Spend Time With Children

Most of my friends have kids and I love playing with them or helping them with their homework. I've come to learn that spending time with children really keeps things in perspective and definitely keeps you young :) I love their innocence and the way they just live in the moment.

There's a park across the street from my condo complex and when I go for a walk, I love to watch the kids playing basketball or running around in the sandbox. I feed off their energy and think about the carefree days of my own childhood.

I think we can all be kids at heart. Try it! You'll like it.

A National Obsession

"...no matter what the surface is, we don't have it all..." -- Star Jones-Reynolds

I always wonder why people are fascinated with celebrities and their lives. It says a lot about a person who is engrossed with the lives of famous people and who constantly talk about who’s dating who and who did what in the celebrity world.

I sat in the bookstore last week and noticed a family sitting in front of me. The mom was reading a celebrity tabloid, the two kids were left to entertain themselves, and the husband was staring off in space, lost as to what to do. The wife became irritated when one of the kids asked her a question. She did not want her reading to be interrupted.

How did our society become this way? Why are we obsessed with other people’s lives? Do they think that celebrities’ lives are perfect?

Every one of us has our own challenges we have to deal with. Celebrities are no exception. Sure, they may appear to have it all – million dollar salaries, big fancy homes, “perfect bodies”, etc. However, we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. What may appear to be a “perfect life” may be a living nightmare. Many of these people are actors who can fake a smile and hide behind designer clothing.

We’re all human with human issues. Each one of us has the ability to shine. If we can focus more on our own lives, we can all be shining stars!

Just Do One Thing

Here's a thought...

" When you open your eyes in the morning, don't think too much. Don't think about what you are going to wear; don't think about terrorism and being afraid to go out. Don't think about being late for work; don't think about the financial debt you are in. Don't think about the lies you told people yesterday or years ago; don't think about what you could have done. When you wake up in the morning, just do one thing: smile. Smile because your eyes are open and you are alive to enjoy another day, and given the chance to not regret anything."
Written in 2005 by R. Worrell --- Pennsylvania

I'm Pleased to Announce...

...that I just signed on to be a writer for KnowMoreMedia, a business information portal. I'm very excited because I'll be doing something that I love and getting paid to do it :)

I will be the writer for the CustomersAreAlways section of the website, in which I will be talking about everything related to customer service.

Be on the lookout for my first post by Monday!!

Visit: http://www.customersarealways.com

A Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr

Lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
by Cesar E. Chavez
January 12, 1990

My friends, today we honor a giant among men: today we honor the reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King was a powerful figure of destiny, of courage, of sacrifice, and of vision. Few people in the long history of this nation can rival his accomplishment, his reason, or his selfless dedication to the cause of peace and social justice.

Today we honor a wise teacher, an inspiring leader, and a true visionary, but to truly honor Dr. King we must do more than say words of praise. We must learn his lessons and put his views into practice, so that we may truly be free at last. Who was Dr. King?

Many people will tell you of his wonderful qualities and his many accomplishments, but what makes him special to me, the truth many people don't want you to remember, is that Dr. king was a great activist, fighting for radical social change with radical methods. While other people talked about change, Dr. King used direct action to challenge the system. He welcomed it, and used it wisely. In his famous letter from the Birmingham jail, Dr. king wrote that "The purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation."

During my first fast in 1968, Dr. King reminded me that our struggle was his struggle too. He sent me a telegram, which said "Our separate struggles are really one. A struggle for freedom, for dignity, and for humanity." I was profoundly moved that someone facing such a tremendous struggle himself would take the time to worry about a struggle taking place on the other side of the continent. Just as Dr. King was a disciple of Ghandi and Christ, we must now be Dr. King's disciples. Dr. King challenged us to work for a greater humanity. I only hope that we are worthy of his challenge. The United Farm Workers are dedicated to carrying on the dream of reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. My friends, I would like to tell you about the struggle of the Farm workers who are waging a desperate struggle for our rights, for our children's rights and for our very lives. Many decades ago the chemical industry promised the growers that pesticides would bring great wealth and bountiful harvests to the fields. Just recently, the experts are learning what farm workers, and the truly organized farmers have known for years. The prestigious National Academy of Sciences recently concluded an exhaustive five-year study, which determined that pesticides do not improve profits and do not produce more crops.

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.

You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. And you cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.

In our life and death struggle for justice we have turned to the court of last resort: the American people. And the people are ruling in our favor.

