The Gratitude Dance

Many of you know that I have a 24 year old son who is in the hospital fighting leukemia. Today I am thinking about gratitude.

This morning I woke up being grateful for all the healing Nic has experienced already. For his fungal pneumonia seeing a steady, slow decrease in size. For his kidneys returning to good function. For the chemo destroying the leukemic cells in his blood. For the new cells forming over the sores in his mouth. For his awesome friends that are faithful and spend so much time here with him in the hospital. For all our family, friends and many, many strangers who call and e-mail and post comments on his caring bridge page to lift us up. For the faith God has given us to be strong and help him fight this.

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful." Colossians 3:15

Take a look at this Youtube video and join me today in this "Gratitude Dance" - we are so grateful for continued healing!

The Gratitude Dance

Notes from the Universe

Yesterday I watched a small bird, flying very fast, disappear into the canopy of an oak tree. So dense were its leaves that it was impossible to see what happened next, though I can tell you it remained inside.

I wondered how the little bird found its opening through the leaves at such a speed, and then managed to gently align its fragile body on the branch it chose to land upon, all within a fraction of a second. Not to mention the impossible to imagine flying maneuvers required: the banking, the curling, the vertical and horizontal stabilizations, the deceleration and landing.

Memory? Calculation? Not in that tiny brain. Instinct? Maybe, but how does instinct know which way the branches of a tree have grown when no two are the same?

Terry, that little bird just knew. It had faith, in spite of not being able to see how things would work out, that if (and only if) it stayed the course the details would be taken care of; that an opening would appear and a twig would be found. In fact, had she slowed down enough to carefully and logically inspect the tree first, the prudent thing to do, she would have lost her lift and fallen to the ground.

Kind of like reaching for your dreams. Neither memory, nor calculating, nor instincts are the deciding factors, but faith coupled with action.

Tallyho,
The Universe

www.tut.com

I have to share a story today - enjoy.

This is Good

The story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"

One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation, the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!"

To which the king replied - "No, this is not good!" and proceeded to send his friend to jail.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake.

As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitio

us, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way.

As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend.

"You were right," he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened." And so, I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this."

"No," his friend replied, "This is good!"

"What do you mean, 'This is good'? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?"

"If I had not been in jail, I would have been with you, and not here with you right now."

In a very unusual way, the message here unfolds into exposing the following principle about life.

"Absolutely everything happens for a purpose; and out of what seems like adversity at the time; always comes good".

I'm sure that if any of us care to reflect back on the tragedy's, the heartaches, the 'bad times' in our lives, that we discover that we have really grown or developed during that period of time:even though the reflection may still cause us discomfort in some way.

It is in this way that we slowly gather experience and wisdom, and even though we may think or feel that it is unfair, that's the way it is.

"This is good". Many of our life's experiences have saved us from some form of cannibals; it's just that we often don't know that they have at the time.

So, for a simple example to help with awareness: next time you may begin to feel you are being 'wronged' by being stuck in a traffic jam, think about the cannibals that could be lurking down the road a bit,but will be gone by the time you get there.

Now that's a bit different, but worth trying: "this is good" - despite the circumstances.

Remember: "What others do or say is their stuff; how we react, or not, is our stuff"!
And: "True Happiness in life isn't having what you want, but wanting what you have"!

© Phil Evans

www.peoplestuff.com.au

This little message helped me today - I hope you can apply it to your life as well.

Terry

Free Yourself from Photo Clutter

Whether you're "digital" or "paper" we can all use a little Photo Freedom! If you're paper, you probably have a box, drawer, or maybe even a pile of pictures stacking up. And if you're digital, your hard drive can look much the same. I've been a victim of both... Organizing photos may seem overwhelming, but you can free yourself from photo chaos with a few simple ideas and tips. This process won't happen overnight. It's a process...and ongoing one, but before you know it you can be enjoying beautiful photos in your home, on your walls, or in heirloom-quality storybooks.

Not All Photos Are Created Equal
Step #1 -Weed through your pictures

• Toss out/delete all the bad, blurry pictures.
• For paper pics, set duplicates to the side in a separate pile.
• Keep only your favorite, quality images/pictures and throw the rest out!
• For paper images make a pile for pictures that you'd like to frame and/or send to friends and family.
• For digital images make a folder for pictures you'd like to print and frame and/or send to family and friends.
• With an acid-free photo pen, label the pictures on the back of the photo's edge. If you can recall the date, names, and place, add those details.

