Creating My Ideal Life: When to Complain and When to Shut Up
Posted by Louise on Feb 21, 2010
Yoo-hoo, I’m immersed in the most exciting adventure of my life to date: that of creating my Ideal Life. I have very precise goals and progress markers so I know exactly what I want to achieve. Some days I make great strides in the creation of my Ideal Life and sometimes progress is limited to just one small step or two.
Interestingly this past week has been an uncomfortable one. Then one of those ‘coincidences’ occurred. The cat knocked a borrowed – and as yet unread – book off the window sill with an almighty clatter. The book fell open and my attention was drawn to a short text about complaining.
The gist of the message was it is pointless to complain about things to the world in general. If you have something to complain about, then take the complaint to someone who can do something about the situation. By taking one’s complaint to someone with the power to change things for the better, there is some possibility of effecting positive change. Complaining to those who are powerless to effect change is merely self-indulgece, moaning and whinging.
The moral of my story is:
If you feel you must complain, bring your complaint to someone capable of redressing the cause of the complaint. Otherwise spare innocent bystanders and never, ever complain to those who are not in a position to effect positive change.
“It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (born near Lutzen, Prussia in 1844, died in Weimar, Saxony in 1900). A most influential philosopher, his notable contributions included the death of God, herd-instinct, perspectivism and will to power.
In creating my Ideal Life, I am constantly seeking ways of disciplining my unproductive thoughts. The Law of Attraction suggests we attract what we occupy our minds with. Who wants to attract cause for complaint? It seems like my new ‘complaints policy’ might be very simple to effect. Only complain to those who can help if there is a good chance of changing the situation. Otherwise zip it and drop it from my mental horizon too.
“Mrs Woolf’s complaint should be addressed to her creator, who made her, rather than me.”
Cecil Beaton (1904 – 1980), a self-taught fashion and high-society photographer. He photographed for ‘Vanity Fair’, ‘Vogue’ and is famous for his iconic photographs of “young England” of 1920 – 1930. He became official photographer to the Royal Family and received a knighthood in 1972.
Inspirational Bible Verses: Don’t just feel Gratitude – Express Your Thanks Aloud!
Posted by Louise on Feb 19, 2010
These inspirational Bible verses were taken from Luke, Chapter 17; verses 12 – 19. I chose these verses as a source of inspiration about gratitude. One never knows when we will be in a position of not being able to help ourselves, when we will have to place our faith and trust in God or others. When we do receive help it is essential that we not only feel gratitude but express it to our benefactor(s). In so doing, we stand to gain even more.
[12] As he entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, [13] crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
[14] He looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy.
[15] One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” [16] He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaratan.”
[17] Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? [18] Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” [19] And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.”***
Understanding the historical context of having leprosy:
Leprosy or Hansen’s disease is a chronic bacterial disease of the upper respiratory tract and the peripheral nerves, resulting in very disfiguring skin lesions. Popular myth suggests fingers, toes, noses drop off due to the infection, this is incorrect. In fact while affected parts may become numb there is permanent damage caused to skin, eyes, limbs and nerves. Leprosy spreads via close contact and nasal droplets.
At the time of St. Luke, in order to prevent the spread of leprosy, sufferers were expected to keep themselves separate from others, hence the double burden of a social stigma plus enforced isolation. On occasion, leprosy appeared to go into remission, and sufferers were then entitled to visit a priest, who had the power to declare them well (Leviticus 14). It is interesting to note that the sufferer was a Samaritan, a race particularly despised by the Jews.
What do these Bible verses really mean?
Jesus was travelling through Samaria on his way from Galilee to Jericho, when he encountered ten opportunistic lepers who had sufficient faith to beg Jesus for mercy, and then visit their priests for the ‘all clear’ even before they knew they were cured. This demonstrated their faith in the power of Jesus to heal. Luke uses this story to illustrate that God’s grace is for everyone, even leprosy-ridden Samaritans.
