Positive Thoughts for the Week

Need some inspiration and motivation? Here are some positive thoughts for the entire week. From day 1 to day 7, Monday to Sunday, one positive thought per day to read, reflect and ponder upon. Blessings!

We should seize every opportunity to give encouragement. Encouragement is oxygen to the soul. –George M. Adams

These words of encouragement when said with utter belief can boost a tired soul or uplift the weary and propel someone onward in their tracks.

You can do it!

I believe in you!

Don’t worry, everything will be alright.

You are not alone, I am here to support you every step of the way.

I see little transformations occurring in school when a teacher would often tell a preschooler who is struggling with her lessons. I know you can do it! I believe in you. These words repeatedly said have helped kids read and write or develop positive habits and attitude.

During moments when I felt despondent, words said from a friend “Don’t worry, all is well. I am here to support you in any way I can.” helped me get out of my rut.

So choose to encourage. Encouragement is like breathing in hope and indeed it is oxygen to the soul.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Practice gratitude. Learn to appreciate people, events and things in your life and thereby increasing their value.

Train yourself to notice the little stuff and the big ones. How has it impacted you? Did it make a difference in your perspective of life? Has it improved your mood? Did it contribute to your well-being? Did it make your life easier, happier?

When I get an email, a text message or someone telling me how my article or words of inspiration have helped them in one way or the other, I am heartened by it. It increases the value of what I have done and encourages me to do more.

Experiencing this, I too strive to appreciate and to be thankful in all ways.

Once while we were lining up for our photos to be taken for our government ID. I was amazed at the girl who was calm amidst the chaos of the surrounding grumbling, impatient people. There was no trace of annoyance in her face. When we were finally done, I told my friend if it was okay if we could take a bit of time to go to that girl and just tell her what great work she had done. I still recall the smile that lit her face that day with our words of appreciation.

So choose to appreciate, to be grateful and to be thankful.

When you don't know what to offer the people you care about, listen, listen, listen.

I read these words somewhere and it struck me because often times we fail to listen. We would talk more than listen. But listening is the beginning of understanding. Listening bridges the gap between two souls longing to feel connected. Listening aids in conflicts and helps solve them.

More importantly, it makes people feel that you care.

I love to talk and share my experiences and lessons learned in life. Listening was a challenge for me! Maybe because I grew up pretty much alone and longed to have someone listen to me too. It took me a bit of time but I found out that caring for others meant learning to listen as well. I saw its value when friends would share their plight and later on would say thank you for your guidance! I hadn’t really said anything! I just listened.

So choose to listen. Sometimes people need to hear words of wisdom and inspiration to guide them and yet sometimes they just need to air out their problems and find the wisdom within themselves.

“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.” –Osho

“Use my creativity?” A participant asked us in disbelief. “But I’m not an artist!” In a seminar/workshop we were conducting, we were sharing the concept of using creativity in our daily lives. Sometimes people attached the word creativity with artists only. If you happen to think in this way too, may I invite you to see another side to it?

You and I...we are creative beings. IF we understand the concept that life unfolds from the inside to the outside, we begin to see that we do create with our thoughts, words and deeds. That the creation process evolves in this manner: THOUGHT + WORD + ACTION = RESULTS

It sounds so simple and yet challenging.

“Your predictions and expectations are...self-fulfilling. Since your consciousness (thoughts) create your universe, all you have to do to change your world is to change your consciousness.”-Ken Keyes, Handbook to Higher Consciousness

Are you inspired to do something to increase your wealth? Are you moved to action when faced with challenges? Do you get a crazy and wild idea to do your work a bit differently? Act upon your inspired ideas today! After all, creativity is inventing, taking risks, making mistakes and having fun while you experiment and take daily steps in the direction of your dreams.

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth. - Mahatma Gandhi

Time and time again, masters have stressed the importance of being still, of finding peace in solitude, in stillness. There is beauty in silence, they would say. And I would recall running away from silence and I would become very restless.

But along the way, I discovered that it is only in silence when I could find wisdom, or do some reflection or connect with my divinity. It is in silence when inspiration comes to me. Thus, in the past five years, my love affair with silence begun and is still ongoing until now.

One of the ways to silence is through meditation. I breathe in ... I breathe out... slowly and deeply. This calms me and places me in a state of peace. Other ways would be to take a walk in the park, gaze at the dawning of a new day or watering your garden with mindfulness. When you arrive in your own silence, perhaps you will find your inner balance and gain personal freedom.

To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy…is to set our own conditions to the events of each day. To do this is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them.--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Give joy. Share joy. Receive joy. Be joy.

Kids are the nicest example to teach us about joy. I observe them at play and they would be running around laughing for no apparent reason but just for the joy of running. Their delight for life is extremely contagious. Many times I would find myself smiling when I hear our preschoolers laughing out loud.

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. --Thich Nhat Hanh

Pay attention to what increases your joy. Focus on the things that make you happy. And share this joy to others. Do this often and notice how your life is filled with joy.

The grass may be greener on the other side, but it still has to be mowed.

The words on a poster made me nod my head in agreement. Too often we find ourselves thinking that things are better for others. They seem to have the best job, the best man, best wife, best house, best opportunity and so on and so forth. You think that their lives are better than yours! We forget that what we have is also as wonderful and fantastic!

Contentment stems from a heart that is thankful. It is knowing and acknowledging that “I am where I am supposed to be, doing what I need to do, in the eternal moment of now.”

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship. ~Buddha

So choose to be content and thankful with what you have. And you will have more of what you desire in your life. Blessings, love and light to you dearest precious being.

BY: Michelle Simtoco