Browsing Tags life

10/27/11
admin
· Positive News

A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.
Robert Frost

A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning.
James Dickey

A rose must remain with the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won’t come true.
Ray Evans

A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long.
e. e. cummings

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.
Gilbert K. Chesterton

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.
Rabindranath Tagore

Beth

Self-Care and Why it Matters

10/11/11
admin
· Positive News

We resist the art of self-care, perhaps because we get it confused with being selfish. As children, many of us were taught that selfishness is a bad thing and we ought to put others first. There’s great value in that, of course. Concern for others is something that our mothers need to teach us, to help us grow out of the self-centeredness of childhood into the give-and-take of mature adulthood. We have to be taught to share, to be generous, to make sacrifices for the needs of others.

But sometimes we take this too far and don’t place a high enough value on taking care of our own needs. We hope that if we take care of the needs of others that the “others” will feel so grateful or so guilty that they will turn around and take care of our needs. When they don’t, we get to feeling mighty resentful and mighty empty.

So, it turns out that we also need to be taught how to take care of ourselves. We need to invest in nourishing our whole selves, and do so regularly. We need to make time and space for relaxing the mind. For stretching the body. For opening the soul.

I find that this kind of self-care is harder to learn than it might seem at first. But I think that if we can make a distinction between selfishness and self-care, we are well on our way to learning this life-giving lesson.My favorite analogy is offered at 35,000 feet high by your friendly, helpful flight attendant. He or she gives some really helpful guidance. If there is a sudden drop in cabin pressure, oxygen masks will drop from overhead compartments. If you are caring for a child or someone else who needs your assistance, put your oxygen mask on first. Then, since you will be alive and alert, you will have the capacity to help someone else.

It is not selfish to tend and care for your own life. If you do take good care of yourself, everyone wins. And if you don’t, who will?

by Jennifer L. Kunst, Ph.D.

Source: Psychology Today

Have you had your bath today?

Beth

Positive Quote Wednesday – on Prosperity

09/21/11
admin
· Positive News

He is now rising from affluence to poverty.
Mark Twain

Poverty is the worst form of violence.
Mohandas Gandhi

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Mother Teresa
Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.
Mother Teresa

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.
Mother Teresa

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.
John F. Kennedy

Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.
Muhammad Ali

Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes.
Khalil Gibran

Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.
Khalil Gibran

In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.
Aristotle

Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.
Coco Chanel

Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache.
Mae West

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.
Confucius

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.
Barack Obama

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
Henry David Thoreau

I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.
Groucho Marx

You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it.
Bill Cosby

Poverty is the mother of crime.
Marcus Aurelius

Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
Woody Allen

Beth

How to Look Forward to Life Again

09/20/11
thegreenchildrenfoundation
· Positive News

A friend of mine talked to me about her lack of motivation. It went a little something like this:

“Even things I like to do can sometimes fill me with a sense of dread. I don’t get it. Is that depression talking? Or do I just need a vacation or something?”

Most of us experience this sensation from time to time. So how do you look forward to life when you’re…just not?

1. Stop future tripping. If you’re living in the moment, you’re not worried about this afternoon’s meeting or this evening’s dance class. Stay present, breathe and be aware that your life is now.

2. Just say no. There is a time to push yourself and a time to embrace your inner sloth! If an event really seems too overwhelming, no is a fine answer (especially dedicated to women out there!) The more you say no when you need to, the more likely you are to say yes when you want to.

3. Take a hard look. Why does something seeming that normally fill you with joy instill a sense of fear? What’s really going on. When I bugged my friend about what was really going on, she had this to say:

“I just want a day to do nothing. Watch movies, eat good food, relax, get a massage or take a bath. I’m tired of doing. I’d like to receive instead.”

Beth

How to Be Positive – Quick and Easy

08/30/11
thegreenchildrenfoundation
· Positive News

Realize it’s possible, instead of telling yourself why you can’t.
Become aware of your self-talk.
Squash negative thoughts like a bug.
Replace them with positive thoughts.
Love what you have already.
Be grateful for your life, your gifts, and other people.
Every day.
Focus on what you have, not on what you haven’t.
Don’t compare yourself to others.
But be inspired by them.
Accept criticism with grace.
But ignore the naysayers.
See bad things as a blessing in disguise.
See failure as a stepping stone to success.
Surround yourself by those who are positive.
Complain less, smile more.
Image that you’re already positive.
Then become that person in your next act.

Beth

How to Include

08/08/11
admin
· Positive News

Do you ever wonder how you come across to others? I’m sure we all do. But sometimes the qualities we don’t like in others, we often unconsciously exhibit in ourselves.

A friend of mine relayed a very sad bullying story she endured in high school. She was very tall for her age and girls made fun of her all of the time. They called her names and pinned signs on her back. They wrote jokes about her on bathroom walls. I asked her how she got through that period. Or how she was able to forgive these girls.

She responded like this:
“It made me realize that I need to always be aware how I come across to others, so I never perpetuate their bad behavior. I take a moment to realize how a comment of mine might have come across. I ask the people in my life if they feel they need something from me that their not getting. I’m open to change. And I just include people. I make sure that no one in my life ever feels the way I did as a child. In short, be a person you want to be around.”

So today, what can you do to make someone feel included? Loved? Heard? Remember: it usually doesn’t take much!

Beth

Relax this Sunday (3 Easy Steps)

07/31/11
admin
· Positive News

1. ACCEPTANCE Stop resisting. Like paddling a canoe against the current, a lot of effort is expended to get nowhere. So STOP IT. Right now, take a look at your circumstances and accept it is how it is. It is how it is. Period. End of story.

