Peter Pan, Red Bull, and Julia

But Peter, how do we get to Neverland?
Fly of course.
Fly?
It's easy...you think of a wonderful thought.
Any happy little thought?
Uh-huh.
Like toys at Christmas? Sleighbells? Snow?
Yep. Watch me now, here I go. It's easier than pie.





The challenge of my life is to find out how far I can take it.




(I am amused and excited that I figured out how to embed the video...unfortunately, I don't know how to stop the auto-play. Advice welcome...until that's fixed, accept my apologies for the music until I bury the entry. hahahaha)

I met Julia last Wednesday. She is a life coach who offered a freebie program that I really appreciated. The first slide in the PowerPoint presentation was:

80% of Americans polled do not feel passionate about their lives.
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. ~Henry David Thoreau
WHY NOT BE IN THE 20%?

One of Julia's posits was about stress. The human body evolved to react to stress in ways meant to warn us something was wrong and to protect us against threats from predators and other aggressors. Such threats are rare today, but that doesn't mean that life is free of stress.

On the contrary, I face multiple demands each day, such as shouldering a huge choreload, making ends meet, taking care of the family, or just making it through the morning routines. Because these all stress me out, my body treats these minor hassles as threats. As a result, I feel as if I am constantly under assault.

Perhaps all the underlying stress and anxiety is because I am not on the "right" path, and my body is screaming at me to PAY ATTENTION. There is a reason to engage and share passions: it feels good and decreases stress. It falls back into the concept that you can't give 100% if you aren't at 100%; that you MUST put self-care first if you want to care for anyone else. *wry smile* How many times do I need to have this hammered into my thick skull before I embrace it?

There are lots more bits that I am still simmering, but the program closed with three challenges:

• Daily happy thought
  
• Weekly passion activity
  
• Random acts of kindness

Starting with a happy thought was where the Peter Pan and Red Bull openings came from. How much is possible when we are inspired, passionate, happy? Originally I was going to say "forget Red Bull" as a tease about the wings commercials, but the video excited me. I want to know how far I can go!

My happy today is that I am on the verge of a break-though. I can FEEL it. I'm not sure what it IS yet...but I can feel it! I'm hopeful!