S3 E28: Things I Love (Feel-Good is Not Frivolous)
Feel-good is not frivolous! Searching for and remembering things you love can be a great way to find creative inspiration, and infuse your life with positive energy. In this episode, I share a bunch of things that I love - maybe you love them, too, or maybe you’ll discover something new!
So, tell me, what do you love? Send me a note and let me know - we can share some experiences together!
RESOURCES DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:
My relaxation mentor Rusty the Cat on Instagram
Bilbo the cat and the Bilbcast
Capybara facts
Sleep Aid essential oil blend from Pranarom (not sponsored, I just like it)
MORE FROM REBECCA
Rise Above the Overwhelm - laser-focused 1-time coaching sessions
Fuel Your Creative Work With Compassionate Productivity workbook
TRANSCRIPT
Hello, everyone, welcome to Episode 28 of Being A Whole Person. How's everyone holding up? I know a lot of you have been in very cold places, experienced winter storms where you don't usually - it's been a rough month so far, in a different way than January was. But I'm here to tell you: three weeks from now, just over three weeks from now is Daylight Savings Time. Spring is coming, we're gonna make it. And if you're in the southern hemisphere, I hope you're enjoying the summer.
So today, I have a little different kind of episode for you. It's perhaps a belated Valentine's episode, to celebrate love, and it's kind of in the spirit of the Wonderful podcast, which is an enthusiast podcast where they just talk about stuff they love, and it's very uplifting and wonderful, just like the name. So today, I'm here to share with you a bunch of things that I love.
At first, I had a little bit of resistance to doing an episode solely devoted to fun things that I love, because I heard some voices in my head saying you should do something more serious, more practical, more packed with tangible tips. I do that most of the time, and just like anything, every single part of a project doesn't need to be all business, packed with information. I'm taking the pressure off a little bit. And I want to invite you that if you're feeling the same way about a project you're doing, maybe you can do a fun day, a version of something that maybe you don't quite see the value in, but other people will still really enjoy.
But I do see the value in this - having fun, doing things you love. That's actually deeply aligned with how I approach creativity myself, and with my coaching clients. I deeply believe that feeling good is not frivolous. It helps us get inspiration from the things we love, new things we might discover. It actually helps us be more productive. Because when you approach your work from a place of feeling better, you do better. When I'm depressed, sometimes I need a reminder about the fact that there are indeed things that I love, even if I can't fully feel it at that moment. And also, knowing what you love and asking yourself why tells you a lot about yourself.
But, bottom line, you don't actually need a reason to want to do something that feels good. You just deserve to feel good by virtue of being human. And I love hearing people talk about things they love and are passionate about. There's nothing better. So, this episode is devoted to things, and next week, I'm going to highlight people whose work I love, and who have helped me, who have influenced me - it'll be shout outs to people.
So here we go, things I love. I love exploring on foot, and using walking as transportation. It gives you a chance to notice things like that weird figurine in somebody's garden, or that cat in the window, or somebody's pet goat behind their fence - that was a particularly delightful discovery on my way to the farmers market one day.
I really enjoy, on my walks, identifying plants using the Seek app, which is awesome if you ever don't know when a plant is or don't know what an animal is - it identifies animals too. It's been really fun for me to learn more about my surroundings in California which are, you know, not quite new anymore, I've been here almost two years, but I'm still learning about plants. It's very fun.
I love the smell of spring, which you might get a hint of, even if you're frozen over on that day when it just warms up enough for stuff to melt a little bit. I think you cold weather people know the smell I'm talking about. I love the smell of eucalyptus trees, which are at the end of my block. I love the smell of a redwood forest, which I associate with being in a redwood forest learning Brazilian music at California Brazil Camp. That's how that good positive association started for me, but it's a wonderful smell to experience, regardless. This one you might be experiencing sometime soon if there's a thaw out - crunching that thin ice when your puddles freeze over, usually like March or so, and it just sounds so resonant and crackly. It's so satisfying to just stomp out that ice and make it shatter. I can't do that anymore, because I don't have access to any ice, but stomp on a puddle for me if you can.
I really like planning mini adventures, which, you know, you have to be a little more creative about now. But really, to me, a mini adventure is just going someplace I've never been before. It might be driving to a different neighborhood and taking a walk, and in pandemic times, you know, that's pretty novel, sometimes.
I love maps. I love maps as a functional tool, because I really enjoy navigating and figuring things out. I know at some point when I was a pretty young kid, maybe like six or seven, I told my mom, if I could drive, I could drive us to grandma and grandpa's house, because I just would watch, and I understood where the roads were, and I enjoyed figuring that out. We would call my dad a human GPS when he was working in construction, and he knew every inch of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, like, if you named a road, he would probably know where it was. I always strive to get to that point in a city I live in, or a city I visit. I was so proud when someone asked me for directions, the first time I visited in New York City and I successfully told them.
