Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Acceptance, Contentment, Grateful, Happy, Life, spirituality, Unhappy

“Even if you are living a nine-to-five life, you can make it an adventure. We owe it to ourselves to live life to its fullest in whatever we do. And the motivation to do this must come from within.”—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

So many people take life for granted. Life is a special thing. It is a privilege to learn, to love, to experience. Even the hard times prove to be the best teachers.

In a previous post, I mentioned how I always felt like I was losing. It didn’t matter what I did or tried I would always end up with the “short end of the stick”. Then, I changed my mindset and things turned around. When I discovered that the new mindset brought out a part of me that I didn’t like, I decided to not fiddle around with this at all—to simply take life as it comes and just be happy with it all.

Happiness is really about attitude. Are you happy or are you unhappy? If you are happy, why? If you are unhappy, why? It is about creating happiness, regardless of the circumstances. Happiness shouldn’t come from outside. It should be internal. Depending on people, situations, or any outside influence to make you happy or sad will make for a tough time. Lose the dependence. Decide to be happy today.

Get out there and live your life. Don’t settle. Don’t use excuses. Get out there. The whole world is special because of you and your uniqueness. There are so many adventures and experiences waiting for you.

Embracing even the little things is such a treasure. For me, a little thing is a nice cup of coffee on my deck or listening to some good music while I read or working on a writing project. Sometimes I sit and just think. I ponder. I take the time to be quiet and just soak life in.

I enjoy life for what it is. I don’t need some outside thing to make me happy. Life just is and it’s wonderful.

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote – Riding the Waves of Life

Tags

Attitude, Control, Grateful, Lack of Control, Positive, Victimhood

“We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.” – Dolly Parton

Words of wisdom. The metaphors “wind” and “sails” represent life and attitudes. Life is out of our control in most cases. We cannot control the weather or other people. We cannot control world hunger, poverty, or any other of the world’s ailments.

The only thing we can control is the attitude or the way we react to outside circumstances. This response can be one of indifference, one of joy, or one of horror. Name an emotion and our reactions can be measured by them.

We can alter our reactions by focusing on what we can control. We can also limit what comes into us from the outside. Show me a person who is addicted to the news and I’ll show you a person who is paranoid, constantly upset, and a whole host of other mental maladies.

The key to adjusting our attitudes and maintaining our sanity is to simply focus on what we can control. If you have a job you dislike, focus on the things you do like. Focus on the work. Focus on the benefits you are getting from the job, the people you get along with, and let the rest go. You cannot change it. You can only affect how you feel about things.

I’m not suggesting becoming a hermit. There are many things we encounter by default. It’s hard to escape the news when it is on our radios, the Internet, and in most of the publications we read. Nowadays you can even see it on the televisions set up in the workplace.

It is also hard to escape a person you dislike at work, a poorly run company, or inefficient processes and procedures. You can try to affect these things, but in most cases, the hill will be too steep to climb. So, what do you do? Well, you can change companies. Or perhaps you could tackle the work at hand and make the best of your situation. You could find entertaining things to do after work. You could pick up a hobby or start a personal project that excites you.

At work, you do the best you can with what you have. You focus on the parts of projects you can affect. You learn to interact with people who you dislike by learning why they are the way they are and adapting to that. You make a proposal to the company leadership to change a process for the better. This is proactively attacking things you can control.

Or you could digress to the victim. No one likes you. No one gives you the respect you deserve. No one gives you an opportunity. No one cares. No one understands. You become like a paper boat on a pond during a windstorm, tossed and turned, flipped, and twisted with the ever-changing, uncontrollable winds and storms of life.

The choice is obvious right? Act on what you can control. Deal with that part of reality that you cannot control by making the best of it. We can’t control snow in April, but we can look at it differently. We can say to ourselves, what a great day for a nice cup of coffee and a good book. We can notice how nice it is to walk into a warm and comfortable office after negotiating the rain, ice, and cold. We can look out the window and realize we are not a soldier who is more than likely living in those ungodly conditions. We are in a warm office, with a computer, and a warm beverage. You see how the scene changes?

So, adjust your sails to accommodate the winds of life. You’ll find the ride much more enjoyable.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Happy New Year!!

Tags

Goodwill, Grateful, Gratitude, Happy New Year

All,

I hope each of you had a terrific holiday season and are all ramped up and ready to go for 2018. This year presents so many possibilities. Starting tomorrow I’ll begin posting my daily quotes and workout diary.

Thank you for following my blog!

See you again tomorrow!!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Diary – Happy Thanksgiving

Tags

Blessings, family, Friends, Grateful, pets, Thanksgiving

In light of Thanksgiving this week, I’ll be taking the rest of this week off to rest and recuperate. I’ve been hitting it hard in the gym for the bulk of this year and need a break. My brother is flying in tomorrow and we are heading to my Sister’s for Thanksgiving Day. I know I’m going to eat some things I normally wouldn’t and I know I won’t have much time in and around all of the planned festivities this week, so I’ll begin posting again next Monday.

For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving!

In light of this holiday, I wanted to express my thanks to all of you who have followed this blog and for all of the readers out there that will discover my work at some point. It is a really great thing to have readers scattered across the globe.

I am grateful for my readers, I am grateful for my health, grateful for my family and friends, grateful for my pets, grateful for the opportunity to have this life to lead, and grateful for the blessings that God gives me every day. I am also grateful to those who have taught me, mentored me, and contributed in some way to my life.

