February 1st, 2016
Every change we attempt to make is going to be judged, influenced and battered by the ghosts of our past. So how do we make effective changes in our life?
If you go on certain rides you are going to get scared. If you go into a haunted house you are going to get scared. If you watch a horror movie you are going to get scared. How do we stop getting scared from these things? Answer – we don’t go on rides that scare us. We don’t go into haunted houses. We don’t watch horror movies.
So how do we stop being battered, judged and influenced by the ghosts of our past? Answer -we don’t unnecessarily go into our past. There is more than enough in this present moment to keep you occupied. Only in this present moment do you have the power to begin anything you want. You can take a step in any direction. In this present moment there is opportunity, choice and a blank canvas. In the past there is only an unalterable history.
Effective change requires presence, your presence. Any change you want to make can start right now. Start thinking about it and it begins. It will continue in a positive way UNLESS you look back. The lessons of your past have made you more than capable of having an amazing present. The lessons have been learned. A review is unnecessary. A comparison is unnecessary. Leave the past in the past. Embrace new beginnings right now and stay with them.
We don’t have eyes in the back of our head because we were made to always be looking forward.
Patrick McBride’s Sundrops On Life
(c)2016 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
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January 25th, 2016
You know that you have been blessed but then you start comparing. You know that you are strong and you have made it through so much but then you start comparing. You know that you are smart and have life experience but then you start comparing.
The insecurities of life come not from what we lack but from our affinity to constantly compare every aspect of our life to someone who appears to do it or to have it better.
We look at someone who appears to have more wealth and feel our lack. We look at someone who appears to have a better body and feel out of shape. We look at someone who appears smarter and feel undereducated. We look at someone who appears to have robust health and we feel weak. We look at someone who appears to have better relationships and we feel wanting.
We constantly compare ourselves to the parts of many, many people but we compare them all to just one of us. How could we not come up lacking in such a process?
Constant comparison is the drain plug at the well of our self esteem. It is a foolish pastime that serves no one except the hucksters that prey upon those who are caught up in the web of constant comparisons.
If you see someone who appears to have more of something than you have, stay away from constant comparisons. Use them as motivation if you wish but always say “Bless you and your special talent”. When you honor the talents of another person you become immune to the despair that constant comparison brings with it.
Remember, everyone is born with certain talents. Talents that are specific to the life you are meant to live. Your talents were never meant for just comparison. You were meant to find joy, purpose and gratitude in them. Know that you are unique and wonderful beyond compare.
Patrick McBride’s Sundrops On Life
(c)2016 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
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January 18th, 2016
Fill a jar with blue dye and drop something white into it. What happens? Try another color. Drop it in. What happens? Of course the answer is a big “Duh! Everything that you put into the blue dye turns blue!” So incredibly simple.
Now try to remember a time when your mind was filled with worthlessness or anger or depression. What happened to every uplifting thought that you put in there? It was instantly dyed with what already filled your mind.
So how do you change your mind if everything you think is going to be affected by what is already an established mood? When I was young, the common reply to anger was to sit still and count to ten. It didn’t take away every trace of anger but it did lesson it quite a bit. Updated, taking ten conscious, slow breaths can drain the thoughts that dominate your mind but that’s not enough.
When you clear your mind like this a vacuum remains and if you don’t fill that vacuum quickly, whatever you just let go of will get sucked right back in. So, the golden key is that once you have drained most of the dominant thoughts it is imperative that you start and continue to fill your mind with that which uplifts you. Your favorite thoughts, music, colors, imaginations, positive memories, love, caring, laughter, upliftment, smiling, dancing, yoga, exercise, a cup of tea, a scent that you adore. All these and much more are perfect refills for your mind. A mind that is full of what uplifts you has no room for anything else.
Patrick McBride’s Sundrops On Life
(c)2016 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
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January 11th, 2016
What is a loveless relationship? A loveless relationship is a rose bush that lives but never flowers. There may be some caring and concern but if love (there are no substitutes) is missing what is the purpose of being in a relationship? What is the purpose of wanting flowers with their beauty and intoxicating scents and settling for just green leaves?
We are not just talking about marriage here. Loveless relationships are everywhere. Children and parents, grandparents, teachers, friends, coworkers are all relationships and sadly some are loveless.
Let’s get one thing straight, you deserve love and it’s out there. It may not be where you are right this minute but it exists. When a person has been dying of thirst, they will drink the most toxic water just to alleviate their thirst. Don’t do that! Don’t run off with the first toxic person who espouses love. Wait for LOVE.
There are relationships that we are entrenched in such as parents and children for example but there is a way to get what you want regardless of your situation.
