Posts
I was trawling the Net the other day to see what other people say makes them happy. I came across some long jokes, some tales of little gray kittens and new chicks being born, a lady who was getting married in 2 weeks, a couple who had been trying for a baby and succeeded. I also came across some quotations. These two stuck out for me:
"There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved" - George Sand.
"Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so " - Robert G. Ingersoll.
In business, the way to get ahead is to either make or save someone money. In life, according to Mr Ingersoll, the path to happiness is to help increase the happiness of others. This sits quite comfortably with the view of some spiritualists who say that we are here to serve - humanity, God, life - and in doing so we achieve peace and happiness for ourselves.
Can you share a happy story? Is there something that always gets your Happy Meter a bit higher up the chart? Or perhaps you have heard a particularly inspiring story - something that helped or encouraged you in some way? Or maybe you have an awesome joke to share! (G rated - let's keep it clean).
Feel free to post in the comments section. I'd love to hear about it.
(Here are some of those happiness quotes, in case you are interested: http://www.bestinspirationalquotes4u.com/Lifehappy/lifehappy.html)
.
Showing posts with label joy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joy. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
I Discovered This Cancer Journey Blog
A friend of mine sent me a link to this cancer journey blog the other day. One of his best friends was recently diagnosed with cancer and is currently having chemotherapy. My friend has been encouraging his mate to record his journey and after reading the blog I could see why. This young man has tremendous wisdom. Despite this challenging upset to his life plan he is facing it with an incredible commitment to make the best of things.
He has bad days, days when he finds it hard to see the sunny side, but by and large - I am sure you will agree - the way he views his illness is really inspiring. I hope you find it encouraging as you face your own trials.
Here's the link: http://sharingthecancerjourney.wordpress.com/
Best of luck, Meiron! We're barracking for you. Get well soon.
IF YOU LIKED THIS BLOG POST YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
Contrast Leads To Clarity
What Are AUM Qualities?
Anthony Robbins Quote: Moments Of Decision
.
He has bad days, days when he finds it hard to see the sunny side, but by and large - I am sure you will agree - the way he views his illness is really inspiring. I hope you find it encouraging as you face your own trials.
Here's the link: http://sharingthecancerjourney.wordpress.com/
Best of luck, Meiron! We're barracking for you. Get well soon.
IF YOU LIKED THIS BLOG POST YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
Contrast Leads To Clarity
What Are AUM Qualities?
Anthony Robbins Quote: Moments Of Decision
.
Contrast Leads To Clarity
We hear stories about bad things happening to good people and wonder why. Some events seem pointless and painful, for unknown end.
We look at our lives - the ups and downs, the wrong turns, the dead ends - and wonder how we came to find ourselves somewhere so far from where we wanted to be! I came across a quote a while back that says "If you don't change course soon you will end up where you are heading". Made me laugh... how true.
Joking aside, sometimes we can find ourselves in situations that are really NOT what we want. If nothing else can be salvaged, we can still take that utter nastiness or despair and put it to good use. The lesson may be a painful one it can teach this: You know now what you DON'T want... and suddenly what you DO want is crystal clear.
Do you know someone who has yet to work out what they want to do "when they grow up" despite having hit adult-hood many moons ago? Sometimes we humans find it easier to articulate what we don't want rather than what we do... it can take an experience of what we don't to be understand where we would rather be.
The trick then, of course, is to take action. Knowing or dreaming of being in a different place is all well and good, but to get there we will have to change course and start striding away from the unexpected place we ended up, and heading back towards where we want to be.
IF YOU LIKED THIS BLOG POST YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
Creating a More Peaceful World
Doing It Anyway
Poem By Maya Angelou: Touched By An Angel
Stroke Survivor - Jill Bolte Taylor
.
We look at our lives - the ups and downs, the wrong turns, the dead ends - and wonder how we came to find ourselves somewhere so far from where we wanted to be! I came across a quote a while back that says "If you don't change course soon you will end up where you are heading". Made me laugh... how true.
