Celebrate Life

Celebrate Life

by Annie Tornabene

Yesterday I was at a funeral of an elderly lady that I didn't know. I did know her children. As I sat there, I was reminded of my own Father's Celebration of Life ceremony over two and a half years ago. (We didn't call it a funeral - it was a celebration of his life.) We looked at a picture slide show of his life and told warm heart-felt and funny stories about his life. In the end, we felt a light-hearted peace in our life and felt blessed to have had him in our life.

When was the last time you celebrated life? When did you experience joy and laughter in your life? When did you celebrate love? Love your life by celebrating your life. Celebrate all the goodness in your life. Be in an attitude of gratitude in all things. Celebrate peace and tranquility in your life. Celebrate the abundance that is flowing in your life. Celebrate life and more peace and hope will be with you. Together we can make a difference. The celebration of life makes a difference in our lives.

Walking A Tightrope

Walking A Tightrope

by Annie Tornabene

Does just daily living leave you feeling a little stressed out? Headlines loom of world hunger. International conflict. Political unrest. Drugs. Violence. Everywhere you turn you see poverty on the rise. Maybe you look at your cashflow and wonder how you are going to pay all the bills. Maybe you have other issues that are causing you to feel like you are walking a tightrope. Sometimes it feels like you are walking a tightrope and you are afraid the net is not under you. Do you ever feel like that? If you feel like that, you are not alone.

Whatever situation you are in the world, you can feel confident that your Creator has a net of protection for you. Our paths have crossed for a reason. I can throw out a lifeline to assist you but it is up to you to grab hold. Remember the anchor holds the lifeline to safety. Only by considering and practicing the true law can we escape from this sorrow-piled mountain in the world in which we live. We are all one tribe on this planet we call Earth. We are all brothers and sisters and interconnect with each other. No one is alone walking a tightrope on the strings of life. Focus on the good around you. Take a deep breath and be still. Slow down and you will see that all is under control.

What you focus on is what you are attracting. If you focus on negativity, negativity finds you. If you focus on poverty, poverty finds you. If you focus on abuse, more abuse finds you. You got the picture? Therefore, change your focus and you will find that the new focus finds you. Together we can make a difference to living an abundant life. The abundant life is better than walking a tightrope. For more help contact us. Let's work together to live a more empowered life...an abundant life. Love the life you are living. Please take our survey.
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Home Is Where The Heart Is

Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you. - Marsha Norman

Close your eyes. Forget about the chaos in your life right now. Clear your mind. Use your creativity to visualize yourself approaching a beautiful home on a sprawling green lawn. The shady front porch invites you to step inside. As you enter the open door, you see a large living room with large glass windows that displays the sunlight outside. You see fresh flowers and pictures of your family adorning the tables. A sweet aroma fills the air of freshly baked cookies. Then you hear someone quietly speak your name. You turn with a big smile as you see the most wonderful loved one. You feel a heartfelt warm embrace. You know you are home. Home is where the heart is.

Every day, take time to quiet your mind to allow your mind healing from the past. Simply take time to slow down and simplify your life. This allows you to become more mindful of your choices. We are stressed, overwhelmed, and slowly sacrificing our sanity in the attempt to be in ten different places at once. Unless you’ve hired a stunt double, who really has the time to find balance? It seems to be the problem that a lot of us face. We just don’t have enough TIME. Declutter your life and find more "Me" time. Reconnect with the most important person in your life - you. This allows you to have more to give away. Understanding depression makes a difference. This will help alleviate insomnia, anxiety, muscle pain, and improve our overall health.

Remember, nobody is perfect or has a perfect life. Ask yourself what’s really important to you. Home is where the heart is. Together we can make a difference. What is your soul writing about you? Follow your heart and your body will follow.

Learn Baby Steps

Life is a series of learning baby steps along the way. It's not how fast we get there, it just that we make our destination. So slowing down and learning baby steps along the way is no problem. If we take learning the baby steps of whatever it is we are trying to accomplish, we will master it faster. Slow and easy builds confidence. Don't be surprised when something doesn't come naturally. Have courage until the flow becomes natural.