Firstly, make yourself attractive. No, not makeup or muscles. Loving yourself, loving life, loving God, loving your body, loving the sun, moon and stars and all the puppies and kittens and everything else makes you very attractive.
Secondly, like attracts like. If you are filled with love you will attract and be attracted to loving people. When you start complaining about a lack of love, you drain the love you have and you become less attractive to loving people and more attractive to drained people who complain about a lack of love.
A rosebush needs to be tended to often and it needs to be fed what it needs to blossom. Feed yourself with a positive expectancy and a positive outlook. Tend to yourself often and bloom, bloom, bloom.
Patrick McBride’s Sundrops On Life
(c)2016 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
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January 4th, 2016
As this New Year begins, you have to ask yourself this question – “Am I going to be controlled by what happens around me or by what I choose inside of me?”
Are you going to let what happens somewhere in the world determine your happiness level or are you going to work on you? Are you going to fill yourself with so much love that everyone that comes into contact with you will be uplifted or are you going to bring them down to a state of worry and pessimism? Choose wisely, you legacy is being written as you decide.
Speaking of legacies, at your funeral and for years to come, all who knew you and loved you will not spend more than a minute and a half talking about how much you weighed or what you owned. They will be talking about how much you loved, about how you were always there to lend a helping hand or supportive word or two. They will talk about your smile and your laugh and the twinkle in your eye. They will talk about your passions and the things they learned from you. They will remember how you rose up as the voice of love and optimism when the inevitable dark nights came….or will they?
Will they instead talk about your constant criticisms or your obsession with your finances or the news or the local gossip or your dark moods when the market dipped or your political party wasn’t elected? Will they talk about you as loving or not? Choose wisely, your legacy is being written as you decide.
What happens in your family, neighborhood, country and the world will always influence you but it is always your choice with how you will respond. The whisper of your heart will always be more powerful then the shouts of headlines but it all depends on which one you choose to make important.
Every moment of your life holds the possibility of a new beginning. Take this one right now. Choose to love more than you have been. Choose to send blessings where needed and help wherever you can but remember that your life is you first priority and you are, for good or bad, going to make an impact on many, many other lives. Yes, you will be remembered but how you will be remembered is entirely up to you. Choose wisely, your legacy is being written as you decide.
Patrick McBride’s Sundrops On Life
December 28th, 2015
“The new year is almost here and I can’t wait. I just wish it were here already. Don’t you?”
Uh, NO!
“WHY???”
Because today is the gift I just opened. I want to sit with it, explore it. I want to open my heart and my mind to it. I want to be here, to be grateful and to be aware of every minute of it.
I have no fear or love of the new year simply because it’s not here yet. I would not step out into a chasm now because there was going to be a bridge there in a few days. I want to savor what is here now. I don’t want to be eating my lunch and discussing what I want for dinner. I want to enjoy every bite of my lunch and to be grateful for the taste, the nutrition and everything that brought it to me.
I don’t want to start thinking about the weekend on Monday. I don’t want to think about Monday on the weekend. I want to tell you I love you so that you will feel my love in this moment and not because you will remember this moment in some future.
When we hug it could be the last hug for either one of us. I want to be there when we hug. I don’t want any part of my day to be on auto pilot while I go rummaging around in the past making believe it was different. I want to go out and feel today’s sun and not sit inside fantasizing about the possibility of next summer vacation’s sun.
I want today, right now, to be forever. I want to walk slow enough to take it all in. I want to eat slow enough to taste every bite. I want to hear the music and the words. I want to love so slowly that every moment is ecstasy.
Don’t live today as if it were your last. Live today like it was your only day and you had the power to do anything.
In a few days I will wish you a Happy New Year but right now I want to wish you a happy today. A today that is so deliciously slow that you don’t miss a thing.
Patrick McBride’s Sundrops On Life
December 21st, 2015
It is really very simple. If you want to enjoy Christmas then go ahead and enjoy it. If you want to complain about greed and materialism and people’s attitudes then you don’t really want to enjoy Christmas.
Sure, there’s traffic and crowds and stressed out people but there is also expectant children. There is also the chance for many people to say “Look, I know this year has been tough but I want to take this opportunity to show you that I care”.
And really that’s what Christmas gives us. It gives us an opportunity. It gives us a chance to celebrate something. It gives us a chance to give a gift in return for support given. It gives us a chance for a couple of weeks to decorate where we live with some of the colors and ornaments that make us happy.
Yes, there is a religious message too at this time of year. It is a message of light and love. It is the light of the Star of Bethlehem. It is the lights of Diwali. It is the Hanukah lights. It is the increasing daylight that comes with the Solstice. It is the lights on the tree in Rockefeller Center. It is the light of the dinner candles in countless homes as family and friends gather for a holiday feast. It is, at its very core, the light within each of us.
