thinking thursday : some far-flung items to think about

April 21, 2016 in thinking thursday

MIND

What is the neuroscience of happiness and how can you wire your brain for happiness?

I am spending a lot of time with the concept of “shenpa” these days. Creating new habitual patterns. This is not unrelated to the neuroscience of happiness, above.

BODY

Wherein we hear about Menopause: The Truth and the Surprise Ending – “In menopause our body roars. All these years it has put up and shut up and now will not tolerate abuse or disrespect any longer. This commotion is simply a demand by your newly awake self for quality not quantity, for re-evaluation and re-balancing.” And this: “Let’s get one thing straight: our gender has been groomed to self-objectify while beauty corporations grow rich and prosperous. In the process of consuming femininity as a set of unrealistic appearance goals, perhaps we have become blind to our internal exquisiteness and it’s time to open our eyes.”

I bet if I made this cake, I would sit right down and eat it all, shamelessly.

SOUL

I think the best title for this little animation is, simply, “Life.”

When the diva misses her cue, what happens next? “‘Non abbiamo il soprano,’ or, ‘We don’t have a soprano,’ Mr. Kaufmann sang in Puccini-like strains before the opera ground to halt and he broke character and asked the audience to excuse them, in German.”

Why I write scary stories for children: “Every kid in every classroom, every kid in a bunk bed frantically reading by flashlight, every latchkey kid and every helicoptered kid, every single mortal child is growing into a life story in a world full of dangers and beauties. Every one will have struggles and ultimately, every one will face death and loss.” And “The goal isn’t to steer kids into stories of darkness because those are the stories that grip readers. The goal is to put the darkness in its place.” We lose–and more importantly, they do, when we keep our children from the darkness.

SPEAKING UP

Learning to be an effective ally.

WORD

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”
― Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard’s Egg

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.