THE YEAR OF MONKEY

The Year of Monkey started on February 8th, 2016 in Chinese Calendar.

"Monkey" by Dorota Quiroz 2016 (on the Bridge in Fukushen Chinese Garden in Naha, Okinawa)

When I think of a monkey, I think of the Curiosity, Silliness, Fun and Mischief....

The Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) has been kicking my butt for a while now, so when thinking of battling it with just exposure to meek sun, exercise, fish oil and "happy" tea, I think my arsenal is pretty ridiciulous!

Why not battle it with a monkey on my shoulder - a silly clownlike creature, that laughs at everything and doesn't take things so seriously? YES! WHY NOT?

"Monkey and Rooster" by Dorota Quiroz 2016 

Therefore, I declare this New Year, a Year of a HILARIOUS Monkey!

This new strategy will require breaking some deeply ingrained bad habits of hermit-like life and finding ways to laugh as much as possible.

Let's start with daily media entertainment:

I haven't watched anything new and funny lately, except a few episodes of "Drunk History" but they often wanna make me drink and laugh...

The "Seinfield" still makes me laugh (my favorite episode "The Soup Nazi" , but I need something with a fresh breath... Any suggestions? so I will have to do some research and field testing to see what will make me outburst!

I don't want to spend too much time on youtube, but I guess I could subscribe to a daily delivery of new funny videos, how ever stupid... like "Prancercise" - as long as the will turn my downward oriented lips into wide open, spitting mouth of unstoppable laughter?

New regular habits like karaoke sessions with reliably bad but brave singers should also be ordered for this battle... and we are in Japan, so there must be a monthly meeting club of karaoke addicted wanna be stars?
Singing along with "I wanna be like you" from Disney's Jungle book might just put me in a swing of things...

But what about the work? When I go to work, I want to cry... Not because I don't like my job, but because I'd rather be painting or traveling. How can I take my teaching job and turn it into a smiley face? First of all, I hardly ever see any adults, and when I do, they look as grim as I do, so maybe I should start playing on the some office jokes?

Office prank from Bontheball.com

Since I'm surrounded by my students all day long, maybe I should start using lots of gentle sarcasm to deal with some of mundane questions like "Where is the trash can?", or "How do I draw a stick figure?" This could be good start, but maybe I could also start playing school jokes on them as well?

Source: Fun is 2 cool

I will look for ways to laugh, but maybe the best way to start laughing is to laugh at yourself first and not take things so seriously? hahaha

"Self-portrait" by Dorota Quiroz 1998