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Happiness: 7 Ways to Fill Your Life with Joy 12 Commandments For A Happy Life And Soul Nurture Your Creative Soul

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What About Less is More? Are You Interested in Simplifying Your Life? The Art of Simplifying Your Life – Why Less Is More

Choose your words wisely for positive effect Choose Your Words Wisely: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Speak Choose your words wisely… They Can Build or Destroy How to Speak Words of Life

Forget “Should” and Live the Life You Want to Live There's a Big Difference Between Living Your Life and Working in It, And How You're Living Matters Big Time Living the Life You Want to Live is No Mystery. Here’s How You do it

This phrase traces back to author Anthony Trollope and his book  The Kellys and the O'Kellys , published in 1848. The line, slightly different than the phrase as we know it now, read this way:  “If it was to save my life and theirs, I can’t get up small talk for the rector and his curate.” It means that if my very life depended on completing a task or something then I would most likely die.

Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavour. "The Timepiece", The Task, II, 1785, lines 606–7 Penned by William Cowper (above) this phrase has stayed true to its original meaning for the most part. 

First recorded in the mid-20th century, the phrase was famously used by The New Yorker to describe wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. Today, the phrase “larger than life” refers to any flamboyant, gregarious person whose mannerisms or appearance are considered more outlandish than those of other people. (source)

Evaluate Your Life Day  "The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates Take some time to be honest with yourself about yourself.  Nobody else needs to know what you see in your evaluations, but in the interest of growth and character development be brave enough to evaluate yourself. All for What? Evaluate Your Life Day Here's some questions to consider as you evaluate your life: Am I happy with where I'm at in my life right now? What am I passionate about? What am I doing to pursue my passion? Who and what things are weighing me down that I need to get rid of? How will I do it? What do I need to forgive myself for?  When did I feel most alive this year? What was sacred about that moment? What self-love actions can I practice on a daily basis? What do I want to let go of? (i.e. self-doubt, fear, self-critical thoughts) What do I want to dedicate 2016 to? (i.e. artistic pursuits, independence, etc) What did I learn about myself in 2015? What ...

Women's Healthy Weight Day (The men today can observe International Walking On Eggshells Day - ha!) Today is a day to celebrate each other right at the size we are at.  I 100% support that. I also 100% support women, and men, practicing lifestyle habits that get them to a healthy weight.  The facts are too hard to ignore.  The more we weigh the more strain we are putting on our joints, organs, etc. Now. Our healthy weight is most likely NOT what media and culture will tell us, get with a doctor and discuss what your true healthy weight is.  Then make a commitment to yourself to get to that weight and maintain it.  It's a lifestyle not a flash in the pan diet.  Make changes that are realistic for a permanent lifestyle.   Here's 24 tips for losing and maintaining a healthy weight without dieting. But today? Even if you aren't at your healthy weight, I most definitely am not, celebrate you anyway! You are not the sum total of your body size, you ar...

January Named for Janus the Roman god of gates and doors; represented with two opposite faces. Janus is an ancient Roman, composite, obscure god who is associated with doorways, beginnings, and transitions. A usually two-faced god he looks to the future and the past. ( source ) Get Organized Month Studies have shown that America can save 55.2 minutes per day, or 14 days per year, if they were more organized. Could you use the time elsewhere in your life? I know I could!  How to Organize Your Time Better in the New Year Monthly Organizing Checklist for January 2015 , this list provides a realistic breakdown of where and how to start so the task of organizing doesn't feel or seem so overwhelming. Hot Tea Month Tea, it's what's good for you 31 Ways to Celebrate Hot Tea Month Start your habit today and continue it all year long, maybe with a monthly tea subscription. Be Kind to Food Services Month Can I get an amen?  The people who work in caf...

Life. We rarely celebrate it. Oh sure, we celebrate birthdays and we celebrate some holidays but the day-to-day life?  The day-to-day when life is actually lived ?  We don’t celebrate that very often.  We allow the mundane to overshadow our days, weeks, months, and before we know it years. No wonder we drag ourselves in and out of daily responsibilities without a whole lot of “bright side” perspective. Last spring I happened to see from my Facebook feed that it was National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. I thought to myself, “That NEEDS to be celebrated!” I’m a “from scratch” baker but the work day was already well under way by the time this came on my radar so I went to the store at lunch, bought chocolate chip cookies and handed them out at work. It’s true that anytime there is free food at my workplace the masses descend but what happened this day was a light bulb moment for me. Almost everyone hit the kitchen at the same time and I stood back and watched faces light up,...

