Take Back Your Life!

Hi folks!

I wonder if there’s a boredom epidemic out “there.”

Why? I see such little life enthusiasm. Yes, folks are busy, busy, busy running around, but do the activities shrouded in this busyness truly make them feel alive? And it’s not just the parents who are bored, the children seem to be bored as well. It all seems to be fueling a rise in depression among people of all ages. A January 2010 article in Psychology Today said that the mental health and happiness of children has been declining since the 1950′s. Even more interesting, people were less depressed during the Great Depression, World War II and the Cold War. The state of the world seems to have little to do with depression rates.

I’ve always thought Depression and boredom went hand-in-hand. It took me awhile to figure out that my own “twentysomething” malaise sprung from a lack of participation in my own life. Externally, I looked great: young, pretty, buff. Internally, I thought I was dying a slow death. I shopped for outfits that made me look hot. I exercised to look hot. I did those two activities because I bought into the edict that I HAD to find a husband and to do that I had to look hot 24/7. Nearly drove me crazy.

That changed in my early 30′s. Whether by accident or design, people bearing amazing gifts of aliveness started entering my life. Sometimes it was a one-time encounter; others times a brief romance or a friendship. All the gifts fit together to form a message: participate in your life.

And so I did. Instead of waiting for other people or things to entertain me, I went out and found life. It was all around me! Much of it free. I re-engaged. I woke up. I cut a lot of the “should” activities. I stopped looking for a husband. (Of course, then  we found each other.)

If doing what you think you’re supposed to be doing isn’t working, try doing what you want to be doing or even what you think you’re not supposed to be doing. See if that helps lift your spirits.

Be honest. Do you really have to be scurrying from one activity you don’t care about (or your child) to another? Maybe the folks that say you must do A, B, C, D and E, don’t know what they’re talking about. Maybe they’re suffering from boredom or depression. Why not call your own life shots for a change?

Got two seats left in my “live” life shop, “How to stop being so busy and start living a more meaningful life.” If you’re tired of doing the same ‘ole same ‘ole, please check out the link!

Muse thx, Giulietta

I’m so tired of reading in the paper that consumers have to “hit the malls and shop more” to get this economy going that I’ve decided to write my next newspaper column on that topic. This article will be a warm-up.

One of the reasons the economy tanked before was because we all shopped until we dropped. Only we couldn’t get up this time. We’d hit the shopping wall. In all my years of being a consumer trained to buy stuff I didn’t need, I’ve never seen such a shopping frenzy as I did during the years leading up to the crash. People maxing out on 5 credit cards and borrowing against the equity in their homes to buy endless amounts of stuff. Or getting a raise/promotion and running out and buying a new, more expensive home — thus, negating the raise and then some. (Saw this many times.)

I’m sure many of you know that buying junk we don’t need is an addiction. The “high” doesn’t last very long and it’s always followed by the scary and depressing realization that you have to pay for it by prolonging your stint as an indentured servant to a corporation, a credit card company or someone else. (Not to mention it all ends up in the landfills and/or the oceans.) (more…)

Hey daring readers!

It’s interesting how we come into this world adventurous. Yet, over time become fearful due to societal conditioning. What’s the point of taking pretty fearless humans and fearasizing them? How does that make the world a better place?

I spent most of my childhood exploring the world within walking/biking distance. I waded in streams, climbed mountains, danced whenever I pleased, performed back flips of the diving board, galloped my horse through the woods, wrote creative stories, paddled down rivers, laughed constantly. My life was a daring adventure. I wanted to learn about everything. I wanted to experience everything. I wanted to wake up every morning and do something new. (more…)

Dear rebels,

One of my good friends is a poetry evangelist so I’ve really gotten into poetry in the last few years. Attended a lot of open mic poetry events, took a poetry class and make it a point to read a least two new poems a week. Yesterday, I stumbled on the fantastic Now I Become Myself by May Sarton. For those of you unfamiliar with it, let me share the first four lines:

Now I become myself. It’s taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people’s faces,

The line “worn other people’s faces” stopped me in my dare-to-live-your-own-life tracks. (more…)

Contrarians Hey,

I’ve been enamored with Leonardo da Vinci since I found him in the encylopedia set my parents bought from the saleswoman who came knocking on our front door back in the 70′s. So much so that I named one of my cats after him. Furry Leonardo has long since gone to puddy heaven, but my love for da Vinci remains. Take this quote of his, “Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!”

Do you go through life with your eyes open? (more…)

Hey fun-loving folks,

If you’ve got 5 minutes, please check out The Rebel You Haven’t Met my guest post at ex-patharem.com. It’s fun and so are the links in blue. Would love some rebellious comments!

Savor your long, luscious weekend!

