June 30th, 2014
How many times have you and I wanted things to be different in our lives only to be extremely thankful later on when we realized that had we gotten our way it would have been awful and actually the way it turned out was actually better than what we had in mind? For me, too many times to count without a calculator.
Our resistance to the reality of the moment (all reality is the reality of the moment!) is a major source of pain, resentment and futility. Learn to accept what is going on. That doesn’t mean that you like or agree with what is going on but not accepting what’s going on is not accepting reality and not accepting reality is the beginning of countless parent talks to their teenagers.
Once you accept what is going on, you come to peace with reality and when you come to peace with reality, you are in a powerful position to make changes as you move forward.
Forget all the whining and complaining. Stop listening to the whining and complaining of anyone else. Accept what is going on in your life right now. SEE it as a good thing (you may have to work at this one) and BELIEVE that it is the best for you or for someone who is watching you handle this.
It’s easy to accept things when they are going well but your growth, strength and compassion will grow only from things going not so well. Oh, to be able to celebrate both! For celebrating both would be celebrating life in its entirety. Let’s work on it.
(c)2014 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
June 23rd, 2014
Could this day be any better? The answer is a resounding No! This day could not be any better because this day lacks nothing. This day is exactly the same hours and minutes as all the others.
If this day is upon you and you are a part of it and it has all the components that a day should have, this day is perfect. In fact, this day couldn’t be any more perfect. The only variable here is you. You have the ability to enjoy this day or not. You and you alone will at some point in time this day, judge this day. To you it will be a so-so day or maybe a good day or possibly a bad day or your opinion of it may change several times.
How can that be so? If this day is perfect, how can it be bad or even so-so? It can’t unless you ignore its perfection. Its perfection is obvious if you are in the right frame of mind. What if you saw this day as perfect? What if you said to yourself “Here is a brand new day. It is a day to practice what I believe. It is a day to hold fast to my gratitude and happiness regardless of what comes along. Today I will be the me I always want to be.”
Today is perfect and so are you. There is no need to compare this day to any other and there is no need to compare yourself to any other person. Today, live at your happiest level. Make your gratitude bulletproof, allow no one or no thing to minimize it. This day couldn’t be any better but your enjoyment of it and your gratitude for it can be better than ever.
(c)2014 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
June 16th, 2014
Those moments of darkness that seem endless and unrelenting can steal the will to live from anyone. Hope is that life preserver that Heaven sends to you when you feel like giving up and just sinking under the waves. What exactly is this life preserver that we call hope?
Hope is a bridge between where you don’t want to be and where you do want to be. No one lives on a bridge and no one can live forever on hope. When hope comes to you realize that you have been given a priceless gift. Realize too that this gift asks something of you in return.
Cling to hope, embrace hope, give thanks for hope for it is a gift like no other but know that hope wants you to to swim to faith. Faith is that conviction that all really is going according to plan and that EVERYTHING that happens is directed by a greater power. Faith is the place where you can live and rest and grow and not just tread water.
If you feel like you are over your head in pain or problems or broken promises, find hope. Hope is waiting for you in the thoughts of long shot winners and miracles and sudden cures. Swim with that hope until you find faith. You will know you have found it when your problems seem lighter and a different perspective seems to suddenly appear.
Hope first changes your thinking and then it changes your world.
(c)2014 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
June 10th, 2014
Everyone at one time or another asks themselves “What can I do for a living that will make me happy”? For some of us this question is a constant in our lives. Sadly, for a few, this question no longer surfaces because it has gone unanswered for so long. It is not that the question is unanswerable. It is that the question itself is wrong.
A farmer does not walk around with a handful of dirt looking for a seed to put it on. Such a quest would return quite little. A farmer realizes that walking around with a handful of seeds and finding a worthy patch of soil to put them in is the key to a bountiful harvest.
So too is our journey. We should not be looking for happiness, ever. The seeds of happiness are already inside of us. We were given these seeds at birth. Our purpose is to find a place to grow our happiness.
The right question is not “Where we will find happiness?”. The right question is “Where will we bring our happiness to in order to grow it?”. There are an infinite number of places and people that will be fertile soil for our seeds of happiness. Look around. Where do you want to bring your seeds to in order to grow your happiness?
Happiness is not waiting out there in some unknown location. We don’t just find happiness like some rare, exotic flower we just happen to stumble upon with a bit of luck. We grow it exactly where we plant it and if we don’t plant, we can’t harvest. Toxic people and toxic workplaces are not fertile soil. Pick good people. Pick good places. Bring the seeds of your happiness and watch them grow.
(c)2014 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
June 2nd, 2014
Grouchy? Forgetful? Moody? Unfulfilled? Bored? I know it sounds like an ad for some miracle diet or potent elixir but it’s not. It’s a call to all of us that much of what we feel are negatives in our life are actually not our shortcomings but merely our lack of quality sleep.
The hot flashes, the bathroom visits, the worries, the thoughts we can’t turn off, all these and many more are like holes in a boat. It is impossible to enjoy the ride when you are constantly dealing with the holes. What can be done?
You cannot expect your night to suddenly calm down and be blissful while you drift off into a deep, uninterrupted sleep if your day is out of control. Rather than trying to fix a nighttime problem we would be much more successful if we fixed our daytime first.
Meditation and stretching are the keys here. Even a five minute meditation can alter our brain chemistry for the better and put our thoughts into a place of clarity instead of overload. One minute of stretching can do for our bodies what meditation does for our mind.
“Mens sana in corpore sano” A healthy mind in a healthy body. Take time today, every day, to take care of you. You are responsible for you. You are the one, the only one, who gets feedback from your body. Stop pushing aside what you know you need. Martyrdom is overrated.
Bottom line, make your days more peaceful and your nights will be more peaceful and your sleep will be better and then the next day will be even better. Be good to you.
(c)2014 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
Facebook – Sundrops On Life