Yesterday, in my Coping and Healing Group, we tried to go beyond time in a mindfulness exercise. I suggested that people go beyond their usual focus on time (what time is it? how much time has passed? how much time do I have?) and stay in the moment.
One of the group members had their volume turned down and did not hear the chime to end the mindfulness, so they thought the exercise had gone way beyond time. Other people spoke about how difficult it was to go beyond time in one’s mind.
I may have gone beyond time in this introduction, so here are my images for today.
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The Daily Bitch is beyond time.
Here’s what I find when I look for “beyond time” on YouTube;
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And here’s my song about going beyond time — “Stay in the Moment.”
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Thanks to everyone who has taken the time for this beyond-time post, including YOU!
Because I sometimes, for moments, feel sorry for myself, I am not sorry to share today’s Daily Bitch Calendar.
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Now I’m feeling sorry for myself because (1) sitting there feeling sorry for yourself does NOT burn calories, (2) my ankle is painful and swollen after walking long distances yesterday, (3) my jaw is still clicking, (4) I have a bruise on my finger because (I assume) I was holding the sticks incorrectly when playing the drums waiting for my teacher who never showed up on Sunday, and (5) I have to check my blood again this morning again because my INR was too low last time.
Okay! Time to stop feeling sorry for myself and share my other images for today.
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On Make Your Own Head Day, I shall get out of my own head and stop feeling sorry for myself.
Yesterday, when I asked a question on Twitter (Question: Why change a well-established and friendly brand name like Twitter to something like “X”?), somebody called me “Question Diva.”
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I like the title “Question Diva” because, indeed, I have lots of questions, including
Why is there so much inhumanity in the world?
What can I do about it?
How do people stay sane amid all the insanity?
How can we work together to save ourselves?
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Last night, Question Diva talked to her show biz coach about how difficult it was to ask questions when she suspected the answer would be “no.” So we role-played my asking an amazing musician to play with me on my album of original songs, with my coach responding both positively and negatively. Question Diva now feels better equipped to ask those kinds of questions.
Question Diva would now like to ask you to look at her other images for today.
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Here and now, Question Diva has these questions;
Why was it so difficult for me to upload those images into this blog post?
When we discuss the wide range of human coping strategies (from meditation to mountain climbing), my husband Michael often says, “Whatever gets you from A to B.”
That gets me to this: “Why only B? How about getting from A to Z?”
Whatever. That gets me to this definition from the Free Dictionary:
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Yesterday I got from A (our home on the South Shore of Boston) to B (Boston and the hospital where I work in person on Mondays), and then from B to A.
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Cats often get me from A to B to C, so happy International Cat Day!
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Here’s what I find when I search YouTube for “whatever gets you from A to B.”
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Thanks to all who get me from A to B to C, etc., including my husband, our cats, the MBTA Ferry, my co-workers and patients, the Daily Bitch, John Lennon, and YOU!
These days, it’s difficult to identify one thing that frightens me, because there are so many frightening things out there.
What frightens me on this day includes
the increase in COVID cases and death,
COVID deniers,
anti-maskers,
large gatherings of people,
systemic racism,
climate change,
the state of the world,
the state of my country,
crazy conspiracy theories,
the number of people who believe crazy conspiracy theories,
Trump’s increasingly outrageous behaviors, and
people who do not call out outrageous behaviors.
Is there one thing that frightens you in my latest photos?
Has that cow been frightened off of its base?
Things that frighten you, me, and others have inspired my new song, entitled “What’s Your Fear, My Dear?” for my frighteningly ambitious new project, Therapy: The Musical. I plan to work on my first musical during the dark and frightening weeks of the New England winter.
One thing that does NOT frighten me is sharing my ideas here, so here are some lyrics from “What’s Your Fear, My Dear?”
Last week, Human Resources at work sent me an email stating that if I had not filed for unemployment benefits (I had not), my identity had been stolen. Because I had heard previously that our work email system might have been hacked, I doubted the identity of the emailer and wrote back “Why should I believe YOU?” The HR person validated my concern and offered to prove her identity by calling me. In that phone call, we established that, indeed, my identity had been stolen.
As I looked into the theft of my identity, I discovered that it had been stolen TWO YEARS AGO. All this time, I’ve been blissfully ignorant of my identity theft, even though part of my identity has been preparing and protecting myself from trouble.
