Mindfully Making New Years Resolution

 



Generally speaking, these aspirational changes are quite helpful and healthy. They guide us to make substantive, meaningful change in our lives. 

We might decide to get in shape in order to feel better and (hopefully) be able to live longer to spend more time with our family. We might decide to get a new job in order to feel more satisfied at work.

Whatever the desired change and motivation, New Year's resolutions provide an opportunity to recognize important personal values and articulate related goals for fulfillment.


So, what does mindfulness have to offer?   

 Is an objective awareness of the present moment with its focus on acceptance applicable to the establishment and pursuit of life-changing actions?  Put simply, "no."

 Mindfulness with its emphasis on experiencing the present as it exists is not too keen on changing it. 

Unless one of your resolutions is to practice mindfulness or acceptance more regularly in 2010, then the emphasis on being present in the now won't help you realize your goals. 

Think about it: is mindfulness going to get you to go to the gym or line-up a series of job interviews?   Of course not. 

 However, some of the essential qualities of mindfulness can be helpful for you.

In his seminal book, Full Catastrophe Living, 
Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn outlined what he described as -

the "attitudinal foundations of mindfulness."

Non-judging

Patience

Beginner's Mind

Trust

Non-striving

Acceptance 

Letting Go






In addition, I would add "Non-identification" as another aspect of mindfulness.  

Taken together and applied sensitively to your resolutions, these qualities will help you approach your desired changes in ways that are sensitive, respectful, and supportive of change.



 
Non-judging

This perspective involves suspending our tendency to evaluate experiences.

However, if you've made a resolution for 2013, then it's too late: you've already made a judgment in deciding on something to change. Fortunately, we can adopt a non-judging approach to our resolutions subsequently. We can stop second-guessing our resolutions as good, bad, or "not enough," for example.


Patience

This one is probably obvious. Change typically doesn't happen overnight, and we need to be patient as we try to bring about something new in our lives. Intellectually, we understand this fact, but it's harder to appreciate through actual experience.


Beginner's Mind

This principle refers to the ability to experience the present moment as if it were existing for the very first time, which-of course-it is. You haven't been in this precise time and space until now. For the New Year, it means that these resolutions of ours are brand new. Even if they're something that we've made in the past, we've never had the opportunity to make them in 2013. Thus, we need to approach these resolutions with an attitude of freshness and curiosity. Whatever happened previously is over. All we have is our resolutions manifest in the here-and-now.


Trust

Trust refers to the ability to have faith in our intuitive wisdom as well as the present moment. For our resolutions, it means cultivating the ability to recognize that we'll know how to best approach them. Even if we don't know how to accomplish something, we can be confident in knowing when we don't know, and perhaps seeking some advice or guidance.


Non-striving

This one might seem a bit antithetical to having New Year's resolutions. Aren't they all about striving for something? Sure. However, we can embody our desire for change through gentle persistence as opposed to brute force. There's no need to push hard for realization of our resolutions when a simple nudge or light pressure will suffice.


Acceptance

Just as the present moment needs to be accepted as it exists, so does our relationship to whatever change we're trying to make. We are here, regardless of where we want to be. Telling ourselves that we need or should be someplace else (physically, emotionally, occupationally, etc.) provides little motivation. More often than not, we feel miserable and discouraged as we work towards change. For example, if you've lost one pound, you've lost one pound. This is true regardless of the fact that you want to lose 20 pounds or that it's Week #8 of your new diet and exercise regimen.


Letting Go

We need to abandon our desire for things to be different than how they are? Obviously, this is not relevant to resolutions in which we're actively trying to be different. However, sometimes we hold on to fantasies about our past or future, which make it more difficult to engage the present. For example, reminiscing about how athletic you were in high school is not likely to help you much in getting in shape now. So, we often need to let go of these remembrances and desires in order to better address what's happening for us now.


Non-identification

Mindfulness encourages us to recognize the present moment without becoming too wrapped-up in it personally.  Similarly, our self-worth is not dependent on whether or not we succeed or fail in realizing our New Year's Resolutions. If you abandon or forget your resolution, it's okay. You are not a better or worse person. And, if it truly troubles you, you can always try again in the next moment or even wait until next year.


Finally, it's important to recognize that your realization of your New Year's resolutions likely will not happen in an instant.

It's not as if you suddenly will lose 20 pounds or instantly land a job. Rather, it will take a series of successive moments as you work towards the change that you seek. Hmm...successive present moments? What can we do with those?

 Source:
The Mindful Gorilla

 http://themindfulgorilla.blogspot.ca/

Ludwig von Mises Institute : The Austrian School Is Advancing Liberty

 

"We owe the origin and development of human society and, consequently, of culture and civilization, to the fact that work performed under the division of labor is more productive than when performed in isolation."

— Ludwig von Mises, in Epistemological Problems of Economics

Source:
Ludwig von Mises Institute : The Austrian School Is Advancing Liberty

http://mises.org/


 

Find your path, your purpose, your focus...

Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear all they had, all they have now, and all they expect to have." Edward E. Hale


 "Patience and time accomplish more than strength or passion." — Jean de La Fontaine


 "Happiness is not a goal, but a byproduct."  -- Eleanor Roosevelt


"Life comes at us in waves. We can't predict or control those waves, but we can learn to surf." — Dan Millman


 "Strive not to be a success but rather to be of value." — Albert Einstein 

“To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.   ― Goethe http://www.goethesociety.org/pages/quotescom.html

 "Stay firmly in your own path, and dare." — Paul Gauguin


"The world makes way for those who know where they’re going." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Dream big but start small. Then connect the dots...)



 
"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back-- Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. 

All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. 

