Living Positively and Healthy

“Be miserable.  Or motivate yourself.  Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice”. ~ Wayne Dyer Happiness has a direct correlation to motivation which leads to productivity.   The Harvard Business Review conducted a study that found that people are more productive when they are positive.   Thus, one can assume that having a positive outlook and being happy makes people more motivated.   When one loses motivation, it is typically due to one of three reasons:   1) a lack of confidence, 2) a lack of focus, or 3) a lack of direction.   When one has a lack of confidence, they do not believe that they can succeed, so they don’t even try.   When there is a lack of focus, one does not know what they want to do.   It is difficult for them to realize what they really want to do.   Lastly, if there is a lack of direction, they don’t know how to do it.   If one doesn’t know what to do, they will not be motivated to do it. ...

The next morning, as they prepped me for surgery, I had to rely on my humor to stay sane and not breakdown crying.   I had a song stuck in my head that oddly gave me strength and serenity:   Blue Oyster Cult’s 1976 hit “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.”   “Seasons don’t fear the reaper, nor do the wind, the sun or the rain, we can be like they are.”   There was no sense in fearing what was about to happen.   It was out of my control.   The song gave me a sense of solace.   I found it ironically comical to be singing that song to myself.   It was a matter of laugh or cry, or in this case, laugh or die. As they wheeled me into the holding area, I tried cracking jokes with the orderly.   They gave me a lovely blanket made of what looked like bubble-wrap and readied me for anesthesia.   The orderly rolled me toward the surgery room, and I was still joking about the situation.   I asked him if he ever had patients joke as they were being c...

“Life is hard.   After all, it kills you.” ~ Katharine Hepburn Death at a Funeral Some people think about death once in a blue moon, a fleeting thought that floats in and out of the recesses of their minds.   Some never think about it…really think about it.   I think about death in some form every single day of my life.   I think about when I’m going to die, how I’m going to die, will I be naked when I die?   I then I think, of course, I’ll be naked when I die.   I probably have an unusually thorough concept of my own mortality.   I’ve been to so many funerals in my life, I’ve become somewhat of a funeral expert.   I’ve been to so many funerals that most of my wardrobe is black, just to be prepared.   I’ve been to so many funerals that they refer to me as pallbearer number three.   I can’t hear “the Old Rugged Cross” without tearing up, on cue.   I’ve developed an anxiety disorder in reaction to death.   I went ...