Understanding depression is no exception. Maybe your past is dotted with compulsive behaviors such as eating too much, too much anger, avoiding too much, drinking too much, spending too much, gambling too much, working too much, having sex too much or using drugs too much. To much of anything can cause us problems. Now is the time to learn those baby steps and build your confidence in balance and comfort. Taking time to learn baby steps in our new found behaviors will empower our success in reaching our balanced and abundant life and allow joy and happiness to flow through us.

Together we can make a difference by showing support to each other in truth. Never give up.

What Really Matters?

In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, lessons can be learned on what really matters in life. In the heat of an argument, the main thing to remember is to be respectful of others opinions while discussing your views. Fact of life, we will have disagreements on some things in life.

When I was in high school and college, I was on the debate team. One of the things I learned was there were several ways to win an argument. At first I thought it had to be brute force in convincing others. Yes, I have met many persons with good intentions that used anger and fear as their backbone to living life. I was petite and learned that kindness and soft answers were a real blow to some hot headed argument. When in the throws of an execution of disagreements, I could deliver a fatal blow with a soft answer. Wow was I totally surprised.

I had to remain calm, keep my cool and just make my point while the other person became red faced in anger. Have you ever been in a heated argument and remained calm? If you can remain calm while others are losing theirs, you have won the battle. You will feel the confidence building inside you. Your courage will flourish. Your inner strength will strengthen. Happiness and joy will abundantly flow in your life. You won't have regrets that send you into depression.

I admired Tim Russert for being a lifelong liberal who was fair and polite even with the hardest of the hard-line conservatives who appeared on Meet the Press. What really won me over to Tim Russert, however, was his unabashed love for his father and son relationship. He never concealed his devotion to his wife, but it was the way he magnified the special bond between grandfather, son, and grandson that became a hallmark for him.

Showing kindness, gratitude, and graciousness will gain you more respect and raise your credibility more than most of the stuff you're babbling about. In your own life, whatever you believe, utilize kindness and respect for other creatures. Don't be afraid to show your love for your family. You'll be admired and respected by others. Remember what really matters in life.

While writing this, I was reminded of Rudyard Kipling's poem IF.

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

~ Rudyard Kipling

Look Through The Eyes With Love

Did you know you can see things in different ways? Sometimes I have looked at a situation and thought it was the worst thing that could happen. When I rethought my position and look through the eyes with love in my heart instead of anger, I have seen the otherside. The more you give the more you will have. Teach, and you will learn.

Listen, and you will understand more. Learn to show kindness, and kindness will come back to you. Keep a grateful spirit, and your life will be filled with abundance. Seek to bring out the best in others, and they'll give you the best that they have.

Give your genuine love to those who thirst for it most, and you'll be loved beyond all measure.

Speak positively of your life, and your life will be a rich and fulfilling place.

The life you influence with your thoughts, words and actions is the life in which you live. Always look through the eyes with, and your life will empower you.

Every Step You Take

With every step you take, you either believe you can or you can't do it. Either way, you are right. If you say you can't, you won't. If you say you can. you will. It's really that simple. Some people say I can't just because they have heard someone else say it. So they are holding themselves back without even trying.

The secret to overcoming sabotage, roadblocks, depression, etc. is to look at life's possibilities. Empower yourself with the believe that you can do it, you deserve it; you are worth it! "If anybody can, I can. If anybody will, I will."

Don't be afraid of new experiences. Accept abundant living into your life. Numerous possibilities open before you when you allow abundance to flow with an attitude of gratitude. You are in control. You are the master of your fate.

Remember it's the way you look at life's events that determine how high and how far you will climb. Are you putting the breaks on? Pull out the stops and cross the line in the sand to your destiny. Have courage. You can do it! Together we can make a difference with every step we take and every breath we breathe.

To Thine Ownself Be True

You can run, but you can't hide from yourself. Sometimes we learn as children not to be totally truthful. We think we are being good, but the truth is we are hurting ourselves. We are lying to ourselves and those around us when we don't face the truth.

