Summer is in full swing and Mother Nature is at her most bountiful abundant prolific time.
This week we’ll talk about the wisdom we can glean from Mother Nature. She has much to teach us, if we’d only pause a moment and become aware of her. She doesn’t use abstract concepts that we have to wrap our minds around, rather she actually shows us through the actions of living things the Guiding Principles of Life.
Let’s make a pact that this week, as we explore and extract the teachings from the natural world around us, we’ll spend as much time as we can outdoors quietly watching, looking, and seeing what we see. Then we’ll take the time to note our observations and ponder how they might apply to our life.
Let’s start this today!
In the comments below, feel free to let me know what you discover. Thanks!
When you’re feeling bad about yourself and can’t seem to shake it, here’s what to do:
1. Ditch the negative people around you as fast as you can! The reason you can’t shake feeling bad about yourself and your life is probably because you’re hanging around people who don’t value you, appreciate you, and/or celebrate you. They’re also the people who see nothing but woe and disaster ahead of you, which is most definitely NOT what you need right now.
What do you do? DISTANCE YOURSELF FROM THEM AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!!
Call up a few of your friends who make you feel great about yourself and always have something nice to say to you. Be up front with them and tell them you’ve had a hard day and you need them to remind you of a few good things about yourself. Jot them down and keep them handy in a scrapbook or in a folder on your mobile device or computer.
2. You’ve forgotten or lost–or never had it in the first place!!–a vision of the fabulous future that awaits you.
What do you do? REMEMBER THE DELICIOUS FUTURE THAT’S WAITING FOR YOU!
Get out your vision board, your mission statement, your Scrapbook of Optimism and remind yourself that the rough patch you’re in right now is NOT permanent–it, too, will pass. Remind yourself that better days are ahead. Remind yourself that, no matter how wonderful your life may have been in the past, your best days are still yet to come–they’re still ahead of you!
And, if you don’t have an exciting future imagined for yourself, then immediately and right now and at this very instant start dreaming! Write it all down, make a collage, choose some sort of item or symbol that reminds you of your dreams and keep that symbol where you can see it every single day.
3. Get the icky feelings and emotions out of your system! Best advice from a dear friend: vent, steam, rant, rave, cry, gnash your teeth, shake your fist, scream if you have to and then take the next step forward.
What do you do? DON’T WALLOW; KEEP PRESSING ONWARD!
4. Pressing forward looks like this: networking to find a new job, bartering with friends and loved ones to get the help you need to clear out the clutter in your home, taking classes online to improve your knowledge and skills…. Put on your Thinking Cap and come up with the things YOU can do that will help YOU.
What do you do when you’ve done all you can? LET GO AND TRUST THAT THE GOOD WORKS YOU JUST DID ARE GOING FORTH AND BRINGING GOOD STUFF BACK TO YOU
5. Make your waiting time productive by pursuing things that interest you, that make you feel good, that bring you peace and contentment. I’m not talking about hedonistic pursuits, I’m talking about the soul-prospering pursuits.
What do you do next? GET BUSY!!
Some soul-prospering pursuits are: spending time with your hobbies, enjoying the people you love and who make you feel loved and cared for, following the thread of a new idea or activity that has captured your interest, taking a class in a topic that, for you, is “off the wall”, volunteering your time and helping others…. I’m sure you can come up with your own ideas to follow through on.
6. What do you do after all this? REPEAT THESE STEPS AS OFTEN AS NEEDED.
Let me know how these simple steps work out for you. Thanks!
Perhaps you’ve had a hard day where everything seemed to go wrong: the project at work you were excited about was given to someone else instead; an account at work that was your “baby” was shut down without warning; people whose character and integrity you thought you could rely on, end up ditching you at the first opportunity….
Here are a few quotes to keep in mind:
Surround yourself with people who make you feel good about yourself. ~LiveLifeHappy.com
Don’t feel sorry for yourself if you have chosen the wrong road; turn around. ~Edgar Cayce
People inspire you, or they drain you–pick them wisely. ~Hans F. Hansen
You may not control all of the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. ~Maya Angelou
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. ~Henry Ford
Never mind what others do; do better than yourself, beat your own record from day-to-day, and you are a success. ~William J. H. Boetcker
Defeat is simply a signal to press onward…. ~Helen Keller
Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future. ~Robert H. Schuller
Just because today is a terrible day doesn’t mean tomorrow won’t be the best day of our life. You just gotta get there. ~Anonymous
If you want to improve your self-worth, stop giving other people the calculator. ~Tim Fargo
Ten years from now, make sure you can say that you chose your life–you didn’t settle for it. ~Anonymous
Make sure you don’t start seeing yourself through the eyes of those who don’t value you. Know your worth even if they don’t. ~Anonymous
You are the hero of your own story. ~Anonymous
Which quote did you like the best? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks!
