The Gift of Gratitude

The author Melody Beattie says:

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity … it turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing and mistakes into important events.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

If you liked this pass it on to others.

Three Friends

Useful friends with whom we have transactional relations.

Amusing friends with whom we share pleasure and games.

Those rare friends that Roman statesman Cicero calls “another self” with whom we share soul secrets and deepest feelings.

The most important aspect of friendship is trust. Without trust, a friendship lacks the foundation needed for emotional support, honesty, and reliability. A true friend is someone you can count on, confide in, and be yourself without fear of judgment. Hold them close. Feel free to share

Lot-Oh!

Why is it that people are so optimistic about winning the lottery yet pessimistic about other things in life — and they’re willing to bet money to have all that optimism by buying tickets to dreams that are likely never going to pay off on the scale they hope.  On the other hand, you always win when you bet on yourself.  Feel free to share

Makeovers

In a world of makeovers, start overs and resets the one thing that does not need changing is you.  Maybe an awakening or discovering a quality you didn’t know you had.  We are always so focused on improving but it is useless to devote so much emotional energy to improving until we can like what we already are.  Feel free to share

What 10-15 Minutes a Day Can Do

Just setting 10-15 minutes a day to engage others in interaction can be life changing for all involved according to a group of new studies.

Becoming more focused does not require hours, but it does mean putting phones and digital devices away – it’s quality over quantity.

When a dad or mom puts the world on hold and directs it to their child it builds a sense of value greater than almost anything we can do.

Putting aside time for chats can promote a feeling of safety and it can also lessen depression in adolescents (as published in The Journal of Abnormal Psychology).

This focused one-on-one time works for adults, too – conveying positive feelings that the line of communication is more important than life’s distractions.

If you know someone who would like this, please share.

“I Don’t Like Your Tone”

For years I have been driving 200 miles round trip to New York City to teach my NYU music business classes which I love.

I use CarPlay to access Waze to check traffic, estimate time of arrival and tell me where the Jersey state troopers are looking for speeders.

Somehow the drive has been more nerve wracking than it needed to be and I’m going to share what it is – the tone of voice of my Waze sidekick navigating my trip was not very relaxing for two hours each way.

So, from a long list of options I changed Waze’s robotic voice to a laid back, over-chilled Australian “voice” named Matilda and to my surprise just hearing a calm voice in heavy traffic made all the difference.

When she said “accident up ahead”, it was so soothing, not alarming.

Got me to thinking how important it is for us to sound reassuring and calming to those around us in our everyday life because the tone of our voice matters.

If you liked this pass it on to others.

Earning Your Wings

In the late 70’s Eastern Airlines introduced the slogan “We have to earn our wings every day” – the commercial worked, the company failed and was sold off.

The concept of earning what you want to accomplish every day may be generational but it is a way to never lose sight of your goals.

Good fortune doesn’t just happen, luck is a residue of design.

Staying focused on our strengths makes it easier to keep them strong.

Shy One

The superpower of the shy is that they usually do more listening than talking.

Loudness is not confidence.

Fast talk is not good talk.

Assertiveness is not better than stick-to-itiveness.

Shy people often make unrealistic social comparisons, pitting themselves against the most vibrant or outgoing individuals. Believing that others are constantly evaluating them poorly, shy people abandon new social opportunities—which, in turn, prevents them from improving their social skills.

Better listeners, more thoughtful, intelligent and being more likely to think before speaking – real superpowers.

Know someone who would appreciate this, feel free to share.

Good Enough

“A lot of my stress and anxiety comes from me feeling like I’m not good enough or I am always doing something wrong”.

This is an actual student comment from my mental health for musicians class at NYU.

First, we’re all good enough.

Why are we always trying to be better when the first order of business is to accept and celebrate the good person and things we are.

Trying to get better while harboring the feeling of never being good enough is trying to improve on nothing.

You’re good enough.

If you liked this, pass it on for others.

You Are Who Your Dog Thinks You Are

The onetime Chair of the Mayo Clinic Mind Body Initiative, Dr. Amit Sood, has a novel way for us to look at ourselves – through our pet’s eyes.

  • “You are who your dog thinks you are – kind, caring, and compassionate.” 
  • “Your pet does not care about your financial net worth, job, health, fame, etc. All it cares about is your love and your ability to express it. The loving you is the transcendental you that no one can rob”.

What a great way to build self-esteem on how loving we are instead of our material accomplishments.

If you liked this pass it on to others.