It is important to know our true feelings in order to manage a happy life. You can't ignore our feelings or repress them. They are still there. It is best to express those feeling and emotions.

What are you feeling? Why do you feel that way? By expressing your feelings and emotions, you are understanding your depression. By listening, you understand anger, fear, anxiety, blues, joy, peace and laughter. When you try to repress them, they will simply return later in a more forceful manner which sometimes gives us a yo-yo effect on our life. Sound familiar?

Our minds get conflicted when we try to repress our feelings and emotions. Instead we need to learn to control our feelings and emotions. Our thoughts create our beliefs. Our beliefs create our actions about ourselves and those around us. Our actions create our environment. Our environment creates our communities. Our communities create our world. See how we effect everyone? Together we can make a difference in learning "to thine own self be true" with our feelings and emotions. Something can be done about it. We can empower our lives.

Are you true to yourself? Or are you sending mixed messages to yourself and those around you?

Listen To Your Heart

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength. - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Sometimes we feel anger, anxiety, fear, depression, worry and other feelings of related to the black fog in our lives. It is easier to feel the freedom from the strings of life when we listen to your heartstrings. You, like many of us, have lots of thoughts running through your mind at any given moment. You probably spend much of your day multi-tasking. All of this chaos makes it difficult to hear your heartstrings. It is important to find some ways to quiet your mind so that your mind can heal. You can't shut off your thoughts completely, but you can learn to slow them down. Let go of all the distracting thoughts flow out of your mind. Picture your thoughts floating away on a cloud. Relax more with each breath. You might even try counting down from 10 to 1 and allow yourself to relax more with each count. Once your mind is clearer, you can then access your heartstrings.

Meditation is an excellent ways to get focused. Even a few minutes of meditation daily can increase your ability to hear your heartstrings. Meditation is like priming the pump. As you get used to being in a meditative state, you will find that it is easier to hear the whispers from your heart. Calming the mind begins mind healing. Take a deep breath and let courage enter in. Getting frustrated will only interfere with the process.

Visualize to help you access heartfelt answers to your questions. Imagine yourself in a quiet place in nature, surrounded by beauty and wonder. Make this image as vivid as possible by using all of your senses - touch, sight, taste, smell and hearing. Spend a few moments simply enjoying this place in your mind’s eye. See yourself opening the treasure chest of your heartstrings. Don't try to control this, let your heartfelt mind guide you. Trust that whatever is inside the treasure chest is your answer. It will become clear over time. Be patient! Learn to go with the flow of your heartstrings.

Be sure to keep a journal by your bed so that you can record your heartstrings. Look for the emotions and themes and see if this sheds light on your problem.

You can use affirmations to focus your mind healing and help you listen to your heart. It is best to use affirmations with some form of relaxation to help with mind healing. Affirmations are a terrific way to tap into the power of your subconscious mind to help you empower your conscious desires. Affirmations should be concise sentences stated in a positive way. When creating an affirmation remember to state what it is that you want, not what you don’t want. Another important guideline is to always use the present tense when creating your affirmations.

Practice listening to your heartstrings. After you start practicing you will notice small issues beginning to empower your life. Practicing with these simple issues will allow you to stay relaxed and focused without too much distraction from fear or other mental chaos. You will gain confidence that will enable you to act upon it. You can use this inner strength to guide you in all of your decisions at work, at home, and at play. Listen to your heart will always guide you to the path that is for your highest good.

Life Is A Choice

My passion is to help equip you to walk your best life. Sometimes we need encouragement on the journey! There is no better time than now. We live in a world that reminds us of everything we don’t have. We are continually reminded of our hurts and pains, our failures, but seldom are we reminded of our victories.

Happiness is a choice you make every step of the way. We can choose to be happy from the moment we wake up and then keep choosing happiness moment all our day. We chose to live in the moment because this is where happiness is found. It is not in the past and it is not in the future. It is in the now.

You can only have one thought at a time. So choose your thoughts. If you catch yourself with stinking thinking, choose a happier thought. Change the direction that your thought is going. Therefore everyone you come in contact will leave with a happy thought instead of spreading stinking thinking. Follow your mind's eye in keeping focused on where you’re going in an attitude of gratitude.

