Inspiration for Today

(Click the link above to listen to the song)
I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream

I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness still another mile
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream

I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream 


SONGWRITERS: ANDERSSON, BENNY/ULVAEUS, BJORN

May you find serenity and tranquility in a world you may not always understand. May the pain you have known and the conflict you have experienced give you the strength to walk through life facing each new situation with courage and optimism. Always know that there are those whose love and understanding will always be there, even when you feel most alone. May you discover enough goodness in others to believe in a world of peace. May a kind word, a reassuring touch, and a warm smile be yours every day of your life, and may you give these gifts as well as receive them. Remember the sunshine when the storm seems unending.


Teach love to those who hate, and let that love embrace you as you go out into the world. May the teachings of those you admire become part of you, so that you may call upon them. Remember, those whose lives you have touched and whose have touched yours are always a part of you, even if the encounters were less than you would have wished. It is the content of the encounter that is more important than the form.


May you not become too concerned with material matters, but instead place immeasurable value on the goodness in your heart. Find time each day to see beauty and love in the world around you. Realize that each person has limitless abilities, but each of us is different in our own way. What you feel you lack in the present may become one of your strengths in the future. May you see your future as one filled with promise and possibility. Learn to view everything as a worthwhile experience. May you find enough inner strength to determine your own worth by yourself, and not be dependent on another's judgment of your accomplishments. May you always feel loved.


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Stop All Criticism - Criticism never changes a thing. Refuse to criticize yourself. Accept yourself exactly as you are. Everybody changes. When you criticize yourself, your changes are negative. When you approve of yourself, your changes are positive.

Don't Scare Yourself - Stop terrorizing yourself with your thoughts. It's a dreadful way to live. Find a mental image that gives you pleasure (mine is yellow roses), and immediately switch your scary thought to a pleasure thought.

Be Gentle And Kind And Patient - Be gentle with yourself. Be kind to yourself. Be patient with yourself as you learn the new ways of thinking. Treat yourself as you would someone you really loved.

Be Kind To Your Mind - Self hatred is only hating your own thoughts. Don't hate yourself for having the thoughts. Gently change your thoughts.

Praise Yourself - Criticism breaks down the inner spirit. Praise builds it up. Praise yourself as much as you can. Tell yourself how well you are doing with every little thing.

Support Yourself - Find ways to support yourself. Reach out to friends and allow them to help you. It is being strong to ask for help when you need it.

Be Loving To Your Negatives - Acknowledge that you created them to fulfill a need. Now, you are finding new, positive ways to fulfill those needs. So, lovingly release the old negative patterns.

Take Care Of Your Body - Learn about nutrition. What kind of fuel does your body need to have optimum energy and vitality? Learn about exercise. What kind of exercise can you enjoy? Cherish and revere the temple you live in.

Mirror Work - Look into your eyes often. Express this growing sense of love you have for yourself. Forgive yourself looking into the mirror. Talk to your parents looking into the mirror. Forgive them too. At least once a day say: "I love you, I really love you."

Love Yourself .. Do It Now - Don't wait until you get well, or lose the weight, or get the new job, or the new relationship. Begin now -- and do the best you can.
-- Louise L. Hay Educational Institute, Creating a world where it's safe for us to love each other.

Even before the first tip, you simply must get out a notebook, journal, piece of paper, napkin...SOMETHING to write on to save your discoveries! These tips will only help if you pursue them, so please either take a moment to find writing tools NOW or print this out and promise yourself to complete this exercise later. It may take you some thinking time to get it done......and now....here are your tips.....

1. Find Your Joy Factor Look at the whole of your life history. When did you experience the most sustained period of Joy? What were you doing then? Where were you? Who were you with? How did it feel?

2. What Are Your 3 Most Favorite things to do? If you had a free day with NO commitments, where would you be found? What would you be doing with whom?

3. In what area do you excel? (NO MODESTY ALLOWED HERE!)Truly, what are you complimented on a lot? This could be ANYTHING.

4. What do you most want to be remembered for? If you were designing your epitaph, what would you want it to say? (NOT what your Mom wants, or your SPOUSE wants or your third cousin twice removed, but what do YOU want your headstone to say?)

