Monday, May 27, 2013

That's funny, you guys........ Not really.

  It seems like every time we move I get my hopes up for certain things. I pace off fields and woods dreaming of horses and cattle while my parents look on, watching my dreams formulate. After all, who are they to crush something when it is only in the daydream stage?

 The problem is that I've always wanted to put a horse on the property where I live, regardless of how good it would be for the horse or how well I could take care of it. So I've daydreamed, and it's always stopped there. Now we're moving to Tennessee, and I have 9 fenced off acres at my disposal and a barn that can easily be converted to a few stalls. Now I only have to wait to own a horse, so my fantasies have become a lot more real. I haven't let myself dream too much yet - I'll wait until we actually move down here until I start getting overly excited.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Beautiful Therapy

Today I learned about beautiful therapy - the power of love of beauty.

 Beauty in and of itself is not healing, but it often accompanies healing and is, perhaps, one of the greatest assets to "feeling better". Here's a quick summary of my notes on the subject:

Beautiful vs. Ugly. Ugly most certainly does not mean something that is physically ugly. Get in your mind and think of something that's ugly. Personally, murder and sloth come to mind. That's the kind of thing that consummate beauty can help with.
 "Here a beauty, there a beauty, everywhere a healing beauty."
- If you are surrounded by beauty, ugly things are easier to smother. Surround yourself with lovely things. Beauty varies per-person. 


 If you're in a rut in life, think about doing that thing that you love doing. Daydream and make beautiful things, because if you can change your mind into a beautiful place, you reap so much more from each moment. Everything is connected, everything is beautiful.

 Here's the thing. The physically beautiful things that I try to surround myself with are strange. During the session the speaker said that it could be a photograph of yourself doing a thing you love, or simply a very happy picture of yourself. Seeing "good" pictures of yourself is actually psychological therapy, while seeing a picture of anyone angry or confused (especially yourself) can cause a slight mental aggravation.

 Here's what I've done since that session;

 I pulled a laser-etched horse out of storage and put it on my window.
Made my computer background a picture of me on a horse.
Colored a glass coke bottle with a Sharpie.
Switched from conventional history notes to beautiful ones.
Started using colorful highlighters for bible study.
After the AP exam I'm even going to work on making my blog more beautiful.

I do not stress self-love. We don't have a problem loving ourselves. The main reason, the long term goal for therapy is to be able to love others and help those who need it. If our troubles emotionally impede us, we are not as effective in helping others.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Have you looked around?

 We live in a wicked and depraved generation. A generation where everything is comical and nothing is serious. What's the most serious thing you can think of? Demons? Outcasts? Oaths?
 All of those things have been turned into something comical by our generation! It quite honestly sickens me.

 Humor can be used in a beneficial manor. In fact, God gave us humor. He wants us to be able to laugh! Think about how sad simple existence would be without the giggle of a youngster or the laugh of an elderly lady. Also, humor builds bridges with people we otherwise would have nothing in common with.

 I think often, people say that God tells us to be serious constantly. The verse is often referenced "They will be judged for every careless word they speak." (Eph. 5:15-21). My interpretation of that verse is very different. We should *not* be filling ourselves with pointless or silly things. But there is room for clean humor. For instance "Once upon a time... there was salsa." is a pretty random and silly statement. It's pointless, so we shouldn't be filling our time with it, but occasionally it can break the ice and make people laugh.

 As for these people who say "I swear...", I wish they could see just how serious that it. Recently, I read a story called "Percy Jackson and the Olympians". It is a wonderful work of fiction, but one scene stands intensely in my mind. A scene where someone "swears" and it turns out to be a much bigger deal than predicted.

Thoughts?

Comment issues.

I'm having issues with the comment section on this blog. Can anyone help me figure it out? Blogger won't let me reply to comments or even create new comments on my own posts.

Thanks for any help I can get!