Take a deep breath and let yourself just see how it really is. It probably isn’t as bad as you are making it out to be or fearing that it is. So, assess, where exactly are you? What is working and what isn’t? Yes, the market has changed and even those of us that have been in real estate for 20+ years have not seen markets just like these. It may be this way for a while. Just look at how it is and accept it.

2. MAKE GOOD CHOICES. What is a “good” choice? It’s a choice that makes you feel happy. Instead of struggling and trying to paddle harder, see where the flow is right now. Do the things that bring you joy. When you are happy and joyful, you’ll attract others. You probably won’t attract the doomsayers and the difficult ones, because your vibrations won’t match.

If you set all your worry aside and just this week do things with others that are fun and bring you joy, what’s the worst that could happen? Why don’t you try this: everyday do what will make you happy and be happy with all you do. In every moment, you have the ability to shift your energy. Most of us are unconscious and let the default feelings and gremlin voice choose for us. Choose good.

3. PRACTICE SELF CARE. One of my favorite quotes by Ghandi is, “The more I have to do, the longer I need to meditate.” Personally, when I get in one of my overwhelmed, struggling modes (yes, I am human and those times show up in my life too sometimes!), the first thing I will give up is exercise and my centering or meditation practice. There just isn’t time! What a copout. Who is in charge of MY schedule? That crazy woman can make my life look and feel nuts!

I have developed practices to bring me back to the grounded, centered place that feels and works much better. If you will put the gas in the gas tank, you’ve got more fuel to take you where you want to go. Have you been taking off a day a week? Doing small practices that nurture you (watching the sunset? Listing to the sound of your children’s laughter? Hugging those you love and telling them you love them? Reading? Hiking?)

What is it for you? Look at the coming week and schedule some time to be VERY SELFISH!!!!!

Source: Realtown.com

Beth

A Stroke of Luck…Literally

07/05/11
admin
· Positive News

There were so many things Chris Logan could have done last Fourth of July.

He could have slept in. He could have hung around his apartment and gone out later for a holiday barbecue. One item pretty far down his list that day was to walk around Aronimink Golf Club in 95-degree heat for several hours watching the final round of competition in the AT&T National.

Eventually, his love of the game combined with the lure of tickets, and Logan traveled to the golf course with a friend. But he had his day cut short when a tee shot from Sean O’Hair, one of his favorite players, struck him in the left temple at the 18th hole.

As emergency medical technicians hustled him to a nearby tent to be examined, Logan had no idea this would be the luckiest day of his life.

While checking him out for a concussion, a doctor inquired about a lump just below his throat and urged him to visit his family doctor to get it checked out. The lump turned out to be a malignant tumor on his thyroid. He underwent two surgeries less than six weeks after being struck by the ball.

Almost one year after it happened, Logan, who now is cancer-free, finally got to meet and shake hands Tuesday with O’Hair at Waynesborough Country Club, where O’Hair and fellow Tour player Hunter Mahan were giving a junior golf clinic.

“Sorry,” O’Hair said as the two men shook hands.

“Thank you,” Logan said, almost at the same time.

“We had a little battle on what to say,” said Logan, 25, of West Chester. “He hit me in the head and then helped me out with the cancer diagnosis. So that was pretty funny. He’s a really nice guy, glad to finally meet him.”

The 28-year-old O’Hair, who also lives in West Chester, called the whole episode “something cool to be involved with.

“You feel bad about hitting him, but yet you feel good that he found out about the cancer, found it early, and got it worked on,” he said. “It’s a cool experience.”

Source: Philly.com

Chris Logan says fate put him in front of Sean O’Hair (left) (CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer)

Beth

Positive Quote Wednesday – on Home

06/29/11
thegreenchildrenfoundation
· Positive News

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do… but how much love we put in that action.
Mother Teresa

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
Maya Angelou

A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.
Benjamin Franklin

At home I am a nice guy: but I don’t want the world to know. Humble people, I’ve found, don’t get very far.
Muhammad Ali

Say there’s a white kid who lives in a nice home, goes to an all-white school, and is pretty much having everything handed to him on a platter – for him to pick up a rap tape is incredible to me, because what that’s saying is that he’s living a fantasy life of rebellion.
Eminem

Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I’m tired.
Mae West

An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris.
Friedrich Nietzsche

I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.
Zig Ziglar

If my world were to cave in tomorrow, I would look back on all the pleasures, excitements and worthwhilenesses I have been lucky enough to have had. Not the sadness, not my miscarriages or my father leaving home, but the joy of everything else. It will have been enough.
Audrey Hepburn

Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.
Robert Frost

Analogies, it is true, decide nothing, but they can make one feel more at home.
Sigmund Freud

If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

Dale Carnegie

I had a lot of dates but I decided to stay home and dye my eyebrows.

Andy Warhol

A girl phoned me the other day and said… ‘Come on over, there’s nobody home.’ I went over. Nobody was home.
Rodney Dangerfield

Beth

The Beauty you Choose to See

06/27/11
admin
· Positive News

Today the beauty is all around you. It always was. Your eyes have just been too busy doing…other things. But today. Today is different. Seemingly inconsequential items will hold the keys to the universe.

A spoon. A car key.

A leaky faucet.

A smooth countertop.

Your friend’s eyelashes.

A dog’s paw.

Trash in the wind.

Dust.

Car tires.

See beyond the banal into the beauty. Today. It may change the trajectory of your life. Simply seeing things differently could change your life.