Since trust is a vital component in the formation of relationships, putting your faith in others is necessary when connecting with people on a personal or professional level. It’s easy to justify defensiveness when we look out into the world and see only potential enemies. However, mistrust can drive a wedge between you and others before you even have a chance to bond, thus making bonding impossible. When you approach people openly, assuming that they, like you, have good intentions, intimacy and respect are nourished by your trust. You will discover that others live up to your expectations by treating the faith you have in them as the gift that it is. When you trust that others will not try to deceive you today, you will begin to relate to people in a more productive way.
Source: The Daily Om
Saturday, March 13, 2010
The Gift of Faith
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Learning detachment
Watching the stream of our emotions helps us become less attached to their effects on us. We can become overwhelmed by our feelings when we feel despondent. If we learn to let our feelings glide by us, however, we realize that our feelings are never permanent. While they may seem important at the time, they do not define our lives. We may even begin to notice that sadness often is a signal for us to take a rest from the outside world and find peace within ourselves. Learning to see the changing nature of your feelings today will give you the means to cope with any uncomfortable situation that arises.
Source: The Daily Om
Saturday, March 6, 2010
What if tomorrow never comes?
What if tomorrow never comes? Have you lived the courageous life you've always been inspired to live? Have you taken risks, fallen down, stood back up, tried again and again and again until you finally got it right? Did you give it your all so when you look back you have zero regrets and lots of scars? Can you honestly look at yourself in the mirror and see respect staring back at you? Have you felt fear and done it anyway?
What if tomorrow never comes? Could you honestly say you lived your life to the fullest? Could you say with a hearty "YES!" that you never ran away from love? Would you be able to say that you let the most important people in your life know how much they mean to you and that they aren't taken for granted? Would you change anything in the past or are you proud of the path you've taken?
What is tomorrow never comes? Have you been able to embrace life's messiness and realize it'll never be perfectly perfect? Did you have the courage to stand up for what you believe in not minding the consequences, no matter what?
What if tomorrow never comes? Would you have died with your music still in you? Would that precious gift that is only yours to give to this world die with you? Or would you and your gift live on eternally in the hearts of those it touched?
What's true for you and me is that one day tomorrow will never come, what if it's tomorrow?
By Mastin Kipp
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Dealing with conflict
One of the most difficult challenges we face in our quest to be compassionate is dealing with conflict.
Those we love most tend to be the ones most likely to engage us in sparring that cuts the deepest.
Why do we allow ourselves to use our harshest words and most acid tone of voice with the people we love most? Precisely because we love them most. We're counting on unconditional love.
We know we are likely to be forgiven. We feel close enough to let our true ugliness shine.
(Maya Talisman Frost)
The above quote pretty much says it all, but it is so ironic that we all seek that unconditional love from another person, yet these are the people who hurt us the most and we hurt back in return . . . or the other way around.
Why do we allow ourselves to use our harshest words and most acid tone of voice with the people we love most? Precisely because we love them most. We're counting on unconditional love.
We know we are likely to be forgiven. We feel close enough to let our true ugliness shine.
(Maya Talisman Frost)
The above quote pretty much says it all, but it is so ironic that we all seek that unconditional love from another person, yet these are the people who hurt us the most and we hurt back in return . . . or the other way around.
The quote also begs to ponder the question about using our harshest words that we know will hurt the most. We should not want to hurt that person we love so much, yet we try so hard to inflict as much pain on them as we possibly can. Why can't rational thinking people be kinder to each other when dealing with conflict, even if we totally disagree about something.
It is one of the absurd oddities of life!
Labels:
conflict,
struggles,
unconditional love
Love Yourself
"It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others."
Sydney J. Harris
"We have the need to be accepted and to be loved by others, but we cannot accept and love ourselves. The more self-love we have, the less we will experience self-abuse. Self-abuse comes from self-rejection, and self-rejection comes from having an image of what it means to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal. Our image of perfection is the reason we reject ourselves the way we are, and why we don't accept others the way they are."
Don Miguel Ruiz
"There is no freedom like seeing myself as I am and not losing heart."
Elizabeth J. Canham
"If we could learn to like ourselves, even a little, maybe our cruelties and angers might melt away."
John Steinbeck
Labels:
self-acceptance
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The Real Thing
Relationships that leave you feeling depleted,
sad and making excuses are not based in love.
