Belated Happy New Year and Keeping Resolutions.

I am late in wishing everyone a Happy New Year! I believe I am right on target for a timely discussion about keeping your resolutions this year being that it is the second week of January 2010 though. Around December 31st each year, many of us make those traditional resolutions for what we are going to accomplish in the year ahead. Some common New Year’s resolutions include, losing weight and getting fit, quitting smoking, getting a better paying job or pursuing a degree, gaining control over finances, improving relationships and finding love. The motivation to keep the resolutions you make traditionally wanes mid-February, if not within the first two weeks of a new year. The following tips may help you to keep yours this year.

Know why you made them.

Did you just choose something at random because all of your friends or co-workers were sharing theirs and you felt that you had to come up with something to say you would be reaching for this year too? If you did, it is okay to just forget them now and not bring them up in conversations with the people who heard your New Year’s resolution(s). Don’t worry; you will not be the only one doing this. Many of those who sounded so sure of the pledges they made for the new year have already or will soon be dropping those goals and hoping that no one asks them how they are coming on them. Why is there such a high failure-rate for the promises made at year’s end? Because you have to really, want to make a change or changes in your life in order for you to stay motivated and to take the necessary steps to make them lasting.

Plan to succeed or doom yourself to fail.

Wanting your life to be different requires more than just wishing it to happen. The desire to set a new course for your life will not have any legs to stand on and the power to propel you to the finish line without a well thought out plan to guide you along the way. Write down or type a plan of action for yourself instead of relying on your mind to remember why you want to make whatever change(s) you have chosen and how to go about doing that. We humans have an amazing ability to manipulate our own minds into selective memorization. This means that when the going gets tough many of us will simply tell our minds to forget this whole -let’s make changes in our lives thing and move onto easier and more enjoyable things. Change can be difficult and scary. Having a written plan outlining the steps you need to take to get to the place where you want to be in your life, can help you to stay on track and progressing towards meeting the goal or goals you have set for yourself.

Right-sizing goal(s) is important.

Dreaming the impossible can be lots of fun and quite entertaining. Trying to make them come true can be a nightmare and leave you feeling like a failure even though no one else could achieve such lofty dreams either. The odds of winning the lottery and never having to work again are staggering. It would be wiser to save your money now and perhaps retire comfortably later on. Very few people become famous movie stars and Hollywood celebrities without superb talents and strong industry connections. Honestly, assess your present skill-set and talents, and weight that against whatever it is that you are looking to achieve. Can you do it? Would you be able to if you took some college courses or attended some training seminars to give yourself a broader set of skills? Big dreams can come true if you give them everything you’ve got to make that possible. Maybe you have chosen a goal(s) that you can achieve with hard work yet it seems overwhelming in its totality, causing you to doubt your own abilities. In this case, you need to separate a large goal into smaller segments of the steps you need to accomplish in achieving your goal(s) and stop looking only at how big or how long it may take you to meet a goal. You will feel a sense of accomplishment as you check off each smaller segment of your goal and that will give you the momentum to continue working until you have completed a goal(s) in its entirety.

I am hoping that I can stick to my resolutions for this year so that I will not find myself repeating them again come December 31, 2010. I hope all of you will be able to keep yours as well. Feel free to share the goals you have set for yourself for 2010 and to come back and give us all updates on your progress too.

Do Americans Need to Check Their Priorities?

Someone sent me an email today containing a letter purportedly composed by a soldier. I have decided to post it here because I believe it raises some valid points about the people that many Americans choose to give priority to while many times ignoring the significant and selfless contributions of other people like the brave souls in our military services. Below is the message I received in its entirety. You may draw your own conclusions as to whether you think the message expressed in this letter has some validity to it or not.

