Jim's Cafe - Tuesday - August 20, 2024

[Angie]

Hello folks! I hope you are each as well as can be.

Before I give today's questions (which are a little personal), I just want to let you know that ANYONE can start a Cafe. So if you have an idea or questions, please go ahead and do so, I find SF folks love any kind of Cafe and respond favorably!

So, here goes:

What's the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
If you had to teach a class on something, what would you teach?
If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why?

 

[Angie]

@Lisa the Goatgirl @JMG @dandelion s @Acy @Aurelia
@NoOneC @Jezah81 @Citizen Insane @Road to Nowhere

everyone is invited, tagged or no
help me tag some people!

 

[Lisa the Ferrociraptor]

Hey @Angie. Going with some very profound questions today i see. I love your thinking, especially the advice question, cos some people's answer may be exactly what another needs to hear. Thanks for opening the cafe with that and for tagging me.

What's the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

This one's a real thinker. I've heard so many great bits of advice throughout my life. I'd chalk most of my successes as a person up to bits of advice i took from various sources. I think my absolute best bit of advice is a two way tie between these two quotes.

And with that second one, even then, part of why it works so well for me is because i incorporate it with advice i've gotten and integrated about radical acceptance, sitting with anxiety instead of fighting it, and letting go of the concept of hope (which sounds a lot bleaker on the face of it than it actually is, it's actually a really positive mentality about accepting that things are ok now, that you are ok as you are).

If you had to teach a class on something, what would you teach?

Ouch, that's a tricky one. My self-confidence has improved a lot, to the point i can recognise i'm good at various things, and have something to offer, but i'm still not sure i'm confident enough to teach a class on anything.

Although one thing i could perhaps teach a class on is the power of truly listening to people, and how to do it. It surprises me how often i get people responding to me just listening to them like it's exceptional. If it somehow is, it shouldn't be. Being listened to, being truly seen, is something so important to us as people, i feel like it drives so much of our behaviour. And i heard it described beautifully just yesterday that so much trauma in our lives can be boiled down to simply not being seen. So really listening to each other, and demonstrating that we actually see who we're talking to, should be more the rule than the exception, and i'd enjoy teaching people about that, i think.

If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why?

Does it have to be something i realistically could cut out? Cos if not, i'd pick going to the bathroom. I hate it. What a gross waste of time that is.

But if it's something more realistic, i'd probably say the bits of my day i waste trying to decide what to do next. I want to spend less time deliberating on my next course of action, and be more of a woman who just does things.

 

[Lisa the Ferrociraptor]

@Witty_Sarcasm @1964dodge @Livelife @Innocent Forever @1Lefty @Auri @Baywasp @AmberMarie @cymbele @Inanimate

 

[Lisa the Ferrociraptor]

@snails @KM76710 @FFurry @puffymilk @Bergerac @SillyOldBear @AFlower @LumberJack @seabird @Ash600

 

[Chargette]

I have taught crochet and drawing. Both are great fun for me.

 

[Acy]

Good morning! Thank you for the tag, @Angie! And great questions!

What's the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
I’ve had lots of great advice over the years. Not sure there is a “best” piece as circumstances dictate which to use. One helpful piece was “If someone asks you to do something (e.g., take and write up the minutes for a club meeting), do it as soon as you can. It helps the other person (and usually makes them happy) and it takes it off your mind and hands.”

If you had to teach a class on something, what would you teach?
I had to think about this. I’m a “dabbler,” so I’m not sure I’m actually “qualified” to teach very many things. I can make good, nutritious, flavourful soups from scratch. I think I could teach how to make those. 🧑‍🍳

If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why?
Hmmmm. Daily routine…do I even have one? Housework — I’d like a cleaner to do those chores. Not gonna happen, so I’m off to make my bed, do the dishes, and a small load of laundry.

 

[LumberJack]

OMG Invader Zim! One of my favorites.,. I read JTHM (by the same artist, but definitely darker). I even had a book of all the Squee comics, but it got lost in one of my several moves.

My favorite zim clip

 

[Livelife]

Thanks for the tag and I’m answering quickly as I head out for the morning..
I’ve been teaching yoga and meditation, a particular style, for about 25 years. And I taught patients and nurses/students on many topics as well. I still teach medical info and holistic health anytime someone presents a need and desire.
I’m Still learning to apply the wisdom exposed to about living in the present moments and applying in real time the teachings of truth, not letting the mind rule what manifests.
And not taking on what others do negatively it’s theirs and has nothing to do with me. If it impacts me then there’s a lesson in it to learn from.
I’d definitely eliminate insomnia😴😴😴😴

 

[Lisa the Ferrociraptor]

OMG Invader Zim! One of my favorites.,. I read JTHM (by the same artist, but definitely darker). I even had a book of all the Squee comics, but it got lost in one of my several moves.

My favorite zim clip

Yeah, Invader Zim was an amazing show. A product of a real golden age for cartoons. And i love how prolific Richard Steven Horvitz is. He was also especially amazing as Raz in the Psychonauts games.

Funicular!

 

[AmberMarie]

Thank you for opening again @Angie, and thank you for the tag @LisatheGoatgirl

What's the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

i was told when i was 14 by a friend's mother... To take a look at myself when i am most annoyed at someone... There's a large chance that thing i am most annoyed about them doing... i also am doing. i have been doing that ever since. If i am extremely annoyed at someone for doing something, i will look internally n make sure to change that as to which i am annoyed about. It has made me a much better person towards others.

If you had to teach a class on something, what would you teach?

Costuming... how to costume a puppet for the correct fit, quick changes and fitting the script.

If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why?

