Posts tagged "lifestyle"

I love photography and the imagination that comes with it.  It is great to capture a bird in action and freeze that frame.  I follow a bird closely and see what it will do next.  It takes patience, but it is well worth it.

Here I created an album of birds that seem like dancing: the elegance, the beauty, the gracefulness.  Birds can awe us and surprise us.

Anhinga is doing a tap dance.

Brown Pelicans dancing Rumba

Ballet dancing lessons

Line dancing

Shall we dance?

Thank you for all the ovations.  You are too kind.

Yoga s-t-r-e-t-c-h

Ballet on the water

Gulls are break-dancing

Dancing with the Stars

Ballet

Acrobat Act

Reddish Egrets are the best dancers.  When they fish, they spread their wings, they jump, they go down, they turn to one side than other.  It is amazing to watch them.  While spreading their wings, they create a shadow to better see fish from the sun’s glare.

World, here I come! Fish beware!

Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake”

Cha-Cha-Cha

Bird version of “Dirty Dancing” episode in a lake.

Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery. – Martha Graham

There are shortcuts to happiness and dancing is one of them. – Vicki Baum

Dancing is like dreaming with your feet! – Constanze

The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word. – Mata Hari

To touch, to move, to inspire.  This is the true gift of dance. – Aubrey Lynch

Dance is music made visible – George Balanchine

Dancing is silent poetry – Simonides

To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak – Hopi Indian Saying

You can dance anywhere, even if only in your heart – Author Unknown

Tern teasing dance, “I got a fish, come and get it.”

Life is a dance.  Let’s enjoy it.

Dance like there’s nobody watching, Love like you’ll never be hurt.

Sing like there’s nobody listening, And live like it’s heaven on earth. – William W. Purkey

See Right Timing photography here

Here are some more wisdom nuggets from Robert G. Allen’s e-book The Road to Wealth:

“Ask any successful person why they are so successful, and they will answer in two words:  good decisions.

But how do you learn to make good decisions?  One word: experience.

But how do you get experience?  Two words: bad decisions.

Question: Are you willing to risk making enough bad decisions so that you can gain the experience necessary to be able to make good ones?”

“A negative thinker sees something suspicious on the horizon immediately imagines the worst and follows things to their logical negative conclusion.  Something goes wrong, an unexpected bill, and before you can say “whoops” he is preparing for bankruptcy. No wonder a negative thinker never makes any success happen.  He’s always too busy battening down the hatches because he thinks the sky is falling down.

On other hand, the optimistic thinker always tries to see things in a positive light – to follow things to their illogical positive conclusion.  When he sees a problem on the horizon, he immediately starts trying to find something good with it.  If you look hard enough, you know, you can always find something good.  No wonder positive thinkers are always smiling.”

How to Develop the Skill of Grace Under Pressure

“When you find yourself in a stressful situation (i.e., a closing that is coming up, an especially important negotiation) you may discover that your normal cool is replaced with panic.  With practice, you can learn to handle these situations with grace and poise.  Here are some points to consider:

1. Step back and see the big picture.  Almost invariably, when you find yourself losing your cool it is because you fail to see things in perspective.  Look back ten years from where you have come.  See the progress you have made.  View your present situation as just another stepping stone in your long-term progression.  Ask yourself where you are going to be in 10 years.  The stress you feel in your present circumstances will diminish when viewed in this context.

2. Review your goals, Hannah More wrote, “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes of the goal.” Keep your eyes on the goal, and you won’t have time to lose your cool.

3. Realize that stress is caused by fear.  Fear is not a thing.  It’s just a thought.  It can’t stop you.  Only you can stop you.  So get out of your own way.  Quit thinking fear thoughts.  Start thinking success thoughts.

4. Give yourself a pep talk with phrases like these:  Inch by inch, anything’s a cinch.  No pain, no gain.  It’s always darkest before the dawn.  Who am I doing this for?  My family.  Is their long-term success more important to me than this momentary stress that seems to be holding me back?  Yes.  Is there any other way? No.  Then do it.

