motivation

Feelings-They Are All in Your Head and How to Make it Better

Lynette M Burrows

It’s winter in the northern hemisphere. Winter-the cold, dark, rainy, snowy, hibernation season. A season often associated with sadness and loneliness and isolation. UGH. Feelings—they are all in your head and how to make it better—are the focus of my Wednesday blogs this month. Because yeah, I have noticed a change in my moods and my partner’s moods. And because I have noticed some of you suffering from the same downswing in your moods. (This is where I have to put a disclaimer in. I have a tiny bit of training in psychology but I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist. If your feelings are so intense they interfere with your day-to-day life. If you have difficulty keeping a job, eating, sleeping, personal hygiene—you need to learn to help yourself from a professional. Nothing in this blog or on the internet will help you as much. Can’t afford professional help? Ask your county mental health department for suggestions about where you might find professional help at a price you can afford.) When I started researching, I came upon the intriguing phrase, social isolation. Loneliness is a rising mental health concern. A quick google search yielded more than one hundred individual […]

Take Your First Intentional Step

Lynette M Burrows

Did you make resolutions this year? Or, after reading that so many resolutions go unfulfilled, did you not make any resolutions? Perhaps, there’s a different way to think about it. A way to take an intentional step toward a goal or desire. Perhaps, instead of resolutions you set Intentions. Thanks to Orna Ross for that term. (See Orna’s explanation of Creative Intentions.) Her Creative Intentions are directed toward people striving toward creative endeavors but I believe anyone can use intentions instead of resolutions. Intentions are positive and nonjudgmental. If you say it is my intention to lose twenty pounds. The goal is there but you’re also recognizing that it’s a process. There will be times of forward progress, slow progress, and perhaps no progress and backward progress. But if it’s your intention to do something and you have no progress, you have not failed. It’s still your intention. Perhaps you need to re-think the steps it takes to get there. Setting your goals high doesn’t mean aim for the impossible. It means stretch yourself. And keep stretching yourself and you will reach farther than you thought you could reach. Life, especially creative life, is not a race. As Confucius says, […]

Music Mood Makers for you and me. What music do you listen to?

Musical Mood Makers for You and Me

Lynette M Burrows

Music is an almost universal language. It expresses moods and has the power to change moods. And for most of us music touches memories. So I’m asking for your musical favorites today. What piece of music always makes you tap your feet (or get up and dance)? This one always makes me want to get up out of my seat: Can you name a song or movie score that reminds you of a special time in your life? Are you surprised at my choice? This was a third date movie, the date my sweet husband-to-be invited my thirteen-year-old son along. Kind of cinched the deal. What song or music do you play when you feel sad? Do I have to pick just one? Here’s one of the saddest ones I’ve ever heard. Name your most romantic music. This one may be the hardest for me to answer. I have a long, long list. Today, I’ll answer with this one. Which song do you ALWAYS sing along with? My answer includes many different piece of music but right now there’s one in particular that I’ve sung for years and years. Which piece of music is the most inspiring? Yours may not […]