It is wry that nine out of ten cured men failed to thank Jesus. Interestingly, Jesus indicates it is appropriate to thank God, so it is important to go beyond feeling gratitude, he expects us to express our thanks to God also. We can read between the lines, that only the grateful man discovered why he had been healed – due to his faith that he would be healed.
How can we apply this lesson in faith and gratitude to our lives today?
What I find interesting about these inspirational Bible verses is it was social outcasts (not just leprosy-sufferers but also a despised ethnic group) who had sufficient faith to believe Jesus would and could heal them. I know from my own life, when things have been very difficult I have been at my most receptive to help, from whichever quarter it came. In fact it was this vulnerability which forced my hand to request outside help in the first place. Knowing I couldn’t solve my difficulty alone served to strengthen my faith and trust in my helper.
It is sobering to read that nine out of ten healed men failed to express their gratitude. It causes me to reflect on how much I take for granted. Not only do I need to thank God, there are many people, my family and friends included, who need to hear of my gratitude for their support.
Finally, I love the extra twist in the story. The one man who returned to express his thanks was the only one to discover why he had been healed. Jesus told him it was due to his faith. So, while God is pleased when we give thanks, there may be a second benefit too: we stand to harvest greater understanding by showing gratitude.
In keeping with what I have learned, I thank you for reading these inspirational Bible verses. I hope you will express your gratitude to God and those around you today. I shall endeavour not waste another opportunity for gratitude.
***Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Inspirational Phrases: The Bigger Picture behind Gratitude
Posted by Louise on Feb 18, 2010
Here’s an Inspirational Phrase about Gratitude by Findhorn’s spiritual icon, Eileen Caddy*.
“Gratitude helps you to grow and expand: gratitude brings joy and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you.” Eileen Caddy, MBE (1917 – 2006)
Right now my life seems to be getting faster and faster. Success experts warn of this. The more we achieve, the more opportunities that open up. The more one does, the bigger the stakes are. I am inundated with things to do. So much so that I am at risk of losing track of the purpose behind my targeted activity: to make consistent progress on my journey towards achieving my best-possible life. I am the author of my Ideal Life. As author, surely I get to determine where I go with my plot?
Today I researched this inspirational phrase to get me back in touch with my inner core, my true and important values. Why be hugely successful if it isn’t fun? Why be enormously productive on external fronts and ignore my inner voices? Right now my inner voices are asking me to calm down and take stock. I want to step off the accelerator a bit and take time to be grateful for all the wonderful things that are happening.
Back to gratitude. Living a life filled with gratitude is an expansive space to occupy. Gratitude has a strong spiritual element to it. Gratitude opens my emotional self to high vibrations such as experiencing joy, elation, hope, expectation, trust.
Psychological research into gratitude indicates that individuals who foster the state of gratitude and who exhibit gratitude as a personality trait are genuinely happier, less prone to stress and depression, better sleepers, better able to cope. High gratitude individuals have a higher quality of life which is directly correlated with their gratitude-attitude.
Duality: Gratitude and resentment occupy opposing sides of the coin. The higher we are on the gratitude side of the equation, the more we focus on being at one with ourselves and the universe. When we occupy the ingratitude side of the coin, our attention is on what is missing from our lives. We experience resentment, lack and frustration as primary emotions.
This is the imbalanced state (e.g. ingratitude) I currently seek to distance myself from. With all my emphasis on what I must do, what needs to be done, what I can’t do because I don’t have the time, knowledge or means… well I quickly start to generate feelings of resentment (definitely not a gratitude state!) until these dominate my emotions.
Now I need to consciously go within and reconnect with what is real and important to me, locate the goodness, the generosity, the harvest I am currently reaping. Finding 100 reasons to be thankful, and logging them in my journal, is but a small price to pay for the rich emotions that a ‘gratitude attitude’ generates. It is time to step off the treadmill of satisfying external demands (which are of fleeting and questionable importance right now) and reconnect with my Inner Self.
I am thankful that this inspirational phrase about gratitude has opened my mind to the psychological benefits of experiencing gratitude, and opened my eyes to the opposite ends of the gratitude-resentment scale. The more gratitude I feel, the further away I move from lack, resentment, and frustration.
