In my modern working girl life fantasies, I know how to feel fabulous when the alarm goes off. I spring out of bed in the morning fashionable and fresh, efficiently iMessaging about important appointments and ready to change the world every day. Like this: In reality, this morning when my alarm clock went off I stretched, blinked half heartedly and spent 5 minutes trying to think of something exciting enough about my looming day to get me out of bed. Like this: …
written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in deep fabulous
Before we discuss wait time, I want to engage in a little warm up activity: Step 1: Close your mouth and breathe in through your nose Step 2: Silently, slowly count to 5 Congratulations! You have just practiced the art of “how to shut the f#ck up for 5 seconds”. It’s something I’ve realized recently I need more of in my life. As a teacher, a female and a general eager-to-please type of person, I am not a huge fan of gaps in conversation. It makes me uncomfortable-in that itchy, social-hives, am-I-boring kind of way. However, while googling ways to have better conversations with my boyfriends students and professional colleagues,…
written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in work fabulous
Happy Spring! Much like the sweet breeze and the afternoon sunshine, I’m back! It’s been a long winter with lots of work stress, dry skin and writing about the general and consuming frustrations of life in my paper journals. Then I thought, “Self…this is the year 2015. Take this self-involved diatribe back to the interwebs!” So here I sit, clicking away self-consciously, trying to find a way to reconcile all of my innermost thoughts and problems to this very public forum. The first thing it makes me realize about my problems…they’re stupid. I’m not very good at my job. Who cares? My clothes don’t fit very well over my newly-acquired…
written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in deep fabulous
I spend a lot of time every day asking myself pick and choose questions. Do I really want that croissant? Will I still be able to button my pants if I eat that croissant? What is going to happen with Ebola? If I am going to die of Ebola anyway, why not just eat the stupid croissant? Etc. This type of internal dialogue is what gets me through the day. I have perfected my, “Oh, of course I’m paying attention to what your saying. You are so INTERESTING. Please go on.” face so that I can happily talk to myself inside my head while people are blathering on about….well, frankly…
written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in deep fabulous
Tim Kreider recently wrote an opinion piece for the NY Times titled “The Busy Trap”. If you are too cheap for a NYT subscription, you can read my summary below: What is the busy trap? People create ‘The Busy Trap’, full of busy-ness for themselves. Busyness is an annoying, distracted state that allows people to focus on being annoyed and distracted instead of processing any real information or real life experiences. Mr. Kreider makes a particularly striking and beautiful point about feeling like he has to shout over the self-imposed hysteria of “busy-ness” in order to make simple plans with friends. The idea of busy-ness taking the place…
written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in deep fabulous
High school teachers talk a lot about Professor Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences. But if you are not a high school teacher, you might not be familiar. Here is the basic idea: In the 1980’s Gardner, a long-time Harvard professor, applied his his Ivy League mind to describing the different ways people convey ideas. As a result, he classified the major types of communication. To this day, his ideas are widely celebrated and used in the education philosophy classes. His efforts are summarized below: Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences What it means There is more than one way a person can present themselves as intelligent. As a result,…
written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous
Hi readers, For what it’s worth, I’ve had a challenging month. I packed my life up into some suitcases, moved to a new country where I don’t speak the language, found a new apartment and started a new job. The changes have left my head spinning at the end of most days and given a new depth to those all-important 3 little words: emotional roller coaster. I am generally a very happy person. This month has tested my ability to stay happy in the face of massive, decisive life changes. I have never been so uncertain about my direction, my ability to succeed and the general strength of my…
written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in deep fabulous
August brings up a lot of thoughts about how to practice self-reflection. Here’s why: the other activity options are terrible. 1. Gazing at my gelato-cellulite dappled pale thighs in the sunlight. 2. Sweating profusely into my flip flops. 3. Squinting adorably in the bright, burning sunlight. In contrast to these practices, learning how to practice self-reflection sounds great. To make it more appealing, self-reflection can be completed in air-conditioned rooms. Hence my month of deep and mindful thinking. The Practice of Self-Reflection Here’s the thing about self-reflection-its difficult. If done correctly it’s an intense, creative process akin to art or music. (I suck at art and music.) It’s time…
written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous