People produce and purchase piles of stuff: pots and pans, papers and paraphernalia. Some stuff we use daily. Other stuff loses its novelty or utility. Day by day, year by year, stuff circulates through our lives.
What do you do with all your stuff? Do you hang on to it? Hide it away? Do you sort, organize, and store it? Or do you eject it in a desperate attempt to simplify your life?
Think back about Stuff and share forward!
Meditation – the practice of mindfulness to achieve mental clarity and emotional calm – has always been a traditional part of the Eastern religions of Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
In the 20th century, meditation was used by the European psychoanalysts Carl Jung and Erich Fromm as part of their treatments. And today’s Western medical establishment recognizes the benefits of meditation in reducing depression, stress, and anxiety.
Do you meditate? If so, how long have you practiced it, and how has it helped you?
Think back about Meditation and share forward!
Human swimmers have appeared in Stone Age paintings dating back 7,000 years. In ancient Greece and Rome, swimming was considered a martial art and was required of all young boys.
Do you love to swim? If so, did you learn as a child or as an adult? Do you prefer swimming in lakes, oceans, or swimming pools?
Do you now or have you ever feared the water? Did you ever survive a near-drowning experience, or witnessed one?
Think back about Swimming and share forward!
Ever have one of those well-planned days that got buried in a snow storm so big that everything else was cancelled?
Perhaps it gave you a free fun day off from school or work? Or a bad day of stress, maybe during a long road trip when your car said, “That’s it, I’m done!”
Or at the Bemidji, Minnesota airport when you should have landed in Chicago? Either way, did the day play out for better or worse?
Think back about Snow Day and share forward!
Some people thrive on stress, others find it exhausting and retreat into helplessness. Most of us are probably somewhere in between.
Life has always had its stressors, but since the advent of extreme national divisiveness, Covid, and wars that keep popping up, the world seems out to give us all a nervous breakdown.
What have been some of your most stressful times or stress-provoking events? And what have been your coping strategies?
Think back about Stress and share forward!
A new kitten or puppy in the family can be a delight, but as every animal-lover knows, pets have to be trained.
Do you have pets? Did you train them? Or did they train you?
Think back about Training Pets and share forward!
Comedy, it seems, has always been with us. Human comedy probably began with paleolithic misfits, shamans, and fools who were useless in the hunt but beloved for their ability to inspire laughter.
Who are your favorite comedians past and present, male and female? Do they make fun of themselves? Of others?
Comedy is difficult. Have you ever evoked laughter – either on purpose or unintentionally?
Think back about Comedy and share forward!
Anyone who has a driver’s license obviously once passed a driving test. Did you pass your first time? Your second? Were you confident or nervous with someone in the passenger seat judging your every move?
What were your experiences at the DMV? How often did you wait on those seemingly interminable lines?
Think back to The DMV and share forward!
”Great big fins and painted steel / Man it looked just like the Batmobile …”
OK, so maybe the car of your memories didn’t look like songwriter Mark Cohn’s Silver Thunderbird – or maybe it did! But it probably got under your skin and is still hard to forget – for better or worse!
Think back to My Car of Yesteryear and share forward!
Think of a time in your life when things changed. What was life like before then?
What caused that turning point? Did people, places, and/or events impact you?
How did your life change and what did you learn from the experience?
Think back to Turning Points and share forward.
