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I want to make a positive difference in the world

Posted by SmartBarbie Sunday, September 15, 2013 0 comments

I spend hundreds of minutes a day contemplating ways of self-improvement, finding purpose and happiness, and most extensively, how I can contribute to making the world a better place, beginning; from the inside out, home-front out, to community, to world.  It's almost overwhelming at times of contemplation, knowing that there is boundless succor needed.  There is limitless ability to cultivate organic quality, understanding purpose, realizing there is more to life outside self.  

 I stumbled across Lori Deschene page in which she asked her facebook page "Ways to make a difference in the world."

"We can simultaneously make major contributions to society—both to help other people and feel good about our choices—while making a difference in our everyday lives. We can do things both large and small, for others and ourselves, every day if we choose to.
With that in mind, I recently asked on the Tiny Buddha Facebook page. Some of my favorite responses include:"
"1. Wake up. ~Karen Maezen Miller
2. Make a difference in yourself, for the better. Such an inward difference always has rippling outward benefits. ~Hansoul Kim
3. Remember there are three poisons: greed, anger and ignorance. Do not deny their existence but turn them around and you have generosity, compassion and wisdom. ~Clifton Bradley
4. Make it a habit to respect everyone. ~Margarita Medina
5. Consider the people you see each day. Sometimes I get wrapped up in things I am working on— fundraisers etc. But the coworker, family member, pet right next to you are the people you can truly reach and touch. ~Amy E. Moore
6. Operate from a place of love. ~ Erika Gonzalez
7. Be kind to others. In this busy world people become self consumed and forget that kindness goes a long way. ~ Ana Stuckart
8. Acknowledge the light within myself and in others. Not always easy to do but feels so powerful when I am able to do so. ~Maria Thieme
9. Talk to someone that you think might be in distress. You may make the difference of a lifetime. ~Alexander De Raadt St.James
10. Simply show up. Just by put your soul into it. If you show up physically with the soles of your feet, the heart, mind, and soul will have a chance to follow or catch up. You may not want to be there in the beginning but showing up allows a committed chance at making a difference everyday for the people you love, the people you will meet, and the eventual person you will become. Show up. ~Holli Grant
11. Smile. ~ Seret Rafferty
12. Be more involved in the world. You can’t be spectator forever. ~Christina Breeden
13. Be the change you wish to see in the world! ~April Spears paraphrasing Gandhi
14. Be gentle and practice sympathetic joy. ~Susan Cross
15. Start really listening to the people around you. Your family for example. People crave for attention. People feel loved when given attention.. Give love. And listening is an act of love. ~Leoni Erica Tayamen
16. Listen. Give. Do. ~Phyllis Fenander
17. Teach your kids by example; be caring, open minded, have good manners and remember to smile. ~Paivi McKittrick
18. Look into your child’s eyes. Stop what you are doing, sit down, and just look into them. Do that every day and you will change the world. ~Noel Cocca
19. Be a true you…positive energy attracts. ~Jane George
20. Love. ~Stephen Kreins
21. I quote the great Horatio Lee Jenkins: “Don’t worry—everything is going to be awesome!”~Carl Dangers
22. Find someone that needs a smile, and give them that smile, once a day for the rest of your life and like a ripple in a pond it will be carried onwards. ~SoulLife Searcher
23. Speak without saying a word. A lot can be said without words. ~Ralph Rocha
24. Learn to be aware of all the wonder we have around us, let the past be in the past and not part of the future. Choose life every day, be grateful for whatever you have, and most important share, share, share—spread as much love as you can. ~Lula Insfran
25. Hakuna mattata, one love, pay it forward. ~Kerin Colby
How are you making a difference in the world?
Feel free to provide a little information and leave your link in the comments!"

