Isn’t it wonderful when life gives you what you’re looking for at exactly the right moment? In search of more information on Dr. Kristin Neff, a researcher who works in the field of self-compassion (no worries, we’ll get to that some other time 🙂 ) I ended up at the site of the Berkeley university. Very interesting site, and as I was browsing, I noticed that they offer a FREE (hey, I’m still Dutch 🙂 ) course: The science of happiness.

Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World. The Alchemist Have you ever read a book and wondered why you haven’t read it before? I just finished my new favorite book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Of course I had heard of Paulo Coelho and of The Alchemist, I just never read it. I didn’t know what it was about and I guess the title didn’t appeal to me.

When I was young I was very shy. Saying anything (and I mean anything, just saying hi) to people I didn’t know (too well) required a lot of courage. What I didn’t realize at that time is that it can even be harder to talk to family. Thinking back, I don’t think we ever shared a lot of things at home, not how our days had been and especially not feelings.

Anger is just a cowardly extension of sadness. It’s a lot easier to be angry at someone than it is to tell them you’re hurt. Tom Gates When I read this, I was like: yes…that’s pretty much it. When I’m angry, often (or maybe always?) I feel hurt. Saying you’re hurt makes you vulnerable and in order to avoid that, I’ve developed a habit of being angry instead.

A couple of years ago, I made drawings of my cat and my rabbit. Despite having some limiting believes about my drawing skills, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. Not the work of a great artist, but I actually thought it looked good enough (maybe even to hang somewhere in my house). Pleased with my accomplishment I showed someone my drawings and this person responded with: Yeah… wouldn’t hang that in the living room.

Well, I officially survived the first two days 🙂 . Like I said, at first very few foods are allowed and apart from the grape juice and mint tea they were not really my taste. Monday started kind of weird. Instead of making my usual smoothie I had to grab my book to see what to do. I made a “baked cheesecake” with carrots. It was edible, definitely not making it again.

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. Hippocrates Today I started the so called Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). The goal is to reset your (immune) system and find out what foods you can and cannot tolerate. The first couple of days you start with a very limited choice of foods; basically chicken(broth), eggs and cooked carrots and then, you slowly start adding new foods. After my colonoscopy I noticed I felt a little better the first two days.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought some fabric to make fabric panels. Since the prints are fashion related I wanted to hang them in Lisa’s walk in closet to be some day. Our plans shifted a little, so I’m not sure she will have a walk in closet, but I really like the prints and I think the panels will be really nice, so I want to make them anyway.

Maybe you read Ego logic in which I wrote about my challenge in dealing with Ego. One comment told how the advice to ignore Ego really made a difference to that person. It made me think, can I just ignore Ego? What I found out is that Ego represents my young self (and I’m soooo curious how this is for other people, so if you’d like to share, please do). When I was young, I did not have a lot of coping skills, none actually.

Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation. Aristotle Have you ever wondered what your talents are and/or if you have a vocation? I’m really curious if other people know their talents and if they do, whether they found where their talents cross the needs of the world. How do you know your talents and how do you know you found your vocation?