Postcards from the Funny Farm

This is a guest post from Chelle who writes about relationships on her blog itmightbelove.com.

Recently I noticed Damien asked a question in his post about what we want and what we need:

What is your “thing” you can do today to relax your body and awaken your creativity?

Having a similiarly hectic life to everyone else I try to at least once a day do something to help me relax and clear my head - otherwise I would probably be spinning in circles most of the time. Most of the things you can do to find inspiration and clear your mind don’t take a lot of effort or time to do.
Here are 25 Ways to Find Inspiration, Relax, and Clear Your Mind:

1. Music: No matter what my mood is or what I need to get done, music is a BIG source of inspiration. There’s music to fit any mood and sometimes just hearing certain songs can make you feel good. Playing guitar or piano (even if you’re not necessarily a rock star!) is another great creative outlet to find a little inspiration and/or clear your head.

2. Nature: The world is a beautiful place, and yet most of the time we’re too busy to enjoy it. Whether you decide to watch the sky or just go for a walk in the woods, it can instantly make you feel less stressed and help get that creativity going again.

3. People Watching: Sometimes its easy to be overwhelmed by the people we encounter daily through work or school or our families. But watching complete strangers can give you the opportunity to view life from someone else’s eyes. You can guess what they might be thinking or feeling or going through. You might find some ideas pretty easily by watching someone else for just a few minutes.

4. Take a Road Trip: A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to drive 2 hours in a car all by myself. No kids screaming – just me, my car, and the open road. It was amazing! It was the first time I had driven that long by myself – I forgot how much a road trip could instantly clear your mind and inspire you!

5. Photographs: Thanks to the power of the internet, there are millions of photos to take a look at and use for inspiration. If you like to take photographs, why not take a day sight seeing and snapping shots? Taking some time to go out and take pictures can be a great source for inspiration and relaxation.

6. Dreams: Dreams can be very powerful in giving you insight in your life. If you have problems remembering dreams, all you need to do is get into a habit of writing about what your dreams were – even if very hazy or foggy at first. You’ll start remembering very vivid details before long. Understanding your dreams is one step to understanding yourself better – and even if the dream is complete nonsense it may give you a few good ideas! A good night’s rest can do wonders as well!

7. Great Food: Inspiration can come from waking up your senses and taste is no exception. Maybe its comfort food or something exquisite. Sometimes ice cream makes everything all better too. If you tend to be overindulgent a lot, cutting back to healthier eating habits can also help improve your mood and help you concentrate.

8. Aromatherapy: Sure, a lot of people will roll their eyes at the thought of candles and incense and all of that. But smell is another important sense that when stimulated can help you instantly relax. Recently I used an old real estate trick to put a few teaspoons of vanilla on a pan in the oven to warm. The whole house radiated of a warm fuzzy baking cookies smell that put everyone instantly in a good mood. Lavender is also another smell that most people respond well too.

9. Touch: While we’re on the subject of the senses, touch is another that we often forget to nurture. Whether you hold someone’s hand, sign up for a day at a local spa for a massage, rub your dog’s belly, or just wear you most favorite worn out t-shirt– the things your body touches and come into contact with can have a big affect on your mood and your creativity.

10. Close Family/Friends: The people we are the closest to are typically the ones we take for granted the most. Take a time-out and really listen to them what they are thinking about or doing. You’ll be surprised at how inspiring it might be to see what they have to say or a different perspective on a situation you’re in.

11. Online Forums: If I’m ever stuck on a blog post idea or need somewhere to let off some steam, online forums are great for this! Complete strangers love to talk about their problems and listen to yours. One of the nicest communities I’ve met are the folks over at MyLot – but there are plenty of other great boards too. Sometimes listening to other people’s problems and trying to offer solutions can help you clear your head, give you a place to vent, and get new perspectives you hadn’t thought of before.