(For Thursday July 10) I am grateful for people who go places I won't be able to, do things I cannot, experience different cultures that I don't have a chance to experience and then share those things with *us*.  I am grateful for their willingness to share their trips and for the chance to vicariously live through them!  Whether I know them personally or not I love living different cultures and such through the eyes, ears, and mouth of others.  It expands my world, it gives me insight into different cultures, it reminds me that we are all different and yet the same.  Right now I have a friend who is in Romania and traveled through Vienna to get there.  She is a frequent world traveler and always posts tons of pics and I am so grateful!  I love seeing other parts of this great big world.  I'm reading a book right now about a family that traveled the world for one full year. Fascinating.  Through their experiences I am living vicariously as wel...

Today I am sharing a version of my life story with my home church.  It's a big month for me because I also have to share a version of it at work in a couple of weeks.  (Don't ask...)  Notice I say version, I'll clarify real quick.  I have several versions of my life story and the audience tends to dictate which one I share.  Parts are more appropriate to share with some and not others, you know?  So back to my Gratitude Attitude for today, it's kind of two-fold. I'm grateful to hear other people's life stories, it gives me insight into them - into their behaviors, their actions, their beliefs.  I think hearing another person's life story gives me an empathy for them I may or may not have had previously.  You can't argue with someone's story, you have to accept it and embrace them for who they are at that moment and for what they have come through or even are still struggling with. I'm grateful for my life story.  I used to think it was bori...

Today I participated in celebrating new life that is about to enter the world and the enter the family of dear friends.  I was thinking about how grateful I am that we are given new life to celebrate and rejoice over in the midst of life that may be passing or fading away.  It's a gift to have both. Celebrating new life is so much fun!  We rub her belly (those of us who are allowed) and we talk to her and we wonder with anticipation how this little new life will mark the world with her presence (this new life happens to be a girl).  New life is hope for all of us.  Hope for our futures, for our own families, for things yet to be revealed.

Have you ever stopped to really reflect on the life you are celebrating when you sing or say "Happy Birthday" to someone?  Have you thought about that person and what they have accomplished in their years so far, or what they have been able to overcome, or what kind of legacy they are leaving?  Have you been able to celebrate the potential they have? Have you been able to celebrate how valuable they are despite mistakes they have made, hurts they may have caused, etc? Today I've been thinking about this and I feel grateful to be able to celebrate the life of my family and friends. I feel grateful to have the opportunity to speak life into their life, to show them how valuable I think they are, to encourage them to keep on keeping on.  If you feel grateful about being the one celebrated think about how grateful you can also be as the celebrator.

Life itself is a quotation . Jorge Luis Borges We probably don't know it but what we say and what we do in our lives becomes quotable.  Our life is a breathing quotation and most of the time we don't even realize it.  But think about it.  How many times do you say something like, "Hey my friend said so and so" or "As my Dad always says...."  See?  Living our lives means we've become a quotation.  This isn't a bad thing, necessarily, mind you.  This can be a good thing if you live your life well, healthy, growing.  As I look back on the past 364 days of quotes it is obvious that a main source of inspiration comes from personal growth motivation.  And when we are committed to personal growth our lives become inspiring, quotable , to others.  Those who aren't committed to personal growth also become quotable but not in the way anyone ever wants to be.  Many of the past 364 days was inspired, positively or negatively, by someone in my...

Deep experience is never peaceful.   Henry James  Boy howdy isn't this the truth!  When we go through experiences that take us deep there is always some upheaval that comes along with it.  Why is that?  Because in order to grow and learn from the experience we must rid ourselves of toxic things and people and that is never a calm process, it always involves some sort of tearing, removing, refining, grief.  Always.  But embrace it all.  Embrace the process deep experiences take you through.  Embrace the reality that on the other side there will be lessons that have been learned and growth that has occurred.  Go ahead and grieve if you need to but embrace even that, knowing that the upheaval of the deep experience is leading you to healthier relationships, a healthier perspective on yourself, a healthier view of future situations that are sure to come up, etc.   In the ocean the deep waters may be calm but in our souls going...

Embrace the current season of your life.   Gabrielle Blair {sigh} Can I get a witness?   Some seasons of life are certainly easier to embrace than others.  But if we can learn to embrace the harder seasons, the darker seasons, the rainier seasons, and the painful seasons as well as the joyful seasons then we become better versions of ourselves.  It is in the harder seasons that we are really refined in character and where we grow as a person.  So if we could embrace it rather than push it away then we make beautiful things in ourselves and with other people.  Embracing the seasons of life, ALL of them, reminds me of, " Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end."   In time everything is made beautiful when given the space and attention it deserves.  Embrace your seasons, ALL of them, and watch God transfor...