Author: purposejoyandpositives

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES is a blog created to promote thoughts and ideas about gaining clearer PURPOSE in our lives, JOY in who we are and what we do, and sustaining POSITIVES. We are all on the journey called 'life' which has many paths for each of us. Sometimes, the path is clearer with PURPOSE and more JOY filled than others. Often, there will be crossroads........again we must chose. May our choices be about a fulfilling PURPOSE, JOY in the simple and profound, and abundant POSITIVES to sustain us on the journey. PJP

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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Summer reading!

Summer is a favorite time for relaxing, vacationing,  enjoying the outdoors, getting together for family reunions, and just plain having fun! It is always a challenge to keep our kids, or grandkids, engaged and hopefully not hearing too many “I’m bored” comments. Suggestions today will center around reading/literacy.

The local library usually has a few reading challenge programs so that kids view reading as fun and in some  ways a ‘game’ as they earn points. There are also many IPad apps that have a wide range of books to chose from, such as EPIC. One of my favorite apps is STORY MAKER. Kids can hand write or type their own experiential story page by page, add pictures from a pre – set vocabulary, draw pictures, record their own voice, and retell the story. It is engaging and quite user friendly. For younger kids, Tab Tale and Grasshopper apps are great for engaging learning through animation. There is nothing wrong with encouraging the use of IPad apps,  as long as the time spent on electronic devices is limited to not more than an hour to an hour and a half a day.

Other ways to encourage reading and writing include having the kids write notes with drawn pictures to their grandparents or friends, write the weekly grocery list (yes the use of invented spelling is great), write their personal invitation for play dates with friends, and write little notes to family members on post-it notes and leave on the refrigerator.

Parents and grandparents, don’t forget to model reading for your little ones! Keep a book or two in each room of the house that you have either read or are in the process of reading. My book for this week is “Column of Fire” by Ken Follet.

“There are many ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all” (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis).

Happy Reading!

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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SEED!

Today the featured article is from Mershon Niesner, Certified Personal Professional Coach, a guest blogger for PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES.

“You’re a Seed”

“They tried to bury us but they didn’t know we were seeds. Mexican proverb.

As a woman entrepreneur in the ’80’s, a single mom, a motherless daughter raised by a dad, a sudden widow, a board chair leading mostly men, there have been times in my life that I’ve felt the pressure of “being buried”. However, little did society, neighbors, corporate men, know…I was a seed. In spite of the difficult environment, I grew, I blossomed, I thrived.

I recently heard this great metaphor from a young Mexican American, disabled woman who was speaking to her fellow graduates at a college commencement. No doubt she has felt buried many times but on that commencement day she was a seed who had blossomed.

Affirmation: I am a seed.

Coaching questions: What’s causing you to feel buried? What will help you bloom?”

Thank you Mershon for your thoughtful insights.

I hope that you have enjoyed Mershon’s blogs that I have shared with you.  Should you wish to follow her blog, you can find it at: http://motherloss.blog.

PJP

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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Today’s post will be from my guest blogger, Mershon Niesner,  who is a Certified Personal Professional Coach, Welcome Mershon.

“Coaching helps people get unstuck, move forward, and live a healthier, happier, more productive personal/professional life. Mershon Niesner, CPPC

Ever wonder why there are coaching questions or requests at the end of each blog? I’m a retired, Certified Life Coach and I want to share my expertise. Here are three things I’ve learned while coaching people.

People generally know what they need to do to move forward. Solutions may need to be “teased” out with good questions.
Big changes may start with small steps. Simple requests like, “make your bed everyday” or “buy yourself flowers” have been the beginning of major change.
Most people thrive with accountability. Paying a coach and knowing that they are going to ask how you did during the week, often helps folks stay on target and make progress toward their goals.
Affirmation: I want to grow. personally/professionally.

Coaching questions: What is one thing you want to achieve this week? What step can you take today to move forward? How will your life be different if you reach your goal?”

Mershon’s full article 6 Insights From a Retired Life Coach can be found by contacting her through her blog: http://motherloss.blog

Thank you Mershon!

Purpose, Joy and Positives

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RETURNING:

Hello family, friends, fellow bloggers and faithful followers!

The last eight weeks have been an interesting and painful experience for me. Please pardon my absence from the blog. It has not been all sunshine and walking through the daffodils as pictured above.  No, I broke my upper left arm in two places which required a surgery, slings, pills, physical therapy, pain and sleepless nights. But the good news is that within the last few days, I feel some relief and life is beginning to resume the normal state! Wow…what an experience! I am in my seventies, grew up on a midwestern farm, rode horses, jumped from the hayloft, climbed trees and drove tractors and never broke a bone. So, the moral of the story is: NEVER EVER FOR ANY REASON STAND ON A SWIVEL CHAIR!!!  Enough said.

