Sometimes All it Takes is an Optimistic Heart (and a little pig-headedness)

Told you I am trying to learn how to play the guitar, haven't I? And I've also told you some time ago that my beloved black tomcat Viggo had kicked my brand new semi-acoustic  guitar off its stand (because he wanted to be fed! Can you believe this cat?!) , right?
And the shop I asked for a repair quote told me it was going to cost me 250 Euros, minimum. 
And that my insurance said I had a risk of 150 Euros to be paid by little old me, before they would pay for the rest of the repair.
And (I didn't tell you this, but it is what happened) I left my lovely guitar in my room, next to my bed, and mourned it. And I looked at it every day, and cursed my bad luck. And then, two days ago, I decided to turn events around and try to repair it myself.

I looked at it very carefully, then loosened the strings, took some Bison wood glue and a fine brush, and brushed the glue into the crack. Then I put two glue thingies on (don't know the word, sorry, but there is a photo below). And waited for 2 days.

This afternoon I, again very carefully, took off those glue thingies, with baited breath. It looked okay...

And then, after a huge optimistic 'it will be okay!' affirmation hurled into the universe, I tuned it, ever so carefully.

It gave one nasty 'twang!', nearly giving me a heart attack, but...It is tuned. It has been played...

HAPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Btw, this isn't me! I'm chubby. But cheerful.

So. Mission accomplished. Glad I tried. 

The Common Linnets - Holland's Hope

This evening is the first round of the Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark, and of course we'll be rooting for our country!

We don't have that good a track record... Last year Anouk did well with her heavy and melancholy Birds song, but she didn't win. In fact, it has been eons since we've won...

Or at least it feels like eons...

Calm after the Storm

You probably do not know this, but Ilse de Lange has been one of our best singers for the last twenty years. And Waylon is a great singer as well, and much under-rated. Now they have combined their talents in an effort to get our tiny country into the finals.

We will be keeping our fingers, thumbs and all 10 toes crossed for them!

Still thinking about the same issues - do you feel at home in this day and age?

Hi, bon soir, France :-)
I feel justified in greeting my French readers, as they have been absent so far, and suddenly they have arrived...great, welcome!

This will be yet another follow up on the post about a positive mindset and the theory that many people can't keep up with the pace of our modern life and thus feel (mildly or severely) stressed out and even depressed. And stick to a 'hey, let's see the glass as half full, for that's better for our health' attitude (like me, and a couple of you who told me)

I'm writing this seated at my garden bench, watching a crescent moon and listening to the numerous birds singing their little hearts out around me. We are experiencing a 'false' summer, when it is only April...amazing weather! And I try to enjoy it to the maximum, for in our Wetlands you never know how 'much' summer you will get from year to year.

Mind you, there is a storm front moving in, with thunder clouds, so you may see me fleeing inside soon.

Depression linked to the pace of life.

That's the ongoing theme of this post. I was distracted, sorry.

One of my favourite writers, Redmond O'Hanlon, states he was born in the wrong century. His reaction to this fact of life is to live his life largely as if he was born a hundred years ago. Being a bestseller writer, he has the means to do so (at least, that is my assumption).

But my son, 21 in two weeks time, says he feels like this often, as well. He usually shouts it in frustration when some piece of technology refuses to do what he wants it to do.

And I certainly know I feel like this! I can bring tears to my own eyes (sentimental biddy that I am) by remembering the many letters I used to get every month. I am a great letter writer (hah!), and my average was 5 letters a week during the seventies, eighties, nineties. Until email arrived, and the letters I got petered out. But were they replaced by emails? Nope. Hence the sentimental nostalgic tears.

And now we have Whatsapp. I have installed it to keep in touch with my daughter. Sigh. But it's pretty handy sometimes, and I'm nifty with it. ("Where R U??? You said you would take the 10 pm bus?????")

So, I hanker after letters on real paper with real ink. And curse my laptop sometimes when I'm supposed to internet-bank. Hate it! And walk flights of stairs at work to actually try to talk to people instead of sending them email after email, although (yep) I do that too.

But I suffer from stress related nasty little thingies. Like migraines (thankfully not often) and backaches (often), and skin rashes (damn). And I wonder if all this stress is:

1. work-related (probably)

2. age-related (I'm definitely post-menopausal)

3. day-and-age-related (I can't keep up with technology for a fact, and can't be bothered with lots of things younger people find very important )

4. relationship-related (hubby is post-menopausal too, whether he wants to or not)

5. food-related (I'm convinced that the food we buy in the supermarket is pure poison. Well, almost pure poison)

I would rather travel by horsepower than fly. Yes, I know, not very practical if you want to reach the US. But still.

I prefer 80 km/h to 150 km/h.

My favourite pastime is having a good meal with friends, preferably al fresco.

I never watch TV in bed (I don't have TV in bed). I read. Or listen to music.

I walk to the shops, or cycle if it takes more than 20 minutes to get there.

I would love to dress myself in flowing robes and skirts, very witch-like (but don't, as my pupils would freak out and so would my boss, and come to think of it my husband and kids too)

So...all this adapting I do to 2014, is that what causes my stress???