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."
-- W. H. Murray in The Scottish Himalaya Expedition

How to be Happy in 12 Simple Steps

By SONJA LYUBOMIRSKY






STEP 1 - Show gratitude 

(* There's a lot more to gratitude than saying "thank you." Emerging research shows that people who are consistently grateful are happier, more energetic and hopeful, more forgiving and less materialistic. Gratitude needs to be practised daily because it doesn't necessarily come naturally.)


STEP 2 - Cultivate Optimism


STEP 3 - Avoid overthinking and social comparison

(* Many of us believe that when we feel down we should try to focus inwardly to attain self-insight and find solutions to our problems. But numerous studies have shown that overthinking sustains or worsens sadness.)


STEP 4 - Practice kindnessChewbaaka and Koya



STEP 5 - Nurture social relationships


STEP 6 - Develop coping skills


STEP 7 - Learn to forgive 

(* Forgiveness is not the same thing as reconciliation, pardoning or condoning. Nor is it a denial of your own hurt. Forgiveness is a shift in thinking and something that you do for yourself and not for the person who has harmed you. Research confirms that clinging to bitterness or hate harms you more than the object of your hatred. Forgiving people are less likely to be hostile, depressed, anxious or neurotic.


* Forgive yourself for past wrongs. Recognising that you too can be a transgressor will make you more empathetic to others. )


STEP 8 - Find more flow

(* "Flow" was a phrase coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the 1960s. It means you are totally immersed in what you are doing and unaware of yourself. Happy people have the capacity to enjoy their lives even when their material conditions are lacking and even when many of their goals have not been reached.)


STEP 9 - Savour the day



STEP 10 - Commit to your goals 

(* People who strive for something personally significant, whether it's learning a new craft or changing careers, are far happier than those who don't have strong dreams or aspirations. Working towards a goal is more important to wellbeing than its attainment.)


STEP 11 - Take care of your soul

 (* A growing body of psychological research suggests that religious people are happier, healthier and recover better after traumas than nonreligious people. ...

* Find the sacred in ordinary life ...)

STEP 12 - Take care of your body

"The How of Happiness" Sonja Lyubomirsky - TalkRational



Sonja Lyubomirsky

link: http://lyubomirsky.socialpsychology.org/




 

Multiple Sclerosis has no cure but don't let the facts defeat you.

When something of an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.
- Rousseau


Or you learn to work around the obstacle, if it is an incurable disease like M.S. that is ongoing and causes systematically more disability.


It is important to take an attitude of adapting and thriving in spite of the disease.  

Leave the cure to the scientists and manage your life with the attitude that you can deal with the problems created by the disease. 

You will probably need to give up some activities,like the balance beam (LOL) and other athletic pursuits that require balance, strength or require being on your feet for too long. 


Focus on what you can still do and not on what you have lost.

Develop Reilience by cultivating an Optimistic Outlook

 

This is an interesting article to me because  I'm always asking myself, "how do some children get out of bad situations and go on to be o.k. in life?".  How does a kid graduate from the ghetto and go on to complete his or her education and become a constructive, contributing member of society?

The article discusses 12 Step programs at the very bottom BUT I think that is just one answer.

There are many types of sustaining relationships and 12 Steps is just one of more convenient and available ways to network with positive minded people.  People have been improving their situations since the beginnings of mankind...

The more we develop qualities of strength and resilience, the more insulated we are against the effects of trauma. 

"We need to do all of those things that allow us to remain healthy in body and mind like eat well, sleep well, find meaningful, self-sustaining work and build relationship networks..."

Learn to be optimistic...

 ....................................

 

Resilience, Recovery and Optimism

Posted: 09/05/2012 2:55 pm

Adult Children Of Alcoholics , Acoas , Addiction and Recovery , Addiction and Recovery , Addiction And Recovery Research , Addiction Research , Alcoholism , Children Of Alcoholics , Optimism , Recovery , Recovery Research , Recovery Week , Resilience , Healthy Living News

Troubled families can make their children feel powerless and bad about themselves.

Growing up with one or more parents who abuse alcohol or drugs certainly makes one a card-carrying member of this not-so-exclusive club, as does growing up with mental illness, parental abuse or neglect.


But how is it that some kids seem to do well in life in spite of this sort of trauma and drama within the home while others do not?

How do some children find ways to feel good about themselves and life in spite of the powerful influence of their parents?

According to studies, resilience seems to develop out of the challenge to maintain self-esteem.

Resilient kids seem to somehow soak up positive feelings from their environment almost "surreptitiously" and reach out for more. 

Understanding what makes up resilience helps to counter what researchers refer to as the "damage" model -- the idea that if you've had a troubled childhood, you are condemned to a troubled adulthood or you are operating without strengths. (Wolin and Wolin 1993)

In fact, adversity can actually develop strength if we learn to mobilize and make use of the supports that are at our disposal.

While it is indeed critical to go back and rework significant issues that block our ability to be present and productive in the here and now, focusing exclusively on the negative qualities of ourselves, others and the damage they wreak on our lives can sometimes have the adverse effect of weakening the self and our relationships rather than strengthening them.

 Nothing is black and white, and no one -- not even the most fortunate among us -- makes it through life unscathed.

 So what questions do we need to ask ourselves in order to find that invisible line between too little and too much focus on a painful past?

 Is there some sort of magical number of adverse events or circumstances that become too many to overcome? 

Can they be offset by positive events or the way in which we handle the difficult cards that life deals us? 

If the latter, what are the determining factors?

Why do some people thrive in, or even grow from, adversity, while others seem more disabled by it?


What Makes for Resilience?

