We are Powerful Beyond Measure

With today’s overthrow of Egypt’s dictator we have another example of just how powerful you are. It all began with one Facebook post by one person about one person. One person then spread it to one more person. In less than two weeks a 30-year-old regime was taken down.

Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” That was demonstrated again today.

When you act on what you know is right, amazing things happen. It doesn’t have to be political action. It can be action in our own life. It can be beginning that exercise program you’ve been putting off today. It can be making that phone call you’ve been putting off today.

When you act, you are powerful beyond belief!

As Marianne Williamson wrote, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Start today, better yet, now!

Writer's Block

Having some kind of writer's block, so why not start the week with some good music, and why not mix some classic with..., well, just watch!

Just wanted to share some amazing and simple thoughts...

I am no Different - So do You!

Miracles of Life

Since my last post I was not inspired to do almost anything. I wasted lot's of time wondering why that would be. Again I fell into the trap of blaming the world for my misery and I got a fairly extensive list of things that didn't work out as I wanted and the respective-one guilty for that not to happen. I bet you know by now that I was not on the list.

Than, suddenly, I was driven out of bed. It's 12:23 a.m. local Rio de Janeiro time and I can only think of this.

Picture in your mind the most incredible thing designed by mankind that you have ever seen. Perhaps the Empire State Building, Pyramids, the Shuttle built by the technicians at NASA, the Japanese Bullet Train or even the intricate detailing in a painting you've seen.

What name comes to your mind when I say the words "creative genius?"

Who do you think of when I mention God-like compassion, caring and loving?

What author's name do you think of when I mention "poetry," "drama," "mystery," "fiction," and "comedy?"

What do you see when I say "strength," and "stamina?"

Finally "winner," "successful," or "role model?"

I'll bet you a Kids Meal at McDonald's you never saw yourself in any of those images. And yet...

Look at your hands. Are they not the same as the hands of the skillful artist, architect, mason, or technician?

If you were to x-ray your skull, would you not find the same brain matter that takes up the space between the ears of Einstein, Plato, and Disney?

Hold your hand to your chest. Can you feel the beat of a heart capable of paining for the homeless and starving? Have you not the same heart that beat in the chest of Jesus, Gandhi, Mohamed or the thousands of missionaries around the world?

Look at your fingers. Are they not like the fingers of Frost, Churchill, Stevens, Wilder and King that held tightly the pens that wrote the words that shaped the world?

Look at your feet. Show me the difference between yours and gold medalists of the Olympics or the rescuers who carried the people out of the rubble in a tragic earthquake.

Finally. Close your eyes as you stand in front of a mirror and picture in your mind that man or woman who you think of as a success, a winner and role model. Open your eyes and explain to me the difference between you and that person.

There is no difference...except in how you perceive yourself.

You have the mind, the hands, the feet, the fingers, the heart to be exactly what you want to be. The only thing that is stopping you is the person you see in the mirror.

You have all that it takes.
 

It's 1:18 A.M. I can sleep now. I can stop blaming others or circumstances for what is going on with me. I can get up early in the morning and start doing what I missed to do the past days and get my life back in track, ... and so can you.

I whish you a very good Easter Holiday and I really hope, you are not as dumb as I am and don't get trapped anymore in your own miserable thoughts instead of using all your potential to make the miracle happen in your life.

God bless you.

Riding Out Life's Tsunamis

It has been over a month now since a powerful magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan. The confirmed death toll is over 13,000 and continues to rise. In the midst of all the horror stories are occasional heroic tales of survival and rescue. One of the most fascinating is that of Susumu Sugawara.

The 64-year-old Sugawara is the owner-operator of a small boat named "Sunflower." After the massive earthquake and in view of the tsunami warnings being broadcast, he had to make a quick decision. Should he head for high ground on his island of Oshima? Should he put his boat to sea and try to ride out the fury? He chose to launch his boat and head for deep water offshore.

