What I've learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0178

8851.  Accepting responsibility for our problems is the first step to solving them;

8852.  A lot of people hesitate to take responsibility for their problems because they believe that to be responsible for your problems is to also be at fault for your problems;

8853.  There are problems that we aren’t at fault for yet we are still responsible for them;

8854.  Fault results from choices that have already been made.  Responsibility results from the choices you’re currently making every second of every day;

8855.  There’s a difference between blaming someone else for your situation and that person actually being responsible for your situation.  Nobody else is ever responsible for your situation, but you.  Many people may be to blame for your unhappiness, but nobody is ever responsible for your unhappiness, but you.  This is because you always get to choose how you see things, how you react to things, how you value things.  You always get to choose the metric by which to measure your experiences;

8856.  Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new beginning;

8857.  Crying after sex . . . check;

8858.  “Pesci” means “fishes” in Italian . . . so Joe Pesci is really “Joe Fishes;”

8859.  Apparently, restaurants don’t like it when you’re drinking your cocktails to-go on a bench in front of their building;

8860.  Action isn’t everything, but without it nothing will ever change/improve;

8861.  We all get dealt cards.  Some of us get better cards than others.  And while it’s easy to get hung up on our cards and feel we got screwed over, the real game lies in the choices we make with those cards, the risks we decide to take and the consequences we choose to live with.  People who consistently make the best choices in the situations they’re given are the ones who eventually come out ahead in poker just as in life.  And it’s not necessarily the people with the best cards;

8862.  Sometimes what we see when looking at others depends on the window through which we are looking;

8863.  You don’t really need someone to complete you.  You only need someone to accept you completely;

8864.  (The original) Merriweather Post Pavilion was designed by Frank Gehry;

8865.  Rice and hoisin sauce is (pretty) tasty;

8866.  Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt;

8867.  Putting pears in oatmeal is a good combination;

8868.  Because of the amygdala, we pay 10 times more attention to negative news than to positive news.  And, for that reason, every news source is putting out 10 times more negative stories than positive ones.  It’s purely a matter of marketing to capture our attentions for more advertising revenue;

8869.  The average American adult spends nearly 6 hours each day watching TV – about 30% of our waking hours.  Yet few pause to consider how this massive input impacts our outlook;

8870.  A study of 180 undergraduate students found that anxiety and total mood disturbance increased after watching a 15-minute news segment.  Those levels remained elevated unless students explicitly engaged in relaxation exercises following the viewing period;

8871.  A 2017 study by the American Psychological Association found that over half of Americans feel news consumption causes them stress that leads to sleep deprivation and increased anxiety;

8872.  What you let into your mind influences your thoughts, conversations and feelings, which can drive fear and anxiety for many.  These emotional states are associated with increased levels of cortisol also commonly known as the “stress hormone,” which often causes inflammation and reduces the immune system’s efficacy;

8873.  A woman can get a hickey on her breast. . . . Who knew?

8874.  Breast hickey . . . check;

8875.  If money is your hope for independence you will never have it.  The only real security that a person can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability;

8876.  You are already choosing in every moment of every day what you care about so change is as simple as choosing to care about something else;

8877.  People think happiness is a destination and not a choice.  People think love is something that just happens and not something that you work for.  People think being “cool” has to be practiced and learned from others rather than be invented for yourself;

8878.  Each individual gets to decide what is “enough” and that love can be whatever you let it be;

8879.  What goes on when you sleep: 1.  Your brain recharges; 2.  Your body releases important hormones; and 3.  Your cells repair themselves;

8880.  You need different amounts of sleep depending on your age: 1.  Newborns (0-3 months): 14-17 hours; 2.  Infants (4-11 months): 12-15 hours; 3.  Toddlers (1-2 years): 11-14 hours; 4.  Preschoolers (3-5): 10-13 hours; 5.  School-age children (6-13): 9-11 hours; 6.  Teenagers (14-17): 8-10 hours; 7.  Younger adults (18-25): 7-9 hours; 8.  Adults (26-64): 7-9 hours; and 9.  Older adults (65+): Sleep range is 7-8 hours;

8881.  Men have dreams about other men 70% of the time, but women dream about women and men equally;

8882.  We can only dream about faces we’ve already seen whether we actively remember them or not;

8883.  Parasomnia is a type of sleep disorder that makes you do unnatural movements despite being asleep such as sleep driving, writing bad checks, murder, child molestation and rape;

8884.  12% of people dream only in black and white a number that used to be higher prior to the advent of color televisions;

8885.  Dreaming is normal.  People who do not dream generally have personality disorders;

8886.  Sleep positions may determine your personality: 1.  Fetal (41%) – Gruff initially, but have warm and open hearts; 2.  Log (15%) – Social butterflies; 3.  The Yearner (13%) – Perceived as open, but truly suspicious; 4.  Soldier/Corpse (8%) – Reserved; 5.  Freefall (7%) – Fun and fantastic at parties; and 6.  Starfish (5%) – Excellent listeners;

8887.  1 in 4 married couples sleep in separate beds;

8888.  British soldiers were the first to develop a method of staying up 36 hours without sleep.  When fatigued, they put on special visors that emulated the brightness of a sunrise and it woke them up;

8889.  Koalas are the longest-sleeping mammals (at 22 hours/day) while giraffes which sleep only 1.9 hours a day (in 5- to 10-minute increments) are the shortest-sleeping;

8890.  When dolphins sleep, only half of their brains shut down.  The other halves stay awake to help with breathing cycles;

8891.  You’ll die from sleep deprivation before starvation.  It takes 2 weeks to starve, but 10 days without sleep can kill you;

8892.  Blind people can still see images in dreams;

8893.  Within 5 minutes of waking, 50% of your dream is forgotten, and, within 10 minutes, 90% is gone;

8894.  1 out of 50 teenagers still wet their beds;

8895.  You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight;

8896.  Forgiveness isn’t something you do for the other person, it’s a gift you give to yourself;

8897.  Forgiveness has its own pace and its own grace.  It’s a process and that process may look different for everyone, but it doesn’t start until you’re willing;

8898.  No matter how materially wealthy or otherwise lucky you may be a blackened heart taints everything;

8899.  Proactively deal with emotions.  We should never become victims of our emotions.  That’s not to say that we should suppress them.  We just need to be consciously aware of them and avoid reacting emotionally;

8900.  Don’t waste time with self-pity.  We can be our own worst enemies especially when we drown ourselves in the negative light of the worst-case scenario we tend to paint for ourselves.  Although it can be tempting to exaggerate our circumstances, face reality, take action, practice gratitude, serve others and get outside of yourself;