Resilience, say researchers, is a dynamic and interactive process that builds on itself; it is not just a state of self but of self in relationship. 

The ability of a child to access friends, mentors and community supports is a significant part of what allows one child to do well where another might experience a tougher time. 

Resilient kids tend to have "protective factors" that buffer bad breaks. 

Researchers find that two of these resilience-enhancing factors have emerged time and again. 

They are:

(1) good cognitive functioning (like cognitive self-regulation and basic intelligence) and

(2) positive relationships (especially with competent adults, like parents or grandparents).

Children who have protective factors in their lives tend to do better in some challenging environments when compared with children, in the same environments, without protective factors. (Yates et al 2003; Luthar 2006)

Resilient kids appear to have the ability to use the support available to them in their environment to their advantage.

A kind neighbor, a grandparent or relative, a faith-based institution, or an unchaotic school environment, along with a child's ability to make positive use of them, can help a child to thrive.

Terrible things happen to people all over the world, but interwoven with those terrible things are often the meaningful sources of support that help people to overcome their circumstances and go on to have purposeful and meaningful lives. 

In working through the pain of a traumatic past, it is important to identify not only what hurt us, but what sustained us.


Creating Resilience Through Recovery

So resilience, it turns out, is not only about personal qualities, but a combination of how what we have within us can interface with available supports in our environment. 

Key to being a resilient person is realizing that many resilient characteristics are under our control, especially once we reach adulthood; we can consciously and proactively develop them. 

And the more we develop qualities of strength and resilience, the more insulated we are against the effects of trauma. 

What we call resilient children tend to show these qualities as adults:

• They can identify the illness in their family and are able to find ways to distance themselves from it; they don't let the family dysfunction destroy them.

• They work through their problems but don't tend to make that a lifestyle.

• They take active responsibility for creating their own successful lives.

• They tend to have constructive attitudes toward themselves and their lives.

• They tend not to fall into self-destructive lifestyles.


How Optimism May Build Resilience

In his presidential address to the American Psychological Association, psychologist Martin Seligman, one of the world's leading scholars on learned helplessness and depression, urged psychology to "turn toward understanding and building the human strengths to complement our emphasis on healing damage." (Seligman 1998, 1999) 

That speech launched today's positive psychology movement. Seligman also became one of the world's leading scholars on optimism.

Optimists, says Seligman, see life through a positive lens. 

They see bad events as temporary setbacks or isolated to particular circumstances that can be overcome by their effort and abilities. 

Pessimists, on the other hand, react to setbacks from a presumption of personal helplessness. 

They feel that bad events are their fault, will last a long time, and will undermine everything they do (ibid).

Through his research, Seligman saw that the state of helplessness was a learned phenomenon.

He also realized that un-helplessness could be learned as well. 

We could, in other words, learn to be optimists. 

He suggests that we learn to "hear" (and even write down) our beliefs about the events that block us from feeling good about ourselves or our lives and pay attention to the "recordings" we play in our head about them. 

Seligman also suggests we then write out the consequences of those beliefs -- the toll they take on our emotions, energy, will to act, and the like. 

He suggests that once we become familiar with the pessimistic thought patterns we run through our heads, we challenge them (ibid).

For example, we can challenge the usefulness of a specific belief and generate alternative ideas and solutions that might be better. 

We can choose to see problems as temporary, the way an optimist would, and that in itself provides psychological boundaries.

This new type of thinking can stop the "loop" of negative tapes we run through our heads. 

Over time, this more optimistic thinking becomes engrained as our default position, and as we choose optimism over pessimism through repeated experiences, we are rewarded with new energy and vitality.

It is entirely possible to go through painful life experiences and process as we go. 

When we do this, we actually build strength from facing and managing our own reactions to tough situations.

We learn from our setbacks and mistakes and sharpen our skills for living successfully.

Building resilience also includes processing what might be in the way of it -- what old complexes, that is, are still undermining our happiness? (Crawford, Wright, and Masten 2005; Ungar et al 2007)

Actively taking responsibility for the effects that a painful past may have had on us and taking the necessary steps to work through our conflicts and complexes is part of creating resilience in adulthood.

But still, that's not the whole story of healing. 

We also need to adopt the lifestyle changes that will make our gains sustainable and renewable.

We need to do all of those things that allow us to remain healthy in body and mind like eat well, sleep well, find meaningful, self-sustaining work and build relationship networks.

Twelve-step programs help us to heal from emotional and psychological wounds and give us a safe place to land and begin recovery, particularly if we have grown up with or lived with addiction (alanon.org). 

And they can provide a safety net and a relationship network as we take steps to build the life we want to have.




Partially excerpted from The ACoA Trauma Syndrome.



References

Crawford, E., M. O. Wright, and A. Masten. 2005. "Resilience and Spiri- tuality in Youth." Pages 355-370 in E. C. Roehlkepartain, P. E. King, L. Wagener, and P. L. Benson (Eds.), Handbook of Spiritual Development in Child- hood and Adolescence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Luthar, S. S. 2006. "Resilience in Development: A Synthesis of Research Across Five Decades." In D. Cicchetti and D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Develop- mental Psychopathology: Risk, Disorder, and Adaptation, second edition. New York: Wiley.

Seligman, M. P. 1998. President's Address to the 1998 American Psychologi- cal Association's (APA) Annual Meeting. Published as part of the "APA 1998 Annual Report" in American Psychologist 54(8): 559-562.

Ungar, M., M. Brown, L. Liebenberg, R. Othman, W. M. Kwong, M. Armstrong, and J. Gilgun. 2007. "Unique Pathways to Resilience Across Cultures." Adolescence 42(166): 287-310.

