what's the poking etiquette?

To be honest, I didn't even think the poking feature on Facebook still existed. Until I got poked by three different people recently.
All of whom I haven't spoken to/been in touch with in a while.
Firstly: what's the point?
Secondly: did they poke me by mistake?
Thirdly: why would anyone over the age of 15 still use this feature?

Surely, anyone who wants a reaction from me, has the 30 seconds it takes to send me a private message. At least a 'how are you', maybe?!
Is there an etiquette?
And shouldn't the etiquette be to speak to me in a full sentence instead?

STAY FREAKING OPEN-MINDED!

Ok, one would think that I'd know better by now... But no, I keep doing this thing of picturing what the future will look like. I create various scenarios and convince myself that indeed I am able to predict what will happen.

And then something else happens altogether.
I suppose my brain very much prefers this false sense of predictability.
Let's see how I can work with this going forward.

acceptance

Acceptance is a tough one for me. Or certainly has been. Wishing for things to have been or to be different. Which is of course a futile exercise!
Something I am working on. And I can feel how much of a difference it makes already.
The other learning is of course, that there is no button to press, no switch to flip and everything is different. It's a constant learning process, which includes me 'slipping up' once and again, falling back into old habits. But overall still moving forward.
Painful at times, but that's part of it all, isn't it?

I remember people telling me that the bad stuff is part of it and that without it, we wouldn't be able to appreciate the good stuff. And I used to be convinced that there would be another way to live my life.
While I still don't fully agree with the latter (needing the bad stuff to appreciate the good), I do believe that both are part of life and experience. And I shouldn't label it 'good' or 'bad' to begin with.

baby girl

Finally got to meet Emily, A's daughter, born in May. Such a cutie!!!

buggy chocolate from the local delicious chocolate shop

let's go!

Almost a decade ago now, I got myself kitted out with motorcycle clothes: jacket, trousers and helmet. My then boyfriend had a motorcycle. While I find wearing the clothes pretty uncomfortable - feeling like the Michellin man... - I loved the feeling of sitting at the back of his bike!
I never had and still don't have any intention on getting a license myself. Weirdly enough, I would not feel safe. But when I trust the driver, I can totally relax into the experience.

Over the last months I had considered selling the stuff, as it was only taking up space at my parents' house. When a friend invited me to go on a bike tour with him. So, now I have the stuff here with me in Rosenheim and only need to find the time to take him up on the offer! (hoping I still fit into the clothes...)

have faith

I am a notorious over-thinker. Partly cause I like to be prepared. Especially with regard to event management, it made me a great event manager - anticipating what could potentially happen and prepare for it.

Again and again though, I realize that this ability isn't always useful. Sometimes things turn out very differently to what I had anticipated. And with hindsight I can see how I worried needlessly about things that never materialize.

So my lesson learned is:
Reminding myself that I will be able to deal with whatever comes my way.
It might not always be easy, it might be painful. But I know I can do it.
And there is a lot to take away from all the experiences in life.

Piggy time!

For this year's summer outing of the organisation I volunteer for, we went to a nearby farm. To admire the pigs and cows and bunnies and dogs as well as to play games.

I am a highly competitive person. But I am absolute crap when it comes to these sorts of games, or really anything physical. So, despite being the second youngest in a group of mainly pensioners, I sucked big time and managed to come last in most activities. Oh, the shame...

But the cuddly dogs that followed us around as well as the pigs made up for it. Somehow. And we were lucky enough not to get rained on. All in all it was a nice Friday afternoon!

For my dating profile...

I shared the beautiful website gratitudebuddy on here before. 
And here's the message I got yesterday (and no, I didn't write that one myself 😂):

"In conversation, you ask great questions 

(balanced, non-threatening, kind, thought-provoking, fascinating!) 

one of the several reasons people everywhere will enjoy having dinner with you."

I think this is one of my favourites so far. 
Even though it is difficult to pick, cause they have all been pretty awesome.

courage

What does courage mean to you?

It's not a word I associate with myself but interestingly, other people seem to associate it with me and this has shown up on several occasions recently.

I'd say I am a do-er. And I don't like fear holding me back. When I realize that fear of failure or of embarrassing myself (what does that even mean?!) are the only reasons in the way of doing something that I actually want to do, I try to go ahead and do it.

Courage somehow is connected with doing something that feels difficult and scary to do. Overcoming obstacles along the way. Maybe that is why I don't feel courageous. It seems that I might need courage in that one moment when I make a decision to do something - such as moving abroad or resigning from a job - but once I've taken a decision, it just seems natural and I have the faith and intuitive feeling that this is really the only way forward.

Would it change anything for me, if I did consider myself courageous?
I'm not sure.

The Effect

The effect - a play by Lucy Prebble - was on in Rosenheim and proved again that good theatre is indeed being shown here!

Not only was the play really interesting, the actors were also really good.

A woman and a man are taking part in a study that is testing the effect of a new anti-depressant.
They fall in love.
But is it real? Is it entirely due to the influence of the drug? And does that make it less real? Are our feelings not the results of various chemicals in our brain anyway?

Then it turns out that the man is actually on a placebo.
Or so they think for a little while.
If he was, what would that mean as a consequence?

And the general question of how we see depression.
On the one hand, there's a movement to de-stigmatize it. For people to regard depression as an illness, the way we look at other physical ailments.
On the other hand, if we look at it primarily as a chemical imbalance in the brain, do we automatically conclude that it should be treated with drugs? And are we therefore missing the point, the actual trigger of the depression?
Are we using it as an 'excuse' to blame depression on something external to us?
And where does depression start and sadness end?
And how much are we conditioned that we mustn't feel sad and how does that impact on the way we deal with our supposedly 'negative' feelings like sadness, anger, or disappointment? Trying to get rid of them, instead of examining them and healing them.

I for one will admit that for most of my life, I have been trying to avoid feeling those feelings. I don't like it. And when something has popped up, I would try to push it away from me. I think there was probably a worry that I might end up wallowing in self-pity, getting caught up in a negative downwards spirale.
When this is not an either-or situation. I can feel the feelings and still move on with my life. Feeling sad is not the equivalent of self-pity at all.

If you have the chance, check out the play!

Menschen 2017 - June 2017

Reminder: Menschen 2017

More Blickpunkt peeps: Gitta, Olaf, Carmen, boss-boss, Basti
Daniela and Sabine - my new boss and colleague - more on that at a later stage
Alessio and Tom (who runs my favourite coffee house here in Rosenheim 🍵🍰)
Claudia and Lorena - from the fashionshow
My instagram peeps - Rachael, Kristen, Kay, Andrea, Mandy, La Tanya, Megan, Irin
Start Up Meet up - the travel lady, the vegan shop guy, the NLP agile coach, investment app Daniel, Valerie
Pascal - my o2 advisor
Cordula - my aerial yoga teacher
Sabine S - a new Xing contact
Laura - L's colleague
Max - a friend's son, charming at 16 and proof that not all teenagers are horrid 😍
Steffi - my new pilates teacher
Ms Kellner from the Lucia No. 3 in Munich
Willi Börsch and Ingrid Aßbichler from the OVB newspaper


January 2017 - 17
February 2017 - 8
March 2017 - 17
April 2017 - 33
May 2017 - 21
June 2017 - 33
New total: 129