Eating! All eating does is cause me pain and anxiety and grief. The anxiety and grief come from the medical issues that cause pain and all sorts of other problems eating causes me. I wish i could just forgo food entirely and not have to rely on it for basic survival.

 

[Innocent Forever]

What's the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

It was something I watched

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwcqlUUNpcH/?igsh=bXI3djZreng0NWpu

If you had to teach a class on something, what would you teach?

Either mental health / suicide / parenting / education / my understanding of the universe.

 

[LumberJack]

:

What's the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
If you had to teach a class on something, what would you teach?
If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why?

Warning- this is a bit heavy, so you may want to skip the below if you’re not feeling up to it.

The best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten was from my dear friend who is a cancer survivor and has been incredibly supportive in helping others with cancer. When my partner was sick, I shared with her about how he was doing. She recognized the signs right away and urged me to write him a letter about how much he means to me. He got it and replied a couple days later. The day after that, he went in to surgery and just didn’t come out.

If I had waited just one day to write that letter, we wouldn’t have had the beautiful goodbye that we did. To this day (8 years later), I am still comforted that our last conversation was about how much we love each other, and I see that taking this advice was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. I procrastinate like crazy, so I’m still amazed that I was able to do it the same night that I got this advice.
———————-Okay, heavy part over ———-

I could teach a whole semester on various topics in Buddhism, which would surprise no one around me. I could give a 30 minute talk on most of these topics with no preparation.

For my daily routine, I kind of like my routines, so I’m not eager to eliminate anything. The most willpower I need is for oral hygiene. If it were possible to brush my teeth immediately after eating, it would be so much easier. As it is, I am waiting 30 or so minutes after eating or drinking anything acidic. The idea is that immediately after a meal, your mouth is acidic, and brushing too soon can harm the tooth enamel. The 30 minute wait is to allow for your saliva to reset your mouth pH. So if I could magically have acid-proof teeth, that is what I would go with.

 

[Baywasp]

What's the best piece of advice you have ever been given? Mine is very specific to what I was going through at the time, but I think the best advice I've been given was when my friend recommended I move to San Francisco when I was really stuck in a bad situation.
If you had to teach a class on something, what would you teach? Psychology. I'm actually learning about teaching this semester at school and have to do a guest lecture for one of my professor's courses eventually.
If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why? Probably any kind of cleaning (as long as I just magically didn't need to clean or something) because I just find it so irritating.

Thanks for the tag @Lisa the Goatgirl

 

[Inanimate]

What's the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

This piece of advice wasn’t given to me personally, but it’s one that was the utmost relevant at the time and has since stuck.

“Time spent being liked could be better devoted to liking being.”

If you had to teach a class on something, what would you teach?

I couldn’t say; in which case, I suppose I could teach the art of giving boring answers.

If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why?

To be real, it would be diabetes management as it’s easily the most costly, disruptive, time-consuming part of my routine.

 

[JMG]

Tysm for opening the cafe Angie, and for tagging me! I agree with what Lisa said about these questions being more thought provoking, and I love that! Here’s my answers:

What's the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
If you had to teach a class on something, what would you teach?
If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why?

1. Best piece of advice - Kind of a hard one, would perhaps be a bit easier to just put a few of the best “practical” quotes I’ve read over the years that I try to live my life by (mottos lol)
- Be prepared.
- Live and let live.
- We are all at our own level of personal evolution. (my wise uncle told me this one when I was a teen)
- Life is not a problem to be solved, it is a mystery to be explored.
- The 2 quotes in my sig

2. What I’d want to teach a class on - How to be truly compassionate, both to others and to oneself, listening and empathy skills, practical psychological life skills, the importance of staying in touch with your inner child, and effective communication. Those are the main topics I feel I have done a deep level of research on since I was 11 and started reading self-help books.

3. What to eliminate from my daily routine - This is kind of a hard one for me to answer in a way, because I don’t necessarily have much of a “daily routine”. I do different things at different times each day, and don’t necessarily have a lot of “structure” (which I like, very much). I guess I could say that I’d want to take away the feeling of “worry” though, cos that’s definitely something I do every day at some point.

 

[snails]

Love the questions
Advice: I can help some people some of the time. Full stop.
Teaching a class: something related to my work, I have done.
Eliminate from daily routine: not much in my daily routine at the moment so I'd probably add something. Trying to do one task a day

 

[Witty_Sarcasm]

What's the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
I've been given lots of good advice over the years, but probably just to not let other people get me down.

If you had to teach a class on something, what would you teach?
Writing because I'm not good at much else

If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why?
Repetitive chores because it gets annoying

 

[KM76710]

What's the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

Two. My grandfather said if you mess up then you fess up and pay up. You admitted your mistake and paid in whichever way was appropriate whether money, action, time. My grandmother had one that experience not passed on is knowledge going to waste.

If you had to teach a class on something, what would you teach?

I admit that I can teach lazy to cats and stubborn to mules.

If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why?

2 am, or 3 am bathroom calls, it interrupts my sleep and typically wakes me up enough that fall back asleep is time consuming.

 

[cymbele]

Great ideas and questions for the Cafe @Angie . I admit that coming up with new questions and topics hold me off from opening the Cafe. I will do one soon.
What's the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Kind of negative but a work colleague who later became a friend mentioned that once I learned to love myself my life will improve. As I learned to love myself I went through divorce and financial tough times. My life has improved but it was tough getting to this point in my life (hence joining SF while looking for methods).


If you had to teach a class on something, what would you teach? I used to enjoy teaching karate to kids but now it would be tai chi to adults. I don't care for this particular dojo methods for mediation so I don't. I teach informally during classes but I am impatient with true beginners.

If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why? Eating desserts after dinner and snacks. I seem to crave something sweet at night. The rest of the day i am ok.