The only thing you have to fear is fear itself, take action to keep moving yourself forward with great expectation and energy. Keep stinking thinking out and remember to tell yourself your positive affirmations, change your at every opportunity, and empower your life with joy and happiness. Choose to laugh by treating life as a journey not as a final resting place. T

If I can do it, you can do it. Together we can make a difference in our lives. Happiness is a state of being you can look for and find at every moment throughout your day ... throughout your life ... one step at a time!

Hugs in an attitude of gratitude,

The Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.



So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.



What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!

The struggles and hardships that we have endured have made us what we are today. We are where we need to be at this point in our lives so that we can move forward with ease.

Like the bird that learned to fly with a broken wing. The bird learned to do what was thought to be impossible. The courage that brought us through all the trials and tribulations of the past is the same courage that will push us toward our victorious life ahead. We are victors not victims.

One day, my Mom was outside in the yard feeling down after the death of my Dad. Butterflies flutter around her garden all the time.

This one day a butterfly attacked her and tried to keep her from going through the path that she had chosen. She laughed because she was so much larger than a little butterfly.

She started back on the path and again, the butterfly attacked her chest to keep her from her path. This time she took a step backward to see why this butterfly would attempt to do such a feat. Then she notice that another butterfly laid in the path where she would have walked.

The butterfly on the ground was apparently injured and the other butterfly was trying to muster all the courage to give the other butterfly precious moments of life. Mom changed her course.

A few days later, Mom saw two butterflies fluttering around her. I don't know if it was the same butterflies or not. What matters is that she learned to have butterfly courage to go on through a difficult struggle and those butterflies taught her that life is too short not to enjoy each precious moment. Out of our struggles comes new life!

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

Laughter is the best medicine. It is free...readily available to us whenever we remember a funny story or act in a silly way. Or maybe we see something in life, on TV or at the movies that is magnified in are own lives. Just watch our children or grandchildren. Like the time, my granddaughter hit the aquarium with her head and she said, "The fish bit me." If we are lucky, we continue to share our laughter with our family, friends and those we come in contact.

We talk about fun things or going somewhere that is fun for us. How many of us actual take the time to find humor in each day or laugh about anything? How many of us schedule into our today list a time for fun. It's important to work, but don't forget to play. We feel less stressed and feel more at eased when we laugh. Laughter is contagious. Don't think so? Try laughing and see what happens. It is like a drop of water that causes a ripple effect that courses through the depth and breath of water. Just as our words positive or negative can makes such an impact on the people around us. Our laughter can plow a course through the universal depression. It can inspire hope and reduce the number of suicides.

Of course, it is also important to allow ourselves to stay balanced. My motto is work hard, play hard.

Living a life of positive thinking and laughter is bound to have you feeling happier and more successful throughout your day-to-day routine. In fact, those that make positive thinking and laughter a key goal in their lives tend to experience more daily success and more happiness than anyone else. Visualizing goals and going after them are a key component to positive thinking. Keeping a light attitude towards life is a great way to keep laughter as the soundtrack to your life and have things looking a little bit brighter. When it comes to a healthy state of mind and body, positive thinking and laughter work hand in hand.

Having daily happiness and success are all about developing a habit. You'll need to start making a few changes in your life if you want to experience positive thinking and laughter on a regular basis, and you'll want to create an environment that encourages both those qualities, too. This may sound like work, but don't worry; it can actually be a lot of fun! One of the first things you'll want to do in developing your "happy habit" is to change the way you look at things in your life. Keep the focus on the bright side and think of the good side all the time. You may find that your mind will try to drag you down and look at the negative things in life more often than you'd like, but you have the power to change that focus and keep it on positive aspects. If you try to make your first thoughts about the bright side of the situation, you'll find yourself well on your way to developing your "happy habit". I'm checking on you and I'm gonna tell Santa!



Live, love and laugh!

Hugs in an attitude of gratitude

You Are The Dream!

Be in the moment enjoy the day!

The greatest support we can have is mindfulness, which means being totally present in each moment. If the mind remains centered, it cannot make up stories about the injustice of the world or one's friends, or about one's desires or sorrows. This is the day that you are alive. This is the moment that you are in.

Beyond this moment, nothing else exist. Take responsibility for this moment. Enjoy it. Savor every precious thought, every moment before it slips away. Take time to smell the roses and other beautiful flowers along the journey.

Watch a sunset. Pay attention how much pleasure you experience. The best thing that can happen is that we learn from our experiences and the worst thing that can happen is that we fail to learn from our experiences. Enjoy the moment.

Engage in some activity that you would like to do. How did it make you feel? What did you learn about yourself? Did you make a mistake? Remember it is the journey that makes life worth living. . . nothing is set in stone or frozen. It is like dust in the wind. Dare to dream.

All your hopes and dreams are real right now. All your possibilities are ready to be lived. Everything you've ever done has led you to this point. You are more fully alive, aware, experienced and prepared than you have ever been. What matters is not how old or how young you may think you are. What matters is making the most of this moment you now have.

What matters is not how much or how little you may think you have, how fairly or unfairly you may think life has treated you. What matters is that you make the most of who you are.

This is it. This is your moment to fill with the best you can imagine.

Live it with love, with purpose and joy.

Hugs in an attitude of gratitude,

Lessons for Truth, Justice and Creativity

Within every human being exists an infinite supply of creativity, strength, and fight for justice.
You are capable of more than you know.

Let me tell you about a real life person. Her name is Lynn Boudreaux.

Lynn was born a few minutes after her twin sister Donna on February 4, 1961. Shortly after birth, Lynn was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Doctors told her parents that she would not be able to talk, and she would never be a student in a regular classroom. Her parents were great believers in possibilities. They worked with their daughters. Their Mom was a music teacher. By the time Donna was 3, she was not only talking up a storm but had a thirst for vocabulary. Lynn had a language that only she and Donna could understand. One day, while their Mom was getting breakfast ready, the most beautiful music came out of the piano room.

Their Mom told Donna to get off the piano and come to breakfast. Donna came. The music continued. The Mother looked puzzled at Donna because she knew it was too early for her students, and said, "Who's that playing on the piano?"

Donna went into the piano and said, "Mother get in here, because you're not gonna believe me!"

When the Mom arrived, she dropped her jaw. There sat, Lynn, playing the piano; looked up and smiled. The subconscious mind had listened to the Mother giving the other students lessons and though she had never had one lesson, was able to play the piano. In fact, I believe it was one of Mozart's pieces that one of the students had been practicing for an upcoming recital.

Lynn continued to amaze her family and friends.

When I met Donna, she was a little embarrassed about introducing me to Lynn. Because Donna was so beautiful, every boy wanted her and because of her twin sister, many didn't. Even back them I was trying to be supportive and give her possibilities and empowerment.

I don't know what happened to them. Some people come into to our lives and leave footprints on our hearts. We are touched by everyone we meet. Anyway, I thought of them today and decided to write about it. In loving memory!

Are you a success if you play it safe your whole life and never dare anything unless you are guaranteed victory?

When you set milestones, it is important to set many smaller milestones that coincide with it. Even if you fail to reach your deadline for one milestone, you will still succeed at many, and you will build your confidence to a much higher level. Give yourself empowering reasons for getting up when you feel down.

There is a champion inside YOU.

What can you do that will inspire you to unleash it?

Keep On Keeping On.

Live Your Dreams.

Hugs in an Attitude of Gratitude,

A Strum of the Heartstrings

Bam! The door slammed as Janice stormed out of Darrell's office. Darrell had shot down the proposal, just as Janice had feared. Just like every time before. "Why is he so obsessed with control?" Janice seethed in resentment. "How many times am I going to have to fight this battle?"

