2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

[FallenAngel]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

NoSugar;1478120 wrote: FA, Are you a mind-reader, or what? Or is there just so much I need to HEAR??? :h

:H
This is not the first time I've been accused of that! :H
What's up NS... are things getting tough for you right now??

[FallenAngel]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

March 16th


From The Inside



The things in your life will change for the better to the extent that you change for the better. Who you truly are on the inside will determine how your life proceeds on the outside.

Progress, success, achievement and fulfillment flow from the inside out. No person or object or situation outside of you can bring about any kind of worthwhile positive change unless you are committed to it on the inside.

Rather than waiting and wishing for things to get better, prepare yourself to be the person who can truly live the reality you seek. Align your thoughts, your passions, your priorities and your actions with the life you desire and it will come to be.

Every great achievement lives first in the mind and in the heart, and from there it works its way into the outer world. That?s why it is far more effective to focus on what you can give rather than merely on what you can get.

Touch your highest vision and make it part of who you are in every moment. All kinds of good and valuable things will flow from the inside out.

? Ralph Marston

[FallenAngel]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread



Are You Living by The Four Agreements?




What are the agreements you are living by? One of my favorite books is a little book named ?The Four Agreements,? by Don Miguel Ruiz. The book talks about the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. This little book (only 138 pages) offers a powerful code of conduct that can transform our lives. It is not a religion. As with anything you read, you may not agree in total, but if nothing else, it is definitely great food for thought! Agreements #2 (Don?t Take Anything Personally) and #3 (Don?t Make Assumptions) were really eye-opening. They talk about about other people, ourselves, and our relationships with others. The following is an excerpt from the book.

In his book, ?The Four Agreements,? Don Miguel Ruiz says?

?There are thousands of agreements you have made with yourself, with other people, with your dream life, with God, with society, with your parents, with your spouse, with your children. But the most important agreements are the ones you made with yourself. In these agreements you tell yourself who you are, what you feel, what you believe, and how to behave. The result is what you call your personality. In these agreements you say, ?This is what I am. This is what I believe. I can do certain things, and some things I cannot do. This is reality, that is fantasy; this is possible, that is possible.?

One single agreement is not such a problem, but we have many agreements that make us suffer, that make us fail in life. If you want to live a life of joy and fulfillment, you have to find the courage to break those agreements that are fear-based and claim your personal power. The agreements that come from fear require us to expend a lot of energy, but the agreements that come from love help us to conserve energy and even gain extra energy.

Each of us is born with a certain amount of personal power that we rebuild every day after we rest. Unfortunately, we spend all our personal power first to create all these agreements and then to keep these agreements. Our personal power is dissipated by all the agreements we have created, and the result is that we feel powerless. We have just enough power to survive each day, because most of it is used to keep the agreements that trap us in the dream of the planet. How can we change the entire dream of our life when we have no power to change even the smallest agreement?

If we can see it is our agreements which rule over our life, and we don?t like the dream of our life, we need to change our agreements. When we are finally ready to change our agreements, there are four very powerful agreements that will help us break those agreements that come from fear and deplete our energy.

Each time you break an agreement, all the power you used to create it returns to you. If you adopt these four new agreements, they will create enough personal power for you to change the entire system of your old agreements.

You need a very strong will in order to adopt the Four Agreements ? but if you can begin to live your life with these agreements, the transformation in your life will be amazing. You will see the drama of hell disappear right before your very eyes. Instead of living in a dream of hell, you will be creating a new dream ? your personal dream of heaven.

The Four Agreements:

1 ? Be Impeccable With Your Word ? this is the most important agreement and also the most difficult to one to honor. It is so important that with just this first agreement you will be able to transcend to the level of existence I call heaven on earth.

This agreement sounds very simple, but is very, very powerful. Your word is the power that you have to create. Your word is the gift that comes directly from God. Through the word you express your creative power. It is through the word that you manifest everything. Regardless of what language you speak, your intent manifests through the word. What you dream, what you feel, and what you really are, will all be manifested through the word.

