Happy Friday Series Archives - Page 10 of 11

The Happy Friday Series: Smiles From Alaska

02/22/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Our The Happy Friday Series continues with a steady stream of guest authors I am so delighted to welcome and appreciate (I hope you do, too). Today, we’re happy to warmly greet Ms. Amber-Lee Dibble aka Alaska Chick aka Pioneer Outfitters (got any more brands I missed, Amber-Lee? Heh, that’s a years-long joke between us smilers.) Amber-Lee is the voice and face of Chisana, Alaska. She lures wild-westers to the remote Alaska expanse of these 50 states with images of wild-game hunting, frozen tundras navigable only by snow machines, and cozy fires with all the kids and hot chocolate. She’s one of the most admirable bloggers I know, and she can spin a yarn…see what she has to say today about happy!

Amber-Lee Dibble

Amber-Lee Dibble Says:

I was invited to Jayme’s #RockHot Happy Friday Series to share a little of the happiness I have found in Alaska.

Now, Jayme really is pretty wiley because she is well aware how much I actually dislike Friday’s in general, but I must admit, this series has given me a few smiles too, so I’ll pay my dues this week.

Happy, happiness, happily.

Despite what stories and fairy tales may lead one to believe, happiness isn’t sprinkled over your aura by magic. It isn’t something that happens to you. YOU, are the magic, YOU are the only one who can create it.

Do you know what makes you happy? Aside from the big deal, the win, the things you’ve worked so hard for, do you know what so many people have forgotten or don’t realize?

The Little Things

It’s the little things. They are called “Little things” because they are so easy, and we tend to take them for granted.

A smile, from a complete stranger, has the power (almost like magic!) to pull a smile from you in return, from a busy and preoccupied mind, worried about the sick children, worried about the bills and if you are going to be late for that meeting you are headed to; that is the power of a smile.

We are taught that we have to work hard, even struggle for what is important in life. A smile is so easy, it’s like breathing, so it must not be important, right? Wrong. A smile is the most powerful piece of magic we have to call our own.

I read an interesting statistic as I was fiddling around the other day, online. It is estimated that we, as humans, have about 60,000 thoughts a day. How many of those, I wonder, are happy thoughts?

There are endless sources of advice on how to be happy and they all have one thing in common; they don’t cost a thing.

Pioneer Outfitters’ Amazing Amber-Lee Dibble

Look For the Bright Side

No matter how bad things can get, tomorrow always comes with another chance. Maybe not a complete “do-over” but with an entire day of opportunity, to do something, to meet someone, to see something, hear something…
Forgive.Yourself and others.

Forgiveness is a HUGE gift. To yourself and to others. Holding something dark inside yourself is like going out and asking for cancer. It eats at you, physically and emotionally. Forgive the pain, forgive the mistake, forgive the bad or evil done. Forgive it all, remember the lesson(s) it taught you and just let it go. Let. It. Go.

Be grateful.

Gratitude is a beautiful thing. Appreciate what you do have. Even if is only that you woke up this morning, remember the whole day could be a downpour of blessings. It is more than saying thank you to someone holding the door, it is a sense of appreciation and wonder to the life that offers you this kindness.

Take care of you.

Yes, I am going to say it. Exercise. People who get outside, breathe, move around, go for a walk, take a ride or work out are happier. Why? Because they feel good. They are healthier. Eating right, resting and exercising makes you feel that wonderful thing called happiness. Your body deserves to be happy too!

Smile!
There are studies that insist that smiling (the movement caused by the muscles in your face) elevates your mood. It is absolutely contagious and smiles cause (yes, causes) happiness and happiness creates more smiles!

And lastly, remember that you are not alone in this thing we call life. There are people just waiting to meet you, waiting for the day to change your life, waiting for the day that you will change theirs.

Be happy. It’s Friday.

P.S. Did you know that there is a small town in Alaska named Happy Valley? There is!

The Happy Friday Series: Five Favorite Dances

02/15/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Salsa dancing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ms. Erin Feldman is a woman of many talents, and she shares her favorite happy talents right here with five dances. I’m so envious of her abilities, and I wish I lived where she does to join her in lessons. Thanks to Erin for continuing The Happy Friday Series! Now put on your fave Gypsy Kings and read on! Thanks for playin’, Erin!

Erin Feldman Says:

A few years ago, I decided to take swing dance classes because I wanted an activity that got me outside the house and helped me to make friends. I soon switched to salsa; while I enjoyed swing, the classes didn’t attract people my age nor were there many opportunities to go swing dancing in the city where I was living. Salsa was another matter. Salsa was the dance of the city. Classes were offered at multiple studios and multiple times per week. Gads of people attended. Salsa happened at some venue almost every night of the week.

