Self Improvement Help | Irene’s Articles

This and That About Super Bowl Sunday

February 2, 2013 by ireneconlan Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday and, as always, I am amused at all the hype. Yesterday the news was full of talk about the commercials that will be aired. In fact I heard much more about the commercials than I did about the game itself. Now, don’t get me wrong—I enjoy a good football game—but it seems that the Super Bowl, like the major holidays, has been commercialized out of proportion. Sometimes the game gets lost in all of this. However, I send congratulations, to New Orleans for getting it together so successfully. There’s a lot of expense and work involved with hosting this game and let’s hope that New Orleans turns a great profit.

The commercials are interesting. Some are entertaining, some are inspiring, some are sexy and ALL are expensive. The Associated Press puts the price at $3.5 million to $4 million for 30 seconds. I know we will see that Jared still eats Subway sandwiches and has kept his weight off for 15 years. Good for you, Jared. Coke lets you vote on how their commercial ends, and GoDaddy’s ad will be sexy. So? I have two thoughts on this: 1) That’s a lot of money that could help a lot of people. If Coke, for example, put up a picture of a CocaCola and announced “We have donated $4 M to help the homeless in New Orleans,” I would feel better and might buy a Coke even though I don’t usually drink sodas. Or if GoDaddy had the sexy girl tell us that Go-Daddy had donated $4 M to Phoenix Children’s Hospital or St. Jude’s, I might change my mind about their service; 2) You know they pass the cost on to the consumer so how much will it cost us, the buyer, to see those commercials when they air tomorrow? The advertisers will in all likelihood show a profit. Guess who pays? (Note: GoDaddy is generous in their giving, I know that for a fact, but this change would certainly make everyone sit up and take notice during the Super Bowl and other companies might get the hint).

While Alicia Keys is going to sing the National Anthem, Beyoncé is going to do the half-time show at the Super Bowl and says she is, indeed, going to sing live. There was such a big “to do” over her lip syncing the National Anthem at the inauguration that I applaud her for not immediately responding to all the criticism. I loved her Super Bowl press conference. She walked out on stage, sang The Star Spangled Banner and then asked, “Do you have any questions?” I love spunk! Don’t people have anything better to complain about? Let me tell you, some of the inaugurations have been so bitter cold that it was impossible for singers to sing, musicians to play, and anyone to enjoy the music whether lip synced or not. I think she was wise to plan ahead and give a flawless performance. Perhaps we should spend more time worrying about our own behavior and leave Beyoncé alone. All the brouhaha makes me want to enjoy watching her all the more. Talk about “Much Ado About Nothing.” Shakespeare would be proud.

These things always make me take a look at my priorities to see if I’m still on track. I am pleased with them.

I will enjoy the game. I will enjoy the commercials. But I will probably buy the generic brands at the store. I don’t want to pay for the commercials any more than necessary.

And one last word—GO 49ers!

Filed Under: Irene's Articles, Self Improvement Tagged With: Beyonce, Super Bowl, Super Bowl Commercials

If You Need a Laugh

February 1, 2013 by ireneconlan 2 Comments

By Irene Conlan -

This was yesterday’s article that was supposed to be posted to go with Steve Wilson’s appearance on The Self Improvement Show. However, Cox Cable, “our friend in the digital age,” was doing some work in our area “to improve service” and, while they announced that it would be finished by 7 a.m. it was a long time after that. My Internet access was fully functional sometime in the early afternoon. It was a great test of my sense of humor and, I know I will think it was funny at some point but I haven’t hit it that point yet. Actually, I recovered as soon as I could get on the Net and the interview with Steve fully restored my feeling of well being.

Anyway, I hope the following makes you laugh. Here’s yesterday’s article:

This week we have been running articles about humor and laughter to prepare for today’s Self Improvement Show with Steve Wilson, – a Joyologist and “Cheerman of the Bored.” Steve is a psychologist and an expert in self esteem and will be talking about the importance of laughter and humor in our lives. I think it’s a show everyone can enjoy and benefit from.

