Cultivating Hope for the Future

 

Cultivating Hope for the Future 2

Hope Strategies book mark

 

 

From a little spark may burst a mighty flame.

Dante Alighieri

Hope is the physician of every misery.

Irish Proverb

Imagine that it’s evening and a storm has knocked out the electricity in your home. You can use the candles for awhile. But you’d like the lights to come back on, and sooner rather than later. So what do you do? You make sure that the light switch is flipped on so that when the power returns, so will the light. Unless you throw that switch, the current won’t get through.

Hope works the same way. Unless you “throw the hope switch,” allowing any hope out there to flow your way, it won’t. It can’t. The circuit isn’t complete.

How do you flip “ON” your hope switch? You open to the possibility that hope exists somewhere, however hopeless or hopeful you feel at the moment. You accept that hope is real and that it works, whether you can prove it or not. You admit that hope can play a vital role in people’s lives, whether it does in yours or not.

You throw the hope switch when you acknowledge that the future is uncertain, which means that the future can go in more than one direction. Consequently, it’s possible for things to turn out better than you expect as well as worse than you wish. You throw that switch when you say, “I think that hope is within the realm of possibility. I may not be sure how or when I’ll have it, but I won’t rule it out of my life forever.” You flip that switch when you pick up a book about hope and remain receptive to what it has to say.

Have you flipped your hope switch? If not, will you do so before you turn this page? Whether or not you hope this moment, can you agree to hope for hope?

 

Excerpt from the book “Finding Hope”  by Ronna Jevne and Jim Miller

To live, it seems, is to accumulate at least some regrets.

Thomas Gilovich & Victoria Husted

The Experience of Regret: What, When, and Why

 

Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.

Arthur Miller

The Ride Down Mt. Morgan

 

No second chances

There are fewer and fewer

second chances

with each passing year.

 

There is no going back.

No following my dream.

No decades of fulfillment awaiting me.

 

There will be no Carnegie Hall.

There will be no Olympic Gold.

There will be no villa in the Rockies.

 

I have run my race.

Stumbled some.

Crossed the finish line with dignity.

 

There is another realm-

The inner world

crafted by joy and hurt.

 

The world where souls are wounded,

healed or scarred,

by words and deeds.

 

The window for regret

is closing –

Soon.

 

There will be no second chance

To say, “I forgive you.”

To say, “ I love you.”

To say, “Come for tea.”

 

Ever wish you hadn’t said what you just said? Or, ever wish you had spoken up when you were silent? Have you missed an investment opportunity or made an investment that you regret? Ever wondered “what if” about a relationship or a career move?

Regret is the lingering feeling that we have made a wrong decision, chosen an unfulfilling career path, failed at a relationship, made poor use of time, or neglected our health.  

To live fully is to have regrets; they are part of the human condition. Life has continuous forks in the road. They might be momentary missteps that pass quickly into the “oh well” category or they may be major decisions that took you on an irrevocable path.  

Those who confidently say “I have no regrets” are either in denial or have “put lipstick on” their perceived mistakes.

Why reflect on regret at all? Many regrets are simple lessons of life. Other regrets may haunt our present and contaminate our future. Exploring regrets can be a doorway to living life more fully. 

 

Kinds of regrets

There are regrets that stem from action and regrets that stem from inaction. There are regrets that stem from circumstances that were under our control or from circumstances that were not.

We can have BIG regrets or little “oops’. Taking a wrong turn on a freeway and being late is very different than lying to a loved one. There are regrets that involve just ourselves and regrets that involve others. Some regrets can be remediated; other regrets are not eligible for a “re-do”.

The “if only” regrets are often related to timing. If only I had had the funds to go to college. If only we had met sooner. If only I hadn’t been so busy. If only the pandemic hadn’t closed us down. If only I hadn’t missed that plane. If only I had taken that chance.

What regrets do you experience or revisit? Notice if there is a pattern.

