Most everything ;-)

But that's ok.

I don't do "goal-setting" or "life-planning" because I don't think I need to or even should try to predict where my life is going -- my life and its details  will Emerge and unfold as it does and my job is to enjoy the ride and the discovery.

Research even backs me up a little with this ;-)

It suggests that we just aren't very good at predicting what will make us happy. We think we are and we aim for those things, but our happiness is much less affected by acheiving these "goals" (work, lifestyle, hobbies, etc.) than by the core experiences of having meaning of some sort in our lives and by the quality of our relationships.

So, in this light, what I try to be sure of is my values -- what is meaingful to me? -- and my relationships -- keeping them honest and mutually supportive.

And that I'm sure of. 8^)

What  a great question!

I have recently (past couple months or more) been actively working to insert more Fun into everything I do.

So I ask myself questions before I do work tasks or things that might not be seen as "fun":
- Why am I doing this?
- How can I approach this so it's more fun?
- What can I add to this experience that is fun?
- What would be fun about having the outcome of this to share?

And I've been paying attention to what I think of as "fun" -- not limiting that to entertainment or conversation or silliness for the sake of themselves, but instead defining it to myself as something that brings me joy and an opening of the heart -that's Fun!

So I've been Working at including Fun and Seriously Playing as much as possible -- it's amazing how much Fun you can have when you try ;-)

At present -- I would say my biggest challenge to being present is Overwhelm.

When my email box fills, when I know I have Things To Do, but have that sense that there are so many pieces and bits that I am surely missing some....

That's when I start moving out of where I am now and wondering where I need to be instead.

I hadn't connected that sense of discomfort with the lack of presence before, so this was a wonderfuly useful question. Instead of asking myself about how to get out of Overwhelm-mind, I can ask myself what I can feel present to doing -- and do that.

I don't know. And that's fine.

How unpopular an answer perhaps in this time of goal-setting and attracting and "making it happen".

I have always resisted goal-setting and have only recently discovered that this is actually a Good Thing for me.

Let me see if I can quickly make a whack of connections so you can see why I say that...

The brain, which is my main interest, is what is called a "self-regulating nonlinear complex adaptive system". Whew! What that means is that it is made up of a huge number of little bits (think brain cells), which each just do their thing according to the "connection rules" of the brain system. And yet, even though each one is doing such simple things, the activity builds up into patterns that are meaningful and the patterns build up into ...well....Us.

Yet we can't know the larger Us from inspecting what a single cell is doing. The parts don't add up to the Whole.

And I see myself as a kind of part in the larger Whole of Us. So I have created Rules of Connection for myself, which I will follow and see what emerges...

Sort of like a Connect-the-Dots picture. I'm having fun creating the picture even though I don't yet know what it will look like when it's "done". ;-)

This is easy!

Hildegard de Bingen for sure. She is my role model (I'm still working on working there, of course...)

Hildegard was a 12 century nun.

But she wasn't "just" a nun.

She started out in a monastery shared with men (separate areas, butunder the regulation opf the male abbot). Not satisfied with this, she started her own wholly female abbey, of which she was the key developer, administrator, and fundraiser.

She was also a healer, a composer, a writer, an artist (see one of her paintings here), a visionary, and published in all these areas.

She wrote letters to the Pope and others telling him what she thought he needed to do ("what were you thinking?" letters, might describe their content ;-).

She dealt with her own chronic health conditions -- migraines of some sort being the worst for her.

And throughout everything, she stayed connected to her own spirituality and belief in what she needed to be doing.

I still harbour the hope that I will be like Hildegard when I grow up ;-).

Because of my training, "normal" to me is a statistical statement. It means that whatever or whomever is being talked about falls within a broad range of the "average" response or quality.

Is it good or bad? It definitely depends. I probably want most of my bodily functions to be operating "normally" most of the time, based on values about what's healthy for those organs.

But not necessarily. It may be that being "outside of the range of normal" (i.e., what are statistically called "outliers") will allow my brain to come up with innovative and very "not normal" insights and solutions.

Similarly, if the "normal" weight is 100 pounds over what's healthy, do I want to be "normal"? No. I'll happily be abnormal and healthy. ;-)

So before deciding whether "normal" is good or bad, we need to know who or what we are comparing with and for what purpose.

That's my 2 cents.

Hmmm...it depends on what you call morning and night ;-)

I am at my most productive during the workday from about 2:30pm to 8pm.

I have trouble getting up in the window from 7-8:30am.

That would seem to make me an evening person.

But I also love getting up in the wee hours of the morning and have no trouble doing that.

Which might make a very-morning person?

AND, interestingly, neither of these rhythms is as strong as it used to be before I did neurofeedback on myself. My sleep rhythm naturally seemed to shift until I was waking up approximately 8 hours after I went to bed. Whenever that was.

Before I had to "decide" to get up, it wasn't a naturally-occuring phenomenon -- unlike now, when it is.

So I guess I would have to say that now I can flex in whatever direction I need to.

I believe true compassion is fair.

Compassion is not pity or tolerance -- "letting them get away with it".

Compassion is recognizing and acknowledging another's feelings, motivations, etc. and responding in a way that acknowledges these as well as meeting the needs of others involved.

Yes. ;-)

Ok, more seriously -- I work to make sure my reason and emotion are in sync. If one is out from the other, it's a sign I have to spend some aligning my heart and head (literally, using heart coherence biofeedback techniques).

So I am most affected by my reason guided by my emotion and my emotion guided by my reason. We are not Parts, we shouldn't act as if we were, IMHO.

This is an excerpt from Daphne Gray-Grant's newsletter Power Writing. I thought it was such a great idea I wanted to share it with as many people as possible.

She's telling us about an on-line self-test of your vocabulary. it's a great idea because:
(1) using the language networks in your brain strengthens them;
(2) exercising your brain in general strengthens it, and
(3) for every word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations' World Food Program.  Practice a lot ;-)

So...Here's her description:

All of this is a pep-talk designed to persuade you to try a new, fr'ee vocabulary website launched this October by U.S. computer programmer John Breen. Basically an on-line vocabulary test, much like the SAT, it presents you with a series of multiple choice definitions. Your answer to each question is scored immediately and you move on to the next one. (You can set options so that when you leave your computer the site "remembers" your score for the next time.)

Think you're pretty smart already? (Or worried about not being smart enough?) No worries! The site, which is called FreeRice, automatically adjusts to your vocabulary level. When you get a word wrong, the next word provided is from an easier level. When you get three consecutive words right, you move to a higher degree of difficulty. (Experts say that this constant fine-tuning of levels is the best way to ensure you are learning and not just playing a game.) FreeRice has 50 levels in total, but staff say it's rare for people to get past level 48. Go ahead; knock yourself out.

But you're probably wondering about the site's odd name. And therein lies the best news of all. Each time you get a word right, the site's sponsors donate enough money to pay for 20 grains of rice for the United Nations' World Food Program. That may sound like a pitifully small amount, but the site has already raised more than five billion grains of rice in less than two months.

So you can build your vocabulary, become a better writer, have fun and help reduce world hunger -- all at the same time. How great is that?

So -- how much can Zaadsters donate?? We're a smart group  -- I donated 2000 grains today - how about you?