Inspiration ~ August 31, 2011

I chose inspiration today . . . since that it was one of the purposes of this page ~ to inspire. I've been picking Micheal Teal quotes a lot lately, just drawn to them for some reason.  These were listed in order together and that seemed to me a sign that I should share these ones. Besides, they each spoke to me; I  just couldn't help but post them. Hope you enjoy.

Quotes

Kind words and deeds will raise your consciousness and enable you to identify with the soul. Let yours be a message of joy and hope, for doing so will open you to the gifts of spirit. By creating an extraordinary life that fits your dreams you clothe your soul with enlightenment and inspiration. Write a new chapter and make the book of your life a story of happiness that celebrates love as a blessing. ~ Micheal Teal

In my heart there are visions of hope and beauty that celebrate the human imagination. Imagine Peace and you inspire the purpose within, Imagine Love and the seeds of possibilities will enable you to live your true nature and evoke your own greatness. Let us all be inspired to Imagine a world of unbridled joy and shared humanity for doing so will lead us to a rose garden of spirituality where happiness is a way of life. ~ Micheal Teal

Create harmony and peace and a spark of the divine will light your soul. A happy and passionate life begins with an inspired heart and a fertile spiritual landscape. Know that he who is at one with the beauty of nature is rich in spirit and embraces a higher vibration. The seasons of transformation are upon us, discover your true purpose and yours will be a love filled journey towards wholeness and happiness. ~ Micheal Teal

Blog Posts

Being Patient Through Transformation: Trust, Change, Believe ~ Have you ever tried to hurry the bloom of a flower? When I was a kid I remember doing this; I imagine that it was much like trying to help the butterfly in this post. ~ "Hold onto what you believe in. You’re meant to emerge as a beautiful butterfly from your chrysalis. Always remember that, with a smile, and give yourself a chance to delight and revel in the mysterious workings of the universe." 


Tiny Wisdom: We Get To Decide If Today Counts ~ A MUST read ~ "If we worry about everything we wish we did, or could do with our lives, we will miss out on the opportunity to really live them–right here and right now. Regardless of our age, we all have two things in common: we get to decide whether or not we think this moment matters; and we get to decide what exactly it means to make it count."

Do You Know How Beautiful You Are? ~ "When you listen to the sound of your soul, what do you hear?"

April 20, 2011

Quotes

"Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope." ~ Maya Angelou

"Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you." ~ Hafiz

"Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it." ~ Groucho Marx 

Blog Posts

Tiny Wisdom: On Getting ~ "I haven’t always been trusting in love. I haven’t always been generous with what I have. I haven’t always been bold with my resources. But today I choose possibility over fear. Do you?"

The Way to Begin a New Beginning ~  "Nature does few things, but it does them very well. It does them with joy and wild abandon. It doesn’t matter to nature that a tweet has come in, or another tree has prettier leaves, or that the phone is ringing or a text is flashing. Nature knows what it needs to do and does it."

Quotes from other Pages

Blessing for Work "May the light of your soul guide you. May the light of your soul bless the work You do with the secret love and warmth of your heart. May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul. May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those Who work with you and to those who see and receive your work."
~John O'Donohue ~ Via Chopra Center

"I LOVE that feeling. You KNOW, the ONE you get when you take a deep breath and S...UDDENLY everything FEELS like it’s going to be OKAY. When you feel as hopeless as can be and life is going nowhere, there are those moments we have every now and then when we get this feeling that can’t be DESCRIBED, but you get this RUSH and the world STOPS spinning for a second and EVERYTHING is CLEAR and at that MOMENT, you JUST know." ♥ uNkNoWn ~ By: ‎"gr8quotes"

 

Videos

 

Lady Gaga - Born this Way cover - This young lady has an incredible voice.  Loved this version of the song.  My hubby thinks its better than Gaga. There is nothing like a girl singing with her piano.