"I knew if I didn't save my boat," he told a CNN reporter, "my island would be isolated and in trouble." So he ran to his 42-year-old craft that can hold about 20 people at a time and went full-throttle toward the deadly waves that would kill people whose names and faces he knew. Then he saw the wall of water.

Accustomed to waves ten to twelve feet high, this one was fully 50 to 60 feet high. Sugawara knew that he and his boat could easily wind up at the bottom of the sea. He drove straight for it - "climbing the wave like a mountain," as he put it. And the mountain seemed only to grow bigger and bigger. There was a huge crash of water over him. Only then could he see the horizon. He had survived!
Sugawara made his way back to his now-devastated Oshima. For the month since, he has been a lifeline by making hourly trips to the mainland to ferry people and supplies. If people can help pay for gasoline, he accepts money. If they have lost everything and can pay nothing, he still welcomes them aboard.

I'm no sailor or boat captain. I don't know if the Japanese captain made the reasonable and right decision on that fateful day. I can only report and rejoice at the outcome. He lived through the ordeal and is helping others with a sense of sensitivity to their suffering the rest of us can only admire from a distance.

So what do I think about this? Against my hesitation and fear, it makes more sense to ride into the teeth of life's challenges than to run away.
There is a cash-flow crisis. There is an unexpected problem with a product. A major supplier has failed, or a major customer has bailed. Some executives kick into denial mode or ball up in a fetal position. Their companies fail. Leaders steer right into the problem and act with integrity to name and face the problem.

Or maybe the problem is far more serious. A spouse says the marriage is over. The police or hospital calls with a parent's worst nightmare about an arrest or accident. Maybe you get a diagnosis that sounds like a death sentence. Do you run and hide? Self-medicate with drugs or alcohol? Or do you steer into the teeth of the storm and pray for courage you have never had to display before?

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face," said Eleanor Roosevelt. "You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next one that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

And look at this smile of satisfaction to have accomplished what he aimed for! I want to smile just like him, and you?

Have a great weekend, enjoy yourself, your family and friends couse live is just wonderfull.

A Friends Reminder

Today a friend of mine sent me a message trough my facebook, a message I already knew, but haven't looked at for too much time.

While I was watching I figured that it isn't enough to know certain things, but once in a while you have to remind yourself of it, so to say refresh your memories. This is the only way to keep the message strong within yourself and incorporate it into your live.

In my case a friend reminded me and this fore I am very thankful.

Here is the message for you to recall:

Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll

Study suggests that sex, drugs and rock & roll affect the brain in the same way

This may come as no surprise to some of you who have been partying like rock stars since 1969, but for those of you interested in why it feels so damn good to do so, read on. 

According to a recent study written about by Robert Zatorre (close but not me) and Valorie Salimpoor of McGill University in Montreal in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the feeling of pleasure we get from listening to music shares its neurological ties with the feeling of pleasure we get from having sex or taking illicit drugs.

The specific neurological reaction behind the phenomenon of pleasure is linked to dopamine, a substance brain cells release to communicate with each other as part of our brain’s reward circuitry. Previous work had already suggested that dopamine may be released as a side effect of listening to music, but the new work, which scanned people’s brains as they listened to music, showed it happening directly.

The researchers performed brain scans on 8 volunteers who were chosen because they experienced chills from particular moments in music. The scientists studied how the brain handles both anticipation and arrival of a musical rush, as reported by Associated Press in The New York Times.

PET scans showed the participants’ brains pumped out more dopamine in a region called the striatum when listening to favorite pieces of music than when hearing other pieces. Functional MRI scans showed where and when those releases happened.
Dopamine surged in one part of the striatum during the 15 seconds leading up to a thrilling moment, and a different part when that musical highlight finally arrived.

The anticipation of pleasure is often just as thrilling as experiencing the peak moment of pleasure itself. Music provides us with life-changing moments, it affects our brains in a very systemic, necessary way. Studies such as these could prove on a scientific level why we are addicted to listening to good music. 

So, dance on, sex on and, smart as you are, stay away from drugs other than reading my blog!!!

By the way, I had my first's orgasm's today with this: