Somerset Landscape by Info Somerset

Many people these days are overwhelmed by negativity, lack of motivation, and stress. This is an unhealthy way to live and can create a myriad of problems in your day to day life. It is important to understand that in order to live a balanced life that you be not only physically healthy but mentally healthy too. There are simple steps all of us can take to live a positive mental, spiritual and emotional life. Living a well balanced life is the key to being truly healthy.

Here are ten easy tips to help you get started:

1. Visualize Your Dreams and Goals

Take a few minutes each day to visualize yourself living out your dreams. Create a mental picture of your goals. Seeing yourself already achieving your goals makes the brain believe that it is possible. Doing this is also a fantastic stress reliever.

2. Feed Your Body Well

Good nutrition can help prevent illness and disease. Make sure to have at least 5 serving of fruits and vegetables a day in various colors. Eating different colors will give you a multitude of valuable disease fighting nutrients. Also make sure to drink 8-10 glasses of water a day. Water transports nutrients throughout your body, cleans out your body, and eases digestion.

3. Exercise, Exercise, Exercise

You’ve heard it before but exercise is a critical component to leading a well balanced life. Being physically fit gives you a positive outlook on life and reduces your risk of disease. It doesn’t matter how you get your exercise, it just matters that you get it on a regular basis. Make exercise a priority in your life!

4. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

It is important to step out of your comfort zone once in awhile. This will help you achieve personal growth and confidence. Face something you wouldn’t normally do and you just may surprise yourself and give your self confidence a boost at the same time.

5. Live in the Present

Force yourself to let go of the past and not to worry about the future. Live for today! Look at your life as it is right now and count your blessings. Enjoy today as it won’t be here tomorrow.

6. Live by the Golden Rule

We all know the golden rule is to “treat others how you yourself wish to be treated” but how many of us actually live this way? Make a conscious effort to treat others well and to be understanding of other peoples feelings. The world would be a much better place if we all lived by this simple rule.

7. Have Integrity

This tip is as simple as this: Be who you really are. Live your life according to your own beliefs and you will have peace and harmony in life. Don’t let others convince you to be someone you are not. Be true to yourself.

8. Expect the Unexpected

Learn how to deal with the small misfortunes that are inevitable in life. Don’t let yourself get stressed and upset over things you have no control over. There will always be traffic, computers crash, kids get sick, etc. Accept and realize that anything can happen and learn how to adjust your game plan.

9. Know Your Priorities

Focus your energies on what is most important to you at the current stage in your life. Don’t overwhelm yourself with too many major projects at one time. Trying to do everything at once is a recipe for disaster.

10. Always Maintain a Positive Mental Attitude

As you begin each day, have the intention of making the best of it. Count your blessings and look for the good in your life every single day. Train yourself not to let things get to you. Realize that once you’ve done everything in your control it is time to let your life unfold.

If you are interested in writing for Kikolani.com, please visit the guest post opportunities page for more details, and contact form.

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I’ve decided to veer off the techie side for this week (until tomorrow’s Fetching Friday, of course). It’s been an emotional week, and one during which I have made some interesting self-discoveries.

The biggest one that I have been learning over the past few months is that nice doesn’t cut it when it comes to getting what you want, and in some cases, deserve. I’ve always been one to be as nice as much as possible when it comes to dealing with other people. I let things slide, I take their feelings into account before my own, I don’t get upset at the people I should get upset at, so on and so forth.

But there have been situations recently that have really required me going against my nature and stepping into the “dark side” as I would like to call it. When you can’t get things done being nice, it is time to start putting your foot down.

Executive Email Carpet Bomb

My first real experience of not playing nice was with a particular financial institution. I have gotten fees that I thought were unfair, and have called in, and let the customer service rep explain their “reasoning” and not pushed it any further, assuming that if they say no, there is nothing more I could do about it. Then one day, I got fees that there was no good explanation for. The customer service rep, as always, told me how “their” system works and why the fees were non-reversible.

