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 – .
Acclimation
Mountain climbers know that the shortest route to success is NOT a straight line, and acclimation at each stage is critical for achieving both personal, financial and business goals. So the framework that we need to have in place is that when you feel a need to pull back in your activity, what you are doing is acclimating, not failing. You aren’t doing something wrong and you shouldn’t just quit. This is actually a sign that you are on the right track. So acclimate and then keep climbing!
Passion
Know your passions. Then find a way to regularly incorporate your passion into your daily life. Discovering your passion dramatically increases happiness. I have a friend with an opera training class. Listen to her talk about her work and the training that they just completed.
“It is the mission to train the whole person. Not only do we teach the usual techniques (voice, acting, dance, languages), we discuss how to make a living with one’s art. We are the only opera training program to my knowledge with a full course combining NLP and business skills with a mission to lead a balanced life. And it is the dedication to creating a nurturing space where participants give themselves the permission to discover their genius. The best part though, was that every single participant told me that TOP had taught them more than they had ever dreamed – if not changed their lives. And they all said that they would come back in a heartbeat. I am so proud.”
You can hear that she is passionate in making a difference in their lives and so it makes a difference in hers. What do you talk about that literally floats you up into the air that you are so happy? What are your passions?
Define & Refine
Define or refine your values. Know what is important to you, and seek to live in accordance with that. Many of us are living our life to be accepted or to please others. Spend some time this week just thinking about what is truly important to you and make one small change to bring your life into accordance with that.
Progress
Goals have a “work” feel to them. Too much like a to do chart that we check off. What if instead we kept a “Prosperity Progress” journal instead? Keep it like we are journaling our travels, with doodles, clip art, notating our progress. Some days we get to skip along and other days we wander a little to pick up needed items for the trip ahead. Doesn’t that sound fun?!