I started writing some articles for the site that I want to point out here in the blog. Here are the titles and first paragraphs. Click on the title if you want to read the whole article.
Unconditional Love
Several years ago I attended a Tony Robbins seminar with my husband. It was a wonderful experience and Tony is an amazing speaker. If you ever get a chance to hear him live, take it!
During one of the segments Tony was attempting to teach us how to change our emotional states at will. His philosophy is that we can feel any way we want simply by changing our state and our physiology. First he got us into a state where we felt unconditional love. It was fairly easy to achieve this state. Next he asked us to turn around and connect with someone else in the audience and feel unconditional love for them.
Kindness is Contagious
One day I was doing some grocery shopping in a small but very popular health food store. The lines were always long, especially on weekends. It was Saturday and I ran in for a few things and saw that all 5 lines had people waiting 8-10 people deep. I grabbed what I needed as fast as I could and got in the express lane.
The problem with the store was that it was constructed poorly and once you got to the head of a line with your cart you had to back out in order to leave. That meant everyone behind you who had moved forward needed to move back so you could back your cart out, turn it around, and head out of the store. If you’ve ever been in a crowded line moving forward you know how hard it is to get everyone to take a few steps back.
Jump Into the Pool With Your Clothes On
Back in my twenties I had a common social phobia. I was worried about what other people thought of me. I worried that people were looking at me and judging me. I was too afraid to expose myself to other people because I thought I would appear foolish and possibly humiliate myself. I avoided doing anything that called attention to myself. I didn’t share my opinions unless I was certain the people with whom I was sharing them would agree with me. I sat right in the middle of the boat so I wouldn’t rock it.
Pick a Side, Any Side
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” — Edmund Burke
In 5th grade, while on vacation with my family, I remember going to a bookstore (my favorite place!) where my mom told me I could buy a book. I went right to the sci-fi/fantasy section. I spent a lot of time reading the back covers on dozens of books and finally chose one. Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings. I had never read a fantasy book before but the description on the back cover intrigued me. Here’s what it reads:
Like Pebbles in a Pond
Have you ever thrown a pebble into a still pond and watched the ripples? It’s neat, isn’t it? Even a small pebble thrown in one end of a pond can cause ripples at the other end. Bigger pebbles, bigger ripples. If you wanted to create waves at the far end of a pond all you’d have to do is throw a pebble into the near end of the pond. Such power. Such beauty. So simple.
What happens when you throw a bunch of pebbles into a pond? All of them send out ripples simultaneously and the waves crash into each other. The ripples stop going where they intended to go and get diverted in a new direction.