So, because customer service was not understanding my point, I took it a step further and sent what is known as an executive email carpet bomb. In this letter, I explained why their system sucked, why I deserved to have the fees reversed, and exactly what I would do if I didn’t receive appropriate resolution, which not only included leaving their institution, but also making sure that they’re name was attached to some detailed articles all around the web about all the reasons of why I left. I also threw in my SEO skills, so that it would be clear that those articles would be found by their potential customers.

The result? I got a call the next business day from the assistant to one of the many upper level executives that received my email. She was actually really nice (nothing like the customer service reps had been) and talked to me for almost an hour, explaining how their system works and how the fees happened. But she also listened to my side and understood why I saw the fees as undeserved. My fees were credited the next day.

Trading Services

A pet peeve that has arose as a result of my freelance work is trading services vs. direct payment. If you go in, and get something done, and you pay for it, then it is done. Whereas, if you are trading services where I do this work for you, and you will do some service in exchange for it, you are stuck in a position where you feel like you owe something to them. I don’t like this feeling. There has to be balance.

When we’re having a meeting about the work I am doing for you, I don’t expect to take the hour we have set aside for that meeting to talk about the service you are doing for me. Just the same, when I come in for the service you are doing for me, I don’t want to talk about the work I’m doing for you. Depending on the service, it can put a real negative energy on the situation, making the service become less beneficial, and not really worth the exchange. There has to be a line, saying this is an appointment where we discuss my work for you, and that is an appointment where we discuss the service I am receiving from you. The two should not mix.

Also, if I am able to pay you for something, let me pay you. Don’t reject my money with the “understanding” that I now owe you something later, whatever that may be. Take the cash or do it for free. Your choice. I don’t want to feel obligated to doing some random thing for you down the road that will ultimately end up costing more in time and resources than what you did for me. You doing something for me that takes 10 minutes does not equate to me doing something for you that takes half an hour, two hours, etc. It seems relatively obvious that half an hour of my time is worth more than ten minutes of yours. It’s like you giving me a $10 gift card, with expectation that I will pay you $30 later. No matter how nice you are, you are still taking advantage of me, and I don’t appreciate it.

Putting My Feelings First

This part is a work in progress. A lot of the times, I will do things I don’t want to do, or not do things I want to do, all because I am considering someone else’s feelings before my own. After a nice, long writing session, I realized that approach was not working for me, as I have been missing out on things that I truly wanted to do. So now, I am working towards saying you know what, I want to do this. I’m not going to put it off or wait till later. Or, alternatively, I don’t want to do this, as in, it takes every bit of my emotional and mental stamina to survive this particular event. Why should I put myself through that kind of torture?

Considering the Best Approach

While the above situations have required or will require me to take the not nice as I generally am route, every situation really requires a lot of contemplation of what approach to use in order to get the best results.

• Will putting your foot down help the other party see your point of view?
• Will explaining your side of things make you feel better about the situation?
• Is it possible that positive change could happen?
• Is the person you are about to make your stand against responsible for the problem?
• Will taking a stand worsen the situation?
• Is there any form of retribution the other party may be able to take against you if things should go badly?

There are lots of considerations to make before choosing to make a stand, or standing down. Just be sure that you are doing what is in your best interest, as you are the one who has to live with the circumstances.

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I have seen this question posed on several other sites recently, mostly related to blogging success. So I wonder, in life, how do we define success?

It seems like, both in blogging and in life, people define success by numbers. As a blogger, the success is determined by the number of visitors per day, the dollar amount they can sell their ads, and the amount of diggs or tweets their posts received. As an author, the success is determined by how many books are sold, the number of positive reviews by large newspapers and magazines, and the number of movie offers that are made for their book. As a lawyer, the success is determined by the number of cases won and the dollar amount of settlement that is gained for their clients. As a family’s provider, the success is determined by the dollar amount of the salary he or she brings home, the dollar value of the home in which they live, and the amount of cars in their driveway.

But is that a real measure of success? Shouldn’t there be other things that determine if one is successful? Wouldn’t the quality of lives be different if there were other measures of success?

