conscious choices

Tag Archive for conscious choices

Got Gratitude? Get It in Writing!

November 21, 2016 John Uncategorized No comments

Well, here we are at the start of another Thanksgiving holiday week. I love this time of the year for a number of reasons. It doesn’t pressure us to spend wads of money. It doesn’t align itself with any particular religious belief. And it doesn’t wrap itself around militaristic thoughts and tendencies. The word Thanksgiving even contains it’s reason for existence- giving thanks.

This short article deals with documenting your gratitude. Putting it down in writing has lots of positive effects, as you’re about to see.
At the top of MY gratitude list is you, the GenuLines reader!

Five Reasons to Keep a Gratitude Journal

I expect you’ve often been told to be thankful for what you have when something awful happens. Research has shown that being thankful is a beneficial habit. Keeping a gratitude journal is an increasingly popular tool used by those seeking to improve themselves.

Five reasons to keep a gratitude journal are:

1. Changing Thought Patterns: studies have shown a strong mind-body connection. When we are feeling stressed, anxious or another negative emotion it can have a negative effect on our physical health. By considering those things, events or people you are thankful for you are creating positive thoughts and feelings which will help reduce stress levels. It will also remind you that whatever happens to you there is always something to feel thankful for.

Your commitment to your gratitude journal refocuses your mind on positive events, conversations, and relationships. This enables you to see more than just the negative ones that tend to fill your mind and dominate your thoughts when they happen.

Another way your thought patterns will change is that you will find that you start pushing boundaries and removing limiting beliefs. This will happen as you not only keep your gratitude journal but also review it. You will find that your mind opens to new possibilities and you gain in self-confidence and knowledge.

2. Improve Your Health: the fact that there is a mind-body connection means that by focusing on positive thoughts and feelings in your gratitude journal you are helping to improve your physical and mental health. Studies have shown that regular gratitude journaling can

*Relieve stress and anxiety
*Improve sleep
*Help you gain perspective

3. Create Optimism: some days it’s just too hard to see the forest for the trees. You’ll find yourself focusing on something that has upset you and that troublesome thought will nag at you constantly. Taking some time to sit quietly and think about something you are grateful for will help reduce the negative thoughts and feelings and replace them with positive ones.

4. Improved Sleep: regardless of whether you feel the need for eight hours sleep each night your body and mind do require a regular amount of sleep each night for optimal mental and physical health. Keeping a gratitude journal is fun, calming and a positive activity that promotes happy thoughts and feelings. By replacing worry and stress, you can sleep more peacefully and have happier dreams.

5. It’s Fun: keeping a gratitude journal should be a fun enjoyable experience; something you look forward to. It doesn’t matter whether you use a plain notebook or a really fancy one, you can jazz it up by using different colored pens or pencils or even decorating the pages.

If you want to create a positive change in yourself and your life, then keeping a gratitude journal may just be the tool you are looking for. It’s cheap, easy and very beneficial to your physical and mental health.

JohnK11-21-2016

chiforyourself.com home

Overheard:

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

~ Epictetus

With New Thoughts The Projected Winner is YOU

November 11, 2016 John Uncategorized No comments

Whew! This has been a wild week, to say the least. You may be in need of some (slow) downtime, whether your candidates won or lost. Today I invite you to examine your thoughts. Maybe they need a little re-working? New thoughts can come from taking a new perspective on things. One way to do that is to challenge the assumptions that exist. I’m Gio and I approved this message 🙂

New Thoughts on Love

Desire and attachment can be strong feelings, and they are often called love in certain contexts. However, attachment can be for bad reasons too, right? Desire too can come from less than noble places. What is an alternative definition of love?

How about a recognition of value? Seeing the inherent value in a person, like the beauty you see in a painting or hear a melody. You do not need to be attached or even desirous of beauty to enjoy it. You just have to recognize it. The enjoyment that you take in another’s existence could then be a definition of love. At least the emotion.

Love is more than an emotion, though. How much love does a mother have for her children if she feels fondness toward them, but doesn’t feed them? Love in this context has to include action, doesn’t it?

