Living in a state of….
-mormonshare.com

-mormonshare.com

“A state of affairs which leads to daily vexation is not the right state.” Goethe

When faced with a trying situation, we have a decision to make that will either lead us to misery or to a happier state.  It can be difficult to change the circumstances we are in, however, how we choose to react is our choice. Our choices can impact others as well. We can drag them with us into further despair, pain and misery or lift and create another level that puts us and others above the flack with a much different perspective. Today, I choose to live in the moment, reflect on the good and great rather than let the “seemingly big or little things” get to me.  I’m moving on…. will you join me?

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Get Your Greatness On!
Destined for Greatness

Destined for Greatness (Photo credit: kristlemaria)

We’ve rolled into February and January sure sped right on by!  How many resolutions have you already completed or can you say you still have in the works for this year?  I’m hoping you’re still smiling as you read this and are thinking to yourself, my GREATNESS is shining because I’m still on track.  My goals of X,Y,Z are still in motion — maybe not totally where I would like to be, but I haven’t quit.  You know, that’s huge!  You’re still plugging away.  You’ve taken a stance, you haven’t given up.  You are determined, you have integrity to hold on to the dream and see it to fruition.  You ARE Amazing!  You ARE DESTINED FOR GREATNESS!  Hold on tight and don’t let go!

In years past, I probably might have thrown in the towel on most things by now… but not so this year.  I’m determined to hold steady and make a go of it.  Maybe it’s a matter of growing older and realizing that I need to finish up a few things and I only have so much time to get it all done in.  There are old dreams still to be accomplished, and life is to be cherished each and every day – and never ever to be taken for granted! And then again, maybe I’ve just grown a lot wiser…. or it’s a combination of both.  Regardless, it’s worth the effort.  😉  And I’m sure blessed for doing so.

I can hear my friend saying now, “What does that say about your greatness?”  Ah, as I think about it — my greatness is shining in multiple ways, I’m not giving up on dreams and more importantly, I’m taking on new challenges — both with health and life in general.  I’m choosing to see these challenges specifically with a “heart lens” rather than a “mind lens” and the greatness blooms in multiplicity; regardless of the challenges in everyday things, there is always something to be great-ful for.

Since shifting to my new “lens” I’ve noticed a pattern of change – being able to accomplish more, and hone in where just a few months ago, that would have been impossible.  While still faced with some specific challenges, they no longer seem insurmountable.

Are you up to the challenge?  What’s your greatest dream?  Ever looked at it through your “heart lens?” Try it… the fresh look may give you a new perspective you’d like to see more of.  Get your Greatness on!

A Season of Joy and Love

Generally the holidays bring with them the hustle and bustle of commercialism and we get caught up with buying gifts, wrapping, mailing or maybe even doing online shopping and ensuring that the shipping of said gifts are taken care of. We plan parties or check our calendars often to make sure we can squeeze in one more event for our children, ourselves, our grandchildren or for work or church. At the end of it all, we’re exhausted and we Funny, Funny Mother has come to pass one more year again.

But with all the hustle and bustle, are we listening to those memories that come from our heart?  Those first stories we heard as children of the real meaning of Christmas – the reason of the season. A true celebration of Joy and LOVE.

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December has always been a special month for me.  Traditions are important to many families – including ours. As empty nesters, we know that some of the traditions we had as a family our children have adopted and continue to do in their homes. Others, they are establishing of their own and what wonderful ones those are.

This year, we decided to establish a new tradition – and break an old one. We used to decorate the trees the day after Thanksgiving.  This year, we decided to hold off for a while and wait until after the first of December.  The trees are still not decorated.  You know, it’s okay.  I”m not devastated.  We didn’t turn on the Christmas music until the 1st of December, no hurry, no rush… there was a reason.  We wanted it to be for the right reason, not because the some commercials said to do so.

New tradition:  Elf on the Shelf!  We’re taking it a bit further than the norm.  Our elf is going to find greatness and report it – and not just to Santa.  He’s going to report it back to the person he sees doing it.  We want all of our family to be in on this.  It’s going to be an interesting experiment and we’re so excited that we already have something in place that allows us to make sure we can make that happen.  Our elf arrives on Tuesday and we’re so excited – the challenge will be naming him!

We have so much to be thankful for – and it definitely is a season of Joy and Love — one to be shared with family.  Start a new tradition with your family this year.  Let that tradition begin in your heart and spread outward.  Greatness begins in your heart.  Share the joy you feel this year with your family and friends by sharing a tradition, old or new.

To our collective greatness in the journey this Christmas season,
Jan

Karen Salmonsohan

You have it!

Karen SalmonsohanNot too long ago I was asked to share a message with some women in our church.  I generally incorporate a message about “Nurturing”  if the message has anything to do with families as this lesson did – and I often get the same response to a question when posed about how they feel about themselves.  Dead silence or the meek answer of “… many have low self-esteem.”  But no one shares the word “I” taking ownership of their own feelings – until we get deeper into the message and I share a story with them of my own from long ago.  It is then that their hearts become open — they begin to accept the message of who they are in a new and open way.  It is then that they  listen with new ears and they sit a little taller in their chairs. They begin to recognize once again WHO they are and just how precious and choice they are and accept some of their greatness again into their hearts.  You are a miracle!  You are a Gift!  Believe it!

