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Finally have time to post some tidbits from Sarah Ban Breathnach's books. Some of these are just shorthand notes to inspire something, some are quotes, and some are little self-projects (Site Reports) to do. I personally think that most of these are fairly simple/straightforward things, but sometimes I just need a slightly different angle seen to 'click' with, you know? And these did it for me. ^__^ (Even if some of it's a bit...ehrm...eccentric, it's still a good outlook! *g*)
Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self by Sarah Ban Breathnach.
Three Choices:
1. Ignore it and hope it will go away (it won't).
2. Try and live with it (not forever).
3. Look for the gift within our fear and benefit from it (when we do, we emerge on the other side of life, surprised by joy).
*~
An adventure is a transgression you don't regret ~ Kate Wheeler
*~
We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us ~ Joseph Campbell
*~
What if I told you that one year from today you could be living your dreams, but (there's always a 'but'), it would mean that every day between now and then you would have to choose your destiny? In other words, that there are at least 365 choices standing between your dream and its coming true? That's all. Just 365 choices. Little choices count, too. In fact, little ones can often be more life-altering than big ones.
If you've gathered information on a choice - pondered it, discussed it, prayed on it, then leapt for it - even if it ends up being an unwise or wrong choice, it is NOT a BAD choice. It's a calculated risk and you did the best that you could. However, with a bad choice you usually don't consult heart, friends or spiritual guidance - because on the deepest level you know it's a self destructive choice.
We all make wise choices, good choices, strong choices, courageous and happy choices. Brilliant decisions. We just don't remember many of them. That's because we shrug off any good thing that arrives in our lives as if it were a fluke or a lucky break. Certainly we don't give ourselves credit. Only when things don't work out, only when we make mistakes, do we feel we are responsible.
*~*~
Which is worse, regretting what you did - or regretting what you didn't do?
Ask yourself - If I died tonight, what would I regret not having done today?
Is there one small action I can take to nurture my new dreams toward their fruition? If there is, it goes at the top of my To Do list.
Keep a journal nearby to write down your thoughts, memories and responses when going down Memory Lane. Can also keep visual clues (pictures, etc) of things/colors/ideas that you want to bring into your life in the future.
*~*~
The simplest explanation is always the most likely ~ Agatha Christie.
*~
[The history of most women is] hidden either by silence, or by flourishes and ornaments that amount to silence ~ Virginia Woolf.
*~
If I were to assign a color to self-loathing, it would be the bluish black and purple of an ugly bruise....self-loathing is the silent hemorrhaging of the soul. You don't see or feel the life force fleeing until it's no longer there, and then, of course, it's too late.
We loathe ourselves because she who excused so much or asked too little has learned only to mask the stalking shame that comes from being successful at things she doesn't respect, from failing to defend that which she knows is true. We loathe oursleves for living and lying everyday in little ways that devalue and dishonor us.
When was the last time you started off a conversation with "I'm sorry" when you weren't?
*~*~
Site Report:
What do you think are your talents, your authentic gifts? Are you using them in your work, your life, right now?
If you could have ten other career choices, what would they be, who would YOU be?
Joseph Campbell spoke of "following your bliss." What is your bliss? What activity makes you glow, makes the hours slip away, makes you lose track of time?
*~*~
Site Report:
Have you discovered your own authentic style? Did someone help you on your quest?
What colors make you smile? List them, color them in your journal. What colors do you love?
List the physical activities that make you feel joyous.
In which photos in your scrapbook do you look most like the essential you?
*~*~
People change and forget to tell each other ~ Lillian Hellman
*~*~
Self esteem isn't everything. It's just that there's nothing without it. ~ Gloria Steinem
*~*~
"I think she's scared of investing more than her imagination in herself. She's afraid of failing. And failure doesn't happen in a fantasy job or relationship. It's one thing to enliven a gathering with fascinating dinner party chatter (I'm thinking of opening a coffee bar...what do you think?). It's quite another to act on it." (relating to why we don't go for what we really, really want)
*~*~
Plants need to be repotted every two years or they'll get rootbound. Same for people.
