Sunday Seven

I attended a seminar recently where we watched an episode of This Emotional Life exploring the concept of happiness. I eat this stuff up. In college, I was an English Literature and Biopsychology double major and I've always been drawn to the intersection of science and the human experience. Not only has the link between proof-seeking science and intangible emotional experience always been fascinating to me, in many ways I've often felt reassured because my own questions about such ideas, even ones as basic and fundamental as happiness, are shared by many. Things aren't always as simple as they appear... How many secrets of life I have yet to discover.

In this particular episode, they describe a technique used in Positive Psychology in which an individual focuses on positive aspects from their normal day. They are then asked to describe these moments and why these experiences inspired positive feelings or thoughts. From there, one (or his or her positive psychologist) is able to see patterns in his or her own experience of happiness.

Jenny and I always wanted to keep a record (public or private) of 3 things we were grateful for that happened to us in a day. It's always easy (and quite satisfying) to wallow in self-pity or seek pity in others for all the hardships that we experience, but I'd argue that it's just as easy to find the good too. Because of this, I want to challenge myself to find the good in each day, be it an overall good or bad one. I'd ideally like to do it daily, but let's be honest, I don't even shower that often (TMI?). So I think I plan on recording 7 positive things every Sunday that hopefully will cover the past week. The Sunday Seven. Here we go:

1. Seeing all of the pictures from Debbie's wedding (a real post about this soon!) popping up all over Facebook because they let me relive such a happy day.
2. Dessert with Jenny on Tuesday, having fun with Albert yesterday, phone calls with JJB Friday, Debbie today. Getting to talk about anything and everything makes me refreshed and grateful for these friendships.
3. The cherry tree blooming outside my room window, pictured above, because though it flowers only fleetingly, the pink flowers and even the withering, fallen petals are just beautiful.
4. Picture texts from my sister from Shanghai! iMessage is so awesome and I'm so glad she's getting to enjoy her vacation with our dad.
   
   
5. A chance to really learn through something unpleasant. The power of communication and having a little hope can do wonders.
6. The first of countless salads for this summer: http://instagr.am/p/JvfKuyoLxs/. Tomatoes, cucumbers, garbanzo beans, purple cabbage with the dressing from my favorite salad. So simple, so delicious.
7. A day off today because I can play catch-up while semi-relaxed. I intentionally skipped orchestra rehearsal for this...

Whew, there are a lot in here! I hope you have an inspired week!

Shakespearean Fancies

Confession: I graduated as an English major without ever really studying Shakespeare. Of course I encountered bits in classes here and there; but with great regret, I never got the chance to take the famed Ralph Williams Shakespeare course (like Connie did - yes, I'm still jealous). Luckily for me, Professor Williams has been making these clips exploring the timelessness of Shakespeare's works in his uniquely dramatic flair. I hope to watch all of these at once when I'm done with school in about 2 months (ahh!).

You can find the whole collection here: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsa/archives?classification=spotlight%20shakespeare

Ingrid Michaelson's Skinny Love

If you couldn't already tell from this and that, I really love covers. Often times, I end up liking them more than the originals. This is an example of such a song.

Some side notes: I got free tickets and watched Ingrid perform live a few weeks ago with some classmates. Also, Debbie will be having this Ingrid song playing in her wedding ceremony by her future brother-in-law. It will be gorgeous and I can't wait.

Quotability

"But for us, it's different. Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

Carl Sagan

(photo of the East Coast from space by NASA)

Social Promiscuity

So I think the reason why I've been more and more infrequent in my posting, besides the obvious school responsibilities, is perhaps my increasing participation in the modes of social networking. I've joined the likes of Instagram (because of my iPhone) and Twitter (because of my classmates), both of which I am warming up to more and more. There's less of a commitment to quality idea-expansion and coherent, cohesive expressions of thoughts and sadly is thus easier to use during fly-by moments during the day.

However, if any recall, it was this very responsibility of developing and following through with ideas and thoughts that drew me back to blogging in the first place. Especially now in the constant barrage of transient fancies and attention deficits, I hope to continue this meager exercize of writing in complete sentences when I can.

Anyway, here is my long-winded and bashful invitation to find me on Instagram (parachutesandpatience) and Twitter (cschen08) where you will find surely the "quantity over quality"-type posts, but hopefully with more pictures and possibly slightly more witty one-liners than you'll find here...

"Got Heart" Ring

This is my first piece of "everyday wear" jewelery that I actually wear all the time. I bought this Got Heart ring on sale from a little East Village jewelery boutique, on kind of a whim during my winter break. Of course, only Helen could bring me to a place as quintessentially New York as Verameat. She, along with my sister, were integral in my decision. Having worn this ring daily for a few months now, I feel like it was a worthy purchase. This buying nice jewelery for oneself - perhaps a physically small item, but significant in a young woman's life. At least for me, it is a daily reminder of what I'm capable of, my independence to find my own happiness, and the recognition of my own self-worth.

Happy Monday to all.

Amazing Paths

Back from Spring Break (more on this later!) and I'm feeling wanderlusty already. These pictures are from an email my sister sent me. Gorgeousness.

(we drove through roads like this when we were driving to Yellowstone!)