How to stop worrying and start living

I am reading an old classic by Dale Carnegie on “How to stop worrying and start living”. It is chock full of wisdom and goes into great detail on ways to go beyond worry and live life to the fullest.

This daily reflection from the book inspired me to post a blog article. It was written by a Sibyl Partridge..

Just for Today…

1) Just for today I will be happy. This assumes what Abraham Lincoln said is true, that “most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be”. Happiness is from within; it is not a mater of externals.

2) Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust to my own desires. I will take my family, my business and my luck as they come and not fit myself to them.

3) Just for today, I will take care of my body. I will exercise it, take care of it, nourish it, not abuse or neglect it, so that it will be a perfect machine for my bidding.

4) Just for today I will strengthen my mind. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration.

5) Just for today I will exercise my soul in three way: I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don’t want to do, as William James suggests, “just for exercise”.

6) Just for today I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, dress as becomingly as possible, talk low, act courteously, be liberal with praise, criticise not at all, nor find fault with anything and not try to regulate or improve anyone.

7) Just for today, I will try to live through this day only. Not to tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do things for twelve hours  that would appall me if I had to keep them up for a lifetime.

8) Just for today I will have a program. I will write down what I expect to do every hour. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. It will eliminate two pests, hurrying and indecision.

9) Just for today I will have a quiet half an hour for myself and relax. In this half an hour sometimes I will think of God, so as to get a little more perspective into my life.

10) Just for today I will be unafraid, especially I will not be afraid to be happy, to enjoy what is beautiful, to love, and to believe that those I love, love me.

Managing and directing emotions

One of the biggest challenges we all face is to know how to manage emotions otherwise they will manage you!

In school and business a person is measured by their IQ or intelligence quotient. Very little is known of our emotional quotient or EQ. I know some very clever people in business who appear successful yet when it comes to managing their emotions they have a low level of emotional intelligence.

Having a healthy EQ is now more important than ever because we live in uncertain times and with that uncertainty emotions such as fear or anxiety seem to be more apparent.

Our emotions have far more potency than our our thoughts.  Thoughts mixed with strong emotion create. Thoughts that lack emotion will never create anything lasting.

The person who can manage both is in an advantageous position in life to see life as it is and not a projection of one´s own thinking or emotions or personal stories.

A simple formula for managing emotions such as fear, anger, frustration or disappointment is to..

1) Acknowledge them and know they are signals to make a change

2) Appreciate the message of the emotion and not judge it as good or bad – it is just energy in essence.

3) Ask the question: “how do I want to feel?”

4)  Go to a time in the past when you handled a negative emotion successfully and moved through a challenge.

5) Imagine yourself going beyond the negative emotion and see yourself owning some solutions. So if there is a feeling of seperation, image yourself connected to your family or friends etc.

6) Move in the direction of your imagined solution.

The above steps seem like alot but the process can be fast and in moments you can switch out of negativity and into a more resourceful state.

This is not to say that postive emotions are better than negative emotions. All is energy and the key is what are you going to do to take responsibility to make the shift.

Remeber, that every feeling or emotion you have is not based on reality but more your personal view of the world you see. You give meaning to everything.

Why not give meaning to the things that support you in life and start with managing and directing emotions?