5. Do it now.  Develop the habit of doing what you need to do when the thought comes to you.  Don’t put it off.  Your habit of procrastination is really just another camouflage for of fear.  You must face it.  Do it now.

The ability to exude grace under pressure is the result of passing through many positive and negative experiences in which you finally see that you can handle whatever gets thrown at you.  Things are rarely all or nothing, make or break, do or die.  Regardless of the outcome, the sun still comes up in the morning.  Life teaches that things are never as good as they seem or as bad as you imagine.  Even the failures often turn out to be the best answer in the long run.  There are good things in bad situations and bad things in good situations.  There are just as few reasons to be overly excited about something, as there are to be overly despondent.  Wisdom dictates that you learn to be more even-tempered.  Moderation in all things, and from this comes grace.”

I love books.  There is so much wisdom in each one of them.  So much experience, so many lessons to be learned…  Books inspire us, and satisfy our hunger for knowledge.  They let our imagination loose and answers questions, “what if?” “what is more?” “how come?”  They bring us to different worlds.  They open our minds, so we can expand our vision.

Recently, I finished e-book The Road to Wealth by Robert G. Allen.  He is a best-selling author and real estate guru.  Also, he teaches thousands of people real estate tricks and how to start an information empire.  He is wealthy in knowledge and very generous with information.  This is a second book I read by him and looking forward in reading other books of his, including “Nothing Down.”

Here, I want to share some excerpts and quotes from Robert G. Allen e-book, The Road to Wealth, that will make you think, encourage you, inspire you.  It inspired me, for sure.  Enjoy these nuggets of wisdom:

“Confidence comes with practice.”

“Don’t look at the immensity of the goal.  Don’t look down at the penalty for failure.  Just keep your eyes on the next step.”

“You’ll slip and bruise yourself.  Maybe even break a leg, figuratively.  But you’ll heal, and if you maintain the proper attitude, you’ll emerge a stronger, more courageous and less fearful person.”

“Face your fear.  You always find the best fishing holes in the places where the average fisherman is afraid to go.”

“The masses are always afraid.  This leaves more for the few who dare.  We don’t have shortage of opportunity in America.  We have a shortage of courage.  The lakes are teeming with fish.  But you have to dare to climb the cliffs to get them.  Where the risks are great the rewards are greater.

Once you understand this concept, you’ll never lack for anything again.  That is, if you’re able to overcome your fear.”

“As in all fairy tales, if you want to marry the princess, you have to slay the dragon.  The greatest dragon you’ll ever face is your own fear. ”

“If you can learn to live with the fear, the world is yours.”

“Watch the crowd.  Go in the opposite direction.  Success does not come by following the crowd.  Where there are many fishermen, the lakes get fished out fast.  You must not be afraid to go against the grain – to go alone to unclaimed territory.”

“To be successful you must learn to be different.  Find true friends who will admire you for your courage.  Any friend who encourages you to be less than you can be is not real friend by anyone’s standard.  Be different.  While the masses seek security, do the contrary.  March out into the risk.  If the masses huddle in a corner, afraid, stand out from them.  Face your fear.  Look around you.  See the masses standing in lives, waiting for someone to take care of them.  Step out of line and form a new line – with you at the head of it.

If fear of failure causes the multitudes to cower, let this be your cue.  Like all great people before you, determined to fail way to success if necessary.

If the masses yearn to be loved, strive instead to be respected.  It is greater to be respected than to be loved.  For respect is the foundation of love.  There can be no love without it.  When you learn to face your fear, you will come to respect yourself.  And you will be irresistible.  It takes courage to step out of the line marked “security” into the line marked “risk.”

“You’re already wealthy.  You are your wealth.  Wealth is not having.  It’s being.  Nothing you have is as important as what you are.”

“Acceptance is harder to give than advice but infinitely more valuable.”

“From ashes of failure grew my greatest success.”

“If you refuse to accept failure, you cannot fail.  You may fall down a cliff or two, but you must learn to get up, dust yourself off and keep climbing.  Only those who are willing to fail again and again deserve to make it to the top.”

“The brain is the most powerful computer in the world – your personal Einstein.”

