Month: September 2021

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Think Better, Live Better – How to Find Gratitude

Angel and I recently interviewed a minimum wage motel housekeeper in Miami for a project we’re working on to support our New York Times bestselling book, Getting Back to Happy: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Reality, and Turn Your Trials into Triumphs.  “Do you like your job?” we asked her.  To our surprise, she smiled from ear to ear and was breathless for a couple moments.  She finally collected herself and said, “I can’t believe how much I love my job!  I get to make dozens of our guests happy every day and feed my two beautiful children at the same time…”

Click on the link:

https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-find-gratitude/id1488772454?i=1000463391003

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Daily Message from Pope Francis – We Were Not Put Here to Just Make Do


SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2021

“Today, being really original and revolutionary means rebelling against the culture of the ephemeral, going beyond shallow instincts and momentary pleasures, and choosing to love with every fibre of your being, for the rest of your life. We were not put here just to make do, but to make something of our lives… For our life to be great, we need love and heroism alike.” Pope Francis

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Dynamic Catholic Presents – You Aren’t You When Overwhelmed

“Overwhelmed feels like being buried alive. It feels like you are drowning. It’s a state of panicked anxiety and when we are in that space we are not thinking clearly.

Here are 10 things we forget when we feel overwhelmed…

1. Not everything we think is true. Our mind plays tricks on us. What’s the truth here? You cannot do it all at once. That’s true. You cannot handle it all at once. That’s true. You can handle it one thing at a time. That’s the most important truth in this situation.
2. This is temporary. This too shall pass. You’ve been here before and you got through it. You will get through this.
3. You got this. You can do this. You know how to get through this, you know what you need to do, you just aren’t thinking clearly at this moment.
4. You don’t need all the answers and a total plan to move forward.
5. Feelings are not always connected to reality. Overwhelmed is a feeling. But you are not your feelings, and your emotions are not your life.
6. We forget to breathe. In stressful situations we sometimes hold our breathe without even realizing it when what we need is the exact opposite. Oxygen makes clear thinking possible. Breathe deeply. Fill your body with the oxygen your mind needs to navigate this situation.
7. Doing nothing will only sustain these feelings of being overwhelmed. If nothing changes, nothing changes. Change something right now. Overwhelmed is a feeling of helplessness. Take back your power immediately. Do something to move you out of this state.
8. Gratitude changes our state of mind every time. What are you grateful for? (see 4 signs) 9. Our problems are usually not as bad as we think they are and not as unique as we think they are. Ask any therapist. Other people in history have been through some version of what you are going through and they found a way…
10. It’s amazing how quickly things can turn around. The smallest step in the right direction can shift the momentum of your life.

We all get overwhelmed from time to time. This isn’t the last time it’s going to happen to you, but it is time to develop a strategy to deal with it.”

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Dynamic Catholic Presents – Never Say These Things!

“There are some things that we should simply never say. Some because they will accomplish the exact opposite of what you are hoping to accomplish. Nobody ever calmed down after being told to calm down in the midst of a disagreement, for example. Other things are better off not said because they are rude or obnoxious. And finally, some things are just none of our business.

Here are 9 things to delete permanently from your vocabulary:

1. Relax.
2. Everything will be okay.
3. I told you so.
4. This should be easy.
5. Get over it.
6. Are you really going to eat that?
7. You’re insane.
8. Why are you still single.
9. You look tired.
10. (And of course) Calm down.

Maurice Switzer observed, “It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.” Just because there is an awkward silence doesn’t mean you have to fill it.”

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Minute Meditation – Prayer and Action

There surely is a world of difference between the prayer of action and that of silence or word. Here it is not by listening and responding, not by diving down into silence, but by acting, by doing, that I communicate with God. Whatever I can do lovingly can become prayer of action.  Nor is it necessary that I explicitly think of God while working or playing. Sometimes this would hardly be possible. While proofreading a manuscript, I better keep my mind on the text, not on God. If my mind is torn between the two, the typos will slip through like little fish through a torn net. God will be present precisely in the loving attention I give to the work entrusted to me. By giving myself fully and lovingly to that work, I give myself fully to God. This happens not only in work but also in play, say, in bird-watching or in watching a good movie. God must be enjoying it in me, when I am enjoying it in God. Is not this communion the essence of praying?

— from the book The Way of Silence: Engaging the Sacred in Daily Life by Brother David Steindl-Rast

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Minute Meditation – Our Heart is a Sensitive Receiver

Our heart is a highly sensitive receiver; it can listen through all our senses. Whatever we hear, but also whatever we see, taste, touch, or smell, vibrates deep down with God’s song. To resonate with this song in gratefulness is what I call singing back. This attitude of prayer has given great joy to all my senses and to my heart. A completely different inner world of prayer where I also feel at home is one to which silence opens the door—silence, not only as perceived by the ears, but also a quietness of the heart, a lucid stillness inside, like the stillness of a windless midwinter day.

— from the book The Way of Silence: Engaging the Sacred in Daily Lifeby Brother David Steindl-Rast