Because of my longstanding relationship with salsa – I took lessons for almost two years and went dancing most Friday nights – salsa is one of my favorite dances. I can’t help but smile when I hear a salsa beat. It recalls memories, and it makes me happy. Other dances make me happy, too; to learn and dance salsa necessarily means learning and dancing other dances.

My five favorite and happy dances are:

Salsa. As I’ve said, it’s my dance. I may be a guera (fair or light skinned), but I can dance salsa. In fact, the few times I’ve attempted country dancing I’ve been told I dance like a salsa dancer. A compliment? I don’t know.

Cha cha. Cha cha competes with salsa for my love. Cha cha isn’t quite as frenetic as salsa occasionally can be. It has a beautiful rhythm. Besides, a cha cha line dance exists. It’s complicated, but it’s entirely too much fun. Another plus is that one doesn’t need a dance partner for the cha cha line dance.

Merengue. I don’t actually like the merengue all that much except for the fact that I often danced it with some of my friends. We would join hands and spin each other and go around and around until we were tangled like pretzels and laughing so hard that we couldn’t breathe.

Tango. I love and admire the tango. I’m not very good at it because it’s entirely different from the other dances. Control comes exclusively from the frame. While observers note the ochos and ganchos, the strength behind those moves comes from the center. Even if one doesn’t intend to pursue the tango seriously, it’s a good dance to learn. It leads to improvement with the other dances and teaches one to be more attuned to following the lead.

Swing. I still love swing, probably because it’s the dance my mom taught me. She’d grab my hands and make me dance around the house with her. Swing actually can be divided into two camps, East Coast and West Coast. They’re both quite different from each other, but they’re both equally fun.

What about you? Do you have some favorite dances? Does dancing make you happy?

The Happy Friday Series: Glass Half Empty & Happy

02/08/2013 By Jenn Whinnem

A woman I designated as Social Media Woman of the Year 2012 graces us today with her always unique perspective on life, topics and happenstance. I encourage your read today as we continue The Happy Friday Series with awesome guest appearances thus far by Peg Fitzpatrick, Susan Silver and Paula Kiger. Jenn Whinnem is our guest today, and you may want to read her “coming out” story that debuted on this blog in 2010 before you read what’s below.

Jenn Whinnem Says:

credit: sodahead.com

The Glass is Half Empty and I Couldn’t be Happier.

Come here. Want to hear a secret? Here’s how I survived public humiliation and other fallout from:

Having to leave my dream college, one year in
Unemployment
Canceling my own wedding two months beforehand
The slow ratcheting up of an ultimately fatal illness
Several romances gone south (like all the way to the south pole, hanging out with the penguins south)

Until age nine, I drank a lot of Mylanta, because I was a really nervous kid and my stomach hurt from being so nervous. The short version was that I was terrified at all times that I would embarrass myself in public.

But then I got philosophy!

At age nine or so, I read Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You. “What are you so afraid of?” someone asks the protagonist. “The worst it can do is kill you.”

The light bulb went off. I was so relieved, I cried. Public humiliation would hurt, but not kill me.

Yeah, at age nine, I accepted my death, and put down the Mylanta. If I did in fact die, okay, I’d be dead, so it wouldn’t matter. But nobody was going to kill me if I said the wrong thing to a relative at my birthday party or accidentally farted in the grocery store.

Some people this is really weird, or even dark, that a nine year old thought about death like this. But I never was an optimist. I’m also not a pessimist. I consider myself more of an absurdist.

Here is the resiliency I developed as a result of my philosophy:

Any time I found myself in a rotten situation, I would determine the worst case scenario
It wouldn’t be death
So then I’d figure out how to deal with the other inevitable losses
And I’d FIND the humor in it (this is the absurd part).

See, if it doesn’t kill you, it’s just going to be inconvenient. Don’t sweat inconvenient. Take a day to sulk, then suck it up and be done with it.

Someone sues you? Hire a lawyer. Can’t afford one? Whatever, you can make it work. Clients haven’t paid you, and you are going to miss your mortgage payment? Be late on your payment. Take charge of what you can control.

It’s not that I think that any of this is ideal. I’d rather not be sued or default on my mortgage. But here’s what you’ll find:

You don’t feel powerless anymore. You have an ACTION PLAN.
Since you’re focused on action and not victimhood, people will crawl out of the woodwork to help you. Emotional drowning scares good helpers away. (it is okay to feel blech, but not to drown).
At least one person you know has been in your situation and knows how to navigate it.

Optimism didn’t really work for me. What did work was embracing reality, having a good laugh, and getting ON with it.

