Hope and Healing

My agenda is to advance my vision of recovery, from whatever it is a person is in recovery from.

I’m confident that it’s possible to recover from whatever disadvantage–an illness; a setback; whatever–that has derailed you.

My message of hope and healing is what people need to hear.

Every beautiful person living on earth has the right to be endowed with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Free from hate and oppression; free to be who they are without having to live in fear.

Here’s to us square pegs in round holes.

Here’s to the dreamers among us who envision a better life for ourselves and others.

What I really intend to do in this blog is to give form to the beauty of recovery in all its definitions and manifestations.

My version is Left of the Dial.

In a coming blog entry I’ll talk about this more.

The Health Harmony Happiness Tour

The other day I got one hell of an idea: that this year in 2019 I want to act like a rock star and go on tour.

The Health Harmony Happiness Tour will take place around the globe via my excursions writing in the blog to fellow travelers.

It hit me that at its core my Left of the Dial life ethic is predicated on living in Health Harmony and Happiness.

Thus I changed the words in the subtitle at the top of this blog.

Loyal followers will remember I used to be a disc jockey on FM radio in the 1980s.
Thus the title of my memoir Left of the Dial.

As a disc jockey, you measured the intensity of the sound of the music via a VU meter. On the red in the right the sound was chaotic. On the left the sound is in balance.

As I started to think about this I realized the expression “living life in balance” is a trite overused cliche.

It hit me that the true goal should be to live in harmony.

The word harmony is rarely used and refers to a pleasing arrangement of parts or internal calm.

Thus harmony vividly describes the elements that help a person live life well.

When there’s congruence between who you are and what you do and other aspects of your life that is the key to being able to heal.

Hence living in harmony could allow a person to heal.

Living in health harmony and happiness makes sense as a viable goal in recovery.

In coming blog entries I would like to talk about this more.

I have some ideas about adopting healing habits.

There’s a lot of illness in society–all kinds not just physical–that I strive to provide a healthy place in the blog to talk about living life whole and well.

 

The Gift of Creativity

wired to create cover

The book above is the most empowering nonfiction book I’ve ever read so far.

Quite simply if you are an artist you must create your chosen art.

To encourage you to go out and buy it I’ll quote from the Apple computer 1997 advertisement featured in the book:

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.”

Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind (2015) by Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire is the most uplifting and inspiring ode to doing your own thing.

10 things highly creative people do differently involve:

Imaginative Play

Passion

Daydreaming

Solitude

Intuition

Openness to Experience

Mindfulness

Sensitivity

Turning Adversity into Advantage

Thinking Differently

Wired to Create is on par with Dark Horse: Achieving Success through the Pursuit of Fulfillment.

For any reader engaged in battle between self-doubt and confidence about their Art or your Self as the individual qualified to make this Art I say: Read this Book.

Being wired to create is a gift. What makes you different gives you an advantage.

My Vision for 2019

There’s a lot of negativity in the world.

We don’t have to dwell on the negative in our minds and in our beliefs.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about this topic in the early days of the New Year.

The Artist’s Statement I live by is this:

To act as a Chief Joy Officer to create things of beauty to share with others to make them feel good.

I urge you if you are an artist or a creator of any kind or simply a human being to focus on the positive.

I’m 53 years old. I firmly believe that dwelling on the negative is only a good way to age yourself faster.

And how do you feel interacting with a person who is bitter or judgmental about you or other people?

Spending only fifteen minutes listening to their negative beliefs has the power to drain your energy and put you in an ill mood.

My goal is to empower, educate, and entertain readers, followers, and audience members.

The lesson I offer you in all of this is:

Consider focusing on the positive.

A blogger might get thousands of followers by advancing negative rhetoric.

I’ve decided I cannot and will not water down what I write or compromise what I write to make it acceptable to millions of followers.

I will not change my cheerful voice in here.

My vision for 2019 is to write blog entries that continue to be in the vanguard.

What is the point of dwelling on the negative?

My story is not the exception to the rule.

There are others out there who have recovered and have full and robust lives doing what they love.

All my life I will advance my vision of Recovery for Everyone, from whatever it is you’re in recovery from.

