With my words, I hope to throw some oblique light upon your life.
I want to inspire you to see life in a different and/or better way.
*** Remember, to read past blog posts,
go to >> kitsummers.com/blog/
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check out my blog on my website.
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*** Thank you, my wife, Beth, for adding to the blog each week.
*** I was hit by two different trucks, one involving a 37-day coma.
*** The happiness I am experiencing in my life is a marvelous thing!
*** I will have places to show you and tales to tell.
*** Secrets to unfold and good news!
BE TAKEN AWAY WITH ME
ON WONDERFUL ADVENTURES!
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INTRO TO THIS WEEK
A constant choice.
You have the pick to live your life in joy or in pain.
Throughout my life, I have not had to deal with stress much at all. Even after my first accident and 37-day coma. Then again, eighteen years later, after I was hit by another truck—much of my body broken—in the hospital and rehab again for a few months. I tended to smile through it all and go on.
We each have that control.
Do you choose anger or joy?
From my book series, Beyond Your Potential >>
Stress is Good?
How about this: anxiety and stress can be good for us, at times. They push us to make essential changes in our lives. They indicate when we may be in jeopardy, and motivate us to take action to get ourselves out of risk, such as harm coming our way from an external source that we might not see coming. In this way, feelings of anxiety and stress are healthy and essential. Without them, we may not act in our own best interest.
When we allow too much stress, stress causes us much duress.
Eventually, things will build up in your life. It can cause you a lot of strife.
How do we overcome this petty turmoil and keep it at bay?
What do we have to do to make our days better?
We know that too much stress changes how we think and act.
One way that will help is to find something to occupy your mind.
When you keep busy, the stress will go away; the busyness is helping you unwind.
Don’t let stress take over your life, be aware of the damage it can do.
Fight stress any way you can; don’t let the symptoms get to you!
Control
Stress can be a terrible thing if you don’t learn how to control it. You can let many things bring on
stress, but if you learn to handle rejection, frustration, guilt, and financial pressure, there is no limit to what you can do in your life. Remember that you are in control of the time you have and what you think about things. People have mentioned to me that they can’t control their stress, but they can! What you think is possible for you or not possible usually leads to what you can or can’t do. Take control of your mind. You have to send your mind signals that allow you to reach better results. The signals that you send your brain will control any stress and bring on success or failure in your life.
Grow Through Adversity
Yes, after my accidents, there were times when I got depressed, times when I brought on stress. There were even times when I felt like giving up. I saw, with time, that these were feelings that I brought on myself. There is no reason to be depressed or under stress if you stay on top of things and learn to change enough to handle stress.
Stretch Beyond Stress
Every time we go through adversity or obstacle, it intensifies our desire to move forward. If you can learn to handle frustration, deal with rejection, control your self-esteem, and acknowledge yourself for doing good, there is no limit to what you can do for your future. My recovery was my challenge. Think of life’s difficulties as life challenges. By this, I mean make them experiences to learn from. Turn your frustrations into fascinations. Instead of getting frustrated by something, get fascinated by it as you move through it.
Failure?
Yes, you will have failures, you will make mistakes, and things will not go right. Yet, this is no reason to bring stress into your life. You cannot learn without some failures. Everyone who has ever achieved anything has experienced a great deal of failure. You are in control of how you live your life and what you think about. You have the power to be a significant influence on the course of your life. You can’t put yourself down for making an error or not doing something right. Beating yourself into the ground for making errors won’t result in change; being positive will. Stay positive as you move forward through any apparent stress.
Keep Moving Forward
Stress, worry, and anxiety become detrimental when they stop us from moving forward to act. This occurs either because we are worried about things we cannot control or things that have not happened yet. Or, we are powerless by the stress we bring on rather than being stirred to act. Break it down, think it out. Whatever the reason, worry and anxiety can cause much stress on our minds and bodies, which affects our health and well-being. Stress and anxiety will stay away if you keep acting toward something. Remember, that worry is about thinking about how you want things not to happen. Aim toward thinking about how things will turn out. Change your thoughts to focus on successful outcomes, and your stress will go away.
The Ten
Planning and being prepared are great ways to battle stress. I’m not saying to live your life so concerned that it holds you back, but to be prudent and to take some time to know things may be coming so that you are ready for them rather than pretending such things will never happen. I present the ten most stressful happenings in life:
- The death of your partner, a loved one, or a close friend.
- A life-change through a tragic accident, like mine.
- Separation or divorce.
- Major personal injury or illness.
- Finding a new love and getting married.
- Being fired or laid off from work.
- If the health or behavior of a family member changes.
- Sexual difficulties.
