There is nothing exactly zen about this post…haha This video just brought a huge smile to my face and brought back some great memories. I decided it should be memorialized on my website. For me, it symbolizes enjoying wonderful moments that life brings your way.
“Lost Without You” will remain one of my all-time favorites. This video is going into the vault! (With many thanks to the person who recorded it ;)
As I was looking for cool art today, I got sucked into the amazing world of Roy Lichtenstein. But before I caption this piece, I’m going to give you insight into my routine for selecting content :)
My process in selecting material for the website is a process ha! I often have a concept in mind and look for the perfect image to portray it…or I have nothing in mind and search images for inspiration. Today fell into the latter category. While searching, I usually have music playing in the background…
And just as I was studying the featured piece by Roy (Girl In Mirror), I was listening to Bad Habits by Maxwell. My brain caught fire when he started singing, “Girl there’s no one as bad, no one as bad as you” around the 2:07 mark of the song. So naturally, I had to go with this image! ;) Now for my caption:
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I love the image of starting your morning by grabbing a mirror and saying into it, “There’s no one as bad as YOU!” ha! I love it :) Some may view this as narcissism, but I see it as self-love. (The fine line here is not taking that self-confidence and turning it into feelings of superiority. Once you believe you are better than others, you are lost. Understanding that you can love yourself and appreciate the beauty in others is key. No one is better or worse than anyone else…we are all unique and wonderful emanations of the Creator :)
If you don’t love yourself, who will? (If you don’t love yourself, you won’t even believe that love from others is real or true!) Loving yourself as you are and being content with what you have is so critical for happiness.
If you always defer your self-acceptance until something changes [e.g. I’ll love my body when I lose 10 pounds], you will never be satisfied. When you reach that goal, you’ll find a new one [e.g. I’ll love my body when my face clears or after I have that enhancement surgery]. This is the Ego at work…and it’s happiest when you’re constantly chasing new goals instead of having an appreciation for where you are and what you have.
Things will always change. Being grounded in the now and loving yourself as you are right now is all that you need to work on building your self-confidence and self-love. And honestly, there’s no one as bad as you! ;)
To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
– Anatole France
(Thanks for sharing, M!)
Photo source: …and adapt
I believe that the best photography captures the imagination and speaks to you in some way. When I ran across this image, I was reminded of a recent conversation with a dear friend about our society’s obsession with celebrity. During our discussion, I called it a “sickness”…and upon further reflection, I consider it to be a sickness of both the mind and spirit.
I believe the Ego…the “me first, me again, me always!” part of your mind that causes doubt, worry, fear, and anxiety…to be the root of all suffering. The Ego has a constant need to be fed…primarily through material trappings (new clothes, new car, new house, etc.) and emotional trappings (a need for constant compliments, a feeling of superiority, or wanting everything to be how one wants them). There is an endless list of wants and “needs” supplied by the Ego, and an astounding tendency for people to constantly want more. (When is enough really enough?) This leads to narcissism, greed, and ultimately an unnatural obsession with the lives of those whom you think have everything you want. (Again relating to a faulty belief that having all of those things will make you happy.)
There are so many obvious dangers to this type of thinking and living…including an erosion of confidence and a dimming of one’s spirit. But more than that, I consider those who have become invisible. The children, the elderly, the poor, the homeless. How has our society gotten away with continuing to ignore those in need, while exalting those with too much?
The reality is that we haven’t. The lack of balance is reflected in the crime often committed by the poor through necessity, and the depression and unhappiness found in those who seemingly have it all. When will we learn to come back to the middle?
–Tao Te Ching (77)
Photo source: invisible woman
A happy young couple married and chose an exotic island for their honeymoon. On the last night of their stay, they took a walk on the beach and the young woman encountered a large rock in her path. She paused. Her husband quickly picked her up and happily carried her over the rock. They decided then that they would visit the island every five years to celebrate their marriage.
The couple returned to the island on the fifth year and repeated their walk on the beach. The wife again encountered the rock in her path. As before, she paused…but this time, her husband led her around the rock.
After five more years, they revisited the island. True to form, the wife once more faced the large rock in her path and paused before it. However, this time her husband yelled at her, “We have been coming to this beach for ten years! Surely you should remember where the rock is and move around it yourself!”
This is not the Zen mind.
Photo source: large rock on beach