What you do every day matters

Do you buy stuff you don't need? Do you talk about exercise and a good diet but rarely do either one? We're all guilty. Here is a terrific little article that helps us see that what we do every day is really more real and actually who we are than what we do every once in a while. See it here: What%20You%20Do%20Every%20Day%20Matters.

Regrets

Eliminate Regrets

by JANE POWELL on OCTOBER 26, 2011

“Anything that you should have done, but didn’t, ties you to your past.”

Is your mental and emotional clutter getting in the way of a fulfilling life? It’s time to clean out the “need-to’s,” “have-to’s,” and “ought-to’s,” from your past. When you have regrets it’s tough to move forward and grow.

Put the past in the past. Return anything you borrowed.  Make apologies where needed. Get your bills up to date. Send the card or gift you forgot to send. Make the phone call you need to make.

Taking care of these things cleans your mental slate and eliminates any regrets or resentments you may harbor.

Now, take a deep breath; look ahead. Both your conscience, and your future vision, is clear.

©Jane Powell – Meditations for Women

Today’s Affirmation: I have put the past in the past, and I’m now looking ahead with optimism.

6 Ways to Sit Less Every Day

Autumn and winter are times when the weather makes us want to stay in the chair at work or remain on the couch at home. It's easy to add unnecessary pounds that way and to miss out on regular exercise. Here are some nifty tips to help keep us moving this time of year. See them here: Health.com

Everyday Epiphanies

The call for awareness is a need within each one of us. In the midst of our hectic lives we often miss the "everyday epiphanies" that appear before us. In this brief essay we are reminded to stay open to life, to our heart, to beauty and goodness. They are all there each day if we take time to feel and to look. Awestruck Happiness

Life's best moments

"Don't bulldoze over life's best moments. You won't notice the little charms that adorn each day, nor will you ever transform the mundane into the extraordinary. The only way to do that is to take your time." ~ Edward Hallowell, M.D.

Have you discovered your life purpose?

Have you discovered your life purpose yet?  Your role?  What it is you love and are good at and want to spend your life doing?  Below is a brief but terrific essay on how one person discovered all of this for herself in her mid-fifties.  It's never too late to be who you want to really be and do what you truly love.

http://www.meditationsforwomen.com/artman2/publish/featuredarticle/featuredarticle.shtml

You are, indeed, the greatest force for you.

We often forget that life is filled, every day, with choices. How we choose determines how we live. See more here: You have choice.

When you're having a bad day, a bad month, or a shitty year

This is an important lesson to remember when you're having a bad day, a bad month, or a shitty year.  Things will change: you won't feel this way forever.  And anyway, sometimes the hardest lessons to learn are the ones your soul needs most.  I believe you can't feel real joy unless you've felt heartache.  You can't have a sense of victory unless you know what it means to fail.  You can't know what it's like to feel holy until you know what's it like to feel really fucking evil....This was when I learned...that sometimes you need to let go of everything you're clinging to and start over, whether because you've outgrown it or because it's not working anymore, or because it was wrong for you in the first place. ~ From, If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You, by Kelly Cutrone

Step by Step

Process is what life is really all about. And taking our time to move within it. Here is a brief essay to remind to stay steady in the flow: Step by Step

Refuse to fall down

“Refuse to fall down

If you cannot refuse to fall down,

Refuse to stay down.

If you cannot refuse to stay down,

Lift your heart toward heaven,

And like a hungry beggar,

Ask that it be filled.

You may be pushed down.

You may be kept from rising.

But no one can keep you from lifting your heart

Toward heaven

Only you.

It is in the middle of misery

That so much becomes clear.

The one who says, nothing good

Came of this,

Is not yet listening.”

© Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Lasting Happiness

Here is a beautiful essay that reminds us of all the essentials in life. Finding a way to stay in touch with each of them is the secret to a fulfilled life and to knowing a kind of ongoing happiness and inner peace even in the midst of life's tough challenges. See the brief essay here: Lasting Happiness

A Drink a Day Linked to Healthy Aging in Women - Health News - Health.com

A new study shows that moderate drinking could improve your health. Women, especially, who have a glass of wine or a drink a day were seen as having generally better health including better cognitive function than those who binge drink or who don't drink alcohol at all. See the results here: Health.com

Life, Clutter, Mess

"Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up.  But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived." ~ Anne Lamott, Writer/Novelist

Love Everything

Love all Creation.  The whole and every grain of sand in it. Love very leaf, and every ray of light.  Love the plants.  Love the animals.  Love everything.  If you love everything you will perceive the Divine Mystery in all things.  Once you perceive it you will comprehend it better every day.  And you will come, at last, to love the whole world with an all embracing love. – Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Ignore the odds and go for it

"There will be a few times in your life when all your instincts will tell you to do something, something that defies logic, upsets your plans, and may seem crazy to others.  When that happens, you do it.  Listen to your instincts and ignore everything else.  Ignore logic, ignore the odds, ignore the complications, and just go for it." ~ Judith McNaught, Novelist