12. Magazines & Newspapers: With everything online anymore, we forget about the thrill of a magazine coming in the mail or opening up the Sunday paper and spreading it across the table or couch. I like magazines and newspapers because they are perfect for my short attention span and they are also full of recent events and opinions to help inspire you.

13. Brainstorm: Sometimes a good brainstorm can help you think of new ideas and thoughts. You can list pros and cons if you are trying to make a decision, or you can map it out with a list of ideas and cloud bubbles.

14. Paint, Draw, Color: I am lucky that by being a mom I have a full arsenal of crayons, water colors, and markers at my disposal. Anytime the kids get restless or I feel like we need to calm down we sit down and paint or color. Instant relaxation!

15. Hydrotherapy: A hot bath or shower, a soak in a hot tub, maybe even a few laps around a pool can all do wonders in relaxing you and helping you think clearly. Haven’t you ever heard anyone say “I do my best thinking in the shower?”

16. Break the Monotony: Most days follow a routine of some sorts. Routines are usually good – you’re more organized and better prepared to handle the stress that’s bound to come your way. But every so once inawhile, take a break from your routine. Do something entirely spontaneous. You’ll find yourself rejuvenated again.

17. Exercise: It wasn’t until about 6 months ago I realized exercise wasn’t a chore but an instant pick me up. I usually workout to my list of 100 workout songs - afterwards I always feel much more relaxed.

18. Do Nothing: Sometimes when you’re so caught up in the hustle and bustle of everything, what you really need is some do nothing time. Think about how much time you spend doing absolutely nothing – there’s a good chance you’re not giving yourself a break if you’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed out. Take an hour (or maybe even a whole day) and do absolutely nothing.

19. Clean House: Damien suggested this a few times and I completely agree. Clutter and disorganization can make you feel overwhelmed instantly. Whether you decide to organize the files on your computer or to clean out the garage or do dishes by hand in the sink doesn’t matter – sometimes just cleaning things out can help you clear your mind and give you a sense of order and control.

20. Write: Writing has always been an excellent way to relax and be inspired, unless you’re experiencing writers block of course! Sometimes keeping a daily or weekly journal can help you sort out thoughts and ideas and feel better – as well as take a look back at what you’ve done which can be inspiration. If writer block is a problem, I’m a big fan of “freewriting” – you set a timer for 5 minutes and just write non stop for that 5 minutes. Sure, you might find yourself writing a lot of nonsense – but you might also find a few great gems of ideas in there as well.

21. Add Some Greenery: You don’t have to have a green thumb to enjoy gardening. A few low maintenance house plants or doing some landscaping or even mowing the grass can all provide an outlet to escape the usual stress and help you clear your mind.

22. Meditate: Spending some time to quietly reflect and clear your head can work wonders as well. Learning how to meditate can really make a big difference on your ability to

23. Do a Puzzle: It doesn’t matter if you do a jigsaw puzzle or a crossword puzzle – puzzle solving is a great way to exercise your brain and help you get your mind off the more important things for a little while and help you relax.

24. Laugh: There’s been proof that laughter is perhaps the best medicine and even good for you – but it’s a good chance you’re not laughing enough. Next time everything goes wrong don’t start yelling – laugh. Make sure you find something funny at least once a day. I try to do this with my totally pointless blog about stupid stuff.

25. Get Your Frustrations Out: One of our biggest problems is we tend to bottle up emotions or feelings. It’s not intentionally usually, but the day to day aggravation can eventually make you feel like you might just snap. So go ahead and take some time at a batting cage or golf range, punch a pillow, or scream at the top of your lungs. You’ll feel better that you did!

Do you feel inspired yet? There’s a ton of things you can do that can instantly make you feel better and at peace with the world. Most aren’t hard to do - you just need to make sure you put things like these on your priority list right up there with “get dressed today” and “feed kids”. Giving yourself some space and time can help you move from feeling like you can’t get anything done to feeling like you can conquer all.

