Dan Millman’s Laws of Spirit
Written by Jerry on September 15, 2009 – 4:00 am -If you haven’t read Dan Millman’s Laws of Spirit yet, you’ll want to. It’s a great short fable of his meeting in the mountains with a wise old cat that turns out to be a wise old woman.
Enjoy!
Find out all about Dan at
http://www.danmillman.com/
Never Stop Exploring Life!
Jerry L Saunders, RM
Tags: Abundance, Dan Millman, Fable, Jerry L, Laws of Spirit, Mountains, Personal Growth, Rm, Saunders, self help, spirit, spirituality, Wisdom, Wise Old Woman
Posted in Inspiration and Music | No Comments »
Genuine Happiness Comes from Within
Written by Jerry on September 5, 2009 – 4:40 am -Genuine Happiness Comes from Within
Life isn’t always the sweetest candy. Sometimes, when I feel like the world is just too heavy, I look around and find people who continued to live fascinating and wonderful lives. And then thoughts come popping into my mind like bubbles from nowhere – “How did their life become so easy going? How come they still can manage to laugh and play around despite a busy stressful life?” Then I pause for awhile… I figured out that maybe, they work on themselves.
So, how does one become genuinely happy?
Step 1 is to love yourself.
A theology professor once said that “loving means accepting.” To love yourself means to accept that you are not a perfect being, but behind the imperfections must lie great courage to be able to discover ways to improve your outlook to recover from our mistakes.
Genuine happiness is also about contentment. When you are contented with the job you have, the way you look, with your family, your friends, the place you live in, your car, and all the things you now have – truly, you know the answer to the riddle of “how to be genuinely happy.” Read more »
Tags: accept yourself, Affirmations, Bonus Points, Bubbles, Contentment, Courage, Failure, Football Game, Genuine Happiness, Gratitude, Happiness, Happiness Comes From, Imperfections, Love, Nbsp, Outlook, Personal Growth, Quality Of Life, Quot, Riddle, Score Board, spirituality, Spite, Step 1, Stressful Life, Sweetest Candy, Theology Professor
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How to Expect the Best
Written by Jerry on August 18, 2009 – 11:38 pm -Do you ever find yourself getting stuck in negative thought patterns and expecting the worst possible outcome in just about every situation?
It’s a common mind-set that can be difficult to change when you finally decide you’ve had enough. Unfortunately, negative thoughts tend to breed like rabbits and multiply on their own – even when you’re not consciously trying to think negatively the thoughts keep spinning.
The good news is that turning a negative outlook into a positive one just takes a bit of patience and practice until the positive thoughts begin to take over. You will never be 100% positive but, it’s possible to be positive much more often than you are negative.
Here are three simple steps to begin developing your positive expectations on a daily basis:
1. Develop self-awareness to recognize negative expectations.
One problem with negative thoughts is that they often form below your conscious level of awareness, and you get so used to them being in your head that you don’t even notice them anymore. To turn the tide of negativity, you’ll have to develop a strong level of self-awareness. A good way to start is by performing self-checks several times a day at random times. Pay attention first to how you feel. If you’re feeling positive and productive, most likely you’ve been thinking positive thoughts.
However, if you notice that you’re feeling grouchy, pessimistic or stressed, you’re probably focusing more on negative thoughts.
When that happens:
2. Challenge and change the negative thoughts.
Believe it or not, it’s fairly easy to challenge and change your negative thoughts with a little willpower and concentration. For example, if you find yourself feeling that you might not finish your work on time, you might try a little bit of self-talk like this: “Okay, so I’m feeling kind of worried right now, but really everything is okay. I’m strong, I’m smart and I’m capable of finishing my work on time. I’ll do my best and everything will work out fine.” Even though nothing has changed in your outer circumstances, this kind of self-talk can get you feeling and acting more positive.
3. Develop a general positive outlook.
At the same time, while you’re changing negative your thoughts to positive, work daily on developing a the general positive expectation habit. Each day when you wake up, affirm confidently, “Today is going to be a great day!
