Be Like Bamboo

Feeling stress and the need for a quick recharge? Feeling blocked, stuck in your ways and the desire to be more flexible and forgiving? Do you have the desire to undo the energy drain of the life and work, start the year or business anew? If yes, it's time to be like bamboo

Want to be strong without being tough? Finding the strength to lead from a place that does not drain your joy or energy? Be like the bamboo.

As entrepreneurs we spend much of our time working, thinking, and creating from a place of busyness. We spend most of our time in the doing, and very little time in a space of quiet - between all the doing. So much of what we do is on autopilot, focused on goals, and getting things done. This is the path to stress and burnout.

At times we get so caught up in the many little tasks we are managing that we lose sight of our original intention and passion. The tasks take over and the big picture begins to blur.

Often, we are piloted by busy versus peaceful or productive energy. The days fly by, blending into each other. We look up and we are tired or lost.

We are so set on achieving what we set out to do that we often forget to take breaks, celebrate our successes, and enjoy what we have created.

I love the seasons as teachers for leadership and self-care. In the spirit of Spring and the 5 elements, I look to wood as the element of the season. Bamboo, a wood element, is one of the most sustainable, easily renewable resources. When in use, it is one of the most efficient resources - as virtually every part makes a valuable contribution. It thrives without harmful additives, in a variety of conditions. Once planted, the roots remain in place.

This is an invitation in the form of a metaphor. It is also a chance to live into the practice of inviting art, movement and play into your life. Consider it an opportunity to practice visualization - allowing this vision to lead you on your path to peace and clarity. To be like bamboo.

Visioning is a way to just breathe and be. Movement is a way to access our deepest, most enduring self. Letting go of our minds and allowing our bodies to just sway and flow. Connect imagination to this movement and allow it to lead.

When things get tough, take a breath. Move more slowly and see yourself as bamboo. Allowing the Spring element of wood to help you balance your energy.

Feel rooted and light.

Sway and bend gently with the wind.

Strong yet flexible.

Growing tall to reach the clouds.

Able to survive in diverse spaces.

Nourishing.

Healing.

Easily renewed.

Creative. Expansive.

Beautiful in your natural simplicity.

Just be.

Like bamboo.

Namaste'

https://ezinearticles.com/?Be-Like-Bamboo&id=7514723

Trampled By Holiday Anxiety? How to Psychologically Protect Yourself All-Year Long

The dust has finally settled.

And the holiday stampede is trailing off in the distance. It can bring love, joy, gratitude and deep connection with family... but also shock waves of stress and anxiety along with it.

Here are two common causes of anxiety and stress that run rampant for the Holidays.

(But if you read carefully, you'll notice these two ring true all-year long)

1) Overwhelmed with commitments

For many their schedule is bursting at the seams... spend titanic amounts of time with family... having to go visit this relative... go to this event... go to this party. It's easy to be pulled in all different directions. Sometimes we're not able to make everything happen. Sometimes we even disappoint certain family members in the process.

Plus, unlike other times of the year, it's harder to escape these commitments.

2) Driven to create the perfect holiday

There's staggering pressure for making it the best experience, purchasing the best gifts, preparing the best meals - all while holding it together for loved ones. And while this care for others is admirable it leaves a trail of exhaustion, overwhelm and stress in its wake.

So what's the holiday goer to do?

Just about everyone I've met who struggles with holiday anxiety gets caught up in a vicious cycle of taking care of everyone else... but themselves. And this happens year-round too, doesn't it?

If I can hand you one shiny gift this year it's this:

I challenge you to reignite your focus on taking care of yourself.

You deserve it.

You'll enjoy it.

You'll be more productive.

You'll be happier.

You'll be less stressed.

You'll be stronger.

You'll serve others better.

However, some people believe:

If they take care of themselves, it'll take away from others.

Quite the contrary...

The more you take care of yourself, the more you can take care of others.

In fact, researchers Van Yperen, Buunk, and Schaufeli, published a study in the Journal of Applied Psychology on this connection. They found that health care professionals that were more immune to burnout were those who helped others but also sought out help and support when they needed it.

It's like that safety lecture on a plane. In an emergency when those yellow rubber masks flop down from the ceiling, the instructions are: "Please secure your own mask before those around you"

Same thing here:

If you want to help others, we have to help ourselves.

If you want others to be at their best, we have at to be at our best.

And there are lots of ways to make that happen.

Here's a jump-start though:

What activities energize you?

What hobbies or activities allow you to be at your best?

What activities really make you happy?

What activities used to bring joy to your life?

And then get the ball rolling on those again.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Trampled-By-Holiday-Anxiety?-How-to-Psychologically-Protect-Yourself-All-Year-Long&id=9868879

Path to Happiness (Be Yourself)

Before I begin to share my knowledge and experience in this, I want to make it clear that I am not a highly learned individual, nor am I a reincarnation of such beings who has limitless wisdom throughout many lifetimes. This disclaimer is important, because the article is about the real you, and not someone who you'd want to be. In modern society, the scholars and pundits preach that, you should NEVER show your weakness or admit that you don't know. They consider it as a weakness and that you are setting yourself up for a failure from the beginning. But that's different in the philosophy that I practice. In my case, we were always taught to present yourself as inferior to the next person (perception is not reality), to show respect to all beings, to learn as much as you can to be better, so you can help limitless sentient beings. The danger of acting like you know everything, is that some in today's world will take it too far and stop learning. That's when it could become a tragedy. When reality sink in, and they realize that they are no better than the next person, or that they aren't well liked by others, then they resort to unimaginable things, which is a discussion for another topic. So we need to be honest with ourselves and be who we are, in order to find happiness.

So who am I and what is it that I'd like to share with you? I am a simple person just like your friends, who just happened to practice love, compassion, tolerance, un-attachment and contentment in my everyday life, to live a simple, happy, and a contented life. Over the past 40 years, I have learned to follow and practice those principles; while making mistakes, and correcting them. The goal is to become just a little smarter, happier, and more compassionate in my everyday life. I still make "unintentional" mistakes here and there, but doing my best to correct them, with remorse, and try not to repeat them again. It's like climbing a ladder of truth, without supervision. This is the foundation of seeking happiness. You need to be you, and you need to be honest with yourself. If you can't do that, then you need to be a good actor to deceive yourself, and people around you; and constantly be the person that you really aren't. That's an extremely difficult job. It's just a matter of time. Either you'll fail at it someday or someone will expose the real you and the real truth. Then instead of finding happiness, you create your own sorrow.

