Comments on: Beauty Today: power cuts

By: K

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:26:49 +0000

This reminds me of a time when my boyfriend and I were at Starbucks working on something. A huge storm was approaching, and we could see the black sky coming closer. All of a sudden the entire city of Guelph seemed to loose power. Starbucks had a generator, but it only provided energy to a couple of lights by the exit doors. We sat there for over an hour, in near complete darkness with other people and the workers and just enjoyed the storm outside. It was really a neat experience. They even gave out free drinks, since their cash registers weren’t working.

By: Candice

Candice — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:15:23 +0000

Funny how reliant we are on electricity…even when I’m expecting a scheduled outage, I’ll move around the house trying to boil water or microwave something.

One of my favorite memories happened when we had a huge storm here and the power was out for hours…my friends and I sat around my bedroom with loads of food and only a flashlight to give us light, and just talked and talked for hours. So fun.
Candice´s last blog ..The Epic Prologue

By: K

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:56:14 +0000

Alastair, there’s nothing such as overstaying your welcome, at least not on my blog. :) Thank you for the tips there, they are wonderful and very true indeed. I wish everyone could turn around negative thoughts and instead think “Fantastic!”. And everyone can, it only takes a little bit of work and patience.

By: Alastair Lancaster

Alastair Lancaster — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:55:48 +0000

Alana is right. “Lovely post”! I overstay my welcome. But I so delight in your strategy to beat the blues. May I offer what works for me?

1. I remove ‘toxic’ words and thoughts. “Inconvenient…complete nightmare…intense headache…quite (enjoyable)…sulk…rather (enjoy)… rather (quick).” I find using such words makes their emotions flow in my veins. They moderate happiness. I stop them by swapping them immediately.

2. I jump the middle step. I break any negative pattern immediately by saying aloud: FANTASTIC! WONDERFUL. THERE’S A GOOD REASON FOR THIS. I AM ABOUT TO DISCOVER SOMETHING MARVELLOUS! I smile. Like you, I have learned to switch. The difference is that I omit that voluntary ‘pain’ in the middle. By practice, I am now hard-wired to be happy. If I feel a bit low, my brain runs my instant-joy programme nearly automatically.

If I miss a bus, I say/ know/ believe there is a very good reason. Probably, I am meant to meet someone on the next bus. (And it is usually the case). I am meant to see something, learn something unique. By choice, immediately, I am boosted.

3. I could list all the things that are right in my life or in the moment. Too many to list! Eyesight, a succession of images, marvellous thoughts… You reach the point, after maybe 3 months, when just saying FANTASTIC! is like a bucket of delight washing over you. Each time it can add to the feeling of the last. You operate the volume of pleasure.

4. If the power goes off, I celebrate. I have washed in cold water all year for a while. I switched off the winter heating for 2 months longer as an experiment. I was happy! I would say passionately: This is going to be thrilling, and the best yet! And it is. But, if I say, It is cold, my oh my, it feels freezing. I say: I love you! to my absent relatives, as if they are there, and I am thrilled AND WARM.

I do exactly what both of you do, but it goes further. Each step is joy because that is how I label it. So it is. I tune my nervous system. My doctor puzzles how I can lower my blood pressure to that of a young man. I can’t explain it except by my deliberate choice of vocabulary and FEELING the difference. The effects are cumulative.

N.B. There is nothing special about me. Adapt my method. Tell Doubt not to be afraid: it’s OK. Love the child within. Switch on the powerhouse inside!
Alastair Lancaster´s last blog ..Tombstone EU

By: K

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:04:27 +0000

It’s funny that I wrote about that yesterday. This morning, I wake up and there was no power. It took quite a few hours for it to come back. My first reaction was anger – I wanted (needed, so I thought) to check my e-mail. I wanted to take a shower and start my day off right. I wanted it to be productive. For a couple of minutes I was walking around the house sulking, and then I remembered my post. It’s okay. I went back to bed and decided to read a book I started a few days ago. Now, hours later, the power is back up (hence just checking the blog for comments) and I am so glad that the power was out, because what I had read in my book, I feel like I really needed to read. I’m not always zen, but I do try to be. Also, in some ways, it’s easier to be zen when it happens often – you just get used to it. :)

By: Alana

Alana — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:36:12 +0000

I’m actually a bit fan of power outages because I love all the opportunities you mentioned, it’s so nice to stop and realize that you can’t do the things you would normally do or are supposed to do, it’s a lovely excuse to relax and read especially. But – I can imagine it would be very frustrating to have the power cut on a semi-regular basis! I’m impressed you’re so zen about it!

It’s always nice to think about some of the beautiful moments that can happen when we embrace a disruption in our routine, lovely post :)
Alana´s last blog ..Monday sucks