After writing part II of a series I’m doing called “Love Homework: Mirroring” over at at It Might be Love I got a really inspiring email from the author that included a guest post from she herself. (So cool!) She’s part of a select few that answers my open plea to write here occasionally. It allows the oxygen to once again enter my bloodstream as I take a rest from posting at the Funny Farm :) FYI, I interviewed Chelle a few months ago here. It’s a wonderful interview for bloggers and/or lovers to read :) The niche of my blog here is psychology on the offbeat side and her post, below, is about as “in the pocket” with that as you can get. I hope you enjoy Chelle’s post about the worth of ones work.

For the past few weeks, as we’ve been reading here at Postcards From the Funny Farm, we’ve been listening to Damien go on and on about Google Pagerank and rating systems based on numbers. And as usual it got me thinking about the “deeper side of things” which inspired me to write this post.

There are 2 important things to remember in life: 1. It doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks of you, you’re still who you are and 2. Why I Failed Physics Class (I know the second one seems pretty strange, but keep reading and you’ll see what I mean.)

It’s so important to realize it really doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks of you. I applaud Damien for coming up with his own CAN Self Blog Rating System. Your self rating system should be all you rely on and all that matters. There are billions of people out there, each with their own thoughts and opinions. Sooner or later you’re bound to collide with someone or something that doesn’t agree. If you set your mind to it you can do anything. Take for example the man who recently made a life scale car out of matchsticks. Do you think the neighbors held back on “rating” that idea?

But think about it: If someone thinks you’re weird or silly or mean, does that make it true? Of course not! What do they know? Just because they might have some “system” or outdated values to judge you it doesn’t mean they KNOW AND UNDERSTAND YOU. And since they don’t know and understand you, what they think just simply doesn’t matter. In the end, it’s what you know and understand and what you believe that is true.

So now that I’ve explained why it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, let’s move onto why I failed physics class.

Our physics teacher often gave us test questions like these: “A guy is riding on a motorcycle at 60 mph. Up ahead is a 36 degree jump over a cliff with a distance of 50 feet to the other side. Will he make it to the other side?”

Sure, there’s a mathematical equation to finding the solution to this problem, but I personally refused to answer it. How can we REALLY know he will or will not make it to the other side? What if a big gust of wind suddenly comes and makes him turn his wheel? What if he gets dust in his eyes? What if by some miracle a huge eagle comes swooping down and lifts him by his shirt collar to the other side?

Sure, those things probably won’t happen. But there is A LOT more to life than just numbers and math formulas. Life is full of variables. Just because numbers say something will or will not happen, doesn’t mean it can’t. It’s an old cliché, but there’s an exception to every rule.

Needless to say, my physics teacher didn’t like me too much. After about 9 weeks of the class we both mutually decided it be best I become the first person in my high school’s history to be allowed to drop Honors Physics. But I refused to believe that everything in life can be generalized, predicted, and relied on as being true just because that’s what the numbers said.

We can hope that Damien and other fellow bloggers’ pagerank woes will soon be solved. But until then, it’s always good to remember the important stuff in life isn’t ranked by numbers. And even if your blog does manage to bring you and other people a lot of money, ultimately it is only the standards that you set for yourself that should determine your success.

This has been a guest post by Chelle, blog author of It Might be Love. Pack your virtual luggage and go read a few posts of hers why don’t you.

Okay, so I covered the first two letters of value: “V” for visceral and “A” for aphoristic. Now the third: “L” for linkage! Link love is the #1 way to make friends and influence people (namely bloggers you link to on the web. After you’ve written your visceral post of around 200 words and given it a catchy and creative title, it is important before you press the “publish” button to add 3 deeplinks (links to other posts on your blog) and 3 linkloves (links to other blogs). This can become a standard practice and you will find it easy then. IT IS VERY CUMBERSOME AT FIRST. You need to try and automate the process however you can. It should be like brushing your teeth every morning. Just to give you some of my tips:

