1. redlights
   Member

   This is sort of an offshoot of Shenkerton's comments in the Jonstastic thread about loving being alive...

   I think that a huge part of that is sustaining and seeking out joy as you go about your life and remembering that everything is beautiful, or brings something beautiful.

   How do you work to live your life in that way? How do you, even when the world is crumbling, seek or create beauty in the middle of what seems like miles of darkness? We all have different ways of dealing with this and remaining (for the most part) the sort of people that can find ashes and remember that they were once flames.

   (I just wanted to add that it's not a proverbial "you" in those question - it's the "you" you - how do you as an individual carry your joy if you do at all...)

   Posted 1 year ago #

2. Medizin
   Member

   I'm just an overall optimistic person. I live in a world without cynicism. This probably makes me seem naive, but honestly I haven't been the tiniest bit depressed in months. SR/Jonsi/allthatjazz definitely boosted this twentyfold, but it's just the way I've always been.
   If the world ended tomorrow, I'd be sad, but somehow I'd find a fun, happy way to ride out my last hours on Earth instead of cowering in sadness and fear. I'm just that positive.

   I just find that focusing on the really small things in life and stopping to study where you are, what you're surrounded by, can really give you a perspective of who you are and how you feel. When I was in Paris I was so caught up in a flurry of stress and noise and not sleeping for 36 hours, but when I finally just got the chance to stop and look around, and just say to myself, "It's 2 in the afternoon, I'm 9 hours away from home, on my own, walking down the Champs Elysées with a ton of people I have never met before in my life", I couldn't help but smile and feel amazing.

   Or if I'm outside, doing nothing, I think about things that normally people wouldn't notice. Like how old the trees are, or how many people have walked on the grass I'm sitting on, or if the rock next to me might be the same rock that's been tossed around for the last three hundred years, things like that.

   That's how I enjoy life.

   Posted 1 year ago #

3. moe
   Member

   I don't think I have ever been more down in my life than right now, so I am reading Medizin's post more than once.... Its so hard to pull yourself up. Something that works for me me is to give something...big or small, tangible or not. It starts the positive momentum. That and boy lilikoi at high volume on a great road with the windows down.

   Posted 1 year ago #

4. Medizin
   Member

   >boy lilikoi at high volume on a great road with the windows down

   yes

   Posted 1 year ago #

5. moe
   Member

   ...this is perhaps too maudlin, but years ago I was scared and stressed out about getting the results of a medical test. I was at UCLA in the park and when i had good news i remember how in an instant the green grass and trees looked like emeralds, I actually felt the warm air and it was like love, and I wanted to hug everyone....thankfully I did not. But I remember thinking wow, I have to remember how to feel this, it is going to slip away this euphoria and joy. It did, I remember that it happened, but like cotton candy in the mouth - I can't recreate the reality and be there, not more than the logical thought that i should be thankful and happy, not that physical high tho.

   Posted 1 year ago #

6. Schenkerton
   Member

   This thread is glorious. Medzy, it's crazy how similar yours and my philosophies on are. So much of what you described I believe in as well. I love going on a hike and pondering what the story of a fallen tree could be. What animals lived in it, what made it fall, what it felt like to feel the rain from high above the ground. I do the same for people. Thinking like that for people helps a lot from becoming judgmental because you are mindful that their past could be anything.

   I have put my personal philosophy into my music. It makes the abstract thoughts into something concrete that I can listen to and play. It makes it real. My last band that I wrote all the music for and plan to find new people to keep the music alive is called Build Us Fiction. The idea behind it is that the "reality" that most people settle for is far subpar to what I think could be. I believe that the mindset that a person has is where everything comes from. I try to make a "reality" (I say reality in quotes because I think that it is not a one fact meaning with no disputable or varying opinions.) that is something I would find in fiction. I'm not talking Star Wars or anything like that. Just that I can live life to the fullest, soak it in, and really enjoy it. When people like my parents ask about why I do things like drive 25 hours in a weekend just to see a concert that I have already seen 5 times, I say why not? Because life is for living and enjoying, not saving money and being cautious to the point of forgetting how to move.

   The concept album I have been working on for the past 2 years is called Inside the Brain Library. It fits into the same type of beliefs. That once the mind is opened up to explore around, I can find all sorts of stories and possibilities, information and experiences that are all waiting to be found. It's like walking into a library with rows upon rows of new things to discover.

   Posted 1 year ago #

7. Medizin
   Member

   i don't know what maudlin means

   but nice to know you had good results

   Posted 1 year ago #

8. moe
   Member

   ^ too much of a downer post to inflict!! Thanks. :) life goes on....

