the grammar of happiness and eat, fast, live longer!

frangipani in my backyard


 drawing a day: yourself. multicoloured pencil crayon

This drawing is the first in the 'drawing a day series', it is 'draw a picture of yourself'.  I enjoyed using the multicoloured pencil (that I also gave to everyone I work with for christmas). I do look severe/serious here! But for a quick drawing I quite like it.

From Inside the Russian Doll: Looking Out.
collage, pen and pastel drawing

 I did this a day or two earlier, but they seem to go well together - something about the eyes perhaps?

This is going to be a quick post, as I need to eventually look at my assignment, and I am very good at distracting myself (so far, I have vacuumed the house, gone shopping, got my haircut, put on and hung out washing, read other people's blogs, written this one - you get the idea).

I wanted to mention the Grammar of Happiness,shown on ABC on Monday night, about the Brazilian Pirah tribe, which has no past or future tense in their language. This is interesting from a linguistic point of view, which is the angle of the film, but also from a psychological perspective, since living in the present seems to be so important to our well-being and, you guessed right, happiness.And language is deeply implicated in psychological well-being. In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, the relationship is analysed in detail via Relational Frame Theory. Interesting.

In addition, I came across another book/documentary, Eat, Fast, Live Longer, mentioned in the Guardian by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, of River Cottage fame, who is currently trying to lose weight using the 5/2 approach. This involves fasting for 2 days out of 7, and eating normally the rest of the time. The idea being that this does not get boring like most diets. Although not clinically tested, it seems to work for a lot of people, and reduces their risk of a number of chronic health problems as well, for good scientific reasons outlined in the book (by Michael Moseley and Mimi Spencer). Moseley is a doctor, and the presenter of the original Horizon program, shown in 2012 in UK, I don't think it has been on here yet (or I must have missed it).

Anyway, it sounds interesting, I think I may give it a try...if I can cope with the carbo lows, hunger pangs, and keep exercising.

now for that assignment...


more later