Friday's Purposeful Question

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Author and teacher Byron Katie says that when you question your stressful thoughts, the freedom that comes out of that graces the world for all of us.

The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions. So, what questions are you asking?

"How are you empowering and encouraging others as well as yourself?"

"It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question." ~ Decouvertes

In Memoriam: Wangari Maathai

“Every person who has ever achieved anything has been knocked down many times. But all of them picked themselves up and kept going, and that is what I have always tried to do.”


“You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them.” ~ Wangari Maathai

Wangari Muta Maathai (1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011) was a Kenyan environmental and political activist, and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace." Prof. Maathai started the Green Belt Movement in 1977, working with women to improve their livelihoods by increasing their access to resources like firewood for cooking and clean water. She became a great advocate for better management of natural resources and for sustainability, equity, and justice.

Forgiveness Leads to Inner Peace

"Learn forgiveness. If you are the person who has been wronged, always remember that you have the power to forgive. No one else can give this power to you. Amazingly, by releasing resentment or negative feelings, you are the one who benefits most of all." ~ Cheryl Hitchcock

Forgiving does not mean condoning; but it does mean inner peace. Holding on to resentment and bitterness only creates inner turmoil for you – not for the other person. It is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die from it.

So, just for today, create inner peace – forgive! 

Chart Your Course

“If you were planning a road trip across the country, would you leave without having a map? Or would you look at the map once and then forget about it? If that was your strategy, you might never arrive at your destination. But if you were absolutely committed to arriving at your destination in the shortest time possible, you would study the map carefully, charting out your route for each day. And if you made a wrong turn along the way, you wouldn’t spend five years beating yourself up. You would pull over, look at your map, and get back on track.” ~ Debbie Ford, The Right Questions

Think about planning your day, your week, your year like planning a road trip. You have got to strategically plan starting with where you are right now and ending with where you would like to be. Like planning a road trip, you must begin right where you are now. You cannot plan your trip without noting your starting point. From your starting point, you can plot your destination point.

So, just for today, stop, take a breath and ask yourself:

“Where am I right now?”

“Where would I like to be – six months from now? One year from now? Five years from now?”

Then, study your map and chart your course. Happy sailing!

Become A Peacemaker

 

If you must meddle in human relationships, 

try to be a peacemaker. 

You will find that you don’t have much competition.

When faced with a conflict between others, most of us are more inclined to walk away from the situation than to become involved. If we do allow ourselves to become a participant, it is usually by adopting the position of one at the expense of the other. Of course, such behavior does little to resolve the dispute and may in fact exacerbate the problem. But when you make a genuine attempt to help resolve the situation, you should not be surprised if you’re the only one. We are all complex individuals with feelings and emotions we often don’t fully understand. Sometimes the mere involvement of a disinterested party is enough to help resolve the dispute. Make sure, though, if you are the one in the middle that you don’t allow yourself to get into a position where you must choose between the desires of one person over the other. Work toward a compromise that best suits everyone’s interests.

~ Wisdom from Napoleon Hill

Friday's Purposeful Question

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Author and teacher Byron Katie says that when you question your stressful thoughts, the freedom that comes out of that graces the world for all of us.

The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions. So, what questions are you asking? 

"What is one small thing I can do right now to share my gifts and talents with another?"

"It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question." ~ Decouvertes

Have a super imaginative weekend!

The Wisdom of Sharing

Imagine a world in which we all shared our gifts and bounty with each other rather than focusing on self preservation.

There are many variations on the story of stone soup, but they all involve a traveler coming into a town beset by famine. The inhabitants try to discourage the traveler from staying, fearing he wants them to give him food. They tell him in no uncertain terms that there's no food anywhere to be found. The traveler explains that he doesn't need any food and that, in fact, he was planning to make a soup to share with all of them. The villagers watch suspiciously as he builds a fire and fills a cauldron with water. With great ceremony, he pulls a stone from a bag, dropping the stone into the pot of water. He sniffs the brew extravagantly and exclaims how delicious stone soup is. As the villagers begin to show interest, he mentions how good the soup would be with just a little cabbage in it. A villager brings out a cabbage to share. This episode repeats itself until the soup has cabbage, carrots, onions, and beets—indeed, a substantial soup that feeds everyone in the village.