In a few hours THE day will arrive. Can you rise to the occasion? Can you see the light in the hearts around you? Can you feel the light within you. You should, it’s the first gift you ever received.
Have a wonderful Christmas but before it comes please decide whether you are going to celebrate or criticize this occasion. You can’t do both and right now I do believe that this world has more than enough critics. Go ahead, be the rare one. Be the one who celebrates light and love unconditionally and if you do, my door and my heart is always open to you. Merry Christmas.
Patrick McBride’s Sundrops On Life
November 9th, 2015
They say that tomorrow never comes but it’s just semantics. Tomorrow will be here and when it is born, there will be a name change. It will be called Today but just for 24 hours.
Are you planning for tomorrow? Or maybe you are fearing tomorrow? Or maybe it’s just another day? Let me tell you about tomorrow before it gets here.
Tomorrow gets here tonight at midnight. It takes a new name and it lives for just a day. In that day, provided you have the good fortune to live for all 24 hours, you’ll have both the power and the ability to change your life for the better. In fact the changes that you make could positively affect the rest of your life.
A period of time with that much potential cannot be taken for granted or ignored. Tomorrow is a gift that is coming to you with no strings attached. You can be grateful, surly, peaceful, resentful or any one of the seven dwarfs.
Sure there’s some limits on what is possible in one day but depending upon the choices you make, you can alter the course of your life one way or another.
Ask yourself now, Do I want tomorrow to be like today? Do I want my thoughts to be the same? Do I want the same view of myself? If the answer is yes, go ahead and strengthen your resolve. If the answer is no, write a new script for the coming day. Get a piece of paper and write out not a to do list but a how I am going to deal with all I have to do list.
What mood will dominate your day? Who will be reminded of how much you love them? How will you approach your reflection in the mirror? Will your words be criticisms or praise?
You have wished for great opportunities. Well, tomorrow is coming and it could be the beginning of the best time of your life. Yep, it’s that powerful. Ready?
(c)2015 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
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November 2nd, 2015
Life works. Your life works. Not every day is a day at the beach but your life works. Sure, you have had obstacles and setbacks and loss but none of that has ever stopped you. You have adapted, overcome and persevered.
Health, financial and relationship problems have visited you and some have even hung around but you keep going. You find a way to make it work. You actually find time to help other people. You are amazing.
Your life works and it could be a little easier. Sure, more water, exercise and meditation would help and you are working on it but there are some things that would help right now.
Relax. Sure there’s a bunch of things going on but take a moment to drop your shoulders, take a conscious deep breath and just for a moment, think of someone you love.
Just live. Yes, there are many things that require your problem solving abilities but it is unnecessary to analyze everything. Let some things go.
Lighten up. There are definitely serious things in your life right now but don’t let them overshadow everything you say and do. Your strength is a product of your ability to rise above the petty stuff.
Against so many odds, you have made it this far and you are more experienced than ever. You are here because you are needed. You are here because you make a difference. You are here because you really are special.
Love your life and love the light within you and keep going. Oh yeah, smile a bit more. It looks good on you.
(c)2015 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
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October 26th, 2015
You are not great and maybe you never will be great. Blasphemy! Cruel! Horrid! How could you say such a thing?
The fact of the matter is that we are all pretty average. AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT! I’m so tired of hearing and reading “experts” lie and say that everyone can be great and wealthy and problem free. It just ain’t so.
So many people today have low self esteem and are upset with themselves because they can’t get rich or they can’t manifest great things. They feel like failures because they “only” have a regular job. They have a three star life and they feel like failures because it isn’t a five star life.
The unhappiness you feel after all the seminars and all the CDs and DVDs and workbooks and workshops haven’t produced greatness is misplaced. You learned a tremendous amount from all your searching and you learned or will learn at some point in time that it’s okay to just be you.
You don’t have to be better than anyone else. You don’t need great wealth. You don’t need to be any better than you are right now. You don’t need to be skinnier. You don’t need to be more popular. You just need to be satisfied with you. That and a bucket full of love and gratitude will get you through this life very well.
In this life you will find people and animals to love and who will love you back. You will always, always have an opportunity to make someone else feel loved. You will have good days and bad days. The good days will make you smile and the bad days will give you something to talk about.
There may not be Oscars and yachts and embassy balls in your future but if you can look at yourself in the mirror and say “Yes, It’s Okay” and mean it, you can have a peace that escapes most people. Fill your life with love and… Just live.
(c)2015 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
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