As I sit here and ponder these comments, like a slap in the face, it hits me, while so much time a day, a week, a lifetime, can be spent thinking of ways to be better and make the world a better place, we can miss simple opportunities daily.  There is no joy in life without gratitude.
  • Live in a state gratitude- let those around you know how much you appreciate them.  
  • Pay it forward- give without condition
  • Smile at your neighbors
  • Pick up litter
  • Do and say everything in love
  • Be present- connect with others, look people in the eyes, engage 
  • Forgiveness- God is love and forgives us when we repent.  When we forgive others, we are freed of hanging on to anger, resentment and block emotionally maturity and peace of mind.  
  • Make more of an effort to talk to and learn from your elders
  • Donate instead of throw out
  • Listen
  • Embrace others



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Start the day off right

Posted by SmartBarbie Tuesday, September 10, 2013 3 comments

Following a healthy diet plan suitable for your personal goals and a dedicated workout schedule are key to health related success.  Nevertheless, a healthy lifestyle is over 50% mental.  Without the drive and affirmative commitment, achieving one's health goals will be more challenging.  Regardless of ones plan, just remember that if we encounter a bump in the road, it is ok.  We are imperfect humans and we will make mistakes or fall short at times.  It's not the diet relapse that matters as much as how we come out of it.


This morning I began making my oatmeal with blueberry's.  However, while I was cooking the Oatmeal, I noticed a small bite size sneakers bar on the counter, in which without thinking I unwrapped it and devoured this little piece of chocolate heaven.   My intitial reaction was, "oh no!  What did I just do?  I guess I ruined the day's diet."  Not the case though....  It was about 80 unexpected calories.   I will add an extra 15 or 20 minutes on to my workout this afternoon.  

The following article supplied by Streets and Smith's Sports Group Business Journal:   

Sabres stay focused on goals, despite bumps

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Take Back Control of your health

Posted by SmartBarbie Monday, September 9, 2013 0 comments

10 Tips To Take Back Control Of Your Health And Get On The Path To Wellness

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Kavit Haria of the Wellness Junction blog.
The most valuable and prized possession is our health. Without our health, we wouldn’t be able to achieve the things we want to in our life, go places we want to go and do things we want to do.Over the last few decades, as more and more junk food places have opened and lots of artificially enhanced products created, more and more people have turned to them and forgotten about their bodies. These poor habits along with their living standards have created an increase in illness and lack of peak performance in the body. Due to all of this, we have literally lost control of what goes on in our body and in our health.
For many years, I have been interested in healthy living and getting my body back into its natural state and how it should function. I prefer to focus on ‘prevention’ rather than cure and wellness over illness.
Here are ten tips to take back control of your health and get on the path to wellness:
  1. Know your reasons. If you’re looking to get healthier, fitter and look younger, then you’ve got to know your reasons as to why you want to become more healthy. If you’re familiar with any work in personal development, you may have heard of Tony Robbins and his work which states that no matter what goal you set, the more reasons you have for achieving it, the more you’ll convince yourself of wanting to achieve it and you’ll go out and get it. Why do you want to get more healthy now and not before in your life? What has caused this change? And how committed are you?
  2. Create your wellness plan. Once you know you actually do want to invest time, energy and resources into taking back control of your health and getting on the path of wellness. Creating your plan requires you to know what you’d like your body and health to look, feel and be like in about 1-5 years time and then breaking down that vision into monthly goals of nutrition, exercise and anything else needed to get you there.
  3. Get rid of your negative influences. Have you ever tried to improve one part of your life but find that no matter how hard you try, it may not seem to work? It’s usually because you haven’t cleared out the negative energies or things that are conflicting with it. For example, if you find eating crisps and shortbread biscuits a negative thing when you’re trying to get healthy but are still eating it, you’re really inhibiting how well your body could do. Make a list of things that you are tolerating in your life, things you know you shouldn’t do or have but are still doing it. And slowly cut down and get rid of it.
  4. Drink lots of water. During the course of our sleep, we lose a lot of water during our breathing and so its important that when you get up, you have a big glass of water. The vitality our cells gets from water is very important and useful and will keep our body working in correct order. Without water, our cells starts to wilt just like plants without water.
  5. Eat lots of water-rich content. Our body is made up of about 70% of water just like our planet and so naturally we should consume enough water to keep our body hydrated and enough to recycle our body’s capacity every so often. Consume lots of water-rich fruits and vegetables every day. I make a fresh juice every morning with a selection of fruits, and I also try to have at least two big bowls of salad a day – one at lunch, one at dinner. The simple sugars from fruits are important nutrients and vitamins for our body.
  6. Rest well. Without sleep, our body’s clock loses its rhythm and starts to dysfunction, causing poor habits. Rest well and consistently each day. Try to keep your timings consistent so your body can set its routine. If you can’t sleep early, get some blindfolds, ear plugs, soothing music, or whatever you need.
  7. Exercise at least 30 minutes a day. This article wouldn’t be truthful if I didn’t include exercise and fitness in it. If you don’t exercise, seriously consider the impacts on your body. Exercise gets your body moving, your blood circulating and your energy in motion. If you work at home or or in an office, get up every 30 minutes and walk around. If you have a staircase nearby, run up and down it several times a day. If you can get out for a walk, I highly recommend it for at least 10 minutes once in a day. The great thing is that you can break up your 30 minutes exercise a day into 2-3 segments so you can exercise wherever you are.
  8. Eat your food slower. The Slow Food Movement talks about eating your food slower to aid digestion, heighten the cooking and eating experience and really enjoying your food. I’m in favor for this because of what it can do to your body’s digestive system. Research shows that eating slower can make you more fuller and thus you eat less. Read more about this here on Zen Habits.
  9. Don’t overeat. Only eat till you are satisfied. Don’t overeat or over-full yourself. Eat with content and till your stomach is satisfied. You can always go and eat something healthy later – and that’s better than overeating.
  10. Keep a food journal. One of the best ways to ensure you keep healthy and stay on track is to keep a food journal and become really aware what you eat. Write down what you eat and drink at every meal time and in between, as well as what exercises you do and when. It’s a great momentum-building tool as well.
So there you have it – ten ways to take back control of your health and get on the path to wellness. If you’re serious about this, you’ll take on five of the more in one or another in your life. For those whose health is currently not as important, try to incorporate at least one of these.
Getting healthy, becoming fitter and looking more younger is all supposed to be fun, so ensure you keep the fun and excitement in your progress.
For more health articles from Kavit Haria, see Wellness Junction or subscribe to the feed.