 

April 18, 2011

21 Tips to release self neglect and love yourself in action ~ "You don’t have to be different to be worthy. Your worth is in your true nature, a core of love and inner goodness. You are a beautiful light. You are love. We can bury our magnificence, but it’s impossible to destroy." From Tiny Buddha

Tiny Wisdom: On Enjoying the Light ~ “If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine.” -Morris West

Create ~ "Seize the bull by the horns, grasp it tenaciously, never let it go. Time has a habit of trampling over us, so softly we don’t even notice but so powerfully we become crushed over the course of weeks and years." Leo Babauta

Quotes Shared from other FB pages

"Become like the sun. If you do so, all darkness will be dispelled. No matter w...hat happens, live confidently with the conviction that you, yourself are the 'sun'. Of course, in life there are sunny days and cloudy days. But even on cloudy days, the sun is still the sun. Even when you are suffering, it is vital that you strive to keep the sun shining brightly in your heart." ~ Daisaku Ikeda Via Inspirology

" I'm strong of mind... strong of heart... I'm strong in spirit. There's strength within my soul, strength in my body. I have passion & ambitions. I am driven... determined & I will not go down without a fight because I have fire burning on the inside. There's something that whispers within & tells me...don't give.up! I swear it. I won't give up!" ~ Brianna G Via Positive Inspirational Quotes (PIQ)

I haven't posted here in a while. No matter what anyone tells you writing a blog isn't easy. The thing I struggle with the most is coming up with topics and sticking to it once I've committed.  My mind wanders a lot, jumping from one topic to another kind of like a teenage girl chatting on the phone with her friend, barely taking a breath in between words.

So I'm going to try something new. One of my favorite blogs is Tipnut. The creator of the site searches through her one favorite blog posts, links and other web items and posts lists of great crafty projects. Everything from recipes to gardening tips. It is a great resource for people who love crafts of all kinds and if you are a cook you have to check out some of the recipes.

I wish I could keep track of everything that I post on our FB page; but unfortunately FB doesn't hold onto posts indefinitely. So I'm going to start posting a sort of archive of our posts.  Including blog posts that we've shared, quotes from other pages that we have shared, etc.

I hope that you enjoy.

I Am ~ The Two Most Powerful Words in the World

"I am - the two most powerful words in the world, for whatever we put after them becomes our reality." ~ Susan Howson

It is really important for us to listen to how we talk to or about ourselves.  How many times to you catch yourself saying "I am an idiot", "I am stupid", "I am fat", and on and on.  How does that self-talk make you feel?  Does it make you feel empowered? Or Good about yourself?  No it makes you feel kind of crappy.  The easiest way to change this is to stop saying these negative things about ourselves.

Change that self talk to something positive.  Say instead, "I am Beautiful", "I am Intelligent", "I am Healthy" . . . fill in the blank.  If you start doing this on a regular basis imagine how you will feel.  Every time you catch yourself saying "I am" anything make sure it is something that will make you feel good about yourself, something that you truly want to be. 

This post is part of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I am going to really get this blog going. So I decided I'd join the Challenge. The goal of the challenge is to post 31 posts in the month of January and to get more traffic to my blog and to other blogs. This is post number 5. For more info or to join the challenge check the link below.

Gold Star Syndrome ~ Via Up From Splat

"Lean too much on the approval of people, and it becomes a bed of thorns." ~ Tehyi Hsieh

"The most splendid achievement of all is the constant striving to surpass yourself and to be worthy of your own approval." ~ Denis Waitley

One of the blogs I enjoy reading is http://upfromsplat.com/blog/.  She posts text blogs and sometimes she posts videos.  This one is about Gold Star Syndrome.

I think many of us suffer from Gold Star Syndrome. We have been brainwashed into believing that we need the approval of others. Some one outside of us to tell us that what we have done is good and right.  

I make beaded jewelry, I enjoy making beaded jewelry. There is something really gratifying about taking a pile of beads and creating a beautiful piece of jewelry that I can wear or even pass on to  someone else to enjoy. I enjoy the feeling when someone thinks a piece of my jewelry is beautiful, but I don't make it to get that pat on the back. I make the jewelry because it makes me feel good to create something.

I can see how we come to rely on this approval as the basis for our self-esteem; it feels good.  But as Ande says in this video we have no control over someone else.  We can only control ourselves, our own thoughts, and our own actions. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9j1T85YuuI

This post is part of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I am going to really get this blog going. So I decided I'd join the Challenge. The goal of the challenge is to post 31 posts in the month of January and to get more traffic to my blog and to other blogs. This is post number 2. For more info or to join the challenge check the link below.

