Pillow Talk

November 28th, 2011

What do you do when you’ve come to the end of your rope? What do you do when you find yourself at the end of your credit? Or maybe the end of a relationship. Or maybe you’ve been sick for too long. Or maybe all of your friends have disappeared. Or maybe you’ve just lost your sparkle. Or you can’t shake that mood. Or maybe you just can’t see anything positive coming up anytime soon. What do you do?

This may seem a little nutty but it works every time! First, write down on a piece of paper all the questions that you can’t find answers for right now. Second, go into your bedroom and close the door. Set a couple of pillows upright at the head of the bed and then put a piece of your clothing on the pillows. It doesn’t have to be an exact replica of you but make it seem good enough to imagine it is you. Third, put the paper with the questions in front of the pillows. Use all of your imagination and imagine that the pillows are you and you’ve written down those questions. See, imagine or visualize as best as you can.

Now pick up the paper and give your best, clearest advice on each question. There is no “you” answering these questions. The only “you” is sitting in front of you. When we give advice to someone in need, we automatically draw from something deep inside. There is great truth and clarity and insight there. We cannot do it for ourselves when we are upset or depressed but we can always do it for another. The truth is, we give great advice because we want to help others and we never judge another as harshly as we judge our self. We give unbiased advice to someone in need without ever bringing up something from their past but we rarely do it for ourselves.

Use your imagination, suspend your disbelief and open yourself with a positive expectation for the answers you seek. You really can help yourself. It is only when you run out of rope that you learn that you are truly a creator of solutions. Get the answers. Make the changes.

(C) 2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

Thanksgiving

November 23rd, 2011

I know that there are many of you in many countries all over the world who read these daily Sundrops. Tomorrow in the US is the holiday of Thanksgiving and I would like to propose a new way of celebrating it. A new way in which everyone in the world can participate. Starting tomorrow, let the day be not only a day of thanksgiving and gratitude but from now on let this day be criticism free.

No matter where we live or what beliefs we hold, every year on the fourth Thursday in November, let us all be criticism free for a day. Let us all refuse to criticize anything about this day. We will refuse to criticize how others act just for this day. We will refuse to criticize the weather, the food, the neighbors, any country, any person. We will not criticize what others believe or how they raise their children or what they do with their money or how anyone drives. We will politely listen to others criticize but not add a gram of our own.

Whatever we have will be enough for this one day. Whatever others have or how they got it will be fine for this day. Whatever criticisms we have of governments, corporations, politicians, media, medical fields or even ourselves we will postpone for one day.

Every year let the fourth Thursday of November be a great holiday for each and every one of us. Let us celebrate this holiday by being completely without criticism of any person, place or condition. Let us celebrate what is well and right in this world. We will find that when we let ourselves be entirely devoid of criticism, it will open more room for Gratitude and Thanksgiving and that is guaranteed to make us happy. I wish you a very happy day!

(c)2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

Diamonds

November 21st, 2011

Go ahead, roll a big pearl down an incline and watch what happens. It rolls perfectly in a straight line picking up speed as it goes. Now roll a big diamond down that same incline and watch what happens. It rolls erratically if at all and picks up no great speed. The pearl is the winner right? Technically yes if we look at just one comparison but would anyone be considered wise for tossing away the diamond and pocketing the pearl after this comparison? Of course not because we know that while a diamond is never going to win a downhill race, in the light it dazzles and leaves us in awe. Every facet , which would be an imperfection in a pearl, is part of its dazzling beauty.

What have you been comparing yourself to? Was it the really popular guy or girl or maybe it was the athlete or the star student or maybe the partner in your relationship or your firm. Maybe your comparison is with a family member or next door neighbor. Is it a fair comparison? No one would pay much attention to a race between a diamond and a pearl and neither should you.

You are a diamond and the only reason that you don’t see your worth is because you feel around in the dark and all you sense are these sharp edges that go nowhere. They just stop and start, hundreds of them. You look out into the world and see smooth pearls and you hide in the dark with your “imperfections”.

THEY ARE NOT IMPERFECTIONS! THEY ARE FACETS! Step out into the light and you will dazzle us all. Step out into the light and sparkle and shine. Everything that you have been through, every mistake you have made, everything you have learned is a facet. There is nothing wrong with you. You are made of the strongest stuff in the universe. If someone doesn’t see your worth, that’s their misfortune. Don’t compare yourself to pearls and don’t hide. Stay in the light and sparkle.

(C) 2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

Get Bigger

November 14th, 2011

How do you get bigger? Oh, I’m not talking about protein shakes and killer workouts or about standing at the end of the assembly line at a Krispy Kreme store. I’m talking about how do you grow you? The you that you really want to be? First, realize your value.

You are unique. That does not mean that you are strange or weird. A rare gold coin is unique because we give it great value. It’s not weird or strange. A melted piece of plastic is weird or strange and we give it no value. We misinterpret the inner part of us. We think it is weird and we give it no value. It is time to set the record straight. The inner part of you is unique and priceless. Your spirit is more valuable than anything in creation. It is who you are! You are priceless. Stop making the soul part of you the littlest part. Let your spirit shout! Let if fill up every part of you. Stop looking for strength. Generate it! Respond, act and work from a soul level. It will change your life.

Real growth starts with saying No. Say no to any one who makes you feel bad on any level. Say No to things that no longer serve your highest aspirations. Say No to the things you have been putting up with, the things that stifle your dreams and creativity. Shrink your worries and grow your spirit. Clear the garden of weeds so you can grow what you really want. It’s time to get bigger. It’s time to take that dream part of you and make it bigger. Let it fill up all that you are. Allow your spirit to grow. Every morning when you wake up, if you don’t feel bigger, stay in bed until you do. If you lay there and you feel small or burdened or worried, fill yourself with love, fill yourself with gratitude, fill yourself with hope and then start your day. If you feel yourself getting small at any time during the day, refill yourself with those same treasures. When we are talking about your dreams, your life, your love, your strength, your spirit, bigger is very, very good.

(C) 2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com

 

On Stage

November 7th, 2011

It is true that all the world is a stage but what is also true is that few of us ever stand on that stage. Oh, we know our stuff and we have prepared a million times in our minds but we never make it out to center stage. The truth of the matter is that most of us are born, live and finally die in the wings. We watch others in the spotlight and we think to ourselves “I could do that” or even “I know I am better than that” and we are right. We actually could do it and we really are better than most that are in the spotlight. What stops us from being out there?

The Great Director gave us a chance and put us in the theater of life and gave us free will to choose what we wanted to do while we are there. So what is holding us back? It is simply our limited sense of our own worthiness. We don’t feel that we are good enough to stand on the stage of life. We started out in this life comparing ourselves to the only people around, our parents. We found that they were smarter, bigger, stronger, more articulate, more independent than we were as a small child. In other words, everyone else in our world was better than we were. As we grew things changed but our initial evaluation of the world didn’t. For many of us, it never will. BUT there are a few just like you who are waking up!

There is something inside of you that has been whispering for a long time and now that whisper is turning into a shout. Listen to it! It is telling you that you are so much better than you ever thought you were. It is telling you that you have been operating under false pretenses. It is shouting the truth to you that most of what you thought mattered…doesn’t! Your life is not to be determined by comparison any more. It’s not about your size, age, background, history or troubles. Your life is to be determined by how much you love yourself and by how much you love others and by how much joy and gratitude you can bring to every moment of your life. That’s it, all of it.

The curtain is going up and the world is clapping and stamping their feet for your appearance. Go ahead out there. You have a lot to tell them.

(C) 2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com