A simple adjustment can bring profound change.
I am being profoundly changed.
So can you.
(Here’s a little help to get started http://booklocker.com/books/6811.html order/review HOW TO BE THE BEST YOU
Change Is Good
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Tag Archives: self-improvement
Stinkin’ Thinkin’
Okay people, disabled or able-bodied: everything changes with time. Some of us are forced into a physical chrysalis before we’re psychologically ready. However, there should be a mental and spiritual evolution in everyone’s life.
Change is a constant. Right? IF NOT, this is what SEEMS to happen: people and things around us change. Nothing was like it was before. Life isn’t what you expected. Nothing makes sense! AND, nothing will improve or change…until your thinking changes.
Learn a lesson from yellow tabby: life will be VERY uncomfortable if you keep trying to fit into past habits, habitats, and hobbies. It’s time to think out-of-the-box/basket.
Emotional Wholeness Effects Physical Health
I’ve written 2 books (click their images for previews/purchase) of my journey to emotional wholeness. I w-a-s a blend of Elsa and Olaf! But, since I’ve ramped up my avenues for wholeness, it truly is a wonderful life! I’m not certain I would have appreciated it without the bumps-in-the-night.
The emphasis in my walking years was my body: its natural athletic abilities and its appearance. I was a model and beauty pageant wins paid for college tuition. But, after my spinal cord injury, I wouldn’t look at my reflection in full mirrors, glass doors, and windows. It was part of my denial.
IF ONLY we can see our body as God views it! He loves our flesh. Remember, He created it as a container for, and means to, spirit. On this side of eternity, our body IS God’s grace by which to learn and know Him. Shouldn’t we?
The irony: our body houses, and reflects, who we believe we are and how we feel about others.
Thanks but NO THANKS! I will not bring illness and inadequacy upon myself.
If you’re interested in learning about coming into a place of wholeness using natural healing methods for your mind, body, and spirit, email me with your inquiry at cynthiaw48@comcast.net
Thoughts of Change
Recently, my sister posed the question: “What brings you alive?” which made me think:
Before my chariot, discovery was my high. It was one of adventure’s draws: exploring hidden paths, and back roads; climbing trees, rooftops, and to the top of a mast; lying upon the earth pondering the heavens; studying world maps. But, after considering her question, I don’t think that what enervates me has really changed. It used to be by physical dexterity; now, it’s through imagination and thinking skills.
I come alive when faced with a quandary—a need to “discover” a solution. I light up with each “aha:” a new idea…thinking outside of the box.
Whether faced with a barrier (or, simply, figuring out how to safely clean up shattered glass from a dropped bowl), writing, decorating, repurposing, for myself and others…whatever, I come alive when faced with a problem. That’s adventure! J
For this upcoming New Year of 2015, join with me in discovering contentment. YES! Contentment.
Happiness is an inside job. It’s a bi-product of fulfillment, and fulfillment is in your hands. Not in your spouse, your children, your youth…job…achievement…but in the realization that you are the current to “aliveness,” your life rhythm.
The body’s melody is reflective of its thoughts, whose frequency determines its health. You’re the note determining the duration (endurance) and pitch (atmospheric attitude) of events for the beat of your life.
Maybe music isn’t your language. Does gardening speak to you? What have you cultivated? Paradise lost or paradise found?
Weeds of discontent require pulling. Floods of self-indulgence need irrigating. The infested, stagnant pool of unforgiveness needs unclogging.
Refresh gloomy thoughts with winds of change!
“Mindfully,” choose life!
HOW TO BE THE BEST YOU is my book on ‘how-to’ rediscover your heart and change your stinkin’ thinkin’ in order to find happiness. It’s an elementary outline to simplify needful changes. You can order it off amazon or here: http://booklocker.com/books/6811.html
A New Song
This video made me think of how God uses, and orchestrates, various situations in our lives to bring out a unique melody, as with this carrot: https://www.facebook.com/lesliedeshane.artist/posts/10205140898381427
Methinks:
“Shredding” outer layers can be uncomfortable, but necessary, to reshape our direction.
Removing mental and physical “blocks” gets us unstuck to channel winds of change; although, sometimes, doesn’t it feel like getting drilled at both ends?!
When we allow and embrace change, it “opens” windows of opportunity. No fear. The unknown is usually less painful than our trepidation of it).
Then, in His hands and by His orchestration of “key” events, we resound with song. Our lives are renewed!