If we still want to focus on numbers, how about numbers like these. For the blogger, maybe the success should be determined by number of people who found the article valuable – who found something they were able to apply to some aspect of their work or their life. For the author, maybe the success should be determined by the number of people who were touched by the story, or whose lives changed after reading it for the better. For the lawyer, maybe the success should be determined by the people whose lives were helped, either by having a criminal taken off of the streets so they could not harm others, or because a settlement was won where the client not only desperately needed, but deserved the money – not something to make them millionaires, but something that covered what needed to be covered. For a family’s provider, maybe the success should be determined by the number of hours they are able to spend each day strengthening their relationships and their family bond.

And what about an individual’s success? Is it really about the things that can be bragged about, the amount of money that is made, the number of things owned, or the number of grandiose, external achievements? Maybe an individual’s success is more within. Maybe it is simply discovering more about themselves, who they are, who they want to be. Maybe it is by finding peace in life, and then leading by example and spreading that peace to others around them. Maybe it is supporting those around them to help them achieve the things that they want. Maybe it is a ton of other wonderful accomplishments – some great, some small – that not everyone can see, but for those who can, it defines them as a successful, amazing individual.

Maybe our definitions of success should be re-evaluated. Maybe we should be proud of everyone in our lives, whether their successes are obvious or not. Maybe what we do not realize is that, because of our individual ideals of success, we do not show those around us that we value them for who they are, instead of for what they accomplish.

That being said, what is your definition success? Do you show others that you value them, appreciate them, and are proud of them, despite what you may or may not think they are accomplishing?

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Is it possible to discover yourself through blogging? To find something you love to do, to strengthen current interests, and to learn new things?

Photo by Dabawenya

For me, writing has always been a private way to discovering things about myself. If I’m overly emotional about something, I tend to write in a stream of conscious, unorganized way to let my subconscious thoughts come out. Most of the time, I am able to get to the reason I feel a certain way about something, and sometimes, the reason is well off the mark of what I was expecting.

When I started the site, I did it with the intention of sharing poetry, photography and exploring the artistic temperament. After a several months, I found myself writing motivational articles, blogging tips, details about dreams, and more.

What I have come to realize is that I simply love writing. Not just the stuff I do for myself, but also writing for an audience. And where can you find a larger audience than on ht internet? One of the things I think is wonderful about the internet, social media, and blogging is that it gives everyone a chance to share their knowledge and experiences with others, in hopes that somewhere, someone will be affected in a positive way.

Blogging has strengthened a lot of my interests. My photography, for example, has developed (no pun intended) significantly since I began to share it on this site. Not only do I receive great tips from readers in the comments, but I find myself experimenting with new techniques, eager to share something different with everyone who visits this site. Even if it is just one page through a Google search about hummingbirds.

I believe that, if you have an interest or hobby, you should try blogging about it. You may find it will drive you to develop it even more, so you are able to share more with the community and get amazing feedback into ways to further improve your skills.

Blogging has also reminded me how much I love to learn new things. Whether it is ways to embrace living, the path to enlightenment, research in psychology, great places to travel, coding tricks and plug-ins to improve site functionality and design, or best social media practices, I just enjoy going out and finding new information to absorb and apply. The blogging world is filled with so many sources of information from everywhere around the world – there is never a day that goes by when new information is not written about and waiting to be stumbled upon.

If you are a blogger, have you discovered anything about yourself through blogging? If you are not a blogger, do you think that starting a blog may help you develop yourself or your interests?

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When most of us think of something beautiful, we think of using our sense of sight. But what are the other ways we can appreciate a thing of beauty?

Of course, we can appreciate beautiful things with our eyes, whether we are looking at people, nature, etc. But what can we do beyond that?

Let’s start with the sense of smell. Think about looking at a flower. Instead of just seeing the depth of the red rose, get closer and breathe in its fragrance. If you are standing near the top of a mountain, take in the view while absorbing the fresh air. When you are close to someone, pay attention to their scent, that particular fragrance or cologne, or just that aroma that is unique to them.