*~*~
Site Report:
Jot down some of your buried dreams. Act on anythat you can accomplish. Today is not too late to start!
*~*~
The Promised Land always lies on the other side of the wilderness ! Havelock Ellis
*~*~
Turning Fifty: At fifty, the madwoman in the attic breaks loose, stomps down the stairs and sets fire to the house. She won't be imprisoned anymore. ~ Erica Jong (hehe...I think I'm going to work on releasing my inner madwoman earlier than fifty...^__^)
*~*~
Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you insane your whole life ~ Anne Lamott
*~*~
Keep a list, or an envelope or clippings of "someday" items - trips, learning a language, writing, purchases, whatever. Look through them - are some surprising in how often they show up? What can you do to make those dreams a reality?
*~*~
Site Report:
What are 5 things that you'd like to do someday? What passions did you confide to that 5-year-diary from long ago?
It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis. What steps can you take today to increase the chance that you'll live happily ever after?
*~*~
Site Report:
How do you define comfort? List five things that represent comfort for you.
Is your home as cozy as you would like it to be? Does it reflect who you are?
List the dwelling places of your life. What did you love about them? In whose home did you and your friends congregate as youngsters? What was it about that home that drew you in and embraced you? Can you recreate that feeling in your home now?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~
Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy. By SBB.
Outlook:
When I looked at my life's ledger, I realized I was a very rich woman. What I was experiencing was merely a temporary cash-flow problem.
*~
Gratitude Journal - list five things each day that you can be grateful for. Basics are fine - everyone has days that are not spectacular. :o)
*~*~
We wake up to a new canvas every single day.
*~*~
Think of today; not tomorrow. Set the sails. Pull anchor. Cast away. Feel the wind at your back. Keep your eyes on the horizon.
Or stay on shore.
But CHOOSE.
*~*~
Site Report:
What do you like about yourself? Be compassionate - list ten things you love about your face/body, and ten things about your personality. If this is difficult, keep doing this until you can list all 20 things in your gratitude journal.
*~*~
Accentuate the positive:
If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a pekinese? ~ Dame Edith Sitwell.
Most of us don't spend nearly enough time thinking good things about ourselves. Today, follow Dame Edith's example. Discover, flaunt and celebrate your authentic assets.
*~*~
Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else ~ Judy Garland
*~*~
Site Report:
Today, I want to ask you to *consider* clearing away the fashion clutter of past incarnations that lurks in your closets. Just because you bought it once doesn't mean you have to keep it forever. Be willing to let simplicity pare down your wardrobe to your authentic essence: identify the clothes you absolutely love and can't imagine living without. That is all. Merely consider and identify, while remembering that it is never too late for you to become the woman you were meant to be. Today, you're one step closer to her.
*~*~
Make two hours or an afternoon open. Have containers handy and energizing music for delight. tAke a deep breath. Now start by taking everything out of the closet and putting it on the bed. There, it's too late to turn back now.
Go through your wardrobe item by item. Try things on if you're not sure. Keep ONLY those things you love - things that make you look beautiful or feel fabulous. Don't save it unless it has tremendous sentimental value.
For future buying, buy things you LOVE. And preferably those as high on the comfort level as you can - wearing and maintenance. The Simple Abundance path encourages us to be patient until we find what's perfect fo us, rather than continue to waste our money, energy, and emotion settling for second-best or second-rate.
*~*~
Change by seduction. It's not just exercise or fitness, it is creative movement. Start moving, a step at a time, step after step. The positive momentum will take it from there.
*~*~
There are different reasons for walking - to increase the heart rate and build strength, to solve a creative problem, to finish that argument with yourself or someone else, to saunter and wake up to the world around you, and to meditate.
*~*~
Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful and believe to be beautiful ~ William Morris
*~*~
And the day came when the risk [it took] to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom ~ Anais Nin
*~*~
It's always my choice. Not necessarily to LIKE whatever life throws at me, but to try to catch the ball. After all, success in life is not how well we execute Plan A; it's how smoothly we cope with Plan B. And for most of us, that's 99% of the time.