 

THIS WAS WRITTEN BY A SOLDIER IN IRAQ.
>
>
> I was just watching the news, and I caught part of a report on Michael
> Jackson . As we all know, Jackson died the other day. He was an
> entertainer who performed for decades. He made millions, he spent
> millions, and he did a lot of things that make him a villain to many
> people. I understand that his death would affect a lot of people, and
> I respect those people who mourn his death, but that isn't the point
> of my rant.
>
> Why is it that when ONE man dies, the whole of America loses their
> minds with grief. When a man dies whose only contribution to the
> country was to ENTERTAIN people, the American people find the need to
> flock to a memorial in Hollywood , and even Congress sees the need to
> hold a "moment of silence" for his passing?
>
> Am I missing something here? ONE man dies, and all of a sudden he's a freaking martyr because he entertained us for a few decades? What
> about all those SOLDIERS who have died to give us freedom? All those
> Soldiers who, knowing that they would be asked to fight in a war,
> still raised their 2 hands and swore to defend the Constitution and the
> United States of America . Where is there moment of silence? Where
> are the people flocking to their graves or memorials and mourning over
> them because they made the ultimate sacrifice? Why is it when a
> Soldier dies, there are more people saying "good riddance," and "thank
> God for IEDs?" When did this country become so calloused to the
> sacrifice of GOOD MEN and WOMEN, that they can arbitrarily blow off
> their deaths, and instead, throw themselves into mourning for a "Pop
> Icon?"
>
> I think that if they are going to hold a moment of silence IN CONGRESS
> for Michael Jackson, they need to hold a moment of silence for every
> service member killed in Iraq and Afghanistan . They need to PUBLICLY
> recognize every life that has been lost so that the American people
> can live their callous little lives in the luxury and freedom that WE,
> those that are living and those that have gone on, have provided for
> them. But, wait, that would take too much time, because there have
> been so many willing to make that sacrifice. After all, we will never
> make millions of dollars. We will never star in movies, or write hit
> songs that the world will listen too. We only shed our blood, sweat
> and tears so that people can enjoy what they have.
>
> Sorry if I have offended, but I needed to say it. Feel free to pass
> this along if you want.
>
> Remember these five words the next time you think of someone who is
> serving in the military;
> "So that others may live..."
>
>
> Only two people have ever effectively given their lives for you.
>
> Jesus Christ and The American G.I.
>
> One died for your sins, the other died to give you freedom.

Forget Dieting Pipedreams. Make Healthy Choices for Real Health

Diets do not work for anyone really outside of the creators of trendy new diet plans, and the makers of the zillions of diet products offered on the market. These individuals and corporations make millions of dollars annually off people’s desires to be thin and willingness to put their own health in serious jeopardy just to be the size and weight that our society unfortunately considers beautiful.

The true measure of real beauty comes from within, and we should all stop “buying” into the Hollywood, media, and diet industry fueled illusion that only size two women and enormously muscled men are beautiful. As soon as we start doing this, maybe fewer teenage girls and boys will starve themselves to death trying to achieve this ideal of perfection and beauty that our society has held onto for long enough.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight in a healthy manner if you really need to, or in wanting to improve your health and fitness levels. Scientific research has shown that people with a healthy weight and that are also fit and lead healthier lifestyles, do live longer. Your focus should be in achieving your desired weight and fitness level in healthy ways. Not through depriving yourself of certain foods, feeling hungry and tired from poor nutrition, or by overexerting your body with exercising that is too strenuous for where you are at fitness-wise right now. Popping so-called magic diet pills or drinking diet shakes and beverages whose ingredients may harm your internal organs, is not a healthy solution for you either.

I am suggesting that you eliminate the word diet from your vocabulary altogether and replace it with the word choice. It is choices, and not dieting and using diet products, you do not need and that may be harmful to you, that real overall health is all about.
You can make the choice to eat foods that are healthier and more nutritious to fuel your body with, while also allowing yourself to feast on a favorite treat occasionally. You can make the choice to become more physically active. You can make the choice to live a healthier lifestyle. We all face making various choices everyday. The ones we make concerning our health and the lives we want to live are very important choices indeed.