This points up the real problem with defining concepts like love. There are seven or eight or perhaps a hundred things we want to communicate. They are each different, yet we have just one word for them. Maybe rather than re-defining love we need to create a dozen new words. Now there’s an area for some new thoughts.

Random New Thoughts

Another way to have new thoughts is to just look for new ideas to replace old ones. Then you expand on the new idea, to see what value you might find in it. Here are some examples of new thoughts, without expanding on them (help yourself).

– Why do we encourage uninformed people to vote? Maybe it’s better to insist on a better- informed electorate.

– Is multi-tasking really a sign of efficiency? Maybe the fact that we need to be so busy just to get what we want shows that our actions aren’t effective enough.

– Why not wake up to the fact that medical care is one of the leading causes of death? What if we took health and healing into our own hands and became our own advocates? Consider natural remedies. And recognize that standard medical care is a wonderful thing- when used wisely

– How about wonder instead of faith? Faith is just believing without reason. Wonder is to marvel at the world and accept that we don’t have reasons or explanations for everything.

Finally, what if our level of creativity, and ability to have new thoughts isn’t just something that is set at birth. What if it is a systematic process, one that may not be recognized by those who use it, but can be identified and copied? All of us can train ourselves to have creative new thoughts.

Be Well,

JohnK 11-11-2016

chiforyourself.com

Overheard: “Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.”

~Earl Nightingale

Today on CHI FOR YOURSELF: Amelia Kinkade and “Whispers From The Wild”

November 3, 2016 John Uncategorized No comments

Just a reminder that our guest on today’s CHI FOR YOURSELF is Amelia Kinkade, author of WHISPERS FROM THE WILD: LISTENING TO VOICES FROM THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. We start at 4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific time at chiforyourself.com.

Hope to have you with us!

JohnK 11-3-2016

chiforyourself.com home

Next CHI FOR YOURSELF: “Wild” Times With Whispers From the Wild

October 31, 2016 John Uncategorized No comments

Our next scheduled CHI FOR YOURSELF takes a little different spin. We’ll hear from Amelia Kinkade, a psychic who has devoted her life to using her gifts to communicate with animals. But her wild stories don’t just stop with the animals she communicates with. There are also stories of living with her “vixen tigress” aunt, Rue McClanahan (“Blanche” on the beloved American television comedy The Golden Girls), and she even talks about her own scandalous career as a horror movie queen when she herself played the villainous predator “Angela,” in her starring roles in Night of the Demons film series. Amelia teaches us to come to terms with our own wild side — our unexplored spirituality and sexuality, our love for danger, our fascination with supernatural powers, our ache to rescue wild animals and restore our relationship with Nature, even the wildest of the wild.

Amelia Kinkade is the author of WHISPERS FROM THE WILD: Listening to Voices from the Animal Kingdom.

Hear the interview on Thursday, November 3rd at 4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific time at chiforyourself.com.

Tom Sterner was our guest on last week’s CHI FOR YOURSELF. It was his second visit to the program and this time he talked about his book FULLY ENGAGED: Using the Practicing Mind in Daily Life. If you missed the show you can hear it by clicking on this player..

Here are some of the talking points from that interview:

Keep yourself process-oriented
Stay in the present
Make the process the goal and use the overall goal as a rudder to steer your efforts
Be deliberate, have an intention about what you want to accomplish and remain aware of that intention.

Be well,

JohnK 10-31-2016

chiforyourself.com home

Overheard:

“An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.”

~Martin Buber

Today on CHI FOR YOURSELF: Thomas M. Sterner and “Fully Engaged”

October 27, 2016 John Uncategorized No comments

Today’s edition of CHI FOR YOURSELF marks the second visit of Thomas M. Sterner, who visited us several years ago to talk about The Practicing Mind. He’s back today with a book called FULLY ENGAGED: Using the Practicing Mind in Daily Life. We’ll be discussing why simple shifts in perspective can completely transform the experience of going through each day.