Wolin, S. J., and S. Wolin. 1993. The Resilient Self: How Survivors of Troubled Families Rise Above Adversity. New York: Villard Books.

Wolin S., and S. J. Wolin. 1995. "Morality in COAs: Revisiting the Syndrome of Over-Responsibility." In S. Abbott (Ed.), Children of Alcoholics: Selected Readings. Rockville, MD: NACoA.

Yates, T. M., B. Egeland, and L. A. Sroufe. 2003. "Rethinking Resilience: A Develop- mental Process Perspective." Pages 234-256 in S. S. Luthar (Ed.), Resilience and Vulnerability: Adaptation in the Context of Childhood Adversities. New York: Cambridge University Press.






Follow Dr. Tian Dayton on Twitter: www.twitter.com/tian dayton

Dr. Tian Dayton: Resilience, Recovery and Optimism


 Link:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-tian-dayton/addiction-recovery_b_1854238.html

What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

The Summer Day – Mary Oliver – 1992



Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean—

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

Practice Patience for Patience is the beginning of Mindfulness

Patience is the companion of wisdom. 

-- Saint Augustine (354 AD - 430 AD)

There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness. 

-- Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924)

 

 

 

 

 

If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent. 

- Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727)

 

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 (1452 - 1519)

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew. 

-- Saint Francis de Sales (1567 - 1622)

 

 

 

 

Patience is the best remedy for every trouble. 

- Titus Maccius Plautus (254 BC - 184 BC), Rudens

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake. 

- Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)

 

 

 

A high hope for a low heaven: God grant us patience! 

- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Love's Labour's Lost, Act I, sc. 1

 

 

 

A very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience

-William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Coriolanus, Act II, sc. 1

 

 

 

Had it pleas'd heaven to try me with affliction... I should have found in some place of my soul a drop of patience. 

- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Othello, Act IV, sc. 2

 

 

How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees? 

- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Othello, Act II, sc. 3

 

 

How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees. 

- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

 

 

I do oppose my patience to his fury, and am arm'd to suffer with a quietness of spirit, the very tyranny and rage of his. 

- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, sc. 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patience is sottish, and impatience does become a dog that's mad

- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV, sc. 15

 

 

Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod.

- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Henry V, Act II, sc. 1

 

 

Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper sprinkle cool patience. 

- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Hamlet, Act III, sc. 4

 

 

Patience, my lord. Why, 'tis the soul of peace.
Of all the virtues 'tis near'st kin to heaven.
It makes men look like gods; the best of men
That e'er wore earth about him was a sufferer,
A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,
The first true gentleman that ever breath'd.
- Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton
The Honest Whore Part One, act V scene II

 

 
Patience is the ballast of the soul, that will keep it from rolling and tumbling in the greatest storms: and he, that will venture out without this to make him sail even and steady will certainly make shipwreck, and drown himself; first, in the cares and sorrows of this world; and, then, in perdition.
- Ezekiel Hopkins,  Death disarmed of it Sting Of Patience under Afflictions.

 

 
Patience is the guardian of faith, the preserver of peace, the cherisher of love, the teacher of humility; Patience governs the flesh, strengthens the spirit, sweetens the temper, stifles anger, extinguishes envy, subdues pride; she bridles the tongue, refrains the hand, tramples upon temptations, endures persecutions, consummates martyrdom; Patience produces unity in the church, loyalty in the State, harmony in families and societies; she comforts the poor and moderates the rich; she makes us humble in prosperity, cheerful in adversity, unmoved by calumny and reproach; she teaches us to forgive those who have injured us, and to be the first in asking forgiveness of those whom we have injured; she delights the faithful, and invites the unbelieving; she adorns the woman, and approves the man; is loved in a child, praised in a young man, admired in an old man; she is beautiful in either sex and every age.
- Bishop Horne, Discourses on Several Subjects and Occasions Patience Portrayed

Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim.
Have patience and endure; this unhappiness will one day be beneficial.
- Ovid, Amorum (16 BC), III. 11. 7.


Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis.
Persevere and preserve yourselves for better circumstances.
Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), I. 207.

Superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.
Every misfortune is to be subdued by patience.Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), V. 710.



Patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains.
- William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude In Reflections And Maxims (1682) no. 234.




Font plus que force ni que rage.
By time and toil we sever
What strength and rage could never.
Jean de La Fontaine, Fables, II. 11.



Rule by patience, Laughing Water!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha (1855), Part X. Hiawatha's Wooing.


Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life, Stanza 9.


All things come round to him who will but wait.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn, The Student's Tale, Part I.


Endurance is the crowning quality,
And patience all the passion of great hearts.
James Russell Lowell, Columbus, line 241.


Sua quisque exempla debet æquo animo pati.
Every one ought to bear patiently the results of his own conduct.
Phaedrus, Fables, I. 26. 12.


La patience est amère, mais son fruit est doux.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau.


Nihil tam acerbum est in quo non æquus animus solatium inveniat.
There is nothing so disagreeable, that a patient mind can not find some solace for it.
Seneca, De Animi Tranquilitate, X.


Furor fit læsa sæpius patientia.
Patience, when too often outraged, is converted into madness.
-- Syrus, Maxims. 289.



La patience est l'art d'espérer.
Patience is the art of hoping.
-- Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues, Réflexions, CCLI.




It is not necessary for all men to be great in action. The greatest and sublimest power is often simple patience.
- Horace Bushnell, p. 443.


Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear;
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.
- George Croly, p. 444.



Patience! why, it is the soul of peace; of all the virtues it is nearest kin to heaven; it makes men look like gods. The best of men that ever wore earth about Him was a Sufferer,— a soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit; the first true gentleman that ever breathed.
- Thomas Decker, p. 443.



Patience is enduring love; experience is perfecting love; and hope is exulting love.
- Alexander Dickson, p. 442.



It is easy finding reasons why other folks should be patient.
- George Eliot, p. 443.



Patience is the ballast of the soul that will keep it from rolling and tumbling in the greatest storms.
- Bishop Hopkins, p. 442.



Dispose thyself to patience rather than to comfort, and to the bearing of the cross rather than to gladness.
- Thomas à Kempis, p. 442.



The holier one is, the more forbearing and loving he is; the more tender and patient and anxious to help others in every way. Think how forbearing and loving Christ is when we do wrong; and there we are to be like Him.
- Arthur Henry Kenney, p. 444.



Therefore, let us be patient, patient; and let God our Father teach His own lesson, His own way. Let us try to learn it well and quickly; but do not let us fancy that He will ring the school-bell, and send us to play before our lesson is learnt.
- Charles Kingsley, p. 443.



Be patient, my friends; time rolls rapidly away; our longing has its end. The hour will strike, who knows how soon?— when the maternal lap of everlasting Love shall be opened to us, and the full peace of God breathe around us from the palmy summits of Eden.
- Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher, p. 613.



When I am about my work, sometimes called unexpectedly and suddenly from one thing to another, I whisper in my heart, " Lord, help me to be patient, help me to remember, and help me to be faithful. Lord, enable me to do all for Christ's sake, and to go forward, leaning on the bosom of His infinite grace."
-- Mary Lyon, p. 444.


We are waiting, Master, waiting,
Wayworn, pressed with toils and strife;
Waiting, hoping, watching, praying,
Till we reach the gates of life.
-- Ray Palmer, p. 613.


Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the time, and not be discouraged at the rests. If we say sadly to ourselves, "There is no music in a rest," let us not forget " there is the making of music in it." The making of music is often a slow and painful process in this life. How patiently God works to teach us! How long He waits for us to learn the lesson!
- John Ruskin, p. 443.


Show yourself a Christian by suffering without murmuring. In patience possess your soul — they lose nothing who gain Christ.
- Samuel Rutherford, p. 444.



The disciples of a patient Saviour should be patient themselves.
- Charles Spurgeon, p. 442.



How poor are they that have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
-- William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act II, scene 3, line 376.


Had it pleas'd heaven
To try me with affliction * * *
I should have found in some place of my soul
A drop of patience.
-- William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act IV, scene 2, line 47.


Like Patience gazing on kings' graves, and smiling
Extremity out of act.
- William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (c. 1607-08), Act V, scene 1, line 139.


She sat like patience on a monument
Smiling at grief.
- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act II, scene 4, line 117.


He that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding.
- William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida Act I, scene i.


Patience is the art of hoping.
- Marquis De Vauvenargues, Reflections and Maxims (1746) no. 251.


Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis.
Persevere and preserve yourselves for better circumstances.
-- Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), I. 207.


Superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.
Every misfortune is to be subdued by patience.
-- Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), V. 710.



With strength and patience all his grievous loads are borne,
And from the world's rose-bed he only asks a thorn.
- William R. Alger, Oriental Poetry, Mussud's Praise of the Camel.


I worked with patience which means almost power.
-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (1856), Book III, line 205.


And I must bear
What is ordained with patience, being aware
Necessity doth front the universe
With an invincible gesture.
-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Prometheus Bound.



But there are times when patience proves at fault.
- Robert Browning, Paracelsus, scene 3.



There is however a limit, at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
- Edmund Burke, Observations on a Late Publication on the Present State of the Nation.



Thus with hir fader for a certeyn space
Dwelleth this flour of wyfly pacience,
That neither by hir wordes ne hir face
Biforn the folk, ne eek in her absence,
Ne shewed she that hir was doon offence.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Clerkes Tale, V, line 13,254.


Patience is sorrow's salve.
- Charles Churchill, Prophecy of Famine, line 363.


Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.
- Benjamin Disraeli, Contarini Fleming, Part IV, Chapter V.


But the waiting time, my brothers,
Is the hardest time of all.
- Sarah Doudney, Psalms of Life, The Hardest Time of All.


The worst speak something good; if all want sense,
God takes a text, and preacheth patience.
- George Herbert, The Church Porch, Stanza 72.


Durum! sed levius fit patientia
Quicquid corrigere est nefas.
It is hard! But what can not be removed, becomes lighter through patience.
- Horace, Carmina, I. 24. 19.


For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill.
- Samuel Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes, line 352.









Source: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patience

You are the master of your fate and you create your own happiness.

If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?  And if I am only for myself, then what am I?  And if not now, when?
- Hillel the Elder, 1st Century B.C.
 

 It's never the events that happen to us that make us disturbed, but our view of them.
Epictetus, 1st Century A.D.


Happiness and misery depend as much on temperament as on fortune.
- Francois de la Rochefoucauld, 17th Century


Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
- Abe Lincoln


Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them.
- Leo Tolstoy


 To be in Hell is to drift; to be in Heaven is to steer.
- Geo. B. Shaw


.................

It is not that someone else is preventing you from living happily;
You yourself do not know what you want.  Rather than admit this,    
you pretend that someone is keeping you from excercising your liberty.
Who is this?  It is yourself.
- Thomas Merton, 1961

.................................


I am resposible for the achievement of my desires.
I am responsible for my choices and acktions...
I am responsible for my personal happiness.
- Dr. Nathaniel Branden


 .....................................


"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."

- Thomas Jefferson

..................................

If you think you're free, there's no escape possible.
- Ram Dass

 ...............................

