Absence

Let's all take an absence from media. 

Let us promote Presence and InJoyment of Life 

- in Nature, with Animals, for Friends and Family. 

#PRAY

Transcendence

What if Heaven was a place...

What if Heaven was a place your mind goes when your body fails (or dies)? The mind’s energy would live on, continuing to produce joyful experiences based on your memory.  The positive mood enhancing chemicals would take over and create absolute euphoria. It would not be like a drug-like induced state or a dream. Rather, it would be an actual experience for the soul and spirit in every way with all senses involved. All of the people, things, places, feelings, and moments that gave you joy were reinstated as your eternal experience --- incorporated to create new experiences just as pleasant as the initial. 

Concentrate on this. Imagine what your Heaven would be like and write it out like a short story. List the people, places, and things you want to have there.  Think about your idea of a perfect day and all it would include. This could be your Heaven. It could be your Heaven on Earth. Because when you focus on so much positively, you’re going to create a better experience for yourself. The positive energy you use to create a better world can carry-on. 

Imagine. Focus. Be.

#simpleharmony

Reinventing Your Life

In-Joy It

For Goodness Sake

I'll Say This

Take a Moment to In-Joy

All in All

 In all the books and articles I’ve read, concepts I’ve studied, internet research I’ve conducted, and the seminars and workshops I’ve attended --- I have come to the realization that nothing Soothes the Soul or facilitates Calmness like Nature, and nothing makes us feel Good or Happy like Kindness.

Frugality and the Simple Life

As a kid, I learned the value and importance of savings from my parents, especially my father. We wanted for little, but lived tightly. When I was in 6th grade these air pump shoes were very popular and very expensive for the time ($80-$100). The shoes were supposed to inflate a bit when compressing this round bubble emblem and give an advantage when playing basketball. I wanted shoes like that. Not because I was athletic or anything of the sort, but because they were neat and different. My parents couldn't afford nor did I expect them to buy such shoes for me to wear for the school year. So at a discount store we happened upon a generic version of the air pumps. I wore them to school with glee and was made fun of because they had no effect like the real things. I would never have thought to tell or complain to my parents about it. I knew, understood, and respected that we were on a budget. Sharing that I was made fun of for having those knock-offs would have only embarrassed my parents --- and I knew that at a young age.

My brother however, by the age of 5 or 6 had become so spoiled that when it was my birthday my mother decided to gift him a small cheap gift. The gift she chose was a candy bar. When we were opening gifts, my brother opened his and cried out “It’s A CANDY BAR!” and a hysterical temper tantrum followed.

Nowadays, I’m in my thirties and I look around at all these man-made devices and the current generation of want and must have and the get the next best thing way of American life. I wonder if this modern life is for me. I’ve often felt like I might have been born into the world a few years or even a decade too late based on my likings. We are living unnaturally in a man-made world with trappings that imitate life and our essence. Underneath the mainstreaming of our desires we secretly and subconsciously crave simplicity, desperately.

I think back to my childhood and remember all the summers of playing on my grandparent’s farm. They were poor but completely supported themselves, self-sufficient and again wanted for nothing.  I think about my grandmother’s very simple life as a widow and I envy her way of life, in a way. She woke up before dawn, did her daily chores, made meals for family, and would write poetry while staring out the window when by herself to pass the time. Television and no other media distraction was ever a part of her life. My grandparents had a TV; they just never turned it on. I remember my grandmother saying the people on TV were silly.

How we want to live changes from decade to decade. Our wants, our needs, our expectations, our priorities all change.  Life can be many things. What I want now is the simplicity and gratitude of it.

Don't Let It Keep You Down

Express Your Inner Child

When I was a kid I was fascinated by the concept of trap doors. This may have come from the repeated use of them on shows I watched such as “Masters of the Universe”.  One day I set out to make a trap door. I had found a button detached from something electrical as it had wires running from it. I thought if I simply attached the button appropriately to something near where I imagined the trap door to be, that it would work. Attach the button, press it when ready to release someone into an abyss beneath the earth and that was it. This required a great deal of belief of course. It didn't actually work as I had hoped. Nevertheless, sometimes we need to think, hope, and believe like a child does --- without the sense of doubt or fear of defeat. We need to regain our anything is possible mentality.

Be YOU

A Heaven of Our Own Making

Death is unfortunate. And we all want to believe in something greater and better beyond this life. We spend our lives constructing our heaven or hell; in this life and for whatever comes next. It often seems as though the old are ready or even willing to go. For they know they have exhausted all their energy, dreams, and ability to manifest any more. Those who live long lives have more time to create their heaven and rectify the hell they may have once created. Do not fear for the short lived; for children are always exhausting all resources to make heaven.