As a result, grape sales keep falling. We have witnessed truckloads of grapes being dumped because no one would stop to buy them. As demand drops, so do prices and profits. The growers are under tremendous economic pressure. We are winning, but there is still much hard work ahead of us. I hope that you will join our struggle. The simple act of refusing to buy table grapes laced with pesticides is a powerful statement that the growers understand. Economic pressure is the only language the growers speak, and they are beginning to listen.

Please, boycott table grapes. For your safety, for the workers, and for the children, we must act together. My friends, Dr. King realized that the only real wealth comes from helping others. I challenge each and every one of you to be a true disciple of Dr. King, to be truly wealthy. I challenge you to carry on his work by volunteering to work for a just cause you believe in.

Consider joining our movement because the farm workers, and so many other oppressed peoples, depend upon the unselfish dedication of its volunteers, people just like you.

Thousands of people have worked for our cause and have gone on to achieve success in many different fields.

Our non-violent cause will give you skills that will last a lifetime. When Dr. King sounded the call for justice, the freedom riders answered the call in droves. I am giving you the same opportunity to join the same cause, to free your fellow human beings from the yoke of oppression.

I have faith that in this audience there are men and women with the same courage and the same idealism, that put young Martin Luther King, Jr. on the path to social change.

I challenge you to join the struggle of the United Farm Workers. And if you don't join our cause, then seek out the many organizations seeking peaceful social change. Seek out the many outstanding leaders who will speak to you this week, and make a difference.

If we fail to learn that each and every person can make a difference, then we will have betrayed Dr. King's life's work. The reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. had more than just a dream, he had the love and the faith to act.

You Get What You Ask For

By Ineke Van Lint

In life we get what we ask for.

Now you surely say that it isn’t true. You say you ask for freedom and happiness and all you got was feeling imprisoned and bad.

Let’s have a closer look to how creation works and how our subconscious mind works. Because it’s the same.
Everything that exists is created in someone’s mind. Everything starts with a thought. A thought is an energy. Energy wants to manifest itself. A lot of thoughts in the same direction will, that’s for sure, manifest in the real world.

This is the process of creation. We are created by the same process. We use this process of creation all the time, without knowing it.

When we are not conscious, then we are like most people and use this power to create a negative life. We have negative thoughts and get negative results. Once we learn how to think positive thoughts, we will get positive results in our life.

How come? Our subconscious mind is like the earth. It does not interfere with what we sow. Earth does not say :”Nja I have enough of these carottes, it’s every time the same thing, I will make potatoes of it!” Earth does not say : “Bah I don’t like red flowers, I will turn the red into blue for these roses!” Earth does not interfere. Earth is patient, works in silence and gives us exactly what we put in it. And we KNOW that! We know we will get exactly what we put in the earth. When we put yellow flowers in it, we don’t expect them to be red when they blossom. When we sow roses in the garden we don’t expect onions to come out in spring!

And yet that’s how we react in real life. We sow onions and expect roses. We sow negative thoughts in our mind (onions) and expect good things (roses) to come out! We fool ourselves! And we blame others. We look for who can possibly be the fault of that (usually we blame the parents or the husband/wife for what goes wrong in our life). And then we cry and say we don’t have any luck in our lives. We look at the neighbour and think he’s lucky because he has roses in his garden, and we wonder what we did to the world to deserve only onions in our garden!

When the mainstream of your thoughts is negative, let’s say for 85 %, than the outcome will be negative for 85%. Your thoughts fall into your subconscious mind, which executes exactly what you put in it. It is like the earth. It is like a computer. When you type in your computer : “I am stupid, I am fat, I am ugly, nobody loves me”, are you angry with your printer when the paper comes out that says “I am stupid, I am fat, I am ugly, nobody loves me”? Do you throw a shoe at your computer and do you yell at him that he is the fault of everything that’s going wrong? No, because you know you put that information in it and your computer does not interfere. The output matches exactly the input.

So works our subconscious mind. If you don’t like the output, change the input. You get exactly what you ask for = what you think of the whole day. Don’t be angry with your life. You are not angry with the onions, are you? You are not angry with your computer, are you? Instead of being angry, learn how it works and learn to get positive results in your life. Start thinking positive thoughts. Think only thoughts you wish to see happen in real life. Think only what you want to become true. And wait for a while, be patient. One day you will harvest what you sew, like you know earth will give you back what you put in it. It is never lost. Just wait and see.

