Mind, Body and Soul

What do you focus more on? Strengths or weaknesses? Do you feel more like Popeye or Olive Oyl? I'm just kidding. I am talking more about your inner gifts and talents, not the size of your muscles! :)

I try to focus on my strengths rather than my weaknesses. Easier said than done, eh? We need to be earnest in our judgment of our gifts and talents. In reality, we ought to know our strengths. We ought to know our weaknesses too, after all not a one of us are perfect, even if you think you are! ;) We should not think more highly of ourselves than we ought. We should not put ourselves down either.

Often we have a strange fascination with our weaknesses instead of seeing the good in ourselves. Perhaps we pay more attention to our weaknesses because we are insecure about them. Or maybe our weaknesses are always cropping up in life and it makes us feel like a failure (which by the way we are NOT). Sometimes we focus on our weaknesses by accepting opportunities for which we are not prepared, e.g., teaching others how to swim, when we are drowning ourselves. :(

No two of us are exactly alike. None of us has every gift and ability. Our responsibility is to exercise the gifts we have, not the ones we wish we had. We need to embrace who we are, not what we aren’t and never will be.

Each of us is unique and bring different gifts and combinations of personalities and strengths and weaknesses to the table. Be yourself, not who you think other want you to be or what you think you are supposed to be.

When it comes to making decisions about your life and the direction it should take, focus on your strengths, not on your weaknesses. Know yourself. Know what you do well, and embrace it. Don’t be fearful or anxious. Go with it and thrive.

Honor the person God made you to be and live as integrated, whole and honest as possible.

Powerful Experience

Remy

The love of a dog is a powerful experience. Last Saturday marked a year since Stoli passed away. Stoli taught us a million things about dogs and unconditional love. To this day, I still miss that amazing dog. He will forever live in our hearts.

Remy playing "volleyball' with Brittany

But with that said, I must say Stoli’s younger brother, Remy, is the cutest thing. I have never seen a dog who loves massages as much as Remy does. Remy greets us when we come home and he is beyond excited. I do believe this, my friends, is unconditional love at its finest. The companionship of a dog is amazing. They come to you in a giving manner and are content just to be with you in the same room. All Remy cares about is pleasing us and receiving love in return. He doesn’t care or notice if our socks match or our hair is a mess or what material things we own. He just wants affection and perhaps a treat or two! :)

Remy playing his favorite game of "tug" with Brittany

Remy has such a powerful personality, he absolutely adores people and loves all the attention he can possibly get. When anyone comes to visit, he greets them at the door by sitting on his bum and then raises his paw in the air. Such a gentleman! :) Remy is pretty sharp too! We actually have to spell out words because he knows exactly what we are saying.

Remy saying "what's up, Mommy?" :)

We feel as though he is our child and we are sometimes floored and amazed at his intelligence. Remy lets us know every day how grateful he is for his food, water, and new toys we buy for him. He never fails to thank us by giving us smooches.

Sometimes he gets into trouble when he wants to dig in places he shouldn't, like Stoli's Memorial Garden. Of course, that is a huge "No-No" but then he looks up at me with those beautiful eyes as to say "who me?" and I melt... but not before I see the dirt and grass in his mouth! Silly boy! :)

Remy is one heck of a great dog and one I would hate to ever lose, and in my opinion, has a heart of gold, loves his masters, is intelligent, easy to train, an excellent companion, and one who loves people.

As we said before, Remy has so many good qualities, we could not possibly tell you about all of them. We can tell you however, that we couldn’t have asked for a better companion and we are beyond thrilled that he came into our lives.

Balance, Sweet, Sweet, Balance

Because we have so many commitments in our lives, (family, friends, career and finances, personal and spiritual growth, fitness and fun), maintaining balance among them can be very tough.

Our lives become unbalanced when we give certain areas of our life more time than we should and other areas of life not enough of our time and energy. When this happens, life gets off kilter.

Balance takes some effort on our part, eh? It takes trying different things, building upon successes and learning from mistakes. It takes self-confidence, assertiveness, delegation and personal insight. But what I focus on the most is knowing my limitations. I know this is a huge issue for most of you who read this blog as well. Many of us struggle with wanting to be all things to all people. However, it is important to cultivate a clear sense of what we can and cannot do. Be realistic. We are not superheroes, superwoman or superman!

In order to have balance, we must work on taking care of ourselves spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Not everyone is going to understand our decisions or choices, especially when we limit ourselves (it is called balance) and say no.

It is our job to create balance in our lives as best we can, which in turn means we are finally acknowledging and recognizing our limits. I truly believe only then will we finally have what we are searching for.

Balance, sweet, sweet balance! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN!
August 8, 2009

MY main squeeze is having a BIRTHDAY!

No we don’t live in a fairly tale. Our life is not all roses and champagne. But our life is pretty darn sweet and we have a beautiful marriage. What makes our marriage so great??? We compromise. And instead of constantly nagging each other about all the things that drive us crazy, we decided to be more conscious of all the things that we love about each other instead.

I consider myself to be pretty darn lucky to have Kevin as a husband and thank God every day for blessing me with such a wonderful man. Sometimes with our busy lives, a lot of us forget to stop and be thankful for the things and people in our lives BUT I sincerely try and not let even one day go by without showing him how much he means to me. He still makes my heart skip a beat and he constantly brings a smile to my face.

Hope you have a wonderful day honey!

You are the best in every single way!

Crossroads

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter

and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss

Crossroads! Are you justifying a bad decision because you think it did not hurt anyone or because in the big scheme of things, you think no one will notice. Are you battling with self-conflict about some choices you are about to make or choices you already made? Our conscience is the little voice inside our head telling us to do right thing and not go down that road again.

The fact is, we all weigh what we value most, what we can let slide, what we can afford, what we need and what we enjoy doing and what we loathe doing. Ultimately we make the decision on how to live our own life accordingly.

What I find amazing is when I meet someone for the first time (perhaps after talking to them for awhile online or through a “forum” chat room), they are nothing that they represented themselves to be. It blows my mind. Why do people feel the need to lie about who they really are? It does not make sense to me except for the fact, they are insecure about who they REALLY are.

I believe you can fool most everyone in your life if you really want to. You can isolate yourself, and no one will ever know. The issue is not whether others know or not. The issue is the fact that you already know! Isn’t that enough? You already know what your self-conflicts are. The fact that you already know means you have already been caught! In my mind, I would not be able to sleep at night if I thought I was a bad person or I was continually making bad choices and definitely not if I was destroying others in the process. At some point, you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself who you really are and buck up! :)

For all the believers out there, we should be living by moral correctness dictated to us by God alone. Our actions and beliefs should be based upon the written Word of God, and we must know and uncompromisingly live by what we believe. True faith doesn’t allow any power to be given to uncertainty, despair, hopelessness, doubt or impatience. True faith does not change by public opinion or by consensus. True faith listens for the voice of God and lives by conviction. And true faith is being the person you say you are 24/7.

Look I am in no way saying I am perfect BUT I will never portray myself as being someone I am not. I am the typical “what you see is what you get” kind of person. When I say I will pray for you, you betcha, I am praying for you. When I say I will be there for you, I certainly will be there for you. I am who I say I am.

Are you?