Archive for 2009
By Charlene M Brown
Harley Storey, a Life Coach out of New Zealand says: “Somewhere in our life’s journey we choose to focus on the garbage or the gold. (Often the gold is hidden in the garbage!) If [we] dwell on the garbage we become grumpy. If we look at the gold we become grateful. Life is crap. Life is beautiful. Life is both. The question is, which will you focus on?”
This is all a very colorful way of saying do you look at your life as half empty—always wanting for things you don’t have; or do you see it as more than half full—enjoying and being grateful for the things you do have?
Life is all about perspective. And which perspective you take is entirely up to you! That’s right, it’s YOUR choice what you decide to focus on, the garbage or the gold. And it really is all in your attitude!
I used to be the most pessimistic person I knew. I was always grumpy, angry and in a bad mood. My health was poor and I was always tired—sleepy tired and tired of people and things and life! I often had a headache and got “knock me down” sick several times per year.
Then one day, I decided that being like this all the time was not doing me any good! I made a conscious decision to stop focusing on the garbage and start looking for the gold!
This decision wasn’t easy and certainly didn’t happen overnight. Sometimes I slipped back into my old ways (and got the accompanying headaches, sickness and aches and pains). It was in those times that I had to fight to get back to the Healthy!
Again, this was sometimes very challenging! But I kept at it.
Today, 8 years after making that first decision to change my outlook, I am as healthy as I have ever been, I almost never get headaches or body aches, my temperament is flowing and easy-going, and stress is almost nonexistent in my world! And I really mean that!
I share this not to brag about it, but to show you that if you choose to, you can change your outlook too!
For me, it wasn’t about taking drastic measures (and that was hard to realize—I can be a bit of an “all or nothing” type of lady sometimes), but making smaller decisions on a daily, weekly, monthly, consistent basis.
It was about letting go and stop trying to control every single little detail; it was about learning to enjoy wherever I was instead of always trying to get to the next moment; it was about being fully present wherever I happened to be; it was about trusting the process of Life rather than worrying my pretty little head about it; it was about creating new thoughts to replace my old, negative ones.
Indeed, it was about letting go of the past to let my present and future in.
I literally had to find the silver lining. I literally had to sometimes go digging through the garbage to find the gold (and all that glitters is definitely not gold!).
But I did it! One decision at a time!
And you can to.
But only if you choose to!
Do You Love Your Life Now!? I DO!! (Because I have chosen to!)
By Charlene M Brown
Stillness!
Breathe Easy!
Inhale.
Exhale!
Silence!
“Self-ness!”
Deep Breathing!
In our technology driven society (so-called Western Society, that is), we hardly ever take the time to listen to the stillness anymore.
As our world has moved from primarily agricultural to the age of industry, machines and technology, we have lost much of our connection with our surroundings, including the Earth.
Sometimes we just need to reconnect, not to our cell phones or mp3 players, but to the Earth and our surroundings!
Not too long ago I was riding along, headed to a job interview waaaayyyy outside the city where I live. As I was traveling, I saw this winding road. Despite that I was headed somewhere else, I really wanted to follow that road.
My employment “sensibilities”, took over however, and I continued going to that interview.
But the thing is, I will always want to take that winding road that I can’t quite see the end of. That’s part of who I am! But I only know this, because at some point, I have stopped to listen to myself.
Part of finding your direction is taking your cues from the things in your surroundings.
I LOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEEE music. But even in listening to it, every so often, I need to turn it off just to hear my Self.
Sometimes I need to stop distracting myself with the music and start making my OWN music.
And sometimes this is hard.
Finding your own direction (not the directions others want you to move in) means playing full-out—giving 100% every time.
Sometimes it’s crazy-scary to quiet all the chatter we constantly surround ourselves with just to listen to our selves! Believe me, I Know from first-hand experience!
And I definitely get scared sometimes!
Deep inside, we really know what good moves for us are. Most of ignore these things for more “practical” ideas that fit with the mainstream all around us.
What would happen if we started listening to these things?
For me, it’s about taking action. One of the scariest things for me is moving forward. And this almost always boils down to me being afraid that once I finish this, I won’t have anything left to do.
Like most, FEARS, this is not really a rational thought, yet there it is, out on the table for all to see. (That’s not one of my strengths either, so it was quite challenging to put my fears on the table like that—but I think I’ll leave it.)
Rational or not, in order to overcome it, I have to take action in a different direction from it. If everything I am doing is moving me toward the same things I have always done (avoided taking critical actions to propel me forward), then perhaps it’s time I find a new direction.
And so it is with you too!
Do You Love Your Life Now!? I Do!! (Because I am learning to move in different directions!)
Making Friends and Fitting In: The Elusive Struggles of the Ugly Duckling!
By Charlene M Brown
What IS so hard about being intimate!?
One of the toughest things you will face is Facing Yourself!
By Charlene M Brown
I have a sage friend who says: “Relationships will end as they began.”
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