The word is not just a sound or a written symbol. The word is a force; it is the power you have to express and communicate, to think, and thereby to create the events in your life. The word is the most powerful tool you have as a human. But like a sword with two edges, your word can create the most beautiful dream, or your word can destroy everything around you. One edge is the misuse of the word, which creates a living hell. The other edge is the impeccability of the word, which will only create beauty, love, and heaven on earth. Depending on how it is used, the word can set you free, or it can enslave you even more than you know.

2 ? Don?t Take Anything Personally ? Whatever happens around you, don?t take it personally. If I see you on the street and say, ?Hey, you are so stupid,? without knowing you, it?s not about you; it?s about me. If you take it personally, then perhaps you believe you are stupid. Maybe you think to yourself, ?How does he know? Is he clairvoyant, or can everybody see how stupid I am??

You take it personally because you agree with whatever was said. As soon as you agree, the poison goes through you, and you are trapped in the dream of hell. What causes you to be trapped is what we call personal importance. Personal importance, or taking things personally, is the maximum expression of selfishness because we make the assumption that everything is about ?me.? During the period of our education, or our domestication, we learn to take everything personally. We think we are responsible for everything. Me, me, me, always me!

Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in. When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world, and we try to impose our world on their world.

Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you. What they say, what they do, and the opinions they give are according to the agreements they have in their own minds. Their point of view comes from all the programming they received during domestication.

When you take things personally, then you feel offended, and your reaction is to defend your beliefs and create conflicts. You make something big out of something so little, because you have the need to be right and make everybody else wrong. You also try hard to be right by giving them your own opinions. In the same way, whatever you feel and do is just a projection of your own personal dream, a reflection of your own agreements. What you say, what you do, and the opinions you have are according to the agreements you have made ? and these opinions have nothing to do with me.

Others are going to have their own opinion according to their belief system, so nothing they think about me is really about me, but it is about them.

You may even tell me, ?Miguel, what you are saying is hurting me.? But it is not what I am saying that is hurting you; it is that you have wounds that I touch by what I have said. You are hurting yourself. There is no way I can take this personally. Not because I don?t believe in you or don?t trust you, but because I know that you see the world with different eyes, with your eyes. You create an entire picture or movie in your mind, and in that picture you are the director, you are the producer, you are the main actor or actress. Everyone else is a secondary actor or actress. It is your movie.

The way you see that movie is according to the agreements you have made with life. Your point of view is something personal to you. It is no one?s truth but yours. Then, if you get mad at me, I know you are dealing with yourself. I am the excuse for you to get mad. And you get mad because you are afraid, because you are dealing with fear. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will get mad at me. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will hate me. If you are not afraid, there is no way you will be jealous or sad.

If you live without fear, if you love, there is no place for any of those emotions. If you don?t feel any of those emotions, it is logical that you will feel good. When you feel good, everything around you is good. When everything around you is great, everything makes you happy. You are loving everything around you, because you are loving yourself. Because you like the way you are. Because you are content with you. Because you are happy with your life. You are happy with the movie that you are producing, happy with your agreements with your life. You are at peace, and you are happy.

If someone is not treating you with love and respect, it is a gift if they walk away from you. If that person doesn?t walk away, you will surely endure many years of suffering with him or her. Walking away may hurt for awhile, but your heart will eventually heal. Then you can choose what you really want. You will find that you don?t need to trust others as much as you need to trust yourself to make the right choices.

3 ? Don?t Make Assumptions ? We have the tendency to make assumptions about everything. The problem with making assumptions is that we believe they are the truth. We could swear they are real. We make assumptions about what others are doing or thinking ? we take it personally ? then we blame them and react by sending emotional poison with our word. That is why whenever we make assumptions, we?re asking for problems. We make an assumption, we misunderstand, we take it personally, and we end up creating a whole big drama for nothing. It is always better to ask questions than to make an assumption, because assumptions set us up for suffering.