Joking aside, sometimes we can find ourselves in situations that are really NOT what we want. If nothing else can be salvaged, we can still take that utter nastiness or despair and put it to good use. The lesson may be a painful one it can teach this: You know now what you DON'T want... and suddenly what you DO want is crystal clear.
Do you know someone who has yet to work out what they want to do "when they grow up" despite having hit adult-hood many moons ago? Sometimes we humans find it easier to articulate what we don't want rather than what we do... it can take an experience of what we don't to be understand where we would rather be.
The trick then, of course, is to take action. Knowing or dreaming of being in a different place is all well and good, but to get there we will have to change course and start striding away from the unexpected place we ended up, and heading back towards where we want to be.
IF YOU LIKED THIS BLOG POST YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
Creating a More Peaceful World
Doing It Anyway
Poem By Maya Angelou: Touched By An Angel
Stroke Survivor - Jill Bolte Taylor
.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Your Words Have Power: What Are Aum Qualities?
Do you speak the truth, always? How carefully do you choose your words? We take language for granted. We throw words around, playing, experimenting, casually expressing ourselves according to our mood and whim. Often we are quite unconscious of our impact on others, or how our words can bounce back to impact even on ourselves.
Words have power. They shape our life experience, they influence other people's views of us and their opinions of how things are. I read recently that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your communication. Perhaps a rather large statement, but I can certainly see some truth in it.
I have a friend who seems to be constantly on the attack / defensive. His language can be very passive-aggressive; I have watched this past year while his business has crumbled around him. He wonders why people keep double-crossing him or letting him down. I wonder if perhaps he just didn't start out with clear boundaries, accurately articulating his expectations, and then when confusion set in, found his communication style alienated the people he was working with, setting up a nasty spiral, often ending in legal action.
Is it the words themselves that have the impact or is there something else at play also?
In eastern religions, there is a sacred or mystical term, said to mimic the sound of creation and life itself. The term "aum" or "om" is a verbal phrase that when spoken or chanted it is reported as having a profound resonance, an eternal, universal quality. It is said to contain cosmic energy that makes up the very fabric of existence, and resounds forever.
Think about the sound of a bell ringing - the sound gets softer and softer but does it ever end? Or a pebble dropped into the ocean... does the ripple ever stop running through the water?
Om is supposed to be a bit like that. Powerful stuff.
But that's not all.
The universal sound of "aum", according to Indian philosophy, has three forms of expression; creation, preservation and destruction.
In Autobiography Of A Yogi (Paramahansa Yogananda, 13th edition, 2010, Self-Realisation Fellowship) it says: "Each time a man speaks a word he puts into operation one of the three qualities of aum".
Creation, preservation or destruction.
Each time you share words, what are you putting out into the world? What are you creating? Maintaining? Unpicking?
We live our lives on so many levels. If we could become more aware of what we are creating, perpetuating or destroying, and how, rather than being taken by surprise when things don't unfold as we hoped, perhaps we could start to create and manifest a life for ourselves that was closer to our best-case imaginings.
Tweet
IF YOU LIKED THIS BLOG POST YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
God Speaks In Whispers - Margaret Silf
The I Accept Prayer
Anger Gets A Bad Wrap Sometimes
.
Words have power. They shape our life experience, they influence other people's views of us and their opinions of how things are. I read recently that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your communication. Perhaps a rather large statement, but I can certainly see some truth in it.
I have a friend who seems to be constantly on the attack / defensive. His language can be very passive-aggressive; I have watched this past year while his business has crumbled around him. He wonders why people keep double-crossing him or letting him down. I wonder if perhaps he just didn't start out with clear boundaries, accurately articulating his expectations, and then when confusion set in, found his communication style alienated the people he was working with, setting up a nasty spiral, often ending in legal action.
Is it the words themselves that have the impact or is there something else at play also?
