Welcome to my blog

Congratulations and welcome to friends, family and others who have found something of interest in my blog. The reason that I have created this blog is to share some of my experiences regarding my own journey of writing and publishing my autobiography. I am really excited and motivated about this whole process. I hope that what I write about is interesting to you and thank you for your encouragement and support.





Monday, April 25, 2011

Hate to love!

How many times have you heard yourself saying “I really hate it when ……”

I remember when growing up my mum always told me that “hate” was a very strong word and to be careful whenever I used it.  I can honestly say that I don’t hate anyone, but sometimes I think that I hate what they DO, not who they are! 

In the past week I have held 2 new born babies and when I looked into both of their precious little eyes, I knew in my heart of hearts, that there is no such thing as an evil baby, a devil child or a hateful, revengeful, angry, bitter bone in their bodies.  When we are born, we are pure love, no matter what circumstances may have lead to our creation and being ness. 

If we are not born to hate, then hate must be a learned behaviour.  Just as we learn to eat, crawl, walk and talk, we also learn what we like and dislike.  This is all based on our personal experiences or what the people we love tell us from their experiences.

In most dictionaries hate is described as “to DISLIKE intensely or passionately”.    It therefore makes sense that the opposite of hate is love.  Hence, we “LIKE something intensely or passionately.”  

So what are some of the things that we have LEARNED to hate.  Throughout our lives we constantly use our senses to help guide us in our learning.  We are always reacting to how something tastes, feels, sounds, looks or smells.  Some of these things will make us feel good and some of these things will make us feel bad.  All of these experiences are sent to our MEMORY bank and stored for future reference.  These memories are later grouped together with other life lessons and an overall personal judgement is made.

Usually when we come to the conclusion that we strongly don’t like (hate) something, this is based on an accumulation of all of these bad experiences and this decision is intensified when combined with other people’s bad experiences. 

Usually when we don’t like (hate) something we are silently saying that we are quite scared of it.  This is commonly known as FEAR. 

Now the problem is, sometimes FEAR is just;

False-Evidence-Appearing-Real

So before you come to the conclusion that you hate someone or something, perhaps you might want to come back to your SENSES and ask yourself is this TRUE or FALSE!

Until next time! 

Joy

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Anita Heiss Blog: Anita’s Black Book Challenge (BBC)

Anita Heiss Blog: Anita’s Black Book Challenge (BBC): "Most of us have heard of the BBC’s Book Challenge listing 100 books. Somewhere (probably on Facebook) it was claimed that most people had o..."

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Am I happy

How many of you regularly ask yourself “Am I happy?”

Do you cruise through life thinking, I wish I was happier? 

Do you even know what happiness is?

I bet you have a huge list of things that you know make you happy and feed your spirit.  Some of these make you happy right now and some of these are on a wish list of “things to do” that will make you happy later.

Some are free and some cost a lot of money.  Some may take a little while, yet others may take a lot of time and effort. 

I’m sure you would agree that no one knows you better than yourself.  So it makes sense that YOU know, what makes you happy.  However, if this were so true, then why are you still asking yourself “Am I happy?”

I have pondered this question and searched relentlessly for the answer, but it wasn’t until I opened a book called “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren that I realised that “It’s not all about me!”  Shock, horror! 

Up until that point in my life, I had attended a million self-focused workshops that were completely aimed at improving my level of self-esteem, self-satisfaction, self-worth, self-determination and self-happiness.  At the end of all of these workshops I always walked out feeling very self-inflated.  However, looking back, I can now see that the one thing that these workshops helped me to become was very SELF-ISH!

Now hang on a minute I hear you screaming!  I  I  I  I  I!   Yes that’s right, Rick Warren was right and yes life really isn’t about you!  (or me).  What I’ve since discovered is that the greatest happiness in life actually comes when we take the focus off ourselves and meet the needs of others. 

When we can unconditionally love, forgive, share and help others FIRST then amazing things begin to happen in our own lives.

When we put our own needs first we are FORE-getting before we FORE-give.

How many of you are prepared to give without expecting anything in return?

Do you have an attitude of gratitude?  Are you thankful for everything you receive?  Do you help others before you help yourself? 

I challenge you to honestly spend 1 week putting others needs and wants first.  This needs to be done without any resentment or expectation of rewards in return.  Then wait patiently and see what flows back to you.   I’m sure you will be pleasantly surprised and this will undoubtedly make you happy.

Until next time!  Are you up to the challenge? 

Joy