Wake Up! it's Springtime! A How-to Guide

Annamaria on Monday

Step One: Eschew the news before it eats you up.

I know quite a number of news addicts.  They own many TVs, all almost always on and all tuned to their favorite news channel.  Why would people do that to themselves?  Stop and think.  Do you really need to hear hours of people regurgitating the same facts and stating their opinions of them?  TURN IT OFF!

Most importantly, DO NOT set your alarm to play a news station.  Why would you want to leave your dreams to hear endlessly about other people's nightmares? If you feel you must know that latest word on current events, wait until you are fortified to face them. Then take them in small doses.  Very small.  The smaller the better.

Step Two: Nourish your inner self

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially when it comes to your psyche and your soul.  Begin your day with a large helping of something that feeds your spirit. Read poetry.  Flip the pages of an art book.  Listen to a story. Let your eyes and ears give you a lift, instead of an assault on your sense of well-being.

For me, music does the trick.  I have a playlist called "Wake-up" - a collection of songs guaranteed to make me smile and feel love, that bring back wonderful memories, that fire my determination to make the most of the day. Here are some great songs from my list. I hope they will inspire you to find your own.

My first one has been a theme for my whole life.  At four or five, my poetry was lyrics of songs I heard on the radio.  I believed Ned Washington's words.  Even as an adult, I have called Jiminy Cricket my patron saint, because I have taken inspiration from words of hope.  Here they are sung by the incomparable Cliff Edwards. 

I know.  It isn't that easy.  If you want your dream to come true, you have follow that wish with more than just a twinkle in your eye.  Therefore, I also like to wake up to this:

Include something you can glory in and dance to:

Happiness is not going to come and find you on the sofa.  You have to get out there and find what will make you happy and satisfied.

You may need something to help you over the hardest parts, by thinking about the whys of life.

These songs are only part of my list.  Make your own playlist.  Then use it as methadone to fight off your news addiction or the self-important voices in your head that command you to come down from the clouds.  

You can call me jejune all you like.  Focusing on the positive is either part of my DNA or it has been burned into me by a lifetime of fighting off my share of the slings and arrows that are part of everyone's existence.  Lots of people have told me I have my head in the clouds.  I heard them, but I still believe my best bet is to keep trying to make my dreams come true.  It works for the lovers, the dreamers, and me.

This spring will bring showers.  Go out and look for rainbows!