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Happiness in a Bottle


Have you ever participated in something that was so fun, that when you came away from it you felt on top of the world, elated, excited to be alive!!!?  Well, as I write this I am still picking the mud out of my ears and rubbing my sore but happy muscles from the Dirty Girl Wisconsin Run in Waukesha, Wisconsin, August 19, 2012.  What a fun, fabulous way to spend a weekend with your gal pals…while honoring a good cause like the American Breast Cancer Foundation.  This non-competitive, dirty 5k was incredible in the energy and positivity of the women who came to “run”…and the women from Hot Pink YOUniversity went from marvelous to muddy in about 10 minutes into the run, it was unavoidable fun!

I have only had this grand elated feeling a few times in my life and I don’t know about you, but I want MORE of it!  In this ultra-serious, fast-paced, westernized culture we live in, we are busier with home- improvements than with self-improvements.  We get caught up in the have more vs. BE MORE.  And, I don’t mean all those glitzy achievements and successes more; although, those are nice….I mean BEing in that beautiful moment of sheer happiness to BE alive.  Living in that “greatful “ moment shared with some special friends.  If I could capture that moment in a bottle…ahhhh. 
Our brains natural encode the negative within a nanosecond…that is how we are wired in the depths of our primitive evolution.  I imagine it helped our species survive in that we remembered that snake hole or when the wind is like this, seek shelter or that cave bad, this cave good.  We needed that encoded and fast.  But, happy moments and feel good moments take longer to take hold in our memory storage.  How much longer?  20 seconds longer or more.  So, what does this mean to our post cave woman lives?  It means stopping and taking it all in. 
Yesterday, out on the course, covered head to toe in mud, rolling around with my girl pals and laughing gutturally, I took a moment to take it all in and to tell myself…this, THIS, is living.  I briefly held my palms to the cerulean blue sky, and said a great big “Thank YOU”!  I wanted this feeling encoded into my brain storage…so that in those darker days, I have something to pull out and say…ahhhhhh!
Take a moment today to take in that moment, palms up and a great big “YES” and “MORE, please!”
Christie Gause-Bemis, MSW, LCSW
“There has got to be something more...more joy, more love, more peace, more juice, more gratitude, more jazz!  I am a believer in more.  It is with gratitude of what I already have in life that I shout for MORE!  For me and for all of my sisters yearning for more.”  Christie has been a psychotherapist in private practice for the last decade.  She is a writer, an artist, a mama and a wife.  More than all those "roles" she is a woman.  For years she has conducted workshops, retreats and gatherings for women in search of wellness, often incorporating a multi-media, art, journaling, music in her presentations. She has taught stress management, parent education, and therapeutic crisis intervention around the state.  Christie is a co-owner of Hot Pink YOUniversity with two other powerful women. She is a graduate of UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, with a Master's in Social Welfare.  She is an adjunct faculty of Lakeland College and has been a part of her community by sitting on planning committees, volunteering, and outreach activities.  She has traveled on two voluntours with Jana Stanfield. Christie is married with two children and three step-children.  To learn more about Hot Pink YOUniversity and events:  www.hotpinkyou.com
www.hotpinkyou.com

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Location: Wisconsin Rapids, WI, USA

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