This story addresses the human tendency to hoard in times of deprivation. When resources are scarce, we pull back and put all of our energy into self-preservation. We isolate ourselves and shut out others. As the story of stone soup reveals, in doing so, we often deprive ourselves and everyone else of a feast. This metaphor plays out beyond the realm of food. We hoard ideas, love, and energy, thinking we will be richer if we keep to them to ourselves, when in truth we make the world, and ourselves, poorer whenever we greedily stockpile our reserves. The traveler was able to see that the villagers were holding back, and he had the genius to draw them out and inspire them to give, thus creating a spread that none of them could have created alone.

Are you like one of the villagers, holding back? If you come forward and share your gifts, you will inspire others to do the same. The reward is a banquet that can nourish many.

~ From The Daily OM

Making Conscious Choices

“Our choices affect our mood and the way we feel about ourselves. They influence the quality of our relationships with ourselves, others, and the world. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction; this is the law of cause and effect. No action goes unnoticed. We may fool ourselves into believing that our actions do not matter, particularly if we think no one will know or that no one is watching. But all of our choices impact our futures.” ~ Debbie Ford, The Right Questions

There is never an effect without a cause and there is never a cause without an effect. Every decision you make, there is a consequence. Even if you do not make a decision, that is a decision and will result in an effect.

Just for today, think about the choices you are making. This means making conscious choices, not choices made by default. Every choice you make leads to the results in your life.

Interfering Fear

"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." ~ John Wooden

More often than not, we allow what we cannot do stop us from doing what we can do and what is ours to do. What is the interfering factor? Fear!

We become paralyzed by overwhelm and don’t do what we know we are able to do. This, unfortunately, is quite common.

If we can take our eyes off of the fearful thing we cannot do long enough to focus on what we can do, we will begin to see much more productivity in our lives.

So, just for today, focus on what you can do and not on what you cannot do!

Eyes of Faith

“God always provides what we need, but we must be ready to open our eyes and see it.” ~ The Midrash

Do you see with human eyes or with spiritual eyes? Are you seeing your present and your future with the eyes of faith?

When you look with the eyes of faith, you are far-seeing and clear seeing. When you merely see with human eyes, you only see the limitations and the obstacles.

Just for today, begin seeing with spiritual eyes – with the eyes of faith – to create your bright and brilliant tomorrow.

Friday's Purposeful Question

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Author and teacher Byron Katie says that when you question your stressful thoughts, the freedom that comes out of that graces the world for all of us.

The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions. So, what questions are you asking?

"Where in your life are you allowing your feelings to become who you are?"

"It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question." ~ Decouvertes

Feelings Are Not Facts

“When we’re stuck in troubled feelings, we believe that all our feelings are true – that is to say, we believe that by our emotions at that moment, we are making accurate judgments about what’s happening. If I’m angry with you, I’m certain that you are making me angry.”

The fact is “though we truly have these feelings, they are not necessarily true feelings.”

~ From Bonds That Make Us Free by C. Terry Warner

No matter what happens in your life, you will have some feelings about it. And, we tend to believe that it is the events that happened that caused those feelings. This is not true. Before we have the feelings, we have a thought about the event; it is from that thought that our feelings arise.

If we think something is awful, we will feel awful about it. If we think something is wonderful, then our feelings will follow. The key here is to not allow your feelings to control how you behave; because from those feelings come the behaviors. If something is awful, acknowledge it and then move on. By the same token, if something is wonderful, acknowledge it and move on.

You will begin to see that life becomes more peaceful, more calm and much more agreeable.

A Heart At Peace

At every moment of the day, you are either living with a heart at peace or a heart at war. To know which you are, simply ask yourself how am I being with those I come in contact with. If you treat everyone as a person, as someone with fears, dreams, sorrows and joys, then chances are you are at peace with them. If, on the other hand, you treat everyone as an object, as an obstacle to climb over or move aside, then chances are you are at war with them.

If you are being peace, then it is easy to see the fruits in your life. If your heart is at war, then it is still easy to see the fruits – and they are most likely rotten!

So, just for today, be at peace, have peace in your heart and bear good fruit!

Use Your Wonderful Imagination

"The man who has no imagination has no wings." ~ Muhammad Ali

Imagination is a tool of the soul. Our imagination gives us the opportunity to 'try on' new qualities and perspectives in our life. Through imagination, we can explore our past, problems, patterns, processes, plans, perceptions, principles, passions and purpose to uncover new possibilities.

Without imagination, we stay stuck in the realm of the material, the past, the superficial and the literal. We remain one-tracked, instinctual and one-dimensional.

Our imagination comes from the soul, subconscious and senses. Only through our imagination can we become multidimensional, experience more love, create more beauty, manifest more results, change our conditions, rewrite the past, and connect with divinity, purpose and others.