I also really like maps as an aesthetic object. I just think they're pretty, and I even named my Tumblr...remember Tumblr? I don't think I've written in it since the late aughts or so, I might have to look that up. But my tumblr was called This is a Map, it might even still be up if you really want to look at it. I really love photography, with grid or repeating geometric elements. Like Andre Kertesz kind of did this. I also really like photos of reflections. And, fun fact, I thought I might have gone into photography as a career choice. I was seriously considering majoring in it as a young college student, because I briefly didn't think I would major in music or pursue that as a major thing. That history should probably be its own whole episode, but photography was a huge passion of mine in high school.
I also really like various crafts. I had a jewelry Etsy store for a while. I really liked making collages, I've been getting into embroidery, I like drawing, I even drew a bunch of stuff back when I did my Kickstarter for my album a few years ago, and actually used one of the pieces that I drew as a reward. That was really fun. I really like bright colors, especially the deep jewel tone kind of bold colors. It really just makes me happy to look at these bright colors so much that I even have an Instagram bookmark folder. You know, when you save your bookmarks, you can save them to collections, I have one just called “colors”. So, anytime I'm having a bad day, I can go in there, look at that, and see some happy colors. I also like wearing jewel tones, and I'm kind of realizing that I don't have as much colorful clothing in my wardrobe as I would like to. Even in these pandemic times where I'm definitely not utilizing my whole wardrobe.
Lately, I've been getting really into puzzles. Such a great analog hobby, especially colorful puzzles are extra fun. I hadn't done a puzzle in years, until somewhat recently. It was like a cabin activity or, you know, something when you didn't have the internet, but it's been really relaxing and visually pleasing, and just enough brain stimulating to make it interesting, but not to be stressful.
Kind of on that note, but not analog: one of my early pandemic hobbies was playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Nintendo Switch, and that really got me through the first part of quarantine. It was really nice to see this beautiful visual world and get to explore, which, that’s not a surprise ,because I just said I enjoy exploring on foot. Exploring in a video game is also fun. And you might not think that a coach would love video games, but hey, I do. I also really like the Mario games. I've been playing Super Mario Galaxy lately, which is super fun.
Sticking with the screen theme for a second, I'm a big fan of following cats on Instagram. I have a folder for kitties and cute animals as well, because, if you're having a bad day, and you just need that burst of dopamine to look at an animal, there it is, it's ready for you.
You might know that my cat, Rusty the cat is my relaxation mentor, and he is on Instagram as well: @rustytcat. I really like British shorthairs, the ones that have big cheeks and big faces, and there is this cat named Bilbo that has a podcast called the Bilbcast, and it is just a recording of him purring, which is more relaxing than I ever thought it would be. He also has a calendar and does a lot of charitable work, so, he's a very upstanding cat.
I enjoy manatees, which you might know if you have my album. The first song is called Maracatu do Manatim, which is a maracatu about a manatee. That's Carnival music from the Northeast of Brazil, if you're wondering what maracatu means. Another amusing animal is the capybara. If you don't know what they are, definitely look them up. They look like large rodents. But they're they look like they're super chill. There's often pictures of other animals standing on top of them. And they look very Zen. So life goals be more like a capybara. I haven't done the research. Hopefully they're not very aggressive in their non-Zen moments, but they look like they would be pretty chill.
Sticking with the chill theme, I really love my weighted blanket. I can't believe it took me until last year to get a weighted blanket. As someone who has had anxiety for a good chunk of my life, it's super, super relaxing to have that weight on top of me. I always like when I can have a cat sit on my chest - that always felt relaxing - or on my stomach, and, well, you can’t always convince a cat to do that for you. So the weighted blanket can be controlled.
I love acupuncture. And I haven't gotten acupuncture in over a year because I've usually been going to community acupuncture and that doesn't feel super safe to me right now, so I'm just not doing it. But I'm a needle-phobe. I am a very self professed needle-phobe. I was the kid who would puke every time I got a finger prick at the doctor, and that's not fun. Anytime I have any sort of prick or like test, anything that breaks the skin, basically, I need to lay down because I will faint. It's cool. It's really cool. But acupuncture doesn't do any of that stuff. The needles are so tiny. If you’re a needle-phobe, it probably won't bother you, and it's super, super relaxing. I miss it, now that I'm talking about it. Hopefully I can get back to that, and feel safer about it sometime soon.
Also, on the topic of relaxation, I really love the smell of vetiver oil. Vetiver is this grass that it's kind of almost resinous-like when it's distilled down to an oil, it's very thick. I discovered it because it was part of this oil blend I like called Sleep Aid. And that's been one of my main relaxation tools, in times of anxiety, or just to help me get in a chill place of wanting to go to sleep.