Happiness is something you can work at.  It's a matter of identifying the things you do that get in the way of happiness,  and figuring out what positive activities you can do everyday to augment it.

- David Lykken, U of Minnesota

 .....................................

Depressed people are caught in a  feedback loop in which distorted thoughts cause negative feelings, which then distort feelings further.

You can break the cycle by changing the thoughts.

A big part of cognitive therapy is training clients to catch the thoughts and  distortions and then find alternative and more accurate ways of thinking.


Over many weeks,the client's thoughts become more realistic.  The feedback loop is broken and the client's anxiety or depression abates.



- Johnathan Haidt, Psychologist and Happiness Researcher


.............................................

Albert Einstein on Giving Back

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...




GET A LIFE NOW

Define Success to properly set your compass

I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair. In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.
- Bertrand Russell

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure. ”
― Mark Twain

 
"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins
- not by strength but by perseverance."
- H. Jackson Brown 

 “Don't mistake activity with achievement.”
― John Wooden

 “Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
― Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

 

“Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it”

― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

“I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.”
― Amelia Earhart

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody." ... [My dark side says,] I am no good... I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”

― Henri J.M. Nouwen

Be Drunken Always

Hurdler demonstrates FLOW

 
“Even when she walks one would believe that she dances.”
― Charles Baudelaire

“The beautiful is always bizarre.”
― Charles Baudelaire

“Life has but one true charm: the charm of the game. But what if we’re indifferent to whether we win or lose?”
― Charles Baudelaire

 

“a multitude of small delights constitute happiness”
― Charles Baudelaire

“One should always be drunk. That's all that matters...But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you chose. But get drunk.”
― Charles Baudelaire

“There are women who inspire you with the desire to conquer them and to take your pleasure of them; but this one fills you only with the desire to die slowly beneath her gaze.”
― Charles Baudelaire

 

“Be always drunken.
Nothing else matters:
that is the only question.
If you would not feel
the horrible burden of Time
weighing on your shoulders
and crushing you to the earth,
be drunken continually.

Drunken with what?
With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will.
But be drunken.

And if sometimes,
on the stairs of a palace,
or on the green side of a ditch,
or in the dreary solitude of your own room,
you should awaken
and the drunkenness be half or wholly slipped away from you,
ask of the wind,
or of the wave,
or of the star,
or of the bird,
or of the clock,
of whatever flies,
or sighs,
or rocks,
or sings,
or speaks,
ask what hour it is;
and the wind,
wave,
star,
bird,
clock will answer you:
"It is the hour to be drunken!”

― Charles Baudelaire, Paris Spleen

Quotes

The ego will not go with laughter or caresses. It must be chased in sorrow and drowned in tears. - A Persian expression


In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher. - Dalai Lama


 

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Post addiction mental deficits

Novel Therapies for Cognitive Dysfunction Secondary to Substance Abuse - Psychiatric Times

Pages: 1  2  3  4  

Next

SUBSTANCE ABUSE: ADDICTION & RECOVERY 

Novel Therapies for Cognitive Dysfunction Secondary to Substance Abuse

Brief Screening, Referral, and Cognitive Rehabilitation

By Antonio Verdejo-García, PhD | June 8, 2011

Dr Verdejo-García is Researcher and Lecturer at the Department of Clinical Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience, Universidad de Granada, Spain. He reports no conflicts of interest concerning the subject matter of this article.

---

Advances in the fields of neuropsychological assessment and neuroimaging have enormously expanded our knowledge about the profile and severity of cognitive deficits in patients with substance use disorders. 

Neuroscience studies have complemented this knowledge by revealing the neural adaptations induced by different substances (dopamine, glutamate, or serotonin) on specific cellular systems and by showing the structure and dynamics of brain systems, including frontostriatal systems and paralimbic networks involved in motivation and cognitive control.^1,2


Typical cognitive deficits

Patients with substance use disorders have common cognitive impairments in frontal-executive control skill centers related to planning, working memory, inhibition, and decision making, as well as alterations in episodic memory, selective attention, and emotional processing.³ Moreover, certain drugs have more robust effects on particular cognitive functions³:

• Psychostimulants, on inhibition and flexibility

• Opiates, on planning and fluency

• Cannabis, on episodic memory

• Alcohol(Drug information on alcohol), on a wide range of executive functions as well as on visual-spatial and psychomotor skills

These deficits are not ubiquitous among patients with substance use disorders, and there is considerable variability in the degree of cognitive dysfunction depending on a number of drug use parameters, such as quantity, frequency, and duration of use. Heavier users typically display greater impairments. Greater quantity and longer duration of cocaine use are associated with poorer response inhibition and flexibility; longer duration of heroin use is associated with poorer flexibility; heavier cannabis use is linked to poorer episodic memory, working memory, and reasoning; and heavier alcohol use relates to poorer updating of information and less adaptive decision making.⁴

The causality of these deficits is still disputed, since a certain degree of cognitive dysfunction (linked to disinhibition) may preexist and be further exacerbated by drug exposure.⁵ Current neurobiological models assume that impulsivity (as a trait) may confer vulnerability for the onset and progression of substance use disorders, whereas prolonged exposure may induce relatively persistent deficits in memory, attention, and different executive functions (as a state).^2,5 This evolution is mediated by neuroadaptations in the frontostriatal systems that provoke a transition from goal-directed (impulsive) toward outcome-detached (compulsive) behavior.^6,7

Individual differences in genetic makeup (including genes involved in cognitive functioning or those involved in drug pharmacodynamics) and in rates of cognitive maturation and ageing are also thought to contribute to the differential impact of vulnerability as well as drug exposure in the cognitive status of patients with substance use disorders.^8,9