“How do you stretch your brain to accept bigger and bigger ideas?  Associate with big thinkers.”

“Often hunches are correct.  Try to create an environment in which hunches can be nurtured.

Feed the faith, starve the doubt.  Learning how to recognize and follow this still-small voice can lead us to levels of success that we could not attain otherwise.

Thus, by listening to positive thinkers, reading positive books and by learning to follow our hunches, we can actually program ourselves to be more successful.

One of the best brain-stretching activities is some form of regular exercise.  Exercise builds self-esteem.  And self-esteem is the fuel that keeps us running after other people give up.  The better you feel about yourself, the more willing you will be to accept those big ideas from others and those hunches from your own computer.”

“You are obliged to help other people in anyway you can because it’s going to come back to you.  Your success is assured if you help enough people get what they want.”

“Whatever you plant in your life, you’re going to get back.”

Smile – what a great way to start a day.  It turns a frown upside down.  Smile does wonders.  It is simple, but effective way to go through the day and make things happen.  It even chases the stress away.

Smile can ease a day.  It brings a natural beauty to the face.  It implies kindness, happiness and joy.  It reminds us not to be so serious.  It reminds us we can play no matter what.  Can you imagine how world would turn if people would smile more.  Not only people, but animals seem to smile, too.  And if we look closely, even nature brings us a smile.

Have a wonderful day filled with smiles!

I was not sure what I was dreaming about, but I woke up with a compelling question in my mind, “How to write a book that would be captivating?”

I thought of that for a while now.  I wrote several chapters, but it just did not struck a cord with me.  There goes self-criticism again, “Not good enough.” And, there was that question again right after I woke up.

When I went to my computer, I came across an article “53 Mind-blowing, Psychology-Proven Facts You Should Know About Yourself” in Business Insider website.  I skimmed through topics, read some chapters, and my mind kept searching for something more when all of the sudden, there it was, an answer to my question, even psychology proven:  “People Process Information Best in Story Form.”  There was even an example of structure of the story.  My question just got answered.

Curious thing is that when we ask ourselves a question, our mind becomes open and can’t help but search for an answer.  It looks, scans the outside world until it gets it.

It got me thinking.  How about if we ask ourselves empowering questions, instead of waiting what the day brings? Would that be a great jump start of the day?  What questions can we ask ourselves?

Here are some of questions that are coming to my mind:

What do I want to accomplish today that is important to me?

What can I give more to the world?

What is the scariest thing I can overcome today?

Who could I pretend to be (looking in my desired future)?

How can I think outside the box?

How can I make a world a better place?

How can I develop a needed skill?

What can I cause today?

How can I give more love today?

What question can you ask yourself that would make a huge difference in your and someone’s world?

Resource that I found for an answer to my question is:

Business Insider story line

Brain is busy while you sleep

There is a fine line between being alone and feeling lonely.  Yet, some people think it is the same.  When we are single, our friends constantly want to “fix us” up with somebody.  We are not broken.  They think, we are alone; therefore, we must feel lonely.

Being alone is a physical state.  It might be a transitional phase when we choose to have a time to ourselves.  It might be a time when we need to heal, or we do not feel like having a relationship right now.  Either way, we choose to be that way.  We are comfortable in our skin.  We are self-reliant and independent.  We just enjoy to spend time alone and in the process we grow stronger.  We get to know ourselves better, our wants and needs.

On other hand, feeling lonely is a state of mind.  It is a state when we do not know ourselves well enough; therefore, we are not comfortable.  We can have somebody next to us and still feel lonely.  When we feel lonely, we depend on somebody for our own happiness; we rely on somebody to tell us who we are.  We are not comfortable in our skin.  Therefore, we long for somebody to fill that gap, to show our best when the answer lays in our own hearts.

How to heal loneliness?  The thing is when we are not happy with ourselves, nobody will bring happiness to us.  At first, it might appear that way, but it is an illusion, and it will be a short-lived.  To cure loneliness, we got to find our passions, our loves, what makes our heart sing.  We got to re-discover ourselves and pursue our dreams.  When we are comfortable in ourselves and when the time is right, we might meet someone who will compliment us.

