Feed: And Still We Rise - AggScore: 50.3

Aura-Cleanse Meditation

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Give It Your All - Wisdom From Mother Teresa

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• People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

• If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

• If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

• If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

• What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

• If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

• The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

• Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

• In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

Be Kind

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(Note: This Labor Day, I received the following email. I was so moved, I contacted the sender and asked for permission to share.  -Esdee)

Be Kind

Why not make someone's day today?  And if you can't do that, why not at least make someone's day brighter? 

Here are ten ideas for things you can do today (maybe even all ten of them) to show kindness to someone else.  Try doing at least one of these things every day this week, and see how you feel.  Look back over the week and see if you don't think you had more of a tendency to smile... and less time to think about your troubles. 

1.  Hold the door open for someone. 

2.  Let a fellow driver pull out into busy traffic in front of you. 

3.  Do the dishes.  If you always do the dishes, find some other chore you don't have to do, and do it. 

4.  If you are at the store, or the gas station, thank the person who cashes you out.  Especially today - thank them for working on a holiday. 

5.  Call someone up and thank them for something you haven't had a chance to thank them for before. 

6.  Call someone up and apologize for something you should've apologized for before. 

7.  Leave a big tip.  Really: do you need that $2.11 more than the server does?  Round that tip up to ten bucks!  It won't break you. 

8.  Call a family member with whom you haven't visited in a while... especially an elderly person who'd love to hear from you. 

9.  Go ahead and listen to a telemarketer's spiel.  You don't have to buy what they're selling, but be polite, hear them out, and thank them for their call. 

10. Do a favor for a co-worker, or for a customer if you're a business owner.  Don't do it to make them "owe you one," just do it because it's kind.  And kindness is a great starting point if you want to show inspirational leadership. 

If you try, I bet you can come up with hundreds more ideas, and yours will be better than mine - especially for your life.  But do something for someone today, and don't expect them to "pay you back."  If they could, the act probably wasn't truly "kindness." 

We're all in for a tough winter, I think, during these times of "economic reform"... but whether it's in business or personal life, kindness will go a long way toward helping each other through it.

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Meditation Tips

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The body and mind must be consciously relaxed and focused when we meditate. Individual optimal results can be achieved in various ways. The more you meditate, you will find your best position, physically and mentally.

The basic principles stay the same: eliminate disruptive, negative, and drifting thoughts and fantasies - and fill the mind with a deep sense of focus. This clears the mind of debris and prepares it for a higher quality of activity. Some block all sensory input - no sights, no sounds, and nothing to touch - completely separate themselves from the distractions around them. Pleasing scents also invoke serenity, so stocking up on aromatic candles might be a good idea.

Try to block all negative thoughts - they pollute the mind. A 'purified' mind can more readily center on deeper thoughts, thus enabling a higher spiritual state.

If the position allows you to relax and focus, that's a good start. The back should be straight, but not tense or tight. A suggestion is to lie flat, pretending you are a vial on its side, evenly distributing a level of water: balanced.

Loose, comfortable clothing is ideal, of course, as comfort is vital. The atmosphere should be soothing- again, probably the place where you feel most comfortable.

Just relax - and breathe....

Stress-Management Tips

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Here are some tips to help you manage stress:


**Acknowledge it.

Know that some stress is good - like that burst of energy which enhances your performance at the right moment. Stress, used wisely,will push you a little bit harder when it counts most.


**Avoid people who cause it.

"Dance with The Devil - The Devil won't change".
Limit your contact with stressful people, or those who initiate unnecessary drama.


**Learn from the best

Watch the people around you and copy those who remain calm when
others are losing their heads. What do they do differently?


**Just breathe

Use deep-breathing exercises to relax your body. Breathe in slowly, to count of four, then breathe out to count of four. Repeat until your heart rate slows and things start to feel more normal. Learn to meditate for increased relaxation.


**Just say "NO".

Sometimes we cause ourselves unnecessary stress by worrying about things that haven't even happened. Stop yourself when you start thinking negatively - this will put the law of attractionto work for you, as a bonus!


**Know what sets you off.

Keep track of what your trigger points are - a list, if necessary. Knowing the root of your stress is a major breakthrough in eliminating it. Ask yourself what changes you need to make to avoid sources of stress.


**Douse one end of the candle.

Take care of You: stop burning the candle at both ends. A poorly-maintained body causes a stressful mind. The Healthy You can deal with stress much easier.

Responsibility

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It's a lot easier to talk about taking responsibility than it is to actually DO it. And, worse yet, it's quite a task just recognizing we've erred. It's vital, though, to look in the mirror - veils tossed aside, facades down - and "own" that we did it.

Fundamental to taking responsibility is also seeing the great import we, as individuals, carry. It is imperative that we realize how we touch others' lives, if only in passing.

Life is like...

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..from Chris Cade, Inscribe Your Life

Comfortable Shoes

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I'm just keeping within a zone these days: wearing the comfy shoes and staying inside. It's a time for embracing and appreciating the familiar..and yet, the subtle changes in the ordinary Just keeping still. I'm not likely to go anywhere - the soft old shoes will pain me. They caress me nicely, though, while I'm still.

Happiness

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Higher Ground

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I bid farewell to this lowly place:
Winter's come and winter's drear;
I cannot find my comfort here.
I'll find my lot; I'll state my case
With weary soul and stoic pace.

I take some satisfaction in how far I've progressed since these lines were written. Obversely, I cannot let myself be lulled into contentment. Every day I'm striving to be more open to what my role is, within and without. I get so busy, sometimes, with finding a place in this physical world, that I become lax in aspiring toward spiritual evolution. Just taking some time each day from making a dollar or beautifying the residence. - will make such a difference. And if I prioritize even more - what possibilities for serving purely!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Gratitude

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I'm always babbling-on that I am grateful for the gifts - the blessings - I receive. Yes, I say it, but I wonder if I show it. I should be pouring more attention and caring into what I've been given. I was asked recently if I have any special talents. I hesitated before answering, "yes, several..". Whatever (questionable) talents I might have are not results of my own effort, so I don't feel I'm boasting when I acknowledge them. But it isn't easy to admit that, though I say I appreciate, I don't nurture these abilities enough. I could be doing so much more to spread love and compassion. I know I should be more attentive - shine a better light. I came into this world with a decent inheritance, yet I let it lay waste. How much better to have been given less, yet using 'less' to the best of my abilities - to shine like the Sun.

Progress

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Fell On Black Days

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Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces. --Mathew Henry

Truth be told, I don't feel we are punished or rewarded, per se; rather given circumstances from which we are to glean some sort of growth: life lessons. I have learned much in the past few days: flaws I need to examine thoroughly, impurities that I've allowed to seep into my Self.

Being both the Centaur who constantly seeks insight and the Dog who persistently digs for its treasure, I am most assured that there is an ultimate epiphany. Maybe the search itself is part of the lesson: '..to strive, to seek, to find - and not to yield...' *


*George Gordon, Lord Byron, Ulysses

The Truth Is Out There

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It's funny (tragically) how I wander into thinking that My Truth is The Truth. I need to see the absolute, but perhaps I have subverted or skewered Truth for so long that its essence is lost. Vagueness just doesn't do it for me, though; so I keep digging.