It’s been a hard year.
Over the past several months, we’ve been faced with challenges that none of us have had to deal with before. All of a sudden, everybody’s lives have changed dramatically.
We can’t celebrate special occasions with loved ones out of safety reasons. Many of us are struggling to cope with a mix of emotions, such as fear, sadness, and loneliness. It feels like everything is just hanging in the air, full of uncertainty.
When will it end? And what do we do in the meantime?
The easiest and most obvious answer is: wait. Wait. That’s a heavy word.
This Parable Shows Why You Shouldn’t Sweat the Small Stuff
“If only…”
Any sentence that starts with these words never ends well. It’s filled with pain, loss, and the feeling of unfulfilled potential. We believe that if only things happened differently, then the rest would fall into place.
Like heavy snow on a rooftop, fixating on the negatives will weigh you down. When the burden is too great, the foundations weaken. Then, they collapse.
In the face of disappointment, it’s easy to lie down and not want to get back up.
But things are not always what they seem. What seems bad may not be so bad after all. It may even turn out to be good.
What Escape from a North Korean Prison Camp Can Teach Us About Creating Change
What is a typical day in your life like? When you get out of bed in the morning, what are the most pressing matters that come up in your head?
For Shin Dong-hyuk, living in North Korea meant that torture, chronic hunger, and executions were a normal part of life. Born in a political prison camp, his everyday experiences included back-breaking labor and harsh beatings.
In order to survive, prisoners are encouraged to inform on one another and taught not to show affection towards others, including their own family members. Because of this, Shin felt little loyalty to his family, and later watched as his mother and brother were publicly executed.
He was later assigned to work at a textile factory, where he was forced to meet daily quotas under threat of physical punishments. But it was at the factory where he met a fellow prisoner who would change his life: Mr. Park. Unlike the young Shin, Mr. Park was a well-educated 40-year-old man who had visited places outside North Korea, including Germany and China.
How to Fall Asleep Within Minutes
How would you feel after a restless night?
How about two nights? Or 10 nights in a row?
On December 28, 1963, Randy Gardner, with the help of two classmates, went on a mission to find out how his body would respond if he stayed awake until January 8, 1964, making a total of 264 hours (or 11 days).
To begin, he woke up bright and early at 6 am, alert and energized. But by the second day, he had trouble focusing on his surroundings and recognizing objects given to him. By the third day, Gardner became grouchy and his speech began to slur. The day afterward, he imagined himself to be a Paul Lowe, a 200-pound football player, while he was barely 120 pounds.
The experiment was originally meant for a high school science fair, but news spread to Stanford researcher William Dent, who flew down to San Diego to get involved[1].
Are You Into the Coloring Craze?
When I was a child, coloring was one of my favorite activities.
I remember sitting at a white kitchen table as gentle rays of light streamed through the windows. In front of me were some scrap paper, a box of pencil crayons, and an illustration.
I would pick up a coloring pencil, test it out on scrap paper, and away I went. The pencil touched the paper at a slight angle as I carefully shaded within the lines. I would periodically put down my pencil, assess my work, and then continue where I had left off. It was like breathing life into something that formerly seemed still and lackluster.
Drawing from scratch? Painting? Sure, I liked those as well. But there were some qualms that came along with those activities. Where was I supposed to begin? What if I messed up? My drawings never seemed perfect, no matter how often I used my eraser and tried again.
But coloring was different. A simple back-and-forth motion of the pencil yielded a vibrant hue on the page. Coloring wasn’t about right or wrong, it simply just was.
Coloring for All Ages
It turns out that you can relive your coloring days again.