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SmallChange is a weekly feature at Never the Same River Twice. This category features quick and easy activities you can do on a lazy Sunday morning to learn a new skill and feel better. If you have any suggestions for this series, tell us your idea in the comments.

Have you ever heard a song that just plain makes you happy? For some people it’s Beethoven’s appropriately named Ode to Joy. For others it’s the choir-ific stylings of the Polyphonic Spree. No matter what your taste in music, there’s got to be something that puts a smile on your face and a bounce in your step.

The next time you’re at home or in the car by yourself, turn on your iPod or pop in a CD and listen to your favorite happy music. You don’t have to dance or sing but, if you picked the right music, you may not be able to stop yourself!

Yours in singing at the top of your lungs,
Maria

P.S. I need to give a shout out to Gretchen at the Happiness Project for reminding me of my love for Fatboy Slim.

Photo by novitas.

SmallChange is a weekly feature at Never the Same River Twice. This category features quick and easy activities you can do on a lazy Sunday morning to learn a new skill and feel better. If you have any suggestions for this series, tell us your idea in the comments.

I’m going to bet that no matter what size town or city you live in there is a museum, art gallery or cultural center - even a library - a short walk, bicycle ride, or drive away the you have never visited. Isn’t it interesting that we are willing to travel to Paris to visit the Louvre, or Los Angeles to see the Getty Museum, or Sidney to go to the Opera House, but we rarely go see the attractions in our neighborhoods?

In the book, the Artist’s Way at Work (and probably in the original Artist’s Way, but I haven’t read that one) the authors recommend a weekly “time out.” During this “time out” you take an hour or two to do something alone that will interest you and get your creative juices flowing.

When I thought about possibilities for time outs in the towns where I work and live, I realized that there are at least a half-dozen local attractions within a fifteen minute walk of my home and my office that I could visit. Most of these are free, or nearly free. None of them cost more than $10.

For this weekend’s SmallChange, I challenge you to browse through your local paper or city web site and find just one local cultural attraction that you can visit in the coming week. Actually following through on the plan will entertain you, widen your horizons, teach you more about your home community, and maybe even spark a great idea!

Yours in exploration,
Maria

Photo by novitas.