Don't Be A Passive Participant in Life This Year

Keep the optimism and hope of the new year by exercising and practicing the discipline of positive thinking each day.  Our relationships can have a major impact on our positive thinking.  For this reason, make it a goal this year to work on your most important relationships.  At the heart of successful and rewarding relationships is the ability to effectively communicate.  From my experience, effective communication entails a few basic goals for constructive confrontation and conflict resolution:

a) Convey the truth

b) Listen

c) Preserve the relationship

Passive participation in any relationship leads to dissatisfaction.  Passive participation is helplessness.  Helplessness is a lack of control.  Lack of control in any situation leads to dissatisfaction.  You can avoid dissatisfaction in your life this year.

Positive Thinking Brings Success

Sometimes, all it takes for continued motivation, and a little extra weight loss, is to just visualize yourself at your ideal weight. Do this throughout the day, especially before meals and voilá!

Make the Best of It

Make the best of it. When you make the best of whatever you're focused upon, your future will be better than your now. If each moment you're making the best of what-is, no matter what it is, you make the best of it; make the best of it; make the best of it—your future just gets better and better and better, and better.

--- Abraham- Hicks

Sappy Poem of the Day

Anyone with an email account and a bunch of friends gets a bunch of sappy emails over the course of time. Some are worth the read and others simply get the delete key. The timing of this poem in my inbox this morning is curious, and I felt it was blogworthy for a couple of reasons. First, it is a heartwarming poem, which I have seen several times before and always find truths within. Secondly, it has been circulating the Internet for over ten years and has been attributed to several authors along the way, including Hillary Clinton, Maya Angelou and Jesse Jackson. Pamela Redman Satran wrote the following poem, and it was first published in Glamour Magazine in May, 1997 under the title: "30 Things Every Woman Should Have & Should Know by the Time She's 30." It's never too late girls, enjoy!

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
enough money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own,
even if she never wants to or needs to...
something perfect to wear if the employer,
or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .
a youth she's content to leave behind....
a past juicy enough that she's looking forward to
retelling it in her old age....
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra...
one friend who always makes her laugh... and one who lets her cry....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ........
a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family...
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems,
and a recipe for a meal,
that will make her guests feel honored....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..
a feeling of control over her destiny...
how to fall in love without losing herself..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW....
how to quit a job,
break up with a lover,
and confront a friend without;
ruining the friendship....

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW....
when to try harder... and WHEN TO WALK AWAY...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that she can't change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..
that her childhood may not have been perfect....but it's over....

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she would and wouldn't do for love or more....
how to live alone.... even if she doesn't like it...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW.. .
whom she can trust,
whom she can't,
and why she shouldn't take it personally...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
where to go...
be it to her best friend's kitchen table..
or a charming Inn in the woods...
when her soul needs soothing....

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
What she can and can't accomplish in a day...
a month...and a year...

Your Thoughts Become You

Thoughts that bring about good feelings mean you are on the right track. Thoughts that bring about bad feelings means you are not on the right track. -The Secret

I'm always trying to get the teen blogson to understand this concept. Positive mental attitude is a challenging discipline, and must be practiced daily.

Summer Arrives in the Northeast on Saturday

Expect 80's and sunshine this weekend!!! Who woo!

Successful Weight Loss

Even blessed with a favorable metabolism, middle age will definitely slow it down. So, here's my take on the plain and simple fundamentals of weight loss. No fancy or fads diets necessary:

-reduce total calories consumed.
-count calories: burn more than eat more.
-exercise.
-plan healthy meals and snacks in advance.
-visualize your ideal weight, think thin thoughts not fat thoughts.
-track weekly progress and tweak routine regularly.

It's a Cock-Eyed World

There's a lot going on right now. To some, the current state of the economy and the political climate can be very depressing, and to others, all these changes can be hopeful and uplifting. Whatever you feel about the current state of events, in and out of our country, each night before you go to bed complete the following statements:

"I am grateful for ..."
"Today I accomplished..."

This is a good distraction and an excellent habit, which focuses on positive thinking. Where there is gratitude, there is abundance. Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite.

Renewal in the New Year

It takes a lot of work to become the person you want to be.  It takes practice and mental exercise every day.

“The inability or rather unwillingness of the human mind to let go of the past is beautifully illustrated in the story of two Zen monks, Tanzan and Ekido, who were walking along a country road that had become extremely muddy after heavy rains. Near a village, they came upon a young woman who was trying to cross the road, but the mud would have ruined the silk kimono she was wearing. Tanzan at once picked her up and carried her to the other side.

“The monks walked on in silence. Five hours later, as they were approaching the lodging temple, Ekido couldn’t restrain himself any longer. ‘Why did you carry that girl across the road?’ he asked. ‘We monks are not supposed to do things like that.’

“’I put the girl down hours ago,’ said Tanzan. ‘Are you still carrying her?’

“Now imagine what life would be like for someone who lives like Ekido all the time, unable or unwilling to let go internally of situations, accumulating more and more ‘stuff’ inside, and you get a sense of what life is like of the majority of people on our planet. What a heavy burden of past they carry around with them in their minds.”
- Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life's Purpose