Keeping Things Simple
Step # 2 - Organize

• Make pile/folder by themes - by date, years, events, people.
• Pictures can be kept in photo-safe boxes AFTER they're sorted and organized.
• On note cards, used as dividers, write down notes, stories and memories about each theme of photos.

Share Your Photos
Step #3 - Sharing and Displaying

• Send copies of your photos to friends and family regularly. Have a stash of pre-addressed envelopes so they're ready to go out every few months. Not everyone has access to the computer.
• Build digital photo albums online or keep a BLOG and send notices to friends and family when they're updated.
• Intricate albums with details and captions can be...well...you know.... If you have the time, money, and more time and more money... scrapbooking can easily become an overwhelming and time-consuming hobby.
• Photos and stories combined are what create family traditions and heirlooms to be passed down. By choosing "one" special event, such as a wedding or new baby, you can create beautiful family story and photo books with Heritage Makers.
• Print and frame your pictures. Get them up on the walls, on your shelves, and out so they can be seen! Choose only your best photos. Use our amazing system to create posters, family folds, 12x12 pages that can be decoupaged to tiles as wonderful home decor.
  
• Be creative...string them from cute wire clips, use bulletin boards, memo boards...that way they are easy to change out and update.

Keep Up The Good Work

• Once you're caught up (yes, that can happen) keep up and control your photos! Organize your photos as soon as you download or develop.
• For paper pictures, keep a VERY SMALL photo/shoe box out.As the box begins to fill, sit down with the family and sort through the photos, share the stories, write them down and prep them to be scanned and loaded into a photo/story book.
• As soon as you download pictures, delete the bad ones! Label folders in your "My Pictures" folder with dates and event names if possible.

Using Heritage Maker's Studio can help you stay on top of your photo chaos. By simply adding story and a few photos, you can create meaningful photo books that can be shared with everyone who walks through the doors of your home. The entire family can be part of the process. This is no longer MOM'S job! It's a family thing.

Heritage Maker's Studio 3.0 is simple to use with an easy drag and drop system. You can upload your story text, images, and scanned images into a book template of your choice, or be completely creative and start your project from scratch using our 40,000+ pieces of art to complete your project. End result, a beautiful soft or hardbound book, poster, calendar, cookbook, card, poster, or home decor project will arrive on your doorstep in 10 - 15 business days.

Organizing your photos can be a daunting task. So keep it simple. These are priceless memories that can be easily enjoyed and relived for generations to come. Go to my website at www.celebrationstorybooks.com to get started now.

Essentially, the goal is make sure our stories, memories, traditions, thoughts and values can be passed on. Don't lose focus.

Photo Organizing tips from Tara Brown

The Lesson of the Morning Glory!

I planted seeds in my little garden this year.

I have never planted seeds before, because I am not a very patient person, and waiting for the little green shoots to rise above the ground, was just too much for me. But this year, I thought I would give it a try. I thought it would be a good metaphor for me, to plant something and watch it grow, much as I have many times, planted thoughts, dreams and affirmations and watched many of them become a reality.

And so, in the Spring of this year, I planted my garden. I chose many types of flowers and among them, Morning Glories. Within a month, many of the other flowers were bursting through the earth, but not the Morning Glories.

Each morning, I would run outside to check on them, and nothing, nothing for several weeks more. I was about to give up on them. I was sure that they just did not 'take' so to speak. But finally, it happened! They had broken through the earth, and were starting to climb. And climb, and climb, and climb, they did....with their big, beautiful, heart shaped leaves.

And so, the saga continued, nothing for weeks and weeks and weeks but more and more beautiful leaves. And I thought to myself, "Well, leaves are nice, but that is all I will probably get at this point." And then, one fine and glorious morning, there it was, the most beautiful sky-blue morning glory I have ever seen!!! It seemed like a miracle to me. I had waited over 3 months for this one delicate, funnel-shaped flower to show up and now here it was, in all its splendor.

It reminded me of just how many times I had waited in life for something I had longed for, and how incredible it felt when it finally arrived, and also, how many times, that I had wanted to throw in the towel, and just give up.

But I wasn't prepared for what was to happen next, with these little flowers, and I was surprised and deeply saddened by it.

