perseverance | Overcoming Depression

Stop Complaining!

September 12, 2013 by Karin Stewart Leave a Comment

Complaining is a really bad habit. It drains the joy out of living and can put others off you. Stop complaining!

1. Change your perception

Moaning doesn’t get you anywhere. It’s better to make a plan to resolve what is bugging you.. Ask others for their input on how they see the situation. You might find that all that’s needed is a change of perception for the problem to go away. Otherwise try and change what’s bugging you.

For example, if you don’t like your job, stop complaining about it, rather do something about it. If it’s really awful, quit or change your perception. When you’re ready to complain, just remember to be thankful that you have a job.

2. When you feel the urge to complain ‘let it go‘.

Mentally place your complaint in a balloon and let it go. Like attracts like. Focus on what’s good, consciously not complaining about what is wrong and you’ll be surprised at the change in your life.

For example, if you put on a pair of glasses with purple lenses, everything you look at will have a purple tint to it. If you view the world through the lenses of a complainer, everything you look at will have a negative tint to it. Try putting on those ‘rose colored spectacles’

Make a conscious choice not to complain or be negative whenever you do feel the urge. Continue to do this until your thoughts become positive.

3. Complaining zaps your energy

Our thoughts affect our behavior. When you have positive thoughts you feel good about yourself and you’re ready to take on the world. When you think negative thoughts, you just want to curl up in bed, pull the covers over your head and have a ‘pity-party’. Poor me! You do have control over how you let your thoughts affect you. Have some time-out when you’re tempted to complain. Do some activity to take your mind off what’s bothering you.

4. Make your complaining pay

Every time you catch yourself complaining set aside some money for charity. Set aside a jar for this purpose.

5. How do you want to spend your time?

Complaining saps your energy, being positive is invigorating.

Complaining is a bad habit and can be changed with practice. Your time is precious, why waste it on complaining? Action is what is needed.

Read the original article by aimwell on www.scam.com.

Struggle is Good!

May 16, 2012 by Karin Stewart Leave a Comment

There was a little boy who found a caterpillar while playing outdoors. With great care he picked it up and took it inside to show his mother as he wanted to keep it. He took great care of the caterpillar which he placed in a jar. Everyday, he brought it fresh leaves to eat, and sticks to climb on.

Metamorphosis One day the caterpillar started acting rather strangely. Hurriedly the little boy called his mother who explained that the caterpillar was creating a cocoon and that after this it would change into a beautiful butterfly.

Everyday he watched, waiting for the butterfly to appear. And then one day, it happened. A small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started struggling to get out. The little boy started getting worried as he was concerned that the butterfly couldn’t get free even though it was struggling so hard!

He decided that the butterfly needed his help. He carefully snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger so the butterfly could come out.

As the butterfly came out the boy got a shock. It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He kept watching but the butterfly’s body never did shrink and nor did the butterfly’s wings expand.

The butterfly never was able to fly…

So what went wrong? The boy had tried to be so helpful. In desperation he asked his mother what had happened. That is when he learned that the butterfly was SUPPOSED to struggle. In fact, the butterfly’s struggle to push itself through the small opening of the cocoon is what would push the fluid out of its body and into its wings. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never, ever fly. The boy’s good intentions had actually hurt the butterfly.

To struggle is part of life … and it is GOOD for you!! It is the way you learn and grow and gives you the ability to fly!

You have a Bigger Purpose in Life!

February 15, 2012 by Karin Stewart 1 Comment

Yesterday evening my family and I went to see the delightfully magical 3D movie ‘Hugo‘. What a treat! Hugo is an orphan living on his own in the clock towers of the Paris railway station. He spends his time fixing things, especially mechanical things that run on cogs and wheels.

A new friend asks him how he manages to live on his own. And he replies something like, ‘I see the earth, the same way as I see a machine. A machine comes with the exact right parts to make it work perfectly. Each part is important and there are no spare parts.’ Despite living in what most people would regard as an extremely hopeless situation, Hugo lives with hope. He knows he isn’t a ‘spare part’. He is meant to be here on earth, just because he has been created. He knows he has an important part to play, but what it is he has still to find out.

What a lesson for all of us! I’ve sometimes heard very despondent people saying that they’re just wasting oxygen! Each of us is so very important. Just because we are created beings means we have a special place on this planet. When you’re feeling down, or disheartened, just remember how very special you are. You were created with a part to play in the bigger picture of this place, called earth.

A proverb in the Bible says that without vision, man perishes! Guard your self-esteem, believe that you are special, because that belief will affect how you live out your life.

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again!

February 12, 2012 by Karin Stewart 1 Comment

How often are we given the advice ‘if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again!’ It’s a common saying meant to give encouragement.

HOWEVER it really isn’t very good advice. It’s actually very bad advice! Think about it. If you didn’t succeed in the first place, why just keep on doing the same thing, the same way, over and over again? Unless of course, you want to fail, and fail, over and over again.

I love this picture! If you want to succeed you need to reassess your ‘travel plans’, see where your original ‘road map’ might be wrong. Take the next exit to Success, rather than staying on the Highway to Failure.

My daughter has been battling to get her driver’s licence for quite a while now, but each time she tried, she failed. This was so disheartening for her and for me. She had been very loyal to her driving school, but in the end decided it was time for a change. Maybe a change in strategy would lead to success. It was time to change driving school. With that decision made, she booked for her drivers test again and passed with flying colors!

So, ‘if at first you don’t succeed, think of another strategy, and only then, try again!

Charles Dickens on Hardship

February 9, 2012 by Karin Stewart 5 Comments

Charles Dickens – Worldwide, people are celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of this very famous author. At the time he was writing there were only 60 books in print in England! (Time magazine February 6 2012) What a difference to modern times, where books no longer even go ‘out of print’ because of electronic text!

Dickens wrote stories of poverty, hardship, and even about a debtors prison. What interested me in particular was his final bit of legacy. He appointed his friend Forster to write his biography after his death. He felt so ashamed of his upbringing that he didn’t want his readers to know that it was his own life that inspired his writing, until after he died. The books were essentially about him. So after his death, this shock was revealed to his readers. He had seen his own father go to debtors jail and Dickens himself worked in a factory as a child.

What a story of a man who overcame adversity. So many people become a victim of their past, or their bad life experiences. Not so with Dickens. He used his bad experiences to create a better future. Only a person who really knew what hardship was like could so vividly portray the community of that time. What an example to follow.

So many people go through life with a victim mentality, an ‘if only’ mentality. ‘If only’ I had more money, then …. ‘if only’ my partner were nicer to me, then …. and nothing comes after ‘then’… They have become victims of their past.

Try to think of the ‘if only ….’ attitudes that could be keeping you a victim of your circumstances, of your past. Change ‘if only …’ to something like ‘it would be nice if….’ and then get back to reality, creating a better future for yourself with what you have. ‘If only’ statements keep you focused on what you don’t have, rather than what you do have.

If you’ve experienced many difficulties, you’re the expert! Turn it around for good and use it to help others through their hard times!