• Are they regrets of commission or omission?
• To what degree were the circumstances under your control?
• Is it a BIG regret or an “oops?”
• Is it something you did or something that happened to you?
• Who does the regret involve?

 

The price of regret

Regret is a form of self-imposed suffering, the consequences of which can lead to depression, anxiety, poor sleep, and decision making based on emotion. Regrets serve little purpose except to invite us to review our intentions and behaviors. Yesterday cannot be relived except in your mind.

Making peace with regrets

We tend to idealize the road not taken. Too many of our ‘woulda, shoulda, coulda’ are a result of looking at the missed opportunity as if there was no down side to the path we didn’t take.

Making peace with regret means finding a rightful place in our mind and heart for what is already in the past. A rightful place  doesn’t mean denying the event/fact or dismissing the associated feelings. It means understanding the root of the regret and acknowledging the need to accept what has passed.

It means examining the regret for possible opportunities to do things differently. It may mean choosing to apologize to someone if the regret involves a hurt that you imposed. It may mean forgiving yourself for falling short of perfection.

Paths not taken

Research suggests that actions, or errors of commission, generate more regret in the short term; but inactions, or errors of omission, produce more regret in the long run.

Robert Frost’s famous poem The Road Less Travelled  reminds us that we have a choice. Read his poem and the background about the author and the meaning that has been ascribed to his poem.

Frank Sinatra’s in his classic “ My Way“ sings about our choice to live life our way.

 

Writing strategy: Poetry

 Quote

If I could explain it, I wouldn’t have to write a poem.

author unknown

A poem is not a problem to be solved. It is a voice within us that speaks a truth about what we experience or observe. Poets and poems tell the truth about what it means to be human. Listen and you may hear your inner poet whispering words of regret.

 

If I could do it again

If I could do it again,

would I skip

an immature marriage,

or was it

an immature husband?

You bet I would.

 

If I could do it again,

would I spend ten years

in demanding study

to make the income

of a plumber?

You bet I would.

 

If I could do it again,

would I still be a New Democrat

voting for forty years

for the runner up?

Would I still be

for social justice,

fair wages,

equal access to healthcare?

You bet I would.

 

If I could do it again,

would I work less,

read more,

take more walks?

Would I spend more time

with a mother

who left us early?

You bet I would.

 

If I could do it again,

would I have remarried

if I had known

my honeymoon

would be in a cardiac care unit?

Would I have taken the chance,

knowing I was walking

the widow’s walk.

You bet I would.

Invitation to write a poem

Haven’t thought of yourself as a poet? Experiment. You may be surprised. 

 

Need an opening line?

 

            I regret…

            I wish I had…

            If only…

            I will never know…

            I will always wonder…

            If I could do it again…

 

Poetry Reading References:

           Poetry as reflection: Writing Poetry to Save Your Life by Maria Mazziotti Gillan

            For older people: I Never Told Anybody by Kenneth Koch

            Why poetry is good for our health

           For youth: Writing with at Risk Youth by Richard Gold

 

Photo question of the month:

 

What have you done for which you have no regrets?

 

Time is the coin of life.

Only you can determine how it will be spent.

                                              Carl Sandburg

 

Mary Oliver in her poem The Summer Day leaves us with the question, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

How would you reply to her question?

The Language of Time

Our culture encodes multiple messages about time into our language .

We take time.

We make time.

We take time out.  

We take time off.  

Time flies when you are having fun.

Time can be lost, gained and wasted.

We have war times and peace times; hard times and good times.

We have festive times and sad times.

Qualities of time

We have Mother Earth but we have Father Time.

As we age we are called “old timers”. There seem to be no “young timers”.

Time is precious; we are to value time.

Time is money.

We speak of their being “signs of the time.”

Even scripture speaks eloquently about time. Ecclesiates 3: 1-8, is a cherished Bible passage suggesting that over our lifetime there is A time for everything.

The measure of time

Our timing can be wrong.

We can even have too much time on our hands.

Time passes quickly or time passes slowly.

Things can take a long time or a short time.

