Breathing Easier

I’ve recently been introduced to how wonderful nasal irrigation is through my very first attempt to use a neti pot. I’ve always been aware of neti pots and nasal irrigation through my parents, but I always associated such hygienic maintenance with too much of an “ew gross” factor to try it myself. Well, a bought of congestion and a random boost in pure GUTSY-ness compelled me to finally try it.

Honestly, it was a bit difficult for me at first – I couldn’t seem to find the right angle to get a good flow. I persevered, and eventually it worked out, leaving me with absolutely the clearest sinuses I’ve had in ages. This is definitely going to become part of my routine. If you’re interested in trying nasal irrigation, don’t ask advice from an amateur like myself. Try people like the folks at Daily Cup of Yoga, who seem to really know what they’re talking about.

The Side Effects of Hope

The term has been kicking in to full gear as I attempt to narrow the direction of my thesis and the sakura trees of Snow Country are finally convinced that Spring is imminent. My frenetic pace has put my calendar in a jumble while other aspects of my life fall in to place. My fiance ships off to basic training within a day and we share different degrees of simultaneous nervousness and excitement. Working part time at the library has been even better than I imagined it would be, and even the dull activity of shelf reading has led me to titles I am glad to have happened upon. Among other things, I’ve been reading the book Resonant Leadership by Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee.

According to Boyatzis and McKee, people who create a sustainable resonance of hope:

• Demonstrate dreams and aspirations, but are also in touch with those of the people around them.
• Are optimistic and believe in their ability to make a change.
• See the desired future as realistic and feasible.

The book describes hope as an “umbrella” for positive emotions, which in turn are good for us, for our work, and for our relationships. The following are all quotes from Resonant Leadership.

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“In a hopeful state, we have more physiological as well as emotional resiliency, and we are mentally and physically prepared to deal with challenges.”

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“Positive emotions impact our openness and cognitive flexibility, problem-solving abilities, empathy, willingness to seek variety and persistence. [...] Hope is an emotional state accompanied by clear thoughts about what the future can be and how to get there.”

Right now I find that observation particularly pertinent and helpful. Boyatzis and McKee advocate the use of visualization techniques to envision the positive or desired outcome.

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“We can all apply visualization to cultivate hope in our lives. Besides triggering mindfulness and a sense of renewal, such exercises can help guide our decisions and future actions. The key is that the vision should evoke in your mind a specific, clear mental pictures of the future – one that you find inspiring and that you believe can happen. A sense of purpose or meaning in your work often follows naturally from such images. And the positive emotions that are generated as you think about your desired future are actually powerful drivers of behavior.”

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It is reading like this that are needed to balance the mood of some other things on my current list, such as Broken Bodies, Broken Dreams.

Recommended Reading:

• Destructive Emotions by Daniel Goleman
• Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion by Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee
• Broken Bodies, Broken Dreams: Violence Against Women Exposed joint publication by United Nations OCHA and United Nations IRIN

8 Short Films to Brighten Your Day

By ‘brighten your day’ I’m not saying that they are all happy and that they’ll improve your mood. Rather, I find that it can be invigorating to see what creative expression someone can share in such a small space both visually and in terms of length. I’ve been playing around with my old clips – and wishing I had taken more video in the past. I might post some of the things I’ve made at some point, but in the meantime here are some films I’d like to share!

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This is an awesome tilt-shift simulated time lapse video of a Sumou match! Cool, right?

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Les Escargots by Rene Laloux (1965) has great parallels in terms of construction to the animation in Monty Python films. Also it is a bit of a dystopian story, which is engaging.

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Apricot by Ben Briand (Australian)

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Breakup Service by Kosai Sekine

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Here’s Right Place, also by Kosai Sekine.

I must confess that I love everything he directs. He even makes aesthetically appealingmakeup and photocopy advertisements.

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Next up is Oh the Places we Go by Meredith Jones
(via Sydney Oh! Check them both out!!)

(also reminds me of my own foot-view obsessed photos, as well as the Foot Earth project

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Next is a collaborative music project by the morning benders and the echo chamber orchestra. I love this pretense! Also it looks like wicked fun. Bonus: I like the song.

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Last but not least is this lovely nightscape video by cat2525jp. It is way similar in both concept and design to Kosai Sekine’s Jemapur music video, but of course they’re both filmed in Tokyo.

An Extremely Overdue Update

So, as many of you gathered from twitter, fb, or some other futuristic time wasting machine social networking site, it snowed here just a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, I was way too excited about it to grab any photos, really.  But here are some excited shots of friends and classmates (cool fact: some people here were seeing snow for the first time! Including some visiting Indonesian professors who were only in Japan for a couple of weeks). These four photos aren’t mine, they’re all from friends’ fb pages.

Here is what it looked like the next day around lunchtime.  We’ve enjoyed snowcapped mountains to a greater or lesser extent ever since.  And there are a few more rooftop shots on flickr - here.

In other news, I survived midterms and will live to tackle finals in only a few short weeks. I also finally got my hands on a fridge, which is in very questionable condition but keeps food sufficiently cold.  I would like to replace it as soon as I can though because for many reasons due to age, storage and the treatment of former owners, it is not an energy efficient appliance by any stretch of the imagination.

I have really been enjoying the fall weather, to some extent to the detriment to my productivity, but also to the great boon to my spirit.  One particularly lovely day I walked with a classmate through the dormant rice fields to the town’s charming park, nearby produce market, and local winery. The produce shop is called 「八人八色」or Hachinin Yairo, and you can purchase gorgeous seasonal locally grown vegetables for extremely good prices. Most of their vegetables are actually cheaper than at the grocery store.  Below are some photos from that uplifting excursion.

The park also has the strangest – slash – most interesting trampoline I’ve ever seen, which basically looks like a squishy, three peaked mountain range. There are usually at least a few children with their parents playing there, and once I even saw a mother stretching atop the center mound while her tiny child jumped on her back (presumably deepening the stretch? but he fell off and bounced along the other side). I haven’t tried this out yet, but it looks like loads of fun. I’m thinking some IUJ students need to go down to the park for a picnic in the winter. We can jump until we are no longer cold, then sit in the park and eat. Maybe this only sounds like a good idea to me though. Haha!