Letting Go--
To "let go" does not mean to stop caring. It means I can't do it for someone else.
To "let go" is not to cut myself off. It's the realization that I can't control another.
To "let go" is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To "let go" is not to try to change or blame another. It's to make the most of myself.
To "let go" is not to care for, but to care about.
To "let go" is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To "let go" is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.
To "let go" is not to be in the middle, arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to affect their own destinies.
To "let go" is not to deny, but to accept.
To "let go" is not to nag, scold, or argue, but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To "let go" is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.
To "let go" is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.
To "let go" is to fear less and to love more.
--Author Unknown
TEN LAWS OF WELL-BEING (See Comments Below)
1. WELCOME
2. ENGAGE
3. LEARN
4. LAUGH
5. BE
6. EXPRESS
7. INVENT
8. NURTURE
9. GIVE
10.AND LOVE
1.Welcome
Welcome every day that you possibly can as a gift. Take time to appreciate the vast and varied pleasures which make up your life – warm drinks, sunshine, music, the face of a loved one, flowers, inviting scents, a loving touch, a gentle breeze… Take a few moments to breathe deeply and to experience gratitude. Acknowledge the lessons in even painful experiences - for they are often our most powerful teachers.
2. Engage
Engage in activities that foster emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. Too often we allow ourselves to get so caught up in the details that we fail to provide ourselves with the necessary ingredients that make up a balanced and meaningful life. When we deprive ourselves of what we truly need, it’s easy to begin to perceive life as a struggle rather than a precious journey.
Engage in meaningful contact with others, engage in the moment, and engage all your senses. To engage is to promise, promise yourself the gift of your life.
3. Learn
Life consists of one lesson after another. Pay attention to them when they present themselves, even when it hurts. When we learn - we deepen and empower ourselves, and we expand our horizons. Learning diminishes limits and widens our trail. In general, those who live to learn - live longest.
4. Laugh
Laugh often and loudly. Laughter improves the immune system, relieves stress and lightens burdens.
5. Be
Be where you are this minute, not lost in tomorrow or yesterday. While plans and goals can be important; and reflection may offer wisdom, it’s the now that guarantees - only the now that pledges itself to you. The past has left you, the future eludes you, yet the now enfolds you. Embrace it. You’re already in its arms, allow it to cradle you.
6. Express
Express yourself. You’re unique, imperfect, wonderful, complicated, and evolving. Allow yourself to be who you are even as you work to grow and change. Don’t hide yourself away. Share your feelings and dreams with those who are trustworthy. There’s so much of you – plenty to go around, and like all that exists in abundance, if it’s not shared, it wastes away.
7. Invent
Life is perhaps the most magical when we choose to create. Create as many meaningful experiences as possible, look at the world with your own unique eyes, recognize and accept your ability and responsibility to shape moments, days - your life. Invent and reinvent your life story – it belongs solely to you, enliven it with spirit.
8. Nurture
Nurture your body, your mind, and your soul. Don’t starve them or pollute them. Acknowledge that inside of you there exists an unimaginable world, filled with mystery and magic, one that’s vast and complex, magnificent and yet vulnerable. You are truly a work of art, a miracle, honor the world which is you.
9. Give
Give to those that share your world - both the inner and outer inhabitants. Give your body what it requires, give your emotional life what it needs, give your spiritual self what it must have, and give to others what they too deserve.
Care for and share with all of your brothers and sisters. Remind yourself that just as the earth is round and can’t be seen from both sides unless you’re standing above it, there’s also much about the world of others which eludes you, thus making it difficult for you to completely understand, and impossible to judge.
Give freely. Give without expectations. Give to yourself.
10. Love
Love well and love long. While Love can wound it also heals. Love requires much and offers more.
Written by Tammie Byram Fowles
The True Joy of Life:
"This is the true joy of life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailment and grievance complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live, and I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before passing it on to future generations."
Written by George Bernard Shaw
On Hope...
Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Either we have hope or we don't; it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, and orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons ...Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
Written by Vaclav Havel
ON GIVING
Then said a rich man, Speak to us of Giving.
And he answered:
You give but little when you give of your
possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you
truly give.
For what are your possessions but things
you keep and guard
for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow
bring to the over prudent dog
burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the
to the holy city?
And what if fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full,
the thirst that is unquenchable?
There are those who give little
of the much which they have-
and they give it
for recognition and their hidden desire
makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life,
and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy,
and their joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain,
and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not
pain in giving, nor so they seek joy,
nor give with mindfulness of virtue:
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle
breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God
speaks, and from behind their eyes
He smiles upon the earth.
It is well to give when when asked, but it is
better to give unasked, through understanding:
And to the open-handed the search for
one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.
And is there ought you would withhold?
All you have shall some day be given:
Therefore give now, that the season of
giving may be yours and not your inheritors`.
You often say,"I would give, but only to the deserving."
The trees in your orchard say not so,
nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live,
for to with-hold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his
days and nights, is worthy of all else from you.
And he who has deserved to drink from
the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.
And what desert greater shall there be,
than that, which lies in the courage and the
confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?
And who are you that men should rend
their bosom and unveil their pride,
that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?
See first that you yourself deserve to be
a giver,and an instrument of giving.
For in truth it is life that gives unto life-
while you, who deem yourself a giver are but a witness.
And you receivers- and you are all
receivers- assume no weight of gratitude,
lest you lay a yoke upon
yourself and upon he who gives.
Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings:
For to be over mindful of your debt, is
to doubt his generosity who has the
free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father
Written by Kahil Gibran
Thoughts on "Attitude"
Attitude
"Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier." (Charles Kettering)
"An optimist expects his dreams to come true; a pessimist expects his nightmares to."
(Lawrence J. Peter.)
"Our life is what our thoughts make it." (Marcus Aurelius)
"As ye think, so shall ye be." (Jesus Christ)
"What we think, we become." (Buddha)
"We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and delusion, just as effectively as bombs."
(Kenneth Clark)
"Change your thoughts and you change your world." (Norman Vincent Peale)
"Your life is what your thoughts make of it." (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus)
"Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it." (Ernest
Holmes)
"Think in terms of poverty and you will live in poverty." (Napoleon Hill)
"Things are only worth what you make them worth." (Moliere)
"The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind."
(William James)
"Either I will find a way, or I will make one." (Philip Sidney)
"Everyone constructs their own bed of nails." (D. Sutten)
"Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it." (Dennis P.
Kimbro)
DESIDERADA
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater
and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble,
it's a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantement,
it is as perrenial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit
to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
From the Alt.Usage.English FAQ: "Desiderata" was written in 1927 by Max Ehrmann (1872-1945). In 1956, the rector of St. Paul's Church in Baltimore, Maryland, used the poem in a collection of mimeographed inspirational material for his congregation. Someone who subsequently printed it asserted that it was found in Old St. Paul's Church, dated 1692. The year 1692 was the founding date of the church and has nothing to do with the poem. See Fred D. Cavinder, "Desiderata", TWA Ambassador, Aug. 1973, pp. 14-15.