So this week to prepare for Steve’s appearance I have spent a good bit of time looking for things that made me laugh. I wanted to see if I could find things that made me laugh when no one else is around because many people live alone and find their days quiet, lonely and, sometimes empty. I am not alone, I am never bored and my days are anything but empty— but I don’t often laugh alone. My question was, “If I lived alone and didn’t see anyone else all day long, could I find something that made me laugh out loud?” The answer was “yes.” In fact I had such a great laugh that my son heard me at the other end of the house and came to see what I was up to.

My brand of humor may not be the same as yours but, if you take some time, you can find something that works for you —I can almost guarantee it.

Now you have to realize that I am what you would consider an “elderly lady” so I don’t like humor that’s too blue, I don’t appreciate the “F” word used in every sentence nor comedians/comediennes who have to resort to obscenity to get a laugh. If you like that, that’s your business but it doesn’t make me laugh.

Without depending on other people in the house, some things that DO make me laugh are:

My puppy, Smarty. He does crazy things all day long and is such a loving little guy that I am usually in a mellow mood and ready for a laugh. He sleeps on the loveseat in my office and often, when he wants to get off he gets his front feet on the floor and then just stands there with his whole back end still on the couch. It’s like he doesn’t want to get all the way down until he sees something to get into and can make a real commitment to chewing it up. He is always in search of something new or something new to try and it generally is worth a good laugh.

Jokes in my email. While I don’t get as many jokes as I used to, every day brings a few that are worth a big smile if not a laugh out loud. Because most of my friends are seniors, many of them are about getting old. Here is a “senior” one my brother sent me the other day: http://www.youtube.com/embed/Xv1tMioGgXI?rel=0h

YouTube is a treasure trove. You can find humor related to almost any subject you can think of. You just have to look for it. Here are some I found recently. The second one is the one that made me laugh out loud all by myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvPkUMRE7yg&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVnJLMf2XZ4&feature=endscreen

Netflix: My favorite comic on Netflix is Demitri Martin because he’s so different from most of them and so creative. But if you search for comedy you will get a wide range to choose from. Find movies and comics that work for you.

My point? You don’t have to sit in your house lonely, depressed and humorless. There is a lot of funny stuff around. If you can read this, you have a computer which opens the door to endless humor if you will just look.

If you need something more, go to PetsMart or your local animal shelter and get a dog or a cat. They will love you tirelessly and keep you entertained for countless hours.

Humor and laughter are necessary ingredients for a longer and happier life. It’s your responsibility to find them for yourself.

Filed Under: Irene's Articles, Self Improvement

Back to Normal?

January 22, 2013 by Admin Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

Yesterday I had the wild thought that now things can settle down to “normal” —whatever that is. We made our way through all the hype at Halloween—candy, costumes and haunted houses— and ate our way through Thanksgiving. Christmas ornaments and talk about boosting the economy with our holiday spending started before the goblins and ghosts put their costumes away and we polished off the last piece of cheap candy. But we made it through Christmas and New Year’s eve, many with every credit card maxed out, wondering how they would ever pay for all that “stuff.”

Yesterday was inauguration and MLK day and I had the wild thought that we would be free from all the media hype for a while.

But I was wrong.

Yesterday, in the midst of the celebrations for President Obama and Martin Luther King, the ads and talk show conversation was about Valentine’s Day and the Superbowl.

The message is buy, buy, buy and spend, spend, spend. (Is the only way to show love these days to buy expensive gifts? Think about it? What happened to kindness and tenderness?)

On one side we have the government telling us to save but pay more taxes. On the other side we having everyone telling us that we absolutely must have whatever it is that they’re selling. Both sides have big price tags attached.

My e-mail overflows with messages of closeout sales, 50% off sales, and going out of business sales. I don’t read them anymore. They fall victim to the delete key.

