Posts tagged with “wisdom”
Lessons from Almost Dying: How to Appreciate the Everyday Awesome
āWe’re so busy watching out for what’s just ahead of us that we don’t take time to enjoy where we are.ā ~Bill Watterson
āRare as hell.ā Thatās how my doctor described my leukemia.
The cancer had gotten real aggressive, real quick, and Iād need some heavy-duty chemo and a risky bone marrow transplant if I had any chance of surviving. How good a chance? āForty to fifty percent,ā said my doctor.
Oof.
As an otherwise healthy twenty-seven-year-old, cancer had been the furthest thing from my mind. Now, every waking thought was consumed by it. But I wasnāt ready to die. …
The Art of Pain: Why the Dark Times Make Life Beautiful
āIn each of us lie good and bad, light and dark, art and pain, choice and regret, cruelty and sacrificeā¦ No one can live in the light all the time.ā ~Libba Bray
Happiness, and the quest for it, is not all itās cracked up to be. What I mean is that I think weāre making a mistake in reaching only for happiness, lightness, good days, and good moods.
I think that weāre restricting ourselves.
Weāre fishing in an ocean of emotions, looking to only reel in one or two kinds, throwing back the ones we donāt want without even noticing …
Pearls of Puppy Wisdom: 7 Lessons from a Furry Little Sage
āBuy a pup and your money will buy love unflinching.ā ~Rudyard Kipling
I didnāt even want a puppy really. Puppies are synonymous with poop and pee. Everywhere. At least until theyāre trained, and that takes time.
Of course, theyāre also synonymous with love and affection, puppy breath, and lots and lots of wet kisses. (Iāve learned to keep a towel handy around my little Bella.)
Certain things I sort of expected when we got our little girl.
I expected to lose some sleep for a bit.
I was prepared to sacrifice the cleanliness of our home for a while. (Puppies …
The Power of Presence : A Few Simple Ways to Enjoy Life More Now
āAll that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.āĀ ~Martha Graham
I am someone who is always focusing on the next step rather than the step I am currently taking. I am always longing for the next thing in life.
Looking forward to the future isnāt a bad thing, but when it consumes 90% of your daily thoughts, it becomes a bit exhausting.
My energy has always been restless. I get bored easily, crave change constantly, and yearn for immediate fulfillment. At …
When Youāre Busy Looking for Happiness in the Future
āYou are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop. Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot. Seek the path that demands your whole being.ā ~Rumi
It seems like there is so much busyness in the world today. When was the last time you stopped to focus on your breath and to truly settle into the moment?
When weāre busy, we donāt always prioritize these precious moments of full presence with our own aliveness.
Being busy can become like an addiction, an urge that drives us compulsively. But what are we really looking …
We Are All the Same, So Thereās No Reason to Hide
āOne of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.ā ~Dr. Clarissa Pinkola EstĆ©s
Itās taken a long time for me to be comfortable with being completely myself.
Most people who meet me now see a strong and confident woman. Yet, underneath that confidence there is still a little girl in me that is scared. Iāve accepted that she is always going to be a part of me; however, …
Broken Hearts Can Lead to Awakened Souls
āFor a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesnāt understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.ā ~Cynthia Occelli
There are no two ways about it.
Heartbreak squeezes you as though you were an orange, crushes you as though it were a tractor, and cuts sharply as a razor blade.
Breaking up with my former wife was the most crushing event in my life. It made me see myself as a failure, hide in embarrassment, and cry myself to sleep for months.…
A Powerful Way to Motivate Yourself to Pursue What You Want
āSee the positive side, the potential, and make an effort.ā ~Dalai Lama
Until fairly recently, I was somewhat afraid of talking to girls.
Well, thatās not exactly true. I was afraid of talking to girls if I had a romantic intent. If it was an innocuous conversation, I could be cool as a cucumber.
As you can imagine, this stifled my romantic life somewhat. If I met someone and things were going well, once I realized that she liked me a little and I could move things forward, I would freeze up. Self-sabotage.
This was very frustrating to me, …
4 Tips to Help You Choose When You Have a Lot of Passions
āSometimes the wrong choices bring us to the right places.ā ~Unknown
When I first quit my office job in 2012, I didnāt have a clue what I wanted to do with my life. My idea bank was at zero.
