My Happy Manual: Part 3- Youtube movies that guarantee a :)

OK... so this is a little lighter than my other happy tips. This is a quick fix and is great for when you're having a bad day. I mean really, tell me if you can't help but laugh when you see these clips! Be creative, Youtube things that make you laugh. It's fun! First up is babies. There are a bajillion baby movies out there and they are HILARIOUS. Check them out. There's so many good ones!

Baby animals are totally great too. Whether they make you laugh or go AWWW really loudly, they are sure to perk up your day!

OR, you can watch movies that are impressive and show that there is talent in humanity. Watch "Britain's Got Talent" if you want to continue on this line

OR, if you're having a bad driving day, like me every single time, watch people who drive worse! (*I am not prejudiced against women driver, I can just relate). lol.

There's also good ol' comedians who love to make people laugh.

Or if relationships have got you down (whether you're in one or not) maybe getting ready for one or listening to how to do better once you're there is the way to brighten your mood.This one is a little more serious, but in the long run it could make you a lot happier.


Let's end on a happy note:

That's all I can think of at the moment. Comment and tell me what Youtube clips make YOU happy. Be careful though, time can fly when you're watching little babies laugh their little tummies off :) lol... good times.

WHEN EXAMS ARE OVER

You've done it. It's the moment you've finished. You're a million hours behind on sleep, you haven't showered in a while, your room looks like it's been hit with Redbull- injected gremlins and you're down to your last pair of mis-matched socks. If you've come to this point, if you've past the days of eating food that makes your body cry "why?!" and finally realize that you won't need to spend another day cooped up inside when the sun is just starting to peek out in the sky, then congratulations...

                 You

                       Are
                          FREE !!

Your brain may be exploded and exhausted. Slowly but surely everything you crammed in there is seeping out back into the abyss from whence it came. Your notes may be burned, tucked away in a box in the basement where it will sit unread for all eternity (*cough DAD*) or you will manage to organize it at some point in the future... most likely not for a long time....

because now is the time for celebration...  (*please do so responsibly*)

Now is the time to sleep, to catch up on those long-forgotten hours of social life that were beginning to crust over with disuse. Now is the time to catch up on the sanitary things that have been neglected--  to start on the mountain of dishes that have accumulated because you are the only one who will do them. Now is the time to limit the hours of facebook you did while desperately trying to procrastinate diving into those notes that bored you to tears. Now is your time. 

Whether you're working or taking more courses or taking time off, there's something beautiful about surviving another batch of exams and starting something new.

So, enjoy the sun (and the rain and the hail), read books that YOU want to read and spend your time well because before you know it, it will be next term and the business will start all over again.

But for now,

Savour this moment. 

 

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Matthew 11: 28-30
  ²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

My Happy Manual: Part 2- Lovin' others

Warning: this article may include counter-intuitive thinking and may or may not blow your mind from it's true yet completely unoriginal content.... reader participation is advised...

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If you live in the lower mainland of BC, you'll be used to days and days of rain. The character of Forest in the movie "Forest Gump" describes the various types of rain he encounters while in Vietnam and I can't help but think that we could one-up even him. I mean, we have our "big ol' fat rain", the rain that is part-hail part-wet, the rain that makes your hair become frizzy the moment you walk out of the door and after the bajillionth day in a row it can get a little depressing. So, here's my second tip on keeping your life a little brighter when the sun isn't wanting to shine (or it is bipolar like the weather we've had lately).

My first tip was to be thankful because it really helps to break the negative cycle when you see it start to form, my second is an additionally useful tool that will hopefully not only turn your frown upside down but might even help out the town!

Our culture is constantly emphasizing treating yourself. And it's nice to get a new outfit or to have that treat or to do whatever it is that you do for you. I have those things... you have those things... and they are probably pretty awesome... but not very long lasting. I mean, new outfits get old... and treats, well, it's a lot harder getting them off of you once they're on (Ladies, you know what I mean!)

Now, a way to save your pocket book and your thighs, is one amazing old tip straight from the Bible....are you ready for it...

drum roll (funny fact, I can't roll my tongue... like "roll up the rim", I just can't... if you can, go for the drum roll)

Here it is...

Love other people. What?

Love other people. Yo!

Love. Other. People

Not go make out with the next stranger....

That would be kind of weird...

