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THE GIFT OF COMEDY. We are all familiar with the therapy of laughing. That emotional and physical release that comes from sharing laughs with friends or watching a funny movie. The permission humor gives us to be sllly ourselves when we see someone doing something bizarre for the first time. The feeling of not being so alone when a comedian treads on territory rarely spoken of. The relief of seeing typically serious topics framed in a way that illuminates the bizarreness of the tragedy, relieving us - for a moment - of taking a topic so seriously. But what about the psychological impact of writing our own comedies? I recently embarked on this new territory in my own life and found it to have immense therapeutic impacts, different from those of watching the comedy of others. DO TRY THIS AT HOME! So my question is, what currently is going on your life that you find hard to digest, metaphorically speaking? Is it a boss, a co-worker, a friend, a family member, a public figure, wars abroad. Now look at this situation as the bizarreness it really it - perhaps from the perspective of an alien with Spock-like logic, and Buddha-like wisdom. What do you see? Think about shows you have seen that have perhaps parodied a similar idea - for examples, the Simpsons family with an incredibly trouble making youngster and a goofy spaced out Dad. Now take out a pen and paper and express this vision.
Whatever you do, have fun and see how this process changes your feelings about the situation or person. Does it take the sting or charge out of it? Does it make you realize this situation is probably a lot more common than you think? Does it shed another layer of understanding? I'd love to hear your experiences with this! Please comment below! Example of Cartoon Therapy in ActionA great example of the cartoon therapy in action is the cartoon strip Dilbert. In real life the experience of the insanity that goes on in this comic is not fun at all (believe me!). But in the cartoon light it offers some solace. As a reader, I feel relief knowing I am not alone and get to stand back a bit and see the ridiculousness of it. For the writer, the therapy can be deeper, for it's often a direct translation and processing of their personal experiences. Interesting personal note - it was a colleague at work who shared the Dilbert character Mordac, "the Preventer of Information Services", in order to defuse a co-worker's stress about the ridiculous inefficiency of our IT department. It really helped not take it so seriously!  NOTE: with the exception of the inference that engineering models are rare (I believe there are plenty), this cartoon below is spot on.
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Today is the day a change comes your way
In the form of a scream or a soft spoken "hey." A flash on your phone, a knock on the door. Keep your mind open to receive what's in store. If only you knew, my fine feathered friend how long we've been waiting for the old story to end. So hold your thoughts still like you're holding your breath and don't worry if it feels a little like death. For today is the day a breakthrough is made when all the old patterns are peacefully laid to rest in the fields where things go to die, you laugh and you cry as you wave them goodbye and all of those things that once felt intense no longer seem big, or even make sense. What used to seem daunting's a fun little quest. Words that once stung are now taken in jest. The release of your tears burst open the doors as a river that flows to wondrous new shores and the momentum is held in the form of a wave that not even the stubbornest of thoughts can evade. As you reach the end of this strange breakthrough day it's the start of a life that's true to you in every way. This Blog Post is Rated PG-13 Stopping Gas Brings Life Fulfillment! It has been said by many a great self-help writer that one of the leading causes of emotional pain is too much G.A.S. ("Giving a Sh$%") - too much caring about what other people think. When you get rid of G.A.S. you are able to live a more fulfilled life.
Why exactly is that? you ask. Because your fulfillment depends on fulfilling your own desires and living your own dreams. If you are constantly GASing about what other people think, you are by definition not listening to your own internal guidance. Remember those dreams you had when you were young? Those ideas you've shared that perhaps others have thought were silly, a waste of time, too difficult, unrealistic, or impossible? If those are the things that bring a smile to your face then pursue them without abandon! These dreams are the uniqueness you bring to the world. Don't deprive the world of your gifts! When you let go of GAS and go with the flow, you begin to live a life of your creation, born out of your heart's desires, not someone else's. Just imagine a life of free flowing POO (Peaceful Organic Outputs), where the past releases calmly and clearly, with no hesitation or anxiety, leaving you free to live fully in the moment and create the life of your dreams. Guest Blog by: Squishy Blueberry & FriendsReality is nonsense. It's just what exists today. I know it sounds weird, but hear what I say! Reality is fleeting, no more than what seems But tomorrow, yesterday can feel like a dream. Reality is just what people's thoughts have created The things they have thought, done or just stated. The mess that you see lying on the floor, is something you made the day before. But today you can clean it to be sparky and clean! And poof! Reality changed, do you see what I mean? The mood you're in now, whether good or bad, depends on your thoughts being happy or sad. It's all quite arbitrary, and silly sometimes, to think life is fixed and engraved in time. The things you see when you walk outside, the trains and the houses, the planes in the sky. They were all once a dream in somebody's mind and through beliefs and actions they all came to life! So if reality is not what you'd like it to be, just remember it only exists as a dream… What IS is always changing, you can make your own world however you like, with bright colors and swirls. So next time you express the visions you see, and someone tells you it's a far-fetched dream. You can say with a wink and a twinkle in your eye, "All that exists was once a pie in the sky!"  "Don't just be an actor in life, reacting to life as it comes to you. Be the writer of your own story! Be the director!"