In the past, when I’ve heard that somebody’s identity had been stolen, I’ve reacted with worry, concern, and fear that this might someday happen to me. Now that my identity has been stolen, I am happy to identify that I am still me, doing what needs to be done, surviving it all, and remaining hopeful about the future.
As a matter of fact, my identity theft has seemed so insignificant to me — compared to the attempted theft of the identity of my country — I haven’t mentioned it here on my blog, until now.
Because part of my identity is to define my terms, here’s a definition of identity:
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Do you see identity in any of my other recently captured images?
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I can’t wait for the day when we stop obsessing about the identity of Donald Trump and focus on much more important identities.
If you have panic attacks, you are not alone, as you can see by today’s Daily Bitch Calendar.
When people have panic attacks, they often share them with me, because I’m a group and individual therapist. When my husband Michael and I have panic attacks, we share them with each other. Luckily, Michael and I often have panic attacks on alternating days — when he’s panicking I’m usually feeling calm and hopeful and when I’m panicking he’s usually feeling hopeful and calm.
To reduce panic attacks, I breathe, blog, take long walks (masked!) , listen to music, read books, watch funny movies and videos, spend time with calming creatures, search for meaning (on the internet and elsewhere), eat delicious nutritious food, dwell on hope, and take photos.
I’m happy to report that for now, thanks to the kindness of strangers, family, and friends, I’ve stopped having panic attacks about
That reminds me … To reduce panic attacks over the upcoming dark and scary months, I’ll be working on something called Therapy: The Musical. Stay tuned.
Reducing panic attacks includes sharing thoughts and feelings, so I hope you share in a comment below.
Also, gratitude attacks beat out panic attacks, so thanks to all who help me attack a new blog post every day, including YOU.
Here and now, I’m paying attention to these quotes about paying attention:
“The right way to begin is to pay attention to the young, and make them just as good as possible.” — Socrates
“Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes.” — Antisthenes
“If you’re not nervous then you’re not paying attention.” — Miles Davis
“If you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention.” — Tom Peters
“The difference between hearing and listening is paying attention.” — Ruth Messinger
“If you pay attention to when you are hungry, what your body wants, what you’re eating, when you’ve had enough, you end the obsession because obsession and awareness cannot coexist.” — Geneen Roth
“When you really pay attention, everything is your teacher.” — Ezra Bayda
“All you have to do is pay attention: lessons always arrive when you are ready, and if you can read the signs, you will learn everything you need to know in order to take the next step.” —Paulo Coelho
“The universe is full of noise. True wisdom is in knowing what to pay attention to.” — Debasish Mridha
“Pay more attention to the silence than to the sounds. Paying attention to outer silence creates inner silence: the mind becomes still. A portal is opening up.” — Eckhart Tolle
“Pay attention to the little things. They’re more important than you think.” — Matt Gutierrez
“Don’t beg for attention; pay attention to your dreams and others will pay attention to you.” — Israelmore Ayivor
“People will reveal who they are if you just pay attention.” — Germany Kent
“Pay attention to the gentle ones, the ones who can hold your gaze with no discomfort, the ones who smile to themselves while sitting alone in a coffee shop, the ones who walk as if floating. Take them in and marvel at them. Simply marvel. It takes an extraordinary person to carry themselves as if they do not live in hell.” — D. Bunyavong
“Pay attention to what you don’t see.” — Tia DeShay
“Pay attention to the beauty surrounding you.” — Anne Lamott
“The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.” — Keanu Reeves
“You’ll have bad times. But that’ll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren’t paying attention to.” — Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting
“Difficulties come when you don’t pay attention to life’s whisper. Life always whispers to you first, but if you ignore the whisper, sooner or later you’ll get a scream.” — Oprah Winfrey
“Paying attention is the most basic and profound expression of love.” —Tara Brach
“The greatest act of love is to pay attention.” — Diane Sawyer
“Every single person has a story that will break your heart. And if you’re paying attention, many people have a story that will bring you to your knees. Nobody rides for free.” — Brené Brown
“I understand now that I’m not a mess but a deeply feeling person in a messy world. I explain that now, when someone asks me why I cry so often, ‘For the same reason I laugh so often — because I’m paying attention.’ ” — Glennon Doyle
“But when we observe, we are forced to pay attention. We have to move from passive absorption to active awareness. We have to engage.” — Maria Konnikova
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” — Mary Oliver
Now it’s time to be paying attention to my latest photos.
If you’re paying attention, you might notice a typo in that job description. What else are you paying attention to?
