"Our biggest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our biggest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

You are a Child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't be insecure around you. We were born to make magnificent the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others."

Nelson Mandela

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.

— Thich Nhat Hanh

New Beauty

Today is a new and unique day, so fill it with new and unique experiences. Today brings valuable possibilities, so use it to create meaningful value.

If you’ve fallen into a rut, this is your opportunity to climb out and to give yourself a fresh, new perspective. If your dreams have seemed beyond your reach, this is your chance to take another look.

Yes, life can be difficult and painful and mercilessly unfair. Don’t assume, though, that any of it has to hold you back.

Even when you’ve failed a thousand times, you always have the ability to succeed. Even when just about every factor is working against you, you can still work your way forward.

Today is a day to do just that. Today is when you can reconnect with your most treasured, positive purpose, and recommit to making it a central part of your life.

Now is when you can transform both the joys and the disappointments into pure energy. Now is when you can use that energy to bring new and meaningful beauty to your life and to your world.

— Ralph Marston

Read more: http://greatday.com/#ixzz1gFCSO8UJ

Express Yourself

To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you are.
— Sven Goran Eriksson

Hardcore Motivation

Counterparts--Jumping Ship
" As time passes by, I feel everything changing but me. I will not feel the sting of defeat. I’ve watched days become months, become years. and I’ve lost all faith in progression. I will never allow myself to exchange all my morals for acceptance. If this is truly where I belong, I’ll fucking be here until the end of time. I’ve watched everyone around me jump ship, and I hope they’re left to sink. The current will carry us. I am proud of all that I’ve become, and I’m well aware that I have steered myself in the right direction. And life is your’s to destroy, I just can’t admire the path you’ve chosen. I would rather isolate myself than be a walking definition of travesty. I watched you do away with everything. I would love nothing more than to watch this world swallow you whole. You were the catalyst for your downfall. But where the rest have failed, we are bound to succeed. And mark my fucking words, as long as we are breathing, we will overcome. The integrity that we emanate day-to-day is unparalleled, and our efforts will not go unnoticed. We will be remembered."

The Rut and the Way Out

You’re in a rut, and you can’t get unstuck.

Motivation is a resource that seems harder and harder to come by these days. You’re mired in malaise, you’re unexcited after a slump or a break, you’re in a dull 9-to-5 routine.

Any of these sound familiar?

If so, you’re not alone. I’ve been in these kinds of ruts, often, and sometimes for embarrassingly extended periods. While it doesn’t happen much these days, as I’m excited about everything I do, I’m no stranger to the rut. I was stuck in one for a couple years once, until I felt the rut wasn’t something I was in, but was me.

What is the way out? How do you start along this way if you don’t have motivation to start with?

I’ve found that the best way out of a rut is with the smallest step possible. But that step can result in more than you realize.

What if that smallest step is to announce a major challenge? In my recent past I’ve announced 30 days of yoga, writing a novel in 30 days, and some grueling physical challenges. In years past I’ve announced that I’m going to run a marathon, do a triathlon, start a blog, give up my car, give up meat, and so on.

Here’s the thing: the first step wasn’t to take on a major challenge. It was simply announcing it. And announcing something is really really easy. Doing it is much harder, but once you’ve announced it, you have some momentum, and you’re committed to a direction. Making the announcement only takes the moving of your lips and some hot air, or the typing of your fingers while your email program is open, and let’s face it, you do those things even when you’re in a rut.

What if the moving of your fingers or some hot air is too big a step? Can you take an even smaller step? Sure: you can simply ask, “What if?”

What if you took on a challenge? What if you cleared the clutter from your desk? What if you went outside for a brisk walk? What if you quit your job and headed for southeast Asia with nothing but a small backpack? What if you started a blog about your biggest passion? What if you decided to paint a picture or snap a photograph every single day for the next month? What if you did 5 minutes of yoga each morning? What if you tossed out your to-do list and only did 1 important thing each day before doing the less important tasks? What if you proposed your dream project to your boss? What if you stopped asking permission and just started doing what you’ve been wanting to do? What if your life was a blank slate and you could fill it with only the things you love? What if you could change someone else’s life? What if you tossed out all your excuses? What if you were grateful for what you have, instead of complaining about what you don’t have? What if you tossed out your goals? What if you let go of your expectations? What if you got rid of everything you had?

What if is a very easy step.