How much “stuff” do we really need?

I encourage you to consider regaining (or maybe gaining for the first time) balance in your life. Have a family meeting to talk about how you can get your finances, schedules, eating, etc. under control and back into some type of equilibrium. Take a good look at each other. On a scale of 1 – 10 how “frazzled” are you? How concerned are you about all that debt?

One way to stop the hype at your house is to turn off the TV and don’t surf the Net for more “stuff.”

Hmmmm. I like that idea. Where’s the remote?

Filed Under: Featured, Irene's Articles Tagged With: back to normal, credit card debt, holdiay spending

What if you ran your home or business like the politicians run the country?

January 6, 2013 by ireneconlan Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

I received the following in my email this week and, I can tell you, it made me pause and think about it. It made me ask the question, “What if we ran our homes and our businesses like the politicians run our country?” I generally don’t venture into politics on this blog, but I think we all need to reflect on this.

While you’re reading it, consider the fact that now, in Washington, D.C., they talk about TRILLIONS as much as billions. How much is that? Anyway, here is the email in its entirety:

This is too true to be funny.

The next time you hear a politician use the
Word ‘billion’ in a casual manner, think about
whether you want the ‘politicians’ spending
YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend,
But one advertising agency did a good job of
Putting that figure into some perspective in
one of its releases.

A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government
is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain…
let’s take a look at New Orleans …
It’s amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D) was asking Congress for
250 BILLION DOLLARS
To rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number…What does it mean?

Well … If you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans
(every man, woman and child) You each get $516,528

Or… If you have one of the 188,251 homes in
New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.

Or… If you are a family of four…
Your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington , D.C — HELLO!

Are all your calculators broken?

And besides the income tax we pay:
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax (Fed)
Federal Unemployment Tax (FU TA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Tax
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge Taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage ChargeTax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
(And to think, we left British Rule to avoid so many taxes)

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago…
And our nation was the most prosperous in the world.

We had absolutely no national debt…
We had the largest middle class in the world…
And Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened?
Can you spell

‘politicians’!

I hope this goes around the
USA
At least 100 times

What the heck happened?

This is the end of the e-mail. now let me add some questions for you to ponder:

What would happen if you continued to spend more money than you earned? Those who have massive credit card debt know the answer to this.

What if you took someone else’s money to pay your bills without their permission? You would probably go to jail for theft.

What if everyone had their hand in your pocket? How long would the money last?

This year, let’s watch carefully with an open mind to see what’s happening with our money in the hands of the Washington politicians. (Whether they or you are Republicans or Democrats doesn’t enter this picture. Just watch what they do.)

And one last question. How much of the money you earn should you be allowed to keep?

Think about it.

Filed Under: Irene's Articles, Self Improvement Tagged With: billions and trillions, politicians, taxes

Some Self Improvement Thoughts Now That the Holidays Go Into Full Gear

December 2, 2012 by ireneconlan Leave a Comment

One more day of November and the holdiay season is moving into high gear.

Every TV commercial says “Buy, Buy, Buy.” Some even suggest that you get a loan so you can buy those expensive gifts you think each member of your family wants (and needs?) After all, will 5 year old Tommy ever respect you again if you don’t give him his own cell phone with music, video and text messaging? (of course he can’t read or spell but so what?) Will 13 year old Jessica forgive you if she doesn’t receive those $120 designer jeans? Does your wife expect diamonds or your husband expect a Rolex even though you’re on a tight budget? Or, hey, how about having twin Mercedes sitting in the driveway on Christmas morning like the commercials instruct?

Get real.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Irene's Articles, Self Esteem Tagged With: self improvement

Cleaning out the clutter

April 22, 2012 by ireneconlan 3 Comments

By Irene Conlan -

We had a “garage sale” yesterday. Some people call them “yard sales.” We sold neither a garage nor a yard. We don’t even have a garage. In some parts of the country they are “Tag sales” and I doubt if tags are sold. But you know what I’m talking about.