What’s your strategy for minimizing freak-outs when life hands you a lemon tree?

The Happy Friday Series: Creating Optimism in Traffic on Foursquare

02/01/2013 By Jayme Soulati

It is my great pleasure to welcome Paula Kiger, a 12Most.com author and blogger @BigGreenPen to today’s The Happy Friday Series. This story shows how you can create good vibes no matter where you’re stuck on life’s journey.

Paula Kiger Says:

Once I began using Foursquare, I quickly became intrigued by the check-ins that do more than identify a location. For example, the intersection of Capital Circle Northeast and Centerville Road here in Tallahassee could just be “Capital Circle NE and Centerville Road” but it has been dubbed “The Punishment Light.” I don’t know who created this name, but the wait for the light to turn at this intersection can be punishing, especially for drivers who are running late for work.

I am also a frequent visitor (and checker-inner) at “The Longest Light in Tally” (the intersection of Capital Circle and Apalachee Parkway). I view this check-in as a little “we’re all in this together” nod of commiseration to my fellow Tallahassee drivers who endure interminably lengthy waits at this intersection.

Because of my route to work, the Capital Circle intersection I can guarantee being at daily is the intersection of Capital Circle and Mahan Drive. The light is not quite as long as the two mentioned above, but it’s a major intersection that typically found me fretting about how late I was to work, how I was going to get everything done that I had committed to, how I was going to overcome the problems big and small in my life. It was yet another place to give in to worry and anxiety.

This image is a still shot from Traffic Camera Number 013

Which is why, on my birthday on November 28, I pulled over at a business at that intersection and created my own check-in: The Optimism Light. It is an alternative to the “Capital Circle NE and Mahan Dr.” check-in. It was a gift to myself. Having given myself that gift, it fascinates me how having one small symbolic homage to the positive makes a difference. If I am stopped at a red light there, I check in and take a deep breath. And then I:

Say a brief prayer of gratitude for the indisputably precious gift of another day
Send a positive intention for a friend or someone I know of who is ill or troubled
Give the person in front of me, beside me, or behind me the vibe that “it’s okay – we’ll all get where we’re going” instead of “what’s taking you so long to MOVE?!”
Hope that hope will prevail in the face of the world’s darknesses

I would be lying if I wrote, “and if no one else ever checked in here, that would be fine – I created this for myself.” Honestly, I want others to check in there (and I appreciate those FourSquare users who have). It’s why I tweet and post to Facebook every time I check in there.

When I find quotes that apply to this check-in, I add them as “tips.” They’re brief enough to take in while waiting for the light to turn:

Around 50,000 cars pass through this intersection every day. You could argue that taking two seconds to give your fellow driver a break or say a quick prayer/intention (whatever your faith tradition) for someone else is not even a drop in the bucket. But, in my opinion, 50,000+ drops could create some waves of tranquility.

And in a world where it’s all too easy to make waves with sarcasm and vitriol, waves of optimism surely couldn’t hurt any of us.

(Jayme Note: The Happy Friday series seeks new guest authors. What makes you happy? Please share with me, and you can be my featured guest!)

The Happy Friday Series: Top Five Cheery Songs

01/25/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Simon and Garfunkel Ticket (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Susan Silver again brings us a fantabulously cheery post to mark our second installment in The Happy Friday Series. She shares the top five cheery songs to change your mood, and let’s see which ones she picks.

Susan Silver Says:

I have always been a pretty empathic kid, which means that I often internalize the emotions of the world around me. When the dark clouds start gathering, there is a friend who will always comfort me. I simply turn to the nearest internet radio and play my feel good playlist. These are my Top 6 in no particular order. You only need a hit of one of these to get you through the dreariest of days.

You Might Just be the One – The Monkees

I was initiated at a young age and this song has remained a favorite ever since.

I Love You More Today than Yesterday – Spiral Staircase

I can never get this song out of my head when I hear it on the radio, but the truth is I don’t want to.

Listen to the Music- Doobie Brothers

I started listening to a greatest hits album on Spotify and become hooked on their unique sound.

Commandante – Mountain Goats

This comes from John Darnielle’s Lofi period when he couldn’t afford to record in a studio.

Late in the Evening – Simon and Garfunkel

From the concert in Central Park, the album I grew up with.

Sure, these are not represented by many modern songs nor do they represent how diverse people’s tastes really are. I chose these songs because they have universal appeal. The positive energy drips from the musical notes and gives you a fine injection of positivity. The next time you are feeling rundown, close your eyes and drift away on a song.

What does your feel good playlist look like?

Susan Silver blogs at CirqueduMot and also 12Most.com. She is a copywriter and community manager. We enjoy having her post any time for this community!

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