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Showing posts with label compassion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label compassion. Show all posts

Friday, January 14, 2011

Play Nice and Use Your Words!

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On Fridays there are so many different things we can post about that we think would be fun to share with our readers. 

This week however has been a whopper with everything going on between the shootings in Arizona and a certain mother with a superority complex judging western parenting (she said it, I didn't!)  while she is trying to sell books, it makes me ask, "can't we all just get along?"

I've been on countless message boards from the uber crunchy to the more mainstream and the one thing that *always* comes out at one point or another is judgement and condemnation of others and how they raise their children, what they believe in, their political point of view, right down to how they choose to give birth and put their children to bed.

I'm sure you've seen those posts. The ones where the mom innocently asks the best way to get her baby to sleep and before you know it, it's a mud slinging drama fest on the best ways of parenting, people pick sides and it becomes an 'us versus them' mentality.

The stupid thing is, is that not very often are people's minds changed at the end of it all. Vitriol, name calling, acts of superiority and judgement, don't make people want to see the other point of view. Just sayin'.

At the end of the day, don't we all have the same goal more or less? Isn't that is to live in a world that is peaceful and raise children to be decent, kind, successful human beings so that they can go out into the world and be productive and good citizens?

Quite often how many of us behave (especially online) we would be horrified to see or hear our children behave the same way.

So I found two quotes for today's Friday Find:

"People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost."
~Dalai Lama



“The highest form of wisdom is kindness”
~The Talmud


We all have times where we need to remember that kindness, caring and compassion trumps all. This week is one of them. Make those quotes your mantras.



With love and light ♥,

 


Friday, November 12, 2010

Today's Enlightening and Motivating Friday Find!

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I woke up this morning at 5am. It was still and silent in my house (a rarity for sure most days!), and I was convincing myself I need to go back to sleep, but of course I couldn't. So I do what I normally do at these times, I pick up my iPhone and see what is going on in cyberspace, what people are up to on Facebook and if there is any interesting news since I last checked.

I was also trying to narrow down what I was going to post and chit chat about today because all through the week I find all these great links, articles, toys, gadgets and I always am saving or bookmarking something to share with our readers at a later date.

On Facebook my aunt shared a great link and I knew immediately this is what I was meant to share today on Friday Finds. I love my family (hi Aunty Deb!), we all think so much alike, it's wonderful!

I am copying and pasting the entire article from One Powerful Word.com  To just copy and paste fragments wouldn't be doing the entire article any justice. I just found their site this morning and I am in love with it, so please click through after and go browse there!


12 Simple Ways to Get on Top of the World
(You can see why the title grabbed me right? We're all about the simple and the significant here! :Þ)

1. Try Rising Early

 “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise" – Ben Franklin, famously said this. There are numerous benefits to rising early – Meditation, Exercise, Breakfast, Review your goals, set appointments. Make sure you sleep early and as soon as you close the alarm walk outside the room.


2. Practice Patience

This is a difficult virtue to obtain but with practice you can master it. Accept that you are human. You will grow, learn and change all the time. As humans, we make mistakes. Get over it and get on with life. Forgive yourself for your mistakes, weaknesses and imperfections. Instead of beating yourself up over past mistakes, accept them as part of who you are today.

Life is about progress, not perfection. Confront your fears about not reaching your goals. Remember that the world was not created in one day. Let go of worry. Worrying about tomorrow saps your energy and strength today. Instead, use that energy to work toward your goals. Become your own best friend. You are the only person you will live with your entire life, so get to know yourself well and treat yourself as the valuable person you are. Be patient.


3. Exercise

Make this a daily habit. Exercise not only helps you lose weight, but helps you to think clearly. It makes you feel better and it can be a time to practice concentration by focusing completely on exercising.


 4. Meditate

You might not be into New-Age stuff, but meditation is a very simple method for relaxing and replenishing your energy sources.



5. Acceptance

Accept things the way they are. If you keep thinking that you will be happy when you get to a certain place in life then you will always be looking for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Instead, try being happy with where you are, with who you are, and what you have.


6. Visualize

What would your ultimate life be like? Where would you live, what would you do, what would you do with your days? Come up with a clear picture of this, and write it down. Once you know what you want, take massive action. See what is working and omit actions which are not working. Calibrate and keep taking action until you attain your goals.


7. Long Term Goals

Set long term goals and then pick one to accomplish within the next year, and really focus on that. Now, pick one medium-term goal to achieve in the next few months that will get you further toward your longer-term goal. Now decide what you can do this week, and today, to get you to your medium-term goal. Just choose one thing at a time, focus on it, make it happen, and then choose the next thing to focus on.


8. Family Time
Spend as much time as possible with those you love, and truly enjoy those times. Be present as you do it — don’t think about work.


9. Motivate yourself

There will always be times in our lives when we get a little down. Remember how you feel depends on what you focus on. Change what you are focusing on and you can easily make yourself feel better.



10. Focus on pleasure, not pain
If you find yourself struggling to do something, stop thinking about how painful it might be to actually do the task but focus on the long-term pleasure (Benefits, Opportunities) you will gain by finishing the task. By changing the way you see things, you can change how you feel about them and make it easier to get things done.



11. One-Task-One-Time

Avoid Multi-tasking. Day to Day, moment to moment focus on one task at a time. This leads to greater productivity and less stress. You can have multiple goals but when you are doing something make sure you give it your 100% attention.



12. Help others

Volunteer some of your time. All of us can find a couple of hours in a week or a month. You will build connections with humble and good people who might influence and bring more positivity in your life. 



Again you can simply click to find these 12 steps here at One Powerful Word. Aren't they wonderful? :o) I don't know about you, but this is exactly what I needed today!


We'll, I've accomplished the getting up early part so far! Even if it is begrudgingly it still counts right? I think these 12 steps are worthy of printing out and putting on the fridge. They are great little reminders!

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

With love and light, 


 

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Be Compassionate - Pass It On

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I was browsing through the November/December 2009 issue of Spirituality & Health magazine and came across "The Compassion Project's Compassion Exercise"

The Compassion Project is part of a book containing 30 exercises. The book is called Resurfacing: Techniques for Exploring Consciousness by Harry Palmer.

Compassion Exercise
"Honesty with one's self leads to compassion for others."

Objective: Increase the amount of compassion in the world.

Expected Results: A personal sense of peace.

Instructions: This exercise can be done anywhere that people congregate (airports, malls, parks, beaches, etc). It should be done on strangers, unobtrusively, from some distance. Try to do all five steps on the same person.

Step 1 - With attention on the person, repeat to yourself:
"Just like me, this person is seeking some happiness for his/her life."

Step 2 - With attention on the person, repeat to yourself:
"Just like me, this person is trying to avoid suffering in his/her life."

Step 3 - With attention on the person, repeat to yourself:
"Just like me, this person has known sadness, loneliness, and despair."

Step 4 - With attention on the person, repeat to yourself:
"Just like me, this person is seeking to fulfill his/her needs."

Step 5 - With attention on the person, repeat to yourself:
"Just like me, this person is learning about life."

I am going to give this a try - it certainly can't hurt. Give it a try and see how you feel.