Last evening during the 2015 Oscars celebration, Lady Gaga sang a 50th anniversary tribute to the movie The Sound of Music, a 1965 American musical film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.
Thinking back to the first time I saw the stage version of that musical (which I'd actually auditioned for and didn't get... *sigh), I remember one song that always made me smile: My Favorite Things. I liked the song because it was about remembering those things which bring us happiness. Sometimes, just thinking about our favorite things can help put us into a spirit of appreciation, which reminds us to be thankful for what we have and love.
So on a semi-regular basis (especially on those "down days"), I will start a list of my Favorite Things, and soon I will start to feel lighter... or, as Julie Andrews' character puts it—"...then I don't feel so bad."
Although my most recent list doesn't contain Raindrops on Roses or Whiskers on Kittens (listen to the song), it does contain many things that give me a lift whenever I think of them. So here's a recent list of my 50 Favorite Things. How many of these things can you relate to?
- Sitting around a campfire
- A fresh cup of coffee
- Warm fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies
- The feeling right after good exercise: body buzzing with life and energy!
- Staying up late with friends talking, telling stories, and laughing until my face aches
- Going for a walk through freshly fallen snow while it’s still soft and sparkly
- The anticipation at the beginning of any game, show, or concert
- The holidays and that renewed feeling of appreciation
- Comfortable shoes
- Music that makes my body want to move
- Moments of peace and quiet
- Moments of loud crazy fun
- Prolific pontification stimulating engagement in apophenia
- Cool stuff that lights up
- One of those excellent books you can’t wait to keep reading
- A personal epiphany—or "light bulb moment"
- Bacon
- A new haircut
- The fact that I don’t know how to file my tax return, I don’t want to know how to file my tax return, and I am happy to pay someone to do it each year
- That my family are best friends and my best friends are family
- Trees
- Being by water, over water, under water, on the water, in the water... etc.
- Traveling. Anywhere. Especially places with mountains
- That feeling right after watching a really good film where you were transported to another world and having to adjust back to “reality” (whatever that is...)
- Things I don’t understand or never seen/heard/thought of before
- Muse driving, muse walking, muse traveling, muse (anything): just following my nose
- The unexpected
- The expected
- Making lists of favorite things
- Meeting people who change my life
- Freedom of choice
- Starting with an idea, expanding the idea, trying different approaches, revising the idea, adding more to the idea, refining the idea, review, rewrite, spell check, run past a friend for feedback, revise, edit, and then realize your final product has changed drastically and looks only remotely like your original idea, but the process was well worth it and now your idea is absolutely awesome!! (still with me...?)
- Playing cards and board games with my parents
- A blank piece of paper
- A new baseball cap
- Heights
- Walking through busy airports while Lisa Gerrard serenades me from my iPod
- Lying on my bed staring at the ceiling while Lisa Gerrard serenades me from my iPod
- Lisa Gerrard
- Remembering that we are all a version of source (God) energy in human form, and that we are creating our experience with every thought, word, and deed
- Making someone’s day by not doing anything but spending time with them
- Someone making my day by not doing anything but spending time with me
- Puppies
- When I get a check in the mail and don’t know how much it’s for
- When I get a check in the mail and know how much it’s for
- Trying something new that excites and scares me at the same time
- The feeling of starting a new project
- The feeling of completing a project
- Sitting and talking
- Sitting and listening
How about you? What are some of your Favorite Things? Try making a list and see how you feel after you read it. Perhaps you, too, will experience the feeling of alignment and happiness that comes with appreciation.
To Your Better Balance!
Michael Thomas Sunnarborg
Need some inspiration? Pick up a copy of 21 Days, Steps & Keys,
or one of the other books in the balance series, and start off 2015 by
finding better balance in your career, relationships, and life. You can
also tune into Michael's recent radio interview with Sharvette Mitchell
at: (Michael starts after 31:00).
Michael
Thomas Sunnarborg is an educator, best-selling author, and certified
life coach. His passion is to help people reclaim their power of choice
and find better balance in their work, relationships, and life. You can
follow Michael on Facebook and Twitter, or find out more at michaelsunnarborg.com
Image compliments of post-movie.net
Many people are looking for better balance and happiness in life. Through my writing and coaching, I help guide people towards those goals by providing them with options. One of my favorite lines of questioning includes challenging the complexity of people's lives.
Some questions include: What things are you currently experiencing in your life that you no longer want? How are complex or difficult relationships helping or hurting you? In what ways can you simplify areas of your life to bring you more peace and happiness?
Here are tips in three areas of your life to help get you started down the road to simplicity:
Simply Your Choices
- Just because you can doesn't mean you should. To optimize your power of choice, pay careful attention to the results of your choices. Make your choices and notice the consequences. Be willing to try something new. And remember you can always choose again. Sounds simple, but not always easy.
- Like a good parent or teacher, give yourself options. For example, I choose from three different health-related activities each day: swim, gym or nap. I need to choose one activity each day, but I don't have rules about which activity or how often I can choose it. I give myself the choice and allow myself to go with whatever I'm feeling that day—no judgments.
- Help out your health. Keep a supply of healthy food choices stocked in your cupboard, refrigerator, and desk drawer at work. Avoid running low on healthy snacks or you might be tempted to binge on something you don't really need. Save the treats for special occasions!
Simplify Your Relationships
- Take inventory of your current relationships. Which people are adding to your life? Which people are taking too much of your time and energy? Who is really supporting you, or who is waiting for you to do something for them? Think carefully. Choose which relationships to nurture accordingly.
- Invest more in the most important people. I know this sounds obvious, but there is a tremendous power in incremental investments. Think of your most cherished relationships like a savings account. Adding a small deposit each week equates to large payoffs down the road.
- Rise to meet conflict by softening your stance. Think about the outcome (what you really want out of a situation), and stay focused on the goal while you approach it with curiosity instead of coercion. Better resolution comes through collaboration rather than collision. Seek to win-win!
Simplify Your Outlook
- I'm not speaking about your Outlook email account (although that could be another blog!), but rather Simplify your outlook on life. When you see that all of your choices—and ultimately your experiences—stem from your own unique perspective, you can learn to accept that your perception does, indeed, create your reality.
- Develop a higher tolerance for ambiguity. There are so many unknowns and variables in our world. Developing a higher tolerance for ambiguity means learning to be more at ease with "not knowing". In other words, by allowing yourself to learn from the momentum of your experience, you don't need to figure everything out right away. Be patient. Watch. See what happens.
- Learn to accept all things and people as they are. Right now. In all ways. Simple? Yes. Easy to do? Not so much. When you start to allow the things and people in your environment to exist without judging them (if they are "right or wrong"), then you are in harmony with nature. Pay attention to your own path and allow others to keep theirs. We are only responsible for our own journey, not the journey for anyone else.
My hope is that by making a few small changes here and there, you will notice how simplifying your life in subtle ways can have a profound on your feelings of balance and equilibrium. Besides, balance is already within you, so let it shine.
To Your Better Balance!
Michael Thomas Sunnarborg
Need a bit more motivation? Pick up a copy of 21 Days to Better Balance, or one of the other books in the balance series, and start off 2015 by finding better balance in your career, relationships, and life. You can also tune into Michael's recent radio interview with Sharvette Mitchell at: (Michael starts after 31:00).
Michael
Thomas Sunnarborg is an educator, best-selling author, and certified
life coach. His passion is to help people reclaim their power of choice
and find better balance in their work, relationships, and life. You can
follow Michael on Facebook and Twitter, or find out more at michaelsunnarborg.com
