Heartwarmers
A Heartwarmer is an experience which makes you kinda glow
inside, softly smile and feel warm and nice. Sometimes you sparkle or your eyes crinkle
up-- the corners show crows-feet. Heartwarmers don't last long.
I collect anecdotes of heartwarmers. Here are few I've had
told to me or written down in workshops I give on The Anatomy of Positive Experience
and Good Feelings. It feels good to read these and to tell other people about your
own. I'd appreciate any anecdotes you want to send me to add to the data-base.
Try telling one or more to someone you know. See how it
feels. Try it. You'll like it. Smile a little extra when you
tell it. You'll feel it. :) Send your best ones to me and I'll put them in this list and
or the BioPsy Webzine.
Rob Kall smile@futurehealth.org
211 N. Sycamore, Newtown, PA 18940, 215-504-1700 fax
215-860-5374
-agoraphobic- driving on road for first timeagoraphobic-
seeing apt bldg. three blocks from my house for the first time. It was built three years
agosharing my sons excitement bout being able to jump into the pool all by himself.having
a landscaper ask which professional landscaper did my lawn which I'd done all by myself
going down a tall water slide with my daughter. Seeing her face her fear and enjoy the
experience, and at the end hearing her smiling say "Let's do it again Daddy."my
car was in an accident and I was depressed because I expected to have to do without a car
for a week. Within an hour of finding out, three friend offered m e use of their car.
-Getting a call from RCA executive asking me what I would do if they gave me a recording
contract. I felt like bursting out screaming for joy, but I answered him calmly and
business-like.
-playing a sold-out concert re-union gig, the first time our band had performed in several
years. It felt like the happiest
day of my life. There was so much love between the band members and we could feel so much
love and appreciation from the audience.
-We went on a week long vacation together in Mexico, and a lot of the time I kept thinking
I should propose, but I didn't say the words. Then we returned to her place and it was
just about time for me to leave town to go home. I couldn't leave without saying, "I
think we should get married." She agreed. "I guess that means we're
engaged." Making love after we decided was incredible.
-Hearing friends tell the details of their engagement, seeing the loving glances, the warm
smiles as they enjoy hearing each other tell parts of the story.
-(7 y/o) going over a new friend's house for the first time, playing games and dolls.
-(4 y/o)making paintings in school and showing them to Mommy and Daddy.
-3 y/o getting a new doll with hair that changes color when I touch it.
-7 y/o writing my own invitations for a slumber party.
-having my 7 y/o write a song with me helping her just with the spelling.
-having my 7 year old ask me to read her the "real Shakespeare" (not Lamb's
children's version) because she likes how different it sounds.
-sharing a new idea of mine with colleagues and having it enthusiastically received.
-finding a book I'd been looking for for six months, and getting a 1775 edition of it for
just $10.00.
-finding the definition of electricity in the Samuel Johnson dictionary (written 1759) is
"a curious property of amber."
-Seeing a software project I worked on with a friend far exceed our original goals and see
it sell beyond our projections.
-having my daughter spend an evening being particularly sweet and attentive to me after
working a whole weekend. She missed me as much as I missed her.
-seeing my son starting to read letter and little words for the first time.
-seeing my daughter read with inflection indicative of facility and understanding of what
she was reading.
-seeing the amazement of the whale doctor in Star Trek 4 when she is magically beamed
aboard the Klingon ship.
-Seeing the old people dancing after the lead dancer courageously risks losing a summer's
pay to do the last dance
number, at the same time showing his love for "Baby," in Dirty Dancing.
-Seeing Oprah Winfrey's mind flicker back on in The Color Purple.
-In the movie The Color Purple; Seeing Celie spit in the glass her despicable father-in
law was drinking from.
-40 something male psychologist- My transmission stopped working (at 81,000+ miles) and I
took it to the dealer. The service manager called later with the estimate and told me that
indeed I did need a whole new transmission (my heart sank), and Chrysler would replace it
AT NO CHARGE even though it was out of warranty (my heart soared). It didn't cost me a
cent and the car runs better than when it was new. I have to smile every time I think
about it.
- I was driving home from a friends house one
day and both of my children were with me. It had been raining off and on all
day and I was just having an all around bad day. My daughter spotted a rainbow
in the sky. I was amazed that it was a double rainbow.
"Mommy," my 3 year old son said,
"God made the rainbow in the sky, huh?"
"Yes," I said. "He
did." "I like God," my son replied. Needless to say the
day didn't seem so bad from that point on.
. I like your idea about the hearth warmers very much. I had one this weekend when I moved
my friend to her new home. She's been living above a neighbour who made her life
misserable. Now she has a beautiful new home and I felt very warm when we had moved her
and I saw her for the first time in her new home, she looked so happy. It made me glow
inside.
started
10/22/99
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