Feelings can be powerful disablers when our wishes aren't being realized. Like in this story there was a history that poisoned Janice's unconscious beliefs about her chance to bring about her desires. Until she could become aware that she unintentionally self-sabotaged, she was confused and disappointed by her results and left feeling powerless and angry. Feelings are influenced by our expectations, which are based on our beliefs. If we are experiencing what we want, then we feel happy and life is good. If we are experiencing something that we do NOT want, then we feel that life is dealing us lemons.

What if feelings are directives - self-generated decisions, based upon beliefs that cause what we experience? Like many fundamental truths of life, we often have the cause-effect relationship backwards. We sometimes feel that if we work harder, we'll get a raise; if I love you, you will love me; I would be happy if I had a new ... Sound familiar.

It's easy to understand the fallacy of the first example. To get a raise, you generally need to work harder FIRST. Working is the cause - a raise is the effect. Raises don't cause work. When did you last see someone work harder after getting a raise - beyond a day or two? You may not always get a raise by working harder, but it's highly unlikely you'll get one any other way.

The second example: I'll love you back if you love me first, turns love into a bartering tool. We're afraid of being vulnerable, so we insist that the other person step out on the limb first. Is that really love? Love isn't something we get from another, it's a personal choice to become loving. It's a way of being first, then it's a gift you share. The one who insists that their partner love first is dealing in fear, not love. And even if the partner does express love first, it's unlikely that that love will be felt by the other. Love is born internally (cause) or it's never experienced (effect).

The last example may be the hardest to challenge. I'll be happy when I get what I want. We are surrounded every day by the message that our happiness depends on external circumstances. If we don't have the car we want, the house we want, the clothes we want, the job we want, etc. - if we feel we are lacking whatever we believe causes happiness, we feel unhappy.

Because our life did not meet our wants or expectations, we chose to feel badly. Our feelings are a result of what we tell ourselves it means. Some hide or run away from those feelings, while others take action and change things. In both cases the is reactionary - giving power to the circumstance without understanding that the circumstance is an effect, not a cause. The cause was the combination of expectations, personally-determined meanings, and erroneous beliefs that our quality of life is determined by our circumstances.

If you take power over those feelings and direct your result it is like an artist or writer. You are the artist, life is the canvas. You have the power of the pen to transform your life. Life is your agent fulfilling your commands. Through the thoughts and feelings you choose, you direct life to become. To be what you want. No longer a puppet controlled by someone or at the hands of thoses who would defeat you. You will often feel amazed and manipulated by what you learn. Believe me when I say, you ignited the effect by changing. You have the power to change.

Dream the live you were meant to dream!

The Courage to Find Happiness

Some days are good days, some days are bad days. Have you ever awaken with the dread of getting out of bed? You know it's going to be a bad day. Every nerve in your body is screaming "Bad day! Bad day!" Well, I have.

After my car accident, there were times when I had tossed and turned all night with nightmares, my body ached, I felt the black hole was swallowing me and if I got out of bed I was walking into a dark cloud of fog.

It took courage just to get out of bed, to attempt one more day to find a little something to be happy about. Courage is what you didn't know you had when everything else was saying run.

The Internet was a lifesaver for me. I found lost friends. I got in touch with them on the Internet and made new friends on the Internet. Maybe I couldn't move around much but I could connect a little on the Internet. My friends and my new friends sent me notes, chat, prayers and jokes. It got me to smile and then to laugh. A little here and a little there. Suddenly I felt connected.

Being connected to at least one person during a time of depression is extremely important. Depression hurts because you feel isolated, you want to run and hide, you want to throw the covers over your head and never come out. I know, I've been there.

Other things you can do is to change your routine. Drive a different route to work, switch your right and left hands for everyday activities, eat dessert first, and wear your pajamas to work. Wait, no, that last one will get your family giving you worried looks for sure? So wear a hat to work or out shopping. Probably it will be different and people are nice to you when you wear a hat. I opted for a bright colored one or a big floppy one.

Drink water. If your body is a little dehydrated, it can contribute to your depression. Sodas depeat the body of water. I had to learn to like water too. Now I love it.

Whenever negative thoughts come to mind, try to turn them into to positive thoughts. I'm not saying your problems are over, but simply looking at the world through rose-colored specs means that half your problems will look like exciting challenges, and the other half you'll probably realize aren't problems at all, just the strings of life.