Roses and geraniums and daisies and most other flowers bloom and stay around for a while, but not Morning Glories. Morning Glories open themselves up to the world, in the morning, in all of their glory, hence the name, Morning Glory.

And if you look closely at them, you will see how extraordinary they are, both in colour and texture, and that in their centre, is a kind of golden light that shines from within.

But here is the hard part...
At the end of the day, they turn a most beautiful shade of lavender, and then close up, wither and die. They live for only one day, and then they are gone. I cannot tell you how much this saddened me, and what a profound effect this little flower had upon my life. I kept thinking how sad to be so beautiful and live for only one day. And then, I suddenly realized what a gift they were.

You see, it doesn't matter how long your life is. It only matters that you were here, in all your glory, that you opened up completely, and let your light shine, and that you brought joy to those who came into contact with you. That's what matters to the morning glory, and that's what really matters to all of us.

The morning glories make me appreciate every new day now, in a way I didn't before. Each evening, I go and visit with them, knowing those particular ones won't be here tomorrow, new ones will take their place. If we knew when we woke up in the morning, that we only had that one day to really live, life would be very different indeed for many of us.

Now, each morning, I give thanks that I have been given the gift of another day, in all its glory. We can learn from all of life, if we remain open to the beauty that is all around us. And nature can be one of our greatest teachers.

What a profound lesson from such a simple flower.

Thank you, my sweet little morning glories!

Veronica Hay

Veronica Hay is an inspirational writer and author of In A Dream, You Can Do Anything, An Extraordinary Collection Of Words. Her work inspires others to be more of who they really are. For more insights and inspiration you can visit her website at: www.insightsandinspirations.com or email her at veronicahay@telus.net

The Yard Sale

The leaves on the old maple tree I have loved since the first time I climbed its branches more than 40 years ago had transformed into extraordinarily radiant shades of red and yellow this year. I took a deep breath of the crisp, invigorating fall air, then hammered the signpost into the ground.

Yard Sale
Saturday 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.

As I stepped back to view the sign, wondering how we were going to make it through tomorrow, I heard Mrs. MacKenzie’s voice, plain as day: “Life does not put things in front of you that you can’t handle.” Instinctively, I looked to see if she was standing at the front door, knowing full well that was impossible. “Sometimes I’ve believed in six impossible things before breakfast,” came to me as her response to my thoughts.

In that moment, I wondered if I’d fallen down a rabbit hole into a wonderland of my own. Some things in life, however, can never be explained, and so I headed back up the walkway and into the old brick house, where I found Julia sitting on a familiar black and brass trunk in the middle of the family room, surrounded by stacks of boxes we had packed earlier that week for her to take home.

“Hey, Jules, is that the treasure chest?”
“Later,” she smiled, knowing I would get lost in time if we dared open it now. “Let’s finish the kitchen.”

Clearing out the contents of one’s family home isn’t easy for many children; yet I knew this past week had been particularly painful for Julia. I knew because I had been her best friend since first grade. Not always the closest, but always the best. For the last 25 years, we had lived on opposite coasts, but geographical distance could never break the lifelong bond formed here way back when. What I hadn’t really been prepared for was how painful this would be for me.

Julia had been an only child, though not by choice, and as the years passed, Dr. and Mrs. MacKenzie unofficially “adopted” me as the second child they would never have, loving me and advising me as their own, especially after my own father was tragically killed in an accident, and Alzheimer’s took my mother when I was barely in my 20s. The MacKenzies were always there for Jules, and they had always been there for me.

Model American parents, Dr. and Mrs. MacKenzie believed in the “think positive” counsel of Norman Vincent Peale and passed that on, forever encouraging us to trust. “Remember, anything is possible,” Mrs. MacKenzie would always remind us. They discovered universal truths in old adages and always offered just the right bits of wisdom in times of turmoil and uncertainty. “Life,” as Dr. MacKenzie was fond of saying, “is conspiring in your favor.”

But, as they also taught us, time marches on. A little more than two years ago, Dr. MacKenzie passed away. Then just two months ago, Mrs. MacKenzie lost her battle to breast cancer.

Now, together again, Julia and I were doing a lot more than sorting through stuff. We were sharing another turning point, saying good-bye to what had always been our shelter from the storms of life, and to her parents, who had made it so.

