Tag: God

HOW DO I BEGIN??

Confession time.  I have a terrible flaw. When beginning any project I tend to think ten steps in advance.  I worry about what will happen months, sometimes years down the road.  On several occasions this overwhelms me to the point I fail to even begin.  On my road to self discovery I am learning to address and understand that as time goes on.  In fact, had I not this blog would not exist.  Which, some of you tell me would not be a good thing and I thank you for that.

The point of this confession? Is that I can understand when people tell me that in today’s world it just seems to difficult to achieve, much less maintain a positive outlook. What do they do about all the crabby people they encounter(more on that in another post) or how do they balance being informed without subjecting themselves to the negativity of their local paper or the evening news (also a subject to be addressed later this week) “It seems just to hard and hopeless I don’t even know where to begin” one lady recently told me.  Well, thanks to some wise words from a dear old friend I was reminded of a great place that makes it fun and easy to start.  One of my favorite books I have read in the last few years. Don’t worry for those of you who do not like to read it is also available on audio book. Even better, there is also a dvd! What is the title of this collection? “The Secret” I’m sure several of you have heard about it, and some of you may have not. personally if you can I recommend picking up all three as there is something to be gained from each different format. If you are not sure, or do not have the time or funds to dedicate to all three I strongly suggest starting with the movie.  Imagine sitting down with a big bowl of popcorn, or your other favorite snack, putting in dvd, relaxing on your couch and in a mere two hours you can be on your way to beginning a more positive life.  Now the movie is more about the law of attraction, but once you watch it you can see how close the topics of the law of attraction and living a positive life are connected. It also does a fine job of explaining why feeling good is so important and offers suggestions to help you to that end.  I encourage you to watch it with at least one other person if you are able as it could become a fun and interesting conversation for years to follow. If you are unable to find a friend to watch it with you feel free to discuss it here with myself or other followers of this site as we are all here to help each other on the path.

2 DOGS

I am pleased to share one of my favorite Native American stories and how it stresses the importance of living a positive life.

There was a young child who was walking through the village and noticed he saw two distinct kinds of people, ones who were genuinely nice, and those who were not.  He approached the tribe shaman and asked “Grandfather, when I grow up will I be a good person or a bad person?”.  The old man replied, “That depends on the dog”.  Very confused the young man asked him to explain.  The shaman explained to the young man, that inside of every one of us lives to dogs, a bad dog and a good dog.  The bad dog thrives on anger, gossip, negativity and expresses itself in depression, hostility, selfishness, sickness and a bad life.  The good dog thrives on joy, kindness, compassion and positivity and expresses himself in happiness, great health and a kind way of treating others.  Knowing quite well he wished to live the latter he asked “Grandfather which dog will win inside of me?” the old man looked into the childs eyes smiling and said just one thing before walking away, “It depends on which one you feed”

Now I have heard this expressed in a variety of ways, good vs. evil, God vs. the devil, light vs. darkness.  How you choose to see it does not matter.  What does matter is that you understand that both exist in every person, including you and I.  At some point both will win.  The question is which dog are you going to feed?

SMILE

“Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love”

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa has always been a great source of inspiration to me personally.  Her service to people most of the world would rather ignore is to me the definition of compassion.  Like other aspects of her life, this quote gives us a great way to bring light and love to the world.  A lot of people ask me “what’s the big deal with a smile?” I always tell them, if you feel a smile is no big deal then why not share one with everyone?  Let’s be honest, can’t you remember at least one time when you received a smile at a most unexpected time?  Maybe from a stranger?  I must confess to being guilty of not sharing my smile as often as I should, but when I do, it never fails to amaze what doors it opens.  I have made more new friends with a smile, then with most anything else I can imagine.

A HAPPY CD

This little project takes a few minutes, but to be honest can offer years of rewards.  Everyone, no matter how positive or enlightened has a bad day.  Just the other day I was informed my job may be eliminated.  It happens, sometimes outside circumstances throw us for a loop.  What to do then?  There are steps we can take to ‘soften the blow’ of these less than cheery days.  Working with either your gratitude journal, or vision board is far more effective when you are in a positive state of mind.  So I strongly suggest in being proactive and having several tools ready for days when we are just not on top of our game, for whatever reason.

Music has a strong influence over how we think and feel.  Everyone has different tastes.  In fact, my sister and I regularly debate the merits of different musical artists.  Weather you like rock or country, jazz or hip-hop, there are songs we all enjoy dancing to and that make us feel happy and alive.  Now I’m not talking about just songs like “Don’t worry, be happy” although if that works for you, use it.  One of my favorite is “Toes” by Zac Brown as it makes me think of a tropical vacation.  Whatever your taste, take time to compile a list of all the songs that inspire you.  This can be done in an afternoon or over several days.  Then either burn them all onto a cd, or add a playlist to your favorite mp3 player.  My only caution is to avoid songs that contain angry or negative lyrics.  Not to say that music does not have merit, I certainly find some to be great for working out to, but in this case keep it happy and uplifting.  Then when sad, angry or anxious feelings come knocking, as they do for us all, you have an hour or so of music that can alter your state.  Now I am not saying this will fix or even change whatever is the cause of your feelings, but it can but you into a better state to deal with them. Combine this with some of the other tools we have listed or that are yet to come and you will conquer whatever life will throw at you! Stay strong, stay positive my friends!