Author: Anne

This author has written 844 articles

INTERCONNECTEDNESS

We humans are all intimately interconnected.  How we treat each other matters to the health and well-being, perhaps even the survival, of us all as a species, not in some vague future, but in this very moment.  Kindness is the natural response to recognizing interconnectedness.  And in that kindness is true wisdom.

From: Arriving at your own Door  108 Lessons in Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn

REFLECTION:

Coronavirus has shown us in a significant way, we are truly intimately interconnected.  Kindness matters. 

  • How can you show a kindness to someone else today?  
  • Do one kind thing for someone else today!

ASSETS vs. DEFICITS

“From the time we begin school, if not sooner, we are taught to be blind to our assets and only see our deficits.  We are carefully marked on how many we got wrong on a test and, rarely if ever, asked how we know how to spell the ones we got right.  By the time we are adults, we are well versed in every one of our limitations, skilled in our incompetence.   

Aristotle said that one’s purpose is merely a matter of knowing where one’s talents and the needs of the world intersect.”

Cultivating, developing and setting free one’s gifts is essential to fulfilling living one’s life on purpose. 

Quote from:  I WILL NOT DIE AN UNLIVED LIFE  Reclaiming Purpose and Passion by Dawna Markova

REFLECTION:

  • What are your talents/assets? 
  • What talents do you have that can intersect with what the world needs?  Are you using your assets fully? If not, how can you use them more fully?
  • Think of two people in your life (maybe even 5).  Identify their talents?  Do something to let them know their assets today (tell them, write them a letter, call them, etc.)

YOUR GREATEST ASSETS

“All your so-called faults, all the things which you don’t like about yourself are your greatest assets.  They are simply over-amplified.  The volume has been turned up a bit too much, that’s all.  Just turn down the volume a little.  Soon, you – and everyone else – will see your weaknesses as your strengths, your ‘negatives’ as your ‘positives.’  They will become wonderful tools, ready to work for you rather than against you.  All you have to do is learn to call on these personality traits in amounts that are appropriate to the moment.  Judge how much your wonderful qualities are needed and don’t give anymore than that.

Quote by Neale Donald Walsch 

REFLECTION:

  • What is your greatest strength?
  • What is your greatest weakness (as you see it or others have pointed out)?
  • Explore/self reflect on how your “weakness” is actually your strength with the volume too high?
  • Is there a situation you are facing that requires you to turn down the volume of your strength?  What will you do differently with this perspective?