“He put a new song in my mouth, praise to our God! Many will watch and be in awe, and they will place their trust in the LORD.” Psalm 40:3 (ISV)
With each new day, declare His faithfulness…
PROFESS: “I AM an instrument of praise. My life will exalt Him. My lips will praise Them. I AM a blessing to man and Earth. I CHOOSE His change in all that I am.”
God’s Glasses
Research has proven that the brain sends emotional “data” to the heart, not vice-versa. You can also bet your chips that the heart is the seat of attitude. As adults, we’ve learned to camouflage these “attitudes,” but the expression on a child’s face is a ready give-away of theirs.
I’ve watched children lie with a straight face, and even toddlers (with undeveloped verbal language) expressively shake their head ‘no’ in answer to a who-dune-it inquiry. It made me wonder: “How did he/she comprehend such an abstract maneuver to deflect blame, to avoid punishment?! Obviously, it doesn’t take practice; in a split second, we make this truth-or-consequence choice to fess-up and face it, or to lie and live in limbo.
By facing the truth, we choose to walk in the light. By lying, we’re forced into hiding. Deception casts a shadow of fear (of being found out), and its guilt pierces our heart. Guilt holds us back from spontaneous walks in the Son, worship, and prayer.
Yes: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV)
Yes: we will find ourselves guilty of many deceptions before we meet our Maker.
Yes: we will shy away from communion because of our sin.
Although all of the above are true, we should not sin! But thankfully, our God is an awesome God and sees us through the red-tinted glasses of redemptive blood. I quote Jim Croft’s perspective on this:
“In my estimation, one of the most encouraging passages that affirms answers to prayer is 1 John 3:16-23. It reveals that the condemnation of heart that prevents people from confidently making prayer requests in faith of positive outcome is overruled by God himself. The inference is that if our hearts condemn us, that God is greater than our hearts. His magnanimity of heart overrules and nullifies any condemnation within our hearts so that we can pray with full expectation of reward. The qualifier for this is not obedience to an endless list of biblical and self-inflicted religious regulations. All that we need do is believe on the name of Jesus and love our fellow Christians. You know in your inmost knower that you consistently meet that qualification in all circumstance. God is greater than your heart and invites you to pray for whatsoever you desire with expectant faith.”
Amen.
AFFIRM: “O Lord, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105 NAS) By Your Word, I am redeemed. I am forgiven. I AM blessed. I choose the path of Truth.”
Ambassador of Peace
If you’re alive, you’ve heard or read Mahatma Gandhi’s quote: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” BUT, there’s an unwritten pre-requisite: discard expectations!
A belief of something, good or bad, that will or will not happen in the future is an “expectation.”
Expectations are mental! Yes, I mean it in the worst way. They’re not fact. In fact, they’re fiction, like the plot in a novel. Compare these 5 elements of a plot to one of your expectations: a story of characters; a series of events that build up to a conflict; resultant emotions, tension, and stress; the resolve of complications; and, their tragic or happy conclusion.
If a hoped-for expectation isn’t realized, disappointment results. How is disappointment normally expressed? In children, we see sulky silence or spiteful retaliation. We also see it with adults, along with character assassination and, maybe, an all-out feud.
If a negative expectation is met, it’s usually interpreted as personal rejection or even an assault. Again, disappointment, evidenced by silence, isolation, and/or retaliation.
Let’s be the change. Let’s discard–delete–expectations of others. Like Gandhi, we can be ambassadors of peace! (a holiday reminder)
Let’s Look and See
Sometimes our rose-colored glasses, plugged ears, and closed minds skew truth. A skewed truth I just learned in Nick Ham’s book, BOOK I, is that Noah DID NOT take only two of each animal, bird, etc. into the ark! It’s a half-truth. (Check out Genesis 7)
This made me wonder: “Why don’t we question?” Even when it’s before our eyes, we read it—unseeing. Are we blind lambs to be led astray?!
Truly I say unto you: just because you’ve heard something from the pulpit, seen it depicted in your child’s Bible and portrayed in art, doesn’t make it fact?
Get this: I made myself believe a stray white cat, I saw twice IN MY HOUSE, was my gray Persian! It had invited itself in when I left the kitchen door open. It was in overnight. (I couldn’t believe there hadn’t been a fight!)
The thing is: the signs were there. Ciati’s food kept disappearing w-a-y before it usually did and, once, “she” ran when she saw me.
