Category Archives: Inspirational

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A Journey Worth Pursuing: Overcoming Adversity

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Guest Blogger: Danielle M. smile

At one point or another, we will all experience adversity in our life. From personal grief to major, life-shaking events, there are a number of ways the human spirit can be tested. Overcoming adversity can ultimately strengthen your physical and mental health and help you to gain an even greater sense of commitment to your goals and plans going forward. While your situation may seem impossible at the time, there are a number of examples throughout history that demonstrate the power of personal ingenuity and collaboration that show that with hard work and belief, even the most terrible circumstances can be overcome.

Physical Health

Responding to difficult circumstances can put a major toll on your physical health. It’s not uncommon to alter your sleeping patterns and either sleep too much or too little as a way of coping with the stresses in your life. Unfortunately, this can lead to depression, anxiety, and fluctuations in weight that will make it harder for you to stay resilient and formulate a plan of action to overcome the adversity in your life. One step toward growing strong and facing your challenges is to take steps to improve your physical health. Aim to sleep at least 7-8 hours every night and try to go to bed and rise at the same time each day. You should also get a little physical activity in every day. It’s ok to start small; take a few walks around the block or start lifting soup cans in the kitchen to slowly build up muscle tone. Gradually work up to 30-60 minutes of physical exertion a few times a week, and use that time to give yourself a break from your troubles and gain both perspective and physical health.

Mental Health

The journey toward overcoming adversity can be challenging, but the path is worth it. Working to improve your circumstances will improve your overall mental health and resilience. It’s normal to feel overwhelmed when the problems in your life start to accumulate, but remember that you are in control. Take small steps toward positive action. Make a to-do list, mediate for 5 minutes each morning, think about the people and influences in your life that you are thankful for. Cultivating an attitude of positive mental health can help you better address your problems and effectively overcome the challenges that you face.

Shining Stars

Throughout history, many individuals have demonstrated their courage in the face of adversity. Booker T. Washington famously wrote about his struggles to educate and free himself from physical and mental slavery. In addition, we can look to the Chickasaw People for their collective effort to overcome the incredible challenges of being uprooted from their sacred land and forcibly moved across the country. The Chickasaw have emerged as a close-knit, culturally rich group of people because they preserved their story of suffering and vowed to stay strong in the face of adversity. They value the story of their triumph in the face of such challenge, and that history makes them stronger to this day.

Staying focused on the positive and looking back at what you’ve learned as you go through your journey to overcome adversity will ultimately make you a stronger, healthier person. It is truly a journey worth pursuing, no matter how long the path.

About the Author

Danielle M. is a marketing student interested in consumer behavior and internet marketing. In her spare time she blogs about music and volunteers with her local humane society.

positive lifestyle

Attract Positivity to Your Life with These Helpful Tips

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Guest Blogger: Annabelle Smythpositive lifestyle

No one wants to walk around in a cloud of negativity. However, it can be difficult to break out of that negative mindset. There are several ways to begin to attract positivity in your life.

Be at Peace with your Current Circumstances

It may seem counter-intuitive but the first step toward positivity is to be at peace with where you currently are in your life. Sometimes, the more you try to escape, resist, or run away from your current life, the more it seems to drag you back in. Simply observe your current circumstances without judging. If possible, let things be as they are without focusing on the negativity.

Visualize

Begin to visualize the kind of life that you want to have for yourself. Create an image and actively see yourself living that life. Don’t focus on any specific outcome. Visualization is effective because it allows you to see yourself acting in positive circumstances. Visualizing a desired outcome will help you to be ready when that circumstance becomes reality.

Pretend That You Have What You Want

Once you can imagine your desired life, you can begin creating it. The first step is to pretend that you already have it and begin acting as such. Walk as though you are a success. Speak with confidence. Positivity attracts positivity. Negativity attracts negativity. Mastering the art of behaving positively will often draw what you seek into your life.

Seek Positivity

Seek out positive people. Negative people drain the energy of others. When you surround yourself with people who are eager to criticize or discourage you, you are eliminating possibilities. It is almost impossible to experience positivity when you are confronted with doubt and pessimism at every turn. In addition, spending time with those who are always negative will only teach you to emulate negativity. Watching positive people will help you to learn their habits.

Find a Life Coach

In Detroit, life coaching is becoming popular. An experienced coach can help you learn the tools of positivity. A life coach in Detroit is trained to help you take positive steps toward improving your life. They can be that positive support person who will help you move out of the sea of negativity.

Regardless of your current circumstances, you can have positivity in your life. Begin to visualize and act. Seek positive people. Utilize the services of a professional life coach and watch the positivity unfold in your life.

About the Author

Annabelle is currently a loving and caring mother of two children. She lives outside of Milwaukee, WI, and loves cheering for the Bucks and Badgers. She is a blog enthusiast and loves writing, if she is not writing she is cleaning up after her two lovely angels. 