Take the easiest step you can imagine. Once you start moving, you’ll feel unbelievably better. Once your foot touches ground, you will feel the power of the earth, you’ll feel the power of motion, you’ll feel the rut moving behind you. That one step — it’s a doozy.

--Original Post from Zen Habits

Not all of their commercials are stupid

Principles for Creating the Future

• Love means honoring the other person’s free will.
• Give if you want to receive: only what you give away do you own.
• In every moment we are either helping or hurting.
• Every crisis is an opportunity for a breakthrough.
• Personal alchemy: Sometimes a weakness can become a strength.
• Compassion is a way of seeing and knowing.
• Mind is the builder of what you think you have become.

Psychology of Life: Body Language

How to find peace with your body

If you are dissatisfied with your body, you might think the solution is to lose weight, pump iron, or do thousands of sit-ups. Unlikely. This “outside” approach to correcting body dissatisfaction tends to be inadequate. The better approach is to learn to love the body you have. After all, so much of what you look like (your height, musculature, and some of your weight) is under genetic influence. Yes, you can slightly redesign the house Mother Nature gave you, but you can’t totally remodel it … at least not without paying a high price.

Weight issues are often self-esteem issues. Concern about what you look like is really a mask for how you feel about yourself, your self-esteem. Given about twenty-five percent of self-esteem is tied-up in how you look, you can’t feel good about yourself unless you like your body and feel confident with your appearance.

Ideally, what you look like on the outside should have little to do with how you feel on the inside. But, in reality, the thinking goes like this:

1. I have a defect that makes me different than others.
2. Other people notice this difference.
3. My looks affect how these people see me … repulsive, ugly.
4. I’m bad, unlovable, and inadequate.

If you are struggling with your body image, try to identify when you first got the message that something is wrong with your body.

Perhaps it was:

• a parent who way-back-when lovingly remarked, “You look good, honey, but if only you’d lose a few pounds, you might get a better job…”,
• the siblings who teased you about your “thunder thighs”, or
• the relative who molested you. (Sexual abuse is a common cause of body-hate).

Next, you need to take steps to be at peace with your body and to like yourself.

This includes:

• Renaming your disliked body part (i.e., “round stomach” is a more loving name than “ugly jelly belly”),
• Identifying the parts of your body that you do like and giving yourself credit for those with positive body talk. (My muscular legs help me enjoy bike rides with my children.)

Don’t dwell on the negative, but instead love all the good things your body does for you. It bears children; lets you do meaningful work that can make a difference in the world; and lets you have fun. How could you enjoy life without your body?

Love reckons hours for months, and days for years; and every little absence is an age.
— John Dryden

FRIDAY NIGHT

Its the beginning of the weekend, everybody. get out there and enjoy yourselves. be safe.

Bob Thurman--We Can All Be Buddhas TED Talk

Don’t be discouraged. It’s often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.
— Unknown

Dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder

1. GET LIGHT--seasonal affective disorder has a lot to do with not getting enough light or vitamin D in your system. Because of this, your hormone serotonin is reduced, making it harder to eat properly, making your body work harder, stressing you out, etc, etc etc. Spend time in well lit places--especially natural light. There are a variety of products on the market that you can purchase to help deal with severe SAD that can simulate natural light, but this is pretty extreme. Mostly just get outsie--take a walk at lunch and get some sunshine, spend sometime near a window on a sunny day and soak in the rays. Vacation in a sunny place, if you have the means. Typical treatments also include sitting in front of light boxes for periods of time, dawn simulators,

2. NUTRITION: "Avoiding pasta, sugar, and caffeine make a dramatic difference. Yes, all the things I crave so much when I have SAD. I also make sure that I take Vitamin B50, Vitamin D and L-Glutamine every day. From recent research, Vitamin D deficiency is appearing to be a huge factor in SAD and it's symptoms." (http://www.life-with-confidence.com/deal-with-SAD.html#ixzz1g3zIqFKw) Get some Vitamin D supplements (research the right amount of Iu)--but Vitamin D deficiency is a prevalent problem, especially for people living in Ohio.

3. AWARENESS--listen to your body. dont stress it out. if you feel too tired to do something, dont push yourself. That doesnt mean capuitulate, it just means dont add extra stress onto the body.

4. EXERCISE--Exercise is always important. Besides making your body feel better, it creates new neural pathways in your brain, it releases endorphins, physically exerts your body, improves mental and physical health, promotes self image and is just all around a good idea.