Borderless Culture™ Life & Style: Reminder to Self: It's the Journey NOT the Outcome

3.19.2010

Reminder to Self: It's the Journey NOT the Outcome

I woke up this morning to a call from my doctor's office. Before I even had a chance to wipe the sleep from my eyes, I realized that the next thing I would have to do this morning was call my medical insurance company. For everyone living in the United States, you know trying to get information from your medical insurance company about whether they cover a treatment or medicine you need is pure, unadulterated torture. Especially since every year you pay more and more and they cover less and less. After hanging up the phone with the doctor's office, I collapsed back onto my pillow - wondering if and how I could wake up to an alternate universe.

What I missed and completely did not appreciate of course since I was too busy sinking myself into a deep dark abyss, was that the sun was shining brilliantly; the birds were practicing their morning song with extra relish and joy; and my smooth velvety piping hot cafe latte made by my husband was waiting for me in the kitchen.

After breakfast, I trudged back up stairs and sat in front of my computer to check emails, updates, the news..... And since I was already in a lousy mood, I decided to pay some bills. However, the one smart thing I decided to do while trying to pay my bills was watch business school professor and life coach Srikumar Rao give his talk on how we actually teach ourselves to be unhappy but are actually hard-wired to be happy. In our results oriented society - we often forget that the quality of our lives is really based on our journey and not the various outcomes. By the end of his talk, I was still paying my bills, but this time, all I heard were the birds harmonizing their concerto and all I was thinking about was how good the rays of the sun felt as they warmed my study after the early morning chill.

So I am attaching this video clip below. Hopefully, if your day isn't going quite right, it will do the same for you.

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If you're happy and you know it....

So it seems that researchers from Harvard Medical School (Nicholas Christakis) and UC San Diego (James Fowler) after studying close to 40 years of data concluded that when an individual becomes happier, there is a strong likelihood that a friend living within a mile experiences 25% increased chance of happiness. A spouse has an 8% chance to be more happy and a sibling who lives within one mile a 14% chance; and your next door neighbor 34% chance of greater happiness. There are however, a time and geographical constraints. The effect of someone else's happiness on your mood last less than a year. And of course the closer your happy friends are, the more likely you will reap the benefits of increased happiness levels.

Interestingly enough, unhappiness and sadness does not spread the same way.

Reliving the Best Part of my Childhood in Japan through Grilled Food

Since leaving Tokyo 20 years ago, there were foods I relished as a child that I thought I would never find again despite desperate attempts to do so. It wasn't that the food was so gourmet, in fact it was quite pedestrian. The grilled chicken or beef on a stick could all be bought at a tiny stall not far from our apartment in Tokyo. There were no room for seats. Our food came in crisp white paper bags and we would eat the warm flavorful pieces of meat while walking back home. Then there was the time we were on Mt. Fuji, freezing, surrounded by snow and the warm salty smokey smell of grilled corn wafted into our nostrils. I had never eaten corn so sweet yet savory. Since moving to North America, I have searched and searched but the flavors were just never quite right. They just weren't the same - until tonight. Nanbankan is hands down the best yakitori restaurant I have gone to outside Japan. And when I sank my teeth into that charcoal grilled chicken and that grilled corn I was eleven again.