5 Sunshine Thoughts to beat those Traffic Blues!

Many people ask me what’s my sunshine secret - how is it that I’m always so happy they wonder!

The truth is, there are some things that even make the sunshine girl mad!!! The terrible traffic in Mumbai city is one such pet peeve.

However, having identified my pet peeve, I have gone about trying to make things work for me & this is what I’ve come about it. May some of these will work for you, or maybe you’ll have to come up with your own lists - however, if you do have a pet peeve, it’s good that you sit and figure out ways to deal with it rather than complain about it / get upset by it all the time.

So, presenting to you: 5 Sunshine Thoughs to beat those Traffic Blues!

(01) Figure out when traffic is at it’s worst in the city. And then of course, try to avoid driving during that time. I’ve found out it means getting up earlier and starting my day at a much earlier hour than I would have normally - but the extra hours sleep is not valued when I am stuck in ridiculous traffic! So my new motto is: Early to sleep & early to rise, makes Mell enjoy her drive!

(02) Make sure you car is fully loaded with whatever you need for your drive the previous night! For me, that means checking I’ve carried a fresh bottle of water - so needed when you’re stuck in traffic. And that I’ve put in new CDs that I want to listen to. And that I’ve got all my chargers in place, just in case my bluetooth handfree or phone battery is low on charge.

(03) If it makes sense for you, get a driver! I personally perfer driving my own car, but I know scores of people who have drivers, purely to catch a few winks between meetings or to get online & do work/play during the commute. If you’re like me & concerned about your car, make sure your driver is fully informed about how you like things (for example, I don’t like unnecessary honking) in advance, so that the driver doesn’t end up annoying you also!

(04) Another thing I do often is change the CDs in my car. This helps make every drive different even though I’m usually driving the same routes. Sometimes I carry Joyce Meyer’s latest podCasts that I can listen & learn from during the drive. Other times I carry Norah Jones / Michael Buble / Tenors - that completely relaxes me when I’m stressed. And sometimes, specially on my way home, I blast the latest music at volumes that are not good for ones ears (no, I’m not advocating you do this often ;)) and sing out loudly (& I mean LOUDLY) and dance with the music, all the way home. Of course, you should keep in mind, all the suggestions are assuming you’re the only person in the car. If you have a passenger, you might want to consider their preferences too

(05) Accept the fact that there are ALWAYS going to be idiot drivers on the road. Just accept it as a fact & move on. There’s no point allowing the idiot who cut you, or the other idiot who drove waaay too slowly or the other one who almost hit you annoy you. It also is kind to passengers, if any, not to abuse these idiots out aloud when driving. I’ve noticed it’s de-stressing to yell at these guys when I’m driving - but it actually stresses me more when I’m the passenger and someone else is yelling! So, best solution, stop all the yelling, accept them as a necessary (unfortunate) fact of life, thank God you’re a better driver & just move on.

The following inspirational poem is taken from Marianne Williamson’s book A Return to Love. Though often quoted as part of Nelson Mandela’s moving inaugural speech, “Our Deepest Fear” does not appear in the speech. Marianne Williamson herself has commented on this mistaken attribution. For Marianne’s website, click here.

————————

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us;
It’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we’re liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

(c) Marianne Williamson

Starting today the Sunshine girl has declared every Friday is “Decluttering Day”! I can testify first hand on the joys of decluttering - just yesterday I cleaned out my shoe closest, threw out some which were unusable, gave away some which were usable but which I’m not using and in the process, made a lot more space!

The Sunshine girl asks to to take ONLY FIFTEEN MINUTES of your time today & declutter something.

Is it your office desk? Your desktop on your PC? Your living room? Your bedroom? Your clothes/shoes closest?

What can you Declutter from your life today?

Don’t just read this, do something & then only will reading this really help you. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time here.

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it”;
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

(c) Edgar A. Guest

There is inside you
all of the potential to be whatever
you want to be
all of the energy to do whatever
you want to do.

Imagine yourself as you would like to be,
doing what you want to do,
and each day, take one step
towards your dream.

And though at times it may seem too
difficult to continue,
hold on to your dream.

One morning you will awake to find
that you are the person
you dreamed of
doing what you wanted to do
simply because you had the courage
to believe in your potential
and to hold on to your dream.

(c) Donna Levine

Simplicity is the outward sign and symbol of depth of thought ~ Lin Yutang

My sunshine mum taught us early in our lives about the value of having inspirational thoughts - in any form - around us (thx mum!). Growing up, we had posters of various inspirational poems stuck on my walls. I used to see the poems so often, though they’re no longer around, I know most of them by heart - and they happily come back to mind whenever I need them!

Here’s the first poem of this category, a well known one, worth the read through line by line, called:

Don’t Quit!

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow -
You might succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup.
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt -
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit -
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.

- Unknown -

“The Only Thing Constant in life is Change”~ François de la Rochefoucauld

If the only thing constant in life is change - and hey, we all know that change is inevitable - then we might as well adapt a positive mind set towards change.

Forget about opposing change or accepting it half heartedly, instead embrace change positively!

So push yourself to try out new things - things which possibly scare you. See new genres of movies that you wouldn’t normally have seen. Read new authors. Visit new places, make new friends, eat new cuisines, cook new food. Cut your hair, go bald, shave your beard! Learn to play a new instrument, sing a new song, dance!

Be more spontaneous, be excited about life, stay open to new possibilities. Change may just be what your require right now to spice up your life!

Dear Sunshine Girl, I don’t have any friends. The few people I do know are very different from me and I can’t find anyone to hang out with who I can get along with ~ Lonely & bored

Dear Lonely & bored,

Everyone, even those who have tons & tons of friends, sometimes feel that the are all alone and that no one understands them or that everyone else is very different from them.

The trick is not to let feelings of being “different” stop you (or anyone) from getting to know people. Sometimes the strongest friendships are formed between people who are different in (seemingly) every way.

For now I suggest you get out of your house and volunteer, volunteer, volunteer! When you give back, that’s when true happiness comes in. Check out which social organisations / NGOs are functional near where you live and then go offer your services to the one that most touches your heart. You’ll also be likely find like minded people there AND also seeing the plight of the less fortunate will open your eyes to how blessed you really are!

Lots of other things you can do, more later. Stay tuned!

Wishing you Sunshine Smiles,

Sg

~~
Pls note - the Sunshine Girl is not a psychologist, a psychiatrist or anything psy! All this column attempts to do, is bring sunshine into your life through practical suggestions. If your problem is a chronic one, you are strongly urged to seek professional help; seeking help is the first step to recovery.

Four year old Alexandra “Alex” Scott was suffering from neuroblastoma (a pediatric cancer) when she has a simple idea - she was going to open a lemonade stand to help raise money to help other kids with cancer!

Her older brother Patrick helped her do this and in the four years that followed, she helped raise $1 million!

Alex died when she was eight - but though she no more, her spirit remains alive - upto date, the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation has raised over $10 million for childhood cancer research. Updates on the foundation’s work available at the Lemonade Blog.

Think for a minute: What is the extraordinary life of little Alex inspiring you to do right now?