You should watch the talk but the short story is that Pasricha figured out at a low point in his life that he needed a way to look at the positive side of things. He decided to do that by writing a blog about all the things that he thought were awesome: everyday, mundane stuff that we (mostly) take for granted.

Then, last month I heard Shawn Anchor on the HBR Ideacast Why a Happy Brain Performs Better . In that podcast, Anchor mentions something similar to what Pasricha talks about, writing a thank you note (or email), as a way to focus on the positive things and how that starts to make a difference in your (work) life.

A couple of days ago, I watched Martin Seligman’s talk on TED in which he talks about positive psychology and about how psychology is also looking at mental health as opposed to just the mental illness.

I’m sure you sense a theme here: Yes, I have been watching TED talks and listening to HBR podcasts.

Seriously though, there is no question that we notice many things in the world that have gone wrong. Maybe it’s the lizard brain that makes us much more susceptible to noticing the “dangers”.

But, the flip side is that we don’t tend to notice the things that are right often enough. I’m not suggesting a pollyanna-ish attitude to life, just one where we are aware that there are also many things in the world that are, as Pasricha says, awesome. I wrote a blog post a while back about some simple inventions, and if you look, you can find tons of things that are amazing in almost every facet of life.

A good way to start is to genuinely notice the things that are right with the world and feeling grateful for those things. For example, isn’t it amazing that I’m typing this blog post in a text editor and that I’ll copy it to WordPress.com and then publish it to the world wide web. WordPress will also let me publish this post to Twitter and Facebook, and you’ll read it either on the web, via email, or in an RSS reader. Heck, maybe you’ll read it on your phone, something you couldn’t have done a few years ago. I’m not even going into the networking technology that makes all this possible–that’s mindblowing stuff.

So, all this reminds me of this voice-over at the end of American Beauty:

I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me, but it’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it. And then it flows through me like rain. And I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry, you will someday.

It’s a nice feeling, that gratitude. We need to feel it more often.

Anyway, for pretty much the whole of 2011, I was swamped at work and the lack of time (and energy) was the primary reason for my not blogging. Also, after working on a computer all day, I didn’t relish the prospect of pounding keys with my RSI-battered fingers and squinting at the screen with bloodshot eyes.

There were times that I felt like blogging, but, for the most part, I didn’t really miss it a great deal. I also realized that I didn’t have many readers because very few people asked me about my not blogging. (I promised my therapist that I wouldn’t make a big deal out of this, so there. But, it’s all your fault I didn’t blog. *Takes several deep breaths.*)

Now, I feel like blogging again and I hope that I will be able to post far more frequently than I have over the last few months (years?). Work is still going to be busy, but I’m hoping that since this is a leap year, having the extra day will help.

I’m also tweeting a lot more than I used to, so you can check out my Twitter page (@wiredal) or the tweets on the right hand side of this blog.

I’ll end with a couple of quotes that I found via Google while trying to figure out how to end this post.

“The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings.” ~David Weinbaum~

“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” ~Marcus Aurelius~

*: This wasn’t really Vanvas as implied in the preceding Wikipedia stub, but I’m sure you get the general drift.

Franke, who is an artist and author of Bothered by My Green Conscience (and creator of other superb visual essays), and who I’ve linked to here numerous times, wrote a blog post today where she mentioned how the Canadian government is trying to stop her right to creative expression and free speech. Here is an excerpt from her blog post:

The Canadian Government, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party, is actively working to shut down my solo European art exhibition, which is set to tour 20 cities in Europe. The government’s interference includes phoning the corporate sponsor, and persuading them to cancel their $75,000 sponsorship.

Canadian officials have also bullied the NGO, Nektarina Non Profit, and warned them repeatedly to cancel the exhibition because they are opposed to “Franke James.”

Franke’s visual essays are powerful stories about the environment and about what we need to do to save the environment and ultimately, ourselves. To attempt to stop an artist from expressing herself is not something that you’d expect a democratic country to do, but that’s exactly what’s being done. Here’s an actual quote:

“Who was the idiot who approved an art show by that woman, Franke James?”

- Memorable words from one of Canada’s top officials on hearing that the Canadian Embassy in Croatia had offered support for Franke’s art show.

So, she needs our support. You can support Franke by tweeting or blogging about this, sharing it on Facebook (or Google+), leaving a comment on her blog post, or even emailing your friends.

I’m not sure if I’ll look back on 2010 a few years later and remember it differently, but right now I can’t say that I’m unhappy that we’re in 2011.

Sorry for the radio silence from my end. I wish that there were a compelling reason why I am not posting regularly, but it’s a combination of just being busy with other stuff, i.e. non-Internet life, and sometimes not having much to say. I have definitely reduced the amount of time that I spend online, and spending time doing other things is nice. Who’d have thought it, eh — that there this a whole other world offline?

Happy New Year 2011 by the way. May your 2011 be bright and shiny, just like the sunshine over Bangalore at the moment.

The Annual Strand Book Festival
at Basava Bhavan, Opp. Hotel Chalukya and Sophia School, Bangalore

Fri 26 Nov – Sun 12 Dec
10 – 8.30pm

Discounts up to 80%

Parking in and around the venue.

I’ve been for a few years now and I always find something good. Can’t wait.