Mood Uplifters ! Day 4

Today is day 4 of the Positivity experiment and I am pleasantly surprised at how quickly it has spread! I have been getting so many mails and messages from friends about how interesting they find this experiment and how they are using it to turn around their lives! It was just started on a whim but now we have so many people joining in and telling us how happy it is making them. The response was so overwhelming that Preeti has started this facebook Group so that the positivity can continue to flow even after 7 days !
Do join in and spread the positivity around by sharing with us the five things that made you happy !

(To those of you who are reading my blog for the first time, the 7 days of Positivity initiative was conceived by Preeti Shenoy over at Just a Mother of Two. It’s a wonderful concept where we blog about 5 things that we are grateful and thankful for every day. The idea is to focus on the happy and positive things in our lives and not on the negative.
(Please read my previous posts to understand how it works !)

So here are my 5 Mood uplifters for the day!
1) A very good friend whom I had been badgering to read my blog for a long time finally started reading it regularly because she was intrigued by the Mood Up-Lifters posts that I have been doing! She also wrote me a lovely message telling me how much she enjoyed my writing and that quite made my day !

2)I love listening to Yanni and had bought a lot his cds many years back. I had forgotten about them but came across them today while looking for something entirely different. I spent an happy hour or so listening to them and rediscovering the magic of Yanni !

3) During lunch at home we ended up discussing how delicious my grandma’s mango chutney was and how much we miss it (she is no longer with us). This made me take a trip down memory lane and remember the summer holidays at my grandparents. My happiest memories are of the time spent with them so remembering those days really made me happy !

4) We made bhelpuri at home today. crunchy, tangy and very spicy. Just the way I like it !

5) I needed to read and sort out a few important papers. A boring task that I had been putting off for a very long time. Finally tackled it today. I’m glad I finished it !.

My list for today is made of very simple and mundane things. But that’s the idea isn’t it – to enjoy and be happy about even the simplest things in life !

Mood Uplifters ! Day 3

Today has been one of those days when you want to crawl back in bed, pull up the covers and wish for the day to start afresh ! I got up with a severe neck pain because of which I couldn’t sit at my Laptop or do much reading. Since I cant move about much not being able to do even these two activities made me real mad and (I am ashamed to say!) feel rather sorry for myself.Then I remembered about Preeti’s 7 Days of Positivity experiment that I am doing. Surprisingly that made me even madder because suddenly I was in no mood to look for any positivity. But as the day progressed, I forced myself to deliberately think of things that would make me happy.

So here are my 5 mood uplifters of the day:

1)I just need to sit at my dining table or stand at the front door to look out on a beautiful park with hundreds of trees and plants. Although there aren’t many flowers in this season, It’s a beautiful eye dazzling green. Being a big nature lover, I am very grateful for this park.

2)There are a few birds which come to our verandah every day to eat the bird-seed and drink the water we keep for them. There’s this particular pair that came in today and all their antics and hopping around really made me laugh.I tried to click their snap but they flew off every time I went near.

3) My cousin smsed me a joke today. It made me instantly laugh out loud and I in turn sent it to my friends and received a lot of smiles in return!

4) Realization that although I am going through a lean phase health wise, I am still better off than so many people. Today I felt that I am slowly and surely mending and I should be grateful that my illness didn’t turn out to be as debilitating or threatening as it could have been. And I am really thankful for that !

5) I feel very grateful to my Dad, Mom and my aunt. We should always be thankful for our family but lately I have been going through the usual mood swings that come when someone usually very active is confined indoors for a long time. They have been extremely supportive and simply wonderful at cheering me up and also tolerating my temper tantrums !

I woke up in a foul mood today but as I slowly started looking at the positives in my life, my mood drastically improved. We all have our ups and downs and life is not always the way we want it to be, but the most important thing is to always –

Mood Uplifters ! Day 2

In continuation of yesterdays post, Here are my 5 mood –uplifters for the day :

1)I discovered 2 of my long lost cousins on facebook and it was simply great reconnecting with them and going through their snaps (One lives in Nairobi and the other in California and I haven’t seen them for at least 15 years !)

2)I had written a report in Japanese for our parent company in Japan. Today I got a mail from them appreciating the effort I had put in. They said that my command over the language was incredible (thats the word they used!) and I wrote like a native Japanese! That sure made my day!