We put out the “stuff” we no longer used, needed or wanted outside in our driveway for other people to look at and determine if they wanted it, needed it or could use it. We had a king size comforter, a wing back chair, the children’s books Jack has outgrown. There was a bowling ball we acquired somehow even though none of us bowl. Some just-like-new ski boots that we couldn’t attach to an owner were in the mix and various kitchen items that we hoped someone else could use – a blender, a Foreman grill and a coffee maker. Office supplies, outgrown toys, some still useable pots and pans, some things we had received and never used (you know the kind of things I mean – stuff that you wouldn’t use in a million years but didn’t think you could “re-gift” either.). Lamps, some tools, tablecloths, and pictures rounded out the mix and before we even got the signs up people were here.

The first person arrived precisely at 6 a.m. (we were planning on 7 a.m.) By 9 a.m. almost everything was gone and when the next person showed up in a very old and shabby van looking for anything they could afford, my son told them to take everything that was left. The man wasobviously overjoyed and they loaded the van and we were all happy about the outcome.

And it was fun. I had a large bag that I used it when my grandson was tiny – it was black and covered with drawings of pink, green, blue and orange cats of all sizes. Garish but wonderful. It served as purse and diaper bag. I don’t need it anymore. The lady who bought it was obviously excited to find it and held on to it like she was afraid someone else would take it first. The purse had a lot of wonderful memories for me and I have an idea that it will be meaningful to her as well. She was shopping for her granddaughter who was moving into her first apartment so she filled the cat-purse up with kitchen utensils and some old silverware. Another one bought a tooled leather purse that I had made in Home-Economics in high school in the fifties. I haven’t used it since then so why was I keeping it? You would think she found the diamonds on the sunken Titanic and she thanked and thanked me for making it available.

It’s a great feeling to get rid of the clutter. The shelves and cabinets now have space and the house both looks and feels better.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could have a sale of old, unneeded, and perhaps overwhelming debilitating negative emotions? If you could, would you sell the ancient festering anger at a discount and maybe even give some bitterness and guilt away for free? What kind of grudges are you holding that clutter up your mind and close your heart? Where do you harbor unforgiveness that takes up so much space?

Take some time do do the inner search for things you no longer need. Old anger, bitterness, guilt, grudges, resentment, regret, et.al. don’t serve you. You can clean house and let it go by intention and by choice. Sometimes you need help to bring it all out and sometimes you need assistance in letting it go. If so, find a therapist or a coach because the payoff is greater than anyone can count and you’ll have new emotional currency available to spend on your own happiness and the welfare of others .

Filed Under: Featured, Irene's Articles

Tiny Puppy, Huge Happiness

March 9, 2012 by ireneconlan Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

Sometimes an innocent trip to the store turns out to be a “game changer.”

Yesterday we made the one mile trip to PetsMart to get food for the frogs. (Yes we have two little spotted frogs which sing to us at night). While my son was getting the food, I looked at the cats for adoption, hoping they would have some kittens. No kittens. So when Chris had the frog food I suggested that we look at the dogs – we haven’t looked for a long time. What was this? We had plans for a new pet but certainly hadn’t talked about it for a while. I only came along for the ride.

We walked into the kennel and there, right in front of us, in the big play area were three of the cutest puppies I have ever seen. Three. Pick One! The attendant took us all – my son, the three puppies and I - into a smaller room with toys and chairs and we played. The dilemma was – which one. Each was adorable. Each was different and each was special. Two were brown and one was white with tan spots. One was smaller, one was prettier and one was a different color. All played. All were loving and friendly. All looked healthy. Could we take all three?

No way. We simply couldn’t handle three at once. Oh, but it was tempting.

We played more.

And then, after lots of play, we held each of them. One was calm. Two were wiggly little guys. We liked calm and the choice was made.