* Eileen Caddy under the spotlight:
Eileen Caddy was a co-founder of the Findhorn Foundation which has been dubbed “the Vatican of the New Age”. Eileen Caddy, a spiritual leader and New Age author, was awarded an MBE by Queen Elisabeth II in 2004 for her services to spiritual enquiry. She mastered the art of ‘going within’ and ‘listening to her inner voice’ for guidance. In 2001 Channel 4 deemed her to be one of Britain’s most spiritually influential individuals.
Inspirational Bible Verses: Developing an Attitude of Thankfulness
Posted by Louise on Feb 17, 2010
Here we are, bang in the middle of an economic recession, when many of us are experiencing scarcity of work and income. This prompted my choice of inspirational Bible verses. What does the ancient Israelite culture have to do with our attitude to thankfulness today? Why should we be thankful today when we face financial hardship, unsatisfying work, and we lack the means to improve our lot?
Today’s inspirational Bible verses are taken from ‘Numbers’ chapter 11, verses 4 – 6. These Bible verses deal with the Israelites complaining, missing the daily luxuries they experienced in Egypt, and displaying a thorough lack of gratitude.
” (4) Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. (5) We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. (6) But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!”***
What do these Bible verses really mean?
We know the foreign rabble refers to a large group of Egyptians who accompanied the people of Israel out of Egypt. En route to the Promised Land the travelers were insecure as they moved through the wilderness, uprooted and separated from the life they knew in Egypt.
This sense of change and rootlessness caused the crowd to see their time as slaves through rosy glasses. Forgotten were the whips and brutality of their Egyptian masters, their time as slaves. Instead the travelers remembered the fine food, meat, fish and succulent vegetables, that they had eaten during their time as slaves.
What does this ancient group of disenchanted travelers have to do with how we experience life today?
Like us living in an unstable economic climate today, the band of travelers were facing the unknown and finding it challenging to adapt to change and uncertainty. Rather than focus on the new life God was creating for them (a new life in the Promised Land where they could be free, a nation settled in their own land), dissatisfaction reared its ugly head. Grumbling and complaining replaced thankfulness and trust. Selective memories of good food were in the forefront of their minds while they omitted to remember the dreadful experiences of servitude while still in Egypt.
The contemporary lesson appears to be that it is all too easy for us to oversee the magnitude of things we have to be grateful for in times of hardship. When we focus on what we don’t have, dissatisfaction with our lot sets in. Dissatisfaction then colors our perception of life. We complain and feel a strong sense of lack, while this is only part of our current situation. For every lack, there is a multitude of things to be genuinely thankful for.
How can we apply the dissatisfaction and resistance to change the ancient travelers experienced to our lives today?
The human mind is capable of great duplicity, and we are masters of selective vision at any time. We can focus on the rosy aspects of the past, omitting the painful times. Equally we can mislead ourselves and paint our current situation as being far, far worse than it really is by concentrating on the negative aspects and airbrushing our blessings out of mind.
These inspirational Bible verses give us pause to think about what occupies most of our attention right now. Dissatisfaction occurs when we shift our attention from what we have to what we don’t have. Are we thankful for what we have or are we magnifying the sensations of frustration at what we don’t have at the moment?
Today’s understanding of the necessity for Thankfulness:
Christianity and several of the world religions appreciated the benefits experiencing deep thankfulness. The inspirational Bible verses quoted above are but one example of how Christians are exhorted to live a life of thankfulness, putting our focus on the bountiful experience of daily life.
The advent of positive psychology, which developed rapidly over the past decade, has produced convincing evidence that grateful people are happier, more content with life, less stressed and depressed, sleep better, and have a greater sense of control over their lives, less prone to substance abuse, adopt better coping strategies and numerous other unexpected side-benefits. (For more fascinating insights, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratitude.)
New-Age philosophies embrace an ‘attitude of gratitude’ as a stepping stone to well-being and a prerequisite to manifesting abundance. Keeping a Gratitude Journal and recognising the positive is seen as a critical part of the manifestation process.
