Ericksonian Principles

Thinking on Our Feet

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Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater - Colorado - 2014

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A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them. — Elbert Hubbard

In the same way, it is useless to use our head and not our hands. Just as it is unless to use our hands and not our head. We need them both for use to succeed and meet our goals in life. We can’t do without the other. Our body is the extension of our brain. Our body carries our head around where ever we go. We can’t live without the other.  It is always better to think on our feet than to sit idle. We get a lot done when we use both our mind and our feet. The more we get around, the more we learn and appreciate what life can offer if we explore.

 

[bctt tweet=”A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them. — Elbert Hubbard” username=”bloggist”]

 

 

Make Lemons into Lemonade

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Pink Pond

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When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade. — Dale Carnegie

We ought not to be fooled that we’re the only one who has experienced void in our lives. The fact is that everyone has experienced a void in life. And we ought not to believe that the other person is better than we are because they have a gift. In truth, we all have a gift. We just have to look inside ourselves and discover what our gift is.  Once we find our gift or gifts, then we have to take courage to figure out how we should use our gift in our unique way.

 

[bctt tweet=”When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade. — Dale Carnegie” username=”bloggist”]

 

 

 

Approving Yourself

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Dead tree

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You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.— Louise L. Hay

If we’re criticizing ourselves, then has it worked for us? If we’re criticizing others, then have we asked ourselves has that person or persons made improvements? But, if we look back at our lives, we then see that criticism doesn’t work. But if we shift our attention on accepting and approving of ourselves and others, then we give ourselves permission to make a change for ourselves and not for someone else. We become models for others by our actions in how we conduct ourselves in the world. Self-accepting embraces and nurtures the mind, body, and soul.

 
[bctt tweet=”You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.— Louise L. Hay” username=”bloggist”]

 

An Unfamiliar Path

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Oslo

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Don’t be afraid to take an unfamiliar path. Sometimes they’re the ones that take you to the best places. — Unknown

An unfamiliar path can easily evoke trepidation. However, once we get use to the path, our anxiety ceases. It is when we’re standing next to the unfamiliar and not moving can provoke anxiety because we’re anticipating danger. We don’t know what is on the other side. That’s why we must prepare ourselves as much as possible so we can be ready for the unexpected. Being ready for the unexpected changes our frame of mind because we’re equipped to handle better whatever comes up.

[bctt tweet=”Don’t be afraid to take an unfamiliar path. Sometimes they’re the ones that take you to the best places. — Unknown” username=”bloggist”]

Life and Work

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Frank

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Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work. — Horace

Just because we work hard today, doesn’t mean we stop working hard. Working hard one time is not final. We have to put in the effort every time we work. It takes energy to work because there are resistances everywhere. There are obstacles everywhere as long as we move. That’s what make us stronger are the resistances and the obstacles we plow through.  And that’s what builds character when we persevere through life’s struggles where we gain maturity.

 

[bctt tweet=”Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work. — Horace” username=”bloggist”]

 

 

The Gift

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Gift

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To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift. — Steve Prefontaine Since we each have a gift, we should use it. A gift is our way to express who we’re in the world. Showing our gifts to the world makes us happy in life. We have a purpose, and our path is clearer when we use our gifts. We are stronger when we bring our gifts together in a common goal. So let us not sacrifice our gifts because they bring light and hope into the world. It is most necessary to help others by utilizing our gifts to the fullest. We shouldn’t waste what was given to us.

 

[bctt tweet=”To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift. — Steve Prefontaine” username=”bloggist”]

Life Is Something To Do

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Vassnesvannet

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Life is something to do when you can’t get to sleep.— Fran Lebowitz

Those are bonus hours, not insomnia hours; Milton Erickson once said to an insomniac. Instead of tossing and turning in bed for hours, we might as well use those hours to get something done. We sleep when we get sleepy. We do while we’re wide awake. Racing thoughts dissipate when we do something other than thinking about our thoughts. We place our attention on something externally which remove us from an endless internal dialogue about when we will fall asleep. After we do something satisfying, we start to get a peace of mind and it is easier to fall fast asleep when we have a calming mind.
[bctt tweet=”Life is something to do when you can’t get to sleep.— Fran Lebowitz” username=”bloggist”]

 

 

Poncho

Giving Back

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Dandelion

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We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life. — William Osler

We’re better off when we add what we can to life. We’re meant to contribute to life. We will never be satisfied if we’re constantly trying to get what we can from life. We’re part of life. Life has given us what we need and now it is time to give back to life. There is something about giving that satisfies us deeply. Giving keeps our hearts warm and soft and builds strength at the same time. We must allow others to give because giving is not one-way.

 

[bctt tweet=”We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from life. — William Osler” username=”bloggist”]

Mental Attitude

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An Ending

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Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude. — Dale Carnegie

 

If our mental attitude governs our happiness, then we have a choice and an opportunity to change our attitude. We don’t have to be controlled by external forces or feel like they are controlling us. We can change our way of looking at external conditions that we think influences our attitude. We can always find something positive in an unpleasant event. When we find something positive in an unpleasant event, our mental attitude becomes hopeful.
[bctt tweet=”Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude. — Dale Carnegie” username=”bloggist”]

Thought Over Another

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Illuminations

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The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. — William Jame

A single thought can cause us stress in the body. And a single thought can cause us to experience relaxation. It all depends on which thoughts to pay attention to. If we have stress in our lives, then it is time to think about relaxation thoughts. We have to retrain ourselves to evoke relaxation thoughts when we’re in a stressful situation. It takes practice each day to consciously think of positive thoughts for a certain period until we feel our body relaxing. We feel the tension leave our body and when that happens we can do a better job managing our stress.

