Yearly Archives: 2014
Be Grateful!
These past few days, I have been reminded both directly and indirectly, that to be happy is to be grateful. And vice versa.
For silly reasons and serious ones, you are undoubtedly as guilty as I am for often feeling emotions that bring us down – anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, irritation, stress, worry.
Often we just let these negative emotions run their course – for a few minutes or many days – until something happens that lifts us out of our various funks to make us feel better.
This weekend, I listened as a Buddhist monk gave one answer to address this: Don’t wait for something to happen, instead train your mind to have a different attitude. Be mindful, be happy. It’s intrinsic, not extrinsic and we are in complete control about how we feel. If we only know it.
The best articulation of this advice that I heard was in a TED talk that I watched recently.
Have a watch, and listen carefully. Hopefully, you won’t be sorry. Instead, perhaps it can be a life-changing fourteen and a half minutes? I hope.
Filmed June 2013 at TEDGlobal 2013
David Steindl-Rast: Want to be happy? Be grateful
The one thing all humans have in common is that each of us wants to be happy, says Brother David Steindl-Rast, a monk and interfaith scholar. And happiness, he suggests, is born from gratitude. An inspiring lesson in slowing down, looking where you’re going, and above all, being grateful.
Stop. Look. Go.
And don’t ever underestimate gratitude!
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Signs of Spring
My Favorite Season? Spring. Of course.
It’s a time of birth and re-birth, awakenings, renewals, hope and change, sunshine and emerging warmth and all that’s wonderful after a cold winter.
What’s not to like about Spring?
The first day of Spring 2014, just over a week ago, was simply perfect, here in the South – bright sunshine, mild winds, mid-70s – we couldn’t have asked for anything better.
Ever since I got transplanted into the West where the seasonal changes are so much more dramatic than what I had witnessed as a child in India, the arrival of Spring never fails to stir me.
As I begin seeing the first signs of Spring, my excitement for the coming months begins. Cherry blossoms, new leaves and buds, more sunny days, temperatures in the 50s, 60s and 70s, better weather conversations for sure – and it’s finally time to put away the heavy winter jackets and sweaters.
Every year, while nature reinvents itself, why not use it to reinvent ourselves as well? Along with those heavy coats, why not put behind all that’s bad and sad to move forward with energy and hope? Follow the signs of nature all around us (okay, so our neighbors up north may have to wait a month or two).
The beginning of Spring sure seems more fitting and less arbitrary for renewal and rejuvenation than a date on the Western (civil) calendar called “New Year’s Day“.
With that in mind, may I wish you a Happy Spring – and may you have a great year ahead!
- Signs of Spring
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Photo Credit:
Last photo: By Usien (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
The Yin and Yang of Life Anywhere 