We have feelings about people who are late, or early.

We divide time into units – decades or years or eras.

The demands of time

To be “short” of time, is to be pressured for time.

We are paid in intervals of time –  by the hour, week, or month.

For many projects, timing is everything.

• Too much time in the oven ruins a roast. Too little time leaves it too rare.
• Invest at the “right” time, you make money. Invest at the wrong time and your investments drop.

         We are expected to manage our time. 

Relationships require quality time.

We are slaves to deadlines.

The experience of time 

We all have the same amount of time in a day but not in a lifetime.

Our perception of time changes over time. At ten, a year is 10 percent  of our life. At eighty, a year is 1.25% of our life. No wonder if feels like time is passing quickly.

Time for reflection is treated like a luxury. Busyness is privileged over quiet time. Yet,  

A reflective life takes time but so does repeating the stupid moments of our lives…When I am 80, I want to feel 80. I want to have earned the wrinkles, enjoyed the peace, know what my life was about…I want to have enjoyed noticing my life. Not wake up at some undesignated age wondering where I have been and what I have been doing for 20 years, unable or unwilling to accept responsibility for how I have used my time.

                           Adapted from Living Life as a Writer by  R. Jevne

 

Our relationship to time changes over time. What takes priority at one time in our life changes.

          In our senior years, we savor time.

I don’t do hurry well any more.

It isn’t that I dawdle.

I just don’t do hurry well any more.

 

Being on time still matters

But I start a few minutes late

Thinking everything moves

Like it did thirty years ago

When really –

I just don’t do hurry well anymore.

 

I don’t do hurry well any more.

It’s not all bad.

I savour my morning tea.

I notice the dew on the deck.

I wonder –

who designed the hummingbird?

 

I don’t do hurry well anymore.

I let the silence be.

I have no interest in the news.

It’s enough to brush my teeth

without an update on Syria.

It’s enough to eat a breakfast of privilege.

and be grateful.

 

I don’t do hurry well anymore.

I want my soul to walk-

To leave the human “race” to others.

I want to see what I once missed.

What I once scurried by

in the name of efficiency.

I want to taste the jam on my toast.

I want my friend to feel heard.

 

I don’t do hurry well anymore.

I don’t have time to do hurry well any more.

               By Ronna Jevne

 

Tune in to Time

Listen to “Time in a Bottle” and ask yourself, “With whom do I want to spend time?”. It might be just one person or it might be many.

 

 

Use writing to explore your relationship to time

Select a routine week. Do a time log. Time logs record your activities, often in 15 or 30 minute segments. At the end of the week, you will have a record of what you have done with “your one wild and precious life.”

 Review the log.

• Any surprises?
• Anything you would like to do differently?
• If someone ran a video of your life for the week, what would they conclude are your values?

From your time log,  list:

• the times you most enjoyed
• the time you spent on the daily life requirements (sleeping, bathing, eating)
• things that you feel were a waste of time
• times when you felt pressured for time.

Based on your reflections, schedule time to do what you truly would like to do – how you would like to live “your one wild and precious life”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are one leaf on the great human tree.

 

                                               Pablo Neruda

 

Putting our mark on the world

It is human nature to want to make a difference. A key question to ask ourselves is “what difference am I making?

We are each continuously making a difference. We do so with each action and by each inaction;

• by what we say and by our silence;
• by our presence and by our absence;
• by our kindness and by our cruelty;
• by our passion and by our indifference.

What is your definition of “making a difference”?

The difference we make influences our own lives, the lives of those around us, the life of our community, and our nation.

Making a difference in your own life

Every day involves a multitude of choices about your personal life. When you make healthy choices about what you eat and drink, you nourish your physical being. When you get enough rest, you enhance your body’s restorative powers.

When you socialize with supportive like-minded people, you experience the gifts of friendship. When you read or take a course, your brain gets exercised.

When you take a pause from the noise of the electronic world. When you sit quietly beside a brook in silence, hearing your voice of reason and the song that your heart sings, you are making a difference to your inner life.

