26 August 2024         

   

Welcome to today!  This day in your life is completely unique, unlike any
other day that you've lived so far.  What are you going to do to take advantage
of the unique opportunities to do cool things and share your love today?

   
   

   

Tricks to Switching Focus
Lynn Grabhorn

Creative Light
Wilferd A. Peterson

Change
tom walsh

   
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Simple and Profound Thoughts
(from Simple and Profound)

How many undervalue the power of simplicity!  But it is the real key to the heart.    -William Wordsworth

Don't play for safety.  It's the most dangerous thing in the world.    - Hugh Walpole

When we cannot bear to be alone, it means we do not properly value the only companion we will have from birth to death--ourselves.   - Eda LeShan

Little people with little minds and little imaginations go through life in little ruts, smugly resisting all changes which would jar their little worlds.    - Zig Ziglar

   

  
Tricks to Switching Focus (an excerpt)
Lynn Grabhorn

As a kid, did you ever jump off a high dive?  Do you remember that very first time you climbed up. . . and up. . . and up?  Each step seemed to take you farther away from safety, but even though you were scared, you kept on going.

Finally came the top of the ladder.  You walked tentatively out to the end of the board.  Your heart pounded so hard you could barely hear the kids below shouting you on.  The water seemed five miles away.  You didn't really want to do this thing, while at the same time you did.  Something in you knew this was epic, the greatest moment you would ever know, that if you did this, you would never be the same.  You jumped.  What a rush!  You made it.  And indeed, your life had changed forever.

The toughest part of ungluing ourselves from the high dive habit of an on-going problem (for that's all problems are . . . are habits) is forcing ourselves to release our preoccupation with it.  Like so:

You don't have to change it;
You just have to stop focusing on it!

Is it tough?  Yes!  Can it be done?  You bet!  But you have to start someplace, and that someplace is a decision that, somehow, you're going to change your focus.

Then comes actually doing it, changing your focus to something more pleasant so you can change your energy.

It is impossible to solve a problem in the same frequency in which it was created, so you make a decision that for as long as it's with you, that problem will no longer be the focal point of your life.  Like having a cut on your finger; you know it's there and yes it hurts when you think about it, but you don't allow it to govern your everyday living.  You believe it will heal and go away, and so it does.

Just remember, the most important part to changing an unwanted condition is simply:  you don't have to change it; you just have to stop thinking about it!  All it takes is that willingness to jump.

Trick #1.  Switch focus.  Now!

The moment you recognize you're focusing on the condition with your worry-motor running (or ticked-off motor, or blame motor, etc.), find something else, anything else to think about that will get you to feeling even a tiny bit better than you do at present.  And find it right now!

Switch your thoughts to your mate (if you've got a great relationship), your home, a song, your doggie, your new sweatshirt, a chocolate sundae, making love, your upcoming vacation, your last vacation, a special restaurant, your youngster asleep.  ANYthing!  Make yourself do this, staying there until you can feel your mood begin to change--which means your energy has changed--no matter how slight.

Once you make the feeling switch, then start talking--out loud--about what it is you want (that's "want," not "don't want") in place of your unwanted condition.  By doing that, your focus is now off of the condition, your Intent motor is running in its place, and you've gotten your valve open enough to begin the turnaround.  And for heaven's sake, never mind that your Replacement Want may seem impossible.  Just get into it and forget the "how to's."

If you can't get into your Want/Intent feeling mode, never mind.  Just stay in the feeling of some pleasant new focus for as long as you can.  The longer (and more often) you can stay in that higher frequency, the quicker your unwanted condition will begin to dissipate.  Conversely, the more you retain your focus on whatever has been bothering you, the longer it will stay around.

Trick #2.  Tender-talk it out.  Now!

When you just can't seem to get your focus off the condition, start some soothing talk to yourself, out loud, much like a loving mom or dad might comfort a little one.  Tell yourself all the comforting things a youngster would want to hear:  that it's going to be okay, that things are in the process of changing, that you've always been safe and always will be, that you have nothing to fear.

Keep talking warmly for as long as it takes for you to feel that subtle little switch happen, and you can feel your resistance to the higher energies backing down.  You are relaxing into well-being, your resistance to that Life-giving Source energy is lessening, and you're quieting down.  Stay there as long as you can, with your focus off the disturbing condition.

Trick #3.  Tough-talk it out.  Now!

This is tough-love kind of talk . . . out loud . . . to yourself, one on one.  But here's the trick:  you need to get tough, not down on yourself.  Don't you ever, ever, ever get down on yourself when you find you're focusing on an unwanted condition.