Everything will go my way and I’ll remain positive no matter what comes my way.”
When you encounter challenges, see them as opportunities to learn and grow. Perception is 99% of your reality! If you simply work on shifting the way you look at the experiences of your life, you can easily, over time, shift your negative thought habits.
The more you focus on changing your mindset to the positive, the more you’ll empower yourself to create better and more postive circumstances in your life.
Before you know it, you’ll be enjoying better opportunities more often and attracting other likeminded, positive people to connect with.
Never Stop Exploring Life!
Jerry L Saunders, RM
Tags: Abundance, Concentration, Conscious Level, Daily Basis, Gratitude, Jerry L, Law Of Attraction, Level Of Awareness, Little Bit, Nbsp, Negative Outlook, Negative Thoughts, Negativity, Patience, Personal Growth, personal power, Positive Thoughts, Rabbits, Random Times, Self Awareness, Self Checks, Several Times, Simple Steps, spirituality, Success, Thought Patterns, Turn The Tide, Willpower
Posted in PME - Positive Mental Enviroment | No Comments »
Finding Peace in Chaos
Written by Jerry on August 15, 2009 – 11:30 pm -Life can be truly hectic, even chaotic, if we don’t stop now and then to take a few minutes for ourselves. With the invention of computers, our work lives were supposed to get easier, but it’s gotten busier than ever before!
The original mentality was that computers would allow us to get the same amount of work done in half the time. That idea went out the window when we realized we could now get twice the work (or more) done in the same time.
Now our world has become so fast paced that it’s hard to keep up. If you don’t stop the pandemonium, you will begin to feel as if your life is descending into a chaotic jumble. Luckily, there are ways to deal with these overwhelming feelings and put some order back into your life.
Here are a few tips on how to find peace in your chaos around:
1. Take a break. Give yourself a chance to take in everything going on around you. Even if your break is a nice hot bath instead of a shower, it can help.
Find a little time here and there to get some peace and quiet while you reflect on the events of the day or on just nothing.
2. Meditate. Meditation can be very helpful in bringing you peace. Meditation doesn’t mean sitting cross legged and chanting like a monk. Instead, it’s a very comfortable and soothing way to calm your mind and bring you the serenity you desire.
With a little practice, anyone can meditate.
Picture yourself on a bridge. Imagine looking down at the water and seeing leaves floating by in the stream. The leaves represent your problems and the chaos around you. Now, without stopping to focus on the leaves, watch them just drift away in the water and disappear forever.
3. Find something positive. No matter how chaotic things get, you can always find something good and positive in your situation.
Actively look for the silver lining. It could be something as simple as a favorite song, a picture, or the smile of another person that gives you some inner peace. Look for these things and you will find them.
As a last resort, if you can’t find something good, ask yourself "If I COULD find something good, what would it be?"
4. Slow down. While we have to multitask almost constantly these days, doing so tends to wear us down even faster. Multi-tasking adds to the chaos around us.
When you can, take one thing at a time and allow yourself to focus on that task alone. While you may be able to handle three or more things at once, the quality won’t be nearly as good as if you focused on them one at a time.
5. Don’t let anyone drag you down. Be wary when considering the opinions of others.
Don’t ignore everyone, but don’t let yourself get bogged down with other people’s baggage and their issues, either.
It’s best to remove your personal chaos causers, even if one of the causes is other people.
6. Throw out the drama. Eliminate the drama in your life, especially other people’s drama. It’s not your concern, so stay out of it and don’t get caught up.
Focus on solving your challenges positively rather than enjoying pity parties. This will reduce the drama and turn your focus to something positive.
Everyone has some chaos their life. It isn’t always a bad thing. Stress can be productive as well. In fact, without stress and responsibilities, some people would never get out of bed!
Life will always have stress and problems, but how you react to them and how much you allow in your life can dictate the level of stress in your life.
The first step is realizing that you NEED to make some time for yourself. If you don’t, nothing else you do will really make that much of a difference. You can’t be there for everyone else if you aren’t taking care of yourself first.