Relevant to both causal pathways (vulnerability and neuroadaptations) is the neuropsychological concept of executive functions, which refers to a group of abilities involved in the production, monitoring, and readjustment of goal-directed behavior. Executive functions are directly involved in planning, updating of relevant information (working memory), control of prepotent inappropriate responses (inhibition), detection and correction of errors (flexibility), and adaptive decision making.¹⁰ They are also indirectly involved in successful encoding and retrieval of information (episodic memory), attentional control (sustained, selective, and dual attention), affective responsiveness, and self-awareness.¹¹ Anatomically, they are tightly associated with the functioning of the frontostriatal systems.¹²

It is not surprising that study results have shown that patients with disorders related to different substances have common cognitive impairments in planning, working memory, inhibition, and decision making (core executive functions), as well as in episodic memory, selective attention, and emotional processing (executive function–related processes). Partial spontaneous recovery of cognitive function is manifest during abstinence, although different profiles of drug use and different cognitive skills are associated with different rates of recovery.³ However, certain skills, such as response inhibition, self-regulation, and decision making, are persistently impaired even after several months of abstinence.^3,13




Psychiatric Times. Vol. 28 No. 6



Pages: 1 2 3 4



SUBSTANCE ABUSE: ADDICTION and RECOVERY

Novel Therapies for Cognitive Dysfunction Secondary to Substance Abuse
Brief Screening, Referral, and Cognitive Rehabilitation



By Antonio Verdejo-García, PhD | June 8, 2011



Dr Verdejo-García is Researcher and Lecturer at the Department of Clinical Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience, Universidad de Granada, Spain. He reports no conflicts of interest concerning the subject matter of this article.





The prevalence and durability of cognitive deficits in patients with substance use disorders raises the need to develop specific assessment and rehabilitation strategies. This is pertinent because general deficits in cognitive function and specific deficits in executive functions are robustly associated with worse drug treatment outcomes, including poorer adherence, shorter retention, and greater risk of relapse.14-16

In this article, I propose the use of a brief screening instrument for frontal-executive deficits in patients with substance use disorders and provide examples of novel treatment interventions aimed at addressing these deficits.

Instruments to assess substance use–related cognitive deficits

Key manifestations of cognitive/executive dysfunction among patients with substance use disorders are:


• Difficulties in understanding complex instructions


• Distractibility


• Premature or disinhibited responses


• Thought and behavioral inflexibility

Some other symptoms may be neglected by the patient but stressed by significant collaterals, including problems with initiating and planning novel activities, disorganized behavior, lack of insight into his or her mistakes, and lack of concern about the consequences.

Insight is often lacking in the patient, which underscores the need for the clinician to effectively screen for cognitive dysfunction. If cognitive impairment is suspected in light of clinical observations and interviews, I recommend the use of a brief screening instrument to detect frontostriatal systems–derived cognitive, behavioral, and emotional deficits. For example, the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe) is a sensitive instrument used to detect frontostriatal-related deficits in patients with substance use disorders.17-19

The FrSBe is composed of 46 items (rated on a 1 to 5 Likert scale) that yield 3 scores for symptoms of apathy, disinhibition, and executive dysfunction (working memory, planning, or awareness deficits), as well as an overall score of frontostriatal-systems dysfunction. The scale includes a self-report and a collateral report. Both reports have shown adequate reliability indices, but the use of the latter is especially recommended when the patient’s insight deficits are overtly manifest.17 The scale also possesses norms extracted from the healthy population of the United States, which provides easy classification of patients as impaired or nonimpaired in comparison with demographically adjusted norms.

If the information from the clinical interviews and the scale’s scores converges to suggest at least mild cognitive impairment (below 1.5 standard deviations [SDs] in some of the FrSBe scales), the clinician can complement the assessment by administering a brief battery of neuropsychological tests focused on those cognitive abilities with well-known implications for addiction treatment prognosis (Table). Response inhibition is measured with the Stroop test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is used to measure flexibility/perseveration, decision-making capacity is measured using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT).14-16



The Stroop test measures response inhibition, and it is based on the interference effect driven by the demand of naming the color of a word that is printed in a color incongruent with the name (eg, the word blue printed in red).20 The test consists of 3 conditions. The first condition (W) presents the words red, blue, and green printed in black ink, and patients are requested to read aloud these words. The second condition (C) presents strings of XXX printed in the same 3 colors, and patients have to name the colors as quickly and accurately as possible. The third condition (WC) introduces the interference effect: the words red, blue, and green are printed in incongruent colors and patients have to name the color and ignore the word. The interference score (IS) is calculated by subtracting a weighted mean of the first 2 conditions from the third condition [IS = WC 2 (C 3 W)/(C + W)]; then results are compared with normative values to evaluate the degree of impairment.

The WCST21 is a measure of flexibility to change. It measures response patterns in the face of changing schedules of reinforcement. The clinician presents 4 stimulus cards; the shapes on the cards differ in color, quantity, and design. The patient is given a stack of 64 cards that he has to sort according to initially unknown criteria. However, the examiner knows the criteria (the first sorting criterion is the color of the shapes, the second is the design of the shapes, and the third is the number of shapes) and provides trial-by-trial feedback of the correctness or incorrectness of each card sorted.

Patients try to sort the cards correctly by adjusting their performance to the ongoing feedback. Critically, the sorting criteria change across the test (without any overt warning from the examiner): after 10 consecutive hits in sorting by color, the criterion changes to shape, and then to number.







