Thought for the day~Helping others to help yourself

For those of us who do help others, an uncomfortable question inevitably arises: how can I help someone else when I’m messed up myself? If I have Chronic pain, bad habits, relationship issues, fears and phobias, who am I to offer my assistance to someone else?  We are all on a journey and we all have issues to address and lessons to learn. We have to develop a level of comfort with ourselves, addressing the issues that cross our paths, while recognizing that we do not need to be perfect. If you are able to set aside your problems and remain in a centered and grounded place to help others than you are also helping yourself.

“Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.”

Life has unexpected struggles and hardships

Character and wisdom are sculpted over time.  They come with loss, lessons, and triumphs.  They come after doubts, second guesses, and exploring unknowns.  If there were a definitive path to happiness and success, everyone would be on it.  The seeds of your progress are planted in your past failures.  Your best stories will come from overcoming your greatest struggles.  Your praises will be birthed from your pains.  So keep standing, keep learning, and keep living. Over the course of my years  I have dealt with several severe hardships, including loosing so many loved ones, betrayal from someone close to me, unexpected illnesses with myself and my children, and everyday life struggles.Some of these experiences were brutal.  Each of them, unsurprisingly, knocked me down and kept me down for a while.  But when time for mourning was over after each tragedy, I tried pressing forward, stronger, and with a greater understanding and respect for life. With everything that has happened, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift of knowledge.  Everything is either an opportunity to learn and grow or an obstacle that keeps you stuck.  You get to choose.

Take a deep breath.  It’s going to be OK… maybe not today, but eventually.  There will be times when it seems like everything that could possibly go wrong is going wrong.  You might feel like you will be stuck in this rut forever, but you won’t.  Sure the sun stops shining sometimes, and you may get a huge thunderstorm or two, but eventually the sun will come out to shine.  Sometimes it’s just a matter of us staying as positive as possible in order to make it to see the sunshine break through the clouds again.

~DarcSunshine~

Nobody is perfect

“How would your life be different if…You stopped making negative judgmental assumptions about people you encounter? Let today be the day…You look for the good in everyone you meet and respect their journey.”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

One simple reminder

An unlearned wisdom

“I believe in intuitions and inspirations…I sometimes FEEL that I am right. I do not KNOW that I am.” 
~ Albert Einstein~

Diamonds in the rough

Many of our precious young people are going through dangerous lengths to be accepted by as many people as possible.  It seems that in high school, being popular and well-liked is the dream of many teenagers.They see great rewards in being popular. They view popularity as being  important and included. For many teenagers, the worst thing is to be considered the dreaded word-unpopular. Unpopular teenagers are often viewed as outsiders and outcasts in high school. However, there is some positives regarding teenagers who do not follow the crowd and pursue their individual paths.They enjoy meeting people one on one and are often great listeners. These traits help establish connections that go beyond the surface. You may end up with life long friends, who knows? As a parent, Were you popular or unpopular in high school?  How did this effect you later on in life? Are your children popular or unpopular? If they are unpopular, how does that make you feel? 

I have come so far…

 

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”

 
~Haruki Murakami~

Thought for Thursday

 

Not everyone you lose is a loss.

Nothing and no one in life is indispensable.

There are a few people in life that make a positive difference,

who can bring a smile on our face in the face of storm,

and who make our life worth living…

Losing such a person is a loss that leaves a deep hole in our life…

But, not everyone is worth the tears we shed.

At times, it is good to lose a person who might mean a lot to us,

but we might not mean that much to him;

To lose a person who does not know our worth,

who does not care for our feeling…

is in fact good for us.

~DarcSunshine~

The colors of life

 

“Never put the keys to your happiness in someone else’s pocket.”

 

 

“I’m not going to censor myself to comfort your ignorance.””

 

 

“Sometimes I find myself listening to random songs in hopes that I will find one that can express the words or feelings that I can’t.”