A friend of mine has an interesting technique she employs whenever she is feeling as if there is no hope for her situation. She looks through her possessions and give one of them away.
The item she chooses is one she likes and is currently using.
I was stunned when she first told me this. I thought she was going to tell me that the thing she gave away was something she hadn’t used in a while and was just muddling up her life. I thought she’d go on to tell me that clearing out the clutter helped open up the channels for new opportunities to enter her life.
She explained to me that while she also clears out the things she’s no longer using–precisely to open those doorways to interesting and new experiences–she relies on turning events in her favor by giving away something she really likes and uses often.
Doing this reminds her that she doesn’t need anything other than herself, her skills, her intelligence, and her talents; that any possessions she has are icing on the cake.
I asked her if after doing this, events shifted for the better. She said that she found the benefit of this technique is to lighten up–not be so grasping and worried. It helps her have a more optimistic outlook and it teachest her to believe that things will work out. And it’s this attitude of letting go and trusting that helps her see the opportunities surrounding us all.
I’ve tried this technique from time-to-time and each time I do this, it’s a tiny bit easier to fully let go. It’s a work in progress, though, for sure!
How about you? What have been your experiences with this technique or something like it? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks!
Make it a point, a top priority, this week to notice the good stuff that happens to you this week. Don’t wait for the big things like winning the lottery, getting that huge promotion, or winning the impressive award. Instead, focus on the small things.
Nothing is too small to be noticed. In fact, these seemingly small, inconsequential things are the things that make up your every day life and, strung together, form the substance of your life.
Here is some good stuff:
~you arrived at a meeting a few moments early so you were able to sit quietly, gather your thoughts, and take a deep breath or two;
~you glanced out the window and saw a bird soaring and it made you feel free;
~a passerby smiled at you and said hello;
~someone gave you a coupon for a product that you use all the time;
~on your commute, you noticed all the wildflowers growing in the median of the highway
~you watched the raindrops splashing in a puddle and it reminded you of when you were a child when your mom let you play in the rain….
These are just a few suggestions. Keep your eyes open for the good stuff that surrounds you each day, every day.
Wouldst make thy life go fair and square?
Thou must not for the past feel care;
Whatever thy loss, thou must not mourn;
Must ever act as if new-born.
What each day wants of thee, that ask;
What each day tells thee, that make thy task;
With pride thine own performance viewing,
With heart to admire another’s doing;
Above all, hate no human being,
And all the future leave to the All-Seeing.
Goethe.
We know we need to let go, to forgive; most of all we know we need to move on.
But how?
How do we do that when the injustice, the hurt, the humiliation, the pain, the loss is still so fresh and sharp, even though the original incident happened years ago?
The best, most effective way is to stop looking at the past and the thing that happened. Instead, look to the future.
But what if we can’t tear your focus away from the past; what if the future has no joy or hope?
The solution is to build a better image of the future, something we can look forward to. If we can’t do this then that means we’ve built up a much stronger, more compelling image of the past than we have of the future.
Focus on you. Focus on where you are headed. Focus on your dreams. If this is too much and you can’t do it, then focus on the next best step you can take in the next moment, the next hour, the next part of the day. Keep focusing on this–taking the next best step. Focus on it minute by minute.
Be relentless about this focus and you will find one day that you have dropped the heavy baggage from the past–the injustices and insults, the hurts and humiliations, the pain and pessimism.
Give it a try and let me know how it’s working out for you. You can do it!
I was looking around Youtube and came across this video about how to know when to quit being around a person, not only personally but professionally as well. The video had some interesting ideas and I thought you might find it helpful.
Let me know what you think about the video. Thanks!
Your Friend and Pep Pal,
Lauren
Crafting a deeply meaningful, soul-prospering life
