Finding the Upside When Life Takes a Downside
What do you think of when you hear the word upside? Simply speaking, it is something positive that follows a downside. It is the promise or potential of a given situation. It's finding some clarity in the midst of chaos. Once the dust settles in your life, there is a little light or glimmer of hope that appears. But you have to be willing to reach out and grab the opportunity, nurture it and turn it into something meaningful. For example, I had a downside experience - a severe stress fracture in my leg, which laid me up for many…
19 Lessons for Leaving a Notable Legacy
What I have learned in my life and career as a Registered Nurse Entrepreneur is that life is fragile and can change in an instant..... 1. Enjoy life, this is not a dress rehearsal. 2. Create your own positive events to nourish your mind. Even the strong require sustenance to survive, especially when they aid the weak. 3. Do not expect miracles, rely on them. We have all seen turnarounds from positive life steps and direction. 4. Things are not always what they appear to be on the surface. Investigate. Evaluate your perceptions. 5. Fight back against injustice to yourself…
The Power of Self
Self is inward. It is private. Self is your deepest dreams and greatest aspirations. It is your assets, vulnerabilities, body, mind and spirit. It’s your truth; what you want, who you are and who you want to be. I don’t think I ever thought about self as its own entity. I’ve thought about self-confidence, the times in my life when I’ve had it and times when I’ve needed it. I’ve thought about words like selfish and selfless, but never about self as separate. Then I began my journey of self-discovery. A difficult divorce forced me to acknowledge that while I…
Dare to Dream
I am sitting in a self-development workshop. The year is 1989 and I am 52 years old. The leader asks us to think of three things we'd love to do before we die and likely never will. My "Bucket List"... climb Kilimanjaro, climb the Matterhorn and see Everest Base Camp. What, I'm not a climber? Little did I know where those wishes would take me. Fast forward to May 22, 2007. It is 8:08 in the morning and I am standing at 29.035' on the top of Mt. Everest, the world's tallest mountain. Aside from two Japanese people, I am…
The Roots Keeping Us Grounded
Not a day goes by that I don't count my blessings to have certain people in my life who have led me to happiness. For many years, I have been stuck in negative beliefs about myself that have pulled me into the ground and I've never quite broken the surface or reached the sunlight, caught in a lifetime of darkness and shrouded in silence. A tree that once was a tiny little seed, that had inner strength within it, knew that in order to grow big and tall it had to be dropped in soil, hidden in darkness and struggle…
Be a Mentor and have Infinite Impact
Life today can provide us with many new challenges that can be difficult to work through. For some, especially youth who lack experience relating and responding to these situations, life's challenges can bring with them even greater feelings of emotional distress. What I have learned in life is that we each have the power as mentors to help others face challenges and come out stronger, wiser and more confident. If you are sharing your life experiences with the hope that you are providing guidance to another, you are being a mentor! You are positively impacting the life of someone else. You possess mentoring capabilities…
5 Ways You Can Stand Up to Challenges
I started writing inspirational poetry for people 30 years ago. It wasn’t because I was a master of the English language; it was because I heard the poems when people would tell me about things in their lives. I didn’t pay much attention to it at first. But after the first hundred you start to notice that there’s something more going on. Over the years I’ve written poems for people facing just about every challenge imaginable. I’ve seen the same themes repeat themselves. For anyone facing challenge in their life, here are 5 things I’ve found to be true for…
Loving ‘What Is’
The awareness that has shifted my life the most, is my ability to feel present in what I am doing in each moment. I have had a lot of experience, like all of us, yet knowing that I am here right now, this second, is the key to my finding joy and a sense of peace. It is not always the easiest road and I remind myself daily that being present is a state of fluidity and motion... there is no stasis. In this way I remember that a state of peace is always alive inside of me. I breathe…
Following the Road of Dreams
We do not follow a dream, it is the dream that follows us. It follows each and every one of us, much like a puppy dog. You can run away, you can ignore it, you can belittle it, but it is always there. The sooner you realize that you have to give it your attention, the sooner your life will fall into place. Your dream is your destiny. There is no specific time or place for it to become a reality. The only requirement is that it has to happen. As long as you disregard, ignore or disobey your destiny,…
Don’t Sabotage Your Attitude
Superstitions are irrational beliefs - beliefs that are held in spite of evidence to the contrary. Do you carry the daily burden of irrational beliefs and/or earlier life transgressions that work to sabotage your good efforts and attitude? Are you going through difficult times with family members in rehab or with you personally with your addictions, diseases and problems? In my own life I have seen (and participated in) failed relationships, drug addiction and errant business ventures. When these things happen, it is easy to let these "failures" weigh heavily upon your shoulders. Some go so far as to willingly…
Prioritizing Relationships in This Unpredictable World
Many blessings in life are sadly taken for granted. You will never understand how precious life is until you face a life-threatening disease. I discovered this after being diagnosed with breast cancer six days after giving birth to my first child. I truly believe God sent me my son to spare my life because He had a great plan in store for me. I learned that we experience trials and tribulations to learn life lessons. We can either sulk in our misery or grow from the experiences and help others. Had I not struggled through a devastating disease, I would…
Your Secret Super Power
I have come to learn the power of belief in self. I didn't realize the significance or the true power of this until I was forced to face extreme stress stemming from my husband's chronic illness. The message that I have only recently really heard is "belief becomes reality." It is absolutely true that your belief in something will come to be, if you have a definite, genuine conviction of it and the dedication to work toward it. Wishing something to occur is very different from an inner core knowledge that something will absolutely happen, acting as if it is…
Fabulous at the Core!
I am unapologetically optimistic about everything, because life is too short to do otherwise. This thing called life is the best invention ever! Sure, it has had me on my knees a few hundred times but every time, I get up a better more capable me. There have been many times when I wanted things to be different than how they were... not anymore! Now I take life as it comes. I have finally caught the hang of it: I expect life to show up being life - full of stuff! And I don't take any of the stuff personally.…
Your #1 Priority
Believe in yourself, no matter what. Living brings challenges, traumas test you; obstacles threaten to block your every move. The only element strong enough to overcome all of these things is your belief that you can transcend them. Your belief system is at the core of everything you do, say, think and feel. The beliefs you hold influence your interpretation of yourself, the world, events and all that's possible in your life. Out of all the beliefs you carry, the most important ones are those that relate to how you perceive yourself. If you believe you are strong, courageous, creative…
Your Hero In Times of Need
You are the hero you've been waiting for. No matter what challenge you're facing, there is no one who can save you the way that you can. We all need support, but it's up to you to take the first step. Deep down within all of us is a strong spirit, an unseen force that we're born with. I call it the hero within us -- and you are the hero you've been waiting for. When you're lost, when you're feeling like you need someone to rescue you, that someone is you. The most important thing you'll ever do in…
Remembering to Dig Deep
The best lessons I've learned in life have happened while running and if there is one thing I can share with the others, it is "Dig Deep." It's a phrase I say to myself whether on a daily run where I feel less than strong or in a road race when I feel as if my legs are like noodles and I am going to bring up cookies. Not the prettiest of all imageries, but "Dig Deep" has carried over into other areas of my life when I felt like the world was handing me way too much. You don't…
5 Concepts for Overcoming Challenges
When adversity strikes and overtakes many or all areas of our lives, it can be difficult to see the multiple hidden blessings that are obtained by moving through our challenges, one day at a time. Adversity provides us with the chance to remove things from our lives that are non-essential and have been weighing us down. Just as important, adversity makes the overcomer a better person, as the spoils of war are available to those who refuse to quit and succumb to their current tragic circumstances. We learn how to become resilient, how to step out in faith, and how…