We managed to quickly separate out the heirloom pieces that Julia would have shipped to her home in New York, as well the items the MacKenzies had bequeathed to me, and spent the rest of the week going through cabinets and drawers, cubbyholes, the basement and attic, finding no small amount of treasures . . . old LIFE, LOOK, and The Saturday Evening Post magazines . . . a very cool, shiny-like-new Hamilton Beach blender . . . hand-crocheted doilies beyond imagination . . . Dr. MacKenzie’s set of Craftsman tools . . . Jules’ favorite stuffed teddy bear . . . until finally the last of it was sorted and boxed or marked “yard sale” or “Goodwill.”

When all was done, we gravitated back to the family room, out of need, as much as habit. For a few long minutes, we just sat on the floor, in silence, leaning against the big black and brass trunk. So much of our childhood had been lived in this house, and especially in this room. Then, the finality of it all hit us both, and we let the tears flow.

“We grew up here,” I said, breaking the silence.
“Watched President Kennedy’s funeral in here,” Julia said softly.
“Met the Beatles on ‘Ed Sullivan’ here,” I remembered.
“Celebrated our Sweet 16 birthdays here.” “Dreamed our dreams here.”

We turned around and opened the latch of the trunk. The smell of cedar drifted up. Inside, we found the treasure — photo albums. We pulled out the oversized, gold-trimmed brown album we knew contained photos from our teenage years and sat down to flash back through the times of our lives.

Every important moment it seemed was documented inside . . . the silly picture Dr. MacKenzie had taken of Jules and me in our Beatle wigs “playing” broom guitars . . . our graduation day pictures from grade school . . . junior high . . . high school and college . . . snapshots of us in our prom dresses, complete with those unwieldy hand corsages . . . the picture I took of the video image on the television when Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon . . . the Mustang convertible we used to drive to school . . . the friends . . . the boyfriends. We stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, reliving the moments of our lives, crying, laughing, remembering, and realizing that life is what happened while we were busy making other plans, as one of the minstrels of our generation had put it.

“Before you got here last week, I spent some time with the family who bought the house,” Julia said, as we were getting ready to finally call it a day. “They’ve got two daughters. The younger one reminded me of you — the first thing she did was climb up into the old maple tree.”

The next morning came early and so did the first of the bargain hunters.

“Okay, everything is outside now, except these boxes, which are going with you, right?” I asked Julia, pointing to the last stack of boxes in the family room.

“Nah, that stuff can go, too,” Julia said calmly. “I’ve realized over the last few days that Mom and Dad — and that Italian novelist, Cesare Pavese — were right. We don’t remember days, we remember moments. And our moments are really the only important things, the only things that can’t be replaced,” she added, opening the big black and brass trunk and pulling out the gold-trimmed brown photo album. “Would you take care of this for us?” she asked, handing me the album.

“Jules . . . yes,” was all I could muster right then. I wiped the tears from my eyes, and went to place the album in my suitcase.

Then, we each picked up one of the last few boxes and headed out to the front yard. “Everything goes,” Jules announced to the folks wandering around the lawn. Turning to me, she added with a smile: “Everything but the photographs.”

Indeed, those were our “moments,” never to be sold.

Courtesy of Lifetouch

16 Things I Wish They Had Taught Me in School

16 Things I Wish They Had Taught Me in School
Published by Henrik Edberg April 2nd, 2008 in Productivity,
Relaxation, Personal Development, People Skills, Career & Work and
Success.
I am 28 now. I don't think about the past or regret things much these days.

But sometimes I wish that I had known some of things I have learned
over the last few years a bit earlier. That perhaps there had been a
self-improvement class in school. And in some ways there probably was.

Because some of these 16 things in this article a teacher probably
spoke about in class. But I forgot about them or didn't pay attention.

Some of it would probably not have stuck in my mind anyway. Or just
been too far outside my reality at the time for me to accept and use.

But I still think that taking a few hours from all those German
language classes and use them for some personal development classes
would have been a good idea. Perhaps for just an hour a week in high
school. It would probably be useful for many students and on a larger
scale quite helpful for society in general.

So here are 16 things I wish they had taught me in school (or I just
would like to have known about earlier).

1. The 80/20 rule.

This is one of the best ways to make better use of your time. The
80/20 rule – also known as The Pareto Principle – basically says that
80 percent of the value you will receive will come from 20 percent of
your activities.