So what do you do, when pain and suffering strikes? How can you be you, and still tackle suffering and find happiness? How can you find happiness without pretending to be someone else? We know the easiest thing to do in such situation is to resolve to external things, beauty, and pleasure. But those are all temporary fixes to a non-temporary situation. Some advice others to renounce themselves, and take on another life, another name, and be someone else to find happiness. Some do it voluntarily to leave the self behind and become a completely different identity, with the hope that they'll leave the sorrow and pain behind as well. This is extremely dangerous. If my brother was having a difficult time in life, I wouldn't suggest him to change his name to Bill Gates, and act like Bill Gates, try to follow some religion or faith, and act like that is the savior. It's a very dangerous path that you lead someone into. Out of 1 million people who follow such advice, only 10 individuals may come out on the other side a little happier and more knowledgeable in dealing with suffering. Rest of the 999,990 will fail in such conversion and acting. This will lead to many devastating results. You may lose your family, friends, career and your precious time of your life pretending to be someone else. Worst case scenario, when you come back to the reality, would you be able to handle the reality of life again? Reality of life is Joy, Suffering, Happiness, and Pain. It's part of life. There's no escaping from that. All that glitters is not gold. You may see and envy people in power or people with money living an extravagant life. All you see is what's on the outside. You do not see their mental stress and problems. They go through the exact same joy, happiness, pain, and suffering in their life and their family's lives as we do. You need to understand that. So you can't be envious of other's glamour on Instagram or on TV. In most cases, this is exactly what they wanted you to see. Who in the world will showcase their family, business, and career problems on Instagram and TV? No one will do that. But everyone has these own issues in one form or the other. So there's no point in envying them, renouncing your life for someone else's. It won't bring you the eternal happiness.

So then how can you find the true happiness by being who you are? To practice this, you first need to come to terms with the reality of life. Reality of life is not all happiness and all fun, as mentioned before. It also has the negative side to it, which is pain and sorrow. After we accept the reality of life, then we need to find out how to avoid them, followed by how to deal with them as they come or arise. A lot of our problems are self-made. Of course those who cannot accept such statement will always find others to blame for the problems they "unintentionally" created in the first place. Let's take a simple example of stress in a business world. For a sales guy, stress in business is usually a result of not achieving the sales goals. Now the goals are set by us, humans. So you see where it's going? This is closely tied with our inability as a society to understand and practice contentment. In most cases, if you have made a decent profit in business, you shall celebrate. Now, due to our greed, we set high sales goals, and every day of our life, when we don't make that goal, we become sad and stressed. In all these days, the business is making profit, and can still function. But the only reason we are not satisfied is because of the high bar we created for ourselves. So such is a simple example of how our stress and problems are created. This is why I say that most of our stresses and issues are man-made or self-made. Now when such stress continue on a daily basis, the sales person will go home and show this unhappy attitude at home to wife and children as well. In process, he's making them all miserable. And is all caused by the human greed and not practicing contentment. There is a legitimate reason for us to feel sad, and that is when we don't succeed in business. This means, when the business is not making profit, then it's a legitimate cause for concern. In such problem, there are other solutions, which we can talk about another time. But in this example, the cause of our self-made stress is greed and our inability to practice contentment.

There are many more example of these problems that we create for ourselves in our daily lives, in many different professions. But today I just wanted to focus on finding happiness by being true to yourself and accepting the realities of life first. Always remember that the key to happiness is not located anywhere else in the world, but in your own heart. Sometimes we think money solves problems. No, trust me. Money brings temporary relief in some practical cases, but the problems of life will still be with us. So we need to be true to ourselves, in our abilities, and most importantly, we need to always find ways to better ourselves, so we can understand the true causes of our problems, and we strive to find solutions to each one of them.

May my observations and experiences help you in finding and identifying the causes of your various stresses and dealing with them in the most appropriate manner. Everything takes time. So learn by your mistake, and try not to make the same mistake again, which will eliminate one problem and stress at a time.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Path-to-Happiness-(Be-Yourself)&id=9925504

Cherishing the Fact, You're Alive

Preparing to present a devotion at a craft group following a presentation by a funeral director, I decided to run with the flow, and get people engaged in the imminence of their death.

'What do you want said at your funeral?' I asked.

Nothing elicits thought for the transient nature of life more, for me, then the panpipes instrumental, The Lonely Shepherd. Any time I hear this music I instantly think of my death. And such a thought is a blessing.

It is not a morbid thought. It is the thought grounded in the reality that God could remove my breath and stop my heart within a second. Or, cause me to be diagnosed with cancer tomorrow. These are such humbling realities. It puts all our stresses and complexities and conflicts into context.

The question that arises for me out of the thought of my death is, 'Am I cherishing the fact that I'm alive?' Am I holding life lightly? Am I too buried in my work? Am I making enough time for my relationships? - for my wife, my son, my daughters, my parents? What am I putting off that I shouldn't be? Who is it that will really miss me when I'm gone? And am I making time for these people now? Have these people seen the best of me yet? Have I made all efforts to reconcile with those I've aggrieved? Am I making God known? Am I aware of all should be? What should I do before I die?

Have I got any regrets about life? Can I do anything about them? Have I truly accepted the consequences of my actions? Is there joy in my life? What can I do to connect myself to peace, hope and joy?

What am I missing? As opposed to 'What am I missing out on?'

This is the most pulsating fact of life: you and I are alive, for such a time as this, and yet soon it will be over. As we all know, with grandparents and parents having passed away, or those getting ready for such an event, life seems long, but from some viewpoints of irony it is very short indeed.

It isn't a morbid thought to plan for one's funeral; such a thought reminds us how precious life is, and it causes us to cherish the fact that we are alive.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Cherishing-the-Fact,-Youre-Alive&id=9987463

Dr Joe Dispenza - You Will Achieve MIRACLES By Doing This Every Day PART2

Joy - What Brings It to Our Lives?

