My Best Self 101 Blog
As spring has begun, the weather has been pleasant enough to leave my window cracked open. Nature’s morning alarm, the sounds of birds outside my apartment, gently makes its wake-up call, setting me up for a more mindful morning. It is an immediate reminder when I wake that I am connected to the world around me. The birdsong helps me to not be so caught up in my own busy schedule—rather be prepared to notice and enjoy what’s around me.
Inside the Accademia Gallery of Florence in Italy my husband and I shuffled shoulder to shoulder like cattle moving our way toward our goal. We had gotten tickets months in advance and were among the thousands of tourists each day wanting to see it with our own eyes. We turned the corner and there, over the heads of the herd at the end of a wide corridor lined with other sculptures by the great Michealangelo, I saw it. Considering the number of people, it was almost eerie how quiet it became the closer we got to the masterpiece. David commanded an awe and reverence as we took him in. He really is elegant. I’ll never forget how I felt seeing the famed David my art teachers had raved about.
You’ve probably heard the usual advice: meditate, exercise, journal. These staples work—but they aren’t the only routes to a healthier mind. Mental health is personal. And sometimes, what really helps isn’t a silent room and a breathing app, but a splash of cold water, a virtual forest, or a bench in the sun. If your usual routines aren’t cutting through the fog, here are six creative, research-backed ways to refresh your mind and stabilize your mood, with no yoga mat required.
At age forty-nine, I have attended hundreds of bridal showers and wedding luncheons. When the time to “give advice” rolls around, two bits of advice surface nearly every time.
The first is, “Never go to bed angry.” Personally, I disagree with the word never in this statement—sometimes a good sleep, a little distance, and perhaps a hot meal can do wonders for a difficult issue—but that topic is for another blog post.
Well, for centuries, a connection to the divine has oriented people towards how to live a good life. Many would argue that the spiritual principles taught by the different world religions have temporal importance in their ability to influence happiness and bring a sense of abundance to life. A reflection on those quotes shows that, even objectively, they give great advice on how to live! Even while not all individuals are affiliated with a particular religion, it has been increasingly common for people to seek a connection to something greater than themselves. This connection to something transcendent can have an incredible impact on our ability to live optimistically, mindfully, and abundantly. I’ve seen this in my own life, and I think if you took a moment to contemplate, you’d see it in yours too.
The other day, my son and I went outside for a walk—what I thought would be a quick stroll to stretch our legs. But to him, it was an adventure. A mission. A treasure hunt.
He stopped at every tree, every leaf, every crack in the pavement. For a full hour, he picked up leaf after leaf, turning them over in his hands, inspecting their veins, their colors, and their edges with reverence. Each one deserved to be seen. Each one was unique. He made sure of it.
You have probably heard the words "polarized" and "division" thrown around quite a bit recently. It seems like people are dividing and isolating themselves from those perceived as different and shutting out those who do not share their opinions or beliefs. The tendency to favor in-groups and disassociate from out-groups is an age-old human problem. However, the principle of interconnectedness may help transcend the “us vs them” mentality. Interconnectedness—the idea that all living and non-living things are connected – has roots in Buddhist teachings, stating that nothing lives or exists in isolation. Instead, we exist as part of an intricate whole that is made up of interrelated parts and mutual support (Ikeda, 2012). Interconnectedness tells us we are not independent beings on a solo journey but rather interdependent “matters [that] are mutually influencing one another and co-arising dependently” (Yu et al., 2020, p.1239). According to the principle of interconnectedness, when we move toward the belief that we are isolated beings who can act without consequence to the larger whole, it breeds division, fear, and mistrust (Awakening to the Interconnectedness of Life, 2020). There seems to be a lot of that going around, and perhaps some unique aspects of our modern world make it easier to buy into the notion "us vs them."
We are living mirrors. Each Earth Day, we are reminded of our connection to nature. However, I would like to tell you about a philosopher who was talking about our interconnectedness with nature all the way back in the 1700’s. He was not the first to do so, but he, to my knowledge, was the first philosopher to make interconnectedness a hallmark of his metaphysical system. This philosopher is one Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who is famous for his co-creation of calculus as well as his tomes of philosophical and mathematical thoughts and arguments. Allow me to elucidate Leibniz’s thoughts on our interconnectedness with nature, and then illustrate some of the benefits of thinking about ourselves as “living mirrors.”
Most people find that accomplishing goals is satisfying and that life has greater meaning and purpose when we’re checking things off. Why wouldn’t we? Accomplishing goals helps us move toward our values. Overcoming obstacles gives us a sense of pride in ourselves and our ability to do hard things. However, if you’re anything like me, sometimes the process can become more important than accomplishing the actual goal. We get caught up in everything surrounding the goal and lose track of the “doing” part. Let me explain.
Have you ever played “Would You Rather?” When my brother was little, he loved this game, and it seemed like he was constantly coming up with the most random scenarios that he could think of, like “Would you rather break both legs or have to eat moldy cheese for every meal?” Now that we’re older, my brother and I don’t play this game much anymore. However, we still face real-life “Would You Rather” decisions every day, such as…