I wish each of you a great time with loved ones, good food, and hope you take some time to reflect on all of the blessings in your life. It is really a blessing to live life and experience all of the things that are out there for all of us.

See you next week!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Blessings, Grateful, Gratitude, Quote

“If we want to keep the blessings of life coming to us, we must learn to be grateful for whatever is given.” – Harold Klemp – The Language of Soul

Well, I can’t say enough about gratitude. Gratitude is more than being grateful, it is about the realization of every miracle that occurs in our daily lives. It is accepting what is and being happy with what we have–where we are–what we are doing. It is about who we have in our lives and how they contribute to our experience.

If you cannot be thankful for what you have you will never be. It is that simple. Happiness is not about what you have, who you have, where you live, or what you can do. It is merely a state of consciousness.

Look for the small things in your life that bring joy. Love others for who they are, without condition. Savor the time you have with others, the food you eat or merely waking up in the morning.

If none of these things work, here’s a simple exercise. Take anything or anyone you love the most. Take a few moments imagining they were taken away. Feel’s pretty bad doesn’t it? Now bring them back. How do you feel now? Grateful? Happy?

I hope so…

Happy 4th of July to my American Readers!!

See you tomorrow…

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Grateful, Gratitude, Happiness, Satisfied

“If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.” – Rabbi Harold Kushner

Gratitude, like happiness, is all about realizing that we are grateful and happy right now. Like anything in life, if you are chasing after something, you will continue to chase it for all of your life. You chase something because you believe you lack what you are seeking—get it?

If one is grateful for the home they have, the bed they have, the food they have, the health they have, the talents they have, and all the rest, life, for some reason continues to give you reasons to be grateful and happy.

How do we develop a habit of gratitude? It’s actually easier than you might think. You merely begin each day thinking about 1, 2, or 3 things that you are sincerely grateful for. Take a few moments and think. What are you grateful for right now? Is it your health? Is it your family? Is it a pet? Is it a book you are reading? You can be grateful for anything in your life, regardless of how rich or poor you are. There is always something in our lives we can truly be grateful and happy for having.

I have mentioned in other posts about my gratitude journal. You can either buy yourself a journal or you can use an electronic version. The one I use is electronic and is called the Five Minute Journal (easy to find in the Apple App store). It costs about $5.00 US, but it does not require an annual fee or anything once you’ve downloaded it. It’s a terrific app.

If you need some help finding something to be grateful for in your life, feel free to reach out. You can also respond here with any tools you use to capture gratitude in your life.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Memorial Day!

See you tomorrow!

Daily Ramblings – Thank you!

Tags

500, Accolades, Appreciation, Grateful, Gratitude, Likes, Recognition

To all my followers and readers:

Thank you very much for the 500 likes! A nice milestone to hit after 5 months of blogging. I really appreciate it.

Have a great weekend!!

Dave

Happiness…

Tags

Grateful, Gratitude, Happiness, Happy, Life

Are you happy? If you do a Google Search, you’ll see thousands of articles, websites, research studies on this thing called happiness. What makes us happy? To some, it is a new car, a new gadget, or a larger home. To others, happiness is the feeling of achievement one attains when they accomplish one of their goals. How do you define happiness and when will you be happy?

I would argue that happiness is not a destination but an attitude. I would argue that all of us are happy right now, but don’t recognize that those folks that are striving for happiness, wealth, or success, will always be doing one thing – striving. Happiness is derived from being grateful. Grateful for the life we’ve been given. Grateful for the people who have graced us with their presence. Grateful for our very existence and the ability to experience life in the moment.

Have you ever been around someone who is never happy? They complain, grumble, argue, and are never satisfied. Happiness seems to be just out of their reach. If only I had, If only I were, If only I did, if only, if only, if only. Why not be happy with what you have right now? If you are reading this you are alive. That very fact is a miracle. That very fact is something to be grateful for.

What did you eat today? I had a bowl of oatmeal. A very simple bowl of oatmeal. When you take the time to just eat and not think of anything else, the experience of eating that bowl of oatmeal takes on a whole new meaning. When I write, that’s all I do. I have my pad of paper and begin writing. I enjoy the act of creating pictures in my reader’s mind, making an argument, or inspiring my readers to perhaps re-think their lives.

When I listen to music, I close my eyes and let the music go through me, enjoying the images and feelings that come into my mind that the music brings. When I read, I enjoy the process of visualizing what another author has painstakingly created for my enjoyment. The ability to travel to another universe or places, imagining the smells, the temperature, the feelings, and all of the other intangibles a good author makes you feel when you read their works.

I’m looking out the window of my home office. The sky is blue, the temperature is a cool 24 degrees in Michigan, and there is a family of squirrels who frolic in the trees in our front yard, enjoying the corn we put out for them all winter. Sometimes I just observe these squirrels running about. They are so funny to watch and they are real acrobats. The trees we have in our front yard are a collection of Pine, Elm, and Oak. Their branches intertwine toward the top and provide a network of trails for these squirrels to navigate back and forth. Watching them jump from tree to tree, or stabilize themselves on a limb, while they chew on the food we provide is a real treat.

I am happy. I am contented. I am grateful for my life and the time I have had to experience all of the things I’ve experienced, the women I’ve loved, the folks I have called friends, my family, my collection of pets over the years, the food I eat, the books I’ve read, and all the rest. Each day I wake up is a great day, filled with the unknown adventures yet to come.

I challenge each of you to take a look at your definition of happiness. Happiness is here, now. All you have to do is recognize that you have all you need right now to be happy. It’s been here waiting for you all along.

Until next time…