How to Kill a Mocking Brain, an old gal's manual to enlightenment - VI

Dear Friends,
Getting back to my "Holiday Journal," last Saturday, was all about time! Wake-up on time, check-out on time and then make the best of the remaining time! Followed by, will I have time to eat before the bus arrives? Will the flight leave on time? Once home, will I have enough time to rest, shop, cook and write my blog?

Regardless of the fact that mentally I'd already joined the race against time, determinably, I managed to enjoy every remaining sun ray, accompanied by one double-rum Mojito after another!
I made a point of not letting time rush me, taking my time savouring everything for the last time.

I believe I've found my perfect resting place, somewhere between Burkeman's virtues of being negative and Gladwell's, it's not really all my fault, theory.
According to everything that I've retained from old, new and borrowed inspirational literature, in order to be HAPPY, you gotta be FEARLESS! And, in order to be fearless you gotta have nothing to lose! And that NOTHING, my dear friends, includes happiness!

In order to be happy, most of us need to be Healthy, Safe, Free, Independent, Respected, Esteemed, Loved and Living Comfortably. I - also need to look good!
Unfortunately, our wish list is written in magic ink, as it's susceptible to uncontrollable outside forces, such as infectious Bill 115. Fear of losing anything that makes us happy, including our loved ones, is unbearable. Fear of pain and dying is insufferable.

Antidotes to fear still remain, faith, mindfulness, altruism and the concept of coming to terms with the 'worst case scenario. As a pathologically fearful person, I've given all the above mentioned antidotes a chance to empower me to heal my mind. In my, not so humble opinion anymore, since I've read enough to have developed my own school of thought, all of the above is good and dandy as long as it comes to us naturally. 

If fear has already leaked into your DNA through your upbringing and personal experiences and "cultural legacy," you can only smirk at the experts. A bit like when a mogul like Oprah gives tips on how to climb out of a million-dollar network crisis, or the nipped, tucked, stretched, injected and photoshopped celebrity claims to have embraced natural beauty, or old age! As we say in Farsi, yelling "Knock him out!" from the ringsides is easy. 
Probably the reason why self-help books don't have sustainable effect is because we all have to plough our souls, ourselves. 

Faith - leaving everything complicated to the higher power and going about attending only to the small, practical matters such as feeding myself, is not my modus operandi. I have to add my lack of faith to the list of my grievances against my parents.

Keeping an overdriven mind still and focussed on the present moment at all times, is a losing battle for many of us. Sure, meditation helps, but only the minds that are predisposed to tranquility! 

Altruism is as effective as it lasts. Unless we work under duress, in severe climates, or every night return to bed with burning calluses, our thoughts will find us.

Worst case scenario concept works as long as it is a farfetched one. When 'worst' is already behind the door, we don't get the chance to rehearse welcoming it.


I was grateful to be back before the monotony of contentment got hold of me.
However, Sunday morning the view from my living room shocked me to paralysis.
It seemed as if I had stepped out of a highly technicolour, cheerful movie into a black and white scene of a morose Alfred Hitchcock film. The contrast between the Cuban bright blue sky, lush green palm trees and the greyness of tall, concrete buildings standing against an even greyer background was unbearable. I returned to bed and closed my eyes for the rest of the day. I woke up with an insight; I'll stop pursuing happiness, and concentrate solely on happy times!

And today, a week later, I feel as if I had never left! Such is life, deal wit it! Accepted and filed!
What have you accepted and filed, today?

P.S. I'll always have Cuba!