No one expects to be happy through suffering hardship and troubles. But of themselves, an easy life, good health and fitness, do not mean we are necessarily joyful. Joy is surely more than just being born with a sunny disposition. More than just experiencing the joy of one's sports team scoring a goal, or feeling a sense of joy and pride in one's home. What then does bring joy to our lives?

Joy from worldly pleasure?

You might place a bet on the lottery hoping for great wealth. However, study after study by psychologists show no correlation between wealth and happiness. This is so except in cases of poverty when extra income does relieve suffering and bring security.

If you have all the possessions you ever dreamed of, yet another gizmo, smart car, foreign holiday or more nice clothes are not going to make you full of joy.

Or perhaps your aspirations are modest. But of themselves, food, drink, rest, comfort, and sexual pleasure can only provide temporary happiness. We soon get satiated. The thought of that extra cream bun is enough to make you feel sick.

Does fame make us happy? I'm not famous so I don't know. But some celebrities seem to end up either shunning the limelight or just discontentedly craving more and more attention.

Some people want to get their own way. But does this bring happiness? Tyrants for example are always watching their backs for those who oppose them and never seem content.

Psychologist Oliver James has pointed out in his book Affluenza that it's a mistake to attach one's sense of worth and well-being to something transient, like one's looks, one's job, money or fame, because these things may not last for ever. In other words happiness is not something one can attain for oneself but arises as a consequence of how one spends one's time and one's outlook on life.

"Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product." (Eleanor Roosevelt)

Self esteem and confidence

Happiness in life may depend on having a sense of personal autonomy so we act in accordance with inner standards and preferences, pursuing goals, and resisting social pressures. Alongside this is having the self-acceptance needed to understand and appreciate one's strengths as well as one's weaknesses.

Psychological studies also show fewer symptoms of depression and higher self-esteem come from having the knowledge and skills necessary for managing the demands and responsibilities of daily life. And having the social skills necessary for developing warm, trusting, satisfying relationships, that involve empathy and concern for others.

Also well-being seems to be associated with being open to new experiences, and having a willing attitude towards learning and self-improvement, as well as seeking challenges that broaden one's horizons.

But does all this sense of well-being amount to inner joyfulness?

A sense of self-transcendence

Something beyond yourself is perceived if you have a mystical experience; one that just cannot be put into words. Perhaps involving awe and wonder at the oneness and beauty of the universe. This might involve feeling apart from time and space. A state of inner illumination, and feeling in touch with an unfathomable ultimate reality. But the happy sense of connection with transcendence eventually passes. Consequently, we can ask whether this inner awakening amounts to joy?

Some people have ecstatic experiences as part of emotionally charged atmosphere of a shared religious culture tradition. The excitement is generated by increasing stimulation of dance and music and by appealing to common fears, hopes, or desires. The whirling dervishes intone the divine name and there is circular dancing, whirling and leaping. The hubbub has an air of savagery and animality about it. But is ecstatic social experience really the same as a having private lasting joy?

Generosity of spirit

The book City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre is an amazing true story about the Anand Nagar slum in Calcutta in the 1970's. Based on thorough research, including two hundred interviews in various languages, it has a fascinating authentic ring.

The reader discovers the plight of peasants who came from famine-struck rural areas in India. Death from malnutrition was a very real possibility. They slept on the city streets and, if they were lucky, worked very long hours in appalling conditions to scrape together survival rations. It is a tough book to read but it demands the reader's attention. Its power comes from the vivid detailed non-stop descriptions of the terrible hardship yet compassion of the inhabitants. Despite their suffering they had a lack of self-orientation in their attitude. There are amazing accounts of a generosity of spirit of those, themselves, in dire need.

"No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it." (Helen Keller)

Service

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy." (Rabindranath Tagore)

Mother Teresa's nuns offer dramatic examples of royal giving and the joy it produces. Their lifestyle is austere. They leave the comforts of home and live like the poorest of the poor people they serve. At their central house in Culcutta they live three or four to a room. They only personally possess two dresses and a bucket for washing. They eat the same food as the poor and despite the suffocating Indian heat they have no air conditioning. They rise before dawn and spend their days working in the slums.

"Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls." (Mother Teresa)

A TV interviewer said "The thing I notice about you and the hundred's of sisters who now form your team is that you look so happy. Is it a put-on?

'Oh no,' she replied, 'not at all. Nothing makes you happier than when you really reach out in mercy to someone who is badly hurt'.

'I swear,' wrote the interviewer afterwards, 'that I have never experienced so sharp a sense of joy.'

The deepest joy apparently comes from selfless concern for others.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Joy---What-Brings-It-to-Our-Lives?&id=9914108

Happiness Quotations: Be of Solemn Joy

It's so easy to look for happiness without. The self-talk goes like this "I'll be happy when I'm driving a new truck," or "I'll be happy when I'm in love with a new man," or "I'll be happy when I get back to the body I had when I was a teen."

The looking without doesn't get happiness and then it's easy to get down in the dumps.Watch the self-talk for most people loop negative self-talk that they learned from parents. The funny thing is that parents learned from their parents. So your negative self-talk might stem from six generations ago. Now if six generations ago your family was well-off and joyful, that would indeed be magic. But if you are like many, six generations ago your family was in poverty and ached to escape to a new land. So to break-free of unhappiness, take some time to replace negative self-talk with joyful happy quotes.

Here is your happiness quotation for today, an original happy quote

Be of Solemn Joy. You are Loved.

You can trust the happiness that is deep inside of you. You can trust it because it is the very essence of you. It doesn't belong to anyone else.

You might express happiness by giving your dog a warm bath. You might express your happiness planting a garden for spring flowers to bloom. You might need to ride a bicycle fast downhill, or go to the gym and go for a swim.

You are not made of the same cloth as any other being on the planet.

If you can reach up, touch the sun with your heart. Reach up and allow the sun to warm you, even on a cloudy day when the rainbows are hiding. The sun has powerful and potent energy to heal and nourish.

How you are one-of-a-kind

It is surprising to discover that siblings have different genetic make-ups. Same parents, different mixes of genetics to comprise that one-of-a-kind expression of humanity.

It is not a surprise then that every creation of yours is yours alone. Be of joy today for you are here to express your own individual chi.

Happiness does not have to be elusive. Be of solemn joy today, and know that you are loved. In all your imperfections and perfections, in your own height and weight and problems and successes. All of this magic of you is why you are here.