We make the assumption that everyone sees life the way we do. We assume that others think the way we think, feel the way we feel, judge the way we judge, and abuse the way we abuse. This is the biggest assumption that humans make. And this is why we have a fear of being ourselves around others. Because we think everyone else will judge us, victimize us, abuse us, and blame us as we do ourselves. So even before others have a chance to reject us, we have already rejected ourselves. That is the way the human mind works. We also make assumptions about ourselves, and this creates a lot of inner conflict.

4 ? Always Do Your Best ? Under any circumstances, always do your best, no more and no less. But keep in mind that your best is never going to be the same from one moment to the next. Everything is alive and changing all the time, so your best will sometimes be high quality, and other times it will not be as good. When you wake up refreshed and energized in the morning, your best will be better than when you are tired at night. Your best will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick, or sober as opposed to drunk. Your best will depend on whether you are feeling wonderful and happy, or upset, angry, or jealous.

In your everyday moods your best can change from one moment to another, from one hour to the next, from one day to another. Your best will also change over time. As you build the habit of the four new agreements, your best will become better than it used to be.

Doing your best, you are going to live your life intensely. You are going to be productive, you are going to be good to yourself, because you will be giving yourself to your family, to your community, to everything. But it is the action that is going to make you feel intensely happy. When you always do your best, you take action. Doing your best is taking the action because you love it, not because you?re expecting a reward. Most people do exactly the opposite. They only take action when they expect a reward, and they don?t enjoy the action. And that?s the reason why they don?t do their best.

If you do your best always, over and over again, you will become a master of transformation. If you do your best in the search for personal freedom, in the search for self-love, you will discover that?s its just a matter of time before you find what you are looking for.?

[FallenAngel]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

March 18th


Be Good To Your Future





Be good to your future. Live with purpose, integrity and discipline in the present.

Now is the perfect time to avoid future regrets. Now is the ideal time to create massive future value.

Today, you have great leverage over how your life will be tomorrow. Use that leverage in such a way that you?ll look back on your choices with gratitude and satisfaction.

What you do right now has a significant influence far into the future. Feel that awesome power and exercise it wisely.

Never forget that all your actions have very real consequences. Today you can choose the actions that bring the best,
most desirable consequences.

Be good to yourself by being good to your future. Use your choices right now to choose a future that?s just the way you?d like it to be.

? Ralph Marston

[NoSugar]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

I hear you!! :h

[FallenAngel]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

NoSugar;1479470 wrote: I hear you!! :h

:l

[FallenAngel]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

March 19th


Run Joyfully Toward Life



Run joyfully toward life and embrace it with open arms. Each day brings its own treasure in the flavors, aromas, sights, sounds, situations, experiences and interactions that come your way.

Don?t get bogged down attempting to resist or deny what has already happened. Put your energy into using what you have to make life better than ever.

Embrace the beauty, the joy, the wonder and the abundance of life. At the same time, embrace the challenges, the setbacks, the disappointments and the difficulties.

Be genuinely thankful for every moment, whatever it may contain. For in each moment is your opportunity to fully live, to grow, to learn, to experience, to share and to create unique, lasting value.

Welcome the ever-changing richness of life as it dances before your eyes in ways you?ve never seen before. Join passionately in that dance and be a part of the richness.

Follow the winding path as it moves up, down, over and around through the steadily increasing abundance and fulfillment of your life. Know more fully, as each moment passes, the profound joy of being.

? Ralph Marston

[NoSugar]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

FallenAngel;1479943 wrote:
Run Joyfully Toward Life



Run joyfully toward life and embrace it with open arms. Each day brings its own treasure in the flavors, aromas, sights, sounds, situations, experiences and interactions that come your way.

Don?t get bogged down attempting to resist or deny what has already happened. Put your energy into using what you have to make life better than ever.

Embrace the beauty, the joy, the wonder and the abundance of life. At the same time, embrace the challenges, the setbacks, the disappointments and the difficulties.

Be genuinely thankful for every moment, whatever it may contain. For in each moment is your opportunity to fully live, to grow, to learn, to experience, to share and to create unique, lasting value.

Welcome the ever-changing richness of life as it dances before your eyes in ways you?ve never seen before. Join passionately in that dance and be a part of the richness.