But for a full year after leaving my job, IĀ committed myself to exploring and doing the things Iād always been too scared to do.
I took acting classes, traveled, volunteered on farms, started a blog, learned about a more sustainable lifestyle, and wasĀ initiated into Reiki.
After a while I realized my problem had spun a complete 360. My idea …
3 Steps To Embrace Your Beauty and Smile More Every Day
āBecause of your smile, you make life more beautiful.ā ~Thich Nhat Hanh
Is there anything more beautiful than a person smiling, or better yet, laughing? I donāt think so. Itās almost contagious.
Youāve likely seen the YouTube videos of babies laughing and couldnāt help but smile.
And thereās probably a special person in your life that only needs to smile and you feel your heart lift. Maybe it doesnāt even need to be someone you know. Iāve had this happen to me with a complete stranger.
When you see someone smiling from ear to ear, filled with joy, you canāt …
The Path to Freedom: Facing Painful Thoughts and Feelings
āLife is an endless process of self-discovery.ā ~James Gardner
My thoughts lately have been so hurtful.
Things like: Iām not a good writer. Iām ugly. Iām stupid.
Iām not funny. I canāt carry a meaningful conversation. Iāll never be special.
The world is out to get me. People take advantage of me. Iām boring and donāt matter.
Like I said, hurtful. Crippling, demoralizing thoughts. One not-so-nice thing after another, and it makes me want to cry.
Why the pain? Why the negative thoughts? Well, recently I spent two weeks playing a video game.Ā Ā From the time I walked through …
Remember This Before Judging Someone Who Annoys You
āWe judge ourselves by our intentionsĀ and others by their behavior.” ~Stephen Covey
It happened again! A different place, a different person. But again, I was outraged! How could I let it go this time?
I was driving home from work, excited about the weekend. As I looked in the rear-view mirror, a bulky four-wheel drive gradually came closer. Next minute, it was right behind me. Another tailgater!
I sped up to shake it off. It stayed with me. I tapped the brake to tell the driver to back off. He came closer!
I was beginning to fume. As I …
What Would Your Future Look Like If You Took a Leap of Faith?
“In the end, we only regret the chances we didnāt take, relationships we were afraid to have, and the decisions we waited too long to make. ” ~Unknown
Have you ever thought about making a big change in your life?
Chances are, just that very idea produces a mild sense of anxiety and discomfort. But what if you were to actually go ahead and make that change? What would that look like, what would that feel like?
A rhetorical question, I realize. You only know if you go through with it. If you donāt, you will never know. Itās a …
How to Change Your Habits and Your Life in 5 Steps
āIf there is no struggle, there is no progress.ā ~Frederick Douglass
We all experience struggles. Some are seemingly insurmountable. Others, like mine, are comparatively small. Regardless of their scale, itās what we learn from our struggles that counts.
Mine began while at university in London. Originally from a small town in the Welsh valleys, the move to the big city was a scary one for me.
A mumās boy at heart, I didnāt deal well with being so far away from home. Iām also an introvert who didnāt embrace the uni lifestyle of drinking to failure, so I didnāt make …
10 Things Happy People Do to Stay Happy
āHere’s a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it note for note. Don’t worry, be happy.ā ~Bobby McFerrinĀ
I was one of those people that when asked what they want in life, would say, āI just want to be happyā¦ā
In my past, I suffered from debilitating depression. There was a period when getting the dry-cleaning and buying toilet paper was difficult enough.
So, I made it my mission to study what happy people do to stay happy, then I started doing what they were doing. And my happiness increased until I became one of those …
Giving in Relationships Without Losing Yourself or Sacrificing Your Needs
āRelationships are about two individuals who maintain their own lives and create another one together.ā ~Unknown
When I am in relationship, I put all of myself into it and can sometimes neglect my own needs as a result.
Iāve recognized that Iām doing this in my current relationship, and Iāve realized that while it is wonderful to be truly committed, it is important not to lose oneself. This is where healthy boundaries come into play.
A healing practitioner recently reminded me that relationships are excellent opportunities for personal growth.
As someone who was single for almost a decade and has …
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