In here and elsewhere I will continue to offer hope for healing the illness in society.

And I will continue to write about my latest finds at Sephora : )

 

 

 

A Merry and Bright Season to You

gmorning gnight

It can be hard when our loved ones are gone to be in the mood to celebrate.

You can read GMorning GNight to give yourself a pep talk for the year ahead.

Mark my words 2019 will be better.

The graphic above is a photo of the cover of a new poetry book.

It’s well worth buying this book to read over and over.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is the Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright of Hamilton fame.

GMorning GNight: Little Pep Talks for Me & You is a collection of his tweets he’s fired off over the years.

One GMorning and GNight serenade empowered me like nothing else I’ve ever read.

Owing to copyright I can’t rewrite what he published. Only I can tell you this: the idea that each of us is one single self is a myth. Modern psychologists have shifted their thinking. It’s thought that your personality can change over the years.

I’m so envious of Lin-Manuel Miranda that I can’t bring myself to browse his website. After reading the GMorning GNight duet I was afraid to be treated to more of this author’s greatness. Would that I could write something as insightful and empowering as Miranda’s ode to a person’s multiple selves.

Who’s hanging out inside me today? What thoughts are spinning around in there? Where have I been and where am I going?

These are the questions I ask after having read this empowering book.

My goal is to have my own version of a literary career. What Miranda does on the stage I want to do on the page.

I hope in the spring to have good news about the second nonfiction book I’ve written.

Right now I’m going to promote the work of other authors I admire.

Even though Lin-Manuel Miranda is famous he seems like a nice guy.

Do yourself a favor and read GMorning GNight.

It brought me such cheer to read it that I want to pass this on.

Cheap and Cheerful

lipstick rise up rose

For $9 a tube of lipstick is cheap and cheerful in this holiday season.

I was in a drugstore and decided to browse the Revlon display in search of one of the few lipsticks I’ve liked from this brand.

Instead of getting the Rose Velvet I snatched up this tube in a shade called Rise Up Rose. It is a matte lipstick in the new line of Revlon Matte offerings.

To my surprise the color is fabulous. I took a risk buying it because nearly all the time I chanced to take home an impulse buy from the drugstore the lipstick looked awful on me.

Hint: if you share my coloring Warm Me Up by Maybelline just won’t do. Nor will any beige, brown, orange, or coral shades.

The secret to success in the makeup aisle is to know your undertone and search for shades that match it.

I’ve been tested out as a Winter – and what the Visual Therapy founders call a Star:

I have ivory skin with a cool undertone and dark brown eyes and black hair.

Thus cool colors look better on me than warm colors.

You can take the Color Type quiz in the Life in Color book to find out whether you have a warm or cool color type.

Forget sending and receiving greeting cards with generic Peace on Earth and Joy to the World messages.

The real joy is to be had in doing good for others and for yourself.

Do yourself a favor: buy a new tube of lipstick to brighten your spirits.

Send out Christmas cards if that would make you happy.

At this time of year when loved ones who are gone are missing from the table:

I approve of doing anything healthy that sparks joy.

 

Living for Today

I’ve figured out that becoming happier is possible when you commit to living for today.

What you want to achieve could be far off on the horizon.

Having gratitude for where you are in your life in the present moment is the antidote to the holiday blues.

Again it can be as simple as going to a clothing store and trying on items that fit and flatter. This can put you in a good mood.

It’s possible to be happy right here right now.

Regardless of what your bank account balance is. Regardless of whether you’re single or part of a couple. Regardless of whatever pain you’re in.

You can still be happy even when your life hasn’t gone the way you planned.

I’ve figured out that living life on life’s terms not my terms is the way to feel happy.

Doing this it won’t matter that life isn’t fair.

Life can be good living in recovery. You can have a better life post-breakdown than you had before the illness.

In the coming blog entry I want to spread more cheer.

Enjoying being yourself is the secret to having a good life.

I’ll talk more about how to become happier.

Sometimes you just have to slow down and pace yourself.

Today is the greatest day. It’s the only one we have.

Obtaining Confidence

venus williams

Last week Venus WIlliams wrote an article in the New York Times about the 3 factors in obtaining confidence.