What you're after here is stern, horse-sense reasoning where you firmly point out to yourself what will transpire if you continue to focus on--and stew over--the condition.  Then you tell yourself quite matter-of-factly what will happen when you remove your focus and change your vibration.

"Now look, Charlie, you got yourself into this mess, and you are going to find a way to get yourself out.  But if you're going to stay in this mood and stew about it all day long, you know the situation is going to get worse.  So get off your pity pot and find some dumb thing to feel good about.  Hell yes, I know you don't feel like feeling good right now, but . . ."

Who cares if you believe it or not?  Fake it until you feel the switch in feeling take place, that subtle shift in your energy.

This is an approach of hard logic.  While I use it regularly and it always makes me feel better, I find I usually have to jump from this back into one of the other tricks to get more of that quieted-down Feel Good motor running full steam.  But that's just me.  Whatever it takes for you, go for it!

Trick #4.  Do something fun.  Now!

Get physical!  Go for a walk, polish your car, brush your cat, buy a new suit, bake a cake, play poker, trim your flowers, go to a movie, whatever turns you on that will take your stuck focus off the condition and soften your resistance to flowing that higher energy.  Once you feel the shift happen, start talking out loud, gently at first, about what you want in place of the unwanted condition.

With any of these tricks, keep in mind that old expression, "Fake it 'til you make it."  You switch focus, you talk warmly, you talk tough, you go for fun, you pretend, but the point is, you do it the moment you realize your attention is on the unwanted condition, and you stay there until you feel your feelings flip over.  They will

more thoughts and ideas on perspective

   


   
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Creative Light
Wilferd A. Peterson

In February, 1987, astronomers made a sensational discovery, when a supernova--an exploding star--burst into view over the southern sky.  Not a single supernova had been seen in our galaxy since 1604.

Creative thinking, an explosion of ideas, is powerfully akin to this celestial event.  Creativity brings light into every corner of the world.  There are big ideas and little ideas, working together to create the magic by which inner darkness disappears.  And we can all be a part of this process.

I like the old proverb:  "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness."  We need to create a moral and spiritual equivalent to the supernova here on our earth, a super-creativity which will abolish war, which will conquer hunger, poverty, disease, and crime.

Light illuminates, penetrates the darkness, shows the way ahead.  Light is synonymous with creativity.  It is explosive mental power.  It is the mind aflame, the heart aglow, the spirit aware.  It is God at work through you.

Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh were America's golden couple.  Then in March, 1932, their young son, Charles Lindbergh, Jr., was kidnapped and brutally murdered.

In her published letters and diary entries, Anne Morrow Lindbergh recounts the tragic months that followed.  For her, the light that guided her through the grief was learning how others had come through their trials.

Just as she was indebted to the people who had left behind their testimonies, Anne Morrow Lindbergh believed that in her books she, too, must leave her own "little grain of truth."  After all, grain must be resown in order to grow.

Goethe's cry, "More light," as he was dying brought a dynamic message to all of us.  For this is what we need in every area of life; more inspiration, more love, more tolerance, more understanding, more thinking.  More light is the goal of all creative thinkers.  It is absolutely limitless in the scope of its possibilities.
  

Living Life Fully, the e-zine
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If you as parents cut corners, your children will too.  If you lie, they will too.
If you spend all your money on yourselves and tithe no portion of it for charities,
colleges, churches, synagogues, and civic causes, your children won't either.
And if parents snicker at racial and gender jokes, another generation will pass
on the poison adults still have not had the courage to snuff out.

Marian Wright Edelman

   

 
Change

It's been rightly said (in an ironic way) that change is the only constant in life.  We all face changes every day in every realm of our lives--changes in beliefs, in preferences, in knowledge, in our physical bodies, in relationships, in jobs.  You name it, and you can be sure that there's a change in it, or in the ways that we relate to it.

In living our lives fully, it's important that we recognize our own attitudes towards change.  Many of us fear change and do everything we can to prevent it, thus involving ourselves in a truly useless battle that leads us inevitably to frustration and even possibly anger as the changes we've battled come to be even though we've fought against them.  Because things will change in life--kids grow up, jobs change to fit the business environment, people grow and learn and develop and see the world differently, people quit their jobs, prices rise--heck, even our climate is changing these days, and there's no way to put any of these things back where they were, so it's important to deal with them as they are, not how we wish that they were.
   

Those persons are happiest in this restless and mutable world
who are in love with change, who delight in what is new
simply because it differs from what is old; who rejoice
in every innovation, and find a strange alert pleasure
in all that is, and that has never been before.

Agnes Repplier

   
We can be happy with any change only if we accept it and react to how things are now.  Of course, not all changes are positive--we're going through some very negative changes in our school these days--but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't accept those changes.  Only when we completely accept the fact that something has changed can we work to fight that change, if not to put things back as they were, then to put things onto a more positive track for the future.

