“Lower your expectations of earth. This isn’t heaven, so don’t expect it to be.” Max Lucado via Expect……………………...
Expectations
The YouTube complaints department
If you ever feel like losing a little faith in your fellow humans, then take a swing through the comment section of pretty much any video on YouTube.
Barely Political takes a crack at the culture of YouTube in a video that imagines what a day staffing the complaint department desk might look like.
A little fun with YouTube. via The YouTube complaints department .
Owning Our Power
More goodness for my spirit from Melody Beattie:
We don’t have to give others so much power and ourselves so little. We don’t have to give others so much credit and ourselves so little. In recovery from codependency, we learn there’s a big difference between humility and discounting ourselves.
When others act irresponsibly and attempt to blame their problems on us, we no longer feel guilty. We let them face their own consequences.
When others talk nonsense, we don’t question our own thinking.
When others try to manipulate or exploit us, we know it’s okay to feel anger and distrust and to say no to the plan.
When others tell us that we want something that we really don’t want, or someone tells us that we don’t want something that we really do want, we trust ourselves. When others tell us things we don’t believe, we know it’s okay to trust our instincts.
We can even change our mind later.
We don’t have to give up our personal power to anyone: strangers, friends, spouses, children, authority figures, or those over whom we’re in authority. People may have things to teach us. They may have more information than we have, and may appear more confident or forceful than we feel. But we are equals. Our magic is not in them. Our magic, our light, is in us. And it is as bright a light as theirs.
We are not second-class citizens. By owning our power, we don’t have to become aggressive or controlling. We don’t have to discount others. But we don’t discount ourselves either.
Today, I will own my power with people. I will let myself know what I know, feel what I feel, believe what 1 believe, and see what I see. I will be open to changing and learning from others and experience, but I will trust and validate myself too. I will stand in my own truth.” via June 24: Owning Our Power.
Good question…
“Why do I have to be an example for your kid? You be an example for your own kid.” Bob Gibson via Good advice………………….
Powerlessness & Unmanageability
Melody Beattie writes:
Willpower is not the key to the way of life we are seeking. Surrender is.
“I have spent much of my life trying to make people be, do, or feel something they aren’t, don’t want to do, and choose not to feel. I have made them, and myself, crazy in that process,” said one recovering woman.
I spent my childhood trying to make an alcoholic father who didn’t love himself be a normal person who loved me. I then married an alcoholic and spent a decade trying to make him stop drinking.
I have spent years trying to make emotionally unavailable people be emotionally present for me. I have spent even more years trying to make family members, who are content feeling miserable, happy.
What I’m saying is this: I’ve spent much of my life desperately and vainly trying to do the impossible and feeling like a failure when I couldn’t. It’s been like planting corn and trying to make the seeds grow peas. Won’t work!
By surrendering to powerlessness, I gain the presence of mind to stop wasting my time and energy trying to change and control that which I cannot change and control. It gives me permission to stop trying to do the impossible and focus on what is possible: being who I am, loving myself, feeling what I feel, and doing what I want to do with my life.
In recovery, we learn to stop fighting lions, simply because we cannot win. We also learn that the more we are focused on controlling and changing others, the more unmanageable our life becomes. The more we focus on living our own life, the more we have a life to live, and the more manageable our life will become.
Today, I will accept powerlessness where I have no power to change things, and I’ll allow my life to become manageable.” via Daily Meditation ~ Powerlessness & Unmanageability – Miracles In Progress Codependents Anonymous Group.
Today, I am thinking about how to apply this to my in-laws…
My mother in law will never love me like a son and my sibling in laws will never treat me like a brother. Three years ago during the ‘summer of forgiveness’, I made amends and was forgiven and yet I remain in their ‘penalty box‘. I refuse to let myself in an close the lid on top of me. I refuse to play a role in their drama. If I’m not going to get what I need it’s not worth the work…
Related articles
- …on Control (toddlohenry.com)
4 Reasons You Don’t Have The Body You Want
Get the answer here: 4 Reasons You Don’t Have The Body You Want.
Align Yourself with People Who Support You
“I align myself with people who support my growth. If you meet someone whose soul is not aligned with yours, send them love and move along.” Dr. Wayne Dyer via Today’s Quotes: Align Yourself with Ppl Who Support You!
The Accidental Asshole
Pinpoint How You’re Annoying People and Do Something About It!
We all have our pet peeves. But have you ever wondered about the annoying things you do that your friends, family, and strangers are too polite to tell you about? I do, and I decided to do something about it.
It’s easy to talk about self improvement, but in reality we’re not that adept at seeing our own faults. The problem is that most people aren’t going to tell you when you’re doing something wrong until it gets to a point where they don’t want to hang around you anymore. I’m the type who’s easily annoyed, so I assume most of my friends and family are as well. It’s also no secret that humans as a race have a lot of pet peeves, whether it’s at the office, on a mobile phone, or in a restaurant.
To find out how I may be annoying the people around me, I wanted to open up a dialogue where friends and strangers could give me a performance review to help me pinpoint when I’m being an asshole and actually do something about it. Here’s how I did it, and how you can do the same.” Get more here: The Accidental Asshole: Pinpoint How You’re Annoying People and Do Something About It.