In eastern religions, there is a sacred or mystical term, said to mimic the sound of creation and life itself. The term "aum" or "om" is a verbal phrase that when spoken or chanted it is reported as having a profound resonance, an eternal, universal quality. It is said to contain cosmic energy that makes up the very fabric of existence, and resounds forever.
Think about the sound of a bell ringing - the sound gets softer and softer but does it ever end? Or a pebble dropped into the ocean... does the ripple ever stop running through the water?
Om is supposed to be a bit like that. Powerful stuff.
But that's not all.
The universal sound of "aum", according to Indian philosophy, has three forms of expression; creation, preservation and destruction.
In Autobiography Of A Yogi (Paramahansa Yogananda, 13th edition, 2010, Self-Realisation Fellowship) it says: "Each time a man speaks a word he puts into operation one of the three qualities of aum".
Creation, preservation or destruction.
Each time you share words, what are you putting out into the world? What are you creating? Maintaining? Unpicking?
We live our lives on so many levels. If we could become more aware of what we are creating, perpetuating or destroying, and how, rather than being taken by surprise when things don't unfold as we hoped, perhaps we could start to create and manifest a life for ourselves that was closer to our best-case imaginings.
Tweet
IF YOU LIKED THIS BLOG POST YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
God Speaks In Whispers - Margaret Silf
The I Accept Prayer
Anger Gets A Bad Wrap Sometimes
.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Any Kindness
"I shall pass through this world but once. If, therefore, there be any good thing I can do, or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again".
Saying from a little prayer card I picked up at a church a few months back, titled "The Ministry of Kindness".
Tweet
IF YOU LIKED THIS BLOG POST YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
Stroke Survivor - Jill Bolte Taylor
Still Waters Run Deep
God Speaks in Whispers - Margaret Silf
.
Saying from a little prayer card I picked up at a church a few months back, titled "The Ministry of Kindness".
Tweet
IF YOU LIKED THIS BLOG POST YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
Stroke Survivor - Jill Bolte Taylor
Still Waters Run Deep
God Speaks in Whispers - Margaret Silf
.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Gaia Meditations by John Seed and Joanna Macy
I had the great priviledge of meeting Australian environmentalist John Seed last week during Earth Hour. John is a deep ecologist and director of the Rainforest Information Centre in Australia. He also helped initiate the US Rainforest Action Network in 1984.
Idolised by many, and well known the world over, John is a disconcertingly unassuming man with a tremendous aura of calm - ideal if you are planning a few moments of quiet reflection!
At 8.30, after the lights went out, we decided to mark Earth Hour with a reading: the Gaia Meditation written by John Seed and Joanna Macy.
I am thrilled to be able to share this beautiful piece with you on my blog today, with love and gratitude to John and Joanna. I hope you enjoy it.
What are you? What am I? Intersecting cycles of water, earth, air and fire, that's what I am, that's what you are.
WATER — blood, lymph, mucus, sweat, tears, inner oceans tugged by the moon, tides within and tides without. Streaming fluids floating our cells, washing and nourishing through endless riverways of gut and vein and capillary. Moisture pouring in and through and out of you, of me, in the vast poem of the hydrological cycle. You are that. I am that.
EARTH — matter made from rock and soil. It too is pulled by the moon as the magma circulates through the planet heart and roots suck molecules into biology. Earth pours through us, replacing each cell in the body every seven years. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, we ingest, incorporate and excrete the earth, are made from earth. I am that. You are that.
AIR — the gaseous realm, the atmosphere, the planet's membrane. The inhale and the exhale. Breathing out carbon dioxide to the trees and breathing in their fresh exudations. Oxygen kissing each cell awake, atoms dancing in orderly metabolism, interpenetrating. That dance of the air cycle, breathing the universe in and out again, is what you are, is what I am.
FIRE — Fire, from our sun that fuels all life, drawing up plants and raising the waters to the sky to fall again replenishing. The inner furnace of your metabolism burns with the fire of the Big Bang that first sent matter-energy spinning through space and time. And the same fire as the lightning that flashed into the primordial soup catalyzing the birth of organic life.