Written by Ineke. My main goal is to make your energy and excitement flowing again and to make you create a life filled with enthusiasm, by passing you my energy, experience and tools so you can find your passion and your reason for living and realize your dreams and yourself. http://www.theenthusiasm.com

Quote of the Week

"It's ok to fail. Failing does not shape your personality; it's how you react upon your failure. Do you dust yourself off and mope or do you dust yourself off and come back stronger the next time? Eventually you will win. It may not happen the next time, it may take a little time but you will win in the end."

---Tiger Woods

Your Most Powerful Asset

As a young girl, my dream was to become a psychologist. I was fascinated with why people act the way they do. I studied psychology in college and learned everything from the physical parts of the brain to theories by Sigmund Freud and Pavlov. What I didn’t learn was just how powerful your mind is.

From a very early age our minds are programmed and influenced by our parents, what we see on TV, and the people we hang out with. Many psychologists attribute “abnormalities” such as depression and psychosis to biological imbalances. However, could it be that what these people are actually thinking is what’s causing the imbalances and not the other way around?

You see, you along have the power of healing yourself or becoming who you want to be. How you think and what you think about yourself influences your actions greatly.

Contrary to popular belief, we all hear “voices” inside our heads. It may be your own voice telling you what you need t do or the voice of a foe telling you negative things. Your mind has the power to accept the good voices and achieve success and lead a good life. Your mind also has the power to not accept the negativity that has a way of creeping up and bringing you down.

By becoming more aware of your thoughts and taking note of your feelings every once in awhile, you’ve taken the first step to having control of your mind. You can then become stronger as a person.

“As you think, so you shall be.”

Tomorrow's Happiness Begins Today

by Gary Mosher

If you want to be happy tomorrow you need to begin working at it today. Some people spend their lives waiting for happiness to arrive on its own and it never comes. Others work hard at creating wealth but still aren’t happy, discovering that money only brings a whole different set of problems. Happiness is a state of mind and not the size of your bank account. Happiness is emotional and not physical. Each individual needs to work at creating their own happiness.

I like how Richard Bach, the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, put it when he said, “If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, I guess you do have a problem.”

To find happiness you first have to understand where happiness comes from. Memories are to the mind what a mirror is to the eyes - a reflection. The mirror reflects the physical while our memories reflect the emotional.

When you look in the mirror it reflects what you look like; when you look in your mind it reflects who you are. One big difference between the two is that you can change what you see in the mirror but you can’t change the memories reflected in your mind.

We tend to spend a lot of time trying to improve what we see in the mirror, but little or no effort trying to improve our thoughts. Every action creates a memory. Do you really think that the person who is bitter and angry today was happy and cheerful yesterday? If a person says or does something which angers or upsets us, we can either add to the painful memory with our own negative actions or we can replace them with positive actions and create positive memories.

If you want to be happy tomorrow you must choose carefully what you do today, because today’s actions will be reflected in tomorrow’s memories and you can not make them go away. Everything you do today will be in tomorrow’s reflection. The next time a person angers you, instead of lashing out, try imagining that you are holding up a mirror that bounces the reflection back at him, knowing that his actions or words are a reflection of him and not of you.

We all want to like what we see in the mirror. To be truly happy we also have to like what we see reflected in our minds. What the mirror reflects is not nearly as powerful as what the mind reflects, for it reflects our words and actions.

What will your reflections be filled with? Will your reflections/memories be filled with goodness and joy or with bitterness and anger? What have you done today that will bring you happiness tomorrow?

Gary Mosher is co-author of the award-winning "Buddha in the Boardroom", the business book that shows you how to excel in today’s chaotic and stressful workplace environment, available from Bodhi Tree, LLC, at http://www.Bodhitreepublishing.com
Visit Gary's blog at http://www.Buddhaintheboardroom.blogspot.com

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

It was certainly a memorable New Year, unlike the past couple New Years. I’m usually in bed by the time midnight approaches….

My train pulled in at 9:40 p.m. after a week of spending time with family in Northern California. My boyfriend picks me up and tells me that we’re driving up to the mountains with friends. After a slice of pizza at our friend’s house, we pile into their BMW 740 armed with snacks, and make our way to Palomar Mountain.

The ride was breathtaking. Although it was raining and overcast earlier that night, the Universe made the sky clear for us as we made our way up the curvy mountain. I wish I had a camera with me to take a picture of all the stars that were out. I felt like I could just reach out and grab one with my hand! My fascination with the galaxy continues to grow…Just waiting for an alien to snatch me up :)

I can dream, can’t I?