- Gaining a new family member.
- Finishing this book series?
Think Right
You might want to go after all that life has to offer, but if you think you don’t deserve it. Or that you could never be that good a juggler. Or you don’t have enough time. Or that you are too stupid. Or any self-defeating belief you come up with. If you bring these on, you will never achieve anything you desire. Also, do not dwell on or regret the minutes and days that have already passed, for you cannot relive them; they are gone. Look at them as training for this minute and live your life with hope and joy.
Feeling That Guilt
Guilt is a terrible thing. Thinking I was responsible for the accident was wrong thinking. Feeling guilty is not going to make your life any better. Learn from your mistakes, try never to repeat them, and move on. Along with this, do not dwell on the minutes ahead; their very existence is uncertain. The past is gone, the future is not here yet, but you have now – use it well. Make every NOW in your life magnificent!
Some Solutions for Dealing With Stress:
- The main way to combat stress is to exercise. As you know, this gets your blood flowing and gets your thoughts away from the mess. As an exercise, juggling will keep your stress levels minimal or nonexistent. You will find that you cannot have stress when you juggle; they just don’t mix.
- Take time each day to work on and play with your juggling.
- Stress is often just worrying. Figure out what is causing you to be anxious or upset. Be specific. These areas might be apparent, but you might have to think about others. Charting your outcomes can help you to work toward results, or you can always talk to a friend about the consequences.
- Decide exactly what you need to do. Figure out what part of the circumstances is under your control and what is not. Measure the concerns to see whether the threat is real or if you are just making the worry too immense. If the problem is just a made-up situation or a worst-case situation, decide if it is likely that your fears will, in reality, come to be. Three significant destructive enemies to stay away from to make things better – are indecision, doubt, and fear.
- Eating correctly will make your brain and your life run much better. Reread chapter five on eating correctly, and that will help. When you eat right, you will bring on less stress and have fewer conflicts in your mind.
- When you are miserable or anxious, you are thinking in a negative, irrational, self-defeating manner. This brings about a self-defeating way. Get your thinking on track, and the stress and anxiety will go away.
- Often, you simply need to take action to move ahead and achieve something. Doing so is the main cure for any stress you may have. Once you do so, the problem causing you to feel stressed is often insignificant. Once you have done all you can, just let it go. In your life, you have to keep asking yourself what is most significant.
- Like everything in life, beating stress is easier said than done, but with repetition, you can get skilled at letting go of unnecessary levels of stress and anxiety. You can do this by concentrating on something else. Go juggle for thirty minutes. Remind yourself of the solutions you can work on or take other actions that will relax you so that you can get on with your life.
- If I am suffering from depression or stress, I find the antidote is to get involved in a project or activity that is fulfilling for me. Along with that, the more you help other people, the more it will help you.
- To keep your discipline in life, you have to be very positive. With a disciplined life, there is so much more you can achieve. By discipline, I mean being in control and keeping a positive attitude.
Live your life without the stress, and you will live a better life. I hope I have helped open your eyes to the life you could have without negative thoughts and stress.
LIFE IS HAPPENING ALL THE TIME – ARE YOU KEEPING UP?
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WORDS TO INSPIRE YOU! >>
Inspirational quotes and motivational sayings have an amazing ability to change the way we feel about life and can change our thinking.
This is why I find them so interesting, challenging, and important on our path to joy and happiness and finding ways to inspire ourselves as well as others.
Inspirational quotes and ideas provide us with a quick and timely burst of wisdom to get our focus back, offering the inspiration needed for the day or occasion.
I hope to inspire you with my words.
Words have power.
At any age, you can (and should) make changes to make your life better.
You see, the way you think and feel about yourself, including your beliefs and expectations about what is possible for you, determines everything that happens in your life. It all derives from your quality of thinking.
When you improve the quality of your thinking,
you change the quality of your life—sometimes instantly!
Just as positive words can make someone smile, and/or a well-timed amusing quote can make someone laugh, your own thoughts react to the world in real-time. You have this control!
In fact, you have complete control over only one thing in the universe — Your Thinking — and that’s where motivational quotes come in!
To keep your motivation, you have to use each day as an opportunity for improvement, to be better, and to get a little bit closer to your goals. It might sound like a lot of work—and with your busy schedule—next to impossible. But you can do it!
Self-talk is so important—THINK RIGHT!
Motivational words, yes, they’re just words.
But they’re positive words; they will keep you on track.
Remember, you are only as young as the last time you changed your mind.
Keep your thoughts and self-talk fun and productive, and always reach for more advancement.
VERY LITTLE IS NEEDED TO MAKE A GREAT LIFE.