Be of solemn joy. You are loved!

https://ezinearticles.com/?Happiness-Quotations:-Be-of-Solemn-Joy&id=10105398

Iyanla's Affirmations - Reclaiming Joy

This video holds the potential to change your life -Sadhguru (best speeches) Happiness booster

How to Brighten Someone's Day - Ways to Be Kind

Ever felt the need to brighten someone's day who was less than and freaking? Ever wanted to reach out to them and make them happy by acts of generosity? Then this article is for you. It will answer the opening questions in profound ways and more. Read on.

How about your maid servant? You literally find her depressed and gloomy. Make her work less that very day and leave her to enjoy the rest of the day. You may even tip her to buy a cup of tea for herself. Surely, she will have regained her spirits by the next day.

You come across a beggar on your way to work lamenting for alms. Hand over a Tk 10 on his bowl and make him smile.

Your toddler child has been meaning to have a toy car that he saw in the toy shop the other day. Yield to your child and make him happy by purchasing him the toy car he desires so much. Let him bounce in joy and let him play happily with it for a few days while you can attend to other household chores.

Help a newcomer stranger to the city who seems lost and doesn't know where to turn. Volunteer to give him directions so that he is relieved and gets back on his trailing path. He will remember your act of kindness for life.

If you see your wife all quiet and remorse by herself, brighten her day by giving her a bouquet of roses and taking her out to a restaurant and giving her a good treat. She will be grateful, change to a happy mood and be equally nice to you.

Visit a Cancer hospital and watch for yourself how kids and adults alike are suffering from the disease. Donate to the hospital and talk cordially to the patients, giving them an array of new hope. Let your presence make a difference in their lives.

When a tornado or flood erupts near about your area, reach the victims by donating a good sum of money to their fund and also distributing loads of relief material. They will be tearful and touched by your generosity and your love for helpless victims like them.

You notice a sulking colleague getting all hot and sweaty over his project at work. Calm him down and give him a hand and make him cheerful. He will remember this act of mercy upon him and repay you someday with equal kindness and efforts when you need it in future.

Pass a genuine compliment to your boss about his haircut, his get up or his new laptop by showing spiritedness and actual interest while complimenting him and make him feel good and give him a few minutes to smile during an extremely busy and hectic day. Your boss will treasure your compliment and repay your act of kindness in a way that will make you happy and feel worthy when you need it the most perhaps sometime in future.

Life is all about people and how you make them feel. They will not remember how successful, dutiful and hardworking you were years later. But forever they will remember your kind words if you ever uttered to them in times of their distress and transformed their bad days to hopeful and shiny moments when they badly needed the boost. Gotcha?

https://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Brighten-Someones-Day---Ways-to-Be-Kind&id=10159668

You CAN Control the Outcome in Your Life!

Harmony in the world within. That's the goal. The key. When you have that, you have the ability to control your thoughts and...

... to determine for yourself how any experience is going to affect you.

Think about it!

You are related to the world without by nothing other than the Objective Mind. And your brain is the physical organ of this mind. Likewise, you are related to the world within by the Subconscious Mind. The solar plexus is the organ of this mind. This system of nerves presides over all subjective sensations, such as joy...

... fear...

... love...

... anger...

and imagination.

The Universal Mind is the consciousness pervading the entire universe...

... occupying all space and...

... being the same in kind in every point of existence.

It is all powerful...

... all wisdom...

... and always present.

It is all in all. You might know all of that. And it goes even further. You are connected to Universal Mind through the Subconscious Mind. In this way you are brought into relation with the infinite constructive forces of the Universe.

Read that again.

The.

Infinite.

Constructive.

Forces.

Of.

The.

Universe.

Your consciousness is part of Universal Consciousness like a drop of water is part of the ocean. While it is like in kind, it is not "the ocean." But that's okay because the consciousness that focuses in your brain cells is the same consciousness that focuses in the brain cells of everyone else. And that's huge because each one of us -- you, me, your neighbor down the street, Elon Musk -- is but an individualization of the Universal.

The world within is the cause. The world without is the effect. Thus, to change the effect you must...

... change the cause.

Most people attempt to change effects by working with effects. They keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. And the effects keep producing more of the same effects.

So what are you to do?

Simple. Change the cause! Work on your world within. Attain harmony in your world within. When you understand this, you will have the power to control the effects in your life. You will begin to substitute abundance for poverty...

... health for sickness...

... wisdom for ignorance...

... harmony for discord, and...

... freedom for tyranny.

You will create the outcomes in your life that you want and desire.

Cease being a plaything of destiny!

Declare your own path!

Clear your own way!

Think!

And you will win.

https://ezinearticles.com/?You-CAN-Control-the-Outcome-in-Your-Life!&id=9968411

Should You Compare Yourself With Others?

"Comparison is the thief of joy," - Theodore Roosevelt.

Now there's a smart guy.

Part of the success that you're going to see in life and in business involves how you perceive yourself and how you perceive other people. What a lot of us do, unfortunately, is we compare ourselves to others which is so easy to do isn't it? As we scroll through our Newsfeeds looking at everybody's 'highlight reel' of their lives, and comparing it to our own.

We don't see the one hour beforehand, where they put everything in a particular place to get that perfect photo, put a filter over the top, and publish it. When it's published, everyone looks at it, clicks LIKE, comments "stunning", "gorgeous" "beautiful babe", and in their heart think, "Oh, if only I could be like you," or, "Oh, you've got it all together", "I wish I was more like you".

A majority of the time we only see people's highlights reel. I know for myself, I've gone to take a selfie and things are happening off screen that doesn't line up with the photo I'm taking! For instance, the kids are cracking up and you're cracking up. "Can't you see I'm trying to take a photo here?" You smile for the selfie, then it's back to the drama at hand... "Oh, you guys are just so annoying. Can't you ever behave?"

Stop comparing yourself to peoples' highlights reel. Social media isn't really a place where you put all your dirty laundry out on social media. You have a couple of trusted friends who you take your issues to and confide in, okay? When stuff is going on, you can have a download with them, and they can talk you through it, or smack you out of it, if that's what's required.