We left with a puppy and a bag of frog food.

It was a wonderful choice. Shadow, the big dog at home, wasn’t too pleased but the puppy settled in like he had always been here. No crying. No whining. (That was a surprise).

Sometimes, things are just meant to be and you are led right to them.

We promised my grandson that we would get a new puppy. He is in California and will be here in three weeks. We had planned to wait until he was here to pick it out but puppies are rarely at PetsMart and this one is exceptional. Jack can name him and we know it will be love at first sight between boy and puppy.

Pets bring so much to people. Read the featured article about pets and happiness. The picture is my son, Shadow the alpha dog and the new puppy. We wouldn’t know what do do without these wonderful friends of ours. It has been hard to cope with not having my grandson here on a daily basis and I know a puppy won’t fill that hole that’s left in our lives. But he certainly brings joy at a time when a “joy boost” is needed. And when my grandson comes at the end of the month, the house will be absolutely overflowing with love, joy and happiness.

Charles Schulz was right when he wrote, “Happiness is a warm puppy!”

Filed Under: Irene's Articles, Self Improvement Tagged With: Happiness, new puppy, pets, Pets for therapy, self improvement

It was me all along!

March 2, 2012 by ireneconlan Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

You may have noticed that The Self Improvement Blog didn’t change for a few days. Usually, I change the main articles everyday – it is my first acts of the day – right after meditation. But on Wednesday everything at the top of the blog was stuck. Yes, stuck. The slider didn’t slide so you couldn’t see the new featured article and the “Self Improvement” articles with the tabs simply were gone. Yikes! What happened?

I immediately reported this to my webmaster son saying “HELP! the blog is stuck!” He took a look at it but his busy day didn’t have time for him to focus on it or do anything with it. It wasn’t a “quick fix.” Thursday a.m. I bugged him again, knowing he was buried in work, but – well, you know. Moms now and then have priority. As he checked it out he updated WordPress- actually, he updated everything in the blog thinking it might be an incompatibility problem with some new software.

No change. It was still stuck.

“I can’t seem to find the problem,” he announced, but I’ll keep looking.” I wanted to have it working by the time the radio show aired because I wanted to refer to it. A half hour before the Self Improvement Show was to start it was fixed. “What on earth was the problem?” I queried.

“It was you,” he said, with a crooked smile on his face.

“What do you mean it was me?”

“Did you delete some videos from the sidebar?” he quizzed?

“Yes,” I responded. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Well it seems it had everything to do with it. I had left a piece of the code to the videos in the sidebar and the computer didn’t know what to do with it so it shut that part of the blog down.

It was me all along. I was the problem.

I thought of Gary Spinell’s book “It Was You All Along.” (A great read, by the way.” I couldn’t get the title out of my mind for the rest of the day. I was me! I messed up my own blog inadvertently while I was trying to make it better. I didn’t know it was me and it caused my son to work half a day to solve a problem I caused in a few seconds. I didn’t even remember doing it until he told me what caused the blog to be stuck

Me. It was me.

Aren’t we the ones who usually set ourselves up for our own mishaps? We forget to call. We procrastinate. We do things we aren’t skilled to do but don’t want to wait for help. We over-schedule and then have to rush to get finished or cut corners or drive too fast. And sometimes we get impatient with those around us who can’t quickly “un-do” the mess we made. We humans are wonderfully complex and sometimes proud creatures who don’t always want to admit that “we did it.”

Taking responsibility for the messes you cause and admitting your shortcomings and glitches doesn’t make you “less than.” It makes you and others realize that you are human.We are not perfect and we aren’t expected to be perfect.

I thank my son for fixing this blog and gently and humorously reminding me that “It was me all along.”

Filed Under: Irene's Articles, Self Improvement Tagged With: it was me all along, self improvement, taking responsibility

I’m a bookaholic!

