Be Mindful
Awareness and gratitude. Try not to spend so much time focusing on things you have no power to change. Imagine a life where instead of focusing on those things, you switched your attention and directed all of your energy to the things that were in your control. Try it. Then top it off with a heavy serving of awareness and gratitude. Be aware of all that you have and don’t have. Be grateful for the challenges and opportunities you are fortunate enough to have experienced, are presently experiencing and the ones that you have yet to experience. It is those things that have helped you move past where you were, helped you get to where you are and that will get you to where you need to be. Reality. Learn to take things for what they are and temper your expectations. Doing so limits disappointments. Reality is what you can control and influence. Everything else is out of your hands. Recognizing life is already hard enough to handle, try not to give yourself more than you can reasonably (and unreasonably) control. Outcomes and results don’t determine peace (or your efforts to create it), happiness and the ability to have and spread joy. Don’t get lost in the shuffle; stay focused. Leisure. Dedicate yourself to working vigorously and purposefully on your self-development instead of allowing the media and other distractions in your life to consume you. How you spend your downtime says a lot about you. The key here is to always be growing in some way whether it be personally through reading and learning, growing by giving to and developing others, or any mixture of similar acts. If your thoughts and actions are pure and with good intention, your downtime will likely reflect that.
Surround yourself with great people. Being around great people, listening and learning from them will have positive effects on your life. Receiving advice and counsel are also other benefits. Just being around great people can penetrate your being if you pay close attention to things like what they put their effort in to, what they avoid and their mannerisms. It’s also a good idea to surround yourself with great books. Reading is fundamental to the process of self-development and mindfulness. It facilitates the exchange of thoughts and understanding. It also allows you to learn from others in a way that allows you to prepare for things that may happen in your life or gain a different perception or interpretation of things that may have occurred in your life. We’ve had elections before… many of them in fact. What are some of the lessons you could have learned or have observed through history that could have prepared you for what you are feeling today? “Truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable anymore.” – Herman Melville Be open to what arises moment after moment and accept that life is constant change. Realize this: change is good and a part of everything, for nothing remains the same. Every day of your life is change, every period of your life is change, we are and always will be in a state of change as will everything around us. So, embrace change, for it is natural and there is no true benefit in anything remaining the same.
3 Tips to Carry You Through the Week
Pause – Breathe – Listen When you feel yourself needing to release some potentially regrettable words, opinions, or aggression…PAUSE! Take a few long seconds before doing anything or addressing anyone. Notice where you need help or where others need help. If you have to communicate that you need some space, then do so. But before you do anything, clear your mind and BREATHE! Agree or disagree. Whatever side of things you find yourself on in the next hours, day, weeks, and months; respect people’s rights to have an opinion. Not everything needs a response, consider others’ perspectives as deep as you can and just LISTEN!
