"No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change."
Barbara DeAngelis
On a shelf I’ve got a fragment of thin, carefully painted 2,000-year-old pottery I picked up years ago in Petra – but I don’t look at it much.
That blue Michigan license plate from the Chrysler Something I bought way up by the Canadian border, drove to Mississippi and then bounced up and down San Francisco’s hills is on top of a bookcase. In the attic.
Somewhere tucked away is the bag of Dhofari frankincense Mabkhot Al Amiry pressed into my hand. The olive-stone necklace Umm Asad made on her porch by the Dead Sea tomato fields is chucked in with tutus and tiaras at the bottom of a play box. I kept the chunky watch that a Russian soldier insisted I take after we shared a train compartment to Warsaw, less than six months after the Berlin Wall came down – but I’m not sure where it is. The point-toed leather slippers from Marrakech weren’t a pair when I got them, and they still aren’t now. I bring out the bespoke Cairo robe, perfect for a summer evening, and my wife rolls her eyes.
Stuff we collect. A minute of life-affirming richness. Then years of dead weight, pinning us to the past, wreathing everything we do – or try to – in the stale breath of the way things were.
On a twilit Pyrenean border road it had taken us all day to hitchhike from Montpellier. I was on my knees, begging cars to stop. One did. C was in the passenger seat. Twenty years on, he’s a bit like a brother.
In Amman, T was on one end of the group of friends who’d adopted me; I was on the other, newly single and hurting. It was a reckless time. I barely remember her. Twelve years later she tweeted hello. Now she laughs while pushing my kids in the park swings.
Then there was chopping vegetables with A in her kitchen in rural Massachusetts, more than a decade after those Tel Aviv deckchairs. The sweaty hotel room in Delhi with A. The long detour next week, to see M in Paris.
Never mind stuff. Collect people.
"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude."
-- Denis Waitley
Good morning. How are you feeling right now? Like, on a scale of 0 (very bad), to 100 (very good), where would you be? 75? 90? 20? Thanks for letting me know. Now, would you mind telling me what you’re doing right now? Interesting. Just one more question. Are you thinking about something other than what you’re currently doing?
The above three questions, minus the intervening banter, were asked at random intervals during the day of over 2200 adults. Their iPhone would alert them to the questions. They’d answer. And then, they’d get back to whatever it was they were doing.
How does a wandering mind affect happiness?
This simple design formed the basis of an important study by psychologists from Harvard University who were looking to answer one central question: Are all of the philosophical and religious traditions that teach us to be “in the moment,” or in other words, that encourage mindfulness in everything we do, correct in doing so? Or flipped the other way: Does a wandering mind make you less happy than a present mind?
... more http://bit.ly/oRKSy1
"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude."
-- Denis Waitley
According to the dictionary, a talent is a natural endowment of a person. It is an ability or natural capacity that we have, which may range from our creativity to our athletic abilities. We all have them, but we are not always so good at identifying what they are. Sometimes they can be right in front of us, and we miss them.
If you can determine what your talents are, you can tap into an amazing resource that can help you in every aspect of your life, including your business. Whether you are searching for the perfect type of business to open or you want to find ways to grow the one you have, you may find the answer in your personal talents.
Ways to Discover => http://bit.ly/lblxFl
