The Four P's to Happ(pp)iness

In college I started praying daily for peace, patience, and positivity.


Peace in the sense of keeping anxiety and worry at bay, and for continual acceptance that I am not in control.


Patience, as it's said, is a virtue and one I have struggled in having my whole life. I pray to not only have patience with others, but with where I want to be in life and sometimes the slow, tedious road getting there.


Positivity is so important to mental, emotional, and I think even physical health. I pray to stay positive, not just when it's easy, but in the face of others' negativity, stressful situations, and when all I want to do is rattle off a few cuss words to alleviate frustration temporarily (I'm working on this).


So after praying for my three P's to happiness for awhile, I started thinking about possibly writing a book about what they mean to me and how I truly know focusing on them has helped me become a happier person. Then it dawned on me pretty powerfully; I was leaving out the fourth and most important P to happiness: Prayer.


My spike in feeling more peaceful, being more patient, and staying more positive was all due to the fact that I had started praying to feel and live that way. I became emotional at this thought and from that day forward have incorporated my gratitude for the power of prayer and the ability and luxury we have in being able to talk directly to God knowing he listens.

With which we have agreed

One of my favorite lyrics is from Eddie Vedder's "Society," and goes:

"It's a mystery to me we have agreed with which we have agreed."

I find this lyric applicable to many parts of life and often have it playing in my head when I find myself in certain situations. From the level of work stress we have been trained to think is acceptable, to the crazy amount and quality of food we have learned to expect, if you take some time and think about all the things to which we have agreed, it makes you wonder how and why.

This is just something I've been thinking about as it relates to living a happier and healthier life. Now I'm going to go listen to Eddie- a guaranteed happy time!

The butt stops here

This past Saturday was one of the nicest days we've had in the Kansas City area since Fall. The long-awaited beautiful weather got me thinking about Spring clothing, which got me thinking about Summer clothing, which got me thinking about swimsuit time. Thinking about swimsuit time automatically made me thankful for my new-found motivation and appreciation of being happy and healthy.

After hibernating indoors since November, my longing to be outside and be active isn't the only thing that's grown throughout the winter. It's my post-Thanksgiving/Christmas/Chiefs tailgating/New Year/Valentine's Day booty that has become noticeably bigger. And while I don't regret the piece(s) of my sister's homemade chocolate pie, or one early-morning beer outside Arrowhead Stadium, it is time to stop the winter-feeding frenzy.

So as the old saying goes regarding making decisions and ultimately taking responsibility for the consequences associated with those decisions (i.e. a plate full of Christmas cookies), now is the time to get serious: the butt stops here.

Of the greatest worth

In my first post I mentioned one staple in leading a healther and happier life is to take advantage of eating fruits & vegetables every day, not only because they are packed with vitamins, but also because fruits and vegetables are grown from our amazing earth God created perfectly.

In oddly couldn't-be-better timing my wonderful mom forwarded me an e-mail containing the following information yesterday. Now I haven't done extensive research on all the facts/percentages listed below, but even the basic truths of this info are pretty amazing.

This all reminds me of a Ben Harper song in which he is not exactly referring to fruits and vegetables, but he does say, "...... and what's from the earth is of the greatest worth." I agree.

It has been said God first separated salt-water from fresh, created dry land, planted a garden, created plants and animals..... all before making a human. He created and provided what we'd need before we were made. He also left us clues as to what to eat and why. These are best and more powerful when eaten raw.

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... And YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocadoes, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.

A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

Iloveit Bread

After I sent my sister Erika the link to my blog containing the first two posts, she responded in disbelief:

"Yay! Can't wait to follow you! But I can't believe it's called "Love It All" , AND you talked about Lent AND someone misinterpreting a saying without mentioning iloveit bread."

And she is so right. How did I not make this connection before!? Years ago the Strasser/Albin clan members were all gathered around a wonderful, traditional Easter lunch at Erika & Josh's house. In true Erika-fashion she had created delicious Easter-themed courses, one of which included iloveit bread.

"What is iloveit bread?" you may be asking yourself as I was each time my sister or mom would mention it.

Luckily, in honor of the event, Erika started explaining the tradition of the Last Supper and the bread Jesus broke with His disciples. We all listened with thougths of gratefulness and amazement thinking about Jesus. Except for me. I was only thinking, "iloveit bread?"

So when it came time to feast I finally got up the nerve to admit out loud that I still really had no idea what iloveit bread was, and that I know I'm a horrible person for having apparently fallen asleep in all my Sunday school classes that must have clearly mentioned this awesome iloveit bread related to Jesus and one of  the most important Biblical stories ever. 

But through roars and tears of laughter from all of my family members, it turned out my sister had made unleavened bread. Although, that was the first and last time I've heard the word unleavened because to us it will always be iloveit bread.

Toeachizone

In the spirit of celebrating happiness I will share a funny memory.

One of my favorite people in the world, who I will not name, turned to me a couple years ago and asked, "What does 'toeachizone' mean? I always hear people say 'toeachizone' but I can't figure out why."

I explained that "toeachizone" is actually "to each his own," and I gave an example of a conversation that would explain the meaning:

Person 1: "Did you know Abby's boyfriend is not familiar with common phrases?"
Person 2 shrugging: "To each his own."

And so Lent begins...

I wrote the e-mail-turned-first-blog-entry below as a reply to a message my sister Katy sent me containing a couple excerpts she came across recently. 

The excerpts were:

"Now’s the time for some serious mind control. Instead of worrying about bad things that might happen, get busy trying to create the kind of future you want. The best insurance policy for tomorrow is to make the most productive use of today."

And...

"These suggestions probably sound very familiar – maybe even trite – to the point that we don’t take them seriously. Take exercise for example. Study after study proves that this is Mother Nature’s number one treatment for stress and tension. It truly is the "magic bullet." But too many of us just don’t want to go through the drill of daily exercise….So rather than carry on about how others are failing to lower our stress level, let’s just make sure we’re doing what we ourselves can do…Invest thirty minutes in vigorous physical exercise, three to five times per week. Work up a sweat."

And so my reply went....

From: Abby Strasser
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 10:59 AM
To: Strasser, Katy
Subject: RE:

Love it all! And I have been thinking about this all morning. Rocket & Teresa were talking about Lent, and instead of giving anything up, I’m going to add health/happiness to my life every day, in ways including but not limited to:

- Eating tons of fruit and vegetables. These are all grown from God’s earth and gifts that should be taken advantage of.

- Reading daily devotionals every morning and living the thoughts- I signed up for Our Daily Bread today.

- Working out- whether it’s kickboxing, walking Brooksie, etc. I should do something active every day, not only for health reasons, but because there are millions of people that would give anything to go for a walk outside, etc. but can’t because of illness, circumstances, etc.

So my goal for Lent, and the rest of my life, is to celebrate being healthy and happy- two gifts that should never go unappreciated!

I may have just unintentionally created my first blog post.