When I say love I mean the following. This is out of the Bible but I promise you it's good stuff... Imagine people treating you like this and how different the world would be (ladies, imagine this embodied in a guy and don't tell me you aren't interested! Guys, I'm pretty sure this is just as appealing for you... just imagine the word "love" being your love)

 "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
 Love never fails." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)

I know I've been dragging these blogs on and you are probably crazy busy right now but hear me out, it's almost over, I promise...

When you start to love other people, in my experience, it is crazy energizing. Whether it's telling a friend how much you love them on facebook or serving people who need help or letting something go that you always rub in another person's face because you want to hurt them... just let it go.
Encourage, forgive and love... try it. I dare you. See if giving a homeless person something to eat or giving someone a hug ... just see if it doesn't make any difference. I heard that 10 hugs a day makes you a more fulfilled person. I don't know how they would have tested that, but the times in my life where I've felt loved and supported and cared for have been the happiest times in my life. Love without bitterness and don't over exhaust yourself with worrying or work... treat yourself if you want, but loving is going to make a much bigger impact and it will never get old, cost you money or make you fat... pretty neat deal eh?

So, when the rain is pouring, your hair is crazy frizzy and you have no idea what to wear because the weather just can't make up its mind, try givin' a little love and see if it doesn't bring some joy to your day :)

My Happy Manual: part 1- Thankfulness

I smile a lot. It's kind of my natural state. Today I was about to write an exam and my instructor stopped, the exam mid-air between her hand and mine, and looked at me with a sort of perplexed, surprised look and said, "My, don't you look chipper!" All the while I was just trying to remember all the facts that I would soon need to spill over those pages. The funny thing was, my exam directly before that one was a crash-and-burn sort of experience. You know the ones. The ones where in the multiple choice words show up that you swear you've never seen or others that you recognize and all you can do is pound your brain to try and remember what the page looked like that it was written on. And then came the essay questions...

Suffice to say, I didn't necessarily have any reason to be particularly happy, and yet I was smiling without realizing it.

I wasn't on auto-drive, although I've been there many a time. Besides, the auto-drive face of a student is generally less smiley and more distant, that of confuzzlement or sleep deprivation or the "I'm ignoring you" face that the ear-phone wearers always have. Neither was it the fake-it-until-you-make-it smiles that people put on to hide how they are really doing. I've been there too, but today that was not the case.

I've been trying a little experiment.

Even though I am generally a pretty optimistic person, I have crash days... even the occasional crash week where it has been raining for the bajillionth day in a row and nothing seems to be going right and I have a cold or my friends are all busy or I haven't taken time to have some heart-to-heart talks with God (or any quiet time for that matter)... but on those days I've started thinking...

In order to be sad, there's a cycle that generally happens. Let's call it the ME ME ME cycle. Like a record that goes around and around in your head about all the things you have going wrong or what so-and-so did or what you have to do... and it can become a pity-fest pretty fast. And our friends, well friends are programmed to enable that very cycle. They'll say something to make you feel better but really they don't want to hear you complain so they will either agree that your situation sucks or they'll just switch the topic to how bad things are for THEM... then you just help each other's record keep going as you try to out complain the other person...

but that doesn't really help, and as a happy person that hasn't always been this way, that cycle can just leave you feeling kind of miserable... although getting off your chest what's bugging you can sometimes help.

But, to nip that in the bud, to help you feel better before you let all that bad stuff get to you, here's what I've found to be helpful.

Here's my Lindsay-guarantee. If you are feeling like the world is mean and no one can possibly get what you're going through, start listing out what you are thankful for. Say what? That sounds too simple! Naw, naw just hear me out. Be thankful and don't just stop after one or two or three things. Take a while. See if it doesn't lift your mood.

I have to bus to my university so I challenge myself to list out stuff until I get there. They don't have to be deep or clever. They can be simple. I pray when I make my list because I believe in God and I believe that the only reason we have Good things is because God chose to give them to us. It says in the Bible in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." That doesn't sound half bad eh? And if he has good plans for us, it helps to notice them. There's always something good to be found, even if it's "thanks that I got to eat mac and cheese today" or "thanks that I don't live in a war-torn country" or "thanks that the Canucks won"... try it... I DARE you.

