Hi, I’m Cecilia Elise Wallin. Today it is Sunday and the first snow has fallen and I think it’s a good idea to make a self-care video today. So I am going to compose an uplifting self-care video.
I’m going to make this video relaxing and inspiring – with my tips for uplifting self-care – and quotes from my writings – and from famous author’s texts – about how we can uplift ourselves.
Go Outside
So it is a beautiful day outside today and I think one of the best ways to relax and to feel inspired is to go outside. I often go outside with my camera. I find that very relaxing and inspiring so that’s what I’m going to do today. So follow me and I’m going to film around here – around Sigtuna (Swedens’s oldest town) – and I’m also going to meanwhile talk about how we can think – and how we can use philosophy – to feel inspired and relaxed. So follow me.
Read Excellent Texts
Yeah, so now I’m back home. It was cold outside so I got some really good footage which I will show you now, and I also got some ideas for what to tell you now so I’m going to talk about uplifting self-care and I think that what is most uplifting for me is reading really good texts, really good poetry, and really good literature, but not only poetry and fiction – reading excellent texts of any kind is uplifting and relaxing. We feel uplifted when we don’t have to deal with stupidity of any kind.
So the very best texts – it can be about, it can be about science, it can be, literature, philosophy – really good texts give us an uplifting feeling. Really good texts make us feel uplifted because they free the mind from the narrowing everyday thoughts and makes it possible for us to start thinking in new ways, and it makes it possible for us to see wider perspectives – to understand what life really is about – and that is not only relaxing but also very uplifting.
Let New Ideas Uplift You
We can’t get new ideas when we are busy with mundane boring narrow thoughts about how we can solve stupid unnecessary problems – but we feel uplifted when we can free our minds and start thinking about solving the underlying problems. So for that reason, it’s uplifting to read not only poetry but also literature and texts about science and philosophy – and religion –anything that can give us new ideas.
We feel uplifted when we feel we can solve a problem for ourselves or maybe for someone else or maybe for many people – when we see new solutions we feel uplifted. So the two things I find most uplifting is to be outdoors in nature and to read good texts and good literature – and also, of course, to come up with new ideas. So I feel very very uplifted when I get a good idea for a text – when I suddenly come up with a line – the beginning of a poem – and I feel that this poem can be really great. That is probably the most uplifting feeling I’ve ever experienced – apart from falling in love of course – but we can’t fall in love every day – so what we can do every day to feel uplifted and relaxed is to go for a walk in the nature and to read good literature which inspires us, and to try to be creative every day.
“Every day is full of beauty. Live a beautiful life every day.” Text and design by Cecilia Elise Wallin
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Like Falling in Love
And when we read good literature or come up with good ideas for what to write then it is a little bit like falling in love – the feeling is not as strong but a little bit similar. I think that’s why I’m so interested in literature and in writing.
See the Beauty
Here I have some quotes from my own texts – some quotes which I find uplifting – I felt uplifted when I wrote them and I keep them because I feel happy and uplifted when I read these quotes. So yeah a few quotes from my own text that’s what I’ll read now. So “if you shine like a star, no one will be able to stop you” – this quote might seem a bit shallow but when I think about it there is a lot of depth in this quote. I like it – every day is full of beauty … live a beautiful life every day … yeah, so this is a quote from a long a text I wrote half a year ago and I like this quote as well it reminds me to be alive and to see with fresh eyes what every day brings to me and here I have another quote from myself: “look at what everyone is saying how can you say something which is the complete opposite but which makes much more sense” – yeah I’m very happy with this quote as well when I read this I feel inspired.
Appreciate Simplicity
Another quote from myself: “sometimes we realize that what we have taken for amateurish simplicity is indeed mastery” – this is also a quote I keep and read over and over again to remind myself not to over complicate things. You should concentrate the meaning in as few words as possible not to waste the readers’ time. “It is almost our duty to change the language we have inherited” – yeah, so the world is constantly changing and we must, of course, change the language to be able to talk about the present reality.
If we use an old language – a language from our ancestors – trying to describe the reality we have around us today, and trying to communicate and connect with people today, then that old language will blur our understanding of each other and of the present realities. Here is another quote from the same text” the language we have inherited is not created to accommodate us our souls and our experiences” – yeah, so this is another way to express what I just said.
Crystal Clear Vision
Often the languages we use blur understanding of the present realities and of our own experiences. Yeah, this is also from the same text – a text I wrote about a year ago – “when we invent new ways to communicate, to write, speak, and think – we can change the reality we live in”. “Our spoken and written language is so powerful we can use it like magic”, yeah this is another one of the quotes from my writings I like very much. What we say can really change not only the perception of reality but of course the reality in itself, that is obvious of course but I like to keep this in mind. What I say has an impact not only on my own life but on other people’s lives as well.
Think in New Ways
Okay, and some more quotes from my own writings – some uplifting and relaxing quotes from my texts: “always keep in mind that people can experience so much better with their own associations in the inner world then if you prescribe and instruct them exactly how to think” – so this is a quote from a text I wrote about the art of writing, about how to write fiction. And another quote from myself: “the best texts make people think in new ways, a thinking which includes the treasures of their individual souls, their own unique memories and experiences”.
A Better Understanding
So, you can hear that I talk a lot about novelty, new thoughts, and new feelings when I talk about what is uplifting and relaxing. So when we feel new feelings and when we think new thoughts or when we read what’s new to us – the poems which make us think in new ways – when we get a better understanding of the reality around us – then we feel uplifted. Feeling uplifted is so much about gaining perspective and to be able to get rid of unnecessary thoughts about mundane things and start thinking about the broader perspective – to start gaining a better understanding of the world around us – so that we can come up with new inventions and new solutions. And doing this is very rewarding and it’s probably one of those things which are most important in life – the meaning of life – to just feel new feelings and think new thoughts, maybe invent new inventions, and be able to see the miracle around us – and be able to realize how little we all humans understand.
Wisdom From the Classics
And now I’m going to read some quotes from the classics. Here are some good quotes from Jean Genet, one of my favorite writers. “Anyone who hasn’t experienced the ecstasy of betrayal knows nothing about the ecstasy at all”. And another quote from Jean Genet: “Would Hamlet have felt the delicious fascination of suicide if he hadn’t had an audience, and lines to speak?” And another quote from Jean Genet: “violence is the calm that disturbs you”. And “a man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur and dreaming is nursed in darkness”. Another good quote from Genet is “I gave the name violence to a boldness lying idle and enamored of danger”. And one of my favorite quotes from Genet: “Power may be at the end of a gun but sometimes it’s also at the end of the shadow of the image of a gun”. Yes, there were a few quotes from my favorite writer Jean Genet, and I’ll quote more from my favorite authors later on.
Thanks a lot for watching. I hope you enjoyed this video. You are very welcome to write a comment below, and you are of course welcome to subscribe. See you in the next video.
© Cecilia Elise Wallin