Why you really should forgive

Forgiveness is not about the wrongdoer, it's about you! Forgiveness lightens your heart and soul in ways that revenge never can.
This has to be one of life's hardest lessons. First let's discuss what forgiveness is not? It has nothing to do with condoning the act that created the hurt. Wrong doers should face the consequences of their actions. Your anger might well be justified, but the negative energy created by thoughts of revenge, anger, hatred, animosity will eat your body alive.
So forgiveness is really about healing you. Allowing you to be free to heal. Once you forgive you don't have to be a victim of those past experiences. Forgiveness let's us get on with enjoying our lives instead of being preoccupied with someone else's.
Health and happiness are the natural state for human beings. However the stress caused by carrying around the negative energy of hurt prevents us from reaching this natural state.
It is nobodys birthright to expect forgiveness for a transgression. It's up to you to decide when you are ready. But when you are ready you can remove what blocks your energy and happiness.
The next question is how to forgive? It is not necessary in my opinion to get face to face with perpetrator and in some situations definately not advisable. To start just say to yourself something like this....I forgive you, I now understand that you are a victim as well. You have attracted a pile of negativity to yourself perhaps without knowing it. I forgive you. The next stage would be to say, I forgive you, I don't condone your actions but I love you. This may take a long time but when you do get to the point where you can say it and mean it, you will be healed! You will have earned the right to call yourself an enlightened human being.

"The weak can never forgive.
Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong"
Ghandi

Or how about this from the Lord's Prayer..

"Forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those that trespass against us"

I'm not sure but it sounds to me that you don't get forgiven until you forgive those that wronged you. I wonder how many Christians dutifuly say the Lord's Prayer while glossing over that part of it?

Why you must believe in miracles!

This is the headline.....Girl ordered doctors to re-attach her arm!
This story was in today's Calgary Herald...her name is Joni Ross, a 20 year old girl who had a freak car accident that left her all alone on a isolated road clutching her servered left arm! Naturally she had lost a lot of blood but she never passed out or even went into shock. She was determined to get help and she absolutely determined to get her arm re-attached. She believed with certaintity that she would get the usage of her arm back.
Now get this...she walked to a neighbour's place but no one was home, so she stood at the side of the road and waited for someone to come by.
An off duty paramedic happened by and found Joni clutching her severed arm. He called 911. In the meantime her stepdad Cory who was driving home came across her. They waited with her until the ambulance arrived. They didn't have a hospital in the town of Pemberton, BC so they took her to a Health Centre. They cut the last remaining shred of skin holding her arm and packed it on ice and then had her transported via air ambulance to Vancouver where specialists assessed her condition.
They determined that the chances of a successfully re-attaching the arm were slim and none. However, Joni had an unshakeable belief it was possible and would not take no for an answer....she said.."I don't care what you think, I want that arm back on". Somehow she convinced the doctors to proceed. The doctors operated on her all night.
The next day her fingers began turning pink. They say Joni's not out of the woods yet, but even the sceptical doctors have become believers in Joni. Her positive attitude and belief got her this far so who can doubt that the story will end successfully.
So let's say that Joni didn't carry that belief in her, after the accident. Who is to say she would even be alive today and we know for sure she would be missing an arm today. I guess if Joni didn't believe in a miracle then there would be no great story to share with you.
One thing I know, if you don't believe in miracles you can be 100% certain you won't ever experience one!

"There are two ways to live your life-
one is as though nothing is a miracle,
the other is as though
everything is a miracle"
Einstein

You are dismissed!

We all read and hear about different ideas and decided instantly whether we have any interest or not. What I'm thinking about is when we dismiss an idea or a thought that might acually been good for us.
Since I watched the DVD and read the book, The Secret I thought about the different people in my sphere of influence who would benefit from me sharing my discovery.
It was interesting to me that the one's that I thought that would benefit from it the most were the one's least interested in watching, reading or even talking about it.
By contrast those that I felt needed it the least were the one's who jumped right on something that sounded interesting to them. They saw the immediate benefit not just for them but for others they thought might find value. This has me thinking about what I might have dismissed in my life that could have had major benefit to me? Now obviously its healthy to dismiss some things like recreational drugs for instance. But perhaps we would all benefit if we were just a little more open minded and were not so quick to dismiss what we don't initially understand.
Then there are those who dismiss the ideas of others and by doing so crush their enthusiasm.
The damage done by belittling someone else's dreams can be devastating. Here's what Mark Twain had to say about that...