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I HOPE THE FOLLOWING WORDS ABOUT STRESS INSPIRE YOU
“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.”
– Sydney J. Harris
“One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren’t enough hours in the day, but if we do each thing calmly and carefully, we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.”
– Viggo Mortensen
“Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they’ve started.”
– David Allen
“In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.”
– Lee Iacocca
“Doing something that is productive is a great way to alleviate emotional stress. Get your mind doing something that is productive.”
– Ziggy Marley
“It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.”
– Bruce Lee
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
– William James
“We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.”
– John Newton
“It’s a good idea always to do something relaxing prior to making an important decision in your life.”
– Paulo Coelho
“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.”
– Ovid
“Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there.’
– Eckhart Tolle
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.”
– Elbert Hubbard
“It’s not stress that kills us; it is our reaction to it.”
– Hans Selye
“There are thousands of causes for stress, and one antidote to stress is self-expression. That’s what happens to me every day. My thoughts get off my chest, down my sleeves, and onto my pad.”
– Garson Kanin
“Somehow, our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face.”
– Nelson DeMille
“You cannot always control what goes on outside.
But you can always control what goes on inside.”
– Wayne Dyer
“Breath is the power behind all things….
I breathe in and know that good things will happen.”
– Tao Porchon-Lynch
“We must have a pie.
Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.”
– David Mamet
“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”
– Leo F. Buscaglia
“Set peace of mind as your highest goal, and organize your life around it.”
– Brian Tracy
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”
– Lou Holtz
“I promise you nothing is as chaotic as it seems.
Nothing is worth diminishing your health.
Nothing is worth poisoning yourself into stress, anxiety, and fear.”
– Steve Maraboli
“Remember that stress doesn’t come from what’s going on in your life.
It comes from your thoughts about what’s going on in your life.”
– Andrew Bernstein
“The day she let go of the things that were weighing her down, was the day she began to shine the brightest.”
– Katrina Mayer
“Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.”
– Hermann Hesse
“If the problem can be solved why worry?
If the problem cannot be solved then worrying will do you no good.”
– Shantideva
“These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.”
– Najwa Zebian
“Breathe.
Let go.
And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.”
– Oprah Winfrey
“Don’t try to force anything. Let life be a deep let-go.
God opens millions of flowers every day without forcing their buds.”
– Osho
“If the problem can be solved, why worry?
If the problem cannot be solved, worrying will do you no good.”
– Buddha
“Don’t believe every worried thought you have.
Worried thoughts are notoriously inaccurate.”
– Renee Jain
“If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.”
– Lucius Annaeus Seneca
STOP MAKING EXCUSES—YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE STOPPING YOU!
COMPOSE A NOBLE BOOK AND WRITE A BEST-SELLER.
YOU ARE AMAZING—PLAY YOUR PART!
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MY DAILY JOTTINGS >>
7/24-25—Some warm days. Did not do much.
7/26—I will be appearing in a musical in September. We had a rehearsal about such today. It looks to be a fun time.
7/27—In the past, I have had trouble swallowing; at times, my esophagus not being open and wide enough to even swallow right. Last year I went through the procedure, he had to go back in to look again.
Here is about the procedure >>
https://www.asge.org/home/for-patients/patient-information/understanding-eso-dilation-updated
Under anesthesia, I was out for the operation. Something that has, at times, kept me awake at night is, that I try and see the point where my mind goes from consciousness to unconsciousness. Of course, this simply keeps me awake and away from good shut-eye.
Because I knew I would be put to sleep, I tried to keep my mind going and trying to see when I went through the transition point. Alas, my mind just shut down, and I could not see that point. Maybe next time . . .
Our first sunflower!
7/28—I still go to Costco every couple of weeks because of the good prices and the quality of the merchandise. Beth informed me that Jemma was awaiting my return for the longest time. Yes, a dog and her boy.
7/29—Oh, happy day! Today the shipment of ladybugs arrived (I’m sure there were some male bugs, too.) For our garden, these are good for controlling aphids and other varmints of the garden. Or, did they just hit the road and fly away?
And, it’s FRIDAY! I get to send my blog off to you today. What is sad to me is I hardly hear from anyone after I post. I do hope I hear back from you.
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YOUR CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK >>
You have control.
Get through this week with a smile while you laugh at stress factors in your life.
Let me know how it turns out.
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NEXT BLOG >>
Once again, we did not get to the wilderness (did you?)
I promise you, this week we will, and you will hear the details.
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THIS WEEK,
MAKE YOUR LIFE
SOMETHING
THAT YOU CAN
WRITE ABOUT!