January 18, 2012 by ireneconlan Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

Hi. My name is Irene and I’m a bookaholic. Yes, I truly am. I can’t get enough of them. I have books secretly stashed in filing cabinets, the top of the piano, the kitchen table, on the floor beside my wingback chair, in the seat of the car and more often than not, in my purse. I sometimes read two or more books at a time – no not simultaneously. You know what I mean. I read a chapter of this one then I pick up another and read a few pages. Somehow I manage to keep them straight in my mind although sometimes I forget where I was and read it again thinking it sounds familiar. I learned to read before I started school and have been a bookaholic ever since.

I love the smell of a library – especially old libraries. There’s nothing else that smells like that –musty old pages mixed with dust and ancient ink. I actually loved the old card catalog and miss being able to browse through the cards as I’d try to find the ones that led me to just the right section and the right shelf that held the books about my subject of interest. Our little town had a very small card catalog section tucked in the side of a small reading room but imagine my excitement when I discovered a room the size of my house filled with those wonderful dog-eared, smudged, worn cards the first time I visited the university library. I was in heaven. Searching on a computer just isn’t the same.

A high point of my college days was getting to study at the Library of Congress where you sit at a carrel in the main reading room, turning in your request for books and having them delivered to your desk. I would have moved in if I could but they don’t take overnight guests there.Working in that magnificent room where so many icons of history had worked was a high for me.

My idea of a good time is sitting in Barnes and Noble with a good cup of coffee looking through the just-published books. .

The point is that I read a lot of books. I know a lot of “stuff.”

But the question is, “Do I have wisdom?” Knowing a lot of facts doesn’t necessarily mean I will make a good decision or take the right path. “Wisdom is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgments and actions in keeping with this understanding.” (Wikipedia)

Wisdom implies intellectual and emotional maturity and an ability to patiently dig beneath the surface to know what is really going on. It is knowing when the time is right to take action rather than impulsively charging forward. It is knowing when to speak and when to be silent, when to help and when to walk away. Some people call wisdom “common sense” but there’s nothing common about it.

In health care it is the difference between knowing the symptoms and knowing what is at the root of the symptoms. An “intelligent” physician or other health care professional will ask the questions about the presenting symptoms and, looking at them all, will make a diagnosis and prescribe a plan of treatment. A “wise” doctor or health care professional will get this same information and then set about discovering what else is going on with the patient. What are the stresses? What’s happening at home? What is the patient’s belief about his own health (For example: Does he believe he will have a heart attack because his father died at this same age from a heart attack? Does she believe she will have breast cancer because her mother and a sister had breast cancer?) Do they have adequate nutrition or do they rely on junk food and fast food from the drive through for their meals? What do they do to relax or do they relax at all? They will want to know if the person feels loved, safe, secure.

So how do we get wisdom? Confucius said, “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”

I’m a bookaholic. I’m not looking for treatment for this condition but I am looking for a wise doctor who reflects before he gets out his prescription pad.

Filed Under: Irene's Articles, Self Improvement Tagged With: books, information, intelligence vs wisdom, self improvement

O.K. Let’s Talk About 2012 and the Mayan Calendar

December 28, 2011 by ireneconlan 1 Comment

By Irene Conlan -

This morning I decided that it’s time to start talking about the new year. I began my search for an article that did that and after slogging through pages and pages of the predictions of doom finally found something worth posting. (see the featured article)

Are we going to do the moaning and worrying, the fretting and the scare mongering that we did for Y2K? Give me a break.

Yes, I’ve read the predictions. I know that an extinct group of people predicted that the world as we know it is ending on December 21, 2012.

We have had quite a number of predictions for the end of the world since I’ve been on planet Earth and, guess what? We’re still here.

I figure that if the world is ending there isn’t a whole lot we can do to stop it but there are two ways to react – two ways to live before that last day arrives.

