Tis the season to be wary. Like many of you, I resolve to be more organized, read more books, write more poetry, learn new things, get more sleep, lose weight, spend less, eat healthier, keep the car cleaner and the closets emptier.
Janopause is the buzzword for the January time-out that Brits take from alcohol consumption, in the belief that it will give their livers a break. For a wider audience, it’s basically post-Christmas, bleak-winter pressure to abstain from anything remotely pleasurable. Not for me, thanks.
My Janopause is a time to muse. It’s the mid-month stop-and-take-stock time. New Year’s resolutions have yet to be broken. And there’s still a passel of willpower left.
It’s not likely that I can keep any resolution all year, maybe not even until July. But I think if I can make it through to the end of January, the odds are in my favor.
Professor Richard Wiseman researches the psychology of luck, self-help, persuasion, and illusion. A passionate advocate for science, his best-selling books have been translated into over 30 languages and he has presented keynote addresses at Microsoft, Caltech, and Google. Wiseman is the most followed psychologist on Twitter.
Here’s his 59 second mini-motivator~
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I’m starting with “be more organized”. More specifically: Clean one bookshelf every week. Take one box of “stuff” out of the cellar each garbage day. Not too challenging, not too easy. And, of course, there will be rewards ~ Keep my eye on the prize. Like fiddling around on YouTube.
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Resolution #2 ~ Eat healthier. Michael Pollan says plants are good for us. Eating more plants brings health benefits. If we fill ourselves up on plants, then we eat less of unhealthy foods. Plants have antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids and fiber. Vegetarians have better heart health than meat eaters. Flexatarians (occasional meat eaters) have much better health statistics than meat eaters. The more vegetables you eat, the healthier you’ll be. Can’t argue with that.
As for my resolve to “learn new things”, I listen to podcasts. The NPR podcast directory lets you mix skadoodles of topics and programs. WIKIPEDIA has a random article link for the “Hey-I-didn’t-know-that!” moment that is crackling good fun. And then there’s the Learn Something Everyday App, free in iTunes, for an all-important daily dose of humor.
Bloggers are a mixed breed but there’s tons of truffles among the toadstools. They’re the Renaissance writers of the Internet. They have plenty to say and teach us about life. Like Fish and Dew. And they’re just a mouse-click away. https://mentalmanna.wordpress.com/
Janopause isn’t the season to be sorry, to punish yourself, or go for the one-hit, one-month stab in hopes of long-term liver health. It can be a spritz of joy and some shanti for the soul. Wished for and welcome.
If poetry isn’t basic, then what is? We turn to poetry again and again. At memorial services, funerals, weddings, showers, christenings, graduations, at any event that marks an essential life passage. We turn to a poem to express loss, hurt, change, joy. And there is no more perfect instrument for a poem than the human voice. We soak and float in the sounds that poetry makes.
An ancient Kenyan proverb says, Talking with one another is loving one another. When Aunt Toby died, we gathered to share stories and remember the wise and graceful woman who touched us all. She lived an ordinary life, one set off-course by sickness and loss, but enriched by good fortune and abiding love. Her granddaughter read a poem at the service, one that Aunt Toby tacked on her kitchen wall in the little house on Apple Street. A poem of unassuming wisdom and grace. It now hangs on ours.
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Max Ehrmann is the author of Desiderata (Latin: things desired as essential). He earned a degree in Philosophy from Harvard University, then returned to his hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana to practice law. Eventually this led him to work in his family’s meatpacking business and in the overalls manufacturing industry. Finally at the age of 41, Ehrmann decided to become a writer. At the age of 55 he wrote Desiderata, which achieved fame only after his death.
Poetry is “life distilled”, as Gwendolyn Brooks said. It is also language and experience distilled. Poems tells us something about a way to live in the world. Even the ones that make us laugh out loud.
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Over the course of a few minutes, a poem gives us insights into our lives
that last throughout a lifetime. I know. I read Aunt Toby’s wall.