Please look for a continuation on this important subject of “choices” for health and greater glad living in future posts filed in the body, mind, spirit, and 3-dimensional health sections of this blog.

Organization Can Make for More Glad In Your Life

When your life is more organized, you will find that you spend more days glad and much fewer days feeling stressed. You can reduce or avoid altogether these common stressors in life by getting yourself organized. Stressors like, time wasted looking for misplaced items. Regretting missed appointments. Wondering what you should cook for dinner that night and if you have all the ingredients that you will need. Trying to keep straight in your mind the different activities, the kids will need chauffeuring to in the week ahead. Hoping that you will remember to pick up your dress and his suit jacket from the dry cleaners in time for that party the both of you are attending next weekend.

The list of things that can stress you out and that are as a direct result of disorganization in your life could go on for pages. I do not think it is necessary to try to list them all anyway as I am sure you can either relate to the ones I have listed, or readily come up with a list of your own of stressors in your life that could be decreased or eliminated with a little organization. I think that we can all agree that more days filled with glad than days ruled by stress are far better for us all. I decide to make this post today because Sunday afternoons are a good time for most people to organize various things for the week ahead so that you can have more glad days and fewer days of stress.

Designate a place for keeping your car keys, checkbook, stationary and stamps, kid’s book bags, shoes and jackets, sports equipment, etc. Then remember to put things back in their designated spot after use so you will know exactly where they are the next time that you want to use them, and you will not have to spend time searching all over the house for them.

You can sit down with weekly sales ads from your local grocery store(s) and plan your meals for the week as well as build your shopping list. Do not forget to look through your Sunday paper for grocery coupons you can use to reduce your food bills. Sundays are also good for many people for cooking some meals ahead of time to freeze and then pop into the microwave or oven for quick meal fixed during the week.

You can set up a family calendar board to hang in a prominent place where everyone will see it and list important appointments like dental and doctor visits, and school and business meetings, as well as the activities that family members will be doing during the week. You can use different colored markers for each family member to help them find at a glance what they are doing that day. Give family members the responsibility of adding any new appointments and extra curricular activities that prop up throughout the week. It is a good idea for them to draw a star or another symbol in front of any new entry, so that other family members will notice it and understand it to be a newly added to the family calendar board.

Plan chores for the week and assign them to family members. You can create a chore board for this or just add them to your family calendar board. This way everyone will know what their responsibilities are in helping to keep the house tidied, and other things like making sure the trash is placed out by the curb on trash day gets done during the week. Doing a few chores every day could mean less time playing catch up on Saturdays, and more time for family fun on the weekends.

Sundays afternoons are a good time to balance your checkbook and write out checks for bills due that week. Place checks with their corresponding payment slips into envelopes and affix the appropriate postage to them. Now they will be ready for dropping off at the post office on your way to work one day this week.

Lay out a few days worth or an entire week’s worth of outfits for the kids to wear to school or to play in so that you will not have to mess with picking out clothes on a busy morning. If you are worried about wrinkles developing, hang outfits on different colored hangers for each day of the week in the closet, so that you or your child can grab the outfit for that day quickly in the morning when dressing. You might find that this works so well in eliminating arguments and hassles with getting the kids dressed every morning that you will want to do the same with your work clothes for the week.

Check your child’s school bag to ensure you have signed all papers needing your signature before your child takes them back to school to give to his or her teacher. Place extra gym clothes and other things your child will need during the week into their school bag. Do not forget to write dates of upcoming school parties and treats you are to supply for those parties on your calendar board so you will not forget them. Children should place all their schoolbooks and school supplies into their school bags and place them near the front door, or a designated spot, for fast retrieval of them on the way to the bus stop in the mornings. Do the same with your briefcase or workbag, so that you have everything you need for the office or work when you head out the door each morning.

After planning and organizing your week ahead, late Sunday afternoons are also perfect for treating yourself and your family to a special treat like an ice cream cone, or a family bike ride around the neighborhood. With more organization in your life now, you are certain to have more glad days in your life, than those stress-filled days none of us enjoys having.

