A friend sent me a link to this video earlier today, knowing how I LOVE cute animals… and it made me think about some life lessons too…

What I got from this video (apart from loads of smiles):

It reminds me that we all start from a place of not knowing, & can learn & do amazing stuff

I found this video quite by chance a couple of days ago, and on each watching of it, am struck more & more by the awesomeness of our universe, and by the imagination of humans to be able to FIND such distant galaxies. Towards the end I get a lump in my throat

(I guess I should explain : I’m a bit of geek when it comes to things time-spacey!)

And a variation (perhaps less geeky in terms of numbers) :

Let me know what you think of this…

blessings
Tracey

I read an email forwarded on to me today, with some interesting thoughts on stress. Here are a couple of paragraphs:

“Some people consider crawling along in traffic an opportunity to listen to their favorite music or relax and do their best thinking. For others, traffic is a nightmare that will ruin their entire day. For some, a late appointment is a stressful experience, for others, living in a third-world country without running water is a joyful one. Adversity or opportunity? It depends on your perspective.

It is not your circumstances that are to blame for the issues in your life. Rather, it is your response to those issues that is the problem. [If you can] control your response to life’s issues they lead to powerful results. Your response is always a choice. Whether you know it or not, either you make the right choice, or the wrong one is made for you.

Successful people and great leaders do one thing differently than most people during times of challenge. They think for themselves and choose powerful states of being instead of sinking into the prevailing negative default state of their circumstances and the people around them.”

This is a very powerful way of reframing our reactions to stress. I do this … sometimes! And it really can defuse situations. I plan to practice more

(from Sonia Ricotti http://leadoutloud.ca/)

You’ve heard that it takes 21 days to break or create a habit, right? Well, here is one habit worth changing: complaining and putting yourself in “victim mode”. Read Alexander Green’s article:

Are You Ready for the 21-Day Challenge? by Alexander Green

Dear Reader, Would you like to enjoy better health, have a more satisfying job, feel less pain, experience less conflict in your relationships, and live in peace and contentment? In a matter of weeks – time that will pass anyway – you can have the life you’ve always dreamed of living. You only have to do one thing. Stop complaining. Face it. We all do it. The weather is lousy. The neighbors are thoughtless. The price is too high. The kids are slobs. The boss is a jerk. The freeway’s a mess. Etc. Most of us feel that when we’re complaining we’re just speaking our minds. Except something else is going on here, too. When we complain we are focusing on what is wrong with our lives instead of what’s right. Studies show that our motives aren’t always the best, either. When we point out other people’s faults, for example, psychologists say it’s often a thinly-veiled way of suggesting that we are better than they are. We build ourselves up by tearing others down. People with a healthy self-esteem don’t need to do this. Those who complain about the quality of the food or wine at a restaurant are often striving to create an impression of sophistication or discrimination. But it backfires. You ruin your companion’s meal and appear transparent at the same time. Bear in mind, “My steak is over-cooked” is a fact, not a complaint. “I wouldn’t feed this to my dog”… well, you judge for yourself. We also use complaints as excuses. In his new book “A Complaint Free World,” Reverend Will Bowen writes, “If you are saying things like ‘Men are commitment-phobic,’ ‘Everyone in my family is fat,’ ‘I’m not coordinated’, ‘My father told me I’d never amount to anything,’ you are making yourself a victim. Victims don’t become victors. And you get to choose which you will be.” Bowen says it’s fine to use terms like “Of course!”, “Wouldn’t you know it?”, “just my luck!”, and “This always happens to me!”, but only when something good happens.  Never miss an opportunity to say “Of course” when something goes well for you, no matter how small. There’s nothing wrong with expressing dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction is the mother of progress. The key is how you express yourself. You can bellyache about how bad things are. Or you can motivate those around you by describing how much better things will be when a bad situation is resolved. Realize that you create your life with the words you choose. You can describe something as a problem, or call it an opportunity. You can complain that “I have to…” or you can say “I get to…” A negative turn of events can be described as a “setback,” or you can call it a “challenge.” Some folks might argue that carping and complaining each day is normal. But maybe you’re better than normal. Maybe you can be exceptional… outstanding… a positive influence on those around you. As Reverend Bowen says, “Complaining should happen infrequently; criticism and gossip, never. If we are honest with ourselves, life events that lead us to legitimately complain are exceedingly rare… To be a happy person who has mastered your thoughts and has begun creating your life by design, you need a very high threshold of what leads you to express grief, pain, and discontent.” For example, you are probably better off than Stephen Hawking. As a young man at Cambridge University, he began developing symptoms of Lou Gehrig’s disease. As it progressed, he became almost completely physically disabled. Yet he has gone on to produce groundbreaking research in theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity. Today he holds Isaac Newton’s chair as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. “It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability,” says Hawking. “One has to get on with life and I haven’t done badly. People won’t have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.” If you need any further incentive, recognize that complaining undermines your health. It creates stress in your life. The more you complain, the more stressful your life becomes. According to Forbes, all of the seven top-selling drugs in the United States are for illnesses exacerbated by stress. Americans are so stressed out we spend over $30 billion a year on them. You may believe you’re one of those souls who rarely complains. Or you may feel that complaining is so much a part of your nature that there’s nothing you can do about it. Either way, you’re probably wrong. That’s why I invite you to take Reverend Bowen’s 21-Day Challenge. Try going 21 consecutive days without complaining. (Bowen says it takes 21 days for a new habit to become ingrained.) Visit his website www.AComplaintFreeWorld.org and order two purple “Complaint Free” bracelets, one for yourself and one for someone you love. (The bracelets are free. There is a shipping charge of 75 cents.) Begin to wear the bracelet on either wrist. When you catch yourself complaining, gossiping or criticizing, move the bracelet to the other wrist and begin again. Stay with it until you can go 21 days without a complaint. This is tougher than it sounds. So far, more than 5 million people have ordered the bracelets. The average person reports needing 4 to 8 months to go a full 21 days without complaining. But the testimonials are glorious. This simple practice in mindfulness has transformed people’s lives and elevated entire organizations. My own purple bracelets are on the way. I’ll tell you how it goes at my house. You let me know how it works out at yours. In the meantime, here’s an amusing story from Reverend Bowen’s book to put you in the right frame of mind: A young monk joined an order that required total silence. At his discretion, the abbot could allow any monk to speak. It was nearly five years before the abbot approached the novice monk and said, “You may speak two words.” Choosing his words carefully, the monk said, “Hard bed.” With genuine concern, the abbot said, “I’m sorry your bed isn’t comfortable. We’ll see if we can get you another one.” Around his tenth year in the monastery, the abbot came to the young monk and said, “You may say two more words.”  “Cold food,” the monk said. “We’ll see what we can do,” the abbot said. On the monk’s fifteenth anniversary, the abbot said again, “You may now speak two words.”  “I quit,” the monk said. “It’s probably for the best,” replied the abbot. “You’ve done nothing but gripe since you got here.” Carpe Diem, Alex Have “Two Cents?” Just send your thoughts, ideas or comments to editor@spiritualwealth.com. Copyright © 2008 by The Oxford Club, L.L.C