Every time you confront your fears. Every time you accept your own humanness. Every time you forgive yourself or someone who you feel violated you. You are making a difference.

Every time you choose words wisely rather than using uncensored insensitive language. You are making a difference in your life and in the lives of others.

What are the differences that you are making to your personal life?

Making a difference in the life of others

As an individual you influence others daily. Every time you listen to a friend, provide guidance to a child, encourage your spouse. Every time you confront your partner, are present for a floundering teenager, bring a casserole to a neighbor. Every time you respect the speed limit, you reach out to an estranged member of the family, sit in silence with a grieving person. You are making a remarkable difference.

When you surprise someone with a visit, send a card, or lighten a neighbor’s load, someone’s life is positively influenced.

You are making a difference when you realize you are not the center of the universe. That your pain, however deep, is a shared pain.

A pain shared by every parent who has lost a child. Every spouse who has had to say a premature goodbye. Every athlete who whose body could not achieve what her mind could imagine.

Every entrepreneur whose dream evaporated for reasons outside of their control. Every home owner who has faced foreclosure. Every elder who is aging alone. Every street person who could never have envisioned a life of shame.

When you strive to  understand someone else’s pain or viewpoint, you are building a bridge to mutual understanding.

What are the differences that you are making to the life of others?

Making a difference in your community/nation

When you rise in the morning and are interested in making the world a better place, you are making a difference.

When you donate blood, learn CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), carry safety equipment when travelling, keep your vehicle in good repair, you are making a difference to the larger community.

When you participate in political life by voting, raise funds for a worthy charity, write your political representative, constructively share you views, you are influencing the larger community. When you rally to assist in local, regional, national or international crises, you are making a difference in the world.

When you work collectively with others, your influence is often magnified. Think about the collective efforts that have touched your life. The Red Cross, the many groups responding to specific illness, amateur theatre groups. The list is endless.

The Famous Five changed the destiny of women in Canada. Five Alberta women worked relentlessly to have women in Canada legally designated as “persons”. Previous to the 1929 Persons’ Case, women were not people in the eyes of the law.

What are the differences that you are making to the greater community?

A single candle can bring light to a cave.

Avoiding evaluation of your contributions

Just as it is human nature to want to make a difference, it is human nature to want to judge whether we have met the mark. There is a temptation to be judge and jury of our own well intentioned deeds.

Not every action leads to the intended outcome. Sometimes a seemingly insignificant action has considerable influence. At other times, a well-planned intervention executed with precision falls short of the anticipated results.

It is possible to overstate our influence, but more often we minimize the difference that we are making. It is common for people to say, “All I did was listen.” Listening actually makes a huge difference. Given an opportunity to be heard, people often  resolve their own concerns. Being heard is sometimes the first step for them to make a difference in their own lives.

Change takes place on its own schedule. We may see immediate differences we individually or collectively made.  On the other hand, the seeds of change may take time to mature.

A First Nations woman being interviewed about her work with recently released female inmates convincingly asserted, “I don’t concern myself with making a difference. I see hope as a chain. It is only important that I am not the link that breaks the chain”. 

All of us make a difference. There are times when we diminish our sense of contribution by comparing ourselves to individuals who we feel made a significant difference in a single event. Heroic actions catch our attention because of the dramatic way in which they illustrate the difference one person can make.

Desmond Doss, the character portrayed in the film Hacksaw Ridge, who enlisted as a medic while refusing to carry a gun, was singlehandedly responsible for rescuing 75 men from one of the bloodiest battles of WW11.

Harriet Tubman, once escaping from slavery to Canada, risked her life to free at least 45 other black men and women from the US. The underground railway she forged made life altering differences in each of those lives.

Sometimes, one single event has a huge sphere of influence. More often though, the difference is made in a series of cumulative events. Maurice Hilleman, who has been credited with developing over 40 vaccines, could not have known that when he went to his lab each morning for years that he eventually would save more lives than any other medical scientist of the 20th century.