Think Like a Lion Tamer About the Hurt in Your Life
“Have you recently been through a challenge, disappointment, break up, or disloyalty with somebody in your life?
If so, it’s important after you’ve been hurt, to take some time to think like a lion tamer about your pain, so you can tame the possibility of more negativity coming back to bite you again!” Get more here: Think Like a Lion Tamer About the Hurt in Your Life « Positively Positive.
No More Excuses!
The Daily Love via Visual Inspiration: No More Excuses!.
What We Really Need to Be Happy
“The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.” ~Unknown
Standing, getting crushed on the metro at peak hour, I look around and my heart sinks. I’m surrounded by sullen faces, their eyes focused intently on games on their iPads and smart phones.
These are the sullen faces representing a world of people dreading going to work, dreading grinding away at a job they hate.
The gadgets they use as distractions during their morning commute are constant reminders of why they must put themselves through this daily hell. They feel they need these things (among others), and their job allows them to have them.
Throughout history humans have always strived to have better “things,” to have more than their neighbors or at the very least be equal to them.
First it was outdoing the neighbor who just upgraded from horse and carriage to a car. Later it was getting a black a white TV, then the cassette player, and years later a CD player.
But in today’s modern world where trends change as soon as they begin, where the next version of the latest gadget comes out seemingly straight away, people are driven to work longer hours to afford to be at the forefront of the trends—the latest gadget, the latest car, the latest fashion.
But lurking behind the lives of shiny new cars, flat screen TV’s and iPhones is a void, is a huge deficit, and it’s not a budget one.
Our world is experiencing a passion and purpose deficit.” via What We Really Need to Be Happy | Tiny Buddha: Wisdom Quotes, Letting Go, Letting Happiness In.
What a great rendition of one of my all time fav U2 songs. Thanks for sharing this, David…
Not only are Bono and The Edge awesome together, the lyrics are sheer poetry…
I’m not afraid of anything in this world
There’s nothing you can throw at me that I haven’t already heard
I’m just trying to find a decent melody
A song that I can sing in my own companyI never thought you were a fool
But darling, look at you
You gotta stand up straight, carry your own weight
These tears are going nowhere, babyYou’ve got to get yourself together
You’ve got stuck in a moment and now you can’t get out of it
Don’t say that later will be better
Now you’re stuck in a moment
And you can’t get out of itI will not forsake the colours that you bring
The nights you filled with fireworks
They left you with nothing
I am still enchanted by the light you brought to me
I listen through your ears, and through your eyes I can seeAnd you are such a fool
To worry like you do
I know it’s tough, and you can never get enough
Of what you don’t really need now my oh myYou’ve got to get yourself together
You’ve got stuck in a moment and you can’t get out of it
Oh, love, look at you now
You got yourself stuck in a moment and you can’t get out of itI was unconscious, half asleep
The water is warm till you discover how deep
I wasn’t jumping; for me it was a fall
It’s a long way down to nothing at allYou’ve got to get yourself together
You’ve got stuck in a moment and now you can’t get out of it
Don’t say that later will be better
Now you’re stuck in a moment and you can’t get out of itAnd if the night runs over
And if the day won’t last
And if our way should falter
Along this stony passAnd if the night runs over
And if the day won’t last
And if your way should falter
Along this stony pass
It’s just a moment
This time will pass
I’m a fan of Michael Hurley’s blog, “We Move Together.” Urge you to check it out. As Michael says, this is “freaking brilliant.” I completely agree. Check out Michael post and U2’s Bono and The Edge performing “Stuck in a Moment.” Fantastic video clip to kick off your Friday.
“…You’ve got to get yourself together
You’ve got stuck in a moment
And now you can’t get out of it
Don’t say that later will be better…”
Rumors of my demise…
…are greatly exaggerated as Mark Twain once said…
How To Journal Gratitude
FinerMinds Go to the source: How To Journal Gratitude.
Make you feel my love
When the rain is blowing in your face
and the whole world is on your case
I could offer you a warm embrace
to make you feel my love…
When the evening shadows and the stars appear
And there is no one there to dry your tears
I could hold you for a million years
to make you feel my love…
The value of experiments…
“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put a foundation under them.” ~ Henry David Thoreau via The value of experiments………….
Song for you far away…
…”Sitting here all alone is bringing it on again, I’m gone again.
Sitting here thinking of you is driving it home again.
This is a song for you far away, far away. This is a song for you far away from me.
Open the door it takes me back, oh it takes me back.
Mention your name and I’m gone again, oh I’m gone again.
This is a song for you far away from me, far away from me.”
via James Taylor :: Song for You Far Away Lyrics – Absolute Lyrics.
Maybe I’m amazed…
This one goes out to my beautiful wife…
“Maybe I’m a man and maybe I’m a lonely man
Who’s in the middle of something
That he doesn’t really understand
Maybe I’m a man and maybe you’re the only woman
Who could ever help me
Baby won’t you help me understand…”
via Paul McCartney :: Maybe Im Amazed Lyrics – Absolute Lyrics.
Bright, shiny objects! 
You must be logged in to post a comment.