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by Richard Ash | June 16, 2011 8:24 PM EDT

I am a pancreatic cancer survivor ( 7 years ) but will have lifetime pain as the tumor was lying against the celiac sheath on the perineural nerve and had to be scraped. I take 1200 MG daily of MS-Contin ER in addition to 100MCH Fentanyl patches every three days and, 10/325 Hydrocodone for breakthough pain. I am managed by the Pain Clinic at Vanderbilt in Nashville.


I hold down a full time job of excruciating attention to detail. Creating Excel, Word and Powerpoint quotations, proposals and Statements of Work for Account Executives. ( I was an Outside Sales Rep for 25 years in Hi-Tech selling to Fortune 100 companies )


Your article on the effect of opiods on attention and other executive deficits is of interest to me as I now have to be a bit more careful in reviewing my work before submission. There is a small increment of ADD as I will spontaneously stop working to check personal emails, browse the internet on articles related to our core expertise or take a break and turn upthe volume on the wall TV in the office. I work alone, in an office outsie the home but on my property.


But, these are conscious decisions. I don't suddenly find myself away from the task at hand, rather it is a break from the tedium and, I do ( as stated ) have to be cautious about grammar and diarrhea of the keyboard.








Make the Most Out of Medical Advice Websites

C. Noel Henley, June 15, 2012

Is answering a stranger’s medical question online a waste of your time? Not necessarily. Here’s one way to do this profitably.







Breaking the Cycle of Substance Abuse and Addiction: Focus on Management Strategies


Approaching Crossroads in Psychiatry: Eating Disorders, Suicide and Substance Abuse


More Addiction CME




 

Robbie Burns: To A Mouse

 

 

TO A MOUSE

ON TURNING HER UP IN HER NEST WITH THE PLOUGH, NOVEMBER, 1785

by: Robert Burns (1759-1796)

I

 

EE, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,

Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi' bickering brattle!

I was be laith to rin an' chase thee,

Wi' murd'ring pattle!

 

II

 

I'm truly sorry man's dominion

Has broken Nature's social union,

An' justifies that ill opinion

Which makes thee startle

At me, thy poor, earth-born companion

An' fellow-mortal!

 

III

 

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;

What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!

A daimen-icker in a thrave

'S a sma' request;

I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,

And never miss't!

 

IV

 

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!

Its silly wa's the win's are strewin!

An' naething, now, to big a new ane,

O' foggage green!

An' bleak December's winds ensuin,

Baith snell an' keen!

 

V

 

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,

An' weary winter comin fast,

An' cozie here, beneath the blast,

Thou thought to dwell,

Till crash! the cruel coulter past

Out thro' thy cell.

 

VI

 

That wee bit heap o' leaves an stibble,

Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!

Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,

But house or hald,

To thole the winter's sleety dribble,

An' cranreuch cauld!

 

VII

 

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft a-gley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy!

 

VIII

 

Still thou art blest, compared wi' me!

The present only toucheth thee:

But och! I backward cast my e'e,

On prospects drear!

An' forward, tho' I cannot see,

I guess an' fear!

"To a Mouse" is reprinted from English Poems. Ed. Edward Chauncey Baldwin & Harry G. Paul. New York: American Book Company, 1908.

 Source:
 http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/to_a_mouse.html

  

 Robert Burns by Alexander Nasmyth
(By permission of the National Galleries of Scotland) 

Dreamfall Blog

Dreamfall ~ Quotes

I like this picture because Rousseau and the key are a mysterious combination.  What does it mean?

Worthwhile Purpose

 Know what it is you want, set some goals to create the circumstances you desire and take action now. Don't wait around for the perfect time to get started.  There is power in action so start your journey to success.

"People with goals succeed because they know
where they are going. It's as simple as that."
- Earl Nightingale

Success or failure as a human being is not a matter of luck, circumstances, fate, or any of the other tiresome old clichés.  Those are only excuses.

The power to achieve the life of your dreams is in your hands—and the first step toward activating it is identifying the specific goals that will make your dreams real. 

After all, it’s much easier to get what you want out of life when you know where you’re going.

A mission statement is only a paragraph long, but it has specific, measurable outcomes and a deadline for accomplishing that outcome. It’s truly the best way to start your journey to success.

“You cannot change your destination overnight, 

but you can change your direction overnight.”

--Jim Rohn

Creating a mission statement will help you change your direction. In just five minutes from now, you will have made the shift from an ordinary existence to an extraordinary existence.

Success is the progressive realization of a worthwhile Ideal.

Eternal Spring

Step by step
a new-born lamb
eternal spring 

Zen Master Soen Nakagawa

1955

In his "Preface" to Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa (presented with an Introduction by Eido Tai Shimano, Shambhala 1996) Kazuaki Tanahashi writes: "Zen Master Soen Nakagawa was a key figure in the transmission of Zen Buddhism from Japan to the Western world. As abbot of the historic Ryutaku Monastery, he trained monks and lay practitioners. Among them were Robert Aitken and Philip Kapleau, who later became two of the first Westerners to teach Zen in the United States . . . Soen Nakagawa was also an extraordinary poet. In Japan his haiku are renowned, even though no substantial collection of his work has been made available to the general public."

Action Creates Abundance

"Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought."
- Henri Bergson

Meaning:
Think and analyze quickly and thoroughly, but don't act impulsively. Come up with a plan quickly, but take your time putting it into action.


“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”
- Henri Bergson (French Philosopher, 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1859-1941)

Life does not proceed by the association and addition of elements, but by dissociation and division.”
- Henri Bergson


“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”


“Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  (German Playwright, Poet, Novelist and Dramatist. 1749-1832)


“We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.”  ~Goethe

“Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Behavior is a mirror in which every one displays his own image”
-  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.”
- Plato