Live Fully

Livefully

Mother Earth
Poetry on the environment.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1583183/mother_earth.html

Spiritual Cleaning

Spring is in the air. It is the time people begin to think about spring cleaning. Like the bunnies we come out of our holes and busy ourselves with sprucing up the yard, raking the debris out of the garden, hosing down the windows and lightening the environment making way to enjoy our property and lives with the blessing of warm weather and warm air.

Have you thought about a spiritual spring cleaning?  Clearing away the debris of negativity and open ourselves to light and love.  If you have never thought of it, I invite you to come with me on this journey while I do a little of my own spiritual cleaning.  

 1.   I put pen to paper and write down all the things I would like to change about myself.  

2.  I take stock of what has been holding me back.

3.  I make a list of the things I am grateful for in my life.

4.  I decide to live in the moment

5.  Take a little risk everyday.

6.  Pray at least twice a day – in the morning when I get up and in the evening before I go to bed.

7.  I make a decision to be more generous with my time and my resources to my Church and to those in need.

8.  I take half hour each day as time for myself to reflect on the blessings I am enjoying, the life I am living and say a prayer of thanks in silence.

9.  I offer to do some kind of volunteer work at least once a week

10. I do something that is fun and uplifting at least once a week – go dancing, go for a walk, go to the museum and try to do something I have never done before.

Human rights from the mouths of youths

watch you tube video - children speaking out about human rights.

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Parenting Tips for Newcomer Families

If you are new to Canada or are contemplating on migrating to Canada with your small children, it will be wise to familiarize yourself with the parenting style of Canadian culture. For many of us, our children are the most important things in our lives and if we should lose them our lives would appear not to be worth living. Many newcomer immigrant and refugees have had the heartrending experience of having their children taken away from their care and placed in the hands of strangers.  This happened because they did not understand the Canadian rules of parenting.

   There is zero tolerance for violence in Canada including violence against children. If you are from a culture that beat children in order to discipline them, when you come to Canada, you will have to find another way of disciplining your children because if you do Child and Family Services may apprehend them.   Sometimes children are apprehended for reasons of cultural ignorance on the part of the counselors who are not cross-culturally competent but they prefer to err on the side of caution. Here are some tips to help you keep your children:

     

1.  Talk to them; ask them about their day e.g. what happened in school, what have they learned.  Let them know you are interested in them.
2.  Be available. Be home when your children get home from school. Be involved in their lives.
3. Respect your children. When you give respect you gain more respect and they gain confidence.
4. Attend a parenting course as soon as possible after you arrive so you are armed with new techniques you can apply to your parenting style. Remember a non-violent way of parenting is the preferred way.
5. Children are living in a different world. Their realities are different from what you might have experienced. Learn about your children’s realities in the present culture to understand them better.
6. Listen to them to learn what they are feeling or what they are going through without judging or ridiculing them
7. Set ground rules for the home and stick to them.  Do not say one thing and do another.
8. If you two-parent family one parent should be seen as doing something gainful even if he or she receives money from the Government. A father or mother can volunteer with a community organization or any non-profit organization while the other remains at home to ensure the children are properly fed good nutritious food, they have clean clothes and taken care of with love.
9. Make sure your children pay attention to their homework – you may not understand English but you can ask for help from a community member to mentor you and to help you monitor your children’s homework or enroll them in an after school program.  Find out what they are learning in school.

Hitting is never an option. Talk, communicate, and learn about their world. Most important of all let them know you love them by saying so once in a while. It will not hurt you to say, “I love you. I’m proud of you.” This will make your child love you and respect you and want to please you.

 

 

Living in the moment

Living in the moment is the new mantra of not only the new age gurus but also of anyone who is on the path of self-development.  It is touted as a panacea for many problems we face each day.  Living in the moment is one of those ancient truths that was available to certain sectors of society such as priests, psychologists and meta-physicians to name a few.  Today this knowledge is accessible to everyone. I am sure many people struggle with art of living in the moment because it is not as easy as it sounds.  I do.  We are programmed to live anywhere but in the moment. This is maybe, perhaps because of early socialization, evolutionary handles or because human is the only animal as far as we know with the power of thought and imagination that make it possible for us to live in the past, present and future at will.    If we check ourselves, we will find that most of our thoughts are located either in the past or the future and the present is forgotten. That does not make sense does it?  Why let this rich minefield of awareness slip by, why do we trade reality for fiction.  Blame it on the media – we are fed a lot of fiction each day through all the media we are exposed to.  Stop and think for a moment who benefits from our living in the past or the future? Certainly not you or me. I would bet its business people who sell us stuff. When we look back we see what we do not have, what’s lacking, what we need more of to feel good, the future provides us with possibilities to – get a new line of credit, go on a vacation, buy a new dress, call a friend up and go eat out, using credit. We need instant gratification to satiate our ever-growing needs.  On the other hand, when we focus on now, this moment, you think of what you have and what you should be grateful for. You will find that you need nothing, that there is abundance in your life. When you look around you, and find you are still walking on your two legs, there is no pain, you are alive and breathing, you have food in your cupboard you feel good. Even if you are sick with cancer, full of arthritic pain when you live in the moment, when you think of where you are and what you are doing you feel good. You may say thank you God, I have made it another day. I am still here living and breathing instead of being under the ground cold and hard.

   Living in the moment is living your best life. You are guaranteed the moment you live, not the next. Natasha Richardson, the film star who recently died tragically as a result of an insidious accident, is a case in point. I am sure she had lots of plans ahead. I hope she did not live in the future most of the time. Listening to clips of conversations she had in the past leads me to think that her attention was on appreciating her blessings.  She talked about liking to spend time with her sons, and cooking for them, taking care of them.  She was grateful for her wonderful husband. She enjoyed those precious moments and those moments have made her boys better people. They will feel her presence even when she is not there because of the moments they shared together. Sometimes living in the past could be living in the present if we do it consciously. If we tell ourselves okay, I want to be present with a loved one who has passed away, we invoke their presence in our present and consciously engage our loved one’s spirit and feel the love and feel good.

Take sometime today to enjoy being present with yourself.  Acknowledge the moment and do not be frustrated with yourself when you find yourself being pulled back and forward, habits die-hard.  Gently return your attention to the moment. The success is in being aware; being conscious of where your thoughts are is what it means to be present.  As you practice this regularly, it will become easier for you to control the flow and sway of your thoughts.  You will enjoy life and all its abundance.

 

Serendipity, personal connections and team-building formula for career-building

If you are looking to move up in your careers and feeling a little stuck, maybe your focus may be in the wrong direction.  President of Disney Channels Worldwide, Rich Ross, at a recent leadership lecture stressed that the career making power of serendipity, personal connections and team-building are often overlooked when looking for help with one's career. "The people around you are the people most able to help you with your career because they know you best" he said "People close to you, people who might be in this room, are the ones who can help."  Read how he rose to the top of his game:

 

Do You Know Where Your Kids Are? Disney's Rich Ross Probably Does - Knowledge@Wharton

 

Living fully means believing in the goodness of people, having a positive attitude and a willingness to learn.  You have to develop the mindset that those around you want to help you succeed.  The negative thoughts we have are the ones that keep us down.  Do not discount anyone you meet.