Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects.
-Arnold Glasow

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The Root of Joy

Joy is not in things; it is in us.
-Richard Wagner

From “Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer,” by Brother David Steindl-Rast:

Ordinary happiness depends on happenstance. Joy is that extraordinary happiness that is independent of what happens to us. Good luck can make us happy, but it cannot give us lasting joy. The root of joy is gratefulness. We tend to misunderstand the link between joy and gratefulness. We notice that joyful people are grateful and suppose that they are grateful for their joy. But the reverse is true: their joy springs from gratefulness. If one has all the good luck in the world, but takes it for granted, it will not give one joy. Yet even bad luck will give joy to those who manage to be grateful for it. We hold the key to lasting happiness in our own hands. For it is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.

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Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.
-Brian Tracy

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Dump Those Negative Habits Now!
by Mark Victor Hansen

If you want to distance yourself from the masses and enjoy a rich and unique lifestyle, understand this – your habits will determine your future.

The fact is, if you keep on doing things a certain way, you will get a predictable result. That’s the simple law of Cause and Effect. Successful habits create positive rewards. Negative habits breed negative consequences.

If you want to enjoy longevity, you must have healthy habits. If you are in the habit of starving your most important relationships of time, energy and love, how can you expect a happy outcome? If you spend money on the fly or don’t save any money, your bad habits will lead you to a never-ending cycle of work.

Shift yourself out of your bad habits
Fortunately, you can jump from this bad habits path anytime you want. It’s a very simple process – it just takes some applied focus. Here’s the step-by-step process I recommend:

1)Clearly identify your bad or unproductive habits. Write them down.

a) Be specific.

b) Remember to consider the long-term consequences should you continue in this bad habit. As an example, a couple cigarettes a day may not seem like much, but after 10 years, the buildup of having smoked 7,300 cigarettes remains in your system.

c) Consider habits at home, in your communications and relations with others, at work, in your driving habits, in your free time, and in matters related to your physical, emotional and spiritual health.

d) Be totally honest.

2) Define your new successful habit and visualize its results in your life.

Your new habit is usually the simple opposite of your bad habit. To motivate yourself, think about all the benefits and rewards for adopting your new successful habit. The more vividly you describe the benefits and create the picture in your mind, the more likely you are to take action.

3) Create a three-part action plan.

For every bad habit, there are at least 15 action steps you can take to help you stop. Put some time into this and think about it – it’s easy to come up with action steps, but they have to be YOUR action steps that you know are within your realm of taking. As an example, if you want to stop smoking, hypnosis therapy may be more preferable than a nicotine patch. Don’t list action steps that you know in your heart you won’t do.

4) For the next three weeks, schedule these action steps into your day.

If you know you want to start exercising three times a week, schedule it now in your appointment book. If you want to start reading uplifting books, schedule an hour in your daily schedule and make plans now as to where you will read without interruption. Whatever the new habit, work it into your schedule for the month ahead as most habits – even the very ugliest ones – can be completely re-patterned in this short timeframe.

5) Then, take action!

Start with one habit that you really want to change. Focus on your three immediate steps and put them into action. Do it now. Remember, nothing will change until YOU do.

The Wisdom of the Day is brought to you by Sam Singh

Teachers open the door but you must walk through it yourself.
-Chinese Proverb

From “Writing the Sacred Journey,” by Elizabeth J. Andrew:

Make a list of people who have contributed to your spiritual development in simple and profound ways. Then, as concisely as possible, write down the primary lesson each person taught you.
Spiritual teachers show up at odd, passing moments and in long-term positions of importance; we know them through books, casual encounters in the grocery store, and mentorships that last a lifetime. Invariably teachers find their way into our memoirs, where we’re able to record their wise words, patience, and the generous way they’ve pushed us to become more perfect ourselves. Whenever I read [Thomas Merton's] Seven Storey Mountain, I am reminded of the man who gave the book to me. He was a member of the board of the retreat center where I worked for a number of years-a quiet Scandinavian pastor who paid me the kindness of listening. He taught me that silent receptivity can be more influential in a board meeting than the constant expression of opinion. Life is peopled with teachers. Our spiritual memoir can pay respect to their pervasive influence.
Because teachers play a prominent role in many seekers’ journeys, it’s no surprise that a great number of spiritual memoirs revolve around teachers and their lessons.

The Wisdom of the Day is brought to you by Sam Singh

Bernie Siegel’s Soul Prescriptions
Five ways to live a happier life.
By Bernie S. Siegel, M.D.

From “365 Prescriptions for the Soul.” Used with permission of New World Library

Prescription #1: Gratitude
A gentleman I was talking to on the phone related that his doctor and the EMR team had told him his heart stopped beating and he had died at least five times during surgery. He concluded our conversation by saying, “I used to have troubles, but now I have only blessings.” His outlook clearly had been turned around by this experience.

