Tag Archives: enjoy life

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Improve

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Improvement and growth are what life is about.  I try to be a little bit better today than I was yesterday. The great thing about this is there are literally thousands of ways improvement came come. I focus on the big categories of life, spiritual, mental, and physical. Still, there are specific things each day you can focus on to improve your energy, productivity, and enjoyment of life.  Today there are three that I am focusing on just because I came across them in my notebook.

Enjoying Life

There are days when everything flows perfectly, just as you want it to. But other days are not so fluid. Often we blame the weather, other people, or life in general for the problems.  The enjoyment you get out of life is never from how smooth things go but how you react to them.  Each moment has good things in it, and if you can avoid attachment to a certain outcome, then all results become something you can enjoy.  We are not all-powerful gods, and occasionally things out of our element are going to happen.  Learn to roll with it.

This means I am focusing on enjoying the rain and the sun, the cool and the heat, the love, and the anger. It is all there, so it must be there for a reason. Those who judge me are there to remind me not to be judgmental. Those who love me are there to remind me to love others. There are just too many good things and experiences in life to focus on the bad ones.  I am working on enjoying life and all of its experiences. It is a short ride, after all.

Improve Relationships

Relationships with others are the way we get our bearings about ourselves. I am fortunate to have great relationships with special people, but there is always room for improvement in all of them. I want to get better at making sure that those I love know it and understand how much they mean to me.  In a relationship, there are two parts, yours and theirs. Allowing them to grow and for you to grow as well is a good thing. I am looking for new ways of appreciation and love. 

I am fortunate to have been in relationships where we embraced new things all the time and tried fun things together. It is fun and allows us to experience life on a level of adventure, which is fun and exciting.  I want to make sure that I never take that for granted and continue to enjoy all the things we do which are new and interesting. I have a suitcase of memories, but I want to fill a large storage building with them.  So I want to continue to improve in enjoying all relationships and all the things that are unique about others. People enter your life for a reason, and most often, it is to teach you something. There are a rare few that stay for the duration, and those are the ones that teach, allow us to teach them, and learn together with you. Improving yourself and your life.

Move Away From Worry and Fear

This is a broad range of topics for how I look at others and life in general. It can be difficult to keep an even keel and see the good in all people when they do such a good job of hiding it. But look, and you will find it and see it.  Much of my mindset is positive, but I am not perfect and have moments of poor quality thinking.  Sometimes fear creeps in and makes you look at people harshly.  Worry and fear are a combination we all face daily. We are afraid people won’t meet our needs in some way. What is anger but a loud alert to the world we are afraid of not having our needs recognized or met?  Worry is the same, and we create grand scenarios in our minds that will never happen and give them our attention. Even though it is only misplaced imagination, the stress you feel is real, and that releases hormones into your system, which are detrimental to your health.

To lessen the effects of fear or worry, it takes an active consciousness.  I am endeavoring to be aware of my thoughts and their resulting feelings.  Determining if they are something I should really be afraid of or if it is just a figment of my imagination created by misguided thought? Most people never look at their thoughts in any real constructive way. That makes you a slave to any thought that pops into your head.  We think we react to, and thoughts of fear and worry are prevalent in our lives because we are inundated with messages of fear through the media and society in general. My goal is to remember that love is greater than fear, and it is always a choice. I can’t control how others live their lives, but I can improve how I experience mine.

So that is it, I will endeavor to become a better person today than I was yesterday!! I will enjoy life more, value my relationships and improve them, and move away from worry and fear towards love.  How about you?

“The health of your brain is much more about your actions than your age.” —Dr. Daniel Amen

“You’re either green and growing, or you’re ripe and rotting.” —John Addison

“Growth is actually contagious, so if you want to reach your goals, you’ve got to get around people who are going in the same direction you want to be going, and you will catch the success.” —Dr. Henry Cloud

“Beginning today, set an intention and a relentless focus on living your life as the greatest person you can be, in all situations.” —Brendon Burchard

“When you are at that intersection in the road, and you’ve got two paths to go down, because of the impact of certain people in your life, you’re able to choose the right path.” —Jason Witten

Word of the Day

100 Day Reflections of Consciousness

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Raising My Consciousness One Word at a Time

Reflection– serious thought or consideration.

