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“How to live 365 days a year”
During 2019 Christmas break, I read a book called “How to live 365 days a year” by John A. Schindler, M.D. This book was originally published in 1954 and revised editions were published in 1982 and again in 2003. This book contains simple wisdom that bad emotions and stress causes illness, what the author calls EII or Emotionally Induced Illness. The author states that our parents, schools, friends and religious institutions fail to teach us how to manage stress and achieve emotional stasis. To gain control of our runaway emotions, start with the key thought,” I am going to keep my thinking and my attitude calm and cheerful – right…
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The principle of “Oh Well!”
Oh Well – Used when something is mildly disappointing, but not enough to obsess about (according to Urban Dictionary). Here’s a very simple principle of “Oh Well” that I picked up from the book How Women Rise by Sally Helgeson and Marshall Goldsmith that I recently listened to. When you have a regret, a disappointment or a worry, say “Oh well” and move on. Don’t ruminate on things (ruminating is for cows – cows ruminate also called cud-chewing). Just say “oh well” and let it go and move on.
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Date Nights
As I mentioned in my Night off blog post, my husband and I were together for 10 years before our son was born. We were used to spending a lot of time together and knew what was going on in each other’s lives. After our baby was born, the only conversations we started having were related to logistics – who is going to pick up groceries? who is going to do the banking? who is going to book the next doctor’s appointment? You get the jist…. We were also growing apart and becoming distant. According to The Gottman Institute, it is important to have updated “love maps”, which simply means…
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Night off
My husband and I had been living together for 10 years before our son was born. We were so used to having time to ourselves and time together before our son. Caring for an infant at all hours of the day and the night was a huge paradigm shift for us and we struggled to keep our cool. Our relationship changed and we weren’t too happy with each other (lack of sleep didn’t help either!). After one year of maternity leave, I went back to work full time and things got worse as the pressures of performing well at work collided with the pressures of house-work and child-care (both my…
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Netflix versus Reading
Today my husband told my son (6 years old) an interesting story about a man who visited my husband’s elementary school when he was a kid and told the kids about his life. The man (let’s call him Bob) spent some years of his life in prison. In prison, Bob was given the job to peel potatoes in the kitchen and was instructed to put the potatoes in the potato peeling machine for 2 minutes and then peel the little bit left over skin by hand. There was a lazy guy who told Bob that he puts the potato in the peeler for 5 minutes so he doesn’t have to…
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The Meaning of Life
I asked Siri (iPhone assistant) – “Hey Siri, What’s the meaning of Life” and Siri answered, “All evidence to date suggests its chocolate.” Siri is getting pretty smart. From the dawn of the prefrontal cortex, humans have been seeking answers to these questions: “What is the meaning of Life?”, “Why are we here on earth?”, “What are we supposed to do that’s meaningful?”, “Are we wasting our life doing what we are doing everyday?” Here’s my answer to this question. The universe does not owe us an answer to the “meaning of life” question. Life does not owe you an explanation of its meaning. Life is what you make of…
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Hello World!
Hello World! My pen-name is Alice Eley and I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Welcome to my Wonder Blog! I will post here and share my thoughts, book summaries/reviews, and random thoughts and ideas. Thanks for your support and for reading my blog. I am so excited to get started.