*~*~
There's a whining at the threshold -
There's a scratching at the floor -
To work! To work! In Heaven's name!
The wolf is at the door!
~Charlotte Perkins Gilman
*~*~
Poverty is always experienced in the soul before it is felt in the pocketbook - a good life does not depend on extravagant indulgences.
*~*~
Site Report:
List 10 solitary pleasures.
What 3 skills would you love to instantly learn?
What three outrageous things would you do?
What three daring things intrigue you, even if you'd never do it?
What three all-expense paid vacations appeal?
Do you like working with your hands or visual more?
*~*~
No one expects you to be perfect at a hobby - pursuing a hobby warms up our talents and illuminates our natural inclinations.
*~
Your home can be a hobby!
*~*~
Lost, yesterday, sometime between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever ~ Horace Mann (relating to bad habits)
*~*~
Books to look for and maybe read:
Anne Morrow Lindberg - Gift from the Sea
Rose Levy Beranbaum - The Cake Bible
Clarissa Pinkola Estes - Women Who Run With Wolves
Barbara Sher - I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was
Anna Quindlen - Black and Blue
*~*~
Second thoughts have aborted more dreams than all the difficult circumstances, overwhelming obstacles, and dangerous detours life would ever throw at you. Undermining your authenticity by succumbing to someone else's second thoughts is a sinister, subtle and seductive form of self abuse.
*~*~
No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.
No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.
~Robert Frost
*~*~
Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter.
Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
~Samuel Beckett
*~*~
We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become. ~ Ursula K. LeGuin.
*~*~
Throw out your preconceptions, follow your heart, honor your creative impulses, trust your eye. Feathering your own nest is a perfect way for you to spread your wings as an artist.
*~*~
I am a brilliant, gifted artist of the *everyday*. My art is a blessing for me and mine.
*~*~
Procrastination is The Thief of Time. ~ Edward Young
*~*~
Uncreative days are real life. Every artist knows them...uncreative days are the part of the yin/yang of artistic yearning.
*~*~
Joyful Simplicity: Treat yourself to a deluxe box of crayola crayons with all the colors, or a wonderful set of colored pencils. Create a poster that reads "If Not Now, Then When?" and hang it where you'll see it everyday.
*~*~
What do you want more or less of in your life, so that you can love the life you are leading?
*~*~
The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do. Don't just entrust your hopes and wishes to the stars. Today, begin learning the craft that will enable you to reach for them.
*~*~
The price we pay for authenticity may seem high, but who among us can truly afford to continue living as a spendthrift of the self?
*~*~
The bottom line is not how fast you make your dreams come true, but how steadily you pursue it.
*~*~
Chill a bottle of champagne and toast yourself upon the *completion* of a creative project, personal accomplishment, professional achievement. Can we really afford to wait for the world's approval?
*~*~
Authentic success is knowing how simply abundant your life is exactly as it is today. Authentic success is being so grateful for the many blessings bestowed on you and yours that you can share your portion with others. Authentic success is living each day with a heart overflowing.
*~*~
Working happier accomplishes much more than working harder.
*~*~
Site Report:
On Labor Day weekend, take 15 minutes to write down all the things you wanted to do over the summer but never got around to doing. Put your list in an envelope. When you get next year's calendar, paper clipt he envelope to June and open it then. Try to block in some time on your calendar to make postponed pleasures a priority when summer returns.
*~*~
Site Report:
Sept: Take a walk under the huntress moon.
*~*~
In our heart of hearts, most of us feel that we deserve more compliments than we receive. But maybe one of the reasons we don't hear as many compliments as we'd like is because whenever one has our name on it, we return it to the sender.
"Oh, this old thing?"
"I got it on sale..."
"Do you really think so?"