You were there, I was there, for each cell of our bodies is descended in an unbroken chain from that event. Through the desire of atom for molecule, of molecule for cell, of cell for organism. In our sexuality we can feel ancient stirrings that connect us with plant as well as animal life. We come from them in an unbroken chain — through fish learning to walk the land, feeling scales turning to wings, through the migrations in the ages of ice.
We have been but recently in human form. If Earth's whole history were compressed into twenty-four hours beginning at midnight, organic life would begin only at 3 pm . . . mammals emerge at 11:30 . . . and from amongst them at only seconds to midnight, our species.
In our long planetary journey we have taken far more ancient forms than these we now wear. Some of these forms we remember in our mother's womb, wear vestigial tails and gills, grow fins for hands.
Countless times in that journey we died to old forms, let go of old ways, allowing new ones to emerge. But nothing is ever lost. Though forms pass, all returns. Each worn-out cell consumed, recycled . . . through mosses, leeches, birds of prey. . . .
Think to your next death. Will your flesh and bones back into the cycle. Surrender. Love the plump worms you will become. Launder your weary being through the fountain of life.
Beholding you, I behold as well all the different creatures that compose you — the mitochondria in the cells, the intestinal bacteria, the life teeming on the surface of the skin. The great symbiosis that is you. The incredible coordination and cooperation of countless beings. You are that, too, just as your body is part of a much larger symbiosis, living in wider reciprocities. Be conscious of that give-and-take when you move among trees. Breathe your pure carbon dioxide to a leaf and sense it breathing fresh oxygen back to you.
Countless times in that journey we died to old forms, let go of old ways, allowing new ones to emerge. But nothing is ever lost. Though forms pass, all returns.
Remember again and again the old cycles of partnership. Draw on them in this time of trouble. By your very nature and the journey you have made, there is in you deep knowledge of belonging. Draw on it now in this time of fear. You have earth-bred wisdom of your interexistence with all that is. Take courage and power in it now, that we may help each other awaken in this time of peril.
Tweet
IF YOU LIKED THIS BLOG POST YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
The Desiderata - New Meaning
What About That Moon by Sufi Poet Hafiz
Time and Peace - Gifts Money Can't Buy
.
Idolised by many, and well known the world over, John is a disconcertingly unassuming man with a tremendous aura of calm - ideal if you are planning a few moments of quiet reflection!
At 8.30, after the lights went out, we decided to mark Earth Hour with a reading: the Gaia Meditation written by John Seed and Joanna Macy.
I am thrilled to be able to share this beautiful piece with you on my blog today, with love and gratitude to John and Joanna. I hope you enjoy it.
The Gaia Meditation by John Seed and Joanna Macy
What are you? What am I? Intersecting cycles of water, earth, air and fire, that's what I am, that's what you are.
WATER — blood, lymph, mucus, sweat, tears, inner oceans tugged by the moon, tides within and tides without. Streaming fluids floating our cells, washing and nourishing through endless riverways of gut and vein and capillary. Moisture pouring in and through and out of you, of me, in the vast poem of the hydrological cycle. You are that. I am that.
EARTH — matter made from rock and soil. It too is pulled by the moon as the magma circulates through the planet heart and roots suck molecules into biology. Earth pours through us, replacing each cell in the body every seven years. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, we ingest, incorporate and excrete the earth, are made from earth. I am that. You are that.
AIR — the gaseous realm, the atmosphere, the planet's membrane. The inhale and the exhale. Breathing out carbon dioxide to the trees and breathing in their fresh exudations. Oxygen kissing each cell awake, atoms dancing in orderly metabolism, interpenetrating. That dance of the air cycle, breathing the universe in and out again, is what you are, is what I am.
FIRE — Fire, from our sun that fuels all life, drawing up plants and raising the waters to the sky to fall again replenishing. The inner furnace of your metabolism burns with the fire of the Big Bang that first sent matter-energy spinning through space and time. And the same fire as the lightning that flashed into the primordial soup catalyzing the birth of organic life.