3)I have been unwell lately and am not allowed to move about much. (am working from home). My aunt came to visit me today, bringing with her lots of cheer and good wishes. Along with that she also brought a lot of food – sweets,kachoris,dhokla, chocolates, fruits; enough to feed an army! (Yeah she is one those who feel that feeding people till they pop is the only way of showing your love :-))

4)I have a lot of books and they were all piled or stocked rather haphazardly on the book shelves and my desk. I tidied up the shelves and the new arrangement of books look neat and gives me much more space ! I get extremely irritated if my surroundings are cluttered so this felt really good !

5) Today I went to the neighborhood park after ages. I didn’t walk about much but being out in the open after spending such a long time indoors made me absolutely deliriously happy ! It was like flying after being trapped in a cage!

So I have celebrated a lot of little things that have made me happy today. Have you!

Mood Uplifters ! - Day 1

Preeti of Just a mother of two has a penchant for thinking up very motivating and interesting stuff on her blog. She is doing a 7 days of positivity experiment right now where you are supposed to write 5 things that you are thankful or grateful for every day for a week.
I think Positive thinking is a very important ingredient for a happy life and as I have also mentioned here, we are really and truly made up of our thoughts and if we think positive, positive things will happen to us.

So here are the 5 things I am thankful/grateful for today :

1) I got three books I have been wanting to read for a long time from a newly opened lending library very close to where I live. Actually you can only take out one book at a time, but the young owner turned out to be a great book lover and we instantly connected – talking about various authors and books for over half an hour. As a result he told me I could take out as many books as I wanted in one go :-)

2) A Phone call from a very dear friend. She has a great ability to make you laugh and see some positivity and humour even in a seemingly hopeless situation. Talking to her was a instant pick me up !

3) Rain glorious rain! It rained like crazy today and yesterday – There is a cool breeze blowing and everything is a fresh emerald green !

4) Pakoras and Chai in the evening– They go hand and hand with the rains (need I say more !)

5) And last but not the least – It is my brothers Birthday today. He lives very far, in Canada but we celebrated his birthday in Delhi by having both Halwa and Kheer (Slurrp!!) I am very very thankful for his love and grateful that God has put such a wonderful person in my life !

There ! that was a great mood uplifter ! Try it, its loads of fun :-)

Back with a bang - and a new Tag !

This blog has remained untouched for a long time now. I need to bring it out of hibernation, to shake it by the scruff of it neck and make sure something creative falls out on those blank pages! I have been away from the blog world for quite a while, actually I have been away from the outside world for quite a while; trying to recuperate from a sudden illness that laid me flat on my back for more than 8 weeks. While reading Preeti’s blog yesterday (she had very wisely decided to do a blog marathon while I was away, leaving me with hundreds of unread posts to catch up on !) I came across this tag and what better way to break the jinx of not blogging by starting off with a tag from her!
So here goes …
1. What curse word do you use the most?
Sh*t

2. Do you own an iPod?
Used to till last December, till I lost it at the Bangkok airport !

3. What person do you talk to on the phone the most?
My Mom

4. Do you still remember the first person you kissed?
yup, I sure do !

5. Do you remember where you were on 11/9/01?
Yes, In Delhi, doing a job I loved and surrounded by the most wonderful friends! On that day we were worried sick about some friends who we knew worked near WTC.

6. What was the last movie you watched?
Wake up Sid (on TV)

7. Has anyone ever called you lazy?
No

8. Do you ever take medication to help you fall asleep?
No, recently I had wanted to once or twice, when the pain got too bad but always managed to convince myself I shouldn’t !

9. Has anyone told you a secret this week?
Yup.. And a nice secret it was !

10. What is the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
The way a person dresses and carries himself

11. What are you looking forward to?
Ohh lots - An illness free spell, going for walks,getting back to writing, Monsoons, rejoining office, driving again, going for the long overdue haircut,being able to travel again (actually it’s when you lose these everyday mundane things that u realize how much they mean!)

12. Do you own any band t-shirts?
hmm..No

13. What will you be doing in one hour?
Sleeping, I guess !

14. Is anyone in love with you?
yup, loads of people (I hope!)

15. Last time you cried?
Last week. Was so frustrated on being cooped up in the house that I cried)

16. Are you on a desktop computer or a laptop?
Laptop – HP

17. Are you currently wanting any piercings or tattoos?
No. Not my thing

18. Would you ever date anyone covered in tattoos?
yew .....No !

19. What were you doing before this?
Eating a mango

20. When is the last time you slept on the floor?
Last year in Japan. My apt was totally Japanese style with every thing floor level.

21. How many hours of sleep do you need to function?
7-8. I am like a zombie if I get les that 7.

22. Do you eat breakfast daily?
Yup, this is one meal I never ever miss.

And I tag ...you !