"It was nothing"
*~*~
Cultivate the habit of giving at least one compliment a day to another human being, as well as to yourself. You'll feel good when you do, and soon it will become one of your habits of being. Just as words can hurt, words can heal.
*~*~
Money: Anytime you have more than you NEED, you have abundance. It doesn't matter how much more. Catch yourself the next time you start dwelling on what you don't have; switch tracks by noticing and appreciating all that you do have.
*~*~
Site Report:
For one week (7 days), keep track of every expenditure, be it large or small, routine or one time only, and whether made with cash, check or credit. Everything. At the end of the week, take a sheet of paper and list your expenditures under these headings: Necessities, Comforts, Wants, Indulgences, Extravagances, Insanity.
How much life energy did you spend? What was worth it? What expenditures make you sigh? With happy recollection or with regret? Now look at the choices that make you feel uncomfortable. What could you have passed up without a sense of depravation kicking in? Now take that amount x 52. Use that in the future for an authentic want or for savings.
*~*~
Site Report:
Material Girl Exercise: Go through all your mail order catalogs and circle in red ALL the items that capture your fancy, price is no object. Visualize yourself in or with those gifts. Mentally claim them as your own. Tell yourself, "I can have that." Then put all your catalogs in a basket of their own, then forget about things for you and focus only on the gifts you are getting for other people. Then, later, peruse your catalogs again. See if the Wants are still there. You may still want it, it may have gone on sale, or you may no longer be interested. Why? Because you satisfied your Material Girl. You fed her wants with attention. You didn't ignore, dismiss, or deprive her. You told her that she could have anything she wanted. But all she really wants is to hear you give her permission...Honor your desires by winnowing them out, so that all remain are authentic.
*~*~
In order for toys (i.e. The Velveteen Rabbit) to become Real, they must be loved by a child. In order for us to become Real, we must become lovers of real life in all it's complexity and uncertainty...The Velveteen Rabbit isn't alone in wishing to become Real without any uncomfortable or unpleasant things happening...but they do happen.
*~*~
Site Report:
Look back at the aspirations you wrote in January. Don't be discouraged if you haven't achieved them. It's the reaching for them that's important. Make a new list. Carry whatever is still meaningful to you over to the new year's list. Now confide your new dreams to a close friend, who will act as your witness.
Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self by Sarah Ban Breathnach.
Three Choices:
1. Ignore it and hope it will go away (it won't).
2. Try and live with it (not forever).
3. Look for the gift within our fear and benefit from it (when we do, we emerge on the other side of life, surprised by joy).
*~
An adventure is a transgression you don't regret ~ Kate Wheeler
*~
We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us ~ Joseph Campbell
*~
What if I told you that one year from today you could be living your dreams, but (there's always a 'but'), it would mean that every day between now and then you would have to choose your destiny? In other words, that there are at least 365 choices standing between your dream and its coming true? That's all. Just 365 choices. Little choices count, too. In fact, little ones can often be more life-altering than big ones.
If you've gathered information on a choice - pondered it, discussed it, prayed on it, then leapt for it - even if it ends up being an unwise or wrong choice, it is NOT a BAD choice. It's a calculated risk and you did the best that you could. However, with a bad choice you usually don't consult heart, friends or spiritual guidance - because on the deepest level you know it's a self destructive choice.
We all make wise choices, good choices, strong choices, courageous and happy choices. Brilliant decisions. We just don't remember many of them. That's because we shrug off any good thing that arrives in our lives as if it were a fluke or a lucky break. Certainly we don't give ourselves credit. Only when things don't work out, only when we make mistakes, do we feel we are responsible.
*~*~
Which is worse, regretting what you did - or regretting what you didn't do?
Ask yourself - If I died tonight, what would I regret not having done today?
Is there one small action I can take to nurture my new dreams toward their fruition? If there is, it goes at the top of my To Do list.
Keep a journal nearby to write down your thoughts, memories and responses when going down Memory Lane. Can also keep visual clues (pictures, etc) of things/colors/ideas that you want to bring into your life in the future.