You were there, I was there, for each cell of our bodies is descended in an unbroken chain from that event. Through the desire of atom for molecule, of molecule for cell, of cell for organism. In our sexuality we can feel ancient stirrings that connect us with plant as well as animal life. We come from them in an unbroken chain — through fish learning to walk the land, feeling scales turning to wings, through the migrations in the ages of ice.
We have been but recently in human form. If Earth's whole history were compressed into twenty-four hours beginning at midnight, organic life would begin only at 3 pm . . . mammals emerge at 11:30 . . . and from amongst them at only seconds to midnight, our species.
In our long planetary journey we have taken far more ancient forms than these we now wear. Some of these forms we remember in our mother's womb, wear vestigial tails and gills, grow fins for hands.
Countless times in that journey we died to old forms, let go of old ways, allowing new ones to emerge. But nothing is ever lost. Though forms pass, all returns. Each worn-out cell consumed, recycled . . . through mosses, leeches, birds of prey. . . .
Think to your next death. Will your flesh and bones back into the cycle. Surrender. Love the plump worms you will become. Launder your weary being through the fountain of life.
Beholding you, I behold as well all the different creatures that compose you — the mitochondria in the cells, the intestinal bacteria, the life teeming on the surface of the skin. The great symbiosis that is you. The incredible coordination and cooperation of countless beings. You are that, too, just as your body is part of a much larger symbiosis, living in wider reciprocities. Be conscious of that give-and-take when you move among trees. Breathe your pure carbon dioxide to a leaf and sense it breathing fresh oxygen back to you.
Countless times in that journey we died to old forms, let go of old ways, allowing new ones to emerge. But nothing is ever lost. Though forms pass, all returns.
Remember again and again the old cycles of partnership. Draw on them in this time of trouble. By your very nature and the journey you have made, there is in you deep knowledge of belonging. Draw on it now in this time of fear. You have earth-bred wisdom of your interexistence with all that is. Take courage and power in it now, that we may help each other awaken in this time of peril.
Tweet
IF YOU LIKED THIS BLOG POST YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
The Desiderata - New Meaning
What About That Moon by Sufi Poet Hafiz
Time and Peace - Gifts Money Can't Buy
.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Saying Yes To Joy
Is depression a state of mind? A chemical imbalance? A nutritional deficiency? A sign of alcoholism? I am not qualified to say, nor am I game to offer an opinion. Without question, at times people are overwhelmed, feel isolated, disconnected, and are lost in despair. Do they fit some pharmaceutical company definition of "depressed"? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Either way, clearly, their experience of joy is fleeting or not existent. A tragedy of itself. Would medication help? Maybe. Going for a run? Most likely. A hug? Possibly.
I have a friend who is struggling at the moment. (Really - not a fictional friend, but a really truly person with a phone, a job, a car and various family issues). I'm not sure how to support him. We could talk for hours but words are just words, at the end of the day. After speaking with him for quite a long time last night I hung up the phone and felt flat, nearly angry.
I acknowledge that I am lacking the necessary skills to help him - and quite possibly he needs professional assistance. I couldn't help but feel though, after that call, that each time an opportunity presented itself for my friend to choose good feelings, or tell himself a better story, he was consciously, deliberately choosing to see the worst, berate himself, blame others. He's a very smart guy. I know he knows what he is doing. I just don't understand why... when it was all making him feel so bad.
That is why some people need professional help; counsellors and doctors who can stay neutral. I am not neutral. I want him to be happy, feel good, turn his life around... baby step by baby step. Choosing a funny movie instead of a drama, eating a decent meal instead of opting for a liquid dinner, trying on "thank you", instead of "thanks for nothing".
In short, I just fervently wish he would start to say yes to joy. The bad stuff may still be present in his life - siblings and bad bosses don't tend to go away overnight - but focussing on the good things, kindness, sunshine and opportunities - or just starting each day with a corny joke - might help? Perhaps, right now, it is just beyond him.
It's not beyond me though. So I thought I'd share a little something with you. It's something that's giving me joy at the moment. Our family has a new kitten... here he is! (How funny that he matches the bedspread!). We haven't given him a name yet so if you have suggestions please feel free to share them. (Note: toy mouse in background).
What about you? Are there things in your life that create a spark of joy? Things that make you feel good even on a flat day? Are there ways you could be saying yes to joy that perhaps you have overlooked?
IFYOU THOUGHT THIS WAS INTERESTING YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ:
Quotes About Love
Allowing Love In
Practicing Gratitude
I have a friend who is struggling at the moment. (Really - not a fictional friend, but a really truly person with a phone, a job, a car and various family issues). I'm not sure how to support him. We could talk for hours but words are just words, at the end of the day. After speaking with him for quite a long time last night I hung up the phone and felt flat, nearly angry.
I acknowledge that I am lacking the necessary skills to help him - and quite possibly he needs professional assistance. I couldn't help but feel though, after that call, that each time an opportunity presented itself for my friend to choose good feelings, or tell himself a better story, he was consciously, deliberately choosing to see the worst, berate himself, blame others. He's a very smart guy. I know he knows what he is doing. I just don't understand why... when it was all making him feel so bad.
That is why some people need professional help; counsellors and doctors who can stay neutral. I am not neutral. I want him to be happy, feel good, turn his life around... baby step by baby step. Choosing a funny movie instead of a drama, eating a decent meal instead of opting for a liquid dinner, trying on "thank you", instead of "thanks for nothing".
In short, I just fervently wish he would start to say yes to joy. The bad stuff may still be present in his life - siblings and bad bosses don't tend to go away overnight - but focussing on the good things, kindness, sunshine and opportunities - or just starting each day with a corny joke - might help? Perhaps, right now, it is just beyond him.
It's not beyond me though. So I thought I'd share a little something with you. It's something that's giving me joy at the moment. Our family has a new kitten... here he is! (How funny that he matches the bedspread!). We haven't given him a name yet so if you have suggestions please feel free to share them. (Note: toy mouse in background).
What about you? Are there things in your life that create a spark of joy? Things that make you feel good even on a flat day? Are there ways you could be saying yes to joy that perhaps you have overlooked?
IFYOU THOUGHT THIS WAS INTERESTING YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ:
Quotes About Love
Allowing Love In
Practicing Gratitude
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Time and peace: gifts money can't buy
It took me 28 minutes this morning to find out that my date of death is either 28 November 2058 (findyourfate.com) or 28 November 2074 (deathclock.com). Curious both gave me the same day but different years. Being a fairly logical person I worked out what the average was (95 years) and have contented myself with that... but what if it is only 87 years, as foretold by findyourfate? What if I really only have 18,047 days, 4 hours and 36 minutes to go... I mean 35, 34, 33... gosh by now it must be just 18,047 days, 4 hours and 30 minutes to go!!! Heck! What am I doing! The days of my life are just ticking away!!!
That is, of course, what the makers of those death calculators want you to think: "time is precious; what am I doing with the time given to me?" They also want to sell you vitamin supplements and change jobs and make some kind of general attempt to change your lot in life by buying one of their sponsors' products. And that's okay 'cause the calculators are kind of fun.
Did you know that the average life expectancy in the West is 84 for women and 78 for men? In America the life expectancy is 81 (women) and 75 (men). How many weekends do you have left?
We spend so much time working, sleeping, eating, grooming, shopping, caring for the family, letting off steam with our friends... how much time is left after "the basics" are taken care of? If you enjoy the work you do then it's not lost time... but so many people don't.
It is my firm belief that a mastery of time is key to personal peace and satisfaction. If you feel good about how you spend your time - and are consiously choosing where - chances are that when you get to the end of the road you'll be content with your life - and will probably have made a huge contributon to the world in some way.
