The sometimes drain of always giving to others

Encouragement needs to be reciprocal.  If you are always encouraging, affirming, supporting, giving pats on the back, but never receiving any of your own, then it's easy to wear down and begin to feel emotionally depleted.

We don't encourage others just so we can be praised for it or told how great we are.  We do it because we care, we love, we empathize, we identify, and because we want something good for that person.

But caregivers, people who give of themselves to others, also need their own good feelings of affirmation, acceptance, and appreciation.

Find ways to be available to good feelings of acceptance, appreciation, and gratitude for who you are, how you give of yourself to others, and for the love you share.  Be with those who offer these affirmations to you.  Be open to the generosity and care of others.  Freely accept smiles, warm embraces, encouraging words, loving touches, and grace from the friends and people who love and appreciate you.

Be willing to treat yourself in ways that fulfill some of your own needs for acknowledgement and care.

© 2011 Timothy Moody

Put your magic glad on, baby.

“Put your magic glad on, baby.  The world needs your sun.  You just could be the one, you know, who saves somebody’s day—hauling it out of the gloom pool—setting it on its feet again.  It wouldn’t be the first time.

Don’t give me your aw c’mon.  I know your power.  I’ve seen it in action with my very own eyes. 

Why just last Tuesday, you turned it on that old dude up on 4^th and Vine, giving him that sly wink as if you shared some precious secret just between the two of you.

‘Hey, Pops,’ you said.  And he lit up like a Christmas tree just because you knew he was real.”

© Susan K. Minarik

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

Allowing the Wildness

I love this thought.  It's practical, human, meaningful for all of us. Stepping away from whatever is bothering us today and reaching for some treasure in our possession is such a great exercise in life.  See if you agree: Allowing the Wildness

What Life Can Teach You

Here is a list of things author, humorist, "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney has learned in life: See the list here: Andy Rooney.

Are You Willing to Do This for One Day?

Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children; to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you and ask yourself whether you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to try to understand what those who live in the same house with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front of you so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open - are you willing to do these things for even a day? 

—Caroline Kennedy, Author/Attorney

Give yourself a pep talk, ok?

Sometimes all we need are just a few simple techniques or tips to help get our focus back and realize that life is to be lived and enjoyed, not just endured. Here are a few ideas to encourage you: Health.com

An Innocence to Hold Humanity Together

"Many people find it easy to imagine unseen webs of malevolent conspiracy in the world, and they are not always wrong. But there is also an innocence that conspires to hold humanity together, and it is made of people who can never fully know the good that they have done." ~ Tracy Kidder, Author

Life's Ordeals

Beauty usually requires some imperfection, transgression, or lacuna. The whole of your being, the good and the bad, is the stuff out of which your beauty makes an appearance.  ~ Thomas Moore, The Dark Night of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life's Ordeals

A Reality We Cannot Avoid

There are realities we cannot avoid.  One of them is the importance of self-esteem.


Regardless of what we do or do not admit, we cannot be indifferent to our self-evaluation.  However, we can run from this knowledge if it makes us uncomfortable.   We can shrug it off, evade it, declare that we are only interested in "practical" matters, and escape into baseball or the evening news or the financial pages or a shopping spree or a sexual adventure or a drink.


Yet self-esteem is a fundamental human need.  Its impact requires neither our understanding nor or consent.  It works its way within us with or without our knowledge.  We are free to seek to grasp the dynamics of self-esteem or to remain unconscious of them, but in the latter case we remain a mystery to ourselves and endure the consequences.


~ Nathaniel Branden, The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem