How to Make Space for New?

Happy New Year!  It is a new beginning.  Like Winfrey Oprah said, “another year to make it right.”  The thing is that we go through changes many times:  it could be at a beginning of the year.  It could be after some drastic event happening, like changing a job, losing someone, divorce, kids go to college, retirement, marriage, moving to a new place, etc., etc.  There is also a saying that major changes usually happen after 7 years.

Lately, I and my friends are going through major life changes, too.  So, how to cope with that? How to make changes fun?  First of all, I found the greatest thing to do is to get rid of crap.  Through many years, we collect so much stuff.  Some things we liked before, we do not like it anymore.  Get rid of it.  Our tastes change.  We have so many e-mails that we did not even read, subscriptions that we ignore.  Delete and throw away.   If we take pictures, some pictures seemed nice before. Right now they’re mediocre – delete them or save them on DVD.  There are clothes that we did not wear for years – donate, give away or sell them.  There might be some unfinished projects or writings that we never get to finish, or lost interest in them – throw it away.

Also, not only we got to get rid of old, worn, unfinished stuff, but also the same goes with mental stuff.  All negativity out – to open a new space for positivity.  There might be some people that hurt us in the past.  Don’t you wish that some of them would have a “delete” button?  We can do it in our mind:  we got to forgive them and let it go.  Because if we are mad or upset, we only hurt ourselves – let go of anger and hurt.

Or, here is a brilliant idea:  Use these feelings to make you go higher.  Sometimes anger or being upset gives us a motivation to succeed.  We can channel those feelings to make ourselves only better and stronger.  If somebody said, “You’ll fail,” just say, “Watch Me” and strongly believe that you can do anything you wish and do it.

Also, while we clean old or bad energy out of our lives, we open doors to new opportunities.  The thing is that in this process of getting rid of the stuff, the new ideas come.  In working on these ideas, we got to communicate with people.  That’s how we start something new and exciting.

Moreover, we shall not take on a new crap.  If people do not treat us right or be negative, we have every right to walk away or change a subject.  We do not need their negativity in our lives.  Let’s surround ourselves with friends that lift us up, inspire us, and encourage us.  No more drama and no bullshit.  Also, no more excuses.

Tags: friends, Happy New Year, how to cope with a change, how to make space for new, how to start over, inspiration, journal, life, lifestyle, major life changes, new beginnings, opinion, past, people, personal, photo, picture, post and photo by Ineta Mcparland, ramblings, random thoughts, reflections, relationships, self-confidence, self-esteem, starting over, thoughts, women, wonderocity

Mirror Concept

When we look at the mirror, what do we see?  Do we see tiredness, sadness, wrinkles?  Or do we see happiness, enthusiasm, smile?  Do we see pain and struggles? Or do we see sparkling energy and love?

Now, let’s look at the outside world.  What we notice first? How we relate to people?  Do we see them struggling or being successful?  Do we encounter sadness or happiness?

Usually, our inner state reflect our outside world.  What we choose to concentrate on, that’s what we see.  What we feel inside, that’s what we feel and see around us.  That’s why it is so easy to feel empathy for people who are going or went through similar situations that we did.  We can feel their pain or joy.  Now, if somebody is going through entirely different experience that we never been through, we will not understand it; it will feel odd to us.

We are all conditioned by our past, good or bad and by what we know.  We’ve been through ups and downs and sideways.  We view our world through our past experiences, what is familiar to us.  If we been through pain, we view our world through pain.  We encounter people who are going through the same pain.  Sometimes pain becomes anger, hatred and revenge.  An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.  We want the person who hurt us to be hurt.  We want them to suffer the same way they made us suffer.  Where does it get us, though?  Like Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” It does not do anything good, except it causes more pain.

Now, if we would concentrate from a place of love and compassion, no matter of circumstances, the outcome would be completely different.  We would start caring for each other.  Instead of war, there would be peace.  Instead of hatred, there would be love.  One man can make a world of difference.  Let that be us.  Gandhi is one of many examples.  He saw peace for India; he stood for his beliefs and by being himself, he reached seemingly unattainable.

So, how about instead of wrinkles, let’s see lines of wisdom. Instead of tiredness, let’s see rest.  Instead of sadness, let’s consciously smile more.  Instead of struggles, let’s imagine our dreams come true.  Instead of pain, let’s fill our hearts with love.  Love does conquer it all.  If we change our outlook in life and see our world through new open possibilities, we will change our life for the better.  Let’s reflect goodness from our hearts into the mirror of outside world and make a difference now.

Tags: anger, compassion, empathy, energy, enthusiasm, family, friends, Gandhi, happiness, health, inner state of mind, inspiration, joy, life, love, mirror concept, new beginnings, new possibilities, opinion, outside world, pain, past, people, personal, philosophy, photo, picture, post and photo by Ineta Mcparland, random thoughts, reflections, relationships, sadness, smile, struggles, thoughts, tiredness, wonderocity, wrinkles

How to Have a Better Luck?

We all know someone who has all the luck in the world.  It seems that they are born under lucky star.  Anything they wish, they achieve.  How do they do that?  Is it possible to turn our luck around? What we do not realize is that we all make up our luck, either good or bad.  So, how can we become lucky? I believe, the answer is this:

Three keys to good luck are:

1) intention

2) attitude

3) gratitude

First, we need to know what we really want, intend and focus on  it no matter what.  What we concentrate on, that’s what we attract.  If we intend to achieve something and are open-minded and persistent, we’ll always see the new opportunities coming.  Most importantly, we got to act upon those opportunities and not let doubt to set in.  On other hand, if we do not know what we want, the opportunity might be under our nose, but we are not going to see it.

Next, attitude is everything.  If we concentrate on negative, all we are going to see is negative.  If we concentrate on positive, we’ll see only positive things.

Third, gratitude is the most important.  We can be grateful for things we often take for granted:  our health, family, friends, each day we live that present us with new beginnings and opportunities.  If we think what we’re grateful for each day, our attitude will instantly change from negative to positive.  It will bring a positive intention for the next day.  Thinking how grateful we are will make us think how really lucky we are to have things we never thought of.  We are lucky to be alive, growing and learning.

Tags: achievement, attitude, focus, good luck, grateful, gratitude, how to have a better luck, inspiration, intention, life, luck, lucky star, new beginnings, opportunities, personal, photo, picture, post and photo by Ineta Mcparland, reflections, thoughts, wants, wonderocity