So a lot of what you do is probably not as useful or even necessary to
do as you may think.

You can just drop – or vastly decrease the time you spend on – a whole
bunch of things.

And if you do that you will have more time and energy to spend on
those things that really brings your value, happiness, fulfilment and
so on.

2. Parkinson's Law.

You can do things quicker than you think. This law says that a task
will expand in time and seeming complexity depending on the time you
set aside for it. For instance, if you say to yourself that you'll
come up with a solution within a week then the problem will seem to
grow more difficult and you'll spend more and more time trying to come
up with a solution.

So focus your time on finding solutions. Then just give yourself an
hour (instead of the whole day) or the day (instead of the whole week)
to solve the problem. This will force your mind to focus on solutions
and action.

The result may not be exactly as perfect as if you had spent a week on
the task, but as mentioned in the previous point, 80 percent of the
value will come from 20 percent of the activities anyway. Or you may
wind up with a better result because you haven't overcomplicated or
overpolished things. This will help you to get things done faster, to
improve your ability to focus and give you more free time where you
can totally focus on what's in front of you instead of having some
looming task creating stress in the back of your mind.

3. Batching.

Boring or routine tasks can create a lot of procrastination and
low-level anxiety. One good way to get these things done quickly is to
batch them. This means that you do them all in row. You will be able
to do them quicker because there is less "start-up time" compared to
if you spread them out. And when you are batching you become fully
engaged in the tasks and more focused.

A batch of things to do in an hour today may look like this: Clean
your desk / answer today's emails / do the dishes / make three calls /
write a grocery shopping list for tomorrow.

4. First, give value. Then, get value. Not the other way around.

This is a bit of a counter-intuitive thing. There is often an idea
that someone should give us something or do something for us before we
give back. The problem is just that a lot of people think that way.
And so far less than possible is given either way.

If you want to increase the value you receive (money, love, kindness,
opportunities etc.) you have to increase the value you give. Because
over time you pretty much get what you give. It would perhaps be nice
to get something for nothing. But that seldom happens.

5. Be proactive. Not reactive.

This one ties into the last point. If everyone is reactive then very
little will get done. You could sit and wait and hope for someone else
to do something. And that happens pretty often, but it can take a lot
of time before it happens.

A more useful and beneficial way is to be proactive, to simply be the
one to take the first practical action and get the ball rolling. This
not only saves you a lot of waiting, but is also more pleasurable
since you feel like you have the power over your life. Instead of
feeling like you are run by a bunch of random outside forces.

6. Mistakes and failures are good.

When you are young you just try things and fail until you learn. As
you grow a bit older, you learn from - for example - school to not
make mistakes. And you try less and less things.

This may cause you to stop being proactive and to fall into a habit of
being reactive, of waiting for someone else to do something. I mean,
what if you actually tried something and failed? Perhaps people would
laugh at you?

Perhaps they would. But when you experience that you soon realize that
it is seldom the end of the world. And a lot of the time people don't
care that much. They have their own challenges and lives to worry
about.

And success in life often comes from not giving up despite mistakes
and failure. It comes from being persistent.

When you first learn to ride your bike you may fall over and over.
Bruise a knee and cry a bit. But you get up, brush yourself off and
get on the saddle again. And eventually you learn how to ride a bike.
If you can just reconnect to your 5 year old self and do things that
way - instead of giving up after a try/failure or two as grown-ups
often do – you would probably experience a lot more interesting
things, learn valuable lessons and have quite a bit more success.

7. Don't beat yourself up.

Why do people give up after just few mistakes or failures? Well, I
think one big reason is because they beat themselves up way too much.
But it's a kinda pointless habit. It only creates additional and
unnecessary pain inside you and wastes your precious time. It's best
to try to drop this habit as much as you can.

8. Assume rapport.

Meeting new people is fun. But it can also induce nervousness. We all
want to make a good first impression and not get stuck in an awkward
conversation.

The best way to do this that I have found so far is to assume rapport.
This means that you simply pretend that you are meeting one of your
best friends. Then you start the interaction in that frame of mind
instead of the nervous one.

This works surprisingly well. You can read more about it in How to
Have Less Awkward Conversations: Assuming Rapport.

