Love generously, praise loudly, live fully

Love generously, praise loudly, live fully. This phrase came to me after contemplating what I would tell the world in order to influence people everywhere.
I believe to love generously is to give a part of yourself to those you care for and people who come into your world unexpectedly including those few who you may not particularly like...then, give them praise so they may hear it.
Praise someone for no particular reason praise them out loud it may save their life. As humans we spend so much our criticizing one another our society lacks social praise.  We must strive to build one another up rather than tearing down and not sole for our abilities rather for simply being alive and human.
Live fully, let nothing get away from you. Take life in, fully, deeply and with wild abandon. You get one day to be all you can be grab on to your twenty-four hours and live. So much time is spent living in the past and looking to the future. Take in your day while it is day. Taste every morsel, feel it, touch it, drink it all in.  Embrace "all" that comes your way.
Along my journey as an artist I spent hours designing and painting pottery. During those times I received visions and answers to some very difficult and heart wrenching questions from my life. During the darkest hours art became my refuge and an awakening.
I encourage you to look into yourself, discover who you are, and love generously, praise loudly, and live fully. Caution: this is much easier to say than do. The rewards however, are unending.

Path of least resistance

Human beings work voraciously to become the fastest, richest, smartest, best dressed, the list goes on.  We work at working.  We spend money we don't have to impress people we don't know and all the while create a facade we can't recognize.  

All this effort is killing us.  No matter our walk of life we are killing ourselves some more quickly than others.  If we are not dying physically our mental and spiritual health has declined to a point we succumb to "better living through chemistry".  Should we not take a long look in the mirror and become acquainted with the reflection of the human being staring back at you?

Now is the time to determine if you want to continue on the path of destruction or take a path of least resistant.  This does not mean that you become aloof, disinterested or lazy.  Rather, take the time to slow down, take a mental break and rethink the importance of life, and determine the importance of the things you have gathered.   Are you less important than the house, car or position you have in life?  Are you finding yourself being careless with the way you care for yourself in order to maintain the "lifestyle" that you or the masses believe to be perfect?  

I encourage you to take time this week, walk instead of drive, put the wallet away and find something to do that doesn't cost money.  Work eight hours rather than twelve, spend time with your family and enjoy the house that you worked so hard to build.  Take the path of least resistance.  You are sure to find a new person living in your house.  

Today

"Every one of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves".

                   Diana, Princes of Whales (1961-1997) (Catalano). 

Dedication

To all those hard working men and women who daily give their lives to the healing of those who suffer... may you never need be one of them.

"Nurses are continually exposed to human breakdown, suffering, violence and the utter unpredictability of life-altering events"(Montgomery).  As humans we take the risk of involving ourselves with others and to care, even in difficult circumstances.  Caring for others is not without risks.  Health care professionals are exposed to a myriad of situations throughout their professional lives that contribute to stress; physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Those with the strongest of boundaries and personal inner strength will eventually succumb to the occasional emotional risk of caring and experience personal loss through emotional overload.

What we do with overload will effect our physical, emotional and spiritual self; how we react to personal loss is the most important choice a human being can make.  When you become involved with another human being you take a risk, that risk may likely cause you to lose something.  With each loss however, you will find a greater strength and that my friend is the risk this journey is worth taking. 

My goal is to create a journey that will cross several paths, winding through deep canyons of soul searching, trodding through dry desserts of despair, climbing mountains of emotional distress to help you find the human connect the person who see everyday in the mirror. Looking through the glass will offer freedom. Freedom results in breaking barriers, setting boundaries and creating life on purpose.   

Let us begin, by the way how are you today?  To ask the question again, how ARE you today?  

Perhaps these verbs will help you recognize your present state of current state of living.

Hurried, overwhelmed, lonely, afraid, happy, elated, joyful, ecstatic, sad, tired, about to pull your hair out and scream.

Due to the strenuous pressure of our work as well as our societal image we spend our lives searching, getting, doing, achieving and filling our selves with a myriad of "isms" in order to cope until we become another notch on the post of emotional burn out.  This burnout or overload can cause us to lose something very important, ourselves.

The objective of this blog is to take through a journey and introduce you to yourself.  The most important person to take care of, otherwise you are of little use to anyone else.  The code of nursing ethics states that we are to take care of ourselves in the same manner as we would care for our patients.  

This journey is to discover that you are not your job, title or your achievements.  Moreover you are so much more than the name tag you wear at work, meetings you attend regularly, including the social events you dedicate your time to.  Your address has nothing to do with who or what you are, not your car, clothing, degree or pocket book. 

The objective is to unpack the overwhelming baggage and learn to travel freely.  Along the road we will discuss methods that will help you rethink your life, introduce you to the healer within and assist you in finding the necessary help when you are feeling lost, tired or alone. Some stops will make you laugh or cry and hopefully bring you back refreshed, strong and willing to take another risk.

Prepare yourself to follow a reflective journey to discover the human connection.