Thomas M. Sterner on CHI FOR YOURSELF. Today at 4pm Eastern, 1pm Pacific at chiforyourself.com

JohnK10-27-2016

chiforyourself.com home

Engaging Conversation with Thomas Sterner on CHI FOR YOURSELF

October 24, 2016 John Uncategorized No comments

On the next CHI FOR YOURSELF, we’ll welcome Thomas Sterner. Tom was a guest several years ago when he told us about his book The Practicing Mind. This time he returns with a book that teaches the principles of mindfulness in clear, concise and extremely practical ways. The book puts a special emphasis on helping you reach whatever goals you are working toward in the most efficient and enjoyable way possible.

Thomas M. Sterner is the author of FULLY ENGAGED: Using the Practicing Mind in Daily Life.

Thomas Sterner

Join us for CHI FOR YOURSELF with guest, Thomas M. Sterner, this Thursday, October 27th, at 1pm Pacific, 4pm Eastern time, You can hear the interview by going to the chiforyourself.com Start page.

I’ll look for you then!

JohnK 10-24-2016

chiforyourself.com home

Easy Steps for Finding Your Passion

October 17, 2016 John Uncategorized No comments

We’ve reached the final installment of the series on finding your “why.” This one wraps things up with a nice list of questions to help you get clear on your passion. I send you all the best thoughts toward your exploration. And, in the days to come, I’ll be sending you a little “reminder” in case you’re talking yourself out of it.

Easy Steps for Finding Your Passion

Are you trying to find your passion in life? If so, you are not alone, many people are attempting to this every day. So why is it so difficult to recognize what your true passion is?

It really isn’t that difficult to identify your passion, one easy way to do this is to ask yourself some questions. Let’s take a look at a few examples here.

What do you do outside of work? This should give you a good insight of what your hobbies and interests are.

What one thing do you do whenever you get the chance? This will identify those things that you feel more passionate about.

What makes you feel excited? This is normally associated with those things that you are good at. Mainly your talents and your gifts.

What makes you feel more confident? You may find that talking, writing, singing or art makes you feel this way. Again these are things that you know you are good at, therefore you feel confident. You don’t have to think twice about doing them.

What would you do if you weren’t earning money from it? Again this signifies your passions. You aren’t in it for the money, you truly love doing it and just want to spend your spare time enjoying yourself with this task.

What one thing or item would you like to change in the world? Your answer here could be a multitude of things including providing better drinking water. Helping underprivileged children or to help stop an animal from becoming extinct.

What do you do in your spare time? You probably spend time developing one of your hobbies or talents. You may spend this time writing, creating music or exercising.

What makes you smile? All those things that make you smile are things that you love and enjoy doing. Of course, it doesn’t have to be an item. Spending time with your grandchildren or visiting a seniors home can be other things that put a smile on your face.
Go through this list and start writing down your answers. From here you want to see if there is one thing that gets repeated again and again. If so, chances are that this is your passion. That one thing that you love to do, or want to do whenever you can.

Your next step is to simply start making time for it, and yes you can if you truly want to.

You can listen to this article by clicking on the audio player:

JohnK 10-17-2016

chiforyourself.com home

Overheard-

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

~ Nelson Mandela

Mindfulness- and Munchies!

October 7, 2016 John Uncategorized No comments

We’re settling into fall and our appetites are for things that are warm, like beverages, blankets, and– FOOD! Jo Eager is back with another recipe that is tasty AND healthy.

Our next first-run edition of CHI FOR YOURSELF is scheduled and you’ll be able to join us on the call in the next few weeks. For now, I’ll tell you that we’ll be looking at the principles of mindfulness in clear, concise, and extremely practical ways. It’s all intended to help you reach whatever goals you’re working toward in the most efficient and enjoyable way possible. Details later in a GenuLines post..

I hope you’re benefiting from our series on finding your “why.” Lots of good, actionable points you can put into practice to get you moving toward your purpose. If you haven’t seen it you can check out the latest installment here.

I don’t know about you but I’m getting hungry! Time for another helping of Jo’s Healthy Eats.

Be well,

JohnK 10-7-2016

chiforyourself.com home

Overheard:

“A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.”