When you don’t feel good about yourself and your prospects it can be hard to have confidence.

At 53 I haven’t yet gotten what I wanted. My love and literary prospects haven’t panned out yet. Operative word in the last sentence: yet.

Venus Williams is on to something when she eschewed setting goals in favor of asking yourself: “Do I feel good?” This makes perfect sense to me.

The question “Do I feel good?” is relevant to whether you succeed.

The Dark Horse authors whose book I wrote about in the Flourish blog think achieving success doesn’t lead to happiness–it’s the pursuit of fulfillment that makes you happy.

Again, it’s the process not the outcome that counts.

Which ultimately reinforces my perpetual claim that fashion isn’t frivolous. If you feel good, you’re empowered to take on the world.

In terms of the fashion freedom I hinted at in a recent blog entry I don’t think you can feel good in ill-fitting clothes that aren’t becoming on you.

To know your style and flaunt it guarantees you will be a success in whatever you do.

If you don’t feel good–about what you’re wearing; about the people you’re working with; about an aspect of yourself or your life–you have the power to change this.

This is the truth: you can be happy even when you haven’t achieved the goals you set for yourself. Venus Williams is right and she’s a champion: the goals are irrelevant.

In the coming blog entry I’ll talk about living for today, which is the ultimate method for feeling good.

Downtown Train

green coat

This is the coat that proves my point that fashion isn’t frivolous.

Wherever I go people compliment me on the coat. Even a homeless guy (I kid you not) told me: “That’s an attractive coat.”

It’s from J.Crew and was touted as peacock green. I used a 25 percent off coupon code to buy it.

The coat seems to put others in a good mood when I wear it.

I boarded the downtown train. Clutched the pole near the door because it was standing room only.

After two stops I felt a hand on my sleeve. I turned around thinking it was someone who knew me wanting to say hello.

A guy standing nearby motioned to a newly empty seat. “Thank you.” I sat down.

As soon as I arrived home I installed the Tom Waits song “Downtown Train” in my iTunes library. Waits’ gravelly voice is like no other.

I was touched that a stranger didn’t take the empty seat for himself. Such acts of human kindness restore my faith in the inherent goodness of people.

Is hate learned? I don’t think people are born hating. It comes from seeing others as competition. I talked about the American pie metaphor years ago in this blog: how everyone’s grabbing not just for their fair share, but bigger and bigger slices at the expense of allowing others to have their slices.

The scarcity mindset (Brene Brown wrote about it in one of her books) is alive and well. This mindset is reinforced when citizens are allowed to go hungry. When others are told they must compete to get into elite colleges. When any number of prerequisites are imposed for obtaining success.

There’s a better way. There’s a way out of the fear of not having enough or being enough.

It starts with practicing gratitude. It continues with having compassion.

As we head into the holidays I want to give some insight in this blog that I think can empower readers.

A quote goes like this: gratitude is when what you have is enough.

Especially at this time of year a lot of us can be depressed. My goal is to help readers feel good.

It comes down to slowing down and stopping to smell the American beauties of life.

Seeing the beauty in yourself and others is a way to feel merry and bright. Good people are out there. Kind people are out there.

In the next blog entry I’ll quote a star athlete who riffs on feeling good in the guest column she wrote in the New York Times this week.

 

Becoming Michelle Obama

m obama

I read this book in three days. I had always thought Michelle Obama was a class act. You don’t have to take my word for this though. In her memoir she proves for a fact that she is brilliant.

I’ll quote from the book to encourage readers to go out and buy it.

Obama quotes her husband:

“You may live in the world as it is, but you can still work to create the world as it should be.”

No kidding. That’s what I’ve been trying to do as an Advocate: first when I challenged the mental health staff’s expectations of what they thought I could do – by daring to think I could achieve my goals. Then when I started to advocate for others to dare dream that a better life was possible for them.

Obama then reveals:

“So many of us go through life with our stories hidden, feeling ashamed or afraid when our whole truth doesn’t live up to some established ideal.”

Hence why I’ve always hailed Rite Aid cashiers.

I’ll end here with Obama’s wisdom:

“For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.”

We can’t stop believing that progress is possible for ourselves and our nation.

United we stand; divided we fall.