Your thoughts?

The Positive Mindset - Does it work?

Good evening, all of you all over the world.
This evening I would like to talk to you about being positive. With a capital P.
It has been the mindset to have, lately. Ever since, during the seventies, someone started publishing about half full glasses and taking life with a cheery disposition, positivism has spread like an ink spot.

Taking the gloomy view is simply not done. And it isn't just in magazines and on websites for the optimistically happy few. It has spread onto the work floor of ordinary workers (like you and me). 

Managers ooze positive sound bites everywhere. The 'go for it!', 'live life to the max', 'look out for number one', 'think positive thoughts out of the box and smile when doing it' generation of 35 to 45 years old team-building, boot-camping, ultra-fit positivity junkies seem to bounce through their working day high on adrenaline and positive vibes (and cans of Redbull).

And take a look on Facebook or Instagram. The happy photos and quotes there outnumber the gloomy ones. So there is a 'need' for happiness. But is this a need born, or created ?

I tend to see myself as a optimist. 

I kept my diaries from when I was a young woman, and all through job loss, divorce, moving to another country, another traumatic love affair, and moving back again, the pages are filled with hope, optimism and "oh well, it didn't work out this time, but next time it surely will" type of entries.

But there is a certain stubbornness about it as well. My family tended to take the gloomy side, if they had a choice, and my instinctive immediate reaction to this was to move to the opposite side of the fence.

I would be positive if it killed me, sort of thing.

And has it worked? Has luck smiled down on me, because I am a happy hippy type?

When I add all the pros and cons, I would say...not.

Oh dear.

I have never won any substantial sum of money, for instance, even though I play in the lottery and optimistically wish myself rich every time there is a draw due. I have read The Secret, but all my sending my wishes into the universe has not paid any dividend. So far.(See, ever the optimist). I go into work with a positive mindset every day, but ever so often travel back disheartened and frustrated.

So has it made my life better? Now that's another matter! I'm not that lucky in things, but I do believe it has made my life a little better. Fast approaching sixty (holy moly!!!), people always estimate me ten years younger. Hey, that's a win, isn't it?

So, what about you?

Do you believe in all this optimism thinga-ma-bob?

And I have it easy, in my Western, safe, rich, flat (though damp) country. How hard is it to stay positive when you live in...the Congo, for instance? Would it cross your mind? Would you have the time for it?

Let me know your thoughts.

Affirmations. Do you use them?

Ohm mane padme hum...

I grew up in the sixties and suffered/celebrated (it depended on the hour of day) my adolescence in the seventies, so one of the defining chants of my youth comes from the musical "Hair". I hadn't the foggiest what it meant at the time, but I liked it nevertheless.

I owe George Harrison a lot, as his first solo album coming out in 1970 was one of the defining moments of my childhood. Listening to his songs, and being enchanted by the use of a sitar (unknown in the safe Bach-orientated world of my parents), I crossed the threshold of childhood to teenager-mania. I read everything I could get my hands on about him (this was 2 years before I discovered David Bowie) and was fascinated by his brush with Indian religions and confused by the chorusses (did he worship Jesus, or didn't he? I was utterly baffled).

What I did understand, was that the lyrics made use of affirmations.

Years later, I dabbled in yoga, and was given my very first personal affirmation by the teacher. It was in Dutch, but I'll translate it for you:

I am grateful for my rich and blessed life

She told me to repeat this 10 times every morning, and all would be well.

I thought it was hogwash. But, I did repeat it for a while, thinking that, since I paid quite a lot of money for those yoga lessons out of my meagre salary, I might as well do it. But it didn't last.

Isn't it amazing how time works? Click open FB and the affirmations are flying around your ears! In 1986 I was not ready to take it seriously. Too young and naïve and optimistic, perhaps. 

Nowadays I get the advice to use an affirmation left, right and centre. My acupuncturist gives me one. My friend gives me one. A nice website I visit regularly (called SoChicken) tells me to use them, magazines publish articles about mindfulness and give affirmations. I'm waiting for my local news rag to start urging me to repeat "I like living in Hellevoetsluis" 10 times every morning.

But.

I've come to the conclusion that thoughts play a major part in how your life develops.

And affirmations are guided thoughts, as it were. If you have a lot of negative thoughts, your life will be mostly lived in negativity. If you make certain you 'bend' your thoughts around to positive ones, positivity will make you feel better.

This isn't as easy as it sounds. Try bending the immediate thought "I loathe you" (when, say, someone calls you an awful name to your face) around to the more positive "you only seek my attention, but you do it in a rather nasty way".

I have started using an affirmation every day, when I am on my way to work. I come out of the tube around 7.30 in the morning, and I have to cross a bridge over the Coolhaven, with a stunning view of the Rotterdam skyline. On most mornings there is a man, a stranger to me, standing there on the bridge, taking a photograph of that skyline. He takes his time, waiting for the perfect moment. I watch him, watch what he is watching, and I say

I will be strong, just and kind today and today will be a good day

I don't know if it obeys all the laws of good affirmations, and if it works. But at this stage in my life I can use every little bit of help.