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Recovering after a Traumatic Event

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Guest Blogger: Nancy Parker prayer

There are things that happen in life that define us, they can be amazing celebrations or tragic events. Sometimes we get to choose the amazing parts of our life but the tragedies are thrust upon us. Each event changes us for better or for worse, and even though it feels as if we have no choice in the way it changes us, we must remember that we do indeed have a choice.

I have read about the stages of grief; sometimes it can be helpful to read about what we are feeling and try and make sense of it. But more often than not our feelings don’t happen in a particular order and seem to blur together in a psychedelic hodgepodge of emotions. We all deal with tragedy in different ways but we all end up in one of two places. We either come to terms with these emotions after time or we choose not to.

I had a series of tragic events take place in my life, one right after another. It was as if the dominoes fell in perfect alignment down the corridors of my life. First there was a separation from which I felt betrayed, confused, and oh, so angry. Not too long after that I was in a serious automobile accident, no doubt that it was brought on from the previous emotional condition. With the accident came a new set of emotions, guilt for not being there for my children, loss because of the physical damage sustained in the accident, and overwhelming terror as to how I would get things back to any normalcy. I had trouble making the right decisions, I allowed people and things into my life that should not have been.

There was pile upon pile of emotions at this point, blending together like all the colors on a palette, and turning into only blackness. I was always aware that this place that I found myself wasn’t where I wanted to be. Sometimes when we find ourselves in this situation instead of crying out to those who love us for help, we tend to shun them. I found, at least in my situation, that it is true what they say about it being darkest before the light.

When you finally arrive at the bottom, there are many ways to find help. Loved ones, medical professionals, counselors, programs, and last but not least, God. As for me, when I reached this place in my emotional downward spiral, I cried out to my heavenly Father. I was so far down inside myself that I had nowhere else to go. I feel this was where he was waiting for me.

I had a relationship with the Lord all of my life and I always felt that our relationship was good. When we evaluate our relationship to God as we walk through our lives when everything is going smoothly, we don’t often see the shallowness of our hearts as we do during tragedy. I believe He uses these times in our lives to bring us closer to Him so that He can show us the depth of His love. He does not cause these things to happen to us, but He does allow them because He sees the emptiness in our lives that can only be filled by His presence.

I am aware that not everyone believes the same way. I am just sharing my story with you of how I was able to come out of one of the darkest parts of my life and become whole again; neither am I saying that it happened over night. Yes, He rescued me that hour, giving me a great sense of hope, light, and an overwhelming sense of His love. But the process of healing through the reading of the word of God and Him lifting me up by His great love has taken many years.

The important thing in recovering from tragedy is to indeed recover. If you find yourself in this dark place, you need to force yourself to reach out for help. Only in coming out of self and reaching out for help can we ever begin to heal.

Author Bio

Nancy Parker was a professional nanny and she loves to write about wide range of subjects like health, Parenting, Child Care, Babysitting, nanny, www.enannysource.com/ etc. You can reach her @ nancy.parker015 @ gmail.com.

The Worth of Dreams The Value of Dreamers

Facing Forward

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Guest Blogger: Ken La SalleThe Worth of Dreams The Value of Dreamers

“Don’t let 2013 discourage you, even if it is an unlucky number,” my friend, Brad, told me over a few beers. Little did he know I was considering what to write about on Recovering the Self this month. Last year, I wrote about assessing and reassessing your plans and strategies for the previous year, but I know better than anyone how easy it is to get discouraged. And, I suppose, for some people that number 13 might get in the way as well.

You see, I wasn’t always Mister Up-beat-talking-about-going-after-my-dreams. Not at all. I used to get very discouraged over every setback, and I certainly saw each New Year as a large setback indeed! I’d think, “There goes another year.” I’d watch it go right by me, missed opportunities and all.

The difference between that guy and the person writing this article? Now, when the new year comes, I face forward, focus on the horizon, and look for what opportunities the new year will bring. It’s really that simple: turning from one direction to the other.

And the New Year is a terrific time to make that shift in direction because, after all, everyone is facing that way. So many people talk about New Year’s Resolutions and the like, it’s very easy to go with the flow and face the same direction as everyone else. You don’t have to make a resolution. In fact, if you ask me, a single resolution is small-time thinking.

If you shift your attention forward, you can go from looking for one opportunity in the New Year – I hate the term “resolution” because it’s so inflexible – to really planning out your strategies for the entire year ahead.

In my own case, I’ve been looking forward to the New Year for about a month now. After all, my wife and I make our holiday plans long before they come around. That leaves me with plenty of time to look out into the coming year and see what opportunities are coming my way. If I can’t see any, I make some. My dreams deserve no less!

My plans for the beginning of 2013 are very ambitious and I’d like to share one with you right now. Once the year begins, and just as this article goes live on the Recovering the Self site, I’ll begin distribution for a new podcast called So Dream Something. Twice each month, I’ll interview someone who is pursuing their dream and we’ll talk about what it’s like to be a dreamer and what they’re doing to make their dreams come true.

