What we are willing to notice creates our experience. We are often so busy doing that we are totally detached from who we are being. We get caught up and distracted and don’t even notice what is right in front of us.

Today, take time to notice the beauty that is around you. You can find beauty just about anywhere: within people, places, things, and your senses’ response to your environment. I guarantee that it’ll lift your mood, make you feel better, and allow you to feel more connected in this very moment.

The “Find Beauty” Challenge

Today (or even better stretch it out for a week or longer), notice at least 10 things throughout the day that you find beautiful. It can be a person, someone’s gesture, a piece of nature, an animal, a scent of great food, the taste of your favorite food treat, or just about anything at all. Then, make a list of these 10 or more items in your journal.

The more you consciously take time to notice the beauty, the more beauty you’ll find in your life.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Deborah at a business networking event sponsored by the Bucks County Lesbian Alliance here where I live. I (and everyone in the room) was intrigued by her business venture Womynsmovies.com, an online DVD rental service specializing in offering movies of interest to gays and lesbians. She’s a sharp and smart lady with passion and a vision and thought you could benefit as well from getting to know more about her and Womynsmovies.com.

What was your inspiration to start womynsmovies.com?

My inspiration is my love of lesbian movies. Since my childhood was spent in Northern Ireland during the inspirational 70’s and 80’s it was extremely difficult to find any positive images of lesbians represented in television or the movies. I would be excited by any movie that featured lesbian characters and would secretly watch it after dark with the little pink triangle in the corner of my TV screen.These movies assisted me to make sense out of my life and to understand that my feelings towards women were neither unusual nor strange.
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That’s right. Negativity is powerful and negative thinking is more powerful than positive thinking. Whoa! You heard me right; negativity is a force to be reckoned with.

The only problem with it is that it will attract to you all the things you most want to avoid. And, as an added bonus, you’ll feel awful each day along your journey. The reason I say it is more powerful than positive thinking is because of its damaging exponential ripple effect.

Have you ever been near someone who is just grouchy and miserable and negative? Has that person ever been you? Whether the negative vibes and messages you are hearing come from those around you or from within your own self-talk the power to have negativity and a big pity party snowball into a gigantic bad mood, bad attitude, and correspondingly bad experiences is huge. If you’ve ever had “one of those days” and had it get progressively worse as the day went on, you know what I mean. It is like even though you know better, you just can’t seem to stop it. Read the rest of this entry »

Our bodies hold the clues to what we are really feeling. They harbor the answers to the tough questions we often struggle to answer. The problem is, this world is a “thinking world” and we’ve learned to dismiss our bodies entirely figuring what they have to say doesn’t hold a candle in credibility to thoughts, facts, rationalizations, and other people’s opinions. The problem with dismissing our bodies however is that we actually have to LIVE in then for our duration here on the planet and if you’re not listening to its messages you can rest assured that it will rebel.

As someone who has made some incongruent choices in my life, I have firsthand experience with ignoring my body’s signals. As a result over the years I’ve had the distinct pleasure of experiencing bouts of nagging illness, chronic pain, anxiety, panic attacks, and injuries that could have easily been prevented. And I got whacked with these gems as a result of just persevering, making the best of it, listening to others, rationalizing, and following the stupid mantra of ‘no pain/no gain’.

That’s the bad news. The good news is Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve written about the Law of Attraction before in my newsletter (“What are You Attracting?”) as well as in my high recommendation of the movie The Secret . One of the distinctions that intrigues me most is always the one between action and effort. I read a blog post today by Joe Vitale (one of the experts in the movie The Secret) that summed it up nicely. You can read Law of Attraction: Require Action or Effort at his blog.

What I liked most about the distinction is how easy it is to totally understand and implement in your own life. It isn’t woo-woo or some ethereal concept you struggle to get your mind around. It is as simple as “do I enjoy/flow when I do this?” or “do I not enjoy/struggle to do this?”

For instance, I love to exercise. I find it enjoyable and it serves me well. While there are a whole number of levels in terms of how intensely I might exercise on a given day, in general I love to do SOME form of exercise every day. This holds true whether I am on vacation, working, or just at home. I seek ways to be healthy and fit. To me this is akin to taking action. I love doing it and it supports goals that are very important to me (staying healthy and fit). On the other hand I hate running errands and shopping. While there are some kinds of shopping I love (say shopping for wine, books, or gear for my hobbies), for the most part I find shopping a pain in the butt. To me it is a great deal of effort. Even if it supports me toward a goal I hold highly (say creating a nurturing and enjoyable space at home), I still find it full of effort. I suppose if I could do it quickly and easily with no other people in the store and no traffic on the road, it might be more bearable, but I’d still rather be home or out doing something I love.

Think of something you love to do. When you are doing it, does it feel like a lot of effort? I doubt it. You probably get lost in what you’re doing and feel great. Now, think of something you hate doing. How do you feel now? Probably a lot less congruent.

As you create a vision for yourself of what you truly want, it is crucial to develop a strategy and plan that allows you to take action but leave the effort for some other poor soul who doesn’t know any better. If the steps you need to take to get where you really want tip to the struggle and effort side of the scale, ask yourself if there is another way to achieve your goal that is more pleasurable. If not — perhaps you’re looking at the wrong goal.

Remember that like attracts like (think: magnet). So if you’re flowing and feeling good, you’ll get more “feeling good”. If you are struggling and putting forth unpleasurable effort, you’ll get more struggle and feel drained. Which would you prefer?