Power From Within

Power From Within
by Annie Tornabene



The power from within allows us to do amazing things. We have a power from within that allows us to conquer all obstacles.

We have a choice to be angry, blue, fearful, and depressed or we can be courageous, happy, joyful, and peaceful. It is not other people that make us this way. We can choose to rise above them and live our best life with the power from within. What do you choose?

Together we can make a difference in understanding depression and living our best life now with the power from within.

Meditation

Meditation
by Annie Tornabene





Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, the strife of everyday life keeps us busy with so many distractions and other things. We tend too not have time for meditation. Now days we have so many distractions and creature comforts that we don't realize how distracted we have become. We say we are too tired, that we will do it tomorrow. Let's just chill out and watch TV. Have you heard yourself say that?

The next thing you know, two maybe three hours have gone by and our mind is filled with a bunch of stuff ... a bunch of garbage ... useless mind wandering stuff. I've even had those days where I did that and was more depressed because I didn't feel anything. I went to sleep and my dreams were a mixture of what I had watched on TV and distortions of my life. Crazy dreams! Haven't you ever wondered where some of those crazy dreams came ... what brought them on?

The most important thing for meditation, at least for me, is silence. Just to be still and know... to get my mind to settled down, to be at peace with myself .... to get my mind to focus. Every fiber in my body comes to rest. It is a way to reorganize my hectic and chaotic thoughts... to feel love and gratitude ... to unwind. The hardest part is getting into the routine ... of integrating it in our lives. When I first started meditation, my wind wanted to wander because I was in so much chaos. Now, it's like a little baby when it's fussy. I remember when our oldest son had his first baby, when he would get fussy, my husband would rock him and walk with him and he would just cry more. Then I would come home and pick him up and within two minutes he would fall fast asleep. It was as if he said, "Mom or Grandma has got me, so I am safe." He felt comfort in my arms. Our minds are like fussy babies. When we learn meditation, our mind learns, "Oh, safety is here, I can rest." When my mind becomes unruffled, my body starts to soothe.

After meditation, it is a perfect time for me to do a little yoga and bodyflow ... to stretch those muscles so I don't have all those little aches and pains from the nerves being bottled up and stuck in one place. You know what I'm talking about. Oh yeah, it hurts to move them, but it hurts worst not to move them. It is as if our bodies were made to flow ... not too fast ... just easy movement. I do this twice a day ... first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening. Sometimes, when things get too hectic, I will do it during the day also. And of course, sometimes I need a two minute meditation just to get me back on track.

All week we have been talking about keys to understanding depression. Meditation is one key that helped me. The effects of meditation doesn't happen overnight, but I found in the long run, I was feeling better along with the other things that I have talked about. No one said it would be easy, just that it would be worth it. Together we can make a difference in living with peace, tranquility and joy. Empower your live today with love and gratitude.

Choose To Be Happy

Choose To Be Happy
by Annie Tornabene




Today I Will Choose to be Happy

How many of you are stuck in a dark fog of depression because you did not choose to be happy? Wow, that was like a shot between the eyes. Or it was for me when I first realized it.

It's time to wake up and smell the roses. If you're not smelling the sweetness of life, it's your stinking thinking that you are smelling. After my accident, I blamed the car, the driver, etc. It was if this hadn't happened or if that hadn't happened... none of it was me. I just sat there day after day getting darker and darker and more depressed. Then one day one of my friends told me about the days which turned into years, she had been in depression and how she decided one day that she was tired of being depressed. She told herself that she was not going to be discouraged, she was not going to be depressed. From that day forward she was going to be happy. She talked to me like I'm talking to you.

What do you mean, I have a choice? You don't understand, I can't move...I have a horrible disease...I've been ... Oh yeah, I know all the excuses. I tried them too. It's not what has happened to us, it's our reaction to what happened to us that makes the difference. You can choose to be happy or you can choose to be depressed. Which do you want?

After my accident, my Mother would tell me to smile. I couldn't smile. She would tell me to stop frowning. I couldn't change the look on my face. True the accident had altered some things in my life but it was my reaction to them that made the difference. When I decided to quit sitting there, my life changed from within.

It wasn't easy. I took each step with great effort ... each tiny little baby step and sometimes just a little wiggle is all I could muster. Sometimes I had to fake it in order to make it. Looking back, I see how far I've come. There were days that I felt like I took two steps backwards but I was still farther ahead than I was. Sure there are bad moments, but they don't keep me held hostage to the heavy mist of dark fogs of depression. I choose to be happy. No I may not be manic happy but I choose a happiness from within that brings me joy, peace, tranquility, contentment and a little laughter. The setbacks in my life are never as bad as my bad days in depression. I look back with pride at how far I've managed to come. It almost seems like a dream now. What am I talking about ... it was a nightmare.

Oh sure, when the doctors tell me things that I must go through, I stop for a moment and think "how can I handle this?" Fear sits in for a moment and then I think, I've been through far worst. We sometimes have to push fear aside and choose to be happy about the situation. Being depressed about it certainly doesn't help! I know because I've tried it. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. It is certainly better to be in control over the choices I make. Each choice I make makes me stronger. It's a great feeling not be on an emotional roller coaster ride.

Every day you can choose to be happy... wait a minute... you can choose to be happy every moment of every day! The choice is yours. Choose to be happy that you are alive. There are no guarantee in life so live your best life now. No one else can make me happy. It is simply a choice - my choice and my choice alone. That goes the same for you too. Live for today! Everything you do for yourself today makes for a better tomorrow. No matter what! Your choice will make a difference. Together we can make a difference because we choose to be happy!

Remember to say to yourself as many times as it takes, "I will greet each day with laughter, I will smile at every person I meet and I will do everything in an attitude of gratitude. I will choose to be happy." You may not make it everytime, but you'll still land among the stars.

Wisdom

Wisdom
by Annie Tornabene





Do you ever feel blue or down and don't know what to do? Do you wish you could find the magic code or wisdom secret to living a victorious life? Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of every day life, we get caught up in every day strife. There is a key to understanding depression. It is understanding that we need to seek wisdom. Wisdom is having gained the knowledge, understanding, experience, discretion, and intuitive understanding, along with a capacity to apply these qualities well to our lives and to those surrounding us. It is the judicious application of knowledge we have learned from our past as well as from others and their past.

Maybe that is why they say you learn wisdom with age. Some of us though go through life repeating the same problems year after year, day after day ... never learning from our past ... never picking up bits of wisdom from others and only experiencing a problematic life. Maybe that is because we never change anything. What is holding you back?

Erik Erickson stated wisdom was the last stage of his eight-stage theory of psychosocial development. Erickson's theory states each stage in the strings of life are in the form of internally-generated questions or tensions. Erickson claimed that in the last stage of human development, each of us must resolve a psychological conflict between integrity and despair. He proposed that attaining wisdom is a favorable resolution and product of this conflict. I don't know if I agree with Erickson about it being the last stage but I would say it is a key that we must learn.

Confucius stated that wisdom can be learned by three methods: by reflection of the past, by imitation of others that have had a similar problem and by experiencing the strings of life without the benefit of wise counsel. Some of us know the third one all too well. As I learned, sometimes you have to fake it before you make it ... imitation of others that have traveled the dark cloud of depression. This one you must be careful because some of those that have traveled that path have chosen the wrong path. Therefore we must choose our friends wisely. Hum? Friends of a feather flock together.

Wisdom, according to Christianity, Judaism and Islam beliefs, is represented by the sense of justice of the lawful and wise counsel. Wisdom consists in manifesting a clear character, loving the people, and abiding in the highest good. I believe all beliefs are consistent in knowing that wisdom is a mature integration of appropriate knowledge, a seasoned ability to filter the inessential from the essential.

Take control of your life by taking an active part in living and loving your life. If you play a passive role, you will be doomed to repeat the sorrows of yesterday. However if you take a stand, the robbers and naysayers will start to flee. You are learning wisdom. Let them know they no longer have control of your life. That you intend to live a life of victory. You can do it!

Take time to meditate for it lets you listen to your heart and spirit and reflect on the past and form your future. See your light from within burning brightly.

Love your life. For with love, all things are possible. Live, love and laugh for they invite peace, joy and tranquility to flow through and around you. Wisdom flourishes with love and laughter.

Don't be afraid of taking a step forward - even just one baby step at a time. The journey gets easier with each step you take. Have courage. Have no fear. As Helen Keller said, "I do not want the peace that passes all understanding, I want the understanding that passes peace." Together we can make a difference in understanding depression and passing on peace with wisdom that we have learned.

The Attitude

The Attitude
by Annie Tornabene



I wish I could say that my teaching in school was made like this man, Zig Zigglar. Unfortunately they were not. However, I did get a lot of positive forces from people like him outside of my schooling and Zig Ziglar was one of the most influential forces in my early development and career over thirty years ago. I didn't realize it at the time, but the things I heard him say and the things I heard my Dad say about him as he read his books helped change my life and my decisions in what to major in school.

His ability to strike a piercing chord in everyone who desires positive change in their life, has made him a master in the field of personal development. His perseverance and determination to living the natural laws, has made a remarkable difference in thousands of lives throughout the world. He doesn't just talk the attitude ... he walks the attitude ... he breathes the attitude ... he lives the attitude. That's what I'm talking about. You gotta walk the talk and talk the walk.

It doesn't matter how rich or how poor you are... depression hits us all. We are all subjects to emotions because we are human. It doesn't matter if you are just a little blue or if you've been down for years. It just matters that you get back up. So what if we've hit a bump in the road. So what if we've been hit by a storm... Things happen ... life changes. We will survive and do even better next time because we have the attitude.

Someone told me the other day, how much I had changed in the last ten years... how far I had come ... I wasn't waddling in pain... I didn't seem depressed.... I wasn't Taz (Tasmanian Devil)! I stepped back and smiled. Yeah, I was in pain but I've learned how not to let it affect me. The day I chose not be depressed anymore, was the day my life turned around. Sure, I have bad days but I don't stay down. I'm not gonna let anger rule me. I'm not gonna be discouraged. I'm not gonna be depressed. They can take everything from me. I will always have what someone else wants. I have me. I have my life and I'm in control of my life. I have the attitude. No one can take it away from me. I have the power! Do you know what I'm talking about?

Maybe you're not depressed but not living your full potential. You can learn this too. It is stuff we need to hear to empower ourselves with the attitude that our life matters. We do make a difference and together we make a difference in learning to live with the right attitude - The attitude of gratitude and abundance