So, there’s an elephant in the room. There has been for a while. I both want to talk about it and don’t, because there are other people more qualified, who do that much better than me, but I figure I might as well share a few thoughts.

We are in a very scary, sad and infuriating time. Very. And I am scared, and sad, and frustrated and enraged and feel overwhelmed…and I’m also happy. 

I’m sure that’s a full-on WTF for many. Please, hear me out. 

Let’s go back to 2016. I had people I actually loved look at me and say, “How bad could it be?” Most of those people aren’t in my life anymore. I knew how bad it could be. You probably did to. And, here we are. Worse than I dared myself to imagine. And we’re only six months in this time.

When people ask how I became a Happyist, I explain that I was in a very bad mood from 2016-2022, and at the end of 2022, I knew I could not go on with that frame of mind, and that level of unhappiness any longer. Something had to change.

And what I was feeling was an internal angst, more than anything. And it was awful. Just awful. You wouldn’t necessarily know how I was feeling from looking at me or interacting with me. Gallows humor served to cover a lot of it up. But it was there, and it was eating away at me slowly, in big bites.

Please, don't do that to yourself. Listen in for more of the why. xo

The podcast is written, produced and edited by Sandra Ann Miller. Join the conversation at thehappyist.substack.com

Music: Shower Beer by GG Riggs

An artist doesn’t beg a canvas or his brushes to get the painting he envisions. No. He goes to work, utilizing the canvas and the brushes to bring that vision to life.

A farmer doesn’t scream at her crops to grow. No. She works with the seeds and the soil, the sun and water to bring it all to harvest.

Why do we think that we can just frustrate ourselves into growth instead of partnering with what we need support from?

If we want to blossom into our best selves, live our best lives, have the things and experiences we dream of, then we have to work with what we’ve got, yes? We have to collaborate to co-create. We have to be part of the process. 

The time trick is a good example of co-creating — collaborating with time, the Universe, the Powers That Be — to get what we desire. To be on time. To make our connecting flight. Simple stuff that really only saves us from frustration. The stakes are kind of low. Practicing the time trick is an easy way to find ourselves in the flow, or see what we need to let go.

Are you calm and relaxed about it? Are you confident and not arrogant? Do you really believe it’s possible?

In order to get what we want, become who we desire, we have to be calm and relaxed, we have to be confident, not arrogant. And we really have to believe it’s not only possible, but damned probable.

If any of those elements are missing, we likely won’t get what we’re hoping for.

Let me ask: Does any of this ring true to you? 

Here’s the bummer: We can’t create things we aren’t in alignment with. Doesn’t matter how much we sincerely want it or need it. We have to be in alignment in order to get it.

We have to learn how to be calm and relaxed. We have to learn the diff between being confident and being arrogant. We have to learn how to believe in possibility, and bending that belief to probability. All of that takes practice. The time trick can help with that learning curve.

Once we get ourselves in alignment with our goals and desires, it’s amazing what will open up for us. But we won’t see it if we aren’t present. 

Being present and appreciative will really flip the switch and accelerate the changes you want to make. And, out of everything that will get you unstuck, those two things are the simplest. Not saying they’re not hard, but they are truly simple.

The podcast is written, produced and edited by Sandra Ann Miller. Join the conversation at thehappyist.substack.com

Music: Shower Beer by GG Riggs

Today we’re going to talk about family estrangement, and the impact it undoubtedly has. 

Our guest, Maggie Frank-Hsu, is a poet, essayist and editor from San Diego who runs Estranged, a Substack newsletter devoted to exploring parent, child and sibling estrangement with a focus on understanding, not blame. Her poetry has appeared in Whale Road Review, Pidgeonholes, and Beaver Magazine. She received her masters from the Columbia School of Journalism, and her reporting has appeared in Business North Carolina, Gourmet, PublishersWeekly and smithsonian.com. A former ghostwriter, she’s currently at work on her first book, a memoir. 

Maggie and I have a little bit in common in that we are both estranged from our fathers. And maybe we were abandoned, too. Maggie has done her work and research on family estrangement, and comes at it from a place of non-judgment. Listen in, and be sure to subscribe to her wonderful 'stack.

https://maggiefrankhsu.substack.com

https://instagram.com/maggiefrankhsu

https://maggiefrankhsu.com

The podcast is written, produced and edited by Sandra Ann Miller. Join the conversation at thehappyist.substack.com

Music: Shower Beer by GG Riggs

For a full transcript, please visit https://asassylittle.substack.com

The podcast is written, produced and edited by Sandra Ann Miller. Join the conversation at thehappyist.substack.com

Music: Shower Beer by GG Riggs

Probably one of the best documentaries on cults is the recent Max, four-part docu-series, "Breath of Fire". The series (which waves plenty of red flags throughout) follows both the high-control organizations of Yogi Bhajan (his face used to grace the box of Yogi Tea) and Guru Jagat, founder of RA MA Institute. How did good people get from doing Kundalini yoga and wanting to make the world a better place, to finding themselves in abusive cults? Gaslighting on both sides of the yoga mat takes place. Listen in.

https://stephaniesarkis.com/

https://www.facebook.com/StephanieSarkisPhD

https://www.instagram.com/sarkisphd/

The podcast is written, produced and edited by Sandra Ann Miller. Join the conversation at thehappyist.substack.com

Music: Shower Beer by GG Riggs

You can find Rebecca at:

The Hot Desk  on Substack

@the_hotdesk on Instagram

http://www.rebeccalow.co 

The podcast is written, produced and edited by Sandra Ann Miller. Join the conversation at thehappyist.substack.com

Music: Shower Beer by GG Riggs

In all fairness, when I came up with the 'Just Us' concept to close out Q4 of 2024, I was coming from a place of deep optimism. Well, F me completely, right? LOL. (Insert crying emoji here.) But we can't let ourselves lose our place, our grace or our happiness because of things outside of our control. So, along with everything is easy and being so lucky (because, in so many ways, we are), let's get ourselves ready for anything good! xo

The podcast is written, produced and edited by Sandra Ann Miller. Join the conversation at thehappyist.substack.com

Music: Shower Beer by GG Riggs