I found this really interesting from book Ageless Body, Timeless Mind by Deepak Chopra.  It made some great points about quality of life we choose to have, and how it affects our longevity.

“Trying to articulate a specific “longevity personality” is too constricting for centenarians – the benign, quiet, wise grandfather or grandmother is only one type among many.  Living to be 100 also happens to selfish, sarcastic, and unsociable people.  The common thread is a sense of self-sufficiency that runs much deeper than personality.  To support this point, a 1973 study in New York of seventy-nine healthy people 87 years of age and older found that they almost never went to doctors, were never found in nursing homes, and were rarely in homes for the aged.”

“Jewett’s study saw longevity in broad terms, and the majority of the factors he came up with were subjective, having to do with how these people felt about themselves.  In comparison, the purely objective factors linked to long life were few and very general.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Not seriously overweight or underweight

Little weight fluctuation over their lifetime

Good general muscle tone

Good grip

Young appearance to skin

Still drives a car and engages in physical activity

PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

(Including Lifestyle and Behavior)

Superior native intelligence, keen interest in current events, good memory.

Freedom from anxiety, few illnesses, not prone to worry.

Independence of choice in their vocations.  They tended to be their own bosses.  They worked at farming and in the nursery business, and in the professions of law, medicine, and architecture; others headed small businesses of their own, and in a few cases large businesses.  The majority did not retire early.

Most had been hard hit by the Depression, which came along in their fifties and sixties, but they recovered and built new futures.

They enjoyed life.  All had a degree of optimism and a marked sense of humor.  They responded to simple pleasures.  Life seems to have been a great adventure.  They could see beauty where others saw only ugliness.

Great adaptability.  While many cherished childhood memories, all preferred living in the present with its many changes.

They continued living with satisfaction from day to day.

All may be described as religious in the broad sense, but none exhibited extreme orthodoxy.

They were moderate eaters but willing to experiment.  No special diets.  Diet included a high variety of foods high in protein, low in fat.

All were early risers.  Average sleep was between six and seven hours, although they rested in bed for eight hours.  (Shortened or interrupted sleep is typical in old age.)

No uniformity in drinking habits.  Some drank moderately, some drank too much at times, some abstained.

Smoking – some abstained, a few had smoked very moderately but had long since given it up, a few were inveterate pipe smokers.

Medications – used less medication in their lifetimes than many old people use in a week.

Most drank coffee.

Here are the excerpts from brilliant book by Deepak Chopra, M.D., Ageless Body, Timeless Mind.

“This conclusion came after studying long-lived people from many diverse cultures and periods of history. Active mastery means having autonomy over one’s life and circumstances, not power over others.  Beyond any body of evidence about aging and how to prevent it, the single most important factor is that you make something creative from your existence.”

Ten Keys to Active Mastery:

1. Listen to your body’s wisdom, which expresses itself through signals of comfort and discomfort.  When choosing a certain behavior, ask your body, “How do you feel about this?” If your body sends a signal of physical or emotional distress, watch out.  If your body sends a signal of comfort and eagerness, proceed.

2. Live in the present, for it is the only moment you have.  Keep your attention on what is here and now; look for the fullness in every moment.  Accept what comes to you totally and completely so that you can appreciate it, learn from it, and then let it go.  The present is as it should be.  It reflects infinite laws of Nature that have brought you this exact thought, this exact physical response.  This moment is as it is because the universe is as it is.  Don’t struggle against the infinite scheme of things; instead, be at one with it.

3. Take time to be silent, to meditate, to quiet the internal dialogue.  In moments of silence, realize that you are recontacting your source of pure awareness.  Pay attention to your inner life so that you can be guided by intuition rather than externally imposed interpretations of what is or isn’t good for you.

4.  Relinquish your need for external approval.  You alone are the judge of your worth, and your goal is to discover infinite worth in yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks.  There is great freedom in this realization.