[bctt tweet=”The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. — William Jame” username=”bloggist”]

 

Enjoy the Scenery

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Scenery

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A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour. — Unknown

In other words, our happiness doesn’t have to be based on the conveniences of life. When we have to take another route or a detour, we might as well as enjoy the trip. We might find and learn something interesting that we hadn’t seen before or didn’t know existed there. Life doesn’t have to be a routine. It is all right to pull off the road sometimes and just experience the world around us. Looking at and enjoying new sceneries create new meanings and new associations in our minds. So we can often look back and to re-experience those moments.

[bctt tweet=”A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour. — Unknown” username=”bloggist”]

Testing Fear

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Test Pilot

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Fear is faith that it won’t work out. — Unknown

Fear must be tested before we consider it to be true. Fear can keep away from what’s real and keeps us in our heads. We need to experience action to get through our unknowns. We can prepare ourselves, and we can anticipate or go through scenarios in our heads over and over, but we still have to act. The action is the most direct way to deal with our fears. Action can help us find out things we didn’t know before. We can study for so long because eventually, we have to take action for us to learn something. Learning by our actions can quickly reduce our fears. What we will discover is fine-tuning our steps to make our situation better.

[bctt tweet=”Fear is faith that it won’t work out. — Unknown” username=”bloggist”]

Letting Go Is Better

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Lightroom Preset Balloon Released

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It hurts to let go, but sometimes it hurts more to hold on. — Unknown

It is not easy to let go when our ego is involved. We want to be right and better than we feel. We have a need to feed our egos. However, there is a price for everything. If we hold onto our hurt, we will experience more pain. That pain will be projected onto future hurts because we never let to of the original injury. We accept hurt by feeling the pain and then letting go. It’s better that way because we can move on and be more present and to look forward to our future and instead of fearing or anticipating future hurts.

[bctt tweet=”It hurts to let go, but sometimes it hurts more to hold on. — Unknown” username=”bloggist”]

Without Flaws

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flawed

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I have too many flaws to be perfect, but I have too many blessings to be ungrateful. — Unknown

No one is without a flaw or flaws. It is a matter of knowing that we have to live with our flaws and not allowing ourselves to focus too much on them. Instead, we can focus on what we do have available to make our lives better and not use our flaws as an excuse not to live a better life. Life will never be how we think it should be. There is no need to continue fighting what is not a reality but a fantasy we want real. We’re meant to use what we already have available for us to learn how to manage life!

 

[bctt tweet=”I have too many flaws to be perfect, but I have too many blessings to be ungrateful. — Unknown” username=”bloggist”

 

 

 

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Life’s Mysteries

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Life

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Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand. — Neil Armstrong

Life is a mystery. There are mysteries all around us to discover. We will only uncover a few in our lifetime. Life would be boring if we know anything about life. Having a mysteries stimulate a desire to understand things about ourselves and others. Getting an understanding helps us to be more respectful of life and others. We don’t need to know everything about life but to discover things through our life experiences. We just need enough understanding to satisfy our desire. The world is vast, and we only know a fraction, and that’s okay, so we can continue to wonder about the mysteries of life.

[bctt tweet=”Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand. — Neil Armstrong” username=”bloggist”]

 

 

Do What’s Possible

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life is art!

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Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. — Francis of Assisi

When we start a new thing, we have to jump through hoops, before we start to see progress. Even during the beginning, it’s hard because things are new to us, and we’re in the learning how period which can take some time. When things begin to come together, we start to see small progress. We will have set backs and also will be rewarded by the satisfaction of pursuing our dreams. The impossible becomes probable which we start to have more confidence in ourselves. That faith in ourselves begins to see that it is possible.

[bctt tweet=”Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. — Francis of Assisi” username=”bloggist”]

Art of Life

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in the forest XIII

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The art of life is constant readjusting to your surroundings.— Kazoo Okokaura

Flexibility is the way to go, and inflexibility gets us nowhere. Learning is the essential form of readjusting to new surroundings. Readjusting to surroundings can invoke temporary anxiety until we become familiar and to learn our way around things. It is all right to go with the flow because we may learn something. There will always be constant readjusting to life. We all go through phases of life whether that’s internal to our body or externally with our environment.  Let us live life and readjust when needed so we can enjoy life better instead trying to control things we have no control over.

[bctt tweet=”The art of life is constant readjusting to your surroundings.— Kazoo Okokaura” username=”bloggist”]

Nonsense Changes the Mind

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More big building reflections nonsense

Post Written By Eugene Morgan I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells. — Dr. Seuss

We get our creativity from nonsense. We’re forced to make nonsense out of patterns. But instead our patterns are disrupted, and our skew has been taken from our lens. We can see better what was once unclear. We begin to see that the nonsense is starting to make sense. Nonsense changes our minds to look for options and to see things different than we have before.

 

[bctt tweet=”I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells. — Dr. Seuss” username=”bloggist”]

Life Must Be Lived Forward

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On my morning photo walk, I...

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Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. — Soren Kierkegaard

IIn hindsight, life can be understood. It’s hard to know our path, but we must continue forward. As long as we move along, we are creating a path for ourselves. Sitting idle while thinking about the past accomplishes nothing. As we move forward, we will make mistakes along the way, but it is a learning experience. Real knowledge is learning from our experiences, according to Albert Einstein.

[bctt tweet=”Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. — Soren Kierkegaard” username=”bloggist”]