*~*~
The simplest explanation is always the most likely ~ Agatha Christie.
*~
[The history of most women is] hidden either by silence, or by flourishes and ornaments that amount to silence ~ Virginia Woolf.
*~
If I were to assign a color to self-loathing, it would be the bluish black and purple of an ugly bruise....self-loathing is the silent hemorrhaging of the soul. You don't see or feel the life force fleeing until it's no longer there, and then, of course, it's too late.
We loathe ourselves because she who excused so much or asked too little has learned only to mask the stalking shame that comes from being successful at things she doesn't respect, from failing to defend that which she knows is true. We loathe oursleves for living and lying everyday in little ways that devalue and dishonor us.
When was the last time you started off a conversation with "I'm sorry" when you weren't?
*~*~
Site Report:
What do you think are your talents, your authentic gifts? Are you using them in your work, your life, right now?
If you could have ten other career choices, what would they be, who would YOU be?
Joseph Campbell spoke of "following your bliss." What is your bliss? What activity makes you glow, makes the hours slip away, makes you lose track of time?
*~*~
Site Report:
Have you discovered your own authentic style? Did someone help you on your quest?
What colors make you smile? List them, color them in your journal. What colors do you love?
List the physical activities that make you feel joyous.
In which photos in your scrapbook do you look most like the essential you?
*~*~
People change and forget to tell each other ~ Lillian Hellman
*~*~
Self esteem isn't everything. It's just that there's nothing without it. ~ Gloria Steinem
*~*~
"I think she's scared of investing more than her imagination in herself. She's afraid of failing. And failure doesn't happen in a fantasy job or relationship. It's one thing to enliven a gathering with fascinating dinner party chatter (I'm thinking of opening a coffee bar...what do you think?). It's quite another to act on it." (relating to why we don't go for what we really, really want)
*~*~
Plants need to be repotted every two years or they'll get rootbound. Same for people.
*~*~
Site Report:
Jot down some of your buried dreams. Act on anythat you can accomplish. Today is not too late to start!
*~*~
The Promised Land always lies on the other side of the wilderness ! Havelock Ellis
*~*~
Turning Fifty: At fifty, the madwoman in the attic breaks loose, stomps down the stairs and sets fire to the house. She won't be imprisoned anymore. ~ Erica Jong (hehe...I think I'm going to work on releasing my inner madwoman earlier than fifty...^__^)
*~*~
Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you insane your whole life ~ Anne Lamott
*~*~
Keep a list, or an envelope or clippings of "someday" items - trips, learning a language, writing, purchases, whatever. Look through them - are some surprising in how often they show up? What can you do to make those dreams a reality?
*~*~
Site Report:
What are 5 things that you'd like to do someday? What passions did you confide to that 5-year-diary from long ago?
It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis. What steps can you take today to increase the chance that you'll live happily ever after?
*~*~
Site Report:
How do you define comfort? List five things that represent comfort for you.
Is your home as cozy as you would like it to be? Does it reflect who you are?
List the dwelling places of your life. What did you love about them? In whose home did you and your friends congregate as youngsters? What was it about that home that drew you in and embraced you? Can you recreate that feeling in your home now?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~
Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy. By SBB.
Outlook:
When I looked at my life's ledger, I realized I was a very rich woman. What I was experiencing was merely a temporary cash-flow problem.
*~
Gratitude Journal - list five things each day that you can be grateful for. Basics are fine - everyone has days that are not spectacular. :o)
*~*~
We wake up to a new canvas every single day.
*~*~
Think of today; not tomorrow. Set the sails. Pull anchor. Cast away. Feel the wind at your back. Keep your eyes on the horizon.
Or stay on shore.
But CHOOSE.
*~*~
Site Report:
What do you like about yourself? Be compassionate - list ten things you love about your face/body, and ten things about your personality. If this is difficult, keep doing this until you can list all 20 things in your gratitude journal.
*~*~
Accentuate the positive:
If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a pekinese? ~ Dame Edith Sitwell.
