I believe that the greatest gift you can give your family and the world is a healthy you.—Joyce Meyer
Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.—John F. Kennedy Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. —Benjamin Franklin Keep looking up! Learn from the past, dream about the future, and look up. There’s nothing like a beautiful sunset to end a healthy day.—Rachel Boston Looking good and feeling good go hand in hand. If you have a healthy lifestyle, your diet and nutrition are set, and you’re working out, you’re going to feel good.—Jason Statham Fitness starts at home. What you eat is what you will look, just as what you sow is what you reap. Eat good food: eat fruits, vegetables, healthy grains, and don’t go for sweet and trite food. —Rakul Preet Singh The body needs its rest, and sleep is extremely important in any health regimen. There should be three main things: eating, exercise and sleep. All three together in the right balance make for a truly healthy lifestyle.—Rohit Shetty Being in control of your life and having realistic expectations about your day-to-day challenges are the keys to stress management, which is perhaps the most important ingredient to living a happy, healthy and rewarding life.—Marilu Henner It’s a wonderful thing to be optimistic. It keeps you healthy and it keeps you resilient.—Daniel Kahneman A healthy attitude is contagious but don’t wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.—Tom Stoppard
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Quote of the day:
“Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that dis-empowers them or one that can literally save their lives.” -- Anthony Robbins Think about it: When I was a kid, I saw plenty of goldfish in the houses of my friends, and I remember wondering why so many people would want to keep such small, unexciting creatures as pets. Then one day, when I was about ten years old, I went on a school field trip to a botanical garden that had a pond stocked with fish. One especially large, brilliantly colored fish stood out to me. “What kind of fish is that one?” I asked our guide. “That’s a goldfish,” she replied. I was confused. “Aren’t goldfish supposed to be small?” I asked with a note of 9-year-old sarcasm. “Not at all,” she replied. “Goldfish will grow even larger than these. It really just depends on the size of their environment.” How often have I been like a goldfish in a fishbowl? How often have I limited myself by my perception of my world? Worse still, how many times have I put others in a small bowl in my mind? How many times have I written off someone as insignificant or unexciting? How many times have I failed to see others’ potential to grow? How much more could I achieve if I forgot my perceived limitations and dared to swim beyond the boundaries I’ve set for myself? And what would happen if I moved others from their small bowls into the ocean of limitless possibilities? Just imagine a world full of people with that perspective, who truly believe that anything is possible and reach out to claim it. Together we could do astounding things. Together we could work miracles. By Joyce Suttin
Faith permeated my life as a child. I never doubted the existence of a loving God who was concerned about my life, and who answered prayer and helped me on a daily basis. I prayed from the time I could form words. I sang songs about Jesus and loved Him. He was a very real presence in my life. When my great uncles died, it wasn’t a grievous occasion but a celebration of their passing on to a better world. But when I was a teenager, I began to question the principles of faith I had been taught as a child. I saw my parents and their faith in God and the Bible as fallible, and I began a quick slide from believer to doubter to agnostic. What I heard and saw in the world around me no longer made sense alongside the simple childlike faith I had been taught. As I emphatically stated my new belief system, my parents just smiled and told me that they were willing to listen, but they couldn’t be deterred from what they knew to be right. My spiritual searching coincided with moving from a small town in the countryside to Boston, Massachusetts. One day, I was to take the train home for the holidays. I had called ahead and reserved my ticket, and I was confident that I could find my way to South Station by subway. After some time in the tunnels of the “T,” as the Boston subway is known to locals, I exited at the right station according to my map, climbed a long flight of stairs, and was blinded by bright sunlight as I arrived at street level. I knew the station was supposed to be right there, but I looked around and couldn’t see it. I stepped into the shadow of a huge archway, but still I couldn’t find the station. I kept checking my watch and became nervous that I would miss my train. I asked a passerby, but he just looked at me oddly and rushed on. Eventually I ended up on the other side of the street. Somewhat frantic by now, I glanced back to where I had been standing. In gigantic letters ten feet above street level were the words “South Station.” There, right where I had exited the subway, was the train station entrance—the same huge archway I had stepped into to let my eyes adjust a few minutes earlier. It was so enormous and encompassing that I couldn’t recognize it from my previous perspective. Only after I stepped away and looked up could I see that I had been where I belonged all along. Shortly after that experience, I began to realize that I was different from my nonbeliever friends. For one thing, I enjoyed eating my lunch in a lovely old cemetery on Tremont Street, where gravestones dated from the 1600s. One day a friend joined me there and commented, “Don’t you think it’s a bit strange to come into a cemetery to relax? Doesn’t it make you think about death, and doesn’t that frighten you?” I thought about that as I finished my sandwich. “Actually, I am not afraid at all,” I answered. “I believe that death is only a passageway from this world to the next, kind of like a rebirth. I believe that when I die I will find myself in a bigger, better world.” What made me different from my friends was that deep down inside, I still had faith—I still believed in God and Jesus. A few days later I wrote my parents about my South Station experience and related it to my recent trek into agnosticism and back. From my new vantage point, I had no doubts about what I really believed. I thanked them for having imparted their faith to me, as well as for their patience and understanding. They had known all along that all I needed to do was “cross the road and look up.” I eventually became a mother of eight, and as my children have grown, I have watched some of them have doubts about their faith and step back. I have tried to follow my parents’ example of understanding by picturing my children standing under one of the arches of South Station, searching for it. I pray for them and know it is there, whether they believe it or not, and I pray that they will look up and realize where they are standing. Sometimes we all feel lost and wonder where God is. We search around for faith and meaning in life, only to find that it is right in front of us, larger than life. Like South Station, we are standing right in front of it and only need to move to a different vantage point to realize that we are right where we belong. Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble. —Yehuda Berg
