November 26th, 2012
(You are Rich!)
Are you walking past diamonds to get to the gold? We all have the same desires. We want to be moving towards happiness and we want to be moving far away from suffering of any kind. This is what we have in common. What we don’t have in common is how we see our present circumstances. It’s time to take inventory.
When you take inventory it is very important to focus on what you have and not what you have as compared to what other people have. First, you have to take a physical inventory. What’s working? Do not ask what isn’t working or what isn’t working as good as it used to because that will involve drama and drama always skews the results. Second, you have to take a love inventory. Who loves you and who has loved you in the past? Third, you have to take a worth inventory. What is your self worth? This is never to be confused with your net worth or again the results will be terribly skewed. Fourth, you have to take a service inventory. How have you been serving this world? Who have you helped?
Once you’ve taken a complete inventory, how does it look? Are there parts of your body working fairly well? Have you been loved by a relative, friend or teacher? Are you capable of improving yourself? Are there people who have been helped by your words, action or example? If you can answer yes to any of these questions then these are the diamonds in your life, the priceless kind. Are you looking for more of these or are you ignoring them while looking for stability, security and permanence. Those are merely the gold, important but nowhere near the worth of diamonds.
Know how wealthy you are in what really matters. Life, Love, possibilities and opportunity are the diamonds in your life. You are rich. Walk with your head high and your heart filled with gratitude and every time something brings you down, take out those diamonds and look at them. Like you, they are priceless.
(c)2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
November 19th, 2012
(You are Healing!)
OMG! You made a mistake! You said, did, wrote, acted out, unloaded, lost it, overreacted or just plain chose poorly and now you feel bad. It may have happened a minute ago or decades ago but you are still suffering. Nothing can make you feel as worthless or as crummy as when this mistake comes to mind and what’s worse, there’s a few of them!
Give Yourself A Break. Yeah, you. You have forgiven others over and over again but for some reason, it seems impossible to forgive yourself. Every time you refuse (that’s right, it’s not that you can’t forgive yourself. It’s that you refuse to do it!) to forgive yourself you add another link to the chain that you carry. Pretty soon any forward progress is impossible in your life because of the weight of all the links in your chain. Oh, you’ll say that luck isn’t with you or the right opportunities haven’t come your way but you know it’s the chain.
Today, right now, you can make that chain disappear. You can start by Giving Yourself A Break. You can decide right now to be kind to yourself. You can get rid of the strict teacher, father, mother, priest, minister voice and allow the the healing, loving, compassionate, caring, loving voice to be the dominant voice by simply listening to one voice to the complete exclusion of the other. (You’ve got some experience at that already)
Whatever mistake you made, it is in the past. You may still be paying for it in some way or another but you don’t have to hate yourself for it. It happened, you take full responsibility and you allow it to be an experience and not a whip. Close your eyes and mentally hug yourself. Soothe yourself. Tell yourself that as of today, the chains are off. Tell yourself that you can’t change even the smallest thing in the past but starting today, you are going to live the most loving, compassionate life you can lead and every time that you feel like beating yourself up, you’re going to mentally hug yourself and know that you deserve that break. Repeat and repeat and be free.
(c)2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
November 12th, 2012
(You are Brilliant!)
How great are you? If you are like most people your answer is that you aren’t great at all. Oh, you believe that you are a good person and maybe you’ve had some very brief great moments but nah, you just don’t see yourself being all that great. Well, are you great or aren’t you?
You are the sum total of your experiences. The many good experiences you have had are perfect and nothing needs to be improved upon so you just let them be. The not so good experiences you have had means that there is some work or adjustments to be made in that area. Now this is a very good system and it leads you to be constantly improving and growing in wisdom but since most of your work is in trying to improve the not so good experiences so that you don’t repeat them, you start believing very wrongly that that’s all there is to you and if the not so good experiences are all that you are, obviously you are terribly flawed. Wrong!
The truth is that you are good, in fact you are great in the truest sense of the word. You are the one who really cares. You are the one who feels bad when you hurt someones feelings even if it was justified. You are the one who has bounced back from adversity and helped someone else. You are the one that is always there for someone even if you have to cancel your own plans. You are the one that always tries to make peace. You are the one that always sees the good in someone else even if it is minuscule.
It’s time to call a spade a spade. It’s time to own your own greatness. It’s time to think of yourself as … dare I say, the great person that you are. Being great doesn’t mean that there’s no more work to be done. Being great doesn’t mean that you are better than anyone else. Being great means that given what you’ve been through and given what you think in your heart and given what you’ve had to work with, you have survived and grown in wisdom and compassion and you keep growing and wanting to grow more every day. You know that great people do great things and if you start owning your greatness, great things are sure to happen.
(c)2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
November 5th, 2012
(You are Grrrreat!)
Who do you see when you look in the mirror?
The answer to that question is the answer to most questions in your life. Are you looking for purpose? Well, what is the person in the mirror capable of if given a chance? Are you looking for a relationship? Well, what does the person in the mirror bring to the table? Are you looking for more money? Well, does the person in the mirror deserve more money?
Who do you see when you look in the mirror?
Do you see someone who needs more muscle or less weight? Do you see someone with glaring faults? Do you see someone who doesn’t quite match up to the ideal you have in your mind? Do you see someone who is too old or not old enough? Do you see someone who doesn’t fit in and has been hurt?
You’ve been looking in that mirror all of your life. You’ve seen you laugh and you’ve seen you cry. You’ve seen you sleepy and you’ve seen you wired. You’ve seen you sick and you’ve seen you not giving a damn. BUT what does the person in the mirror really want?
The person in the mirror doesn’t need your judgement, just your acceptance. The person in the mirror doesn’t need your snarl, just your smile. The person in the mirror wants you to be the cheerleader. The person in the mirror gets enough grief from the world, yours is unnecessary and unwanted. The person in the mirror wants to be loved more than anything in the world and the person in the mirror wants your love more than anything in the world.
The person in the mirror can and will accomplish anything with your support. The person in the mirror just needs you to believe that it is possible. The person in the mirror needs you, your attention, your kindness, your compassion, your love. How you see the person in the mirror defines your life, your world. Do you want a better, happier life? Give the person in the mirror forgiveness and love and a moment or two of calm reflection.
(c)2012 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com