Because, when you start to think of all the ways that you are blessed, it really does help. It brakes that negative cycle and takes the pressure off. I love to pray it because that's some precious time talking to someone I know is listening, who appreciates me, knows EXACTLY what's going on in my life and loves me. Also, it helps to trust that God can help make things better, because there's a lot of junk out there that we can't change ourselves.

So, try it. Right now. Ya, you heard me. Stop your craziness and make your list. Listen to nice music or write it down. It's up to you. But it's only when you're thankful that you'll ever be able to be happy. I mean, you never hear happy people going around saying how much they hate their life and how terrible everything is. But you can find people going through the worst things ever but are positive and as happy as they can be.

Let me know how it goes :)

Stay tuned for part 2- serving and loving other people.

The Process of Progress (with an ocean theme too!)

Life's in a great big hurry isn't it? There's some pretty strong currents out there that just sort of sweep you up. Like the "busy" current. There's hardly a person I talk to that doesn't respond to an inquiry of how they are with "busy," 

unless, that is, they give the generic "good" which is rarely the truth of the matter... 
          (there are so many more interesting words than "good" out there in our modern vernacular when it comes to how one is doing. If you ever catch me saying "good" to a question of how I am SOMETHING is up and I give you permission to interrogate me further  (but really, I'm pretty an open book and I do take delight in talking so, if you're patient, you'll get a good story and a bajillion tangents). Like this one right now. I was talking about how busy life is and here I am analyzing the responses of people to "How are you?" Don't be surprised if I do this... I write like I talk and I talk in every direction!


But isn't that like life? All over the place. There are things to see, do, contemplate and experience. It's a gongshow... at least sometimes


When I graduated from high school, I was convinced that life was A great, BIG ocean. When you're a kid, if you have a nice childhood, it's like you're a little fish in a happy little fishbowl with food that comes seemingly from nowhere and everything is reasonably safe... there's colourful pebbles... you might even have a castle... 

but then again your experience might be like that of any fish that meets "Darla"... the young, crazy kid in "Finding Nemo" who shakes the fishbowl to the detriment of the fish. Pretty much the Godzilla of the tamed-fish world. Maybe your parents split up or you were bullied in school or things were just plain bad... make whatever fish analogy fits your story... We all have a "Darla" that makes things difficult or dangerous...

Well, when I was in high school I was the safe happy fish in the fishbowl, with a middle class fish castle and food in ma bellay... but then came adulthood... and I was expecting it to be as if my family took my little safe little bowl, brought it to the big ol' ocean and dumped me in. Like SURPRISE! HERE'S Life! DON'T LET THE SHARKS EAT YA! 

It wasn't quite like that ...

but life is sort of like an ocean...


Whether the great big blue is all the things you want to do or all the things you don't know or all the pressure on you to get things just right... we're thrown into this world and we have to figure out an awful lot on our own. If you have friends, family and faith, those things all help-- but the pressures out there won't go away...  telling you (or yelling at you), saying how you need to be successful, what you need to own, what you need to experience, how you need to look, and who you ought to be...


We're swept up in the current. We're busy. We're trying to make things work and get through life with as much good as it has to offer. 


But it can be hard.


There's scary stuff out there.


Funny fact: I can't swim alone in the ocean without the "Jaws" music going though my head...

                        ...True story... not fun...

 BUT, there are awesome things that we grow to love, experience, explore and treasure. Lately I have been so blessed by the friends that I have and how much joy it is to feel loved and supported... like having a net that makes the sharks seem so far away... and even when things get crazy busy and we're trying to figure out our way in this world, there's some things we need to remember not to miss in the process...

So, this blog that I'm attempting to write in my crazy, study-burdened mid-exam mind is my attempt at giving an insight into my side of the ocean. I've got some pretty fun goals lined up, some things worth saying and some random tid bits in-between.  Life's in a great big hurry. It's a process of learning and growing and cutting out things and putting in things. It's a beautiful time and a hard time. But it's limited. What time I have I want to make count.


So, welcome to my blog. One of a million bajillion out there. If you read it, I will be pretty stoked, not going to lie. Life is huge. There's so many questions out there, so many things to hope for. My greatest joy in life is my faith, which I can't help but talk about because when you experience something AWESOME you can't help but share it. 


But, ya, this is my process of progress. my blog. Prepare for a wild ride...