“Why be afraid of what people will say? Those who care about you will say, “Good luck!” and those who care only about themselves will never say anything worth listening to anyway.”–J. Z. Knight
Who Cares What People Say?
As you walk a path that is all your own, you won’t always have a cheering section. The road to success can be lonely at times, littered only with people who want to change your course. You may be judged, discouraged and even called a fool. But who will you choose to live for?
Your inner being is your own personal GPS, guiding you and only you to YOUR destiny. This guidance system won’t leave you or lead you astray. Just listen in the stillness and you’ll see it with your mind’s eye, hear it with your heart, and feel in every fiber of your being. This is your guidance system—not your mother’s, father’s, spouse’s or friend’s. It is yours. [Keep Reading Inspirational Thoughts...]
Nea is a Life Transformation Coach who believes happiness should never be optional.
If you’re ready to live a happier, more fulfilling life and you want to know how Nea can help you overcome what stands in your way, contact her now or click the link here to learn more about life coaching
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What is a friend? As recent as 2009, my answer to this question was far more limited than it is today. I only regarded my most intimate friendships as true friendships. Much to my surprise, that belief about friendship has evolved over the last year. I am overjoyed with my renewed perspective on what is means to be true friends and I want to share it with you.
All about Friendship & True Friends
1. Friends hurt each other. Like family members, friends hurt each other. It doesn’t feel good, but it doesn’t always indicate that the person isn’t your true friend. We are most vulnerable to the people we care about, which means it’s easier for them to hurt us. Nonetheless, being hurt by a friend doesn’t have to be the end of the road for that friendship.
It’s important to accept that the love between friends opens the door for hurt, yet true friends can maintain a friendship through rough times.
2. Friends keep secrets. The levels of intimacy, trust and connection are different in every friendship. In the most intimate friendships, friends know virtually everything about each other. In other friendships, you may not share each other’s entire life story or expose every skeleton in your closet. But that doesn’t mean one friendship isn’t a true friendship. [Read the full blog article →]
Nea is a Life Transformation Coach who believes happiness should never be optional.
If you’re ready to live a happier, more fulfilling life and you want to know how Nea can help you overcome what stands in your way, contact her now or click the link here to learn more about life coaching
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“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
-George Bernard Shaw
If you’re so afraid of making mistakes that you’re hindering your own success, today’s inspirational thoughts are for you.
There is nothing wrong with exercising caution, but there is also nothing wrong with making mistakes. Mistakes act as your guide—helping you navigate the maze of life. They may not be desirable or fun to deal with, yet who would you be without them?
With or without extreme caution, you will undoubtedly make mistakes. So why not learn to embrace them? Live your life. Venture into unknown territories. Test uncharted waters. Take a chance on someone or something new. You may experience defeat, disappointment or loss. But that’s not the end.
Mistakes open the door to personal growth and accomplishment. They are your greatest teachers. [Keep Reading Inspirational Thoughts...]
Nea is a Life Transformation Coach who believes happiness should never be optional.
If you’re ready to live a happier, more fulfilling life and you want to know how Nea can help you overcome what stands in your way, contact her now or click the link here to learn more about life coaching
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Inspirational Video – Life as a Train
There’s no article to read today. Just a beautiful, inspiring video that I hope will warm your heart. Please enjoy it and have a wonderful day. I’ll see you back here on Monday for the new week’s inspirational thoughts.
[Watch the inspirational video...]
Nea is a Life Transformation Coach who believes happiness should never be optional.
If you’re ready to live a happier, more fulfilling life and you want to know how Nea can help you overcome what stands in your way, contact her now or click the link here to learn more about life coaching
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“It’s not the troubles we run into, it’s what we do about them which determines their net effect upon our lives”
–Nick Baylis
All About Coping Strategies
If you enjoyed last week’s post, 20 Defense Mechanisms That Can Screw Up Your Life, you’ll surely appreciate coping strategies that can come to your rescue.
In many ways, coping mechanisms and defense mechanisms are polar opposites. They are all ways that we attempt to deal with life’s difficulties, but defense mechanisms arise from our inability, unwillingness or failure to cope. Coping mechanisms, on the other hand, are head-on strategies for facing (and improving) reality.
One thing to keep in mind as you read the list of coping strategies below is that we all use them at times. However, you can improve your life by continually increasing the frequency with which you use positive coping skills instead of defense mechanisms to deal with stress, change and pain. [Read the full blog article →]
Nea is a Life Transformation Coach who believes happiness should never be optional.
If you’re ready to live a happier, more fulfilling life and you want to know how Nea can help you overcome what stands in your way, contact her now or click the link here to learn more about life coaching
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“Listen, are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?” Mary Oliver
Your Extraordinary Life
Life is extraordinary. So extraordinary, in fact, that there are absolutely no ordinary moments.