I meditate each day, and one portion of the meditation consists of my thinking about what I am grateful for. Most of us never stop to consider our blessings; rather, we spend the day only thinking about our problems. But since you have to be alive to have problems, be grateful for the opportunity to have them. Some people use their problems to get attention and are afraid to give them up and be blessed. I prefer to appreciate life and accept my problems as a part of my life.

When my body gets to the point where I can no longer function or feel gratitude, then I’ll leave it and become grateful again. But until then, I will appreciate what I have and not whine about what I don’t have. I will feel blessed by life and the opportunity to help others see that they are blessed too. Blessings come in many shapes and sizes. Be prepared, as my gentleman caller was.

Prescription #2: Hope
Hope restores us. What each of us hopes for will differ and change with time. I believe we need hope to go on living. Hope inspires us to reach for the future. It gives us something to look forward to and strive for on our path.
If we had no hope—for a cure, for winning the lottery, for falling in love, for the end of war, for being free of abuse, or for having food, warmth, clothing, and shelter—we would have no reason to go on. What you hope for doesn’t matter, but rather the essence of hope itself.

I see people who die a few minutes after a doctor tells them there is no hope of a cure. They give up and go. Others get angry and find joy in proving the doctor wrong. Something within them is challenged and hopeful. Hope is the divine motivator.

Prescription #3: Guidance
One day Marilyn, one of our support group members, sent me an email with the subject line “guidance.” In her email, she told me that the word “dance” being a part of the word guidance made her think about how dancing is like doing God’s will. Two people dancing are not struggling with each other; one leads and the other willingly follows. When the two become a team, their movements flow in harmony with each other. When she looked back at the word she saw the G as representing God and then U and I. So guidance is about God, you, and I dancing together.

When you are willing to trust and believe, guidance comes. I believe the rhythm we should all be dancing to comes from our Creator. It allows us to move as a team while creating our unique dance of life.

Prescription #4: New Year’s Resolutions
It is not a bad thing to make a New Year’s resolution, but you can also continuously set yourself up to fail. Be realistic and forgiving. The best resolution is to accept your limitations and start from there. Resolve not to give up on yourself, and to love yourself, even when you don’t like your behavior. So resolve to practice doing what you have resolved, rather than achieving sainthood tomorrow.

As you write down your resolutions, remember these things: Be kind; do not set yourself up for failure by creating multiple resolutions that involve too much self-denial. Keep your goals manageable and realistic. The best resolutions leave one day of the week to enjoy being human and not living by any rules or expectations you have created.

Prescription #5: Every Day Is New Year’s
A “new year” — I think the term is an oxymoron. How can you have a new year? You are the same person, and the world doesn’t start again with a clean slate. Your troubles don’t disappear. People don’t forgive you for what you did the year before. Unless you have amnesia, your life is anything but new when you awaken on the first day of the year. It is simply a way of measuring the passage of time. Why make such a fuss over it?

The truth lies in our desire to be reborn, to start again, to make resolutions and changes we can live up to. Then why wait for a certain date to start a new year? Why can’t tomorrow be New Year’s Day? Maybe it is!

I see it every day in my role as a physician: People learn they have a limited time to live, and they start their New Year behavior. They move, change jobs, spend more time with those they love, stop worrying about what everyone else thinks of them, and start to celebrate their life. They are grateful for the time they have to enjoy life and they stop whining about what they wish had happened during the past year.

When every evening is New Year’s Eve and every day you awaken is New Year’s Day, you are living life as it was intended.

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Forgiveness is having the courage to take down the walls that we think are there to protect us.

-Suztes40

The Wisdom of the Day is brought to you by Sam Singh

If we examine every stage of our lives, we find that from our first breath to our last we are under the constraint of circumstances. And yet we still possess the greatest of all freedoms, the power of developing our innermost selves in harmony with the moral order of the Universe, and so winning peace at heart whatever obstacles we meet.

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Wisdom of the Day is brought to you by Sam Singh

LOVE

“I will make love my greatest weapon and none on who I call can defend against its force… My love will melt all hearts liken to the sun whose rays soften the coldest day.”
– Og Mandino

“Every instance of heartbreak can teach us powerful lessons about creating the kind of love we really want.”
– Martha Beck

“Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody’s hand and squeeze it, while there’s time.”
– Dale Dauten

“Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age.”
– Jeanne Moreau

The Wisdom of the Day is brought to you by Sam Singh

“The life of the individual only has meaning insofar as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful.”

-Albert Einstein

The Wisdom of the Day is brought to you by Sam Singh