People like Nelson Mandala, Desmond Tutu, the Dali Lama, Mother Teresa, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein, now household names, lived a lifetime of personal devotion within the a committed community. The energy of many individual contributors were what made their outstanding outcomes possible.

No one makes a difference alone but it often starts with one person, a person committed a vision of change.

What is your style?

Kindness

Words can work magic, and words can deliver harm.  Words can condemn or redeem. The choice of words is ours to make. A kind word can inspire. A kind word can encourage. A kind word can heal. You cannot actually measure the ripple effect of a generous gesture. Generosity and kindness are infectious. Often the sphere of influence of one act travels beneficially outward but the resulting improved outcomes go unmeasured.

Advocacy

Taking action on behalf of a cause or a person makes a difference. When you accompany someone to their medical appointment, lobby for policy that furthers a senior housing project, take a stand on climate change, you make a difference.

Young Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenage climate change activist, is a striking example of the fact that making a difference is not limited by our age, old or young.

Amnesty International is an example of individuals acting collectively while making a magnified difference. Seven million people in over 150 countries are working together to protect and promote human rights.

Service

Kindness and advocacy are forms of service. Service takes many forms. When you use your time to serve on a Board of a worthy organization or serve food in a soup kitchen, you make a difference. When you are a scout leader, a hockey coach, or a volunteer firefighter, you are serving your community.

How can writing make a difference?

Mary Pipher claims that writers can inspire a more kind, more fair, more beautiful world. Alternatively writers can incite selfishness, stereotyping and violence. Writers can unite people or divide them.

In her book, Writing to Change the World Mary refers to the many ways that we can make a positive difference with written words. Furthermore, she suggests how we can maximize that difference.

Any form of writing can change the world. No genre is excluded. Whether your form is poetry, essay, story, dialogue, letter, blog or song, you can use your talents in the service of what you consider to be important goals.

Research

Writing a simple thank you note makes a difference , a study providing evidence of the benefits to both the originator and the receiver of the thank you note.

Readings

Words are the most powerful tools at our disposal. With them, writers have saved lives and taken them, brought justice and confounded it, started wars and ended them. Writers can change the way we think and transform our definitions of right and wrong.

In Writing to Change the World, Martha Pipher reveals the power of words. As a writer and therapist, she uses “rousing commentary, personal anecdotes, memorable quotations, and stories of writers who have helped reshape society”. This book may inspire you to use the written word to change the world.

Enjoy these three short videos below that demonstrate the power of one can make a difference.

1) The starfish story.

2) A kindness video

3) A Ukrainian youth choir singing “You raise me up”.

Strategy of the month

Refer to letter writing strategy published in April of 2021, link below.

Letter Writing Strategy (April, 2021)

What do you feel strongly about?

Craft a letter to the editor on a subject about which you have an opinion .

Not confident? This letter to the editor guide will help you. Decide later whether you will send the letter. Just practice. Whether or not you send your letter, your will have clarified your own views.

Photo reflection of the month

 

The effect of one good hearted person is incalculable

                                                                  Oscar Arias

Write a thank you letter to someone who has made a difference in your life. Detail what they did and how it has affected you. It could be a colleague, a friend, a teacher. Whoever they are, they left a footprint on your heart. Tell them how grateful you are that there are people like them creating simple life changing inspirations with no expectations of being rewarded. Let them know. Then, send it to them with no expectation of a reply

People often ask, “Do I need to write about problems or trauma to receive the benefits of journaling?”

A recent study using Web based Positive Affective Journalling, an adaptation of the original expressive writing protocol, would suggest not.

Positive Affective Journalling was found to be effective in reducing some aspects of mental distress and improving aspects of well-being among medical patients experiencing anxiety.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6305886/

 

 

 

Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion,

Our most inexhaustible source of magic.

Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.

                                        Albus Dumbledore (J. K. Rowling)

 

Health warning

Magic is not a substitute for rational living. It won’t actually change the color of traffic lights. It won’t change salt to sugar in your tea. Magic won’t make you able to run a marathon. Training will be the magic that does that.

