Color Your Life Happy

Whether you enjoyed the movie The Secret or not, you’ve got to admit that it was successful at attracting a lot of controversy.

 In a recent post I praised The Secret for its marketing genius.  Whether you agree with the Law of Attraction as presented in the movie or not, you have to concede to its success since  (to steal a line from Pirates of the Caribbean,) you have heard of it.

In one of my favorite blog’s, www.jonathanfields.com/blog , I read post calling The Secret a lie . His readers then posted comments calling the Law of Attration ridiculous, crap, bullsh–t. etc.

Jonathan’s own take on the Law of Attraction is a practical explanation without the scientific trappings, and in my view is just another way of looking at the same thing.

Thank goodness we don’t have to wait for everyone to understand electricity before it will work.  The lights will come on (provided the bill is paid) for the believer and nonbeliever alike.

While I’m busy with my happiness projects my youngest daughter, Adrienne, is busy encouraging me to be healthier. It’s not that I am a total food slob. As a matter of fact, I grew up on very healthy diet since my mom was from the South. I’m discovering, however. .

My food choices and cooking habits from childhood need reworking.

• The vegetables we ate were overcooked thus rendering them less nutritious.
• I don’t ever remember my mom using the word “cholesterol.”
• Eating everything on your plate seemed like good advice at one time.
• You can’t make a sandwich without bread.

If you want to work at improving your food choices and eating habits, check out this site that my daughter forwarded to me. http://whfoods.org/

In an article written by Joe Holmes, a student at George Mason University, he says sitting in classrooms all day brings on learned helplessness. Instead of being out doing, trying out and living, we tell the young to “prepare” for these things. It’s what I call “fixin’ to.”

I heartily agree with Joe when he says

When you’re constantly being told to prepare for life, you slowly begin to think you aren’t ready to live it. You need to wait to be taught formally how to do something before you give it a try. But this is at odds with the reality of life. As I heard (ironically enough) in a quote from my school’s agenda: When it comes to experience, we always get the test before the lesson.

It’s like believing you need to read the manual to your new computer or digital camera thoroughly before you can start using them. Just the opposite is true. You can only learn to use technology by trying them out, making mistakes and finding the solutions. No manual covers every contingency.

My youngest daughter has a theory that a piece of technology should be easy enough to understand without a manual. I think this is the basis of the term “user-friendly.”

By the time we finally understand this need to live life, many of us have squandered our youth in a never-ending state of preparation. We keep taking classes, attending seminars, but never living. Sadly some make it to adulthood never having left the starting gate and as Wayne Dyer says “die with their songs still inside them.”

Don’t let this be you.

Let’s face it. We all feel down at times. After all, we’re living a human experience.

So, when you feel down, what do you do?

Some meditate, do yoga, walk in nature, or whistle a happy tune.  Me?

I wear happy pajamas.

No matter what has tried to reach my inner joy, at the end of the day my happy pajamas lift my spirits and return me to peace. (Of course if you watch Law and Order: Criminal Intent after you put on your happy pajamas, your joy is in danger again. But I digress.)

I love message pajamas: High Maintenance, Relax (a very comfortable sleeping cat,) One of a Kind, Use Your Head.

I also enjoy animal print, particularly leopard and giraffe.

There are occasions when I feel like donning my Paris-themed, frogs, or dreamy clouds pjs, and even a few solid colors. I have one no-nonsense pair of gray pjs that I bought in the men’s dept. I feel like Kathryn Hepburn when I wear those.

What lifts your mood?

My youngest daughter is in that phase of her life where many of her friends are getting married. If any of these newlyweds expect that they’ll be happier being married than they were being single, they’re in for a big surprise.

Psychology Today featured a review of a study that appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The study, conducted with 24,000 people in Germany, measured life satisfaction levels to see how well they adapt to positive and negative life events. While we may experience a spurt of happiness during our wedding and a deep sadness over the death of a loved one, we all eventually return to a “set point of happiness.”

Two important points from this study confirm what I believe: happiness is not external and no one is ecstatic all the time.

What do you think?

How many chances to become a movie producer have you passed up? Probably none. That’s because you’ve probably never had that chance. You may not even want to be a movie producer.

Well, now you do have the chance and every reason to take the leap.

I just stumbled upon this site, My Million Dollar Movie.  Canadian film director, Casey Walker, invites visitors to help get his movie produced by donating at least $10 which will buy you one frame of the film. Donors’ names will appear in the credits. The more you donate, the higher up you’ll appear in the credits. I don’t think for a minute, however, that donors are interested in getting credit.

Like me, donors are intrigued by the fun, unique and low-cost way to help a creative soul.

I was excited not so much by the romantic comedy he has created, but by his clever way of getting his movie produced. Rather than taking the traditional Hollywood route, Casey is taking his project directly to the end users, movie viewers. The growing popularity of social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube convince me that a variety of projects can succeed by seeking these and other nontraditional routes.

How about you? Do you have a new venture, book, website, or other compelling project that the world needs? Consider launching your project in an inventive way. Let me hear about it when you launch.