The thing you must do the most is fight to have courage to connect with someone, to try again. Who knows when the next blow could be the blow that vanishes the dragon.

Now get out there and dance like I've said before to be fluid with your body exercises every nerve in your body as all nerves pass through the neck. Connect with the music. Music is to the soul like a bandaid is to a cut. Life's too short not to dance and have fun.

Hugs in an attitude of gratitude.

Am I Blue?

I was reading an article this morning about the Blue Zone. People who live in these areas tend to live longer. Although the Blue Zone is not a physical zone like eastern time zone, it characterized the zone in terms of the people who lived in those areas. They found they tended to huddle together. Makes sense, birds of a feather flock together. One of the most important asset you will every own is your health!

These people tend to eat a healthier life-style by adding more fruits, vegetables and nut (almonds, cashews, walnuts and macadamia nuts). They enjoy the aging process no matter what age they are and interact with others in a relaxed or less stressful way. They find little activities to do all day to keep them busy. They take time to enjoy their sanctuary. Not eating right can contribute to your blues.

Some may think the secret to longevity lies in strenuous physical activity, such as running marathons or triathlons or pumping iron. Four things people can do that can potentially increase life expectancy: Create an environment that encourages physical activity, set up your kitchen in such a way that you're not overeating, cultivate a sense of purpose and surround yourself with the right people.

These are long-term fixes that have been shown over and over to add more years of life to you not life to your years.

Makes sense to me to enjoy life! Have a good day!

Dance To the Music

Some days are good days, some days are bad... sometimes we can be so busy that we forget moving our body is even an option. Some of us remain seated at our computer for hours every day, sit in a chair for hours in pain or rush from task to task with robotic precision. When we are caught up in crossing items off our to-do lists, we tend to neglect all the opportunities there are to enjoy our lives in the process of living. If this is true for you, begin looking for opportunities to move.

Bad days. . . just go for a walk even if it is just indoors and turn yourself around. Put on some music that your heart can't help but jump for joy. It is healing the heart. You might try dancing or moving about freely as you clean your home or in the garden or with your children. Children love to play this! Sorry no country music for this. In dancing, even slow dancing, our bodies adjust, realign and start to become fluid with the rhythm of life. Our mood lifts and we feel more connected with the world around us. Every nerve in our body flows through our neck. So if, we're rigid our bodies become rigid. If we are fluid, we are in a tune with life.

So come on and dance like no one is watching!

The Power of Now

Thoughtful retrospection—either oral or written—can help you focus on life's meaning and prepare for upcoming transitions, while leaving a history for future generations.

Upon reaching their middle and older years, men and women often look back on rewarding and warm moments, touching times, and challenging experiences. By making a conscious decision to contemplate the past, adults can reshape their perceptions and expectations and leave a legacy for other family members.

Looking at accomplishments and unresolved issues, the things that make a person what they are today, comes with the decision to harvest the wisdom of a lifetime and appreciate the lessons learned.

You can relive your happy moments. Have you ever noticed a child as they discover something for the first time? It is completely spellbinding.

Do you have any of those memories? If you do it every day for at least 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes before retiring to bed for 30 days, you will find you will feel better. Your mood will have lifted. Then your mind will start attracting you to similar experiences to make new happy moments.

Why am I telling you this you ask? Because, everything was a great "joy to discover," and there was so much of it to do. Each time, it was so incredible that you were constantly looking to find these discoveries. The power of living in the now is so incredible. Spend some time with a small child, and relive your earliest memories with them and through them. This is the reason I am telling you this.

Recapture the wondrousness of discovery. It is so cool to have the great memories, and to remember the happiness that you felt, and that is the reason to continue to create your future memories, but live in the present. Life is still an awesome thing to discover at any age. Spend some time with a small child so that you can remember how to do it.

Enjoy living in the present. Life is a beautiful thing, don't waste it by living in the past. Your mind will take you to unbelievable moments if you let it.

Have a good day!