Most of us don't spend nearly enough time thinking good things about ourselves. Today, follow Dame Edith's example. Discover, flaunt and celebrate your authentic assets.
*~*~
Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else ~ Judy Garland
*~*~
Site Report:
Today, I want to ask you to *consider* clearing away the fashion clutter of past incarnations that lurks in your closets. Just because you bought it once doesn't mean you have to keep it forever. Be willing to let simplicity pare down your wardrobe to your authentic essence: identify the clothes you absolutely love and can't imagine living without. That is all. Merely consider and identify, while remembering that it is never too late for you to become the woman you were meant to be. Today, you're one step closer to her.
*~*~
Make two hours or an afternoon open. Have containers handy and energizing music for delight. tAke a deep breath. Now start by taking everything out of the closet and putting it on the bed. There, it's too late to turn back now.
Go through your wardrobe item by item. Try things on if you're not sure. Keep ONLY those things you love - things that make you look beautiful or feel fabulous. Don't save it unless it has tremendous sentimental value.
For future buying, buy things you LOVE. And preferably those as high on the comfort level as you can - wearing and maintenance. The Simple Abundance path encourages us to be patient until we find what's perfect fo us, rather than continue to waste our money, energy, and emotion settling for second-best or second-rate.
*~*~
Change by seduction. It's not just exercise or fitness, it is creative movement. Start moving, a step at a time, step after step. The positive momentum will take it from there.
*~*~
There are different reasons for walking - to increase the heart rate and build strength, to solve a creative problem, to finish that argument with yourself or someone else, to saunter and wake up to the world around you, and to meditate.
*~*~
Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful and believe to be beautiful ~ William Morris
*~*~
And the day came when the risk [it took] to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom ~ Anais Nin
*~*~
It's always my choice. Not necessarily to LIKE whatever life throws at me, but to try to catch the ball. After all, success in life is not how well we execute Plan A; it's how smoothly we cope with Plan B. And for most of us, that's 99% of the time.
*~*~
There's a whining at the threshold -
There's a scratching at the floor -
To work! To work! In Heaven's name!
The wolf is at the door!
~Charlotte Perkins Gilman
*~*~
Poverty is always experienced in the soul before it is felt in the pocketbook - a good life does not depend on extravagant indulgences.
*~*~
Site Report:
List 10 solitary pleasures.
What 3 skills would you love to instantly learn?
What three outrageous things would you do?
What three daring things intrigue you, even if you'd never do it?
What three all-expense paid vacations appeal?
Do you like working with your hands or visual more?
*~*~
No one expects you to be perfect at a hobby - pursuing a hobby warms up our talents and illuminates our natural inclinations.
*~
Your home can be a hobby!
*~*~
Lost, yesterday, sometime between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever ~ Horace Mann (relating to bad habits)
*~*~
Books to look for and maybe read:
Anne Morrow Lindberg - Gift from the Sea
Rose Levy Beranbaum - The Cake Bible
Clarissa Pinkola Estes - Women Who Run With Wolves
Barbara Sher - I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was
Anna Quindlen - Black and Blue
*~*~
Second thoughts have aborted more dreams than all the difficult circumstances, overwhelming obstacles, and dangerous detours life would ever throw at you. Undermining your authenticity by succumbing to someone else's second thoughts is a sinister, subtle and seductive form of self abuse.
*~*~
No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.
No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.
~Robert Frost
*~*~
Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter.
Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
~Samuel Beckett
*~*~
We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become. ~ Ursula K. LeGuin.
*~*~
Throw out your preconceptions, follow your heart, honor your creative impulses, trust your eye. Feathering your own nest is a perfect way for you to spread your wings as an artist.
*~*~
I am a brilliant, gifted artist of the *everyday*. My art is a blessing for me and mine.
*~*~
Procrastination is The Thief of Time. ~ Edward Young
*~*~
Uncreative days are real life. Every artist knows them...uncreative days are the part of the yin/yang of artistic yearning.