It won’t fix a flat tire. It might feel like magic if the driver of the vehicle that stops to help is a mechanic who just happens to have a jack and a spare tire.

What is Magic?

Magic is not just what the authors of Harry Potter, Star Wars, the Narnia Series or the Hobbit can do. They can turn gravel to gold with words.

Our own imaginations are amazing. We can all create superheroes, whimsical characters and unlikely outcomes, not only in fiction, but also in reality.

We can transport ourselves from a state of anger to hearty laughter; from a funk to an inspiration; from a setback to leap of faith; from a boring task to a fun activity; from resentful victim to forgiving saint.

How do we know when it’s magic?

We know it’s magic by the feeling we have. The feeling is a surprisingly fresh unanticipated positive response. The outcome delights us. The reaction is a smile.

Magic is often initiated by pretending that you have already achieved your happy ending. Sometime between childhood and adulthood, we stop enjoying our pretending. We dampen our response to magic.

It seems when reason invades, imagination fades. We begin to focus on problems rather than possibilities.

When was the last time that you had that magical feeling that something was amazing? That something was unexplainable. That sense of awe that you may have described as astonishing, mind-blowing, mystifying, baffling or just sheer magic? When did you last open your heart to possibility, to the idea that seemingly impossible things sometimes change?

A magician amazes us with the unexpected. When the unexpected is unexplainable, we feel that magic moment. With amazement comes fun, a smile and often gratitude.

Where has magic happened for you?

            In music

For some, music is magic. Often lyrics are not even required.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLxOaGG7MkA.

Psychology Today featured an article, The Magic of Music: Music as therapy. The article lists 16 uplifting songs.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/hide-and-seek/201810/the-magic-music

            In art

For some people, art lifts them to another realm. They feel what the artist felt; see what the artist saw; perhaps even hear what the artist might have heard. There are no words for being touched by the reality or beauty of a piece of art. Time and space are transcended.

            In nature

For others, nature is the enchanting sorcerer. Nature itself has limitless examples of how plants and animals magically adapt to changing environments.

Nora Roberts writes “Magic exists. Who can doubt, when there are rainbows and wildflowers, the music of the wind and the silence of the stars?”

To use the words of magic, we become spell bound by the beauty of nature.

            In treasured relationships

Nora Roberts, author of 225 romance novels, asserts that anyone who has loved has been touched by magic. It might be romance but it also might be the giggle of your first granddaughter. It might be a phone call from an old friend the very same hour you were thinking of him. It might be seeing the toddler you raised receive his wings on the tarmac of the air field.

            In the digital world

Arthur Clarke writes, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”.

For those of us that predate the computer era, the digital world feels like magic. Ordering groceries, taking a watercolor course, visiting with friends in Sweden, all without even leaving home, is commonplace in this day and age. Now if that isn’t magic, what is?

Flip a switch and lights go on. Change the channel that you are watching without leaving your chair. Start your car on a cold day without going outside. A voice named Siri tells you where to turn on your way to a new destination.

            In reading or writing

Words are magical in that they affect our hearts and minds. Words can inspire us to pretend a pleasant experience. They can engender compassion. They can move us to action. They can make our heart smile.

Do you have a favorite novelist, poet, story writer, or documentary journalist whose writing you love to read?

What do you read that feels like magic? That has led you to  see the world differently? What book has taken you to adventure or enchanted lands? How are you different when you read what you love to read? Theodora Goss says that a writer is very much like a wizard making magic with words, sometimes changing the world for the better.

Therapeutic writing is writing that changes our inner world, invites us to imagine creative solutions, consoles our despair, and heals our wounds.

When we write about what we love, we feel better. That is magic.

Researchers initially thought that in order for writing to be therapeutic, it had to address trauma. We know now that isn’t the case. Writing about positive outcomes is known to lift us up.