This was written a few months back (early May 2008), but  checking on the website over 5.6 million purple bracelets have been ordered – which tells me people think this is a worthwhile experiment… hmmm, time for me to get one too!

Blessings
Tracey

(By Jeremy Orbell)

The evocative phrase: ‘Living every day with passion’ conjures up wildly different images for many people. Living is life, pure and simple, and your perception or definition of life is determined by your past experiences and your current thought patterns.

What does the word passion mean to you? Apart from the obvious sexual reference or lust, it can be about a very different kind of desire – the drive to succeed. It is an emotional term that can be positive or negative but it a powerful driving force. It could be for a political cause or just a hobby but ultimately it’s about doing what you love to do.

Life can be of heaven for some or hell for others. Then there are those who seem to view life purely as existence whereby they move from day-to-day without any inclination that there could be something more. Where do you fit in?

Take a moment to think about where you are this moment in time. Are you contented, stressed, angry, thrilled, eager or sad? None of the above? Express to yourself now your emotional state and say it out loud.

Well? Did telling yourself outright have any physiological effect on you and your body? Did you slouch, stand up, smile, jump around or nervously chew your nails? When you spoke was it vibrant, quiet, excited or angry?

What does this tell you? The sound of your voice and your posture is giving you an obvious sign of whether you are truly contented or not and you should treat the message being fed to you with respect.

I’m sure some of you will have noticed that I have asked a great number of questions in this article. The writing style may seem cumbersome but I have deliberately been using it to get across the importance of asking questions of yourself.

There is a rule that many life coaches use that says that you should never give direct advice if at all possible. This is because the coach’s viewpoint is mostly based on their own personal circumstances, morals and viewpoints; what would be right for them is not necessarily right for the client.

If you have a success coach of your own or witness a session taking place on TV, listen to how they speak to the coachee. It’s questions, questions, questions. This surprises many people as they often expect that they will be dispensed with some words of wisdom that will suddenly cure all their problems. Not true.

We all have it within us to solve our own problems because, let’s face it, who knows you better than yourself? Keep asking yourself questions and couple your answers with consistent action and you should begin to see some changes. If these changes don’t have the desired response try again, do it differently, until you have results that you are happy with.

Remember that we have options to choose from and decisions to make every moment of every day and we decide how we react to any one of them.

This may all seem to be off-topic but it isn’t really. Passion is an evocative word as we’ve said and when we attach it to the way we live we instantly become more positive and excited about life.

Do you feel passionate about our job? If the answer is no what does that mean? Apart from telling you that you probably shouldn’t even be doing it in the first place, it also asks you to consider your motives for being there at all. If it’s purely because of money are you able to accept that financial gain justifies any unhappiness on a longer term basis?

What activity gives you the greatest satisfaction and fulfillment? Think back now to the last time you experienced the high of doing exactly what you wanted to do, purely for the love of it. Grasp that memory and relive the feeling and do whatever you can to make it part of you.

Living every day with passion is about waking up in the morning excited about the day and the possibilities and opportunities that lay ahead of you. What will I learn, what will I experience, who will I meet?

Ask yourself again: “What is my passion?”. Decide now, take action and make it real. “

Jeremy Orbell wrote this article on Ecademy; I would like to thank him for asking enough questions to get my mind working in a much more enthusiastic way!

Some of us get to the stage in life where we need to find out what it is that we’re on this planet for, or what the purpose or meaning of our life is. I have been heading towards that point for a couple of years, and I think it has now hit me: I need to really find out what it is that gives me joy. What is it that makes me leap up each morning and love the day? What is it that will keep me going when times are tough or uncertain, and my path may not seem too clear?

I have been reading the book Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, a WWII concentration camp survivor. It’s rare for me to make notes in a book, but this one compelled me to – there were some very deep thoughts to go back to.

“It is spiritual freedom – which cannot be taken away – that makes life meaningful and purposeful”

and

He who knows the “why” for his existence, will be able to bear almost any “how”

What amazed me were the stories of how people survived the most horrendous experiences – because they had something to live for… even if that “something” was only in their mind! It’s proof, if proof is indeed needed, of the power of positive thoughts in our lives.

No matter what may happen or fail to happen, life is what you choose to make it. Choose again and again, in every situation, to make it great.
— Ralph Marston