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Seven hours down

Posted by SmartBarbie 2 comments

It is amazing how good I feel already.  Seven hours of healthy living.   I'm only half way through the first day of the healthy lifestyle challenge, but I feel lighter.  Emotionally lighter that is.  I feel hopeful.  I have a plan of life, a healthy life.  Last night I downloaded a hyno meditation mp3, encouraging healthy living, in which I listened to as I feel asleep.  It is human nature to turn to a source of comfort when life isn't going how we believe it should be going.  Food, drinking, self-destructive behaviors, obsessive behaviors, just to name a few, are common outlets or symptoms of underlying issues in our lives.

Last night while I was putting together my plan of action for the 17 day Healthy Lifestyle Challenge, I googled tools to support "health," "diet," "stop smoking," "detox," etc...I came across this hypno shop.    Quite frankly, I'm not sure if I believe in hynotheraphy, however, I figured the fourteen dollar risk was worth the gamble if it aided any bit of support through this time.  I am by no means affiliated with the hypnoshop.com organization. I just believe in sharing tools used: http://www.hypnoshop.com/hypnosis-cds-mp3s/weight-loss-hypnosis.html


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Healthy lifestyle mojo

Posted by SmartBarbie Sunday, September 8, 2013 0 comments

Sometimes life throws us some curve balls, in which we deal or cope by taking it out on our body, sometimes consciously, but many time unconsciously.  Triggers for lifestyle decline can be, but are not limited to change in career, relationships issues, loss of a loved one, betrayal, etc....  Unfortunately life stress, challenges, triggers, changes can suppress our personal drive to healthy living and ultimately effect our happiness, confidence and self worth.  The sad but true road blocks in our life path.

I've been doing a fair amount of inner reflection, supercharged due to a number of relationship betrayal from my spouse.  While still working through the violation and loss of trust with a Christian-based counselor, I realize that the insecurities I formed from the betrayals, have reflected in the care of myself, depleted self love.

It's time to hit the reset button on my being, starting from the inside out.  In life, people and things will fail us, that is a given.  The control that we have over the things that we cannot control is our reaction to them.  It's time to take our happiness back.  Happiness is fueled by feeling good, healthy, confident, abundant.

The Healthy Lifestyle Challenge Blog is a forum for like-minded individuals to get their healthy lifestyle mojo back and to take back their control of their inner happiness...starting from the inside out.

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