you should do this

If someone were to ask you to describe the perfect day in a most perfect future, would you be able to do it? I've heard about this exercise and its seemingly magical power a few times now, but who finally convinced me to sit down and do, it was a guest on the Tim Ferriss show (if you're not listening to Tim's podcast, you're missing out on some truly deep and enlightening conversations).

Debbie Millman talked about not only her own success with this exercise, but also reports how many of her students, whom she has assigned said exercise to, reconnect years later to, incredulously, share how their perfect dream lives have become reality.

I already know how certain visualizations can manifest themselves, however, I've never gone to this specific extreme. I have to say, even though I was convinced I needed to do this exercise, I found myself at a loss of what my perfect day 5 years from now would look like. I suppose, it may have been due to fear of wishing for the wrong thing (like when I desperately wished to meet my soulmate, forgetting that I was already married. Not only did the manifestation of this dream ruin my marriage, it also "trapped" me in a deeply dependent love with someone who was highly dysfunctional and ultimately lost the battle with his demons, leaving me devastated and in grief for years.)
I also had just passed a paragraph in Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, introducing a character who, for several years prayed for nothing but an open heart and then received his wish ... in the form of open heart surgery. So, I was a tiny bit apprehensive.

But, the other day, I finally decided I'm just going to sit down and let it flow out of me, with care and consideration, but without fear. I ended up writing for almost three hours. I couldn't believe it when I looked up at the clock. Furthermore, I had immersed myself so deeply into the writing of my dream day of the future, that I actually felt the moments of the day. I experienced love and excitement, an increase in my heart rate, a warmth in my chest, a shot of adrenaline and dopamine. I was so deep in, that I found myself disoriented when "my day" came to an end and I put the pen down.

Even if nothing becomes true, it was an amazing feeling to write this perfect day of 2022. Even just for that, it was worth doing it.

Now - I wait and see, I guess. Wait and see and keep moving.

I made it!! ...the 4am hike!

I can't believe I did it. But I got up at 3:15 a.m. in the morning (after barely 3 hours of sleep) to join a bunch of crazy (and I mean this in an endearing way) Vorarlbergians ...Vorarlbergian programmers to be exact... to go on a hike up the Kanis Fluh (a mountain nearby) to catch the sunrise. ... And all that before going to work! Needless to say, I was a bit exhausted later in the office. Kinda like I broke night...

Anyway, ..back to the hike.
Good thing somebody thought of flash-lights, cause I sure as hell didn't. While it was an amazingly starry night, which one could admire much better with the lights off, without them we would have probably sunken into the mud of some "Muren" (mud-avalanches) or worse, fallen off the side of the mostly non-existent path.

I hit the floor a couple of times (some of the falls were of real cartoonish, slip-on-a-banana kinda quality) and at the end I really thought I was going to collapse (I've become seriously athletically challenged, lately) but I made it and it really really was worth the freezing, the exhaustion throughout the rest of the day & the sore muscles I woke up with (I can barely walk)! ;)

The rest of the story I'll let the pictures tell. :)
Looking at them almost lets me forget how terrible this day (today) at work has been...too many loud fights with people....I have never had to talk with people in this way.. and at work, to top it all off!!...this really isn't me... (I am leaving the office now, btw...it's almost 10p.m.)

anyway..here the pics, before I forget that there are nice things out there, too!






I didn't take this picture. I actually can't remember
if I actually made it for the first sunrays. I was still
kinda dizzy from the last (very steep) part of the hike
...up to the cross... but I think I did make it, for I took
the picture of the cross and the silhouttes before..and
there were no first rays, yet...


Frisi heading further out for a bathroom break ;)




Miann's muddy shoes and a view of the
Lake of Constance in the distance


I had to run to catch this picture! And then my
camera's batteries died. OF COURSE!!



that's me...trying not to look down.
my legs were still shaking from the steep hike and
the lack of sleep.