Then there is the sense of hearing. In the outdoors, you can hear wind rustling the leaves, water trickling down a stream, birds singing, and many other sounds of nature. Relax by listening to gentle music, or the beautiful voice of a great singer. Go beyond the looks of a person, and listen to what they say about their beliefs, and their dreams.

With the sense of touch, you can feel a rose’s delicate petals, the softness of a dandelion’s seed head, and the warmth of a loved one’s embrace.

With the last sense, the sense of taste, you can taste the kiss of true love, probably one of the most beautiful use of the that sense. You can create a visually appealing meal and slowly savor every bite. You can appreciate the work that went into a honeycomb, and taste the honey from it.

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Whenever you apply any of your senses to appreciate something beautiful, you also have the opportunity to let the beauty affect you deeply. Standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, you can not only marvel it’s greatness in size, feel the winds on your skin, breathe in the fresh air, and hear the sounds of people voicing their awe. You can let one of nature’s greatest wonders take your breath away.

When you look at a stunning piece of art, you can go beyond visual appreciation by contemplating what the artist may have been inspired by, and what feelings the work evokes within you.

One of the most common ways beauty is shared with others, especially in the internet world, is through photographs. How can you help others truly appreciate a photo more than aesthetically? Use of present tense details, such as the weather conditions, the sounds around you, the way you felt when taking the photo, what inspired you to taking it, and how it made you feel when looking at it later would help those looking at it go into the moment with you, the photographer.

Finally, it is always important to remember that there is a beauty that lies with all of us. We do not have to always be looking towards others, or traveling to far away places to find something beautiful. There is something that makes each of us unique, and that is beautiful in itself. Find that beauty, and share it with the world. Encourage others to find what is beautiful in themselves.

And now I ask you… how do you appreciate beauty?

A special thanks to one of my readers, PeaceLoveJoyBliss, for the intriguing question that inspired this post.

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I believe that artistic types of people show their true selves, deepest thoughts, strongest emotions and even pieces of their subconscious through their form of art. Writers share imaginative and wonderful stories, or release demons that torment them by putting words to a page. Painters project the beautiful scenes in their mind or around them, or the dark images that disturb them in their dreams, onto canvas using brushes covered in oils, pastels or watercolors.

As much as I hate to admit it, this realization came to me one evening this past April while watching an episode of the Bachelor. In that episode, there was this girl, a songwriter, fighting for the affections of this guy while competing with several other girls. When the bachelor asked her directly about her feelings for him, she came off almost kind of ditzy while trying to explain, which ultimately led her to not receiving a rose. What she was able to do, prior to leaving the show, was write a song that was much more expressive of how she felt.

I could relate to her in the sense that I have found myself in many situations where I just cannot get the right words out to explain how I feel. Especially if the feeling is extremely strong. But what I can do is express myself in my writing, particularly through my poetry. I have notebooks and scraps of paper galore with examples of these kind of emotional poetic expressions covering a range of subjects. For this post, I will go back to poems I have shared previously.

The happiest one was written shortly before my fiancé told me he loved me. My first reaction when he did was to giggle. Of course, I said I love you too once the initial jubilation had calmed down. But I could not directly say how much I had wanted to hear those words from him. Instead, I shared with him a poem I had written about how I felt, Candlelight. That, along with a song that was perfect for the situation, expressed everything I could not find the words to say.

The second example was a piece I wrote about my grandmother. She is currently residing in a nursing home. When people ask me how she is, or how I feel in regards to her condition, I usually cannot express the depth of it. The sorrow of watching someone you love suffer, and know there is nothing you can do to help. Finally, I was able to write this, Slow Mourning. It helped unburden the sadness that had been building up inside me over the past year while watching her health slowly and painfully decline.

So here are my suggestions to you. If you know someone who writes songs or poetry, or paints, take the time to let them share their art with you. Chances are, you will learn so much more about them than they will every be able to say. If you are the artist, it does not matter how perfect your artwork is. When you find yourself in a place that you cannot say what you feel, try expressing it artistically, and then share it with the person you want to tell. This may open the door to much deeper, understanding relationships.