I know some very successful business people and all of them guard their time as if it was a suitcase full of gemstones. For them, time is their most precious asset; without time they have nothing - no opportunity to create their vision, nor experience the benefits of health or wealth. (I suspect that this respect for time has contributed in a very large way to their successes.)
Perhaps if we all thought a little longer about how we spend our time we'd be more content and find ourselves in a more peaceful, happier world. And I do mean "spend" - no matter who you are or how much you have at your disposal, your time is one thing money can't buy back.
In the next 24 hours you have 1440 minutes to spend... how will you do it? Who on? Where? Why? Ah, the big questions...
(The 35 minutes it took me to write that was my gift to YOU! With love)
Tweet
IF YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS INTERESTING YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ:
"I hate my job"
Finding joy in each day
.
That is, of course, what the makers of those death calculators want you to think: "time is precious; what am I doing with the time given to me?" They also want to sell you vitamin supplements and change jobs and make some kind of general attempt to change your lot in life by buying one of their sponsors' products. And that's okay 'cause the calculators are kind of fun.
Did you know that the average life expectancy in the West is 84 for women and 78 for men? In America the life expectancy is 81 (women) and 75 (men). How many weekends do you have left?
We spend so much time working, sleeping, eating, grooming, shopping, caring for the family, letting off steam with our friends... how much time is left after "the basics" are taken care of? If you enjoy the work you do then it's not lost time... but so many people don't.
It is my firm belief that a mastery of time is key to personal peace and satisfaction. If you feel good about how you spend your time - and are consiously choosing where - chances are that when you get to the end of the road you'll be content with your life - and will probably have made a huge contributon to the world in some way.
I know some very successful business people and all of them guard their time as if it was a suitcase full of gemstones. For them, time is their most precious asset; without time they have nothing - no opportunity to create their vision, nor experience the benefits of health or wealth. (I suspect that this respect for time has contributed in a very large way to their successes.)
Perhaps if we all thought a little longer about how we spend our time we'd be more content and find ourselves in a more peaceful, happier world. And I do mean "spend" - no matter who you are or how much you have at your disposal, your time is one thing money can't buy back.
In the next 24 hours you have 1440 minutes to spend... how will you do it? Who on? Where? Why? Ah, the big questions...
(The 35 minutes it took me to write that was my gift to YOU! With love)
Tweet
IF YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS INTERESTING YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ:
"I hate my job"
Finding joy in each day
.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
I love colouring in! What do you love?
I've been trying to think outside the square of late about very simple things that give me joy.
I have always loved colour. I am very good with colour - mixing paints, picking thread etc. I was preparing for a short trip and buying supplies from the supermarket - while walking through the "party" aisle the children's books caught my eye. I decided to splash out - for a whole $2.93 I bought myself a sea creatures colouring-in book and 50c packet of textas. My inner child was very excited. I spent a large part of the next week, when I needed some happy, quiet time, colouring in piano-playing octopus, mermaids facing-off against sharks, and goofy Nemo-style fish with cheesy smiles. It gave me great joy... and I also found it a very easy way to switch off my super-busy mind.
I think it is easy as adults to get carried away with the mind and loose touch with our hearts. Is there something you love, some simple, "unproductive", even silly thing, that you never give yourself permission to do?
IF YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS INTERESTING YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ:
Finding joy in each day
Are you more generous when you're hungry?
IF YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS INTERESTING YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ:
Finding joy in each day
Are you more generous when you're hungry?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Finding joy in each day: my new year's resolution
I decided that in 2009 I would make a note in my things-to-do diary of the event, thought, observation or gesture - large or small - that gave me joy on that day. It's only been three months but already I can look back and between the personal admin commands of "pay rent", "go to doctor" and "call accountant" I can read my "joy notes" and remember the things that made me happy each day. That way I get a second serve of happiness.
IF YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS INTERESTING YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ:
Crazy playful silly ways to make yourself instantly happier
Allowing yourself to feel good
IF YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS INTERESTING YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ:
Crazy playful silly ways to make yourself instantly happier
Allowing yourself to feel good
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)