Discern blessings in disguise

Imagine you start to realize that how you are thinking and behaving no longer reflects who you really are. Maybe something just doesn't feel right anymore. Maybe you simply think differently. Whether or not you realize it, this is a blessing in disguise.

Its easy to recognize you are constantly growing and changing physically. At the same time, your mental awareness is stretching at its own pace. As you become more discerning, your impulses and intuition seem to point you in new directions because you're becoming more attuned to them.  How do you know if your instinct is right on?

Rather than focus energy on thoughts about what isn't working, spend energy on what is. For instance, if it feels right to practice some sport or skill, do that. If you notice you're improving in some area of your life, then focus more on that.  If your appetite is growing or shrinking due to  activity, listen to the messages and eat accordingly.

If your gut tells you to seek advice, do it. If newly-discovered talent is getting you attention and work opportunities, then concentrate on that. Whatever generates positive developments in your life is a meaningful direction to take.

Similarly, if you sense you no longer relate to the behavior of people you have known, gradually create distance. If spending time in a particuar setting evokes negaive feelings, stop going or at least minimize the period you spend there.

If you no longer feel good about some of your eating habits or leisure activities, then its your prerogative to make different decisions. To stop doing those things that evoke negative feelings is a step toward shifting focus to transform your mindset and action.

Choosing to view everything as a blessing in disguise means you realize you have a choice about how to live your life.  You can decide everything that happens is sending you positive, subliminal messages. After all, what motivated you to get out of bed every day?

You can get there from here

Have you ever felt as though 'where you're at' isn't 'where you're meant to be?' This gut feeling may be hard to explain.  Its like a spark of doubt that nudges you from time to time as if to distract you from what you're doing at that moment. What should you be?

If you suddenly feel as though you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, then its easy to get discouraged.  The negative energy may start to pour out in the form of disbelief, frustration, impatience, even anger.  Once you start this, a domino effect can ensue.

As you learn to step back from a given situation, you gain an insightful view of greater objectivity.  It becomes clearer that negative thoughts generate negative feelings and that one negative feeling gives birth to another, until you consciously put on the brakes. 

So, no matter what your conditions, you can begin by deciding they are good for you, even if you have yet to work out why.  You can choose to believe that where you're at is a stepping stone on the road where you're meant to be.  This is part of an inner process.

Where you are and where you're going are based on your perception.  As you evolve to discern positive reasons for being where you are, you begin to realize how your conditions serve you.  A shift in mindset doesn't require you travel.  Growth is a choice.

Recognize attitude impacts more than breast cancer awareness

Its meaningful to highlight June is a special awareness month. Choose to participate in the Breast Awareness Campaign. Many people know someone affected by cancer.  How does your attitude about healing affect your life? Positive thinking goes a long way.

• The first sign of breast cancer usually shows up on a woman's mammogram before it can be felt or any other symptoms are present.

• Risks for breast cancer include a family history, atypical hyperplasia, delaying pregnancy until after age 30 or never becoming pregnant, early menstruation (before age 12), late menopause (after age 55), current use or use in the last ten years of oral contraceptives, and daily consumption of alcohol.

• Early detection of breast cancer, through monthly breast self-exam and particularly yearly mammography after age 40, offers the best chance for survival.

• Ninety-six percent of women who find and treat breast cancer early will be cancer-free after five years.

• Over eighty percent of breast lumps are not cancerous, but benign such as fibrocystic breast disease.

• You are never too young to develop breast cancer! Breast Self-Exam should begin by the age of twenty.

Resources: American Cancer Society National Cancer Institute Komen Foundation

You can help the lives of many women by spreading the word about The Breast Cancer Site pink button as many times as you can. If The Breast Cancer Site receives 8 million clicks on the pink button in June, their premier sponsor - Bare Necessities - will donate $10,000 for more free mammograms. CLICK the pink button below today!

I would like to invite the following bloggers to join the cause. Spread the word.

Interpret tough experience as an exercise in compassion

You may already be thinking, "that's all well and good, but to find the positive isn't always a piece of cake."  Do you really listen to yourself? When will you focus on who you are?

Its common to encounter people who seem negative, undiplomatic, critical or even downright nasty.  Your impulse may be anger and a desire to retaliate, to show them some of their own medicine.  Other options exist. What about showing some compassion?

How easy it seems to forget reasons explain why people are as they are.  Once a thief, always a thief?  Not necessarily.  Recall the story of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables by Victor Hugo? As a child, he stole bread to eat and was sent to prison. When he got out, people wouldn't hire him as he had a record.  So, he stole again.  It was all he knew to survive.  When a clergyman forgave him and generously gave him the silver he had stolen, this man encouraged Valjean to use it to become honest.  He did and it changed his life.

No doubt you think of people you know who have been very judgmental of your life or behavior.  They may disagree with your views on what is moral, legal, appropriate, justfiable or fair.  Maybe you are also very critical of yourself. How often do you chastise your own choices or results? Do you ever hear yourself echo sarcastically, "I told you so?"

You might ask yourself the purpose of passing encounters with difficult people.  How do they serve you?  What if they invite you to gain new insight into your own reasons for sensitivity or defensiveness?  What if they are a valuable tool to expand your self-awareness and open yourself to new ways of expressing and experiencing love?

Next time your reflex is to show someone 'the cold shoulder' or, avoid them as their behavior repulses or annoys you, reframe opportunity.  Rethink what makes you who you are.  You react as you do for hidden reasons.  How well do you truly know yourself? 

It may be easy enough to avoid people who 'press your buttons.'  You may have alternative places you could go rather than face repeated forms of discomfort. Yet, learning to interpret a tough experience as an exercise in positive thinking and compassion teaches you more than you realize.  Why not discern situations as teachers?

Some people have never been shown love or compassion or, don't have any memory of what this means.  Imagine the feeling of how your life would change if you knew different.  To express love and compassion to other people, to remind them of the power in positive thinking, you must start by reminding yourself its the core of who you are.

What will you believe?

What causes you to believe something? Is it your senses? Must someone tell you? Is it a vibe you feel? Will you get information from a certain source and automatically believe it to be true? Does it have to be the latest trend? Must other people share your view?

Maybe you tend to be more sceptical. Maybe your reflex is to doubt or question everything you see, hear and feel. Maybe you even seem to naturally doubt other people. Where does this leave you?

When it comes to dreams, in order to realize what you set out to do, it’s necessary to believe in yourself and your potential. It’s also helpful to be discerning, to sense the role of logic, as well as when logic has no place other than to disorient you from the truth.

Now, if you don’t know what to believe, you may have a hard time nurturing faith in yourself.  Attitude always affects your dreams, the kind of experiences you will have, and also when. No matter who you are, you can always build more confidence.

This said, the key to figuring out how you respond is to determine your sense of self- awareness. You might wonder how this is done. After all, how does one become more attuned to feelings and how they influence beliefs? It’s actually quite straightforward.

How about, one step at a time? You know more than you think you do, and may simply underestimate your abilities. Those things that influence whether you believe your senses and people in the world around you also influence the nature of your belief in yourself.

As you begin to realize everything is connected, you also begin to discern that scepticism or widespread in one area of your life actually carries over to affect your efforts in various endeavours. At the same time, if you readily believe everything everywhere, you are not going to be as discerning about what is good for you by way of the signs your body tells you. So, is there a middle road?

Life is a learning process. Each human being collects experience and takes on board whatever he or she is ready to learn at a given time. What you believe in can change or not. It’s completely up to you.  Your dreams are intrinsically related to your beliefs.