Use these tips every day to bring order to your life, and soon you’ll find peace in your chaos.
Never Stop Exploring Life!
Jerry L Saunders, RM
Tags: Affirmations, Bridge, Chaos, Chaotic Jumble, Circumstances, Favorite Song, Few Minutes, Finding Peace, Gratitude, Half The Time, Hot Bath, Inner Peace, Invention Of Computers, Leaves, Little Time, Mentality, Monk, Overwhelming Feelings, Pandemonium, Peace Meditation, Personal Growth, personal power, self help, Serenity, Silver Lining, Smile, spirituality
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12 Ways To Invite Spirituality Into Your Life
Written by Jerry on August 1, 2009 – 12:18 am -Here’s a quick list of ways to invite spirituality into your daily life. You don’t have to try them all. Choose the ones resonate with you and give them a try!
Be Honest. Be honest with others and especially with yourself. Dishonesty creates barriers between yourself and those you are dishonest with – including yourself.
See Humor. Life isn’t a serious disease. You’ll feel better about your life when you learn to see the funny things you do and the absurdities in the world. Chronic seriousness can make the joy flee from your life.
Meditate Daily. You’ve heard me say it before, right. In our modern world, you simply CANNOT connect with your inner spirit unless practice meditation regularly. The world moves waaaay to fast. Give your mind a break.
Keep a Journal. Socrates said “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Jim Rohn said "A Life Worth Living is a Life Worth Recording!" If you keep a daily journal you can see where you have been and get ideas for getting where you want to be. And a journal is the most wonderful gift you can leave behind for family and friends.
Give. All spiritual traditions talk about the importance of service. It doesn’t have to be money. You can give time, love recognition or help, just to name a few. Giving is one of the best ways to feel gratful for what you have. Not only will you trully connect with the receiver but, you know that you have plenty if you can give some away.
Don’t Ignore Negativey. Negative feelings can be useful. They can signal you that you aren’t living in harmony with your values. Don’t dwell on negative thoughts. But do examine them, without attaching blame, to learn from them.
Learn From Relationships. You might be surprised that relationships are the best mirror you can find to see what you are really like deep inside. Relationships can bring out the best and worst in you. Learn the hidden lessons from the bad. Cherish and share the beautiful moments. They can be so much more dymanic when shared.
Seek Help. Look for mentors. They don’t have to be teachers by profession. Others can help you learn to meditate, teach you yoga, hold you accountable for your actions, teach you to love, teach you other spiritual tradition…..
Discover Your Purpose. We all have one! Examine your own life history, spend time in silence listening to intutuion telling you what ’s important to you and learn to read life’s little hints along the way. If there was only one thing you could do for yourself this year, finding your purpose should be it.
Guard Your Mind. Your mind and spirit are preciuos gems. Be very careful of the friends you surround yourself with. Be just as careful about the influences you let into your mind. What influences? Newspapers, magazines, radio, movies, music, gossip…
Seek Inspiration. At the same you are guarding your mind you’ll want to fill it with as many inspiring things as possible. Once again, what things? Flowers, scents, good music, a hot bath, great books, uplifting friends…
Create Sacred Space. Everyone needs a sacred space. Mine is corner shelf unit that I have turned into a personal altar with candles, inscence, a statue and pictures of people important to me. Your might be a small flower garden or a bench under the shade of a tree. Any place that makes you feel relaxed and in touch with yourself is fine.
Now, you have a dozen ways to invite spirituality into your life. Use them. And, I forgot, there’s one more –
Never Stop Exploring Life!
Jerry L Saunders, RM
Tags: Absurdities, Abundance, Dishonesty, Family And Friends, Funny Things, grattitude, Harmony, honesty, humor, Inner Spirit, Jim Rohn, journals, Living In Harmony, Love, Meditation, Mirror, Money, Nbsp, Negative Feelings, Negative Thoughts, Practice Meditation, Relationships, sacred space, Seriousness, Socrates, Spiritual Traditions, spirituality, Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living, Wisdom
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