After it bolted the next morning, I replayed, recalled, the visuals in my mind’s eye. It wasn’t until then that I “saw” a white cat, not a gray one!
Like “Ethos Bright Eyes Products” (EBEP—eye drops used to dissolve cataracts), we could use some “brain drops” for mental clarity! Wouldn’t that be KEEN? J
Manipulation through brain-washing techniques is a much used concept in fiction. Whether it’s by a shrewd inner circle (Pleasantville), or a diabolical invisible entity (Predator), there’s always a hidden agenda for some level of deception or total annihilation. Remember Hitler? In truth, there are many conspiring to lead us astray.
People, it’s working!
Don’t you wonder about things?
NOW is the time to: Question. Inquire. Research!
There are times that I eschew, intentionally avoid, confrontation. I don’t want to rattle the status quo. Sometimes I, too, simply swallow other’s information…without chewing. There’s a clue! “Chewing” begins the breakdown of food. If there’s a hair, some gristle, a piece of bone, we find it and can spit it out.
THINKING is the same. If we mentally and, hopefully, intuitively break down—decipher—deception, we can prepare for, combat, maybe PREVENT its consequences. Well, those faceless, powerful magnates, moguls, and monopolies behind the news media, the internet, TV, and our reading materials have an agenda.
Our times are a-changing. How about making change with me! Let’s open the windows of our minds. Let’s actively invest in our news-feeds and news casts. Don’t swallow everything hook line and sinker or, you will.
Either we lose a-gain, or we gain wisdom. Let’s look, and see. Our lives may depend on it.
Choice or Chance?
What woulda’ been, coulda’ been, isn’t what is. It’s useless. It’s defeatist.
Thoughts come, and they go. Which ones we listen to, entertain with imaginings, or believe is, way too often, a conscious choice we make subconsciously…because we’re not “listening” to our thoughts! (For how to take your thoughts captive, you can purchase HOW TO BE THE BEST YOU here http://booklocker.com/books/6811.html.)
Thoughts are deviously coercive.
“coerce: to restrain or dominate by force; to compel to an act or choice; to achieve by force or threat.” (merriam-webster.com) Hmmm.
Do your thoughts “restrain” you with reluctance and procrastination? Do they “compel” you with competition and impulsivity? Or, do they “threaten” you with fear or envy?
What thoughts are dictating your actions?
Which actions determine your choices?
Be proactive. Choose with a joyful, faith-filled heart.
Today is a new day!
“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23m (ESV)
Heart Renovation
My sister, Candace, had to make the humane decision to euthanize her canine soul mate, Ella, a while back. (And, more recently, Moses from FeLV complications.)
Of course, I’d been privy to Ella’s mental decline and health issues, and had prayed as if her furry children were mine.
On that day, Candace had stopped in to drop off some plants, and to water some of my thirsty others. But, before picking up last-hope medications from her vet, she went home to check on Ella. As she left, I wondered what condition she would find Ella.
Within a couple of hours, I received the call, and her Facebook posting, that Ella had gone to her Creator.
As I was crying for her, her lose, her heart ache, my thoughts went back to my own loss: over a year ago, I had to make that decision for my almost 22-year-old feline soul mate, Cĭātĭ. I had cried and talked to Cĭātĭ about its inevitability for over 6 months.
Aside from Candace and Madeleine, I didn’t tell anyone. I grieved alone and cried in private. But, as I read her FB friend’s condolences, I became more aware of a room needing expansion—my heart—again. It seems that the more walls I break down, the more light is cast on where else I have “room to grow.”
If you’ve read my books, are a follower of my daily Facebook “Cyndex”es, or my weekly blog “Conversationswithcynthia,” you’re aware that I share the gleanings from my life choices. Some are wise. Some, witty; others woeful. Hopefully, they’ll prevent you from taking the same wrong turns. Here’s another:
Wearing an open heart is a two-edged sword. Yes, you will feel the thorns, but you won’t bleed alone. Don’t suffer in silence! Express your emotional vulnerability.
Not expressing emotions isn’t strong, admirable, or healthy. It comes from a misinformed belief—habit of mind—that emotions are senseless, that you’re unimportant, an inconvenience, or an accident…maybe, from shame.
I’m still learning to trust others, to share my heart hurts. I’m also learning that being vulnerable is a reciprocal blessing: it allows others to share the stab of pathos, and blesses you to know they care. It’s heart-enlarging.
Does yours need expansion?