You can join in the frenzy of negativity and let your negative thinking infect the Universe along with the others who live in fear and cringing. You can spend your days in fearful worrying if you choose to do so. If you believe that your thoughts create then you won’t want to do that. Will your doomsday thinking change anything for the better? Most likely not. The inevitable fact is that someday you are going to die. You know that already. Whether it’s in December 2012 or in April of 2042, it’s still going to happen. The question is, how do you intend to live your life before that day arrives? Do you know what you believe about death and life after death? Maybe it’s time to think it through.

Your other option is to live life as usual with an unusual attitude of love and caring for your fellow human beings. If you think it is the end time, then how do you want to end it? I prefer to think that sending out love, positive thoughts and good deeds would benefit you and others far more than getting caught up in the “Oh, my God, we’re doomed” mentality.

Look around. Who can you help? Who can you comfort? Who needs a friend? Who needs someone to sit and listen.? Who needs an arm around the shoulder? What child needs something to eat, someone to dry her tears, someone to see that she’s safe, warm and clean? What older person, alone and lonely, needs a visit, a hug, a kind word? Who needs a smile, a greeting a pat on the back? You can do any of those things, can’t you?

So if you believe the world is ending, shouldn’t you use that time living? Dance more. Laugh more, Help more, Sing more?

T.S. Elliott in “The Hollow Men” writes, “This is the way the world ends: This is the way the world ends: This is the way the world ends: Not with a bang but a whimper.” I’m sure you’ll hear that a lot this year.

But how you end your sojourn here is your choice. I don’t mean when and I don’t mean by what means. But you have a choice of how you live – with a positive attitude and a loving spirit helping others or hiding in your room under the blankets in fear and whimpering. I don’t live that way now and I don’t intend to live that way in 2012.

We don’t know for sure what will happen within the next five minutes so why should you start worrying about what’s going to happen next December? Is that your idea of living?

It’s not mine. I’m going to get some breakfast and plan some yummy new year’s resolutions to break.

Hey, 2012. Let’s go!

Filed Under: Featured, Irene's Articles Tagged With: 2012, choose how your want to live, end of the world, Mayan calendar, self improvement

This and That About Super Bowl Sunday

If You Need a Laugh

Back to Normal?

What if you ran your home or business like the politicians run the country?

Some Self Improvement Thoughts Now That the Holidays Go Into Full Gear

Cleaning out the clutter

Tiny Puppy, Huge Happiness

It was me all along!

I’m a bookaholic!

O.K. Let’s Talk About 2012 and the Mayan Calendar

The Self Improvement Radio Show

The Self Improvement Show Now on the
VoiceAmerica Empowerment Channel
1 p.m. every Thursday

This week's Show:

Daily Quote; Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Inner Talk

Project Meditation

Honesty: You Better Believe It

NAB “The Honesty Experiments: Incorrect Change” TVC – AdNews

From Kira Newman’s “Favorites” Watch this if you want to smile.

News and Other New Stuff

Free courses from Frontline Learning for the unemployed

Project -Meditation Makes You an Offer You Cannot Refuse

Book Reviews

A review: The Human Magnet Syndrome: Why We Love People Who Hurt Us by Ross Rosenberg

A Review—Manifest Your Bliss: A Spiritual Guide to Inner Peace by Christopher Dines

Irene’s Articles

This and That About Super Bowl Sunday

If You Need a Laugh

The Self Improvement Radio Show

The Self Improvement Show Now on the VoiceAmerica Empowerment Channel 1 p.m. every Thursday

This week's Show:

Daily Quote; Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Inner Talk

Project Meditation

Honesty: You Better Believe It

NAB “The Honesty Experiments: Incorrect Change” TVC – AdNews

From Kira Newman’s “Favorites” Watch this if you want to smile.

News and Other New Stuff

Book Reviews

Irene’s Articles

The Self Improvement Show Now on the
VoiceAmerica Empowerment Channel
1 p.m. every Thursday