Change can be exhilarating, as Agnes points out, for when change happens, we're forced to learn new things and to grow ourselves.  It becomes necessary for us to adapt and to approach life from a new perspective, to see things in new and different ways, and to re-create ourselves so that we can deal with new situations.  Sometimes, if we're becoming bored and uninspired, we can decide to make changes that will force us out of our safety zones, out of our zones of little conflict into entirely new worlds in new cities, new jobs, and new environments.  And when we do that, we're saying to life, "Yes, life, I trust you to make sure that things will turn out well, even if they appear to be going poorly for a while."

Some people, unfortunately, tend to rush into changes out of fear, and fear is a motivating factor that we usually shouldn't allow to determine our actions (unless our fear is for our life or of physical harm).  Or they look for change simply for the sake of change, and they often don't learn much of anything at all from their current situations before they're looking for something new already.  They jump from place to place or job to job without ever learning the important lessons that each place or job can teach them.

Others don't spend the time making sure the change that they seek is the most appropriate one.  How many people seek divorce without ever considering counseling?  How many quit their jobs without seeking to improve their performance or to deal with problems they have on their jobs?
    

Nearly all great civilizations that perished did so because
they had crystallized, because they were incapable of adapting
themselves to new conditions, new methods, new points of view.
It is as though people would literally rather die than change.


Eleanor Roosevelt

    
Fear is also a motivator that can make people avoid change.  They may be offered a new job that pays better and has better working conditions, yet turn it down because they're afraid they won't do well in it, or because it involves changing residences, or because they're afraid of working with new people.  How many people don't buy the new computer--even though they need it--because they're intimidated by having to learn an entirely new operating system?  How many people won't leave destructive relationships because they're afraid that they won't meet someone else, and that they'll be alone?

But change is a universal--there is literally nothing on this planet that is exactly the same as it was two months ago.  Even stones and mountains wear away little by little, whether we see the changes or not.  Things simply have to change if they're to stay living and dynamic--so why do we spend so much time and effort trying to make things stay the same in our lives?  Why do we decide that everything should be exactly the same as it was one year ago, or two?  That kind of attitude forces us into stagnation, and stagnant water is unhealthy water that cannot support healthy forms of life--just unhealthy forms, and just for a short while until the stagnant water itself dries up and is no more.
   

Why should anyone be afraid of change?  What can take place without it?
What can be more pleasing or more suitable to universal nature?
   Can you take your bath without the firewood undergoing a change?  Can
you eat without the food undergoing a change?  And can anything useful
be done without change?
   Don't you see that for you to change is just the same, and is equally
necessary for universal nature?

Marcus Aurelius

   
Your change is necessary for your development, and it's necessary for the development of the other people in your life, and it's necessary for the world as a whole, too, just as Marcus Aurelius says.  For you not to change is for you to defy life and its natural course, and we should not be defying life--we should be flowing with it and trusting it to take us where we need to go.  So look for the places in your life in which you're stagnating, and begin the process of change.  Read different books, or more books.  Fight your addictions that keep you locked in certain behaviors.  Ask for help from others who have been there.  Pray--not for change, but for the strength to make the changes, and for the discernment necessary to know which changes really are important.

When you can start to see change as an ally that will help you to grow and learn and develop, rather than a threat to the status quo that keeps you safe and stagnant, then you can start to live your life as fully as your life was meant to be lived.  You were created to be a dynamic, thriving being, and not a static, stagnant one.

   
More on change.

   
   

   

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There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as
they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be
good and kind to person and beast, it is all a sham.

Anna Sewell

  
The circumstances amid which you live determine your reputation; the truth you believe determines your character.

Reputation is what you are supposed to be; character is what you are.

Reputation is the photograph; character is the face.

Reputation comes over one from without; character grows up from within.

Reputation is what you have when you come to a new community; character is what you have when you go away.

Your reputation is learned in an hour; your character does not come to light for a year.

Reputation is made in a moment; character is built in a lifetime.

Reputation grows like a mushroom; character grows like the oak.

A single newspaper report gives you your reputation; a life of toil gives you your character.

Reputation makes you rich or makes you poor; character makes you happy or makes you miserable.

Reputation is what people say about you on your tombstone; character is what angels say about you before the throne of God.

William Hersey Davis

   

  

Every time we hold our tongue instead of returning the sharp retort,
show patience for another's faults, show a little more love and kindness;
we are helping to stockpile more of these peace-bringing qualities in the world.

Constance Foster

    

  

Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.

   
    

   

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