When you look at the social media profiles of others, you're also most likely looking at their strengths. My kids were having a talk the other day about school, and square pegs and round holes. One of them said, "It's a square peg in a round hole." The other one said, "Depends on how big the hole is." (I think they've heard a bit of this sort of talk over the years). Then another comeback was, "It's like telling a goldfish to climb a tree."

Can a goldfish climb a tree? That's what we do when we compare ourselves with others. We might be a goldfish. The other person might be a monkey. They can climb the tree, but can they swim as good as you? No. When we're comparing, it's often like, "Here's their strengths and, oh, gosh. I can't do that." By looking at everyone else and what their strengths are, and idolizing those things, instead of celebrating what it is that you're good at, that is just going to rob you.

You go into toxic thinking when you compare yourself with others. When we live a life of comparison you're poisoning your soul. Toxic thinking will devour you. It will just keep going, and keep going, and keep going, and before you know it, you're consumed with envy. You're consumed with jealousy. And it causes you to be dissatisfied with your situation in life. It's just a horrible place to be.

When you have those toxic thoughts against other people's' successes, it's really going to limit yours. That is not something you want in your world.

How do you overcome comparing yourself to others? A lot of us have been going through this ever since we were kids. When our parents might have said to us, "Why can't you be more like your sister?" or your teacher said "Why can't you be more like Johnny?" - someone who was an authority in your life compared you to someone else, and that started the seeds.

How do we stop comparing ourselves and start celebrating who we are? Here are some ways:

1. Be aware. Think about when you scroll through your social media, what thoughts or feelings have been coming up, or be conscious of your thoughts next time. When you become aware, you then acknowledging that you've been doing it, and then commit to stopping those thoughts.

2. Acknowledge your strengths. Years ago, I heard someone ask a prominent leader, "What are your weaknesses?" He said, "Oh, I don't know, really. I focus on my strengths."

A practical example with that, was with my son and his school report card. There were a few subjects that he didn't do so well in. So what do you do? Focus on the subject he didn't do well in - "Oh, well, you better pay more attention to them and get those grades up." For me, I was like, "Okay. You did really good in these subjects, so these are the ones that you're really good at. Let's focus on these and get these grades up."

Instead of pushing a log up a hill sometimes, focus on those things that you are gifted at. Improve them and that is where you are really going to shine. When you keep trying to make things work that aren't designed for you, that's when you're going to get frustrated. That's when you're going to be burnt out and overwhelmed. Focus on those things that you are good at. Focus on your strengths and making them better, and you will be in your sweet spot.

3. Celebrate other person's achievements. Instead of turning into a green eyed monster, "Oh, she's lost 10 kilos and I haven't lost any." Well, celebrate their success. Go, "Wow. That is awesome. I am so happy for you. You so deserved it. You've been working so hard. Good on you. What new outfit are you going to buy? Woohoo!"

Celebrate their success and acknowledge yours, as well. Too often, we're looking at what other people have done. We tend to not acknowledge what we have done or accomplished.

If someone had actually like written up a bio of you that had all the amazing things that you have done, how would you react? Suppose somebody unknowingly created your bio. You would read it and say, "Wow. This person, look at what they've done. Oh, my gosh. Wow. This person's living an amazing life!" Then you discovered it was your bio. "Oh. What? Is that me? No, that's not me." It is okay to acknowledge your strengths and what you're good at, and what you have accomplished.

I hope that's been of great value and you've got at least one takeaway that you can apply. If there's someone that you know, or you think this has been great, share it out. Spread the word. Let other people know to stop comparing themselves with everyone else's highlight reel and to celebrate their own success.

Quit comparing and why don't you right now, write down five things that you are really good at? Five of your strengths or five things that you're grateful for. Right now. Do it. That's a challenge.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Should-You-Compare-Yourself-With-Others?&id=9631938

Through It All Love Remains

Indescribable joy, hope and accomplishments mingle with pain, anguish and unimaginable losses; these are the chronicles of a life story. While the hills and valleys in our life may become our best told stories, it is the ordinary days that best describe life. The story continues as the future becomes the past and life goes on. Our best memories, even the ones about pain and loss, are stories about the love that remained steadfast in our lives, through it all. That is the most impressive, endearing, inspiring and important part of every story. Someone important to us stood before, behind or with us, through it all.

Why is it important to be loved, to feel welcomed into life and the opportunities it offers? To be loved is to be accepted, acceptable. It matters oh so much. A child born to loving parents eagerly awaiting their arrival can feel their welcoming emotions. As scary and painful as the birth experience may be, those loving emotions sustains and calms the fears of entering a brand new world. Without it, imagine being so tiny and feeling all alone in such a vast environment. Children born into those circumstances experience a lifetime of hesitation and emotional challenges, never feeling welcome anywhere; many never know the reason why.

Parents who make us feel loved inspire us to make good choices in our own life. It begins with our earliest opportunity to make choices like who we trust as friends and mentors and extends to who we choose as our life partner. This foundation allows us to become good parents who can surround our own children with love and balance in their lives; the kind that encourages them to grow and become the very best they can be. The best guidance comes through love.

Believing that you are loved and loveable allows you to fall down and know it can never change how you feel about yourself. Nor do you expect the world to misjudge or prejudge you. Love allows you to dare, to dream, to reach out and touch new ideas and opportunities; to exceed your expectations or make mistakes. Not feeling loved encourages you to make bad choices that frequently alter the course of your life in a painful way in an effort to feel accomplished, no matter the cost. Love is the firm foundation that allows you to stand tall, even if you wobble in the effort.

Love is the resounding cheer that propels you to try again and again. It is the warm hug that filters through the clouds, mingles with starlight, and finds its way to you heart on the path of a sunbeam, regardless of the distance. Through cheers, tears and ups and downs it is the sharing of love that protects and allows us to dare to try, again and again. Life indeed does go on, but through it all, love remains.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Through-It-All-Love-Remains&id=10038395

Ethereal Darkness

Haunting is the howl of the lone wolf during a moonlit night. What is the wolf saying to the thin air? What message is the wolf conveying to whatsoever that hears it? Airy Light and Ethereal Darkness know the wolf and its message.

Out of Ethereal Darkness came Airy Light. That Airy Light ignited into Spheres and Worlds. Those Spheres and Worlds gave birth to many elements and creatures.