9. Use your reticular activation system to your advantage.

I learned about the organs and the inner workings of the body in class
but nobody told me about the reticular activation system. And that's a
shame, because this is one of the most powerful things you can learn
about. What this focus system, this R.A.S, in your mind does is to
allow you to see in your surroundings what you focus your thoughts on.
It pretty much always helps you to find what you are looking for.

So you really need to focus on what you want, not on what you don't
want. And keep that focus steady.

Setting goals and reviewing them frequently is one way to keep your
focus on what's important and to help you take action that will move
your closer to toward where you want to go. Another way is just to use
external reminders such as pieces of paper where you can, for
instance, write down a few things from this post like "Give value" or
"Assume rapport". And then you can put those pieces of paper on your
fridge, bathroom mirror etc.

10. Your attitude changes your reality.

We have all heard that you should keep a positive attitude or perhaps
that "you need to change your attitude!". That is a nice piece of
advice I suppose, but without any more reasons to do it is very easy
to just brush such suggestions off and continue using your old
attitude.

But the thing that I've discovered the last few years is that if you
change your attitude, you actually change your reality. When you for
instance use a positive attitude instead of a negative one you start
to see things and viewpoints that were invisible to you before. You
may think to yourself "why haven't I thought about things this way
before?".

When you change you attitude you change what you focus on. And all
things in your world can now be seen in a different light.

This is of course very similar to the previous tip but I wanted to
give this one some space. Because changing your attitude can create an
insane change in your world. It might not look like it if you just
think about it though. Pessimism might seem like realism. But that is
mostly because your R.A.S is tuned into seeing all the negative things
you want to see. And that makes you "right" a lot of the time. And
perhaps that is what you want. On the other hand, there are more fun
things than being right all the time.

If you try changing your attitude for real – instead of analysing such
a concept in your mind - you'll be surprised.

You may want to read more about this topic in Take the Positivity Challenge!

11. Gratitude is a simple way to make yourself feel happy.

Sure, I was probably told that I should be grateful. Perhaps because
it was the right thing to do or just something I should do. But if
someone had said that feeling grateful about things for minute or two
is a great way to turn a negative mood into a happy one I would
probably have practised gratitude more. It is also a good tool for
keeping your attitude up and focusing on the right things. And to make
other people happy. Which tends to make you even happier, since
emotions are contagious.

12. Don't compare yourself to others.

The ego wants to compare. It wants to find reasons for you to feel
good about yourself ("I've got a new bike!"). But by doing that it
also becomes very hard to not compare yourself to others who have more
than you ("Oh no, Bill has bought an even nicer bike!"). And so you
don't feel so good about yourself once again. If you compare yourself
to others you let the world around control how you feel about
yourself. It always becomes a rollercoaster of emotions.

A more useful way is to compare yourself to yourself. To look at how
far you have come, what you have accomplished and how you have grown.
It may not sound like that much fun but in the long run it brings a
lot more inner stillness, personal power and positive feelings.

13. 80-90% of what you fear will happen never really come into reality.

This is a big one. Most things you fear will happen never happen. They
are just monsters in your own mind. And if they happen then they will
most often not be as painful or bad as you expected. Worrying is most
often just a waste of time.

This is of course easy to say. But if you remind yourself of how
little of what you feared throughout your life that has actually
happened you can start to release more and more of that worry from
your thoughts.

14. Don't take things too seriously.

It's very easy to get wrapped up in things. But most of the things you
worry about never come into reality. And what may seem like a big
problem right now you may not even remember in three years.

Taking yourself, your thoughts and your emotions too seriously often
just seems to lead to more unnecessary suffering. So relax a little
more and lighten up a bit. It can do wonders for your mood and as an
extension of that; your life.

15. Write everything down.

If your memory is anything like mine then it's like a leaking bucket.
Many of your good or great ideas may be lost forever if you don't make
a habit of writing things down. This is also a good way to keep your
focus on what you want. Read more about it in Why You Should Write
Things Down.

16. There are opportunities in just about every experience.

In pretty much any experience there are always things that you can
learn from it and things within the experience that can help you to
grow. Negative experiences, mistakes and failure can sometimes be even
better than a success because it teaches you something totally new,
something that another success could never teach you.

Whenever you have a "negative experience" ask yourself: where is the
opportunity in this? What is good about this situation? One negative
experience can – with time – help you create many very positive
experiences.

From "The Positivity Blog"