Dimensions of Existence

We (you & me) are not one-dimensional beings. Each of us is a unique multi-dimensional energy. I believe that our energies live on forever, yet in different forms. On earth, our energies are required to dwell within a physical body. When we journey forward from living life here, we leave behind our bodies, as they are only necessary for living on earth. (Some people believe that once their life on earth has ended so too does the energy they were while living. I will never take away anyone’s right to believe as they choose. Neither is it my wish to offend anyone believing differently on this matter. I am sharing my personal viewpoint here in the hopes someone might gain something from it. If you do not share the same opinion, or philosophy as me, that is okay, you do not have to adopt mine. One of the best things about people is the diversity in opinions, beliefs, philosophies, and perspectives that we each have. Feel free to share yours with our community whenever you have something to add to a topic or discussion here.)

Our individual energy is our “person” who we are, how we think and feel, and how we react and experience life around us. On earth, we have a physical dimension to us because we reside within bodies. In order to be able to fully experience and find satisfaction in our physical selves, our physical health needs to be in peak condition. Another dimension that each of us has is a dimension of emotion and personality. We need to nourish these to keep them healthy and gaining everything possible for us, from the lives we live here on earth. I believe that we all have a spiritual dimension to us as well. In my opinion, it is from the center of our spiritual dimensions that our emotional and physical dimensions can flourish or flounder. Spirituality means different things to different people. To me it means having a deep and strong connection with the God of my understanding, my inner-self, my brothers and sisters of humanity, and with nature, animals, and the world around me. I feel strongly that continuing to improve these connections, strengthens my spirit, and my ability to live a truly glad life on earth. I also feel that this will prepare me for the journeys that lay ahead in other realms of living as an everlasting energy.

I am going to be sharing all sorts of information, personal insights, and resources that I think might be useful in helping us all to improve and maintain health in all the dimensions that I believe our energies to have. You can find them filed under the categories of body, brain, spirit. and 3-dimensional health (when the subject matter pertains to all three of these dimensions.) I invite others to share what they know or have learned, about improving and keeping all these dimensions to us healthy, for the best in glad living.

Name the Glad in Your Life

Who are the people, where are the places, and what are the things that give you “Glad” in your life?

☺My Mom and other family members, as well as close friends, certainly hold a great significant to me in my life.
☺My faith is a source for foundation, comfort, serenity, and direction in my life.
☺My doggie, Hannah Lilly, is my best animal companion, and her company, personality, and quirks are endearing and often the source of much laughter for me.
☺Helping others in a meaningful way whenever possible is important to me. In my formula for glad living, giving to others is a top priority.
☺Expressing myself through writing has been an enjoyable pursuit that has benefited me in a myriad of ways since my youth.
☺Music can lift my spirits. I sing along with the radio in my truck and dance to tunes I really dig at home (as long as I am by myself that is. LOL) I have an appreciation of most genres of music, however, classic rock, country, and gospel are my favorites.
☺Various forms of art touch me. I am especially fond of art depicting angels or mountains, or lighthouses or ocean views.
☺The Ocean is a place I go when I need to recharge myself. The scents, sounds, and feel of beach sand and the water rushing over my feet make me very happy indeed.
☺Traveling to new places and having new experiences has always added to my enjoyment of living. Nashville, TN, Niagara Falls, NY, Branson, MO, Cherokee, NC, and Central Florida are a few of the places that I have been and still have wonderful memories of and plans to revisit.
☺Sunrises, sunsets, and looking up into a star-filled night sky, remind me of how phenomenal the universe and my very being are.
☺Hanging out in my PJ’s all day is fun.
☺Eating favorite foods sometimes without worrying about calorie or carb counts, or fat content is a good thing to me.
☺Having a hearty laugh, whether with a friend or alone while watching a comedy, provides a lot of glad in my life.

These are just some of the people, places, and things that give me great amounts of glad in my life. Please share with us in this thread: Who, what, and where’s that give you glad in your life.