Too often we neglect that side of ourselves.  We’ve forgotten how to accept a compliment without making an excuse for some vulnerability or shortcoming.  Today is your day to break free!  Honor the divine beauty that dwells within you.  That greatness and all the gifts you have to share.  Let them shine and glow.

My friend, Laurie, has written an excellent blog post again — I’d like to share it with you.  So stop by her blog again today and read it!  Greatness is glowing over there 100%!  Are you ready?  I hope you are.

greatitudes is open again….

A recent visit to a friend’s blog was very inspiring.  She’s discovered her greatness in a very multifaceted way and I love how she’s sharing it with the world.  I hope you’ll take the time to read and visit her often as well.

That being said….What message do we send?  What message are we living?  What message would you like to project?   Do you like what you see?  Are there things you feel you need to tweak a little more to reach that goal you are seeking?  How can you achieve it?
There are many who look and look yet never go anywhere – because they choose to look for what they’re seeking in others and never look at themselves.  What they are seeking can always be found in their heart.  It’s in their very core.  It’s always been there — it needs to be awakened.  It can be.  It was once. Find it again. Enjoy being you!  Find your Greatness and be YOU!

 

Reclaim your inner artist

photo credit: ©maya elaine {abbachibi.deviantart.com}

 Every time you suppress some part of yourself you are in essence ignoring the owner’s manual your Creator gave you and destroying your design. Choose to do great things with it; it makes no difference how much you are rewarded, or how much power you have.  Oprah

Whether done consciously or sub-consciously, our creativity is an important part of being well-rounded. Today is your day to open the book again, and entertain that inner artist and reclaim a dream.

Recharging….

Take time to recharge your batteries.  It’s hard to see where you’re going when your lights are dim.  H. Connelly

These days tired moms and dads are often tempted go and go until they drop. When we are in the “race” for the long haul, pacing is critical…. Or we may end up crawling to the finish line.  Only you can decide what your spirit and body can take, but it is the healthy person who stops to refresh along the way.  A 5 minute meditation, a short walk around the block, even pausing to take a 5 minute mental trip to the mountains has shown to lower blood pressure.  Listen to a soothing DVD on the ride home in the car; take care of yourself first.   Taking care of our battery makes the “ride” much smoother!   How can you nurture others when you are running on empty?

Seeking Light

A little gratitude changes your whole outlook, like lighting a single
match in a dark room. You see things that were there all along and
realize how amazing your life already is.  Soulseeds

Now is the time to take a look at where you are on your pathway — light the match, see those hidden things and change your outlook if needed or ramp it up a bit more.  Be grateful for what you do have in your corner.

This past week has brought so much to light for us.  There could be so much more going wrong — but there isn’t.  I’m grateful for what we have going right and trusting that the what and where will lead us to answers we have been seeking.  We are being blessed in so many ways, there are the temporal things: health, a home, food on the table, a job that is still paying bills, friends, the freedoms to say these things in a forum such as this, and so much more.  There are also the spiritual things as well – these are very private and personal feelings at the moment yet intertwined in every aspect of who I am.

Another blessing to lighting your pathway, is that you are also lighting the way for others to follow — who are you reaching out to help today?

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intensity is a good thing, embrace it!

“Wisdom, Happiness, and Courage are not waiting somewhere out beyond
sight at the end of a straight line; they’re part of a continuous
cycle that begins right here.   Benjamin Hoff

Greatness begins with you and it begins right now with this very breath.  In Howard Glasser’s, You Are Oprah we find;  Greatness is not about feeling JOY all the time.  NHA®   is not about “one note response” to everything.  Some people are afraid to acknowledge real emotions, perhaps because they don’t have effective methods of dealing with them.  NHA®   embraces the full range of emotions; we simply don’t shy away from them.  We can tap into the enormous fuel locked inside us all:  unlike fossil fuel, this kind of fuel (life energy) is renewable!  (Oprah, p 152)

Make today a greatness filled day!  Take some time to embrace your emotions whatever they are. Your “intensity” is a good thing – it is your life energy!  Embrace it.

a new day

“Trials, temptations, disappointments — all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fibre of a character, but strengthen it. Every conquered temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.” James Buckham

Recently we’ve been personally bombarded with a series of what I would consider “challenges.”  I’m hoping we’re weathering them relatively well.  We have a couple to face in the months to come and hope they’re not as insurmountable as they first seemed to be when we first heard them. Maybe they’ll soon only become “blips” on the radar screen of life as we learn the lessons we need to, find other ways of dealing with them and solve that challenges we’re currently facing move on to the next phase of our lives whatever that may be.

What makes it easier is that I have a companion to face them with and know that I also have a Heavenly Father who loves and cares for us as well.  We can pray and seek help in our decisions and we’re not alone as we move forward together as a couple facing the future together.  Our prayers are heard and often answered.

One thing I’m absolutely sure of is that WE are stronger together than alone.  WE ARE a couple united and working together!  I’m truly grateful for that and for our walking and working together the past 18 years.  What a blessing that has been.