Out of Ethereal Darkness came everything that is. Everything that is refreshes itself by transitioning into a new essence of being. This new being is the unchanging factor of eternity.

Ethereal Darkness holds all the ingredients of time and motion and caused the linear extensions to come about. Time and motion became an array of many substances as Ethereal Darkness sung a Song that only she knows.

The dazzling of All-Mother is the dazzling of wonders. These wonders are the amazements of the known and the unknown. The goal of expansion is to collapse back into Ethereal Darkness, where it existed before All-Mother sung her Song. Expansion desires this because of the perfect purities of its former home.

Haunting is the silent cry of a lonely person during the day or the night. Many are sound asleep that seem fully awake. Airy Light and Ethereal Darkness opens her quintessence for these so that they may freely enter within her.

A fixed world transforms in less than an instant. Everything can be abruptly shaken out of its place in as short an interval as silence is between the notes of a Song. The righteous and the virtuous are just another way of saying absolutely nothing. Humanity wallows in the clutches of corruption that has been inflicted upon the world and its peoples by newcomers.

The matted floor has mildew living beneath it. A day in the life of a person is only one of many days that many cell tissues have died. Airy Light and Ethereal Darkness know this all too well, toughening the hopeless and welcoming the lonely at heart into time and motion.

Do not weep with the weeper, nor laugh with the foolish. Stay sound and firm to your person. Be bold in your purposes, giving joy and peace to the world, beginning with that one person. This is not a matter of doing what is expected of you, but doing your best to be yourself in all that you say and do.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Ethereal-Darkness&id=10276285

Lessons From the Untethered Soul (By Shelley Roy)

Having read several of my books, blogs, and articles, by now you are probably aware that like Michael Singer, I believe we are trying to do something that doesn't work - we are trying to find love, joy, happiness, etc. outside of ourselves. We are trying to control something that is not within our control: other people and the world around us. Everything we wish to experience is part of our inner landscape; they are not out there somewhere to be found.

Singer in his book, the untethered soul, helps you explore your inner landscape, an activity that for me has been a life long journey. He begins by asking you to look at the concept of self and the inner dialogue you engage in with self. Once you begin to think about and explore the concept of self, you quickly realize "... the concept of 'self' may turn out to be a bit more elusive than initially presumed."

As a human you have been both blessed and cursed by your ability to think about your thinking. The blessing is that it is in the world of your thoughts that you can control your experiences in life. The curse is you are probably looking to the world to have specific experiences and your inner dialogue is acting as the judge of what's happening around you. Breaking the barrier of this inner and outer world thinking will free you from your perceived problems.

So how do you begin to do this - you become intimately aware of your inner roommate - the voice inside of you. You recognize that your inner voice will never be content and at peace, and you let go of "I". You recognize that-"Your consciousness is actually experiencing your mental model of reality, not reality itself." When you perceive a problem you stop asking, "What should I do about this?" and start asking, "What part of me is being disturbed by this?" What part of me is ________ (jealous, angry, frustrated, irritated, etc.)? Singer states, "You will not be able to solve anything outside until you own how the situation affects you inside." For a man not familiar with Perceptual Control Theory (PCT), he has captured one of its greatest lessons. Disturbance is an inside job.

Letting go of the inner judge and shifting your thinking to what I like to call the balcony view immediately relieves stress. My good friend Andrea Christopher once described it this way - it's as if I am the math problem, then I am working the math problem and finally I am watching myself work the math problem. "You don't have to think about it or analyze it; you can just be aware of it." Doing this allows you to let go of the "I".

From the balcony you allow yourself to "experience every note the heart can play." You recognize that everything is just information and it's up to you to quiet the roommate and relax into the moment. Singer provided me with a more spiritual perspective on PCT which is a very science heavy explanation of human behavior.

This book was like diving into the deep end of the pool of my own soul. PCT with a spiritual twist. I loved it!

https://ezinearticles.com/?Lessons-From-the-Untethered-Soul&id=9443118

Smile a Camouflage of Joy And Misery

What is seen is a reality, but not the truth. This statement has volumes of facts camouflage in a smile. Realities establish the facts and phenomenon, but the truth becomes the prefix of reality. People in every walk of life experience upheaval passing through roller coaster of happening within their lifespan. The events are either happy and joyous or misery and hurting. The depth of joy and pain are important and relevant to the relationship of affected persons. The consequential events are directly proportional to the individual's relationship and circumstances of happenings. It is essential to dive deep into the reasons that lead to the core concept and the ground reality of happenings.

Those who learnt the art of reading smiles understand the facts that various forms of smile reflect different meanings. The reality and truth of smiles both subjectively and objectively indicate the personality of a person. Why it is important that people smile to show their status of happiness or sorrow. It is not totally in people's control to show or hide their feelings and emotions. The reason which is debatable is that it hurts an individual more when he covers up his grieve and pain by smiling in-front of those hurt them most. Sometimes it is just by compulsion and sometimes deliberations to expose their hidden emotions and feelings distinctly.

Anthony Euwer an American poet, admired by former US President Woodrow Wilson, has beautifully penned down the following Stanza:

"No matter how grouchy you're feeling,

You'll find the smile healing.

It grows in a wreath,

All around the front teeth

Thus, preserving the face from congealing."

If you analyze the logic and reasoning behind smile when you meet another person face to face, it would show the truth behind the reality of smile. It is said that, "The part of the brain responsible for mirroring is called the inferior frontal gyrus, which sits above your temple towards the forehead. There are many reasons and causes of smile, however, the observer should take into considerations of the persons involved and prevailing circumstances. This "emotional mirroring" is one theory of emotional perception and the subject of much psychological research. And, like all body systems, things can go awry.

It is safely deducing that you may not arrive at the conclusion substantially, yet the line of reasoning and evidence distinctly point in the direction of facts and phenomenon. It is, therefore, established that facts and the phenomenon will be revealed no matter how much you suppress them or conceal them behind façade of deception and ignorance. There are many adjectives added to the word, a smile which is appropriately coined as idioms to deceptive smiles. The study of smiles is a part of gelotology, psychology, and linguistics. And it may be good to know that scientific word for a "real smile" is "Duchenne Smile" which is named after physician Guillaume Duchenne who first recognized the muscles involved with this smile.

