Honor your individuality . . . .

The root of encouragement is the French word coeur, for heart. To encourage is to put the heart back into someone, to help each other live well and live together. We were created for love and community. Yet we live in a competitive world that discourages us, telling us all the ways we don't measure up and why we need this product or that service to overcome our inadequacies. There is a great emphasis on what we lack; the messages in the media are rooted in fear and manipulation. What we need is the courage to claim our own lives, to have the confidence to live with resolution, vitality, and purpose.

I used to be so worried about what others thought. Others are thinking--but not about me. I had a million scenarios playing in my mind, created by a judgmental inner censor telling me everything that I was doing wrong. We judge ourselves harshly for being different, call our uniqueness failure, and see our struggles as a collection of symptoms needing diagnosis, prescription, and cure.

What if we decide to see our "shortcomings" in a different light? What if we give ourselves permission to be unique, instead of playing an assigned role that doesn't fit? What if we allow ourselves to honor our true natures, to listen to the goodness and wisdom that reside deep in our hearts?

I believe that we are all creative, that we all deserve to be encouraged in our endeavors, and that every person can learn to cultivate his or her own uniqueness. Everyone must eventually choose between sterile conformity and listening to their inner wisdom. Everyone comes to a crossroads where they must decide either to honor their individuality or to stay in the constricting box of cultural expectations. Every person has the potential to find a community of like-minded people and to create a matrix of safety and encouragement for personal and collective growth and creativity.

From the book

The Art of Encouragement

by Candy Paull

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."  

-e.e. cummings

Happy Friday!

Have a lovely weekend!

Photo by Jodi Miller 

Medicine for the soul . . . .

Stress: The enemy of passion . . . .

The one thing that robs more people of their passion more than anything else is stress......in all it's forms. Let's face it, life is full of stress! Unfortunately, there are several "enemies" that will steal every good thing you possess if given the opportunity. These "enemies" are everyday life experiences, forces, and people who are looking for every opportunity to steal our joy. 


A Readers Digest article documented that 90% of all doctors visits can be attributed, directly or indirectly, to stress. Stress suppresses the body's immune system, interrupts sleep, and makes you vulnerable to all manner of illnesses. You get sick and experience a whole host of other problems related to missing work and the inability to fulfill other responsibilities - and that just leads to more stress. Please understand that all stress is not bad. Stress in the form of adrenaline can work to our advantage. It's what causes us to flee a burning building, to jump out of the way of oncoming traffic, or to complete a project with a looming deadline. But when it's too frequent, it can destroy us by stealing our passion.

The message of Life 101 is that life is stressful, but it can be managed so it doesn't rob us of our passion. So how do we keep stress from doing just that? Here are 6 ways to defend yourself against the attacks of stress:

1. WAIT TO WORRY

Many people rush to worry about situations before they have the facts. For instance, when our teenagers are not home by curfew, we become convinced there had been a car crash, only to have them walk in a few minutes late. Wait to worry. More often than not, you discover you are worrying about something that doesn't need to be worried about at all. Once you get the facts, you may be glad you waited.

2. STAY IN THE GAME

I'm pretty sure it is safe to say that nobody goes all the way through life without getting knocked down. Some people never get up, and some people get up so slowly it takes years and even a lifetime of anger & bitterness before they recover. People fall down. Winners get up. Getting up and back in the game removes the possibility of stress from long-term failure. Failure is not falling down - failure is not getting back up. When you are moving ahead confidently, you have no cause to be stressed.

3. INSIST ON INTEGRITY

You can make a conscious decision in your life to do everything with integrity. When you do that, you inoculate yourself against any stress arising from guilt or shame. I've heard it said by many people that the great thing about telling the truth (living with integrity) is that you never have to remember what you said. If you're the kind of person who tells one person this and another person that, you're setting yourself up for big-time stress. When you speak the truth, you speak and forget about it. It's amazing how much stress you avoid when you play it straight. Do things with integrity, know what is wrong, practice what is right, and make decisions accordingly. Your conscious will remain crystal clear, you'll live without regrets, and, as a result, your passion will remain alive and well.

4. STAY OUT OF DEBT

Keeping up with the Joneses puts us under mountains of stress. We go into debt in order to keep up with appearances and then worry because we can't pay what we owe. Eighty five percent of the conflicts in marriages today are caused by disagreements over finances. No one can live a passionate life when he is worried about bill collectors and bankruptcy. If you want to stay free of stress, stay out of debt. It may take months, even years, to get there. But the freedom of being debt free will allow you to unleash your passion in a way you'd forgotten could exist. 

5. FEAR NOT
The fears that lurk inside of us are the ones that keep us from launching ourselves into the great adventure called life! We fear failure, of course - perhaps most of all. But we also fear losing the security of our own inhibitions. We fear losing control, and we fear the future.  We fear living with the tension that exists between what we know and what we don't know - the security of the present versus the insecurity of the future. Some people just can't handle the unknown, so they remain confined to the reality of the past instead of the potential of the future. Life is often like having one foot on the dock and the other foot on a boat that is leaving. We want to leave, but our desire for the safety of the homeland keeps us tentative and indecisive - and often lands us in the water! Did you know the opposite of faith is fear? We have two choices for facing the future: we can face it with faith or with fear. The future is all about the unknown, and we can let that empower us or enslave us. We may not know what the future holds, but we definitely know Who holds the future. Your faith in God will allow your passion to be boundless.


