Hope, Happiness, and Health

"The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face." William M. Thackeray



I am reflecting Hope, Happiness, and Health today....

What are you shining on the world in this very moment?

I could be happy if......

There are countless ways that we say, "I could be happy if I just had ______." This is the place where our thoughts must change if we are to progress to a life of joy.


Whether striving to create the life we dream of, develop our spirituality or simply make our moments a little bit better; the first step is to look inward. We must change our thoughts before we attempt to change our experiences and relationships. Finding happiness with who, what, and where we are in this moment is the key that will unlock the door to living a joyful and fulfilling life.

It is not a matter of seeing where we are now, and where we want to be next week. It is a matter of seeing where we are NOW and being happy and joyful NOW. It is not a matter of changing someone or something else. It is a matter of changing our self. We shouldn't give up on our goals, but we shouldn't wait until we get there either.... We may feel we want a partner, a better job, more money, to be alone, to have less or more responsibility, to have children or to not have children, a bigger or better home... If we continue to carry our thoughts in this way, we will continue to wait for the next something to "make" us happy.

Step out from your perspective and see your experiences, your relationships, and your moments as if they were someone else's. Find the positive in each and every one. Even those that tax us, we should see the experience as a positive lesson. Appreciate what you have, even if it is someone else's couch to lay your head on at night. Change what you can, accept what you cannot change in this moment and appreciate all of it...

Once we consciously accept our situations for what they are, and appreciate that our decisions and choices have brought us to this place, we can then make peace with where we now find ourselves. In that process of finding ourselves thankful and joyful for where we are, who we are, and where we are going; we turn our lives from waiting to be happy later, to BEING happy NOW.

The key is to see the joy in this moment.

Making the most of it...

My thought upon waking this morning was "Today simply do your best to be positive". This sounds simple. Unfortunately being positive is neither simple or easy. For some of us being positive is hard work, for others we miss the mark, yet feel we are hitting home runs.

Being positive is not only about showing kindness, consideration and joy- it is also about seeing the silver lining on dark clouds. A person coming from a place of positive thought and action, is able to see in each moment the impermanence of every moment, every experience. While in the midst of what appears to be a trying or difficult experience, "being positive" allows us to move through, fully accept and claim even hard, sad, or hurtful moments.

Being positive means we acknowledge, appreciate, and accept each and every soul we encounter-including our self- AND we do look beyond the surface to see the gift of each and every moment we experience.

We may be feeling lost, abandoned, lonely, sad, angry, depressed, envious, jealous.... We may be struggling financially, emotionally, or physically. We may feel we are at our best, or at our worst. But the importance of seeing through, and past our current moment to the next is how we maintain a positive perspective.

By seeing and KNOWING that this moment is hard, that we are struggling... YET the next moment is guaranteed to be different... We can ACT in this moment to move towards a more joyful experience in the next. This concept also reminds us in moments of Joy, that we must appreciate and recognize our Joy by sharing it with others, the next moment depends on our thoughts and actions of THIS moment and how we share or interact with others....

So, today, find the positive. Look hard if you must. Gather those feelings of happiness and share them... Tomorrow it won't be quite so hard to find the good, share a smile or say I am Blessed....

~ Much Love and Many Blessings

If not now, WHEN?

Today is a down time catch up day for me.... The horrid paperwork and bills day. The day always seems to slip away because I don't stick to my plan. Every week I say the same thing, this time I am going to get moving in the morn, get right at the clutter and finish this little task first thing. I never seem to stick to it though. I procrastinate, I feel like I have hours of work waiting and I keep finding distractions. I find things that just HAVE to be done now, keeping myself away from the one job I need to finish for the day. Eventually I will find the courage and stamina to sit down and go through the paperwork, sort and filing it all, pay the bills, and update what needs it on my website. I will finish within a few hours, smiling and finally feeling free, telling myself I have to get right to this next week, it wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. I will look at my day and realize I have wasted an entire day running from one thing to the next in an attempt to avoid something that wasn't what I had thought it would be.

Its a hard lesson to learn, but if I apply it to life, I surely will find myself in the right place, a heck of a lot sooner than later....

Today, think about the goal, the dream, the things in life you have been craving... Don't look at all the ways you can stop yourself from achieving that goal, don't listen to the lil' voice that says its too much work, don't invent reasons to say "not now I will when...".

Jump into the process, take that first step. You'll never know, unless you do....