WISDOM can be a step further.

Hmm, it’s not just experience, knowledge, kindness, intuition, connectedness, and more all together.

Do you become wise, or is it a state happening at a certain moment in time?

In any case, recognising people who speak from this state, would be already a big step forward.

https://massimopigliucci.medium.com/what-is-wisdom-8a2f1a611dbd

January 8, 2021- Post-a-Day, Day 4- Life path, love, past and future

Hello January,

Yes, I feel again energy to set goals and optimistic that they are realised day by day!

What if our goals are not in the same direction with those of our social circle or family?

Hmm, then, maybe we can try to find common ground, I would say. I have felt the tension for a few years, with my family wanting me to live nearby and myself wandering around, and the worst not having much material evidence to prove my choice was a good idea.

In any case, being an artist and wanting to “create” one’s world is a path with tensions and tears, but also joy.

Then what, should I have stayed at home?

We’ll never know, but I have read that a ship is not made to stay in the harbour, so as a young person, we are meant to face our own struggles, learn and give our best!

It doesn’t matter how we fail as long a s we learn for next time!

How about Love then, have I learnt anything?

I have loved and hurt, my big love is now living with another woman and they have a child together. He hates being with her, but he made his choice. And I think it is the right one, because he is used to toxic relationships and I am not.

Despite my attraction for toxic people, I catch myself and get back to my path. And in this path, I am optimistic that love without a toxic side is possible. Love where you are happy to see the other person grow, and where a partner, a parent, a friend is not someone who is putting us in prison, but someone with fly along with.

December 26-Making space for what is important: the permission to have fun no matter what!

Hello December,

Christmas is here, and I feel as if I need permission to do some things for myself. Like, to buy something I, kind of, like. It seemed as if my life’s mission was to make my parents happy and I didn’t succeed in that. I have started an artistic career with ups and downs and many times in the past, I have relied on them. When they needed my help, I wasn’t able to give all the help they needed without feeling overwhelmed. The lockdown brought me back in my hometown and my parents’ home and accentuated this feeling.

It is difficult to acknowledge that I am doing the best I can and despite of my success, I have the right to feel ok with it no matter what.

I have the right to be happy, in the NOW despite of anything. The right to be around people who are loving in a generous and balanced way and to be this kind of person; people who love in a way that allows the other to grow; people who support other people’s happiness without asking you to sacrifice for them; also those who know how to build healthy boundaries between themselves and other people’s expectations.

Something I definitely need to learn because my love life in the past involved someone I wanted to “save” and who ended up hurting me; I understood it doesn’t make sense to try to “help” others if they don’t want to change. And if I don’t change, I will be the accessory of this type of pathology.

TODAY it is ok to be happy for myself, for who I have been and who I am becoming!

I want to create my community of like-minded but diverse people.

I want to travel the world and bring happiness, connect people, work for the world Democracy, Peace and Beauty, Life in the planet!

December 3rd, 2020- Making space for what is important, day 11-Christmas is coming

Hello December,

do you have any advice about how to stay cool and zen when someone in our household has a health issue and we spend a lot of time in the house?

Has any of your brothers, and sisters, parents, or partners and kids given you this type of experience?

Well, yes, thank you, the best way is to look for a lesson to learn; something good comes out of difficult times, we just need to have our eyes open to see that;

Ok, I will admit there are moments that a significant other’s bad mood gets me, especially because I feel helpless to do anything to help.

Then what?

Should I be absorbed in this spiral?

Do I have a choice?

What if I do have?

What if I focus on something lovely?

The magic of Christmas?

Ok, I was chatting with a divorced neighbour who was telling me he is not into Christmas because there is a lot about loving families, and now he doesn’t have that, it feels even worse;

Is magic true?

Is Santa real?

Hell yes, they are!

Pandemic or not, difficulties or not, all these are teaching us lessons, and Good comes out of bad and painful circumstances;

Magic is in and all around us, every moment when there is suffering, there is also love, life, laughter, and we can invite it in our life.

How?

Believing that something beautiful is about to arrive, and smiling

https://exploringyourmind.com/the-art-of-attracting-magic-into-your-life/