5. If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your life TODAY? How would it look compared to how it looks now? Which aspects of your life ARE changeable, both short term and long term?

6. How does your Joy factor overlap with your favorite things and the areas in which you excel? Do the areas in which you excel bring YOU joy, or are they really for someone else.....do you see which are obvious matches, and which do not fit? Those that overlap, that bring YOU the most Joy, are most likely the things that would bring you into Passionate Living.

7. What is the first even teeny tiny step you can take to living out your Passion as you have defined in #6? Take some time to really think this one through... concentrate and focus, and then you will be able to start the next step...BUILDING YOUR ROADMAP.

By Julie Jordan Scott 

If you think you are beaten you are; If you think you dare not, you don't; If you want to win but think you can't; It's almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lose you're lost; For out of the world we find Success begins with a fellow's will; It's all in a state of mind.

Life's battles don't always go To the stronger and faster man, But sooner or later the man who wins Is the man who thinks he can.

Author Unknown 

Refrain:
Eh---yeah
wonderful world
beautiful people.
You and your girl things could be pretty.
But underneath this there is a secret.
That nobody can repeat.
Take a look
at the world
and the state that it's in today
I am sure you'll agree.
We all could make it a better way.
With our love put together.
Ev'rybody learn to love each other.
Instead of fussing and fighting
cheating but biting
scandalising and hating.
Baby we could have a
Refrain:
Talkin' 'bout the wonderful world
beautiful people.
you and your girl things could be pretty.
But underneath this there is a secret.
That nobody can repeat.
Man and woman
girl and boy.
Let us try to give a helping hand.
This is know and I'm sure.
That the love we all could understand.
This is our world
can't you see ?
Everybody wants to live and be free.
Instead of fussing and fighting
cheating but biting
scandalising and hating.
Baby we could have a.

By Jimmy Cliff
From the album "Ultimate Collection"

(click the link above to listen to the song)

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.

I think I can make it now, the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is the rainbow I've been prayin?for
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.

Look all around, there's nothin?but blue skies
Look straight ahead, nothin?but blue skies

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.


Johnny Nash Lyrics

Nothing's impossible I have found
For when my chin is on the ground
I pick myself up, dust myself off, start all over again
Don't lose your confidence if you slip
Be grateful for a pleasant trip
And pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again
Work like a soul inspired till the battle of the day is won
You may be sick and tired but you'll be a man my son
Don't you remember the famous men who had to fall to rise again?
They picked themselves up, dust themselves off and started all over again

    Faith sees the way;

Doubt sees the bleakest night,

    Faith sees the day;

Doubt dreads to take a step,

    Faith soars on high;

Doubt questions, ‘Who believes?’

    Faith answers, ‘I.’"

After years of searching, the seeker was told to go to a cave, in which he would find a well. 'Ask the well what is truth', he was advised, 'and the well will reveal it to you'. Having found the well, the seeker asked that most fundamental question. And from the depths came the answer, 'Go to the village crossroad: there you shall find what you are seeking'.
Full of hope and anticipation the man ran to the crossroad to find only three rather uninteresting shops. One shop was selling pieces of metal, another sold wood, and thin wires were for sale in the third. Nothing and no one there seemed to have much to do with the revelation of truth.
Disappointed, the seeker returned to the well to demand an explanation, but he was told only, 'You will understand in the future.' When the man protested, all he got in return were the echoes of his own shouts. Indignant for having been made a fool of - or so he thought at the time - the seeker continued his wanderings in search of truth. As years went by, the memory of his experience at the well gradually faded until one night, while he was walking in the moonlight, the sound of sitar music caught his attention. It was wonderful music and it was played with great mastery and inspiration.
Profoundly moved, the truth seeker felt drawn towards the player. He looked at the fingers dancing over the strings. He became aware of the sitar itself. And then suddenly he exploded in a cry of joyous recognition: the sitar was made out of wires and pieces of metal and wood just like those he had once seen in the three stores and had thought it to be without any particular significance.
At last he understood the message of the well: we have already been given everything we need: our task is to assemble and use it in the appropriate way. Nothing is meaningful so long as we perceive only separate fragments. But as soon as the fragments come together into a synthesis, a new entity emerges, whose nature we could not have foreseen by considering the fragments alone.