Staying Focused on the Positive in Tough Times

Winding Road Ahead

 

 

 

Think about it. . .

 

When in your life have you felt the most:

Confident        Energized         Creative          Challenged               Focused               

Positive           In Control        Motivated        Productive               Interested

Forward Thinking   ?????

 

 

When in your life have you felt the most:

Overwhelmed            Hopeless             Depleted                Negative             Scattered

Disinterested              Stuck                  Helpless                 Bored                 Unmotivated

Non-productive    ?????

 

How can you create more of the first set of feelings even when things are not as you had planned?  If we focus on and practice the kinds of things that bring the positive feelings, do we not create more of those good feelings?

 

When we focus on our strengths, and take action to use them, do we not expand those strengths and the positive feelings that go along with them?

 

 A Precious Human Life by the Dalai Lama is something I will read over and paste up at work to remind myself to focus on the life I have and all the wonderful opportunites I have each day to enjoy it.

 

Today I am fortunate to have woken up.
I am alive; I have a precious human life.
I am not going to waste it.
 
I am going to use all my energies to develop myself,
To expand my heart out to others,
To achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.
 
I am going to have kind thoughts towards others.
I am not going to get angry,
Or think badly about others.
I am going to benefit others as much as I can.

                                  —Dalai Lama

 Gail Brokaw

http://www.embracethepossibility.org/Newsletters.html

 

 

 

 

 

The Second Journey – Sacred Life Sunday

 

Coffee and Joan

I sat in my backyard this morning enjoying my coffee and reading Joan Anderson’s “The Second Journey, The Road Back to Yourself.”  She references her conversations with Joan Erikson (Erik Erikson’s wife),  regarding Erik Erikson’s Stages of Development.  Erikson created the Life Cycle chart indicating each phase of a person’s life when they either learn or don’t learn crucial things that will help them move through life in a productive and happy way.  Joan Erikson added to the chart by indicating a strength to be gained during each phase.  Joan Anderson realized that we don’t just learn and gain a strength and then move on to the next phase.  We can continually improve upon the strengths after we gain them.  Life is not just a straight line forward.  It is a loop-de-loop, back tracking, do-it-again-and-again-to-get-it-better kind of life.  We have the ability, if we choose, to improve and grow and become more of the person we want to be during our lifetime.   And as Joan’s chapter is titled, Miles to Go, I know I have miles and miles to go to become the person I want to be.  Change and growth are what makes life interesting, challenging and rewarding for me though they can be scary and uncomfortable along the way.  I tend to start anew frequently, sometimes with an end in mind, but usually just a direction to move toward.  I love the forks in the road along the way that provide opportunities for new adventures.

What we call the beginning is often the end.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
       The end is where we start from.
                 –T. S. Eliot

A good traveler has no fixed plans
and is not intent on arriving.
           –Tao Te Ching

 

Gail Brokaw, MA, Life Coach
http://www.embracethepossibility.org