Often in our lives, we fall prey to the idea of a thing rather than actually experiencing the thing itself. We see this at play in our love lives and in the love lives of our friends, our family, and even fictional characters. The conceptualizing, depiction, and pursuit of true love are multimillion-dollar industries in the modern world. However, very little of what is offered actually leads us to an authentic experience of love. Moreover, as we grasp for what we think we want and fail to find it, we may suffer and bring suffering to others. When this is the case, when we suffer more than we feel healed, we can be fairly certain that what we have found is not love but something else.
When we feel anxious, excited, nervous, and thrilled, we are probably experiencing romance, not love. Romance can be a lot of fun as long as we do not try to make too much of it. If we try to make more of it than it is, the romance then becomes painful. Romance may lead to love, but it may also fade without blossoming into anything more than a flirtation. If we cling to it and try to make it more, we might find ourselves pining for a fantasy, or worse, stuck in a relationship that was never meant to last.
Real love is identifiable by the way it makes us feel. Love should feel good. There is a peaceful quality to an authentic experience of love that penetrates to our core, touching a part of ourselves that has always been there. True love activates this inner being, filling us with warmth and light. An authentic experience of love does not ask us to look a certain way, drive a certain car, or have a certain job. It takes us as we are, no changes required. When people truly love us, their love for us awakens our love for ourselves. They remind us that what we seek outside of ourselves is a mirror image of the lover within. In this way, true love never makes us feel needy or lacking or anxious. Instead, true love empowers us with its implicit message that we are, always have been, and always will be, made of love.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Personal Growth and Self-Improvement
Acknowledging Your Growth
Foundations of Evolution
Since personal evolution is most often a slow and gradual process, it can be difficult to recognize the scope of the changes taking place in our lives. Yet it is important that we regularly acknowledge our ongoing growth and reward ourselves for the many wonderful feats of self-improvement we have accomplished. When we intentionally contemplate our progress, we need never feel that we are languishing between past achievements and the realization of future goals. If we look closely at our lives, we may see that much of what brings us pleasure in the present is representative of the ambitions of our past that we worked so hard to attain. At one time, the abundance we enjoy currently likely seemed like a far-off dream. Now it is simply reality—a reality we created through our diligence, passion, and unflagging determination. Whether our progress is fast or slow, we deserve to congratulate ourselves for our successes.
To remind yourself of the insights you have gained with time, temporarily adopt an outsider’s perspective and carefully consider how your life in the present differs from the range of experiences you lived through in the past. Creating a written list, in a journal or otherwise, of those strengths, aptitudes, and inner qualities you now attribute to yourself can help you accept that you are not the same person you were one year ago, five years ago, or 10 years ago. Your attitudes, opinions, and values were likely markedly different, and these differences can be ascribed to your willingness to accept that you still have much to learn. If you have difficulty giving yourself credit for these changes, think about the goals you realized, the lives you touched, the wisdom you acquired, and the level of enlightenment you attained over the past years.
Recognizing growth is neither boastful nor immodest. Evolution is a natural fact of life and becomes a potent motivational force when celebrated. Knowing that you are brighter, stronger, and more grounded than you once were, you can look forward to the changes to come. In acknowledging your growth, you build a sturdy foundation upon which you can continue to blossom well into the future.
Source: The Daily OM
The reality you experience
is a mirror image of your expectations.
is a mirror image of your expectations.
(Deepak Chopra)
What if your expectations are unrealistic and
the reality of your experience is disappointing as a result?
the reality of your experience is disappointing as a result?
Hazy Shade of Winter | The Bangles
Lyrics
Lyrics
Time, time, time
See what's become of me
Time, time, time
See what's become of me
While I looked around
For my possibilities
I was so hard to please
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
Is a hazy shade of winter
Hear the salvation army band
Down by the riverside
It's bound to be a better ride
Than what you've got planned
Carry a cup in your hand
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
Is a hazy shade of winter
Hang on to your hopes my friend
That's an easy thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend
That you can build them again
Look around
Grass is high
Fields are ripe
It's the springtime of my life
Seasons change with the scenery
Weaving time in a tapestry
Won't you stop and remember me
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
It's a hazy shade of winter
Look around
Leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground
See what's become of me
Time, time, time
See what's become of me
While I looked around
For my possibilities
I was so hard to please
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
Is a hazy shade of winter
Hear the salvation army band
Down by the riverside
It's bound to be a better ride
Than what you've got planned
Carry a cup in your hand
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
Is a hazy shade of winter
Hang on to your hopes my friend
That's an easy thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend
That you can build them again
Look around
Grass is high
Fields are ripe
It's the springtime of my life
Seasons change with the scenery
Weaving time in a tapestry
Won't you stop and remember me
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
It's a hazy shade of winter
Look around
Leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground
Labels:
expectations,
personal growth,
self-improvement
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