On Wednesday, November 22, 2017, I began a project with a simple goal.  To give an encouraging word to others every day for 30 days. What quickly resulted was a change in my awareness and quickly I saw my consciousness become more of a focus.  So then I hoped to raise the consciousness of at least one other person with each word. When I reached 30 days, like Forrest Gump, for no particular reason I kept going.  Here I am.  It has been 100 days since then and that is 100 words and 100 thought-provoking posts, that I have completed one way or another every day.

In that 100 days, I have managed to maintain my normal schedule and find time to create a post a day.  I changed jobs, which led to an entire schedule change but still was able to persevere.  People have entered and left my life.  So this is a reflection of the project at the 100-day mark.  What went well and what could have been better.  It deserves serious thought and consideration.  I will begin by looking at my thoughts, the corresponding emotions, words and actions that have arisen.  Welcome to my journey of consciousness.

My Evolving Consciousness

To me, your consciousness is simply what you are aware of in life. Too many days go by without an acknowledgment of their significance. We move one day to the next, just trudging through life. Hoping to find some distraction from life. Life is the entertainment, not the distraction. Although, I didn’t always see it that way. This project forced me to take a moment every day and set my mind toward something positive.  Each thought leads to a corresponding emotion. So if you think of frustrating things you are going to feel frustration, that will lead to words about frustration and of course, you will act on that.  The same is true for positive things.  They are there for you in every day. If you choose to look for them.

As I looked at the encouraging words for the day, I found them becoming a part of my life.  In times where I might have been angry, I was patient and able to maintain a better mental attitude. The focus on the positive things in life became more of my daily outlook. This was a conscious choice each day and it has made a positive difference in my life.

The Power of a Word

It is strange how a word can create a mindset for a day.  I started with the word kindness, then moved to encouragement, and through the 100 words.  With each consecutive word I wrote about I almost always ran into a situation that day where I could apply the lesson.  Each time, I would be consciously aware that the word was showing up in my life.  Confidence, choice, forgive and choice all came and went and as each day passed I realized that the person really benefitting from this project was me.  I am

Finally, I changed the beginning from “word of the day” to “Raising my Consciousness One Word at a time.”  There are others who have read a word here or there and found some thought from it.  Others who read every word and write to me to talk about their thoughts on that aspect.  All I know for sure is that there is a power in words.  They can lift you up and make the life of those around you better as well.  It all starts with a thought and that leads to an emotion, the words you speak, and the actions that you take.  All from the thought of a word.  Awesome.

What can get Better?

Like all projects, there are always things you learn along the way.  In this case, I would have kept better track of the words as I went along.  At first, I thought the project would only be 30 days, so I didn’t pay close attention, but then as the list got longer, I needed to be careful or the same word would be used again.  It is easier than you think.  I used the same word twice and wrote totally different ideas about it.  On the good side, there were things that I obviously needed to say.

I also would have found a way to share more of the beginning of the project with people and made a clearer agenda of what I was hoping to accomplish. However, if I had done this the project would have only lasted 30 days and would have been called the encouraging word of the day.  Much of the good that I have gotten out of this so far, might not have happened.  Overall I am happy with the result but there is always room for growth.

How will this grow?

There are a few natural paths for growth here I think. One is to do a weekly podcast on the words of that week.  I will publish it on the blog so you can hear my thoughts on the points of interest during the week.  Also could include guest appearances from people important to the blog.

Another way to grow the project would be to create a short video for each word that explains my thoughts on how focusing on the positive aspects of that word can help you become more positive in your life.  Also, I think that this format could lend itself quite naturally to becoming a book.  But that will all be in the future.

Finally, I am grateful to have made it this far, and it really doesn’t seem like a hundred days has gone by.  Because when you take it one day at a time, they just start to fly by.  I am also grateful for what the project has brought to me, what I have learned and how I have been able to express my thoughts.  It has been a great experience to have other people provide their feedback to me and to gain something positive from my little creation themselves.  So take a moment each day and really focus your thought on the words you are using in your life and look at the actions that result.  Raise your consciousness to the level you want.  Be aware of the life happening all around you. It is a pretty good thing.  100 thoughts, 100 words, 100 actions.

“Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”  Charles Dickens

“Sometimes, you have to look back in order to understand the things that lie ahead.” ` Yvonne Woon