Follow the winding path as it moves up, down, over and around through the steadily increasing abundance and fulfillment of your life. Know more fully, as each moment passes, the profound joy of being.

? Ralph Marston

If I weren't already married, I would go out and stalk Ralph 'til I caught him!! Thanks, again, FA - Perfect Post!!

[FallenAngel]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

NoSugar;1479960 wrote: [/COLOR][/SIZE]

If I weren't already married, I would go out and stalk Ralph 'til I caught him!!

LMAO!! :H:H:H

[199days]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

GReat stuff there FA, thanks .

[FallenAngel]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

Thanks for reading our posts 199. We never know if what we post will make a difference... but we can always hope. Have yourself a wonderful day!

[FallenAngel]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

March 20th


What an appropriate post to welcome in the first day of spring.




The Courage of the Seed



All the buried seeds
crack open in the dark.
In an instant they surrender
to a process they can't see.





What a powerful lesson is the beginning of spring. All around us, everything small and buried surrenders to a process that none of the buried parts can see. And this innate surrender allows everything edible and fragrant to break ground into a life of light that we call spring.

In nature, we are quietly given countless models of how to give ourselves over to what appears dark and hopeless, but which ultimately is an awakening that is beyond all imagining. This moving through the dark into blossom is the threshold to God.

As a seed buried in the earth cannot imagine itself as an orchid or hyacinth, neither can a heart packed with hurt imagine itself loved or at peace. The courage of the seed is that once cracking, it cracks all the way.

~Mark Nepo
from the book "The Book Of Awakening"

[FallenAngel]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread







Venture Out



When faced with a choice, choose the path that strengthens you. Choose to learn, choose to grow, choose to more fully become who you are.

Explore places where you have not been before. Look at ideas and concepts that you have not considered before.

If you stay hidden in the comfortable and familiar, your spirit can soon grow weary. Venture out and recharge the passion in your life.

Venture out there beyond what is comfortable, routine and expected. Venture out and discover the depth and the richness of who you are.

A life that is tested and challenged is a life that surely becomes filled with real purpose. The more briskly the wind blows against your face, the more fully alive you?ll feel.

Venture out from where you?ve been, then from that new perspective venture out again. There?s no end to what you can discover, and become.

? Ralph Marston

[FallenAngel]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

March 22nd


A reflection of what you think








The world you see is a reflection of what you think of it. The values by which you live are continually coming back to you.

Your life embodies those ideas to which you give your complete and persistent attention. A life sincerely focused upon peace and happiness is a life filled with peace and happiness.

Whatever you support with your actions and thoughts, you experience in the moments and days of your life. Whether desire or fear, curiosity or obsession, your thoughts pull you steadfastly toward your reality.

You are, right now, busy becoming the person you think you will become. Today, already and always, you are living the life you most authentically expect to live.

The simple act of intentionally deciding upon a destination will point you solidly in that direction. A small adjustment in your attitude can make a major difference in your world.

Anything is possible. What actually happens in your life is an accurate reflection of how you see yourself living it.

? Ralph Marston

[NoSugar]

2013 Daily Encouragement Thread

FallenAngel;1481504 wrote:
A reflection of what you think


The world you see is a reflection of what you think of it. The values by which you live are continually coming back to you.

Your life embodies those ideas to which you give your complete and persistent attention. A life sincerely focused upon peace and happiness is a life filled with peace and happiness.

Whatever you support with your actions and thoughts, you experience in the moments and days of your life. Whether desire or fear, curiosity or obsession, your thoughts pull you steadfastly toward your reality.

You are, right now, busy becoming the person you think you will become. Today, already and always, you are living the life you most authentically expect to live.

The simple act of intentionally deciding upon a destination will point you solidly in that direction. A small adjustment in your attitude can make a major difference in your world.

Anything is possible. What actually happens in your life is an accurate reflection of how you see yourself living it.

? Ralph Marston

You know FA, I don't think I would have understood what old Ralphie M. was even talking about here a month or so ago. I am so happy to say that now I totally get it and agree with him (and you) !