Ana’s Comments (group member since Jan 08, 2016)

Ana’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

Lιғe ιѕ ғυcĸed υp wrote: "I actually was going through depression a while back. i.... was a mess. i wouldn`t feel like eating, and i would just have headaches. this actually started when my parents started fighting. and i w..."

Oh, my, Life. I don't know what to say, just...well, you know what? You said music is part of what helps you to cope, so, this is for you, and it comes with a giant virtual hug if you need it. These three songs have been very important for me over the last months and I listen to them on a regular basis.

Stay Alive, by Jose Gonzalez. This one is actually part of the OST of a wonderful film called The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Don't know if this is your preferred music genre, but listen to the lyrics. All of them, but I get particularly teary with this part:

Dawn is coming
Open your eyes
Look into the sun as a new day rise

Sometimes, when I have had some crappy days and am just feeling a bit better, I listen to this one and think about how there's always something to hang onto. :) Something to stay alive, like the song says.

Turn, Turn, Turn, by The Byrds. Someone who became my friend and helped me listen to myself when I was feeling very lost and down shared this song with me and now it's in my iPod forever. :)
Todo va a cambiar (Everything Is Going to Change), by Niños Mutantes (i.e, The Mutant Children, haha) They come from my hometown, Granada (Spain)! Yeah, I know that you most likely do not speak Spanish, and sadly I cannot find any translation into English, but how about I translate my favorite part for you? :) 3:12

The future came without previous notice,
It's not true that everything's looking so bad,
At least you are alive,
(...)
Everything is going to change

I know, I know, music cannot solve crap on its own in most cases. However, I truly hope you enjoy these. Also, if Goodreads helps you as well, well, the community is here. :)

It's funny when you realise that different people have different limits! :) I would never think of hiding a book cover / not reading something in public (unless we were talking something extreme like, say, Mein Kämpf LOL!) What I read is not anybody's business! Then again, sometimes I've been with a group of people that I don't know very much and they've started talking about sex...and I've thought, 'Whaaat? No way Jose.'

Aw, Agnes. Too bad we don't get to meet you this time! :(

What Katelyn said above! Gee, I'm so excited!

That's great indeed, Elena! :D Human mind is quite the complex thing, right? You never really know. With your body organs, tests can usually ascertain whether there's something wrong. The mind's enemies, however, are often of the invisible kind. :(

I hope it's OK for me to keep intruding in this thread although I am just going through a blue mood period! The most difficult part for me right now is snapping out of my mindset. I know that I came to this gloomy place in my mind by myself, and I try really hard to get out of it, but I am ashamed to admit that I often fail miserably, haha. You get some negative ideas in your mind and you have to be really careful with those, I feel. Self-criticism is indeed necessary, but have a bit too much of it and things can get out of hand real fast. You end up being incredibly harsh to yourself and it ultimately affects your capacity to focus on important stuff and, well, to believe in yourself and respect yourself, because if you don't, well, nobody will really.

As my mother always likes to say, we all keep our skeletons in the closet. Nobody out there is perfect. Note that this might be of no real use to others, but to me, it's something that I always must try and remember.

Helen, aw. :( At least you talk about it in the past tense, which is good news? :)

Ryan, I find myself re-reading your post and you said that:

"Many times, this complete shut-down of energy is necessary (...)"

You know, at the end of my stay abroad I had this feeling, 'I'm too tired and everything is ruined now.' Because my plans had basically busted, for the first time in my life I felt completely stuck. Zero prospects in sight and only a tiny voice whispering, 'Hey, no, stand up, there's so much to do and maybe this is actually a sign for you to stop and think about what's next.'

...As I said, I still have the nasty habit of feeling sorry for myself and agonising over the big scary word that future is. But you know what? I am currently studying something that I had wished to study ever since I was a teenager, and I have plenty of stuff going on in the meantime and am trying to make some plans for next year. I have zero guarantees that those will turn up nicely, though, which is hard. But that's just how life is. You gotta keep trying, one day at a time.