To use the words of Anias Nin, we write “to taste life twice”. She adds, “When I don’t write, I feel that my world is shrinking. I feel like I am in prison. I feel I lose my fire and my color. Writing should be a necessity. As the sea needs to heave, I liken writing to breathing.”

How does magic happen?

Magic often happens in a moment. A moment when we realize stressors are normal. When we define obstacles as opportunities. When we use words that inject fun into overly serious situations. When we notice and name the joys found in everyday experiences.

We don’t need a slight of hand or blink of an eye. We just need words – words we tell ourselves, words we say to others, and words we write.

The work of magic

Sometimes magic takes time. Lee Crockerell, a retired Executive Vice President of Walt Disney World for over a decade writes in his book Creating Magic, “It’s not the magic that makes it work; it’s the way we work that makes it magic.”

The words we use to define our lives create the lives we live. Redefining our experience with constructive language positions us to live our lives differently.

Our pen can be our magical wand

The “work” we need to do with is to notice the language we are using to describe our problems, our strengths, our delights and our discouragements. With that awareness, ask the question, “What words can I use that would help me to see this or that differently?”

How to tune into the magic channel

Creating magic can be fun. Play with ideas and words.

• If by magic, tomorrow is a surprisingly good day, what would I have done differently?
• When I tell this same story a year from now, how could I tell it with some humor?
• Is there one word I need to hear right now? What would that word be?
• Practice exchanging neutral or negative words with words that are positive, energizing, or humorouss. Instead of problem solving, try possibility generating. Instead of lazy, try motivationally challenged. Instead of mountain, try overgrown molehill.

Remember that our life can be changed in a sentence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qpcB82aUz4

The words “tell me more” may change, not only your life, but someone else’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDXtFbSmBAg

Reading:

We tend to think of magic as moments in time and as individual occurrences. Can magic happen for groups of people on an enduring basis? Lee Cockerell believes it can. In his book Creating Magic,  he reflects on the success of Disney World. He describes how the core values of honesty, integrity, respect, courage, balance and diversity contribute to magic in our lives and in the lives of others.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/29183/creating-magic-by-lee-cockerell/

Research

People often ask, “Do I need to write about problems or trauma to receive the benefits of journaling?”

A recent study using Web based Positive Affective Journalling, an adaptation of the original expressive writing protocol, would suggest not.

Positive Affective Journalling was found to be effective in reducing some aspects of mental distress and improving aspects of well-being among medical patients experiencing anxiety.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6305886/

Strategy of the Month: Magic coupons  

Imagine that in today’s mail, there was a curious envelope. Perhaps it is an unusual shape or colour. It has no postmark. In it is a dated coupon for each of the next 21 days. Each coupon bestows you with the ability to see magic during that day. You cannot accumulate the coupons. Each coupon is only good for that day -so no storing them up. Each day you can activate the next coupon by writing, if only briefly, about the magic you experienced.

There is magic in every one of our days. Take time to recognize it and document it.

Photo prompt of the month:

 

 

Pretend that the mother-ship in the photo above is landing in your back yard to deliver magic to your life. Pretend that you engage the friendly visitors and then write about the encounter and the plentiful positive outcomes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We tend to think of magic as moments in time and as individual occurrences. Can magic happen for groups of people on an enduring basis? Lee Cockerell believes it can. In his book Creating Magic,  he reflects on the success of Disney World. He describes how the core values of honesty, integrity, respect, courage, balance and diversity contribute to magic in our lives and in the lives of others.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/29183/creating-magic-by-lee-cockerell/

Think of a change as a dream you are going to make real. Enjoy some creative suggestions in the book Make Your Creative Dreams Real by SARK.

Make-Your-Creative-Dreams-Real

The author says about the book “I wanted to write a book to help all the creative dreamers make their creative dreams even more real….I have a lot to share about struggle and success, and the long flat places in between. My experiences as a recovering procrastinator and perfectionist give me a keen understanding of how they work to delay creative dreams (and why that’s sometimes a good thing).”