Tag: Ability to RESPOND

Unexpected Path

by Karen Lang, posted in Understanding Fear

 When detours, changes and surprises arrive in our life, we are often faced with an unexpected event.  No matter how detailed our plans are, and how clear we believe the road ahead to be, there are times when the best plans are interrupted by unforseen circumstances.

At first these detours or changes seem inconvenient, but a surprise turn of events can send you on an unexpected path that can lead you to a deeper understanding of yourself.

Can you trust that life will unfold exactly as it should?  Can you let go of the expectations you place on yourself and others?

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Love makes a difference

by Karen Lang, posted in Making a difference

“It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”  – Mahatma Gandhi

How can we make a difference in our own life or another’s?  How often do we say “Somebody, should do something about that, only to realise, we are that somebody?

Continue reading “Love makes a difference” →

Accepting yourself, Accepting others

by Karen Lang, posted in Uncategorized

Why compare yourself with others? No one in the entire world can do a better job of being you than you.” ~Unknown

The first question we need to ask ourselves is whether we actually believe we are lovable.  Over the years I have put a lot of pressure of myself to be perfect and this takes a lot of energy to keep up.  Of course this type of belief falls short overtime because none of us is perfect and so keeping up with the illusion is very difficult.

Most of us feel that only “certain parts” of ourselves are lovable.  So we are happy to show the perfect, “nothing bothers me” side to others but perhaps not the negative, sad side of ourself because we believe that no-one would love that part of us. This is where the process of self judgement starts to deplete our energy and love for ourself and others.

We do it unconsciously all day, every day. Just pay attention. Any time we are comparing, judging, or simply being negative we are depleting our energy, which makes us feel bad, and therefore makes us want to do it more. So how do we get out of this pattern of dislike and judgement on ourselves?

  1. Validate our feelings, “It’s okay to feel bad sometimes.”
  2. Refrain from judging or placing negativity on our thoughts or feelings.
  3. Give ourselves time to enjoy life and learn to nurture your needs.
  4. Listen to and respect your inner-self and intuition.
  5. Reassure ourselves that what we are experiencing will pass.
  6. Remind ourselves of all the wonderful things that we are.
  7. Be grateful for the little (and big) things in our lives.

When you are feeling down on yourself, write a list of the goals and achievements you have succeeded in and write about the positive parts of yourself.  When you begin to focus on everything that is right in you, you will be so surprised how you become more tolerant and accepting of others as well.

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection”   – Gautama Buddha

Take Responsibility

by Karen Lang, posted in Uncategorized

“You must take personal responsibility.  You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.  That is something you have charge of.” – Jim Rohn

When life presents us with challenging situations or when we are confronted with personal fears, we have two choices; To resign to this part of ourselves and face we will always be this way,  saying “What can I do?”  “That’s just the way I am” …or take responsibility for them, by stepping into our fears and changing our life.

Charles Givens reminds us that, “You have to let go of your past in order to effectively design your future.” In other words to let go of who you think you are, and take action, instead of wishing things were different.

Instead of asking  “what do I want from life?,” a more powerful question is, “what does life want from me?” – Eckhart Tolle

Whenever an answer, a solution, or a creative idea is needed, stop thinking for a moment by focusing attention on your inner energy field. … When you resume thinking, it will be fresh and creative.  When we allow negative thoughts in and continually feed them, we cannot focus on how to change our situation.

Firstly, be honest with yourself “What part of you is fearful and why do you find it so hard to accept?”.  When we acknowledge and accept this truth, we can start to recognise the conditioned pattern of our thoughts that bring our fear’s to the surface.  You need to be able to watch yourself in these fearful situations and see how you can act differently.

Becoming conscious of this fear will begin to change the course you have created in life and as you step into the fear and realise it wasn’t as big or as scary as you first thought, you will be able to address other parts of your life too.

“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it”  ~ Eckhart Tolle

Wake up and be conscious of your fearful thoughts.  “Are they real?”  “Are they preventing your growth?” if so, why are you holding onto to them?  Challenge yourself to feel uncomfortable in fearful situations and work through changing your thoughts.  If we do what we have always done, we will always have the same results.

We all have the “Ability” to “Respond” differently in all situations.  Each day is a new beginning.

“Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally”. –  Eckhart Tolle