Unplugged

Recently I've read several blog posts about unplugging from facebook, email, texting etc., for at least one day a week.  The posts have talked about how this will help us connect more with the people we love and the things we love to do.

I'm on the computer probably more hours a day than any one person ought to be.  It is one of the first things I do in the morning and one of the last things I do before I go to bed. I use it for entertainment, for communication, for reading, for business . . . in fact today I have already been on the computer for about 3 hours (it's 11:30 am right now).  I will most likely spend the majority of my work day using the computer. Checking email, maybe doing some actual work (I'm my own boss . . . most of the time) and probably just passing the time; playing games on Facebook or watching something on Netflix. When I get home from work I'll probably fire up the computer again for more games on Facebook and probably some blog reading (There were a lot of posts written while I was unplugged for a few days).

For the Christmas Holiday this year we spent 4 days away from out home. Spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our family in the big city (Seattle, we live in a small beach town on the coast of Washington, pop. 4,000).  Then after that we drove to Canada and spent a couple of days in Vancouver.  I chose not to take my computer. At first I wasn't sure I'd make it without it (one of the first things I do in the morning is fire it up). I didn't cheat once and use my hubby's or any of other family members'.  

It was nice taking a break from it. Not sure if I can choose one day a week to just unplug, but maybe I can spend a little time everyday not watching the computer screen. I made it 4 days I can make it a couple of hours, right?

Can you imagine how much more you could accomplish if you just left the computer off? You'd have some time for exercise, maybe you could learn something new (I've only had the guitar for about 10 years, just never had the time to learn to play it), you could bake something from scratch or play a game of Scrabble to prove once again why you are the Scrabble Queen.

This post is part of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I am going to really get this blog going. So I decided I'd join the Challenge. The goal of the challenge is to post 31 posts in the month of January and to get more traffic to my blog and to other blogs. This is post number 1. For more info or to join the challenge check the link below.

The Lessons of Love by Melody Beattie

Just finished reading this book.  Wanted to share a part of it with you all. It is a bit long and I hope that you find some wisdom or inspiration in her words.

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Every experience I have had in my life has been about the dame thing.

Each lesson has ultimately and absolutely been about one thing, the only thing that is.

Love.

I had heard it said before. Now I understood.

The struggles to learn I had a soul. Mu struggles to learn about my strengths. Even my grief. I had been talking to a woman seated near me at dinner one night, wailing about my pain, my anguish over losing my son, about how close the three of us had been, about the hole in my heart.  The woman had turned to her husband. Have you ever loved that deeply? she asked. I don't thinks so, he had said. Even these, my blackest and darkest moments, had been a form of love, one of its lessons. A harder one, but still a lesson of love.

I laughed out loud, alone in my room. What did I think love would look like? Feel like? Be? A romantic vision of being carried off to Camelot? And then what?

Forgiveness Compassion. Service. Self-love. Loving myself when I was certain nobody else loved me or ever would. Then opening up,m learning to let others in.

Faith.

Acceptance. Acceptance of myself, my life, others, their lives.

Friendship. Courage. Perseverance.

Hope.

Joy. Learning to deliberately choose joy. The simple sweet process of learning to be present each moment and find and choose joy, a joy not dependent on outer circumstances, but one that comes from the heart.

How did I think I would learn all these lessons, all these subcategories of love?

Trust. Trusting myself. learning to trust others, life, God.

Learning to play and laugh. Learning to walk away, sometimes learning to stay put. Honoring my own needs, even when they differed from what others thought my needs should be. Honoring me, even when I was different from what others thought I should be. Trusting my vision for my life, creating another vision it that one didn't work. Chasing my dreams, catching them, then finding more. Learning about this connection, this absolute and divine connection to all that is, and maybe ever was, in the universe.

And finally, facing and accepting death.

Had I thought all those lessons would be learned easily?

I guess I had.

I saw now that even the struggles, the hard times when I cursed and moaned and whined, had not been punishment. God hadn't been peering down from the heavens saying, Good, let her crawl over broken glass for a bit. That will teach her.

God was saying, Look, she's learning to love.

The struggle of climbing to the top of the mountain was as much my purpose as getting to the top of it.