I hope you have enjoyed discovering how inspirational Bible verses can have a very real application in our lives today. I wish you many reasons for thankfulness and may you experience the life-enhancing gift of gratitude. If these verses inspired you in some way, don’t hesitate to share your gratitude experience.
*** Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996,2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Learn the Secret of generating Inspiration at will!
Posted by Louise on Feb 16, 2010
Are you fired up right now? What does ‘inspiration’ mean? How on earth can we be inspired if we don’t know exactly what we should be experiencing when in an inspirational state? A quick look at my trusty thesaurus* sheds light on that immediately. Next I’ll present three inspirational phrases that are sure to fire you up!
Inspiration* means all of the following: brainwave, brainstorm, bright idea, brilliant idea, idea, insight, revelation, thought.
Aha! So at best, when I am in an inspired state, I should experience brainwaves, brilliant ideas and revelations. At the very least, I should be generating ideas, making thoughts and having insights. Should inspiration be lacking, this list of synonyms even provides a method for getting into an inspired state. Did you spot that? Yes, it’s brainstorming. So if you are low on inspiration, take a 10 minute brainstorming break. Generate brilliant ideas to create your Ideal Life. Or generate thoughts, reflect, raise your awareness.
The second interpretation of inspiration* is equally enlightening. Inspiration also means creativity, encouragement, imagination, motivation, muse, stimulus. Aha, again! Motivational words these. They show us how to generate inspiration. Perhaps we need encouragement and motivation – you are visiting the perfect site for finding this. What puts you into a creative or imaginative state? How do you contact your creative muse? What is the best stimulus to get you in a lather about achieving your best-ever outcomes?
Here are three inspirational phrases by William Arthur Ward (1921 – 1994), who has penned numerous motivational quotes designed to inspire and uplift us.
“If you can imagine it, you can create it. If you can dream it, you can become it.”
“Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them.”
“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”
The final of these three inspirational phrases is a timely reminder not to fall into a state of blame, nor to get lost in the world of fiction, but to take whatever action steps are required in order to come closer to our best-ever outcome(s).
* I took these definitions from Pocket Thesaurus Wordfinder, 1999, by Dorling Kindersley ISBN 1-85605-502-7.
Motivational Words: Whatever happens, you must stay motivated
Posted by Louise on Feb 16, 2010
This session of Motivational Words aims to re-motivate you should you start to waver. One of the toughest challenges is to stay on track, relentlessly hitting our chosen targets, even when internal or external circumstances are cause for distraction.
Let’s face it. It isn’t difficult to find reasons to take time out from our pressing goals – taking time to smell the roses, as my mother would call it. I choose to see these times as tests of character. How important is it to you to achieve your goal(s)? Most things that are genuinely worthwhile will take a whole lot of effort, energy, commitment and persistence to attain.
This Motivational Words quote is by Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961), a leading light in analytical psychology, one of Europe’s most influential thinkers:
“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
This quotation strikes deep in my soul for my True Self knows this to be absolutely true. It is so tempting to ‘dream’ of how great life will be when we have finally achieved such and such a goal. But there is a yawning gap between ‘dreams’ and ‘reality’. Step into the dream for a moment and recognise a dream for the sham it is. A dream is a picture of what life could be like if you achieve those plans of yours. Remember: there are no short cuts. If we want to achieve important goals, worthwhile targets, the only certain way to achieve those goals is to take one step at a time until we reach them.
Carl Jung’s inspirational words are a wake up call for those on the path to personal success. Those who ‘dream’ indulge in self-delusion. The difference between a dream and a vision is the former is pure fiction while the latter, your vision, is a concrete image of your destiny. Dreams are illusions, visions are backed by utter conviction. Visions are unshakable.
Take these motivational words to heart. If you are wavering, take time to reconnect with your heart, the seat of your motivation. Listen to what your heart instructs you is the most direct path to achieving your highest potential. Awaken the vision within and then start taking consistent and persistent actions to attain that vision.