   Posted 1 year ago #

9. Schenkerton
   Member

   Also watch the movie, Into The Wild. So much of what I believe in comes from that.

   Posted 1 year ago #

10. twoism
    Member

    i've been feeling really down lately as well and i'm recently figuring things out a little bit. all the beauty of the world aside, i think it's important to really have a balance between thinking short term and long term. because sometimes you feel like nothing matters, i guess? i'll try to explain this but it's a little hard.. i mean, lately i've sort of been stuck in this "long term" mindset i.e. nothing will matter in the end, i'm insignificant, my goals are meaningless, what if i don't get where i want to go, how do i even know where i want to go, blablabla. and that can really get you down when it hits, for obvious reasons i guess. but that also prevents you from doing anything. and that's sort of what happened for me, until i started messing a lot of things up. it's important, i think, to acknowledge and maybe embrace the ambiguity of life. to sort of accept that everything is uncertain, as a fact, and move on from there. on the other hand being stuck in the short term can fuck things up too, in that you'll never reach your long-term goals without caring about them/working towards things. this is starting to sound a little nuts so i'll stop here but maybe someone will have some sort of idea what this means o_o

    Posted 1 year ago #

11. twoism
    Member

    shit i've been meaning to watch into the wild.

    Posted 1 year ago #

12. Schenkerton
    Member

    if you have never seen into the wild i highly recommend it. it changed me.

    and i know what you mean twoism. everything is about balance. everything.

    Posted 1 year ago #

13. twoism
    Member

    i think i'll watch it this weekend if it's this important for my mental health. will report back!

    Posted 1 year ago #

14. siri
    Member

    the music of into the wild is so beautiful, so touching - sung by Eddie Vedder. His voice almost does the same to me as Jonsi's voice. I think it is something about the vibrations in it, also about the emotions laid in it, that influence the vibrations of my own being - soul if you like.

    about long-term goals, I gave up on them in the sense of wanting to reach specified things. So many things in my life have already changed by unexpected circumstances, it's just crazy. I am so far now of the goals I set when I was twenty. But I'm very happy now, I've become really zen, by just living life going with the flow and just trying to be true to a few principles I really believe in (like respect for nature, loving family and friends whatever they do, trying to educate myself and my loved ones)
    In the church of my childhood, there was a banner on the altar which said : love, and do what you want. I'm not a religious person anymore, but I still think that that is basically what a good life is all about.

    Posted 1 year ago #

15. reneeisnice
    Member

    i surround myself with sweet animals. i struggle with some mental health stuff.. and it's always my pets that hold me together. they bring joy to my life :D

    Posted 1 year ago #

16. Schenkerton
    Member

    Watch the trailer to this show The Buried Life. Its the first good show on MTV in about 712 years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRexWE9yBVA

    This show inspires me A LOT. I've learned that sometimes saying "Fuck it!" and just doing it, whatever it may be, is the best thing one can do.

    I think Jonsi would appreciate that mindset.

    Posted 1 year ago #

17. moe
    Member

    will also check out into the wild and the buried life. thanks!
    @ siri, just noticed that you are a social worker...I work in social services (although not a worker) and it's part of that giving makes you more positive feedback loop for me.

    Posted 1 year ago #

18. Schenkerton
    Member

    i really like what you said siri.

    I just ran 4.5 miles while listening to Go. It's incredible how uplifting and inspiring that album is. It really does make me want to go do.

    Posted 1 year ago #

19. redlights
    Member

    I don't struggle with the insignificance of life - it's actually one of the things I love most about my life. It wasn't always like this but over the years I have come to realize that I am so privileged to be so anonymous. I get to do things and try things and experiment and collaborate and create without having to have expectations so things happen organically. Sometimes I mess up. Sometimes I don't. And because my life is tiny it's okay to work in the domaine of failure. I do not worry.

    I know that my life is tiny and small but almost everything I do is with great love and that creates worth.

    Posted 1 year ago #

20. ross
    Member

    I'd like to be in a sandwich between Joy and Catalina. Hmmm...

    Posted 1 year ago #

21. skyler01
    Member

    I'm so happy to see this post! I have felt all of these ways at some point or another. And now I'm reaching an age where I am reconsidering all of it. I prefer to strive for the view that we should appreciate the moments we are in and remember we are all a small but significant part of this world- make the most of our brief part in it. But it sometimes gets hard to live by this when you work, have young kids, and lead a rather hectic life. This is what I must balance- and Jonsi (as well as other music) help me to do this most of all.

    Posted 1 year ago #

22. mikekelley
    Member

    i suggest everyone reads this.

    just relax and be happy. this has helped me tremendously with making decisions, not being a bitch, and just going with the flow. it is what it is.