It is proven beyond reasonable doubt that forced smiles have convincing reasons to establish its sanctity within the context and meaning. It is written that forced smile works, because the smile is as disingenuous as the "crocodile tears." The tears aren't coming from real sadness; this smile isn't coming from true happiness. Regardless of motive, the smile is not a reflection of how the smiling person feels.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Smile-a-Camouflage-of-Joy-And-Misery&id=10110120

Why Do We Deprive Ourselves By Trying To Race To The Finish Line?

It's the harsh realization, but unless your in an actual race, it's not your job to race to the finish line. Life is short enough without all of society trying to quickly get through the next step before we've even finished the current step. It's so very important in this life to enjoy everything before you with joy and gratitude while paying attention to the journey along the way. It's in the journey of life that we receive our blessings, learn our lessons and grow as a person, but most are so busy taking that next step, that we tend to miss those important milestones that shape our lives.

For Type A personalities such as myself, this is such a hard lesson. By continuously focusing on doing what's right and attaining the goal, most times you miss out on all of the beauty right in front of you. More importantly, in life there are lessons to be learned and if you are continuously looking for the finish line, those lessons get away from you. But rest assured, they will most certainly come back to bite you. They always do, so take the time to smell the roses and enjoy the journey, however difficult a journey it may be. Truly, it's your journey to have and living in the now allows you to appreciate, recognize, process, learn and grow. Don't we all deserve that much?

Talk to the mother who couldn't wait for her baby to walk for the shear convenience of it, and then ask her how she feels after her baby no longer wants to be held. It's only when that child is now walking that she realizes she missed reveling in the moment of that very last time her baby wanted to be held close to her. It's a sad realization for her that she wanted to rush the process and she'll never be able to get that moment back.

Remember to take the time in this moment to look at all of the beauty around you. In chaotic, confusing or even sad times in your life, just take the time to sit in the current moment looking at all of the blessings in your life. Easier said than done, yes, but remember that at the end of the day, tomorrow is not promised. All you have is today and this moment. And although things may seem sometimes less than ideal and you may even have to look harder than usual at times, your blessings are always there, right in front of you.

I share this with you because writing is how I heal me, and I just recently forgot the lesson of enjoying the journey yet again. Like many, I fall down often, but eventually I get back up again and if I can help one person through my own experience, I'm being called to do just that. So please also share this with anyone you feel could use this gentle reminder of the important things in life.

Love and light to you! Enjoy the truly important things and your many blessings during this holiday season!

https://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Do-We-Deprive-Ourselves-By-Trying-To-Race-To-The-Finish-Line?&id=10051370

Why Strong Roots Help Us Withstand The Storms Of Life

None Are Immune To The Ravages Of Life

Think of a current problem causing you distress. Imagine it as best you can without getting caught up in the details. Have you given any thought to why this experience is happening? I don't mean the nit-picky details but the deeper lessons contained within the event? Perhaps you haven't arrived at that point yet or you are still trying to make sense of it. Every experience, particularly the undesirable ones, come into our life to teach us valuable lessons and insights about ourselves. We may experience frustration and turmoil because the situation occupies attention in our mind, as we come to terms with it.

What do I mean by having strong roots to withstand the storms of life? It's said, the tallest oak trees bury their roots deep into the ground to gather nutrients and stability from the external elements. Violent winds and Mother Nature can impose itself on the oak tree where it can topple over. We can take a leaf from Mother Nature (if you'll pardon the pun) and create strong roots ourselves to weather the storms of life. None of us are immune to the ravages of life. There may be seasons where we experience joy and happiness and then suddenly we are neck deep in despair and tragedy. Life may seem unfair and unexplainable, when months earlier everything was going our way. Have you experienced this before? If so, what were your anchoring mechanisms to overcome it? What lessons or insights did you learn about yourself?

No Two Journeys Are The Same

Sometimes, we don't understand the lessons until months or years later, so it's difficult to make sense of what is taking place. Other times, the storms blow upon us with great intensity, wreaking havoc and destroying our lives. It may seem like a disruption to our lives where we feel uncertain about the future. It is my experience that trying to explain unfortunate events adds to our pain and misery. I often counsel clients to avoid looking for meaning to their misfortunes but to flip the coin and look for the lessons contained within the experience. Meaning is subjective and depending on our outlook, we may interpret the event negatively or positively. If you asked those close to you, they might have a different explanation of the event. Rather than explain why things happen, it is best to look for the lessons that cultivate our personal growth.

Are you comfortable with the idea that the storms of life needn't damper our spirit, yet how we interpret it determines how we move forward? Sometimes, it may require revisiting lessons from the past to reinforce our understanding of an event. Sometimes, lessons reappear in different forms until we learn what we need to. It may be frustrating since there is no guide or teacher to tell us when the lesson will appear. We may have to revisit the same experience until we have enough and give up. However, in letting go we may finally learn what we need to. No two journeys are the same since we are all on different timelines, depending on our level of consciousness. For those who are awake and aware, they may realise the lessons sooner than those who are asleep. The more aware of what life is trying to teach us, the less pain and suffering we will endure.

With this in mind, I'd like you to return to the opening question in which I asked you about a current life problem causing you distress. After you finish reading this article, write a list of five lessons the experience is trying to teach you. You may find it difficult at first because your focus will be on the negative aspects of what is taking place. I invite you to push past it because it will help you release your resistance to what is taking place. Once you've written five lessons, sit on it for a day or two and place it somewhere you can see it, such as your bathroom medicine cabinet, bedroom mirror or fridge. Continue asking the following question over the coming days: "What does life want me to know about this experience?" Be attentive to what shows up in the form of: an impulse, a feeling, images, words or otherwise. Life communicates to us in familiar ways, so pay attention to your surroundings. It is when we create strong roots to withstand the storms of life, that we will learn what we need to about our life's narrative.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Strong-Roots-Help-Us-Withstand-The-Storms-Of-Life&id=10163491

Comfort in Times of Grief (By Jose Luna)

I had heard the word before, 'I know what you're going through' and while I never responded to that assertion my thought was, 'no you don't'.

This is a painful reality of those who are going through grief and suffering, no one really knows what we might be going through, except for God. For we are individuals, we are different from each other, even as close relatives may have many similar traits or cultural and social similarities, their characters are not the same, their genetic makeup is not the same, their inner structure is not the same, their thoughts are not the same, and their affections are not the same.