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Empathy is a beautiful thing. I have always embraced the fact that I am able somewhat understand another person must be feeling in situations that I may not have experience with myself. And even if I do have experience with something similar, I am able to realize that I cannot fully understand what they are going through, as everyone’s emotions and reactions to situations are unique. But with empathy, I am able to at least be able to put myself in their place enough to help them get to the root of the thing troubling them.

The downside to this quality, for me, is that I have also become an emotional sponge. What others feel, I begin to feel as well. I absorb emotional energy of all types. Whenever the person I am with is openly feeling blue, I become blue myself, but at least in that circumstance, I know that the source is external instead of internal.

Some people, however, have the ability to mask their feelings on the surface and portray themselves as being stronger, happier, braver, etc. than they really are. I am, of course, one of those people who will hold something in until it bursts. It is not intentional, but just a natural reaction within some people. Especially with an empathetic person who feels their problems will be a burden on others. But other people conceal their feelings, it somewhat jams my radar. Instead of absorbing their emotion and knowing its source, I feel it and take it on as my own.

It takes a bit of time, but eventually I am able to identify it as not coming from within myself, and then am able to hone on the source. Ultimately, my empathetic side is not satisfied until some form of good takes place, in the form of helping identify a problem and find ways towards a solution. It is this drive that makes me so sensitive to others’ feelings.

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Do you notice little coincidences? Perhaps think they are a sign?

Last night, my fiancé told me about making a wish when the time is 11:11. I had never heard of this before. Then this morning, while surfing the Postsecret blog, I saw this:

It reminded me of how the universe gives us little hints or nudges in the right direction if we are aware of the little things in life. Two examples of how this worked in my life include:

• Driving the same style vehicle, liking water at room temperature, and several other similar details led to knowing I found my soulmate.
• Seeing a pharmacy worker with the same name of an old friend from many, many years ago led me to looking her up online. Sure enough, I found her, and now we talk often.

So my challenge to you: when you stumble upon a coincidence, give it a little thought. You never know what it could lead to!

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This weekend, my fiancé and I began working on packing up my apartment so we could fully be moved in together, and finally stop paying double in rent, since we have been living with each other for the last 2 and a half months anyway.

I have been dreading the packing process, because of my past moving experiences, including the bad scenarios that led up to a lot of my moves, having a Uhaul catch on fire, losing all of my journals from through high school (because I had a stack of boxes that were trash, and a stack that needed to go in the truck, and my helpers threw away both stacks), and having a super rushed, messy packing process the last time I moved, although the move itself was ultimately the best thing I ever did, considering it’s how I met my fiancé!

He, on the other hand, has had nothing but good experiences moving, and he made our first day of packing very fun. I really should not have expected less, considering how wonderfully we get along – he even makes days where I have migraines a treat with his pampering techniques.

So the moral of the story for me is that I have to let go of past experiences, and look at new ones with an open mind. I have been applying that in many other areas, but I still come across situations that I have to remind myself that history does not always have to repeat itself – especially under better circumstances and with the right people around.

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One of the many wonderful things I am taking away from the Intentional Achievements class is becoming more aware of myself. Really noticing the ways I react to things, and then taking the time to analyze them and determine why I react. Then with that knowledge, figuring out how to change my perspective.

For example, two things I thought of during class last night (that I also shared with my fiancé over a yummy warm, cast iron baked cookie) were the following:

What: Nervousness to talk in groups.
Why: Fear of being either ignored, or considered silly to stupid for my thoughts.
Change/Result: Once I let go of worrying about what others think, I was able to speak up louder (taking care of any chance of being ignored) and really share my thoughts. Not only that, but I found that I do have something interesting and intelligent to add to many conversations.

What: Censoring myself when talking to people, even with those I should trust.
Why: Sharing things with others in the past have cruel judgment, being viewed from that point on in a negative way, etc.
Change/Result: I have learned that with the right person, there will not be negative reprocations. The right person is someone who is truly loving, supportive, open minded, and trustworthy. When I let go and shared things in my past, not only was I not judged, but I was admired more for my ability to realize problems and implement change. That, in turn, made me feel much stronger than I ever have before.

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