Category Archives: Love

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Love Week – Love Your Family

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LOVE-WEEK---BASEToday’s love is your family. That should be pretty easy since we all have family and there’s bound to be at least one someone you can love. I bet that after you start with one, you’ll be able to progress on to other members of your family as well.

Even if the family member you chose is no longer with you, you can certainly express your love.

Take your mom – no matter what else happened in your life, she gave you life and without her, you wouldn’t be here! What more could you ask for and why wouldn’t you love her for that.

Write down her other good qualities (other than raising a stellar human being such as yourself). What is it you feel when you think about her? How would you want to be like her? Take it a step further – are you like her? If so, in what ways? If not, would you like to be? What can you do to make yourself more like her?

Who else in your family do you love? Your father? your brother(s), your sister(s), aunts, uncles, grandparents, Godparents? Cousins, nephews, you own kids or grandkids?

Do you have an extended family?

What is it about all these people that give you joy and make you happy just thinking about them? How do they (and how have they) influence you – do they do that on a daily basis?

What belief systems did you get from your family? Are they things you wish to continue to believe or things you wish to let go of?

Once you’ve listed all these characteristics and qualities, sit back and feel the good feelings you have.

Work on loving your family all day today. Even when work or your life may seem to be going not so good, find one of these characteristics or even a story that brings you joy and “go there” for a minute or two. Does that change your feeling about the moment? Are you happier, calmer, better able to handle what comes your way?

Write us and let us know what you’re experiencing. Maybe it’s something you haven’t thought of in years that just came back to you and made you smile!

Love your family today (and every day)!

Terrie

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Love Week

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LOVE-WEEK---BASEHey – at least I didn’t say “Love Fest”..ha ha.

I think we should celebrate this week by focusing on what wonderful things we have in our life that we can love. It’s not just about Valentine’s Day and our special others but it should also be about everything we love (or can love) in our life.

Take a moment to write down (or list in your mind) all the things you have that you love. You may cringe as I list some but if you look closely at them, you’ll see that they are there with plenty of characteristics to love.

Let’s try a few on for size:

Love your family (you can get specific or you can stay generic and close – but examine your family and talk about what there is to love…for example, if it weren’t for your parents, you wouldn’t be here – that’s something to love and cherish).

Love your body (ok, I can see the faces already). But stop and think about your body and how miraculous it is. It functions no matter what you do to or with it. You may not like the way it looks but that’s a limiting belief that is not doing you any good. Take a day to love everything about your body – your smile, your hair, your feet, you fingers…..love it all.

Love your SELF – again I hear the groans. But, get over it – at least for a day. Find things all day long that you love about yourself. Are you generous? Kind? Loving? Caring? Analytical? Smart? Funny? Introspective? Quiet? Love all your qualities. If we were all the same, it would be the pits…and very boring.

Love your Friends – this should be easy. List your friends and all the qualities they have that you love. Write about them, talk about them. Feel your love for each and every one of them.

Love your life and your job – Stop smirking. No matter what is going on in your life, it is great. There are wonderful things that you can find when you really do look for the silver lining.

Love your significant other – On Valentine’s Day, celebrate your love for another person. As they say in the Secret Service – would you take a bullet for this person? If so, that is true love. What is it that attracts you to this other person? What makes you feel comfortable and secure?

Some other things to love if you want to take it past Valentine’s Day or substitute for one item I’ve listed or talked about – love your existence, your goals, your spirituality, your power, your abilities, your disabilities, your health, your food, your time, your environment.

Let’s fill this week with total love and joy!

Terrie

 

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Wow Am I Blessed!

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Can you imagine my surprise (and happiness) when my wonderful trainer, Dan, brought me into the office and showed me this! And then said it was for me – at first I thought it was something he had won but then I saw my name! This is, perhaps, the most meaningful gift I’ve ever received because this is from the one person who went through all the trials and tribulations with me to get me through all my endurance events. It was because of him that I could truly embody what he says I embody and inspire.

Dan has changed my life in so many ways in the two years I’ve been working with him now. He is always upbeat and supportive and never ever lets any of us down. He even went to the New York City Marathon when I had decided not to go due to Superstorm Sandy. But he gave me the courage to prepare for that event and to know that I could do it if I had gone. Just in case you missed the whole story, he did definitely get something out of it – he got engaged to a wonderful woman who is the perfect match for him. 302890_4413659232773_1324206015_n

He then supported me and trained me to build the muscle, courage and fearlessness to do two 50 milers and two 100 milers in the space of a few short months. I’m no easy person to deal with when I’m not stressed out for a big event that will fulfill a 15 year dream so you can imagine how much fun he had seeing me 3 times a week during that entire period. Yet, he was always there encouraging me and telling me I could do it.

Then he showed up in the middle of the night for my first 100 mile  event and cheered me on in a way I’ve never been supported before.

He is such a good, honest and wholesome man that I often feel as if I don’t deserve to have him as my trainer or friend. And then when I realize he’s stuck with me, I thank God for all my great and wonderful blessings and he is pretty close to number 1 on that list of blessings.

He even created this saying and it has brought tears to my eyes several times since I received this beautiful gift. His words mean more than anything and could have just stood alone but when you combine them with the beauty of this statue, there is nothing better.

Here’s what he wrote!

