Take Back Your Life!

Do any of you have ideas for something new, something daring, something outrageous? Could be for a biz. Could be for a life adventure. Could be for a better world. If you’re following my posts with any regularity, then you know that I’m all for making more life. It may or may not have anything to do with making more money. That would be your choice.

Chances are good that right now, you’re probably sitting on a great idea. We like to think that only some people come up with great ideas. It’s not true. We all do. But just a few of us act on those great ideas.

Before I learned to think milky-way bit, I’d get a great idea and lightly toss it around. I’d mention it to a few friends, get a little pumped, then talk myself out of it and climb back down into my dark rut. Poof! A few months or a few years later, I’d read in the paper that someone else came up with a similar idea and went with it. It became a hit!

Has this happened to you with some of your ideas?

Frankly, I don’t feel we are encouraged to just “go for it” with ideas. All you have to do is look at the fear mongering going on in the news day after day to see that what we are encouraged to be is frightened — of everything.

Wouldn’t it be a more energized, upbeat world if we pursued our ideas full throttle instead of holding ourselves back?

What idea do you have that you’d like to run with? What’s stopping you? Keep digging down to find your real fear …

For anyone stopping by my site, please check out my life shop, “Think Milky-Way Big …” It’s an idea I had, that I’ve decided to go full-throttle with … This life shop is just the start!

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Another Wednesday, another Wishcasting Circle. Today Jamie Ridler asks us what we wish to share.

I want to share with you that “it” will be o.k. Whatever it is you are worrying about, you will be able to get through it. About a year ago, I picked up a greeting card that said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Winston Churchill’s wise words stopped me in my tracks, causing me to reflect on the hellish times I experienced in young adulthood.

Definitely one of those aha moments.

I prolonged my visits to hell (mostly self-made) by focusing on my worrying instead of focusing on my getting out and staying out.

The way out of anything is to get up and keep moving. Forget everything you know to be true and look for an unconventional way out. Some of the advice you get will come from people who can’t get out of their own hells, who like it hot, who don’t want you to leave. Learn how to identify those folks and do the opposite of whatever they say. Approach the situation from every conceivable angle until you see the light. Start moving, even if you have to crawl …

As Belinda Carlisle sang so many times, “Heaven is a place on Earth.” You can find it if you keep moving … Anyone want to share good ways to do this?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hey daring folks!

Here’s a provocative thought: Life’s all make believe. Seriously, do you know why you are here? Why any of us are here? Why we have to keeping doing the things everyone keeps telling us we have to do? I don’t. I have no idea what the writers of LOST have in mind, but for me the show seems like a metaphor for life. We spend our lives trying to figure out how to get off the island of life rather than just enjoying the island. The harder we try to get off, the crazier it becomes.

Say for a moment you agree that life is make believe, wouldn’t that give you permission to change your life, to do things differently, to create your own life blueprint? As a small child I often questioned my parents, my elementary school teachers, my Sunday school teachers etc., “Why do we do things like this?” I was exiled to my room. I stood in the corner. I got sent home with a note. The result?  I got the message loud and clear: Go along with the program.

The problem becomes, who writes the program? With all the stress and depression out there, I wonder if it’s time to change the collective make believe to a program that makes us feel alive and vibrant.

Got any ideas about how to change your make believe into your own believe? Perhaps start by pinpointing the areas of your life that cause you the most enjoyment. Find ways to expand those areas. Love to hear from you!

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hey daring readers,

As some of you may know, I’m a karaoke junkie. Been doing it for years, so I’ve observed that most folks will go to a karaoke night and sing the same couple of songs. Now, my best song is “Only The Lonely” by The Motels and I could choose to sing it every time I go to a karaoke night. I’ve got it down near perfect. I know it sounds good.

But that feels way too safe for me. I much prefer to do at least one new song and then older ones that I rotate through. The result? I’ve got a huge repertoire of songs. Some new ones like “Love Hangover” rock the house; a few like “Sentimental Journey” semi-bomb. Because I’ve gone through “song rejection” and lived, I have no problem trying a new song, even one a bit out of my singing range like the Crystal Gayle version of “Wayfaring Stranger.” That song has a couple of high high sections, one after another. The first time I sang it, I majorly cracked on high section numero uno, but quickly recovered to hit the high notes on high section numero due!

I learned that I can do “it,” whatever that “it” is and the only way to do “it” is to just do “it.”

For me, it would be more embarrassing to get up every week and sing the same song perfectly knowing I’m not pushing myself, then to get up there and do something new, exciting and vocally scary.

How about you? Will you try doing your “it” this weekend?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hey adventurers,

Yesterday I did my annual Davis’ Mega Maze in Sterling, Mass. It’s the world’s most complex 3-D cornfield maze. This year’s theme was “The Lost Tomb.” It also proved to be the hardest one yet. It took me and a friend over 4 hours to find the tomb. Around the 3 hour corn delusional mark, I had to hold myself back from answering “Yes” to the Maze staff who asked me on the bridges if I wanted hints to get out. “No,” I cried. I needed to stumble out on my own and whack the gong even if it took 7 hours.

You see, the best part about the maze isn’t even the maze. It’s what the maze teaches you about yourself. Although it might seem confusing to wander around in circles for 4 hours, I left feeling far less confused than when I entered. I actually emerged with greater focus and lots of new ideas. If I were going to hire some people, I’d forget asking them meaningless interview questions like “What’s your biggest weakness?” and just send them into the maze. Then I’d ask them what they learned about themselves when they got out.

If you live in New England, check out the Davis’ Mega Maze, it’s open on weekends through November 15th.

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hey friends,

Ever read a sentence that stops you in your “what am I doing” tracks? That happened to me yesterday in a book I’m reading by M. Scott Peck. He wrote that the elderly drive drive slowly not because they can’t see, but because they are not in a hurry. So much of life seems to be consumed with speeding to the next place, rather than idling where we are right now. Almost feels like a collective drag race.

I’ve noticed that people on the Internet who make a lot of money have set their sights set on making even more money. I just wonder where it all ends, when we reach the place we finally want to be, the place where we look at ourselves in the mirror and say, “I’m satisfied. Time to enjoy my life as it is.”

If you’ve read my museletter then you know I’m all about helping people take back their lives. Once you find yourself in the nursing home bed, it’s going to be too late.

Here’s an idea. Next time you go out for a drive, go slow, even if the person behind you rides up on your bumper and starts beeping. If we’re all really driving to the end of our lives, why not take the meandering scenic route?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hey out of the ordinary folks and wishcasters,

If you’ve got any kind of blogger’s block, Jamie Ridler’s Wednesday Wishcasting will take care of it. Sometimes it’s easier for writers to write when they’ve got a prompt. I’d like to learn how to see every situation from both sides, to have the superpower of empathy. The Free Dictionary defines empathy as, “the ability to sense and understand someone else’s feelings as if they were one’s own.”

Even as I write this it occurs to me that further developing this emotional superpower will aid me in my oil painting. At the moment, I’m painting a close in shot of several colorful carousel horses (like some other wishcasters, I grew up riding horses and have found them appearing in many of my paintings. Perhaps a longing to own a horse again?). What if I did a painting where I try to paint from the perspective of whatever I’m painting? What is the carousel horse thinking? Or is it me or some part of me? Am I the subject of everything I paint? Are you?

That ability to get inside of anything we do creatively, write, paint, sculpt, craft, collage might take us to a new level of artistic freedom. I’m going to give it a try … How about you?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hey readers who like to do things differently,

I just got done reading the winning unconventional essay over at Chris Guillebeau’s Art of Non-Conformity. Allan Bacon wrote a great piece called, Moving to Paris Without Quitting My day Job: A Lesson in Becoming a Non-conformist. What intrigued me the most was when he went back down the corporate ladder. Now that’s gutsy!

I’ve seen people go up the corporate ladder and take on tons of stress, but I rarely hear of anyone coming back down it – at least while they are still alive and kicking. I had been taught in school & work that we need to move forward in a straight line going in the direction believed to be up. But maybe up isn’t straight. Maybe up is different for everyone and one person’s up is down or to the left or to the right or in a zig zag or even off the plane completely.

Life was not meant to be lived in a straight line. So, get out your life direction pencil and start scribbling (and erasing if need be) …

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hey rebellious ones!

I’ve been a cave junkie since I first went to the Polar Caves in NH as a young child. Something about the hidden “rooms” intrigued my child’s mind. I loved to explore the inner spaces because they seemed mysterious and unknown and scary. Also loved the challenge of squeezing through the tight spots, like the “lemon squeeze.” Although fearful I might get stuck, I never did.

Whenever my husband Jimmy and I go to another state in the US or another country, we try to visit the caves that exist there. Some are big and unadorned, others are smaller and decorated with stalactites (calcite icicles dropping from the ceilings) and stalagmites (calcite “icicles” raising from the floor) but all of them intrigue me due to their underground nature.

I liken our emotions, thoughts and feelings to a series of inner caves that need exploring. I call this exploration “inner spelunking.” The best way to start? Venture in slowly, a little more each day until you feel comfortable in there, adjusting your attitude helmet until you can learn to see with your own unique light.

The answers to most of your problems can be found in these inner caves.

I picked up a Hallmark card about nine or ten years ago. The kind of card that spoke to me in such a powerful way that I bought it for myself in the hopes it would spur me to change, to take some much needed action. It said on the front, “You have to color outside the lines every once in a while if you want your life to be a masterpiece.”

It caught me red-crayon handed. For way too long, I’d been trying to color inside the lines of my life without success. Try as I might, I could not color or stay inside the lines of rigid acceptability. I could not conform. It pained me to do so.

This card gave me the permission I’d been unable to give myself: It’s o.k. to do things your own way. It’s o.k. to be different. It’s o.k. to follow your own path.

As soon as I stopped trying to color inside the lines, my life situation improved dramatically. I stopped trying to fit into the world. Instead I began fitting the world into me. It made all the difference.

My only suggestion for the card? “You have to color outside the lines every once in a while often if you want your life to be a masterpiece.”

Do you know what I’m saying here? Have you ever felt hemmed in by societal lines?