5. When you find yourself reacting with anger or opposition to any person or circumstance, realize that you are only struggling with yourself.  Putting up resistance is the response of defenses created by old hurts.  When you relinquish this anger, you will be healing yourself and cooperating with the flow of the universe.

6. Know that the world “out there” reflects your reality “in here.” The people you react to most strongly, whether with love or hate, are projections of your inner world.  What you most hate is what you most deny in yourself.  What you most love is what you most wish for in yourself.  Use the mirror of relationships to guide your evolution.  The goal is total self-knowledge.  When you achieve that, what you most want will automatically be there, and what you most dislike will disappear.

7.  Shed the burden of judgment – you will feel much lighter.  Judgment imposes right and wrong on situations that just are.  Everything can be understood and forgiven, but when you judge, you cut off understanding and shut down the process of learning to love.  In judging others, you reflect your lack of self-acceptance.  Remember that every person you forgive adds to your self-love.

8. Don’t contaminate your body with toxins, either through food, drink, or toxic emotions.  Your body is more than a life-support system.  It is the vehicle that will carry you on the journey of your evolution.  The health of every cell directly contributes to your state of well-being, because every cell is a point of awareness within the field of awareness that is you.

9. Replace fear-motivated behavior with love-motivated behavior.  Fear is the product of memory, which dwells in the past.  Remembering what hurt us before, we direct our energies toward making certain that an old hurt will not repeat itself.  But trying to impose the past on the present will never wipe out the threat of being hurt.  That happens only when you find the security of your own being, which is love.  Motivated by the truth inside you, you can face any threat because your inner strength is invulnerable to fear.

10. Understand that the physical world is just a mirror of a deeper intelligence.  Intelligence is the invisible organizer of all matter and energy, and since a portion of this intelligence resides in you, you share in the organizing power of the cosmos.  Because you are inseparably linked to everything, you cannot afford to foul the planet’s air and water.  But at a deeper level, you cannot afford to live with a toxic mind, because every thought makes an impression on the whole field of intelligence.  Living in balance and purity is the highest good for you and the Earth.

This is 4th book I read by Deepak Chopra.  Interestingly, when I read his thoughts, I catch myself thinking mostly the same.  I get pleasantly surprised when I find some of his expressions are exact like mine, as if we speak the same language.

A cold natural stone becomes warm and ignited once touched by caring hands.  Imagination comes into play.  Colors, design, and inner vision – all ties up into a beautiful masterpiece.  Dalia Koss is a master designer who makes every woman look beautiful.  Her energy is captivating and women feel it by wearing her necklaces.  Her shared love and passion radiates in every piece she creates.  The necklaces become a part of the women.  Instant connection make women feel special, beautiful, brave, fun, as if the masterpieces they wear have some magical power.

Sandy in Dalia Koss Unique Jewelry

The expression, the mood, the pose, a sense of calm, a soft skin tone are all portrayed in Brent Twit‘s work.  His passion for detail and beauty make people real in his paintings.  His love flows in his works of art and it shows.

Last week, I went to  William Wolk‘s gallery and felt instant love and passion for his work.  I am passionate about animals myself.  Therefore, I could feel his each brush stroke.  His paintings were works of love for nature and beautiful creatures.  Each feather, each muscle, the whole detail…  Each brush stroke made a magnificent creature come alive.

What these artists have in common?  They all have a passion for their work.  Passion – what a beautiful word.  It is something that can not be taught.  It is something that can not be touched.  It is only can be felt within our hearts.  We are either born with it or we develop it in later years.  Some of us might not even know what are our passions.  It is only because we did not awaken what is deep within our hearts yet.  Let’s stop and ask ourselves “What is our passion?  What we would like to do today?  What lights up our inner fire?”

Passion is our inner knowing, love for what we do.  Passion can be expressed in infinite ways.  We express our inner world into the outside world.  We express what we see, what we feel, what we hear, what we touch, what we taste.  It is about endless imagination and creative ways.  We create for the world to enjoy.  If we put all our heart into creation and our whole passion, many people will be awed and inspired.

So, what is your passion?  What would you like to do more than anything in the whole world?  Awaken what is inside of you, and let your heart blossom.