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Thank you Dan!

dan

 

 

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Time To Practice What I Preach

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dangerous_words_400_clr_9450 It’s times like this when all teachers go “uh oh” – when they have to walk their talk and live their lives as they recommend to others. Such a time has come for me.

Yesterday, on the way home from the gym I just had all sorts of dread thoughts about how bad Jackie might be because she looked so miserable in the morning before I left. I didn’t know if I had over-exercised her the few days before or if it was just a bad day or what had happened. I just knew that when I left for work in the morning she did not look very happy to be here.  So my thoughts were very melancholy and dark as I drove home – I even found myself going slower and slower the closer I got to home. That is something very UNLIKE the New Yorker in me – we don’t know the meaning of slow.

I was near tears and acknowledged that I had been all day long.

But as I drove the mile down the primary street in my neighborhood I realized that there was something I really COULD do about it. I had a choice even when things weren’t going great. I could sit and mope and who would blame me because my best friend, companion, child, whatever you want to call her is on her way to be with her sister. Of course people wouldn’t condemn. They would console.

But, I could also choose to raise my vibration and feel as good as I possibly could despite the situation. We have to understand that we really do have control over our feelings and emotions and these are the things that regulate our vibrations and our vibrations are what brings more into our lives. We can actively decide which things we want in our lives – more good or less good.

As a result of hitting myself over the side of my head, I made the conscious decision to make whatever time Jackie had left the best possible for her and for me. Just how am I going to do that? By applying the techniques I’ve learned.

I started with praise and appreciation, all the while reminding myself that I could use  “Which thought feels better” to really make me which thought feels betterfeel good finally. If I sat and thought about how lonely I was going to be and how I didn’t know when it would be the right time etc I would feel miserable. But, I also had the choice to sit and think about how much joy Jackie has given me and how much I love her and all the fun things she’s done and how much we’ve done together. Instead of regretting certain things that were out of my control at the time, I could celebrate the wonderful things – she proved much tougher than I ever thought she’d be and not only lived much longer after her sister died but survived an illness that threatened to take her from me. I reveled in her strength and thanked her for being so stubborn that she wanted to remain with me. I chuckled and smiled and told her what a great being she is.

Every time I started to experience a lower level emotion (remember there really are no negative emotions) I would find something like this to make me grin and look at her and her courage and determination. It truly is amazing how when your vibration raises, you can feel it immediately and it doesn’t take much effort at all. You can allow your mind to rule you or you can take control and regulate the thoughts you want to think and the emotions you want to feel.

Try it, you’ll really like it. It made our night together alot more fun and enjoyable even though we didn’t “do” anything different – Jackie ate just like a puppy and then went back to bed just like an old lady. But she was happy. And so was I.

Which thought feels better? Try it. More later – now I’m going out for a run!

Terrie

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Show A Little Love – EVERY DAY!

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jackie2I am learning so much about love in the past few days. Unconditional love and living up to your standards no matter what other people do or say about you. It’s been a very painful and educational experience for the past 6 days. I have learned that people are not always who they appear to be on the surface and that you have to look deep and keep your eyes peeled in order to see the clues. Otherwise they will be very deceptive and manipulative and you’ll find that you’ve been used and you won’t even know it. If this weren’t a “family” blog we could make another kind of reference that starts with “slam bam…..” but you get my drift. I have been blind to all the clues that were right there in front of me and I have allowed myself to be manipulated so much in the past week that it’s cost me a thousand dollars. But, I did live up to my standards and as Dan told me yesterday, no one can take that away from me, no matter how hard they try to hurt me or my friends.

I have learned alot about true friendship too and that’s the valuable part. I have strengthened some friendships in this time of trial as well. So I must consider myself blessed. You have to show love to people and be supportive.

But you can show love in other ways and should every day. My little girl, Jackie, is almost 15 years old and she’s not doing well. She’s frail and has very little balance because of her hips or her back and has become increasingly incontinent. She doesn’t want to lie down anywhere except on my bed and I don’t really know what I’m going to do when she can’t get up there any more. Thank God that Steve built her sister a ramp.

But she’s still a strong willed dog and has shown me so much character in the last 4 years since her sister died. I did not expect her to live beyond a year but she’s pulled through some serious illnesses and is hanging in there. My dilemma, also in the past week, has been to know “when is it time”. So  I’ve had to ask the Universe to “show me the way”.

And although I haven’t seen the answer light up the sky about when it’s time to say goodbye, I have seen the answer and that’s to spend as much time with her as possible and show her love in whatever way I can every single day. And I think everyone should show love every single day even if it’s in a small undetected way. Dan, my trainer, showed me great love yesterday by listening and helping me get my head straight.

I’ve decided to take Jackie for a short walk once or twice a day. And you have no idea how happy she is. It’s like her head does not realize how frail her hind end is. But she’s happy to have the leash around her neck and be out there sniffing away. And you know what…if I didn’t have the leash on her, she’d start running in her bunny hop way and beat me down the road – at least for awhile.

So, if this makes her happy for at least a few moments, then it’s the thing I can do to thank her for all the joy, happiness and companionship she’s given me for the 13 years I’ve had her. She and her sister were pretty set in their ways when I got them at age 2 (like most two year olds) but I have to say that Jackie is THE BEST DOG I’ve EVER had and I”m so grateful for the opportunity to have shared this time with her.

What love are you going to show today?

Terrie