Have you heard that before? Whenever I hear versions of this I think, "But I want to be the actor….I want to experience life as it unfolds. I've spent too much of my life thinking and analyzing, I want to live!" What I realized is that we are always writing and directing our own lives…with our thoughts and beliefs, which turn to words and actions. But we may just be doing so on autopilot, not deliberately creating the life we know to be true for us, which would allow us to evolve most fully as the potential we are; but instead letting old programmed beliefs run the show. I also realized that what I really want to STOP doing, is narrating the story. That babble that runs in the background trying to make sense of everything as it unfolds, rather than really experiencing things as they unfold. That's what I mean about wanting to be the actor in my own life. I want to be the experiencer! Does that mean that we allow ourselves to float in the wind without direction? No. Of course not. We are all writing and acting out our own stories, and it doesn't have to be without direction. What I believe is that with clear visions (and writing) of what we desire to create, at least with respect to who we are now, we can lay off on the over-thinking and trying to assess everything in terms of its meaning. It's time to trust the director (the heart) and really experience our lives with a sense of wonder and awe on the adventure of life. Last week I had one of the best days since I moved to Los Angeles. I found a viable solution to a challenge I'd been working on for 4 months since I started my new day job in March. The majority of my experience so far had been shrouded in a foggy haze, full of anxiety, without any certainty - not just about the project - but about whether I really belonged at the job. This new clarity and subsequent confidence did not exactly happen over night. First, with focus and determination, I was bound to start making some breakthroughs on the project - and I had indeed experienced incremental steps in understanding things in this new world of software. However, the overall fog and lack of confidence had stayed pretty constant the first few months. Then the past couple weeks things started to shift. I began to feel more comfortable, relaxed - and at first I couldn't quite place the cause. Some of it may have been caused by a new meditation practice I recently adopted and was keeping to with some regularity. But I'm convinced it was at least equally a result of the huge change in executive leadership that happened the week before. Nothing had formally changed yet, but there was an immediate sense of clearer goals and a greater reason for the work I was doing on optimizing operational processes. As much as I like creative freedom, some structure and boundaries are really important for me to feel comfortable. [I've witnessed this same phenomena in pre-schools: the one that allowed flexibility in the timing of projects to align with the kids interests, but also had clear goals and deadlines, had happier children than the ones that were completely "free" without any structure imposed by the adults. When it's too free, there's also a lack of interaction and feedback.] But what I find really interesting, is that on this particular day I found clarity on my work project, things began very differently from the moment I woke up. My brain was quiet. I remember driving to work and noticing there were fewer thoughts in my head…and I savored it because of how good it felt, how relaxed I was, continuing to focus on keeping my mind blank. This experience to me is a testament to the power of the mind, and in this case the power of a quiet mind. The direct relationship between thoughts and experience/feelings, is undeniable. This wasn't the first time I've had this cause and effect experience. But previously what I had focused on was what caused my brain to be quiet in the first place…and usually I couldn't pin point it. It would seem to be a result of a randomly good night's sleep, or a new experience that was challenging me outside my comfort zone and therefore causing me to operate in a new gear that I didn't yet have any thoughts about. This time, though, what I noticed is that regardless of how I got to the quiet mind, the results of it were truly magical and of breakthrough proportion. And it makes me more motivated than ever to learn to clear my mind of thoughts, those buzzing incessant thoughts - that might not even be good or bad, but are just racing and anxiety-causing simply because of their speed and noise. It makes me more dedicated than ever to continue to meditate as often as possible; meditation being the one thing that can bring more lasting and deliberate change to the thought patterns. I look forward to having more and more days of quiet mind; to consistently experience this quiet mind, not just have them here and there as a result of a random good night's sleep. To freedom within boundaries and unthinking minds! I used to spend so much brain energy and time trying to solve the mysteries of the universe, trying to find a theory that could explain it all. Then it finally became clear that it's all in the mind, and I'm just going to find what I want to find.A PoemD'inkling is a thinkling about something interesting as she's on the brinkling of a life full of twinkling lights and she's winkling to all of you that are listening and open to the inkling of what's unfolding with D'inkling's delights.  While I'm preparing my next post you can visit my other blogs, Squishy Speaks and Musings for the Masses.
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Author:Amanda I. Greene This is where I share thoughtful, and sometimes unpolished, musings in the form of philosophical explorations, inspirations, poems, and artwork.
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