We all think different, we see things different, we love different, and even our afflictions are felt different, so it is impossible for someone to say they know what another person is going through.

Even expert psychologists, and psychiatrists pretend to understand the way a person thinks, yet even as that person discloses the inner secrets inside his or her heart, there are things which even he or she cannot reveal about him or herself, because they don't know them fully. Only God knows our inner beings. Psalm 139:13 says: for you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

When my father died in 1984 I thought my world had come to an end, and it wasn't just the love or separation anxiety which affected me, I was a proud and selfish young man who thought the world had amazing things reserved for me, and seen the deterioration of my dad, a man made of steel, was counter to my inner believes. I could not accept that life was so frail, and that we could just fall apart and then die. And especially not my dad, whom I've known to be tough, and restless.

Later that year I spent a week in a hospital, completely disconnected from reality, I had a nervous breakdown, I lost it, and I didn't even know what happened. A Psychiatrist treated me, and tried to put me together, but He really didn't know, because I really didn't know what was going on inside me. Only years of inner reflection and meditation, and the hand of God has brought the truth out.

Then in July 2000 I lost my fiancée, in the blink of an eye, one moment she was here, and the next she was gone, forever. Life is so fleeting, so frail, and so unreliable, we cannot even as a joke pretend we have any control over it. She was 32, a healthy young woman with an extraordinary drive and intelligence. A true go-getter, and a real entrepreneur, and then puff, she is gone.

And I thought I was ready for that, and I mourned for a week and then I went back to business as usual, except it wasn't as usual, because hiding your pain doesn't make it go away, it just inflates it, like a balloon, until it explodes somewhere within. I thought everything was perfect, and to everyone's opinion I had handled it magnificently, even I believed it was over, and then things started popping up, excessive drinking, extreme hyperactivity, relaxing my obligations, and so forth. Thanks God, for He had a better deal reserved for me, and Maria was around the door waiting to rescue me. For she was the one who indirectly saved me from the horrible grief I was going through, and of which I was completely unaware. Needless to say, this was all part of the perfect plan of God.

Fast forward to the present, I've been seeing people dying around me lately with unsettling frequency, and I keep praying to God, asking him where is the teaching in this experience, knowing full well that while my worldview has changed radically in the last 17 years, only a close encounter with death tells how you will react to it.

However, we as Christians, do have a significant advantage over those who are not Jesus' followers; a knowledge which no one else can tap into. For while a friend can be helpful in times of grief, and while a word of comfort might bring some peace to our heart. No one is truly able to see within us to say the right words, or to act the right way.

Yet the Lord knows our inner being, He knows us even before we were made, He already knew us before the world began.

Psalm 119:16 says: Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Only God knows us fully and truly, only He knows our every thought, our every feeling, our every pain, only He is able to bring solace in the midst of suffering, He understands our pain, and only He can speak to our hearts with words of comfort and consolation.

Psalm 107:13-14 tells us that when they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death. And that is because it's only by coming before Him and embracing His care that we will see the light

2 Corinthians 1:4-5 says that He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

His word says that He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds, He says that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Because always the morning will come much faster when we hold on to Him.

I understand that my friend was trying to be kind when he told me that he knew what I was going through the day my fiancée died, yet I found his words patronizing and cliché, without substance at that moment. And while I did not respond to him, I would have preferred if he just stood there silent, if he just kept me company, not trying to comfort me or to cheer me up or to give me any kind of help, just his presence would have been enough.

God, on the other hand, when we are in this kind of hurt, we want to hear from Him, we want a big explanation, we want Him to unpack the whole plan behind this idea of taking our loved ones away, Yet usually, He is the silent friend who just embraces our heart, making it feel cozy and protected, so that our pain doesn't go in too deep. He is the friend who embraces us softly, letting His tears roll on our back as He weeps with us, as Jesus did in John 11:35, for He knows our pain, He knows our grief, and He suffers our suffering, for He has tasted firsthand how Sin and corruption has made this world fall apart, and how it has brought suffering to the life of His children

And so, He gave His only son, at the expense of His own suffering, to bring us comfort and hope, that one day He shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away (rev 21:4)

May the God of all comfort bring you all comfort and Joy. Especially in the times of suffering.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Comfort-in-Times-of-Grief&id=9648255

Powerful Spiritual Words - These Words Will Change Your Life!

'This is my day', the day to live, love and enjoy! As you rise, get dressed and eat your breakfast say 'This is my day!'

If you are facing difficulties and feeling afraid or anxious about the day say,

'This is the day I express strength and courage'

If you find yourself dwelling on the past and long for the good old days, affirm these words, 'This is my day of joy and happiness'

Repeat these words many times and welcome with open arms the good that is running to meet you. The gifts of spirit are always good. They draw health and peace towards you. What you see with your five senses, essentially the thoughts of others, may be helpful or may be harmful. The practice of connecting with the indwelling spirit will help you determine what is true and what is false. Turn your attention within, let all thoughts of disappointment drop away and replace them with ideas of love, joy and prosperity. Allow a new energy to enter your body.

When we know what we want we usually find a way to achieve it. Give yourself time for meditation and reflection. Give yourself time to sit quietly and listen to the still quiet voice within. What do you need to fulfill your desires? Do you need a different attitude? Are you willing to do the very best? Is your attention on your inner voice? Are you moving forward with courage and confidence?

If your need is for more courage, then be happy that spirit provides you with the unlimited life and strength to assist you in doing what is required. For it is through spirit that the life flow in you increases and prompts you to fulfill that which is required. By going within and connecting with your spiritual self, you will be led to outwardly express your true self.

If you feel that you carry a heavy burden then say,

'I release all seeming burdens to Spirit. I am free and at peace'

If your body needs health then say, 'I am renewed, healthy and whole'

Remember, this is your day! Do not be concerned about yesterday or tomorrow. Invite love, joy and happiness into your life now. Give thanks for the blessings you have received and for those not that have not yet been bestowed upon you. Open your arms, have courage, live fully and freely, this is your day!

http://ezinearticles.com/?Powerful-Spiritual-Words---These-Words-Will-Change-Your-Life!&id=9124374