Don’t Believe Everything You Read
Case in point: while on the internet today, I came across this article:
A study suggests extreme happiness may be bad for you. Extremely happy people “earned significantly less money” and earned lower school grades than moderately happy people. They “may not live as long,” either. Happiness makes you complacent and kills your drive. It makes you slow to adapt. It makes you too optimistic and insufficiently vigilant about your health. It may overstimulate your cardiovascular system. Success may need to be moderated for happiness. Extremely high levels of success might not be a desirable goal.
Who studies this stuff? How can anyone even believe this? I’m in shock but had a chuckle that some buffoon out there actually believes it, studied it, then wrote it. How sad for them.
On the bright side, we know that that’s not true, right?
Have a sparkling, happy day!
Anam Cara
A Friendship Blessing by John O’Donohue
May you be blessed with good friends.
May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.
May you be able to journey to that place in your soul where
there is great love, warmth, feeling, and forgiveness.
May this change you.
May it transfigure that which is negative, distant, or cold
in you.
May you be brought in to the real passion, kinship, and
affinity of belonging.
May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them and may you be there for them;
may they bring you all the blessings, challenges, truth,
and light that you need for your journey.
May you never be isolated.
May you always be in the gentle nest of belonging with your
anam cara.
(Anam Cara is Gaelic for soul friend)
Zoom In & Focus
That’s how we should begin conducting our lives; zoom in and focus on what exactly it is we want. Exactly. Now, I ask you, “What is it that you truly want?” Have you ever really focused on that answer, let alone the question? Perhaps not. I never did. Oh, there were lots of things I thought I wanted but they usually involved manipulating how others were to behave, not how I was supposed to behave.
Step number one is to keep the focus on yourself. Sounds crazy to some because our society always wants us to look out for the other guy first, but that’s just not the real way to get things accomplished. First and foremost is to take care of your needs and wants. So, focus on what it is you want. Go ahead, it’s not a bad thing.
Step number two is to zoom in on that focus. Get the picture in your mind as clear and technicolored as you can get. Some folks don’t have a super power to visualize in pictures, but that’s okay. Do the best you can and think about what you want as often as you can. Maybe have a picture or two on your wall, your fridge, whatever, so you can see it. My husband has a picture of a 2008 Charger taped to the wall next to his desk. Simple enough, right?
Step number three sounds like the easiest step of all but it is the hardest, the absolute hardest step. Let it go. Ta-dah! Let the dream take off and allow it to manifest into your life. Now, letting go doesn’t mean to forget about it, it just means to not focus and not force any outcomes. The control part is the hard part. I like to control things and try to “help” the Universe along with how, where, and when the item I’m wanting should arrive. And that’s where I get into trouble and get nothing! So, take it from a so-called-expert, don’t force, just focus.
So remember, zoom in and focus on what you want (legally speaking of course) and then relax about it. You will always get that or something better.
Make A Difference
Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking, said it better than anyone when he wrote, “Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.” How beautiful is that?
Which means that when you are passionate about what you do then everything falls into place because you’ll be in “the zone” of truth for yourself. How many folks do you know who really, really, passionately love what they do? Oh, they may love that paycheck at the end of the week, but that doesn’t count. We deal in hard cash on this planet and we all have to make, save it, and circulate it - not my rules, the Universal Rules.
But how can we make it and like, or rather love, making it at the same time? Loving how we make money is what I consider making a difference. Imagine for a moment how much happier fifty percent of the people you come across each day would be if that fifty percent were doing what they felt passionate about. Clearly, we can’t all be named Pierre and sit on a stool in a meadow painting sunflowers all day, but there’s a niche for everyone, everywhere, somewhere.
What do you love to do? What would you like to do? I’m not suggesting you open a restaurant with your home as collateral, but I am suggesting you start with baby steps towards that fence. Perhaps working in a restaurant part-time and being in the food industry atmosphere would jump start your idea. Maybe you always wanted to be a Kindergarten teacher? Perhaps volunteering at your local library to read during story time or something along those lines could jump start that idea. The possibilities as well as opportunities are endless.
Go to the fence. Visit the fence, don’t sit on the fence. When you’re ready, you’ll know. Trust me, you’ll know.