In my next blog, I will introduce a guest blogger for your reading. Mershon Niesner, a Certified Personal Professional Coach, authors books, articles and the blog Life After Losing A Mother. Her insights on this and many important life topics will be a fascinating read for you. I met Mershon back in the nineties as she led a woman’s group I belonged to. Somehow over all these years,  our lives keep crossing paths, She has always inspired me and I believe you will enjoy her writing and reflective coaching questions.

See you all soon and truly thank you for your patience.

PJP

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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RESILIENCE !

Just as the bulbs in the ground all winter must remain hardy  in order to produce the beautiful spring flowers, we too are often called upon to draw from our inner strength and courage. I think one of the cutest sayings I heard many years ago relating to this was “Just pull up your big girl pants and deal with it”.

It could be said that resilience is a characteristic that one must develop in order to survive and thrive! It starts with loving your imperfect self. There will be things that don’t turn out as well as we would like, but we accept, we learn and we move on. It is also helpful to have a good support team in place to assist in our journey through the tough times. Life is going to happen and things can fall apart…….probably more than once. The important factor is to hang right in there, grab the challenge, and never give up!!

Go for it!

What part of your life could you draw on resilience?

 

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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via Daily Prompt: Song

 

“Sing to the mountains, sing to the sea. Raise  your voices, lift your hearts. This is the day the Lord has made. Let all the earth rejoice.” This is the chorus of a famous Christian song by Bob Dufford and it was the first thing that came into my mind as I saw the daily word prompt of SONG. I have not used the prompts before in my blogging, but this one seemed especially meaningful for me.  Music is a wonderful form of art for me that calms my mind and fills my heart with tenderness.

Deane Alban in her article “How Music Affects the Brain”  reports that music activates every known part of the brain, can improve your mood, and can reduce chronic stress due to a reduction of the stress hormone cortisol.  There is an actual area of research, neuromusicology, that although is fairly new, has interesting information about how listening and/or playing music can affect our brains.

As a kid I played the accordion and the organ. I  still have my accordion that my father bought when he sold a pig to get the money for the purchase (true  story).  I will never let it go out of the family. Probably, my favorite song was “Lady of Spain”, only because I had to practice it a gazillion times a day for a contest I competed in as an Eighth Grader. Whew….I bet my Mom wished she had a sound proof door to the kitchen many times!

Does music have a place in your life? How does it make you feel?

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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AWE!

There are so many things in life that can inspire moments of AWE. They usually happen unexpectedly, but sometimes we have to look for them.  I had that sensation when I captured this sunset a couple of weeks ago, and wouldn’t you know when I picked up the mail,  a new magazine  was waiting for me which had a great article, ” 7 Pathways to AWE”, by Patricia M. Robertson (St. Anthony Messenger). 

Ms. Robertson talks about AWE as added value to our life that can provide greater happiness, kindness and possibly even reduce negatives in our bodies. Here is what she recommends  about heightening our awareness of ‘wonder and amazement’.  I have added a few thoughts on the areas, but the topics come from her.

The first one is to go outside and take in nature…..and leave the technology inside. Rocking a baby and looking into those tender eyes, untouched by the world, is amazing. Being a part of a community as people, friend or stranger, is  a source of wonder and when we are open to them, we can experience moments of kindness in little things. She also suggests that experiencing the arts, however that may manifest itself for each of us, can be filled with moments of wonder and inspiration. Remember reading a touching book and your eyes filling with tears? The next idea is to create something, which I relate to with my watercolor painting. Her final two suggestions are to meditate/pray and to go to church. Meditation/prayer can be a special way of experiencing deep moments of enlightenment, calm, and the Presence of the Spirit to deepen our roots and guide us to seeing the world with AWE.

Albert Einstein said “He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed”.

When have you experienced awe? Where can you look for those moments?

PURPOSE, JOY AND POSITIVES

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RAINBOWS!

Easter Sunday I was sitting outside and happened to look up because dark clouds had moved in. There in my direct view over the houses was a beautiful rainbow! A rainbow is comprised of 7 colors in this order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. This also happens to be the same color order as the Chakras.

As a kid, I remember seeing rainbows across our farm fields and Dad telling us there was a ‘pot of gold’ and the land of leprechauns  at the end of rainbow. It seemed magical that this could even be true! To see if something was at the end of the rainbow would be a celebration of fulfillment. Dreamers we were!