 

“I think of problems as like multiple tangled up elastic bands. Each band represents a unique problem, but each are tangled up with the others. So the key to be problem free (if possible) is not by solving each problem at a time but by seeing how the problems interconnect with one another and solving accordingly. So for example, you would examine each aspect at a time and try to see the connections between them then you can figure out the solution(s) to all the problems.”

 

“Stop trying to “get it together.” The biggest lie we’re told when we’re growing up is that soon as we’re adults, as soon as we’re in college, finish college, get that job, have that steady income, find that someone special, “find ourselves,” find that perfect house, get that retirement fund, have those children, everything will fall into place. Here’s a secret: it won’t. Every new development in your life, good or bad, big or small, will come with its own very special set of challenges. The sooner you accept that, the better off you’ll be.”

I enjoy quotes that I can relate to or learn from. That is one of the reasons I do “quote day” 🙂 . I have been through a great deal in my life, but I was in denial for the longest time and would tell myself “there are other people that have it worse” which is true, but I was pretending what happened to me didn’t exist. I just didn’t want to play the victim. It took me so many years to get to where I am today and I’m still a little messed up, but now I realize, recognize, and I am more hopeful now. You might think this was off topic to my post, but the quotes pertain to life for the most part so I wanted to share a little piece of  and tell you that there is always HOPE!

~Stay Strong~

DarcSunshine

No one is perfect

I know my daughter hasn’t posted in a while because she has been busy with her schooling, but she wanted to share this picture with all of you 🙂

~Just a confused girl~

The people who matter…

Please welcome our guest blogger Anastasia Brown. She is a dear friend and has been through so much in her life that she wanted to contribute to the cause. Thank you Ana!

I am a good person and I do waste the time trying to show and prove it. For what?? I suppose I like to hear it from people because there was a time I was NOT a good person.. I did not care about anyone else’s feelings. Authority meant nothing and respect wasn’t in my vocabulary. Now I yearn for constant reassurance… That I DON’T NEED because the people in my life who matter.. Well, they know.

~Anastasia ~

A small contribution for today

Sometimes in life there are people who try to bring you down or can possibly hurt  your feelings…silence is the best thing you can do. It’s called being the bigger person and I must admit it drives them nuts as well. Waste your words on the ones who deserve them. I wish I would have learned that earlier on in life, but hey I have that knowledge now and that’s all that matters. Now I give it to you. Much love 😉

~Stay Strong~

DarcSunshine

Who would we be today?

One of my philosophies is to always pick the choice that scares you a little. The status quo, the path of least resistance, the everyday routine — that stuff is easy. Anyone can do that. But the right decisions, the decisions that challenge you, the ones that push you to evolve and grow and learn, are always a little scary.

—Jeff Atwood

Unfortunately pain is necessary

“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.” ― Jim Morrison

Live and Learn

Life

~Stay Strong~

Lessons learned

Life lessons are offered by almost every experience that we have. Some of these lessons are small, or act as a reminder or ‘review,’ and others can be huge and life changing. Like with any lessons though, we will only benefit if we have an open heart and mind, and are willing to learn and grow.

Without the willingness to learn from our difficult experiences in life, instead of the valuable life lessons that these experiences should be, they can become obstacles, and sources of pain and bitterness.

MENTAL GEMS: DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH

 

I have always been a shy girl. Throughout elementary school and some of middle school, I literally was afraid of saying the word “no.” I never spoke my mind no matter what and so I let a lot of people get away with things they should never have gotten away with. In other words, I was a total pushover for the majority of my life.

 I have fortunately learned how to stop allowing people to walk all over me. I’ve learned how to tell people when they’re making me angry or upset, I’ve learned how to tell dudes how to treat me and how not to treat me and I’ve figured out that confrontation doesn’t always equal huge, dramatic fights. In fact, most of the time, it can be useful. I know that a lot of you girls are just as shy as I once was (and still sometimes am) and so I’m assuming that some of you out there are acting like pushovers when you shouldn’t be. You have a voice and it deserves to be heard!

~Just A Confused Girl~

 

Who I Was vs. Who I’ve Become

http://tpt.to/a45x8m8

~Stay Strong~

We all make mistakes