~ Aesop

Does Your Life Hold Meaning?

October 3, 2016 John Uncategorized No comments

We’re moving right along in the CHI FOR YOURSELF series on finding your “why.” Time to take notice of feelings that are surfacing. Maybe you’re a little down and thinking that your life doesn’t have much meaning. If so, this installment is intended to give you the courage to keep move through the feelings.

Does Your Life Hold Meaning?

Can you honestly say that your life holds meaning for you? If you are not sure, then do you know how to identify your true calling in life? Once you do the next step is to have the strength to follow it.

Many people sit and feel quite depressed about not knowing what they should be doing with their life. This happens early in life. Do you remember being in high school and having to choose a career for the rest of your life? Talk about feeling pressured at a young age.

Everyone has some type of true calling or purpose in life, and yes life does have a meaning. Sometimes your true calling is staring you in the face, you just don’t recognize it yet.

Your true calling can be identified in various ways. Many people believe that God will show them the way to their true calling. Others experience dreams that open up their eyes to a new opportunity.

You have no doubt heard stories about people experiencing death and then coming back to life. When they recover they find they have a new outlook on life altogether.

Now, you don’t have to wait for something terrible to happen to you! Instead, you can start discovering your true calling and the meaning of life yourself.

Sit down and think about what it is that you would love to do with your life. Think about what you would do if money was no objection and you didn’t have to worry about anyone but yourself.

Write down all the things that come to mind. If you have several put them in order of priority. Which is the one item that you truly feel passionate about? Then ask yourself– if you were to do this would you feel as though your life had meaning?

When you can truly answer these questions openly and honestly you will be well on your way to uncovering what the meaning of life has for you. Remember we are all different and no two people will see something in the same way.
Your next step is to be courageous and follow your passion. You may be surprised at the opportunities that open up for you. There is no reason for anyone to be sitting and feeling unfulfilled, or thinking that their life has no purpose. It does, you just have to find yours.

Listen to this article by clicking on the following player:

JohnK 10-3-2016

chiforyourself.com home

Overheard: “Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself.”
~ Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan

Can Anger Identify Your Passion?

September 26, 2016 John Uncategorized No comments

LIfe seems to provide an endless supply of things that make us angry, bugged, hassled, or ticked-off! Yet if we examine those feelings they can take us a long way toward finding our fulfillment. This next installment in the CHI FOR YOURSELF series on finding your “why” is offered to you as another tool for self-discovery.

Can Anger Identify Your Passion?

If you have read any type of self-development or improvement information, you know you are told to find those things that make you feel happy. Everyone should have a passion in life, as this helps you add meaning to your life. But just how do you find it?

One way to identify your passion is to look at those things that make you angry. You know, those times when you fly off the handle without even thinking about it. This could be when you see an animal being mistreated or hear about a child being abused.

Still not sure what your passion is? Then take a look around you and make note of all the things that make you upset. Anything that stirs some type of emotion in you; tears, anger, or frustration.

It can be helpful to write these things down, especially if you have more than one thing that bothers you. Once you have your list select the main one that troubles you the most. This would be the one thing that you would happily fix if you could.

The more personal this becomes the more passionate you will be. If you have seen one of your pets abused first hand, this would resonate with you on a much deeper level.

When you get angry your feelings can often overwhelm you. You have no real control over them and they flare up unexpectedly. What this signifies is that you are dealing with something you are passionate about. Your goal is to now take this energy and turn it into a passion instead of feeling angry.

When identifying your passion you need to pick that one thing that you can identify with. You don’t want to bend to the rules of society and be passionate about something just to be part of a group.

Finding your passion often entails getting out of your comfort zone. It is way too easy to like something just because a friend does. It is much harder to stick up for yourself and stay passionate to your true feelings.

By being true to your own feelings, you are fulfilling your life. You are doing something meaningful and making a difference. Not everyone is going to approve of what your passion is. You need to have the confidence to stay on track, if and when friends try to tell you otherwise. This way you will know you are being true to yourself and to your passion.

You can listen to this article by clicking on the player: