Take Back Your Life!

I get a lot of e-newsletters. 97% of them want to help me make more money. While I understand we all need money, I’m starting to wonder if this obsessive focus on making money actually drives money away from us? It feels increasingly desperate to me and I’m wondering if it feels desperate to money too?

Read an article a few months ago that said we are actually less happy than we were 40 years ago, even though most of us have more things and gadgets.

One of the books that got my life moving in a new direction sometime back, Do what you love and the money will follow, downplayed the money part. It will come if you really do what you love. Are most of you doing what you really love? Do you even know what that is?

It took me awhile to figure it out, but I love challenging the status quo. And there are lots of ways to do that — in my community, in my writing, in my life shops, in my conversations. When I’m in that zone I feel unstoppable, on top of the world. And the money has started to follow. Yet when I started doing what I love, making money was not my objective.

Let me ask you this. To capture your attention does it really have to be about the money? I’d love to hear why or why not. Also, if we didn’t need money to live and learn, what would you like to learn? What classes would you sign up for? What adventures would you take?

Muse thx,

Giulietta

Hi fun folks,

Recently, I read that children laugh 300 times a day and adults only 15. In my rebel book, that’s completely unacceptable. What’s going on here? Why do adults laugh so little?

The author of Laugh For No Reason, Dr. Kataria, says children laugh unconditionally whereas adults need reasons. Have we forgotten how to laugh? Have our adult lives become so dull and predictable that there’s nothing left to laugh at? Even TV shows have canned laugh tracks to let us know when we are supposed to laugh.

Maybe if adults laughed more they’d feel better. The American School of Laughter Yoga reports that laughter can be

• an age-inhibitor
• a pain reducer
• a stress buster
• a depression reliever
• an immune stimulator

Instead of giving us drugs, perhaps doctors should give us prescriptions for laughter?

Since I tend to laugh at the slightest provocation, needing a reason to guffaw feels alien to me. My third grade teacher actually put me in the corner for laughing! Looking back that made no sense. Punishing a child for what? Disrupting a bunch of ongoing non-laughter? The last kind of person tossed into a corner ought to be a happy one.

Want to try something unpredictable? Pick a day next week and keep track of the number of times you laugh and what you laugh at. I’m going to do it too. My new action step? Get my laughs back up to 300 a day …

Muse thx,

Giulietta

p.s. Check out the American School of Laughter Yoga at http://www.laughangeles.com & the book Laugh for No Reason.

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 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

It took me many years of living to figure out that the only person holding me back from living a bold & outrageous life was me. Oh, I used to blame it on others, but honestly the others are way too busy holding themselves back to be concerned with anything I might be doing.

Restrained thoughts produce restrained actions. Untie yourself and go forth free into the world! I wish for myself and others to take bold, outrageous action. Ideas cannot be too bold or too outrageous. Think big, think gigantic, think gargantuan, think Milky Way. Just go for it! Be bold, be outrageous, be a whirling dervish of ideas spinning out into the universe.

Remember to take action. Start small if it scares you and work your way up to big, bold action.

Please share your actions with the world below. If you shout it loud and clear, you’ll do it!

Muse thx,

Giulietta

p.s. join the wishcasting circle with the fab Jamie Ridler!

Jamie Ridler asks us wishcasting groupies this fine Wednesday, “What door do your wish to open?” I’ve been opening my personal door of boldness wider and wider. It’s what Giulietta the Muse is all about.

Now I’m ready to “fling” it open and let all my amazing ideas for life shops fly out into the world. Having been labeled shy for a good chunk of my life, I experienced one of those pivotal life turning points a few years back when I discovered it had never been true. Not only am I not shy, I’m outrageously bold & delicious! So, I’m putting together my first life shop on booting shyness out of your life.

Muse thanks for stopping by!

Giulietta

Wednesday is upon me again. Time to answer Jamie Ridler’s fun and freeing wishcasting prompt, “What do you wish to make room for?”

I wish for myself and the world to make room for more serendipity, more happenstance, more adventure. Life feels most enjoyable to me when I’m winging it, making decisions on the fly, and trying to get lost. Yes, lost! Some of my best vacation (& essay writing) moments happen because I do not plan my every move.

The trend seems to be the reverse: to beat the adventure (and challenge) out of our lives, especially the lives of children, by scheduling everything down to the smallest measurable unit.

I took to wandering through life as a child, misplaced it as a young adult, but have rediscovered it as a middle ager. Makes for a magical life …

Muse thx,

Giulietta the Muse

Hello kind readers,

Never thought I’d write about something like this, thought I’d keep it close to the family vest, but decided to share with you. My stepbrother Stuart died in a highway car crash yesterday. He was a really good guy and I will miss seeing him at extended family gatherings. Really easy to talk to. What you saw was what you got. No pretention ever. Although he wasn’t my biological brother I considered him my brother.

Yesterday everything in my life felt good. Today, it’s still good, but there is sadness for Stuart. I hope that he’s found peace on the other side, wherever we go.

For me, it feels like there is one less person on my side. Have you ever  felt that way after the death of a family member or a friend?

Thank you for listening

G.

I usually wake up with so many ideas going through my brain that I don’t know where to start! It gives me a million reasons to get up in the morning. Not everyone feels this way. I wish I knew how to bottle this idea mania up so I could give it to the people who’ve told me they dread each day because they don’t have anything to do. Maybe that’s about letting go of what you don’t want to do, so you will have the time and the room for things you do want to do.

One thing I let go of was having to be a fashionista. When I had a corporate job, I thought I had to look smokin’ every day. It required lots of shopping, outfit planning, etc. Between you and me, I felt I needed at least two new outfits a week!

Not only was it expensive, it was also time consuming. Once I got rid of that job and that fashion mindset, it left lots of room for the things I really wanted to do in life.

Is there anything you’d love to let go of, just get off your plate so you don’t have to worry about it anymore?