A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success.—Unknown It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever—the one who recognizes the challenges and does something about it.—Vince Lombardi A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential.—John C. Maxwell When you encourage others, you in the process are encouraged because you’re making a commitment and difference in that person’s life. Encouragement really does make a difference.—Zig Ziglar Friendly people are caring people, eager to provide encouragement and support when needed most.—Rosabeth Moss Kanter Awards can give you a tremendous amount of encouragement to keep getting better, no matter how young or old you are.—Alan Alda Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement—and we will make the goal.—Robert Collier We can all remember a time when someone encouraged us and made a difference in our lives. It may be just a moment, but this encouragement could last a lifetime.—Megan Shull It’s amazing what a little encouragement can do.—Winnie Harlo Quote of the day:
“Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.” -- Leonardo da Vinci Think about it: Break down the word patience and it actually traces back to the Latin “pati,” which means “to suffer, endure.” This is the popular interpretation, and one that leaves us in awe of stories like that of the frail, landless Asian farmer who painstakingly moved a mountain. This man chiseled away solo for 22 years, until he finally created a 1 km long, 16-ft-wide passage connecting his village to vital resources like hospitals. So clearly, delaying gratification and bearing up under pain have their benefits. But a deeper exploration of patience goes beyond risk and reward. Cultivating patience keeps us from being stuck to preconceived notions, and helps us let go of our fixation on outcomes. We come to accept that we don’t always or immediately know what is best, and learn to recognize that our reality is in constant flux. Patience elevates our understanding of deeper truths and helps us transcend our limited views. And therein lies its virtue. By Nyx Martinez
I stared past the rusty window frame, out of the bus. The day was off to a gloomy start and so was I. Lost in thought, recalling things that would have been better left forgotten, I sank into a dark mood. Sad, isn't it, how when we’re feeling down we tend to busy our mind with thoughts that only waste our time and further sap our spirits? The bus rolled to a halt. Again. Manila traffic. I glanced at my watch. 6 a.m. Too early for traffic to be moving this slowly. I had a deadline to meet and hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. Angrily, I turned back to the window. A young street vendor was selling black boots that he had shined to a dazzling finish. I could almost read his mind, feel his hopes. Today would be good. Perhaps he’d earn a few more pesos than yesterday and have a better meal tonight. Just maybe. A prospective buyer stopped. He wore faded jeans and a worn shirt. Slung over his shoulder was an imitation JanSport backpack. He held up a pair of boots and admired them. Someday, maybe someday, he seemed to be thinking, I’ll have enough money to buy some boots like these. I wondered what his daily earnings came to. Two hundred, maybe three hundred pesos?—About US$6, tops. The boots cost twice that much. His money was needed elsewhere. Lots of else wheres. He probably had a family back home who needed to eat, and debts to get out from under. His money was spent before he earned it. The boots would have to wait. The man looked wearily at the vendor. His eyes said it all. Not today. And probably not tomorrow. The two made small talk as if they were old friends. They laughed and shared another story before my bus inched down the block and stopped again. This time, I found myself staring at a wrinkled old lady selling candy. She sat on a low bench, half obstructing the sidewalk, as the thronging crowd moved around her. Her eyes revealed sadness, about what I didn’t know. Maybe the simple fact that today would be just like yesterday and the day before, like all the days that had turned into years, a day just like she knew tomorrow would be. She would sit on that stool from sunrise to sundown. A few people would buy bits of candy, but nobody would notice her. After dropping coins into her callused hand they would hurry off, strangers still. The day would move on with them. The old lady would grow older and not any happier for it. As I watched, the corners of her mouth fell even more. She stared off into the distance as a glistening drop formed in her eye and ran down her cheek. I had to look away. A traffic controller was busy at the corner hurrying pedestrians across the intersection. Was he, too, carrying some unseen sorrow? Was he also haunted by thoughts that would have been better left forgotten? If something was bothering him, he couldn’t afford to let it show. He had work to do, traffic to move, order to keep. A twenty-something woman crossed the street at his signal, and I tried to imagine the world through her eyes. What was her story? Where was she going? What was her name? ... Why did I even care? My mind snapped back to my own situation and I realized that something had struck a chord inside, against my own will it seemed. It was odd that I should be feeling someone else’s emotion. Or was it? Was it okay to be calloused to the feelings of others, to go through my days as if all the nameless people in the crowds around me were mere props in my world? No. Each stranger was someone’s mother, someone’s child, someone’s husband, someone’s brother, someone’s someone. And they all mattered. The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.--Epictetus
