Hero
Hero is such a funny word. When we tell someone they have been a hero, they will always something that sounds like, I’m not a hero – I just saw something that needed doing and did it. We always think that the actions of others are heroic, but never our own actions.
We think that heroes are people who do something dangerous to save a life; but we forget about all of the 100’s of “ordinary” things that we do each day that are also true actions of a hero. Being there everyday for our friends and family to support them. The money that we donated to a nonprofit that helps people; the clothes that we donated to Goodwill; the food we donated to the foodbank, and so on.
These small acts are also the actions of a hero to the person that receives them. Celebrate the heroes in your life. Let them know how much they are appreciated. Be a hero youself today, even if it is just a smile – that smile might just save a life!
One Step
Every day I am making progress on something. It may not look like much, but when I look back over the year, it is amazing how much I have grown both myself and my vision of what I am here to do.
The closer I get, the more I see how every step in the past was necessary to prepare me for this future that I am bringing into existence.
It may seem to some that life is hard, but when you look back you can see how it all unfolded perfectly. It is important to remember when you are experiencing the “tough” times that in the not too distant future you will be glad it happened, because the joy you have now wouldn’t be possible without each and every step you have taken.
Top 10 Things: Time and Space
“The Top 10 things about time and space that most people seem to forget:
10. You chose to be here and you knew what you were doing.
9. There are no “tests” and you’re not being judged.
8. Everyone’s doing their best, with what they know.
7. You already have whatever you’re looking for.
6. You are of the Divine, pure God, and so is everyone else.
5. Religion needs spirituality; spirituality does not need religion.
4. You’re naturally inclined to succeed – at everything you do.
3. You happen to life, life does not happen to you.
2. Order, healing, and love belie every moment of chaos, pain, and fear.
1. Following your heart is the best way to help others.
The truth shall set you free” The Universe
Hope
We’ve all heard the saying, “Fake until you make it”, but it doesn’t really work that way. You can fake being happy, or optimistic, but you can’t fake hope. And without hope, you will lack the energy to engage with life and accomplish your goals. Hope is directly related to our sense of wonder and possibility. The greater our perception of possibilities, the greater our hope. Hope is truly a necessity for an optimistic life.
I read something interesting today about hope. If you have an extremely negative childhood, a childhood where you lost hope, you will be more prone to drug addiction. This is because hopelessness affects the brains ability to produce dopamine, and taking drugs will increase the dopamine levels for those whose brains do not have the ability to produce it naturally. You literally self medicate without knowing the reason why.
Hope is what we have when we have a positive relationship with our existence. It answers the question, why bother? Happiness and optimism cannot exist without hope, but hope can exist without happiness or optimism. It is the deepest of the three emotions. It is a serious emotion because it sizes up our life, and our situation of how we are going to survive the present and the future.
Hope breeds hope. What is interesting is how we affect each others hopes and dreams every day. As parents and teachers it is critical that we don’t quash or destroy the dreams of our children. Too many children are told they aren’t good; that they aren’t capable of achieving their dreams; not smart enough; not pretty enough; etc… We need to look out for each other and build up the hopes and dreams of each person we meet. Give them the hope and confidence to get back up and try one more time. To re-awaken to their hopes, dreams, and possibilities of accomplishing a great life.
Hope engages our creativity and problem solving skills. Looking at the possibilities renews hope and gets us creatively engaged in the business of creating our life. It helps us to realize that life is an experiment to see what works, so there is no failure, only opportunities to learn. It is the meaning of “progress, not perfection”.
So as the article written by Maria Hill said: look for ways to bring hope into your life and the life of others. You can support the hopes of others, even if you don’t see how they can achieve their dreams. It isn’t our job to find the answers for them, it is our job to provide the support so that they can find the answers themselves. Renew hope everywhere you go – like Johnny Appleseed, you will leave behind real treasures.
Life
Celebrate that we are all different because each one of us is special.
Know deep inside your soul, that only you know what is best for you, and go out and do it.
Cling to the things closest to your heart, for without them, life is meaningless.
Live your life to the fullest, ALL the days of your life; by living your life in the present, not the past or for the future.
Remember that nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying. You will always have something to give as long as you are still trying.
We are all less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us each together.
Take risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.
The quickest way to receive love is to give it; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.
Take the time to not only remember where you’ve been, but to also celebrate where you are going.
The best gift to you can give to another person is to make sure they feel appreciated.
Learning is a gift that we can give ourselves that never stop giving back. Knowledge is a weightless treasure that is easily carried.