"keep away from people who belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that but the great one's
make you feel that you too, can become great"

Who do you have influence over?

We all have a 'sphere of influence'

That would be the people in your life that you have some influence over. The people that if you had a good idea, would be receptive enough to listen with a relatively open mind.

"we learn more from what you do than from what you say"

So my question to you is; do you have a responsibility to use your sphere of influence when you know about something (a book, a video or an idea) that you honestly believe could help in some way improve the other persons life? I don't know about you but my answer would have to be 'of course'.

So this is why I am doing this blog. I sincerely intend that what I write about might help someone in some small way. It might just stir the thinking process enough to get someone to make a change or help someone else. And hopefully, it will expand my own personal sphere of influence.

So think about your own sphere of influence and who you might help in whatever way you deem proper and helpful?

Smile, it looks really good on you!

Eduardo

The Science of Happiness

For a very long time physchiatry thought that 'positive thinking' was just another form of denial. They focused instead on finding ways to deal with painful emotions. Getting to the root of the problem, reliving ugly emotions then through prolonged sessions hopefully coming to some form of acceptance and coping stragedy.

(I'm thinking, lots of billable hours, great for business).

Recently a Harvard School study found out that by working on people's strength's instead of their weaknesses, brought much quicker results. After all phychoanlysis doesn't get people sober. AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) gets people sober.

So in order to deal successfully and quicker with people's deep seated problems we need to address their strength's, which also are the things that make us happy (we already know what makes us sad or depressed).

Here are some of things, those brainac's found make us happy:

-having intimate relationships

-socializing (feeds our need to belong)

-nature (trees, water and animals etc)

-seeing joy (a child laughing, a kittens purr or a puppy wagging his tail)

- foregiveness

and number uno....an optimistic attitude!

Sheesh...forget the drugs and the intense prolonged psychoanlysis! Just put a big goofy grin on your face and live your life with the unwavering belief that life will be good and abundant. And as you belive so it will be (sounds like a bible quote, huh). Seems to me this is a recipe to put a lot of those guys out of work!

It's time to dream big!

Make no little plans: they have no magic to stir man's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing asserting itself with ever growing insistency. Daniel Burnham

Wow, doesn't that quote just blow you away? No wonder people walk around like living zombie's. They just don't have anything they are juiced about when they wake up in the morning. Nothing excites them and probably if they read that quote, they would give you that tired old excuse, that's just not realistic for me! Or maybe, I'm not smart enough or don't have the time!

But really amigos, what do you have to lose by dreaming big? Why not give a whirl? It's fun, easy and just might lead to more abundence then you have ever imagined! The secret here, is to believe in will happen. Smarter men than me believe what I just said and dumber men than me have proven that it works!

Better than drugs!

Do you want to get a little high, without using drugs? You can use this technique to alter your mood or just get high for the fun of it. The best part is that is absolutely free and is actually good for you.

It's called gratitude and here is how it works. First, put a smile on your face (even if and especially if, the last thing you feel like doing is smiling). Next, take a clean piece of paper and write across the top.....I am so grateful and happy now that.....now fill up the page with things you are grateful for. It could be your possessions, people in your life, your pet, a holiday, a gift, something someone said to you, things that happened to you or anything you can conjure up that made you smile in the past.

By the time you fill up the page while maintaining the smile on your face, I guarantee you will feel better. Do this every day and it will change your life. And while it might take awhile the first time, each succesive time it gets easier and quicker.

There is a problem we have in western society, we have lost our gratitude and taken for granted all that we have. Look at all the problems in the third world countries? We are not starving, watching our children die or being murdered indiscriminately. We have so very much to feel gratitude about. We have been blessed but have lost our gratitude for being born so lucky.

The best part of all this is that by feeling happy and full of gratitude you get more reasons to be happy. It is one of those universal laws. Once you are happy others notice it and are attracted to you. People want to treat you better and more good things happen. Soon you will realize you are living in a northern paradise. Todas esta bien! (it's all good). Try it and remember to smile as you do it. Let me know how it works for you?

Pssst....I have a secret!

All right, me and about one million other people know about it. But we're not telling so you have to go buy the book or the DVD. Not really, actually I would be only to happy to spill the beans.

Rather than keep you in suspence I'll let you know what all the excitement is about. The Secret is....The Law of Attraction! Let me explain with a quote from the book...