This podcast has been such a great fit that I’ve been enthusiastic about its release since my wife, Vicky, and I first began discussing it late in November. Anyone who has read my work – either here on Recovering the Self, in The Worth of Dreams The Value of Dreamers, or in my book Climbing Maya – knows how enthusiastic I am about our passions in life. Our passions to understand, to experience, to love, to find fulfillment, are essential to making us into the people we wish we could be.

That’s what dreams are: not ends in themselves, but means toward the end of self-discovery and fulfillment.

And that’s why that shift from the past to the future, from regret to discovery, is so important. No longer are you watching who you could have been slip from your grasp. Now, you are facing the person you wish to become, taking an active role in your own creation, going after your dream.

I hope you’ll enjoy So Dream Something as we shift our focus toward our passions in life twice each month. If you are pursuing your dream, I’d love to hear from you. You can contact me through Recovering the Self – just leave me a comment below – or through my website at www.kenlasalle.com.

It’s like Brad said, “2013 is only unlucky if we let it be. Otherwise, it can be a great year.”

About the Author

Ken La Salle is an author and playwright out of Anaheim, California. His passion is intense humor, meaningful drama, and finding answers to the questions that define our lives. You can find his books on Amazon and Smashwords and all major etailers. His philosophical memoir, Climbing Maya, is available in ebook and paperback. His audio book, The Worth of Dreams The Value of Dreamers, is available on iTunes, Audible, and all major etailers. You can follow Ken’s writing career on his website at www.kenlasalle.com.

Oscar Pistorius

Disability is Not a Disadvantage

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Guest Blogger: Mitchell NelsonOscar Pistorius

Helen Keller was both deaf and blind. Some people might view these as disabilities. But she didn’t believe them but believed in her own capacity to achieve great things. She has been known as a remarkable author, political activist, and lecturer since. Beethoven was profoundly deaf but this didn’t stop him either from being a worldwide-known musician.

Similarly, Bach was blind but his name extols magnitude for being supremely a classic composer through the ages. All these stories show that being “disabled” is not really a disadvantage. In this article, we will talk about the life of Oscar Pistorius to expound on this thought.

Fastest Sprint Runner with No Legs

Imagine running without legs from knee down. How is that even possible?, you may ask. It’s very interesting to know that that there are such people who exist in the world. The most popular one as of date is Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius. He is Olympics’ most controversial figure, the world record-holder for 200 and 400 sprint running events. What’s even amazing is that with his prosthetic legs made of carbon fiber attached to his knees, he can run like there’s no tomorrow!

Oscar did not have legs since the day he was born. This disability did not stop him from reaching his dream of becoming good at sports. He has been training since his teenage years and had won many competitions in different track and field championships in South Africa, his home country. Without any negative thoughts about his disadvantage against other runners, he continued to race and improved his running skills enough to take the lead in the Olympics.

To quote Pistorius, “Being disabled doesn’t have to be a disadvantage.” As a double amputee, Oscar has 25 percent less energy compared to the other able-bodied athletes. This was based on a scientific study conducted about the strength his leg muscles can contain. A small team of scientists based in the US concluded that Oscar uses other factors like endurance, oxygen consumption, apart from mechanical movements, to win competitions. Albeit without legs, he still has other body parts that can enable him to have an edge towards every race.

Oscar does not make excuses for failure. Aside from running, he’s also into training water polo, Olympic wrestling, and tennis. Many people are inspired by his determination and regarded him as the Flex-Foot Cheetah and branded him as the Blade Runner.

Competitions where he earned gold medals were Nedbank Championships for the Physically Disabled 2007, Summer Paralympics 2004, 2008, and 20012, Visa Paralympic World Cup 2005, IPC World Championships 2001, 2006 and 2011, World Sportsfest 2008, Dutch Open National Championships 2008, German Open National Championships 2008, Visa Paralympic World Cup 2005, Meeting Internazionale di Atletica Sports Solidarity 2011, and the latest London Olympics 2012.

Conclusion

Parents may be dismayed seeing their newborns with disabilities. But by honing their mentality to think about how they can use their disability and turn it into something positive, magic can take place. People with disabilities should not belittle themselves and should not give up in life anyhow. They must persist to learn that as long as there’s life and air to breathe, there is no stopping them from getting what they have to attain. Nobody is perfect, but everybody can be champions—even those physically challenged, if only the work on improving what they lack.

Before ending this article, take Oscar’s sporting motto: “You’re not disabled by the disabilities you have; you are able by the abilities you have.” Look at the brighter side in life and have a mind of a fighter. Challenge yourself to win the course and the path you wish to choose and succeed.

About the Author 

Mitchell has been involved in the insurance industry since 2004 and is the President of MyLTCPlans.com, subsidiaries of Secura Consultants. Mitchell is responsible for the development and expansion of the online retail disability and long-term care insurance business, building client relationships, disability plan design development and implementation.