Tag: vicarious joy

Hoot Hoot Friday

Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday! On Fridays, I stay above the surface and talk about the tactile, sensory, stuff you can experience in life that I just love!! Please check out previous Friday posts for more good recommendations. Today’s favorite, involves two of my favorite creatures from the animal kingdom: Owls (if there is such thing as a spirit animal, then I am convinced the owl is my spirit animal) and Underdogs. (Underdogs might be my all-time favorite of anything.)

Every year my husband asks the family if we want to do a family bracket for the March Madness College Tournament, and every year I agree to participate. I pick my bracket utilizing the highly scientific “Oh, okay, I know someone who went there, or someone’s kid who goes there . . .” system. Interestingly, I usually don’t do half bad every year, despite knowing virtually nothing about college basketball. I’ve even won the bracket, a year or two.

Honestly, I don’t think that I picked the Florida Atlantic University Owls to go too far. (Despite living in Florida, I don’t know any FAU alumnae) But I’m rooting (and hooting) for the Owls now! This is only the second time in which the Owls have ever made it to the tournament, and the ONLY time they have made it to the Elite Eight. This is what makes March Madness so special. You don’t even have to be a sports fan to revel in vicarious joy. March Madness brings out the freudenfreude in all of us, especially for the inevitable Cinderella team that surprises everyone.

Is there anything better in life than a Cinderella story? Be a Florida Atlantic Owls fan with me. Make them your favorite team of the tournament and send all sorts of good energy their way!

Have a great weekend! See you tomorrow!

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Two New Words

I spent some time over the weekend reading my Spirituality and Health magazine and I learned a couple of new words that I really like. The first word is a Finnish word called sisu. The word was invented in 1939, at a time when tiny Finland was able to hold off an invasion by the Soviets during a particularly frigid winter. Sisu means the ability to push your limits (mentally, physically and spiritually) further than you ever knew possible. It stands for pure grit, and by the time we reach middle age, all of us can look back on at least one or two “Incredible Hulk” moments in our lives, when our sisu kicked in. It is a good reminder to ourselves to remember deep within all of us lies the treasure of our indomitable sisu.

The second word is freudenfreude which means taking vicarious delight in someone else’s good fortune. Most of us have heard of (and maybe even felt some shame for feeling) schadenfreude which means feeling some joy for someone else’s misfortune. I think that it’s sad that freudenfreude isn’t as commonly known a word as schadenfreude. I know that freudenfreude is frequently felt. I didn’t care who won the Super Bowl this year, but I was gleeful for the thrilled players and fans of Kansas City. I can’t help but feel freudenfreude whenever I see a delighted child, or a dog whose tail is going one hundred miles a minute. Perhaps the rest of this week, we should make it a point of feeling freudenfreude whenever we can. We should seek freudenfreude out. In my experience, I feel the greatest freudenfreude for underdogs who have gone all out with their sisu, and end up being victorious. That’s the best freudenfreude of all!

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.