I felt a lightness that I hadn't felt in years, maybe ever. For a moment I imagined I heard the angels sing, a celestial chorus of joy. I wondered how long, how long really, I had struggled to get this lesson right.

I didn't have to scramble up and down the ladder from despair to euphoria anymore, trying to convince myself that life was either painful and terrible or joyous and wonerful.

The simple truth was that life was both.

I hadn't come here to live happily ever after, although I now sensed I could. I had come here to learn love. That's what the lessons had been about.

Even those events I had written off as coincidence were an expression of divine love. Universal love. Love was an active, living force. I had always been there for me. All I needed to do was open my eyese and see and choos it.

It's not, I realized, that the lessons are about love. The lessons themselves are love.  They are the journey to the heart.

I got up. And I let go of my balloon, watching it rail far up into the sky.

Understanding love didn't make the pain go away. Understanding love freed my heart.

It didn't mean I'd never feel pain again. An open heart feels pain and loss as well as love and joy.  An open heart feels all it needs to feel. Otherwise, it closes again.

Thank you for my life, I whispered into the air.

I was surprised. At last I meant it.

Fear

I posted this as a note on the Facebook page back in October . . .

Fear is an emotional response to a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger. (Wikipedia)

"The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure." ~ Sven Goran Erickson

I've been thinking a lot about fear lately.  I'm not talking the fear that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up; I'm talking about the fear inside you that keeps you from doing the things you want to do.  The things that fit your purpose. Those things that your gut tells you to go through with.  The fear that holds you back.  That is the fear I want to be free from.

The fear that gets your adrenaline going; that activates the fight or flight response can sometimes be easier to overcome than the fear that we hold within our hearts.

False Expectations Appearing Real
False Experiences Appearing Real
Finding Excuses and Reasons
False Emotions Appearing Real
Failure Expected And Received
False Expectations About Reality
False Evidence Appearing Real

What fear is holding you back? Keeping you from remembering that For Everything A Reason, to Face Everything And Recover and Forgetting Everything is All Right?  So what one thing are you going to do today to set your heart free from Fear?

I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference

So far this week for me has been a challenge. As much as we would probably like to be, we are not always in a good mood. Sometimes it is tough to maintain a positive attitude. I don't know what it is, but some days we just wake up on the wrong side of the bed.  Some days are just like that; some weeks are just like that. I'd like to hear from you. What do you do on those days to lift your spirit? What do you do to bring a bit more positivity into your thoughts and words?

Quotes
"Stop settling for what’s good enough and start creating art that matters. Stop asking what’s in it for you and start giving gifts that change people. Then, and only then, will you have achieved your potential." ~ Seth Godin

"We are blessed, and in the sharing of our blessings we are again blessed. May our hearts be open. May we ever be grateful for the gift of life." ~ From Open Mind - Women's Daily Inspiration for Becoming Mindful by Diane Mariechild

"A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song." ~ Chinese Proverb

Other Blog Posts:
From Seth Godin's Blog ~ Is there a fear shortage?
From Altitude Branding ~ The Equestrian's Guide to Reaching your Goals.
From Daily Om  ~ Hand in Hand with Nature
From Serene Journey ~ Dream Big and Put It Out There

Posts from our Fans:

"Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver." - Barbara De Angelis

“Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.” ~ Kahlil Gibran

I hope that the rest of your week is filled with love, joy and positive thoughts.
P.S. Check out our note on Be Positively Inspired  ~ The Road not Taken.

Positivity in the New Year

I've been an avid reader for years. I read to relax and I read to learn new things. While in my teens I started to collect quotes from the books I read . . . Many of the early ones I collected have been lost. I began posting quotes on twitter (I've got 2 profiles . . . neither have been active recently; but I will soon use one for this blog).

I was posting quotes that I found inspiring, motivational and inspiring. Things to remind me, that even though the people around me may have a negative attitude or outlook on life, that I can choose to have a positive one.

The Be Positively Inspired page on Facebook is meant to remind me and others to maintain a positive attitude. I love finding new quotes, videos and blog posts to add to the pages. I find a lot of things I'd like to share, this blog is a way to share more of those things and to share them with a wider audience.

I hope that you enjoy. Thank you for reading