Giulietta, always musing

Hey risk takers!

Last Thursday night at karaoke I sang, “I’ll Always Love You,” by Taylor Dayne. Remember her songs from the 80′s? Needless to say, it’s what my mind considers a hard song – maybe equal to one of those double somersault reverse inward pike Olympic dives with a 3.2 level of difficulty. Six months ago, I listened to that song and said, “no way,” snapping it back into the CD case.

In the interim, I started going to a local karaoke night every Thursday. No matter how I felt or what excuse my little mind tried to come up with to worm its way out of the adventure, I showed up with at least 1 or 2 new songs to perform. Needing to sing a new song each week pushed me into unchartered singing territory. (more…)

If you’ve read my Skirt! essay, River Talk, then you may recall that I don’t remember much of the information stuffed into my head in high school. In addition to Siddhartha, I’ve recalled the basic premise of the Samuel Beckett play, Waiting For Godot. Two guys, Vladimir and Estragon, wait on a country road by a tree and talk about how they are waiting for Godot. But of course Godot never comes. As a high school student I thought, “what a dumb play.” Now as a middle-ager, I think, “wow, that play’s brilliant. It’s a commentary on life.”

Do you have a Godot (or Godots) in your life? Something that you’re waiting over and over for that never comes? (more…)

Hey life renegades,

Life can seem like an endless slog or a magical love affair. It depends on your ability to answer the question, “What makes you get up in the morning?”

During my childhood, I couldn’t get enough of life. I raced out of bed to explore the natural landscape near my home. I scaled the face of Bald Rock (o.k. a small hill a few roads over), I climbed pine trees, I waded in brooks, I watched butterflies, I taught riding lessons in my back yards without the aid of actual horses.

That love disappeared when society shoved me onto the tracks headed toward conventional adulthood. By my late twenties, I kept asking, “Is this all there is?” I’d broken up with life. We’d gone our separate ways. I had no real reason to get up in the morning. I guess I had stumbled onto some kind of career track. Yet, the notion of a generic career never appealed to me. I always felt like a caged animal in a work zoo. If we lived in this free society I wondered, how come we can’t leave until 5:00? I began saying to colleagues, “Let’s bust out of here and sit at an outdoor cafe and drink salty margaritas.”

They’d say, “Oh, that sounds fun. Too much work today. Maybe next week?”

Those weeks turned into years and finally into a decade and still no disobedient margarita hookey.

I realized I had to help myself if I wanted to fall in love with life again. I volunteered at a theater in the next town as the curtain puller. This simple act of opening and closing an unbelievably heavy curtain led to me opening a new act on my own life.

One of the actors introduced me to karaoke and returned me to hiking and bike riding. With life once again coursing through my veins, I also reconnected with my rebellious roots.

I fell in love with life again. We’ve been going strong ever since.

Muse thx,

Giulietta

p.s. A few years ago I celebrated my birthday drinking salty margaritas at an outdoor cafe. As wonderful as I’d imagined. How about you? Have you had your margarita moment?

Hey Wonderful Readers,

I helped a bumblebee get out of my laundry room and return to freedom yesterday. In the process, I noticed how tiny its wings were in comparison to its large body and watched in amazement as the little flapping wings lifted the bee up off the windowsill and through the open window into my yard.

My up-close-and-personal moment with the bee piqued my curiosity, so I googled bumblebees. One of the entries I clicked was a quote by Mary Kay Ash, ”Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know that so it goes on flying anyway.”

Her quote on the courageous little bumblebee got me thinking how imprisoned most of us have become by our own little wings (aka limited belief systems.) Unlike the bumblebee, most of us humans use our our little wings as excuses for not even trying. At least once a week, someone tells me why what sounds like a great idea will not work. “It can’t be done,” she or he says. I respond with, “What makes you think that?” Because she or he says, “It’s not practical” or “it’s never been done before.”

That’s just a cop out, a fear of trying something unknown. Much easier and safer to say, “It can’t be done.” Why not believe everything’s possible? From my own experiences in life, if you think something can be done it can be.

I wanted to stop some rezoning from taking place in my town. Lots of people said, “It’s a done deal, don’t even bother to try.” In my mind, there are no such things as done deals. I hooked up with some other folks who believed we could stop it and we proceeded as if we could. It worked.

When you believe in your mind and your heart that something can happen, then you start acting in ways that make that possibility a reality.

Is there something you’d like to attempt but those close to you or even you yourself keep saying, “don’t bother, it can’t be done?”

Muse Thx,

Giulietta

p.s. I’d love to have 499 subscribers to my blog by August 1st. If you like what I write about,  perhaps you will help me by subscribing to Take Back Your Life updates via RSS or Email? Thank you.