" Everthing that's coming into you life you are attracting into your life. And it's attracted to you by virtue of the images you're holding in your mind. It's what you are thinking. Whatever is going on in your mind you are attracting to you."

There I've done it, now you don't have to buy the book or the DVD!

Actually, I really do hope you buy both the DVD and the book. Although the message is nothing revolutionary it is presented in a powerful way and has the potential to change your life. And even if it isn't for you, it will probably help someone close to you.

Whether you wish to attract wealth, health, love or spirtual growth this can help. It's helped me and I've seen it help others.

Here is one valuable recommendation I have, see the DVD first and then read the book. The DVD is quite powerful and will no doubt open your eyes to the possibilities in life you have been missing. But you need the book for daily insights. I mean you can't pack your DVD player around with you everywhere you go. The book you can reach for at bedtime or whenever. Geth them both! No, I don't get a commission for promoting this (but there's a thought).

I have lots of thoughts about how best to use what you read in the book but that's for later...so enjoy!

Don't talk dirty....

The words you use have a direct and immediate impact on your life! I'm always amazed that people that use excessively crude language don't realize how they are judged. Most times they come across as crude uneducated slobs. But even worse than that are those that put limitations on themselves by the choice of their words.

Consider what Henry Ford had to say...

whether you think you can
or you think you can't...
either way you are right!

or put another way by Richard Bach...

argue for you limitations
and sure enough they are yours to keep!

My point here is that we so often ensure that we won't succeed at something by eleminating ourselves from the game before it even starts. Consider phrases like; I can't do that, or how about this one, I just don't have the time. Or here is one that really drives me nuts, I'm not smart enough do do that. Here's two more killer phrases, that's just too big of a dream for me and I wouldn't know where to start.

Talk about ways to guarantee that nothing in your life will work. The truth is that there are plenty of people who are no smarter than you or I who have achieved great things. So what do they do that makes them different. Well, for one thing they don't use the same language. They don't elimanate themselves before they start. They dream big and bold and believe somehow they will succeed. They have faith in the desired outcome. They get a hunch and if it feels right they go for it.

So watch your language buster!

Competition vs Creativity

Most of us were raised to believe in the benefits of competition. If we worked a little harder or did something a little better than the next guy it would lead to some form of victory or success.

I now believe we would be better served if we changed our focus from competition to creativity. The end result would be that we become happier and more successful. Less stress and more reward.

Competition attempts to be like. In competition we analyze the opponent and copy what we think we see as successful. Then we try to do a little more or do it a little better. That sounds logical but there is a major flaw in that strategy. And that is that it breeds sameness. We end up trying to do the same thing only a little better.

The great achievors in life are focused on creativity. Creativity leads to newness. A new way to do things and not just a slightly better way. A totally new product instead of a slightly better one.

To create something is much more satisfying. It leads to whole new ways of doing things. It is exciting and not just a grind.

Competition is an outdated model that leads to modest gains. Creativity can blow the doors open and do what has never been done before.

The greatest things in life are those that you created!

Eureka!

I finally realized that logic doesn't rule....faith does! ]

Think back on all the truly great inventions or breakthoughs that makind has made in all the different fields?

Most of those eureka moments would not have happened or even been possible if the inventor or discoverer had only depended on logic.

Was it logical to think that man could fly like the birds? Was it logical to think that a voice could be transmitted over the Atlantic ocean?

In order for many great discoveries to have happened someone had to suspend logic and just have faith that somehow they could find a way where no one had before them. So it turned out that faith or belief was the doorway to creativity. And that creative look at the problem led to the discovery.

So how does this effect our lives? Obviously, we have to have believe that we can do great things with our lives before it is actually possible. It shouldn't concern us so much about how we will make things happen, so much as we should really believe in the final outcome. That's pretty powerful stuff!

Life was meant to be fun and easy!

"to alter your life, the only single course

open to you, is to alter your thinking"

And since I've altered my thinking lately, I've made a major decision to change the focus of this blog. I have become acutely aware of the limitations we all put on ourselves and at the same time had the epiphany that "life was meant to be fun and easy". In the future you will see articles that will explain this more clearly.

I intend to have some fun with this and hope those of you who find this site will find some benefit for you. And I sincerely hope that as you read what is to come, that you take the time to give me some feedback in the comments section below each article.

for now I'll leave you with this....

"life was never meant to be a struggle

just a gentle progression from one point

to another. Much like a mornings stroll

down a tropical beach"