if you have not been afflicted with the infectious groove of Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars...well then...I was gonna disown you but instead i'm just gonna tell you to just jump on the bandwagon, do it blindly and with faith. you won't regret
Disclaimer: all these good mood songs are MY good mood songs - the joy of this excercise is that you get to dance to what you want!
ok back to Bruno - this is one of my faves - have you seen him do this on Ellen?? find that video now, you will be insta-happy now. it's on YouTube
If you are the type to learn dances - this woud be a fun one to nail down how he and his crew do it and do the entire thing!!
Me - i'm kind of free form - but i have to confess during the "updown funk gonna give it to ya" part there's a little bit of flashdance action going on - you know the scene when she's practicing by her self during Maniac and she's running in place - ha yeah. it's so fun
A thing i love about this song is that altho at first it may seem egotistic, it's really self ego boosting, don't believe me...just watch
Say what you will about the Black Eyed Peas - I dare you to not get really fuckin jazzed up shaking your ass to this song.
Jump up and down - and really believe it. Tonight's gonna be a good good night...
I'm lucky that I get up really early so the kids are still asleep, and that i still haven't furnished my new home, so I have a pretty big space of polished concrete floors to really go cray - a giant dance floor all to myself.
If you can't go out tonight and let it all out on the dance floor you can do it early in the morn at your own house - same feeling, more sleep :)
confession - the first time i listened to this one - i was feeling kinda blah - and then i sorta cried (you know me - i'm a crier) - but the unbridled positivity of this song just got to me - nothing special - just have fun.
i'm fascinated with being happy. How do you be happy. Why do some people get happy easier than others. I love experimenting with practices that set the pace of my day, and ultimately my week/month/life. I'm generally a happy person but when you leave it up to the ebbs and flows and whims of daily life, you can get derailed by hurdles of varying degress. It's not possible to be 100% happy 100% of the time but it doesn't hurt to take some action to ensure the best outcome
My current fave thing to do is something i call the good mood guarantee - i swiped the idea from the fab book E Cubed (I cant' figure out how to write the little cubed 3) - by Pam Grout - it's one of her "excercises" so i truly didn't make it up but i've made it MINE
so I challeng you to try it!
Every day this week pick a song - you can pick my songs - i'm going to post one new one for 5 days - put it on your iphone, put in your earbuds, and dance - yeah, shake your booty like there's no tomorrow. Think of that cliche "dance like no one is looking" THAT.
There's no way you can do this without smiling, and lifting your spirits - I promise
I'm gonna start you out with what has become my DAILY mantra song - i listen to this one first before any other song i choose, i bop around making coffee, cleaning up the kitchen, whatever first morning things i do. It truly makes me happy
Just when I think I've got this survivor thing down... Survival Lessons by Alice Hoffman. A small but mighty book falls into my lap
The roller coaster that is cancer at 5 years since diagnoses may have less severe dips, and maybe not quite as many upside down loop-de-loops that the newly diagnosed roller coaster of treatment has.
But every now and then it takes a surprise turn, the kind where the coaster is happily going along with birds tweeting and butterflies fluttering all around you, then suddenly..... I guess basically I'm saying it's just still not easy. And it still surprises me that it's not.
I read an article about how a cancer diagnosis causes PTSD, i felt almost ashamed to admit that this felt true. It seems that how can this compare to the horrors that one thinks of when you hear of a person with PTSD. But I've come to accept this is true. In varying levels of severity.
It's hard to read a book with constant tears. Tears of emotion, and hope, and sadness, and compassion, and gratitude. That sums up the survival roller coaster
there's some buzz on the internets about national no BRA day, i can't find much, i saw something about BRA standing for Breast Reconstruction Awareness and I can get my head around that one for sure.
Sometimes, and i know it's well meaning, with love, and a heartfelt attempt to be positive in the face of terribleness, and it diffuses the awkward for the other.... but sometimes people like to make light of the "new boobs" - like aren't you lucky you don't have to wear a bra, ooh you got a free (hahaha) boob job, and wow you got great boobs out of it...
They aren't beautiful, i'm not lucky, it wasn't free, it wasn't a boob job. I would wear a bra 24/7, look shitty in a halter, complain about 40 something year old breast feeding boobs down to my waist, all of that to have my original breasts still on my body.
Yes - there are times, when i have a kick ass dress or top with weird back, shoulder, neckline issues where i gladly discard the bra, and look awesome. And i utter a few words of grattitude. Gratitude in all things is the key to happiness in life. So don't get me wrong, bitterness has no place. But reality does.
On another boob note:
Last night i had a dream i had a baby, and in the dream I felt my milk come in, and somehow also in the dream i realized I couldn't breastfeed. it was kind of sad
Today May 17, 2014 marks the day four years ago and I heard the three words.
Three words you don't want to hear, and I wonder what it feels like to have three words you don't want to say
It is with distinct clarity that I can still hear the voice and accent "you have cancer", it is with distinct clarity that I remember the world stop and the slow-motion reaction and unfolding of this reality. It was probably just a few seconds.
I do always feel compelled to Mark this day, and to think about things. It's generally called the "cancerversary". I'm not sad on this day and I think it's significant and a blessing that I'm at my yoga teacher training, surrounded by beautiful souls talking about deep stuff and doing the thing that brings me much joy. In fact I'm here specifically because of having had cancer, my goal is to teach other cancer survivors yoga so that they can hopefully feel the same connection to the self and to the world and to happiness that I have found.
I can't even begin to express the value of the friendships and connections I've made, both with other survivors, and just as a result of revealing my experience to any person I may meet
My spiritual and personal growth is like a supernova.
people always say it's hard to take compliments
you feel self conscious when you hear someone tell you how fab you are, especially face to face
but we all wanna be adored right? maybe we all need to hear how adored we are.
I used to want to "pshaw" people who would tell me how brave Iwas during cancer - "I'm not brave, I don't have a choice..." the answer in my head. but people still said it in various ways
also I think sometimes people think that saying stuff on social media is not genuine, or won't mean anything, or they don't know them well enough...
but remember the "love bomb" I got on twitter? when I woke up to literally hundred's of tweets from total strangers telling me great stuff. Every day waking up at that time was a struggle, wondering how I would feel, dreading pain or feeling sick, but that love bomb day, I'll never forget it...it made me feel invincible, loved, special, carried by a giant invisible hand. To this day, I love to hear these kind of things anywhere
I think it's an inherent desire to hear that you are adored. why we have come to feel uncomfortable around it Idon't know. and conversely, why we feel it will "go to someones head" if we compliment them, why is that a bad thing...
I realize now that it's wonderful to hear these things, it does help, it get's ingrained, it's like affirmation power coming from the outside before you can believe it. I'm a believer in affirmations.
now I crave it, and I give it, because I know what it can do
Even if you think you don't know a person well enough on Facebook to comment, do it, believe me, it makes a diff.
even itty bitty compliments like "I like your dress" can make a day
or a note to a friend telling them why you treasure them, why you adore them, and how amazing they are
I'm just sayin....I can take a compliment
and don't forget to tell someone how you feel, comment on a post you almost skimmed over, tell a barrista that that was the best latte in the world
diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2010, single mom of 2 wildebeasts, love my job - i'm a realtor, love my friends, love food, love austin, love marmosets.
Blogging about my cancer trip on Glitter Every Day & about cooking vegan from the Greenling Delivery boxes on Vegan Greenling, and Real Estate/Austin at rocknrealty.net