Perhaps an adult version of the rainbow ‘story’ is that it symbolizes HOPE, if we follow our hearts, believe in our dreams, keep reaching forward, moving away from the past, and living in the present. It is always inspiring for me when I see a rainbow as it makes me smile and think happy, calming thoughts that all is well with life and good things will come to pass. The unexpected is just ‘over there’, waiting for me to step up, reach out and grab it! “Hope springs eternal” (phrase from Alexander Pope’s poem An Essay on Man).

“It takes sunshine and rain to make a rainbow. There would be no rainbows without sunshine and rain”  (Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart). So like life: there will be glorious sunshine but we should expect some rain, sometimes light or sometimes a raging rain storm. And then once again, the sunshine appears.

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FORGIVENESS and HEALING:

This week I attended a parish evening retreat at our church presented by Father Michael P. Sullivan from Villanova, PA. The topic for the night was forgiveness and healing. It seems an appropriate sharing subject, given that we will begin Holy Week with Palm Sunday this weekend.

There is probably no one that can honestly say that they have never been hurt or hurt someone. Perhaps, it was intentional or perhaps it was not. Either way, pain and brokenness take up residence in your heart. Sometimes, we bury the aggrievance and sometimes we wallow in it for days, months or years. Depending on the type of action we chose after our hurtful experience, all things may be up for grabs. Friendships, family relationships, work relationships, and/ or partner relationships are affected. Yes, separateness and division are ripe for happening. So, how do we heal our woundedness?

Father Sullivan talks about the process as one of healing through reconciliation and a path of love. He emphasizes the power of the words “will you forgive me” as opposed to “I’m sorry”.  He shares that as a part of this work, actively taking the risk to love can heal not only our heart, but also our mind and body. We ‘right’ the relationship. Just as important is the idea that we need to forgive ourselves for our failings in life. I think this is always the harder aspect when it comes to forgiving. It  takes time and a deep thought process to get to this place. Thank you Father Sullivan for your inspirational talk!

It is also important to understand that forgiving does not necessarily mean forgetting. They are two different entities and the outcomes are not the same. Somethings, yes, we need to just let it go and forget about it. However, for other things, it is important for us to learn from the experience and not put ourselves in the same situation again. It takes a lot of energy  to hold on to hurts; energy that could be better spent doing things that bring us greater JOY in our lives. It is a process which takes time and patience with ourselves and others.

“If we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive” Mother Theresa.

Is there someone in your life that you need to forgive?

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FEELINGS, THOUGHTS, ACTIONS!

Recently, I listened to an interview with Dr. Karin Anderson Abrell, psychologist and author. The general topic was about changing your behavior by recognizing feelings, changing your thoughts about those feelings and then altering your behavior. The technical term for this is Cognitive Behavorial Therapy or CBT. It was not a new concept for me, but I felt that it was worth sharing on this blog.

We have feelings about everything! There is nothing inherently wrong with our feelings. They ARE our feelings and we should own them.  The next step of how we interpret those feelings is the crucial aspect that results in POSITIVE or negative behaviors on our part. However, we have the opportunity every time we have a negative thought from some feeling we experience to ‘think’ differently about what the feeling means, which in turn changes our actions.

For example, let’s say that I have just experienced the loss of a job that was not expected. My feelings about this can range from anger and resentment to resignation….’well, that is how it goes’. Interpretation of these feelings can leave  me in a thought state of depression and  thinking I am not a good worker, not caring what I do or don’t do on a daily basis. This negative thought pattern may lead  to actions of sleeping very late, not taking care of my health and making unhealthy eating/drinking choices, skipping appointments with friends or family and procrastination in job searching…… feelings, thought patterns and action choices.

The feelings are natural and appropriate, but it is how we interpret them that fuels negative or POSITIVE behaviors. Let’s take the same example: accept the feelings but interpret the experience and subsequent feelings  not as inadequacy on my part, rather as an opportunity for growth, new learning channels, and an experience that can lead to added friendships and hopefully financial gain. These thoughts will energize the situation to include actions of dressing myself up, getting out there, networking, interviewing and landing ‘the’ job. The healthier thought pattern, resulting from those same feelings, has opened a new pathway for POSITIVE action producing a quite different life experience.

Accept the feelings ~ use a POSITIVE thought mantra ~ create POSITIVE actions. This can be applied to any feeling around any given situation.

“Take charge of your thoughts. Take charge of your life”  quoted from Dr. Karin Anderson Abrell.