    

    From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. 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.

    The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

    Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

    The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

    It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

    Posted 1 year ago #

23. Schenkerton
    Member

    ^Wonderful.

    Posted 1 year ago #

24. moe
    Member

    Agree, that brings a humbling perspective, and calming I think. That last paragraph has a bitter lesson in light of Japan and the risk we have chosen to bring upon our pale blue dot.

    Posted 1 year ago #

25. Medizin
    Member

    @mike

    isn't that a karl sagan quote?

    Posted 1 year ago #

26. victoryrosemusic
    Member

    If you'll bare with me, this is where my heart lies...

    The supreme good heart

    When we deeply think that others are important, and that their happiness and freedom are important, we are cherishing others. If we cherish others like this, we shall always have good relationships and live in harmony with others, and our daily life will be peaceful and happy. We can begin this practice with our family, friends and those around us, and then gradually we shall develop and maintain cherishing love for all living beings without exception.

    In Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Shantideva says:

    All the happiness there is in this world Arises from wishing others to be happy

    If we think carefully about this, we shall realize that all our present and future happiness depends upon our cherishing others – upon our wanting others to be happy. In our past lives, because we cherished others, we practised virtuous actions such as refraining from killing or harming others and abandoning stealing from and cheating them. We gave them material help and protection, and practised patience. As a result of these virtuous actions, we have now obtained this precious human life with the opportunity to experience human enjoyments.

    The immediate effect of cherishing others will be that many of our daily problems, such as those that arise from anger, jealousy and selfish behaviour, will disappear, and our mind will become calm and peaceful. Since we shall act in considerate ways, we shall please others and not become involved in quarrels or disputes. If we cherish others we shall be concerned to help rather than to harm them, so we shall naturally avoid non-virtuous actions. Instead, we shall practise virtuous actions, such as compassion, love, patience, and giving material help and protection, and thus create the cause to attain pure and everlasting happiness in the future.

    Posted 1 year ago #

27. mikekelley
    Member

    @ med yes.

    Posted 1 year ago #

28. Medizin
    Member

    awww fuck yeah karl sagan

    Posted 1 year ago #

29. bofette
    Member

    Many nice posts in here!

    I was depressed for a long time. My main mistake, if I can call it mistake, was to assume that I could by reason only find some kind of meaning of my existence and justify being happy. I got stuck somewhere in there and ended up by having very little contact with my feelings.

    A friend introduced me to Sigur rós during that time by giving me the () album. I liked it and put it on from time to time, but I got no strong feelings, not to the music I had liked before either. A couple of years later, I went to a festival and heard Sigur rós. I just liked it that time as well, but at least I did it well enough to buy the same album again, because I had lost it in between. Around that time I had decided to try very hard to feel something and then go for that. I ended up playing this album more and more. It must have been played at least a hundred times before I understood that something was happening in me. I then bought the Heima/Hvarf album as well, the cheapest one at the time. And then a few months later I had this experience of total immersion. Since then it has been the most precious and magical thing I have next to the people I love and my cat.

    What I’ve learned from this experience is that you have to face reality with all your bodily, emotional and intellectual faculties together. A bad thing is to let the two first go for the advantage of the third. The mystery now that drives me forward is the nature of those experiences that shake you so that you get out from a state of routine that kills your creativity, or perhaps you just move towards a wider space of what’s possible... I don’t know, just those experiences that give some sort of new, unforgettable direction. Those moments are where so many good things in life and for life start.

    Posted 1 year ago #

30. andrea_m
    Member

    I think my love of life comes from the fact that I know it is going to end. I've gone to countless funerals of various family members since I can remember, and I think that has pounded the fact into me that one day I am going to be gone. It really makes you appreciate the little things like rain and the wind on your face, the rustle of leaves, watching snow fall, etc. It makes everything bittersweet. I know my beloved cats are aging and will be gone, so I cherish each moment with them. I just cherish being here really because one day I won't be. Even through the hardest times I am always glad to be here experiencing all life has to offer me. My philosophy of life is pretty much to live simply and quietly and step lightly. My favorite author is Thoreau, and I recommend "Walden" to those interested in the living simply philosophy. Thoreau spent several hours just sitting and watching at his cabin doorstep. He daily walked at least 3 hours in all types of weather. He would stand in a swamp just watching insects or animals. He took life slowly. He didn't live for money. He did what he had to do to get the money he needed for what he wanted, and he had so much time to spare to just live and do as he wished. That is the point of "Walden." I know times are different now, but we can take his ideas and adapt them to our lives today. If we spend our lives working merely and trying to get all we can get, we miss out on so much life.

    Posted 1 year ago #

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