Sunday, October 23, 2016

When You Live Your Life, Things Happen

Those things that happen may be good things, they may be bad things, they may be so-so things. Or they may seem to be one, and are actually something else, altogether. A good thing may have been misunderstood, and you dealt with it in the incorrect way. Or a bad thing may actually teach your something you hadn't properly understood before, and you gain better understanding.

When those bad things happen, the worst thing you can do is curl up in a ball and hide from the event. Bad things are always things that require action to stop the harm for escalating. If the things is a medical related thing - a sprain for instance, using the sprained limb will make it worse not better, but it may be broken, so it will probably benefit from a doctor or nurse looking at it. And a sprain will need thought to rearrange chores, get assistance and so on.

If the bad thing is a misunderstanding, where you have been what you feel is wrongly accused of something, acknowledging the fact that the other person thinks you've done something wrong, gives them the satisfaction of knowing you heard what they think, and so feel somewhat validated. You may not agree with them, but having acknowledged their understood truth, you have no need to take it further, and argue about it. We all have the right to own our truth, as we see it.

If it turns out later on, that you were in fact wrong and the other person correct, don't just leave it along, acknowledge it, and you can both move on with your lives, neither holding angry thoughts about it (one hopes). If it turns out the other person wants to hold on to the thing, let that be there idea to hold, and let them go with it, neither arguing, or submitting to further abuse. You have done the right thing in your acknowledgement, it's the role of the other person to accept that.

Let the bad thing be something you can learn from. Be kind to yourself, but be prepared to learn from your mistakes ...

Monday, August 1, 2016

4 Ways to Win In Life

       Thank the others involved in your successes
Be prepared to accept blame when appropriate
Always offer sincere apologise as needed
Be grateful when things go well

These are a few thoughts that have occurred to me, in response to reading a post on Facebook concerning the idea of ‘Three things that will guarantee you do badly in life’ or something similar to that. It seemed to me looking at life in a negative way wouldn't lead to a happy life, even if it led to you being aware of the things that can go wrong.

I would always rather see the good things in life, not the bad things, even though I am certainly conscious of the possibility of bad things happening. So anyway, I'm glad I wrote my list of ways to win in life, rather ways to make yourself lose.

I have recently been involved in a successful event held in a town quite close to where I live. This event the Gawler Festival of Words, was held over three days and two nights, and much fun and learning happened. Words were spoken, films views, works written, and a train ride was had after viewing some art in an Art Gallery (Gawler Community Gallery).

There was also yummy food and drink consumed, books launched, and hugs given! I think upholding the four principles as listed about, helped in the process of making this Festival great. We (the Adelaide Plains Poets) also successfully held this event last year, and we are already planning what is going to happen at the Festival next year!

I am the leader of the team, and I sincerely thank them for all of their work getting this happening! Passionate people all working for the same cause can make wonderful things happen! We worked at 'spreading the love' by using three different venues for catering, and made sure those people involved knew how much we appreciated them.

So to the people at the P/A Hotel, the Poetic Justice Cafe Gallery and the Alchemy Cafe, all in Gawler, I thank you very much for helping to make the 2016 Gawler Festival of Words a fantastic event!

Friday, February 19, 2016

Be Kind to Yourself First!

There are people out there who do many good things for many people, or do amazingly good things on one particular person. We celebrate these people, and thank them sometimes, (and sometimes not). Regardless of the celebrations and thanks though, these amazing kind people keep on doing their kind things, because that's the kind of people they are.

If you are one of these lovely kind people, whether a worker, volunteer,
loved one or community member, thank you very much. Your actions deserve to be front page news, because it's people like you who make our lives worth living. You help out for little or no pay, you step in and do things when needed, where others would step away and do nothing.

Your are kind to many, and possible too few thank you for all you do. The thanks are not why you do the kind things you do, you simply believe in doing the right and kind thing. I thank you for the good and kind things you do, You help to make the whole world a better place for all, because you show everyone around you that good things happen, and believing in the possibility of good can warm our hearts and keep us going when things seem too hard.

So, many thanks you, you wonderful kind people, but ... There's always a but, isn't there. This is an important one, please pay attention to this ... Doing good for others is a wonderful thing to do, but the most important person you must always remember to do good things for, the person you should be kind to first, is YOURSELF!

If you're always too busy being kind to other people, and never have any time left to do good things for yourself, you will burn out, the well of kindness will dry up and you will eventually not be able to do anything at all, no good things and no kind actions, you will have run out of the good things. The best way to refill your well of kindness is to top it up regularly, and the easiest way to keep on top of that is to do good things for yourself first!

Yes YOU, put your name at the top of the list of people to be kind to, to good things for, because when you are kind to yourself, you have more to give to other people. Being good to yourself doesn't drain the well of kindness, it fills it up. So when your a parent, and you want to reward your child with something yummy, because they've done something well, Get yourself something yummy too.

If you're helping someone with their garden, or their shopping, get something good for yourself from the garden - a flower, a strawberry, a cutting, or buy yourself something extra while you're buying the shopping for the other person.

If you're taking someone out for the day, why not take them somewhere you want to go too, not just where they want to go. The kinder you are to yourself, the happier and more productive you'll be, give it a try, and see for yourself!