Tough times never last, but tough people do.--Robert H. Schuller Man is fond of counting his troubles but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up, as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.--Fyodor Dostoyevsky The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.—Martin Luther King Jr. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.—Albert Camus Out of difficulties grow miracles.—Jean de La Bruyère) The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.—Chinese Proverb Quote of the day:
“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” – Author Unknown Think about it: If we judge a book by its cover, we will never get to know the depths of others, and the true meaning of life’s situations. Not judging a book by its cover means that we can never really claim to understand a person or situation when we only see them or it from the outside or on the surface. The famous lateral thinking guru Edward de Bono asks in his book Simplicity, “Why do books have covers? If the reason was mainly for ‘protection’, we could shed the cover and simply print four first pages and four last pages. When the top page got dirty you would simply tear it off and have a clean page underneath.” But we know that’s not going to happen. Why? Because, book covers are what sell the book and distinguish it from others. It makes us want to pick up the book and read it. Yet, how many times have we seen a great book cover, picked it up expecting a good read, and then we were let down. We do the same when we judge people prematurely. We may never know what experiences they had or what they have been through unless we take the time to get to know them in a deeper way. It is from the depths of situations and circumstances that we find its essence. For example, if we admire another’s social position, instead of their true accomplishment, including the values they subscribe to, we will miss the key to their success, and therefore fail to learn from it. Or, if we are merely evaluating a person from the shallow perspective of their appearance, or quickly come to a conclusion based on a brief acquaintance, then we also miss the deeper and wider truths behind them. By Edmond Sichrovsky
This should be easy, I thought as I prepared to enter high school. I didn’t expect to have any problems making friends or interacting with my classmates. Unfortunately, my confidence was shattered on the very first day of school, when I met the boy seated next to me in class. Sean was about my height but twice my weight. He was careless in his studies, never studied for exams, and yelled and cursed at teachers and students alike. He bragged endlessly about the violent computer games he played, and their influence was evident in his angry, destructive behavior. I quickly started wishing I didn’t have to sit next to him. Weeks passed, and Sean seemed to go from bad to worse. He failed nearly every exam, got into fights daily with other classmates, and made no friends. I did my best to be polite but kept my distance. One day at lunch hour, the seat beside Sean was the last vacant one in the cafeteria. I reluctantly sat down, and we got to talking. During the short conversation that followed, I found out that Sean’s father had died when he was very young, and that his mother worked long hours on a night shift. Consequently, he was home alone most evenings and only got to spend time with her on weekends. I was ashamed of my harsh judgmental attitudes and determined to reach out to Sean, even though that went against my natural inclinations. At first, my attempts were only met with mocking refusals and deriding curses. I learned that Sean had been the brunt of ruthless bullying in the past, so it seemed that in order to protect himself, he had developed a very hard and unfeeling exterior. It was a struggle to include him whenever we picked teams, and it was tough trying to befriend him when my efforts were only rewarded with snide remarks. I was often tempted to get angry and wondered if he was worth my trouble. As the months went by, however, Sean gradually grew friendlier. Then one morning, over four months after that initial conversation in the cafeteria, Sean insisted on pairing up with me for a class activity. I was shocked. “You’re always saying you never want to see me again,” I told him. “That’s not true!” he replied, smiling broadly. “You’re my only friend—the one person who cares about me. I want us to always be friends.” That day, I not only gained a friendship that is ongoing, but I also discovered a precious truth: Regardless of how a person acts, looks, or behaves, everyone wants and needs love and acceptance. Beneath the rocky surface of a person’s hard exterior is often a bud waiting to blossom. Kind words and loving deeds are to human hearts what sunshine is to flowers. It can take days, weeks, or sometimes even months or years for the results of our efforts to be rewarded, but one day that person will blossom. When Jesus said to “love your neighbor,” He wasn’t just talking about the person living next door. He wants us to share His love with anyone who needs our attention and care, whether it's the postman, the cleaning lady, the clerk at the counter, or the school bully sitting next to us. Choices are the hinges of destiny. —Edwin Markham
Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.—Keri Russell We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.—Stephen Covey Your life changes the moment you make a new, congruent, and committed decision.—Tony Robbins Life presents you with so many decisions. A lot of times, they’re right in front of your face and they’re really difficult, but we must make them.—Brittany Murphy It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions. —Jim Rohn Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you. —John C. Maxwell The more decisions that you are forced to make alone, the more you are aware of your freedom to choose.—Thornton Wilder Life is about choices. Some we regret, some we’re proud of. Some will haunt us forever. The message: we are what we choose to be.—Graham Brown Decisions are the frequent fabric of our daily design.—Don Yaeger |
AuthorThe goal of the blog is to provide interesting, motivational, soul feeding material. All to help remind us that God loves us all and wants a personal relationship with each of us and will take care of us in times of trouble. I aspire to be a force for good by providing you with positive input. I encourage you to share the blog with others. Archives
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