Thankfulness

There are a lot of studies that report how important gratitude is. Happiness, relationships, health, and more are all said to be improved by being thankful.

It sounds kind of hokey, but I think there's a truth to it. I have a lot to be thankful for. I always have. Lately, however, I've been realizing it more. Enumerating it more. Acting on it more. Thanking people more.

I'm thankful for my family, both legal and fictive.
I'm thankful for my education and the opportunity to further it.
I'm thankful for old friends.
I'm thankful for new friends.
I'm thankful for the opportunity to catch up with people.
I'm thankful that I have the means to live a life I enjoy living.
I'm thankful that I don't have serious adversity to face.
I'm thankful for the gratitude of others.

I'm thankful for comfy sweaters.

 I'm thankful for autumn colors.

The list goes on. And with every item I list, I feel more grateful and I feel happier and I feel more at peace. I don't know if it's realizing what I have, or just thinking about good things, or something beyond. Regardless, it's a wonderful result.

So, in a month that includes a holiday based around thankfulness, I suggest you take time to thank someone for something they've done, post a message (on facebook, on your blog, etc.) about things for which you're thankful, or even just say to yourself something for which you're grateful. Do it for others, and do it for yourself.

Being Nervous

I've found that (for me, at least) situations are never as bad as I expect them to be. This plays out over and over. I always thoroughly remind myself of this after I get of the situation, and I remind myself the next time I'm nervous about something. I never seem to believe myself.

I'll rehearse the words I want to say in the situation over and over in my head. I'll imagine how I'll be standing and what expression will be on my face. Yet, I get into the situation and don't use any of the words (or anything similar), everything goes by the wayside...and it still comes out okay.

I don't know if I'm incredibly lucky or if I just have an exceptionally overactive (and negative!) imagination. Either way, I will keep on reminding myself that that interview or that conversation I need to have or even that flu shot won't be as bad as I'm expecting.

Maybe one day it will stick.

How do you approach situations that make you nervous? Do you have things that you do to help make it better?

If I Had One Stupid Power...

It would be the ability to make my phone ring at-will. I'd have to be careful to not overuse it because I don't want to be rude, but think of how useful it could be!

That annoying coworker has cornered you for the 8th time this week (and it's only Tuesday) to tell you about how the government is putting microchips in our peanut butter? "Oh, hey, I'm so sorry, I've got to take this!"

Shop staff keep following you around and trying to sell you tea services that you really don't want or need and couldn't afford anyway and won't take "I'm just browsing, thank you" for an answer? "This is super important, I'm sorry!"

It would probably be the most useful non-useful power ever!

I have no idea what I'd want for a real, useful power, though. Obviously, it wouldn't be this; I'd want something that could benefit people other than just myself and that would be useful for years to come.

What about you? What would your stupid power be? How about your useful power?

True Stories

...That are funnier the less you know. But people almost always ask for explanations and it's just like when someone doesn't understand a joke and it just ruins it. So maybe from now on I will just not elucidate.


Late one Friday night, one rugby player tackled another rugby player and held him down so I could pet the said tackled player's hair. I declined.

At some relatively rural Burger King somewhere outside of Buffalo, NY, I was sitting and eating with friends when suddenly a trout dropped into my lap. (I very politely returned the trout and went back to eating.)

One day I went to the park and got a personal bagpipe concert.

I was sitting with my boyfriend and he got up, so I asked him to get me a drink of water. He came back a minute or two later (without water), deposited a puppy in my lap, and walked back out.

I came home from a class late one night and was tackled to the floor by a hysterical Norwegian nearly as soon as I got through the door.

I accidentally broke into the library and only realized that I'd done so when the person I thought was a librarian turned out to be on the custodial staff.

Boredom

Is boredom an emotion?

One of my professors called it that today and it just doesn't seem quite right. I mean, in a cognitive definition, I guess it could be but I don't think that I consider it an emotion.

But what do I consider it?

Maybe a state of being? Unconscious, conscious and occupied/interested, or conscious but bored? That doesn't seem to be it either.

State of mind? That's pretty close to an emotion. Although "New York" isn't an emotion and we're told that that can be a state of mind.

I think that state of mind might be the closest. And it may vary from person to person. I have friends who get bored if they're stuck waiting at the doctor's office for ten minutes. I also have friends who could stay in that same office for hours without feeling bored. I'm not sure if it's the way people are raised or just their brain's MO, but there's a definite difference.

So that's what I'll be pondering this week.

What do you think? Is boredom an emotion? If not, what is it? Why do some people experience it more acutely than others? Can you change it?