Also, and I'll shut up for a sec, I promise, I am a massive fan of Haruki Murakami, and he has this novel titled Dance, Dance, Dance where one of the characters has this gem of a quote:

“Dance," said the Sheep Man. "You gotta dance. As long as the music plays. You gotta dance. Don't even think why. Start to think, your feet stop. Your feet stop, we get stuck. We get stuck, you're stuck. So don't pay any mind, no matter how dumb. You gotta keep the step. You gotta limber up. You gotta loosen what you bolted down. You gotta use all you got. We know you're tired, tired and scared. Happens to everyone, okay? Just don't let your feet stop.”

Hey, Ryan, hang in there, man! :) It's a good thing that you stumbled upon that post, both for you and for us.

I hear you and instead of saying the typical 'I'm so sorry that you're going through depression,' well I just wish you succeed in doing what is best for yourself now that you've heard the warning. I would probably be a navel-gazing, self-absorbed moron (pardon my French!) if I said I suffer from depression...but I haven't been in my best shape lately. No tragic events and/or traumas, luckily...again, I lead quite the good life and that's something I try to remember when I'm whining for the 10000000th time, LOL. However, I've had some changes in my life lately, and I had to make decisions that I didn't really want to make and that ended up with me having to return to my hometown after quite a long time abroad, I'm in my mid-twenties as well with the mini existential crisis that this normally entails, blahblah. Insert the normal ups and downs of life and you've got someone who is often moody and feeling all the sadz, haha.

I can really relate to you finding out about OSS and deciding to give it a go just in case it helps! I've been doing something similar in the last months, in the hope that it'd keep me too busy to think too much. I guess right now it feels to me like a waiting period in my life, although this is probably a wrong view, since as long as we are alive and kicking, life never really stops and wait for us...as it should be.

Things will hopefully get better! Also, people brave enough to follow their freaking dreams always deserve my respect. I can only hope I am one of such a tribe!

'Silba' for the Spanish version please! Hehe!

Hey, Takashi! Morning from the other part of the world.

Seeing as I have always had a lifelong fascination with your country and its culture, it only feels right that I educate myself a little bit on the feminist movement in Japan. I found this article on Japan Times extremely interesting. It starts from the birth of the movement known as ūman libu (women's lib) and then follows four Japanese women trying to discover what the future might hold for them and many others in Japan. I would love to know your thoughts on this, as a Japanese citizen yourself. Also, it would be a nice break from your scheduled series on Emma's book and interviews, don't you think so? ありがとうございます！

Hello, James! :D Welcome to Our Shared Shelf. Hey, this post would be great for this thread on the meaning of the colour purple. Feel free to copy paste your thoughts there. Looking forward to your participation here!

For the sake of organization and management, we have to close this thread and archive it. :) Thanks for your understanding and happy reading!

Read these a while ago, so good! Oh, and there's the Consent Is as Easy as Tea clip, which I found hilarious and informative.

Guuuuuys. :) Use the spoiler html for this kind of stuff, hehe! :)

LOL, that's fine I guess. :P I'm OK with your disagreement. It's just that sometimes you get a bit intense.

Anywayyyyyy. I guess many people would be fine with this whole issue if muscled, hot looking men were included in the pack. It would still be silly but at least everybody would be doing it.

Yeah, no need to apologise at all! Not even if your English was not as good as it actually is. This is no language academy! :)

Just so that you won't think that I'm always chasing you around, I actually liked your comment about everyone's inner Utopia. :)

Besides, and I must recognise I am to blame as well, this thread is derailing now. So let's try and bring it back to topic.

No, I don't think I need any statistics from the Bigotry Institute!

Um, yeah, of course we all are. This is what I've been defending all the time. The only actual difference is that I extended this assumption to Muslim women, while you reduce them to mere robots mass produced by Allah Technologies, Inc.

I infer that you're coming from a family where none of its members had the slightest hint of a political ideology, then. People whose minds never entertained a single thought inherited from their elders and let you to your own devices to sort out your own value system.
If this isn't the case, being atheist or follower of a religion that chooses to call their deity by any name but Allah does not grant instant freedom of thought and action, free from the influence of your family and the place where you grew up.

Stubborn as usual. You're entitled to be so, but you're hardly going to improve anything with such an attitude.

Of course Christian, Jewish and overall Western women are not entirely free either, BTW! Plenty of examples against such naivety on a daily basis...