For the Love of Animals

On the Facebook page, a photo album to inspire you to advocate animal rights and to enjoy their simple beauty and nature.

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For The Love of Animals

Gratitude Journals

A Gratitude Journal is a place to record and remember the little things you’re thankful for. It is simply a space to reflect on those simple things you often take for granted.

Research has shown those who actively give thanks for the good things in their lives reap all sorts of physical, social and psychological benefits. There are a few pointers psychologists have found enhance the positive effects of gratitude journaling. Some might seem a bit surprising to the experienced journalist.

Don’t write every day.  It sounds counterintuitive, but there’s research to back it up! A study by psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky found journaling once a week, rather than several times, has more impact. Happiness levels were higher for participants who wrote just once a week compared with the more frequent writers.

- Personally, I am a somewhat relieved by this. Writing something down every day seemed necessary yet like a chore. I’ve always enjoyed reflecting on the week --- and it’s usually after the weekend.

Elaborate. Jotting down a list of things you’re thankful won’t leave you feeling fulfilled. Digging below the surface and writing details about the source of your gratitude will.

- My own gratitude journal rarely mentions anything material and if it does, it is simply in relation to an experience. Experiences, emotional bonds, and lessons and realizations are mostly what I write about being thankful for.

Focus on surprises. Research shows positive, unexpected events leave us feeling particularly grateful.

Subtract. On days when you can’t find much to feel thankful for, try envisioning your life without certain things or people, and you’ll quickly find there’s plenty to be grateful for!

Slow down. It’s all a gift. UC Berkeley’s The Greater Good, gratitude expert and professor Robert Emmons suggests thinking of each item in your journal as a “gift.” In his studies he instructs participants to “Be aware of your feelings and how you “relish” and “savor” this gift in your imagination.” It’s important to think deeply about what it is you’re thankful for, and why.

Contains excerpts from the article “5 Tips for Keeping a Gratitude Journal”  http://www.writerscircle.com/2013/11/5-tips-for-keeping-a-gratitude-journal.html

Make Your Dreams Come True

Jan 13th is Make Your Dreams Come True Day 

Joy and the Law of Attraction

To live in accordance with the most powerful law in the Universe, we must be in Joy first - and then everything will change. To live our lives by emotionally reacting to what is happening outside of us is misusing the law! As we react with negative emotion to any difficulties, we attract more negativity into our lives. We cannot defy the law of attraction, which operates on the most microscopic levels of vibration, and with absolute exactitude.

You must be in Joy first. And then your life will change into Joy.

Difficult times are the greatest opportunities in disguise. When we face difficult times we have to put in determined work to get ourselves into Joy. When you can get yourself into Joy despite what is happening around you, your life must change - it's the law!

In addition, as you become Joy in difficult times you are becoming the master of your emotions, the master of your life, and the master of the law of attraction. Difficult times are your greatest opportunity to practice yourself into Joy.

Of course, if your life is going along swimmingly then it is very easy to be in Joy. During those times, your Joy is most likely a reaction to the good times. But the magnificence and the power that you really have within you will be seen when you can be in Joy during difficult times. It is then that you will see the true power that you have within you, because as you hold to Joy, you will shift all the energies of the Universe, and your life and your world will change.

The cause of everything is within you, and the effect is what you experience in your life. You have the power within you to change everything by putting yourself in Joy. You can change everything so easily by becoming Joy first! And nothing can change until you get yourself in Joy, because that is the law of attraction. Like attracts like! The energy of Joy attracts energy of Joy!

Do whatever it takes to find your Joy, and then keep yourself in it no matter what. Keep ramping up your level of Joy every day. There is no limit to the levels of Joy you can reach. You will see change to the degree of Joy that you can attain and maintain. The higher the Joy you can create within you, the more spectacular the change, and the higher the Joy, the faster the change. Once you get yourself in Joy it is easy to maintain it, because your emanation of Joy attracts more Joy. The law of attraction will continually send you more feelings of Joy.

You cannot criticize, blame, or complain when you are in Joy. You cannot be afraid when you are in Joy. You cannot speak negatively when you are in Joy. You cannot harm another when you are in Joy. Negativity cannot reach you when you are in Joy.

When you are in Joy, you are compassionate. When you are in Joy you are considerate and caring. When you are in Joy you love others. When you are in Joy you appreciate everything. When you are in Joy you are in love with the world, and the Universe is in love with you.

Be in Joy. Seek it with all of your heart, and you will find it.

May the Joy be with you...