6. HAVE THE FIRST LAUGH
Laughter is a great stress reducer. Next to love, laughter has been described as the second most powerful emotion we can express. It has been said that laughter is like internal jogging - it stimulates the respiratory system, oxygenates the body, relaxes tense muscles, and releases pleasure-producing chemicals in the brain. You cannot laugh and be mad, or laugh and be stressed. Laughter is low calorie, caffeine free, and has no salt, preservatives, or additives. It's 100% natural and one-size-fits-all. 
You can get high on laughter but never overdose. Laughter is contagious - once it starts, little can be done to stop it. Laughter never felt bad, committed a crime, started a war, or broke up a relationship. Laughter is shared by the giver and the receiver, and it's free! If we can find ways to laugh first thing in the morning, it may in fact set the tone for the rest of the day.


When you begin to practice these 6 ways to defend yourself against stress, passion is free to increase. And your life is free to become "better than good."

Condensed from the book 

BETTER THAN GOOD 

by Zig Zigler

True lies . . . .

In Steve Chandler's book, 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself, he describes a time when his 12 year old daughter participated in a school poetry reading in which she had to write a "lie poem" about how great she was. She was to make up untruths about herself that made her sound unbelievably wonderful. By "lying" to herself, she was creating a vision of who she wanted to be. He states that most of us are unable to see the truth of who we could be. His daughter's school developed an unintended solution to that difficulty: If it's hard for you to imagine the potential in yourself, then you might want to begin by expressing it as a fantasy, as did his daughter. He sums it up this way -- Think up some stories about who you would like to be. Your subconscious mind doesn't know you're fantasizing (it either receives pictures or it doesn't). Soon you will begin to create the necessary blueprint for stretching your accomplishments. Without a picture of your highest self, you can't live into that self. Fake it until you make it. The lie will become the truth.

By now, you already know that this works both ways: if you are continually telling yourself that you're not good enough, that you can't accomplish a task, or that you will never reach your goals, it too becomes your reality. Believe in yourself and what you are capable of doing. You have many talents! Believe in them, and cultivate them! Nurture them ♥, and you will see that your dreams can become your reality. 

About the book: Live the way you've always wanted to live! 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself is packed with techniques for breaking down negative barriers and pessimistic thoughts that prevent you from fulfilling your goals and dreams. Motivational speaker Steve Chandler helps you change your way of thinking and turn it around to what "will be." His ideas will help you create an action plan for living out your vision.

I have a question for you. What are you doing to continually rekindle the passion of your life? What kind of inspiration are you providing for yourself that will keep you pursuing your dream? And if that passion dies, who's to blame? It's sad, but true.....passion will die without constant inspiration. In Zig Ziglar's book, "Better Than Good" he writes...... 

If you think of passion as the flame that burns white hot in the heart of every person, inspiration is the fuel that keeps that flame alive. Often I meet people in whom the fire of passion seems to have gone out. You can see it in their eyes---there's no spark of life! It's like someone came along and flipped off the passion switch while they weren't looking. The big mistake is thinking that regaining passion is a passive event--something we just have to wait for until we're moved once more to become passionate about life. Not so! Passion is a flame that has to be fed in order to keep it burning bright. And inspiration is the fuel that keeps the fire alive. 

Who is responsible for feeding inspiration to the flame of passion? You are! And if you don't, trust me--passion will, over time, become a distant and only occasional visitor to the house of your heart.

Here are 4 practical ways to inspire yourself--to feed the fires of passion burning within:

1. INVEST IN INSPIRATION

The more time, talent, and treasure you invest in your passion, the more you will fight for it, defend it, and protect it from everyone and everything that would attempt to steal it from you. Let's say your passion is to own your own flower shop someday. Right now, you're not involved with flowers except as a hobby. If I were to come to your house and spend an hour talking with you about your passion, I'd be looking for signs that you're investing your time, talent, and treasure. I'd be looking for bookshelves full books on flowers, books on running a small business, magazine subscriptions on the same subjects, your class schedule for the course on entrepreneurship and small-business management, check stubs from your payment of dues to the appropriate floral associations, your applications to several local flower shops where you plan to work as an apprentice in order to get experience. . . . . and on and on.

2. INQUIRE FOR INSPIRATION

Find a mentor--someone who has the same passion--and make some kind of arrangement to meet with that person on a regular basis for inspiration. There is nothing more inspiring than meeting with someone who is already successful at what I have a passion to do. Inspiration is caught better than it is taught.

3. GET INVOLVED TO FIND INSPIRATION

Sometimes we have to get up and get involved in order to find inspiration and keep passion alive. And the bigger the movement is in which we choose to get involved, the more inspired we are. Which inspires you more--being the only person sitting in a football stadium or being one of seventy thousand screaming fans who are just as excited as you are about the same home team? The bigger the crowd, the more inspired you are. Why? Because you feed off the energy of the thousands of people who are looking for the same things in life that you are: success, inspiration, encouragement, and motivation. If you are passionate about writing, attend writers conferences where new books are displayed. Join a writers group, attend book signings or readings, or volunteer at your public library. Whatever your passion, get involved in it at a level that is bigger than you are. When you become part of something bigger than you are, you become accountable. You become inspired to do your best. You become motivated to not let others down. And that fuels your passion in ways that can't be described--it can only be experienced.

4. IMAGINE FOR INSPIRATION

The power of imagination is one of the greatest untapped resources in the human tool kit. It's amazing that mental images have such power--but they do. Some people are born with more of an imagination than others, but it can, by hard work be cultivated--not by mere daydreaming, not by lazy wondering, but by hard study and earnest thought. Whatever your passion is, turn your imagination loose and let it inspire you to keep working to make your dreams become reality. 

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."

-Jack London

Happy Friday!

Wishing you 

an inspirational weekend!

Read any good books lately? . . . .

“You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.”

-Paul Sweeney