Since I'm talking about relaxation, I should also say, taking a moment for a deep breath at a time when you wouldn't normally do that, like you're in the middle of doing something online, writing an email, whatever. I love just taking a second, putting my hand on my chest, and taking a deep breath. Sometimes it almost feels like drinking water when you're thirsty. Like a deep need that you didn't quite know you had until you took that breath. Such a great feeling.
I love dark chocolate, like really dark, even like 100% cocoa without any sugar, because I've trained my tastes to be so attuned to that, I'm pretty sensitive to sugar, but I really love 85% and up. I'll just take a square and let it dissolve and not even chew it. That's one of those simple pleasures that I always make sure to have on hand. I also love drinking tea, probably to an unreasonable degree. And it's kind of sad, I'm so sensitive to caffeine now that I can't really drink black tea anymore, and even green tea is a bit much. So it's basically all herbal tea over here. But I have an entire drawer, even though there's not that much space in my kitchen, there's a little narrow drawer and it’s the tea drawer, and it is jam packed full at all times with bagged tea, and then I also have a whole area of loose tea. It's maybe kind of a problem, but it's a really good problem. My jam right now, tea-wise, is this sweet cinnamon spice tea, but then I drop a few hibiscus petals in it, so it's kind of darker and fruity, but then the cinnamon gives it this sort of cider vibe. It's pretty great. I could go on about food stuff. But those are the things that give me the most pleasure right now.
In terms of media, and TV, I mean, I'm sure there are so many things I could say that are enjoyable. But I only really love Parks and Rec, and really all Mike Schur shows like Brooklyn 9-9, and The Good Place. There's just something about how thoughtful those shows are, and hilarious, and the characters are so...I don't know if wholesome is really the right word, but it just makes me feel good, and I wish that Leslie Knope was a real person. For you Parks and Rec fans, I know you feel me.
Libraries and reading, I definitely love reading, and I think that there should be a whole books episode, like, I should share some books that have helped me in my journey, and that I think you will enjoy too, because this could go on for a very long time. But I love libraries. If you don't use the Public Library, that's cool. But how amazing is it that there's this whole place that just lets you borrow books, and they have 1000s of them, and it's a public service? I use it all the time. I also have to say that I'm not really on the e-book bandwagon, I just really like reading to be an analog activity still. Even though I enjoy all the things that screens can provide us, it's good to have a little break every now and then.
So this could definitely go on for a while, talking about things I love, but I'm gonna end with one last thing, that's a musical thing. And I could talk to you for hours about music that I love, too, obviously, but there's a very specific thing, the feeling of the surdo section. So the surdo is the bass drum in a Brazilian drum group, and kind of the backbone of the beat, and when you are standing next to a few people, or even in the same room - you don't need to be next to them, you can feel it. You can hear it, but you can also feel it - that bass vibration, that's such a cool feeling. I haven't been part of that for a while since I haven't been in a drum group since I lived in Minneapolis. But I'll put a link in the show notes to an example of what this sounds like, and then you can use your imagination about being next to it.
So am I forgetting some things I love? Of course, definitely, but that's a sampling of some things that I love, and maybe you love these things, too. What are some things that you love? I think it's good to just take an inventory every now and then, like, “You know what, here's some things that I love,” because when life is hard, we don't often try to remember those things, they might be a little further back in our minds, they might be a little bit faded, and it really does make a difference to remember some things that you love. Works of art can bring out those new perspectives that you might not have encountered, otherwise they can spark inspiration, they can spark joy.
So go find that stuff, and go make that stuff. If it's felt hard to create lately, and to do it in a fun and feel good kind of way. I invite you to check out my Feel Good Creativity Unchallenge. It's an unchallenge because it's super easy. It's five days of bite sized prompts - a really short and easy creativity prompt paired with a wellness prompt to help soothe your nervous system and get you in the right mindset to create something from a feel good place. It's totally free. Lots of people have really enjoyed it, and it's a really good way to infuse yourself with some positive energy and who can’t use more of that, right? So there'll be a link for that in the show notes, as well.
If you're in a place right now, where spending time on creativity feels a little bit frivolous, I just want to remind you that you never know when your work is going to give someone else a new perspective, a fresh perspective that will give them some inspiration and joy, and perhaps inspire them to do a project of their own that then can inspire someone else. This whole ripple effect can happen, even when you're doing something that doesn't seem that meaningful on the outside. So don't hold back, start doing something even if it's small, if it's what you want to be doing.
So if you post about some things that you love, tag me on Instagram, @rebecca_hass, and I'd love to see what it is. We can share some experiences together. So with that, I hope you have a great week, and I'll see you next time.
Pianist and composer