It’s time to awaken from your mundane, boring life. No more walking dead. Look around with child-like vision to see the truth. What is the truth?
The truth is that today and every day is filled with extraordinary life experiences that would knock you off your feet if you hadn’t learned to take them for granted. The truth is: There are no ordinary moments.
Somewhere out there…
A child is being born. That new life enters this world—seen, embraced and swaddled in blankets for the very first time.
A beautiful sunset captivates all who aren’t too busy to notice.
Someone cries tears of joy as a loved one bounces back from the grip of death despite the grimmest odds.
A young girl bursts with nervous excitement at the moment of her first kiss. [Keep Reading Inspirational Thoughts...]
Nea is a Life Transformation Coach who believes happiness should never be optional.
If you’re ready to live a happier, more fulfilling life and you want to know how Nea can help you overcome what stands in your way, contact her now or click the link here to learn more about life coaching
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by Nea on January 14, 2011
in Quotes
After finally getting over the fact that I am no longer 23, I can say with pride that today is my 34th birthday.
None of us are getting any younger, so I thought I’d use this occasion as an opportunity to share a few positive aging and birthday quotes with my wonderful readers. Whether you are 21 or 101, I hope these quotes bring you smiles, laughs and appreciation for every birthday to come.
Aging and Birthday Quotes
“Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.” -Samuel Ullman
“At age 20, we worry about what others think of us. At 40, we don’t care what they think of us. At 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all.” -Ann Landers
“Maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you’ve had, and what you’ve learned from them, and less to do with how many birthdays you’ve celebrated.” -Unknown
“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” -Abraham Lincoln
“It takes a long time to grow young.” -Pablo Picasso
“We turn not older with years, but newer every day.” – Emily Dickinson
“One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them.” -Virginia Woolf [More Birthday Quotes...]
Nea is a Life Transformation Coach who believes happiness should never be optional.
If you’re ready to live a happier, more fulfilling life and you want to know how Nea can help you overcome what stands in your way, contact her now or click the link here to learn more about life coaching
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Internal and external conflict, emotional pain, unwanted impulses, stressors—we all face them at some point in our lives. But the ego defense mechanisms we use to deal with these things often take on a life of their own.
What are Ego Defense Mechanisms?
Ego defense mechanisms are techniques that we use to deal, albeit ineffectively, with certain aspects of life. Unlike positive coping skills, defense mechanisms are ways of surviving rather than coping.
With or without awareness of it, we all have a desire to protect the mind (the ego) from anxiety, distress, social restrictions and a variety of troubling circumstances.
When we feel unable or unwilling to face reality, we unconsciously draw on ego defense mechanisms to distort that reality into something more tolerable. The problem, however, is that habitual use of defense mechanisms hinders emotional maturity and personal growth, ruins relationships, and leaves problems unresolved.
The list below includes some of the most common defense mechanisms documented in psychology.
Defense Mechanisms Examples
1. Acting out – Performing physical actions as a way of responding to emotional pain or stressors. The action is usually an unconscious attempt to reduce anxiety by giving in to impulses or gaining attention. Examples include punching a hole in the wall, throwing things, giving in to an addiction (alcohol, drugs, gambling), having an affair, hitting someone, and setting off a bomb.
2. Aim inhibition – Downgrading from what you really want to something that feels easier, more attainable or less frustrating. There are times when settling for something different than your original goal is needed, so this isn’t always a negative ego defense mechanism. For example, Joe wants to play basketball; but his rheumatoid arthritis is so painful that he decides to become a coach. On the other hand, this defense mechanism can unnecessarily create limitations that hinder your success in life. Example: Sue really wants to be a doctor, but she is so afraid of not measuring up in medical school that she becomes a medical biller.
3. Avoidance – Refusing to encounter situations that may rouse anxiety, fear, jealousy or negative impulses. A classic example is someone who avoids social situations rather than learning to overcome feelings of insecurity. However, avoidance can be far less obvious. For example, taking a perfectionist approach to certain tasks can be an unconscious attempt to disallow time for tasks that rouse feelings of fear or anxiety.
4. Deflection – Changing the subject to avoid dealing with something painful, distressing or anxiety-producing. The person who deflects will attempt to protect his ego by redirecting attention to another person, place, thing or circumstance. This is often noticed in arguments when one person responds to an accusation or complaint by pointing to a time when the other person did something equally undesirable. [Keep Reading Defense Mechanisms...]
Nea is a Life Transformation Coach who believes happiness should never be optional.
If you’re ready to live a happier, more fulfilling life and you want to know how Nea can help you overcome what stands in your way, contact her now or click the link here to learn more about life coaching
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