Use your time and words carefully. Neither can be retrieved. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.
Mountains
“Want to move a mountain? Befriend it. Call me, The Universe”
This is what fear does to your mind. It makes it look like a mountain, something unmovable. I know that my mom told me more than once to stop making a mountain out of a molehill.
I remember years ago we had these friends, Jimmy and Cheryl. They had a little boy and I think that he was around 1st grade age at the time. Cheryl was one of those people who couldn’t tell a story without recreating each and every moment of the story. Very, very dramatic (did I say she was dramatic?). One evening they came over to our house and Cheryl was hysterical. Their son had fallen down or something and cut himself on the leg. They wanted my mom to go with them to the hospital. They were sure it would need stitches and who knows what else. Cheryl already had the doctor removing his leg, or him dying from the blood loss. My mom calmed them down enough to let her take a look. Cheryl said to be very careful removing the towel they had wrapped around it as it would cause the blood to come gushing out – there was so much blood! When my mom was finally able to unwind it, there was a teeny tiny scrape that had 1 drop of blood on the towel.
That is exactly what fear does to us. It takes a small insignificant thing and our mind exaggerates it to such an extent that we are paralyzed with what might happen. We might die; no one will ever talk to us again; everyone will laugh at us; we won’t be able to show our face anywhere again; everyone will hates us; and so on. Such drama and carrying on, our mind will create a multitude of illusions that will carry us off in a tizzy if we let it. Yet in reality, it is just like the scrape on that little boys leg – a drop of blood and then everyone laughs and forgets about it. Even if you are really embarrassed, it becomes one of your favorite stories to tell among good friends – the remember when you did this thing …., and then that happened? We all laugh together as each person dredges up an old story about themselves.
I am still listening to the voices in my head telling more that I need to do one more thing before I make my list. Each day is passing and I am finding a new excuse. Tuesday I fractured my tooth, and was in major toothache pain yesterday, and today I went to the dentist. So now the list has moved to tomorrow. The list is the mountain, because once it is done, I will be one step closer to asking for the scholarships. I know I am making a mountain out of a molehill (the LIST) – it is the mountain behind the molehill that really has me procrastinating. Once the list is done, the coaching starts and I will be accountable. Someone please talk me off, or better yet kick me off the ledge. How do you make friends with your fears? What are you procrastinating about?
Choices
“Choices are the hinges of destiny” – Pythagoras
Every day in our life choices are made. We say yes, no, or we procrastinate until the decision makes itself. Then we change our mind and turn around 180 degrees. If choices are the hinges of destiny, then every choice is a door.
I read a description once in a scifi novel of a large oval room; there are many doors open around the room and through each one is a different path, a different destiny. You only get a glimpse of each pathway – one was of a desert scene, another a tropical jungle, one was a snowy blizzard in which you couldn’t see anything, there was also a beach scene, and one up in high mountains with nothing to see but trees and more trees.
The hero in the story had to pick one, and there wasn’t enough information to know what you were picking. Was there food to be found? Were they occupied by other humans or some alien creatures? How large was the world he would be entering? If he refused he would have been forced through one of the doors (procrastinating until the choice is forced upon you is never a smart choice).
Sometimes the choices we have in life are like that, in which you really don’t think that you know enough to make an intelligent choice. Would you pick a door that corresponded to the place you grew up in, and were familiar with? For me that would be either the beach scene or the scene with all of the trees. Or would you pick one that would present a challenge, like the blizzard or the desert scene?
Do your choices reflect that you are choosing to live a life of transformation and expansion; or do you choose a life that is comfortable, what you already know how to live?
We have a pond in our back yard that has some koi and goldfish as well as two turtles. The koi tend to grow to the size of their environment and then they stop growing. Most people are like that, because they are afraid to step outside of their comfort level. It is not the circumstances in which you find yourself, it’s the choices you make that define the person you become.
If life is really lived from the inside out, then what you are experiencing today is a result of all of the choices that you have made. Choices determine the kind of person that you have become. The great thing about life, is that every day we get to make new choices.
If you want to grow inside and outside, then choose transformation. Choose the door that goes somewhere you have never been. Choices are scary things, but try every day to make at least one choice from longing instead of flight. That one choice of choosing longing will make all the difference from a life half lived, to a life fully lived.
Comfort Zone
How much of what we do is based on routines? Think about how most of us are unaware that doubt and worry control our life. We can oblivious to the fact that we have choices. But as your awareness increases, you become conscious that you are choosing where you are going.
The definition of awareness is, ‘The degree of clarity to which we perceive both consciously and unconsciously all the things that affect our lives.’ Making choices is the key after becoming aware. Being aware of our choices. You are either happy or sad because you choose to be.
Most of us are content to stay in our comfort zones . . . we get stuck there. Part of the reason for this has to do with fear. It’s scary to get out of your comfort zone, to change the situation-even though they don’t like it, it’s familiar. When you become aware of being stuck in your comfort zone, try to pioneer out of it to experience something new.
The danger of not doing so, is that we might on some level, start to self-destruct. That’s when the self sabotage can happen is a way that you might not expect. In our unhappiness we may subconsciously begin looking for a way out. In my mothers case I believe that she subconsciously created her own sickness . . . and cancer was the way out. Dr. Bernie Siegel has documented many cases like this, when cancer is the way that they become aware of their choices and begin making choices to live the life that they want. It is almost like they need the wake up call to give themselves permission to live life to the fullest.
Gifts
We all have these gifts to give others. The gift of time; the gift of listening; the gift of graciousness and respect; the gift of laughter; and the gift of a smile.
Everyday I try to smile to everyone I see. If I talk with someone, I try very hard to just listen and not get caught up in the trap of thinking what I am going to reply. I am sure that most everyone tries to do these things each day to the people that come into our lives.
I have a question though – when was the last time that you gave these gifts to yourself?
Did you give yourself time today to do nothing?
Did you meditate and listen to your inner wisdom?
Did you give yourself the gift of graciousness and respect or did you have negative self talk about your appearance; about something that you did that didn’t turn our perfect?
Did you laugh at yourself today? This in itself makes me smile as I think that we all have those days in which we hope no one just noticed what we did because we are embarrased – why not laugh about it? It is really freeing.
Did you look into a mirror today and smile and tell yourself that you are a wonderful person? You should!
Resistance
They say that what you resist persists. Resistance to what is happening in our life, makes us attached to what we don’t want and it drains our energy.
I thought of a practical example being a rip tide (current). It you try to resist the current and swim back to shore the tide will fight you and it will win. However if you allow the current to take you and you swim parallel to the shore eventually you will swim right out of the current and the ocean will take you back to shore.
Resistance to what is, like a rip tide, wears you down and doesn’t change what is. Resistence is the drama, it stresses you out, so you become an emotional wreck. Resisting what is can actually escalate the pain and frustration that you are feeling.
Instead stop resisting, stop the drama, and drift with what is happening, and keep looking for the break that allows you to “make a change in yourself”. When you change your response, you stop resisting,and then what you are resisting will change. It’s making tiny small course correction changes that keep you angling towards the shore looking for the break, that allows you to break free.
Poppy Seeds
Listening to a CD today about relationships. The story was about a husband who loved to eat a poppy seed bagel every morning that he would toast and put cream cheese on, and then proceed to drop poppy seeds all over the kitchen floor as he ate the bagel.
Each morning his wife would clean the floor, not saying anything. One morning she was having a hard day and was grumbling about the poppy seeds and thought how can I never have to clean up the poppy seeds again? Then it occured to her that fulfillment of that wish might mean her husband had died. This terrified her and she ran to her husband in his home office crying and told him how much she loved him. She then turned around this annoying habit he had into something positive. Now every morning as she wipes up the poppy seeds she smiles to herself because it means that she has one more day with him.
I thought about this story and how it applies not only to our personal family members like my noisy grandchildren when I am trying to concentrate, or having to endure one more sporting event on TV with the guys in my family, when I have a million things to do. It applies to the car that cuts you off; to the rude clerk who doesn’t understand what customer service is; to that coworker who you swear would crack their face if they ever smiled.
The reality is that each and every person in our life would be missed if they weren’t there with their messy lives, living in our messy life.
How many people who have lost loved ones either from death or they just dropped out of their lives wouldn’t give anything to hear their noise again as they played, or yelled when their team made a great play?
Coming from a place of gratitude for the messy life we have turns the mess itself into a wonderful life full of blessings. Isn’t that a better way to live, from a place of blessedness? Tell those special people in your life how grateful you are that they are a part of your life, and go ahead and laugh joyously at the mess that you create together!
+ or –
Small changes, big results. What you feed grows. Just as your body needs food and water to grow new cells, what you think is dependent on what you feed your brain. Studies show that thinking new and different thoughts creates new neural pathways. When we change our thinking to support our happiness, the negative pathways shrink and positive pathways widen. This makes it easier to think positively. Notice what your feeding your brain + or – thoughts? Start today to feed the + & shrink the – .