1. For backlinks I have a shortcut to my most popular posts page. I open it in a new tab and getting relevant backlinks that are my most popular is as easy as copy/paste. This helps with rank and authrity. It also links your best stuff for people who are interested in it. REMEMBER: The best way to include links is within the context of your writing. Just inserting them random looks like spam and worse than that, it turns off your readers. You can automatically insert links in your blog (I recommend for a 200 word post 3 backlinks and 3 linkloves) and have it enhance your content.
2. For linklove: I use WordPress. As I add new faves to my blogroll, I can go to Manage / links in the admin section an choose the “blank” window feature. Then when I want to get a link open to check out or copy, all I need to do is click. I try to consistently link to my favorite blogs and I notice they really appreciate it. ONE NOTE: Chelle reminded me that the anchor text that the url is assigned to is important to rank, so choose appropriate words. For example: I really like this guy, if guy is the anchor text, then they only get juice for the word guy. If I says: “This guy knows music!” Then you link more effectively to his site about pop culture, music, and being a D.J..

Linkage of external sites along with the 2 types listed above is the third letter in blog value. Coming up tomorrow: The mysterious “U.” Keep following these guidelines and who knows, maybe you’ll be lookin’ into those las vegas hotels

I wish I had the budget to buy you all MP3 players. may7be someday …

Thanks to the guest bloggers listed below who posted in my stead the past week:

A Question of Preparation by Marcia
Stop The Criticism, Inspire Your Children by Derek Semmler
Have You Been Inspired Lately? by Katelyn
You don’t have to… by Chelle
Home Sweet Home by Jessica the Rock Chick

It was a much need vacation from blogging and I thoroughly enjoyed the guest bloggers. Updates include a new spiffy domain name, postcardsfromthefunnyfarm.com, a theme haircut, and some exciting post and series ideas for the summer on inspiration and psychology. Thanks for reading. Are you ready for a crazy summer at the Funny Farm?

This is a guest post by Chelle from It Might Be Love.

It’s pretty easy to find yourself completely overwhelmed with a seemingly never ending to-do list. We’ve all been there at some point or another, and many of us are there most of the time. I probably have at least 2 or 3 dozen things I “have to do” on any given day.

The other day I was at my “That’s it! I’ve had it!” point. I was yelling at the kids for no good reason and complaining to my husband about everything. There were a million things I had to do and no time to do anything I wanted to do. I was having one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day kind of days.

That’s when my husband reminded me of something very important: You don’t have to.

Those 4 little words couldn’t be more true. What could be so important that you absolutely HAVE to do it? The dishes will stay in the sink. The laundry will wait. The kids will not suffer any severe nutritional consequences if you let them eat ice cream for dinner. You can cancel your morning appointments. You can call in “sick” or skip out of work early. You could quit your job and find a new one. You could pack up and leave for the Bahamas tomorrow and never look back if you really wanted to. Life still goes on.

Our lives are filled with thousands of things we can do and choices for us to make each and every day. No one is standing there with a proverbial gun forcing you to to do anything. Doing (or not doing) things like chores or errands or going to work on time are not typically life and death stituations for most of us.

We spend so much time thinking about the things we “have to do” we get sidetracked from the good parts of life: enjoying a favorite hobby, visiting with an old friend, watching a sunset, fulfilling our dreams. Think of how many times you’ve thought to yourself “I wish I had more time for this” or “I would love to do this more or that more.” We blame everything and everyone else for why we can’t do the things we love. We convince ourselves that it’s everyone else’s fault our dreams and hopes and wishes never become a reality.

Ironically it’s NOT everyone else’s fault. We are ultimately the ones in control of what we do and don’t do. For some reason we create our own invisible expectations for ourselves. We become people pleasers. We feel guilty about doing the things we enjoy. And we inevitably miss out on the important things that actually make life worthwhile.

So next time you find yourself stressed out and overwhelmed by all the things you think you have to do, just remember: You don’t have to. You are in control of what you do and don’t do. As Damien would say take your troubles and Push them to the sidebar of life.