*~*~
Joyful Simplicity: Treat yourself to a deluxe box of crayola crayons with all the colors, or a wonderful set of colored pencils. Create a poster that reads "If Not Now, Then When?" and hang it where you'll see it everyday.
*~*~
What do you want more or less of in your life, so that you can love the life you are leading?
*~*~
The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do. Don't just entrust your hopes and wishes to the stars. Today, begin learning the craft that will enable you to reach for them.
*~*~
The price we pay for authenticity may seem high, but who among us can truly afford to continue living as a spendthrift of the self?
*~*~
The bottom line is not how fast you make your dreams come true, but how steadily you pursue it.
*~*~
Chill a bottle of champagne and toast yourself upon the *completion* of a creative project, personal accomplishment, professional achievement. Can we really afford to wait for the world's approval?
*~*~
Authentic success is knowing how simply abundant your life is exactly as it is today. Authentic success is being so grateful for the many blessings bestowed on you and yours that you can share your portion with others. Authentic success is living each day with a heart overflowing.
*~*~
Working happier accomplishes much more than working harder.
*~*~
Site Report:
On Labor Day weekend, take 15 minutes to write down all the things you wanted to do over the summer but never got around to doing. Put your list in an envelope. When you get next year's calendar, paper clipt he envelope to June and open it then. Try to block in some time on your calendar to make postponed pleasures a priority when summer returns.
*~*~
Site Report:
Sept: Take a walk under the huntress moon.
*~*~
In our heart of hearts, most of us feel that we deserve more compliments than we receive. But maybe one of the reasons we don't hear as many compliments as we'd like is because whenever one has our name on it, we return it to the sender.
"Oh, this old thing?"
"I got it on sale..."
"Do you really think so?"
"It was nothing"
*~*~
Cultivate the habit of giving at least one compliment a day to another human being, as well as to yourself. You'll feel good when you do, and soon it will become one of your habits of being. Just as words can hurt, words can heal.
*~*~
Money: Anytime you have more than you NEED, you have abundance. It doesn't matter how much more. Catch yourself the next time you start dwelling on what you don't have; switch tracks by noticing and appreciating all that you do have.
*~*~
Site Report:
For one week (7 days), keep track of every expenditure, be it large or small, routine or one time only, and whether made with cash, check or credit. Everything. At the end of the week, take a sheet of paper and list your expenditures under these headings: Necessities, Comforts, Wants, Indulgences, Extravagances, Insanity.
How much life energy did you spend? What was worth it? What expenditures make you sigh? With happy recollection or with regret? Now look at the choices that make you feel uncomfortable. What could you have passed up without a sense of depravation kicking in? Now take that amount x 52. Use that in the future for an authentic want or for savings.
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Site Report:
Material Girl Exercise: Go through all your mail order catalogs and circle in red ALL the items that capture your fancy, price is no object. Visualize yourself in or with those gifts. Mentally claim them as your own. Tell yourself, "I can have that." Then put all your catalogs in a basket of their own, then forget about things for you and focus only on the gifts you are getting for other people. Then, later, peruse your catalogs again. See if the Wants are still there. You may still want it, it may have gone on sale, or you may no longer be interested. Why? Because you satisfied your Material Girl. You fed her wants with attention. You didn't ignore, dismiss, or deprive her. You told her that she could have anything she wanted. But all she really wants is to hear you give her permission...Honor your desires by winnowing them out, so that all remain are authentic.
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In order for toys (i.e. The Velveteen Rabbit) to become Real, they must be loved by a child. In order for us to become Real, we must become lovers of real life in all it's complexity and uncertainty...The Velveteen Rabbit isn't alone in wishing to become Real without any uncomfortable or unpleasant things happening...but they do happen.
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Site Report:
Look back at the aspirations you wrote in January. Don't be discouraged if you haven't achieved them. It's the reaching for them that's important. Make a new list. Carry whatever is still meaningful to you over to the new year's list. Now confide your new dreams to a close friend, who will act as your witness.