"You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'" ~ George Bernard Shaw

"Reason can answer questions, but imagination has to ask them." ~ Ralph Gerard

~ From The Inner Journey

The Fifth Agreement

Friday's Purposeful Question

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Author and teacher Byron Katie says that when you question your stressful thoughts, the freedom that comes out of that graces the world for all of us.

The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions. So, what questions are you asking?

"What are you speaking and creating in your world?"

“You can tell whether a woman is clever by her answers. You can tell whether she is wise by her questions.” ~ attributed to Naguib Mahfouz

Affirm the Good

“Thoughts of jealousy, fear, worry, and anxiety tear down and destroy your nerves and glands bringing about mental and physical diseases of all kinds.

“What you affirm consciously and feel as true will be made manifest in your mind, body and affairs. Affirm the good and enter into the joy of living.” ~ Joseph Murphy

So often I hear folks speaking about what they do not want in their lives: they don’t want debt; they don’t want sickness; they don’t want to be alone. Your subconscious mind does not speak in negatives. So when you say you don’t want something, your subconscious mind does not recognize that.

Speak out what you do want instead of what you don’t want. If you don’t know what you want, then flip around what you don’t want and start affirming that. So, if you don’t want debt – what do you want – you want financial abundance. If you don’t want sickness – what do you want – you want abundant health in mind, body and spirit.

On the same note, keep your mind stayed on things of peace, love and serenity; lest you bring ills to your mind, body and spirit.

Be An Overcomer

I will fight my battle
and I will feel pain,
and I will have no loss
and I will remain;
and I will stand proud
and I will be strong,
and I will shed my light
and I will sing my song;
and I will win
and I will cry,
and I will spread my wings
and I will fly.

~ Keith Perks, Cancer Survivor

Life Gets Better by Change

"You must constantly ask yourself these questions:

Who am I around?

What are they doing to me?

What have they got me reading?

What have they got me saying?

Where do they have me going?

What do they have me thinking?

And most important, what do they have me becoming?

Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay?

Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change." ~ Jim Rohn

Happy Labor Day!

To all my friends here in the U.S., 
here's wishing you a safe and blessed Labor Day!

Friday's Purposeful Question

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Author and teacher Byron Katie says that when you question your stressful thoughts, the freedom that comes out of that graces the world for all of us.

The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions. So, what questions are you asking?

"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." ~ John Wooden 

"What are you allowing to interfere with what you need to do?"

"What are you willing to do about the interruption?"

“Life is an unanswered question, but let's still believe in the dignity and importance of that question.” ~ Tennessee Williams

A Stress-Free September!

Happy September!

As the lazy days of summer roll on by, it is time to get focused! But before you get too stressed out from having too much to do, stop, take a breath and refocus!

When you find yourself getting a bit too stressed out, here are a few things to revitalize, rejuvenate and renew. Thanks WebMD!

Stressed? Climb the Stairs

When you're angry or stressed, it's easy to grab a candy bar, smoke a cigarette, or gulp another cup of coffee to cope. The ideal antidote? Exercise. Next time you're stressed out or riled up, climb a flight of stairs (or two) or go for a quick stroll – studies show even 10 minutes of exercise can provide a mental boost.

Walk Around the Block

You don't have to spend hours at the gym – even a little movement can get you in touch with your body and help you regain your energy. A simple walk around the block can clear your head, and exercises that involve a bit of meditation – such as yoga or tai chi – can help recharge both your body and your mind.

Eat More Fiber

Fiber can help you feel fuller faster so you eat less and lose weight. Getting enough fiber also keeps you regular and is good for your heart. So in addition to the health benefits, getting enough fiber can result in fewer things to be stressed about! The good news is that fiber comes in many tasty forms, from oatmeal and whole-grain breads and cereals to fruits such as apples, citrus, and strawberries, and vegetables.

Focus on the Present

Being aware of where you are and what is happening right now – some call it mindfulness – can help you relax instead of fretting over what's looming on the horizon. Let go of thoughts about the past or future, and focus on the present moment. How does the air feel against your skin? How does the pavement feel under your feet? If your mind wanders, just bring it back again to focus on the present.

Feed Your Head

Sometimes the answer to having a lot on your mind is to do something that takes your brain in a completely different direction. Stretch your mental boundaries by listening to a lecture on your iPod, doing a crossword puzzle, or joining a book club and checking out the latest best seller. Or take up a new hobby that keeps you active mentally and physically, whether it's gardening or hiking.