Medicine To My Anxious Heart

Last week, a letter had put so much trouble and anxiousness to my heart.  I felt helpless and I was slowly being dragged to darkness. But I knew better already than to sulk in tears and have a pity party inside me.  I prayed to God in Jesus name and His promise came to my heart:

Hebrews 13:5

..... Never will I leave you;

          never will I forsake you.

Hebrews 13:6

So we say with confidence,

   " The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

      What man can do to me?"

As I keep on saying these words in my mind,  the amazing thing happened.  My heart grew calm and peaceful.  God is really faithful, and I have learned to trust in Him, and surrender in His will.  My God is bigger than my problems. 

I praise God for his faithfulness and mercy through His Son, my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

In His Presence Day 2

What truth I have learned:

• Understand the God is in control.  If we want to have calm within, cease striving from the worries, anxieties and frustrations inside.  
• Spend time listening to God through his Word.  
• Nourish our soul.  Feed the one that tells us to please God.
• Surrendering to the Lord is not about giving up, but giving in to His love, grace, destiny, blessings.
• The deepest cry of the soul is REST.  The deepest longing of the soul is PURPOSE.  The greatest need of the soul is RE-ALIGNMENT.

I am blessed to once again learn from His words.  I am a living testimony of how God's grace and love can calm your heart amidst all the trials and hardships of life.  

God bless us all! 

FUEL: Attitude

I am currently reading our latest book program FUEL The Energy You Need To Succeed by Wes Beavis. I haven't gotten halfway through the book but I am definitely learning a lot already. The books talks about the "fuels" that we need in order to have the energy needed as we travel our way to success. Let me share some lines that I highlighted as I go along and maybe share some thoughts and experiences.

You see, I always thought before that I already got what it takes to succeed in life. And I always believed I was taking the right path. Until halfway through it, I realized how sick and tired and unhappy I was. I knew right there and then that something was wrong. I was looking. I knew deep inside that life is much more than working your way up in your career and sacrificing time for your self, family, your passion and the things that you most care about.

Something came that opened my eyes to a whole new definition of life and success. And it was a confirmation of what I was feeling that something was wrong. I was put into a new perspective and it got me really excited and looking forward to every day.

Success for me is being able to get or reach all your dreams... the things that you ache about... those burning desires. But success, as most always tell me, is not an immediate realization of the dream... it is a progressive realization of the dream. There is a journey involve, and in it comes bumpy rides. Now, what you need to prepare for the journey is "fuel" that you will use to be able to travel your way to success.

A positive ATTITUDE can change your circumstances to be more favorable for you.

Attitude is our emotional response on situations and circumstances. We can either respond positively or negatively. However we choose, it creates a change in the atmosphere. But positive attitude creates a favorable outcome for us. Before I committed myself on personal growth, I got the worst attitude. Short tempered, whiner,impatient... I can hurl criticisms anytime, anywhere. I was a perfectionist and I always thought that no once can do better than me. My ego.. my pride was so high that I needed no one. I thought I was just being strong and independent. Until I started to build myself, I realized I was nowhere near the qualities of a great person!

Fine tuning my attitude was a bumpy ride for me. Until now, I am still a work in progress. There are still times when I am faced with difficult situations or people that I am tempted to respond negatively: like hurl back negative words, criticize, bring down the person or get defensive and never admit that I did wrong too. But I am learning to become positive. When I feel like going to the other side of the fence, I read books on attitude, listen to empowering CD's or just think of good things. And now I practice to see the other side of whatever situation I am in. I learn to get out of myself and put it in the other person's shoes. Then I ask myself, will I react the way he did I am in the same shoes? At times, I look at the brighter side of things. I try to see the positive things that came out from the bad situation. It helps also to be counting the things I should be grateful for. Like the other day when I was stuck in the rain and I was running late because of our shuttle driver's dilly dallying. I can choose to pour out my anger to the person but I thought, will it make any difference at all? And what good will that make? I just might be actually hurting the person and in turn lose his respect. And i just decided, I'd better be giving time allowance for such incident next time so I won't run late again.

You see, we have a choice on how we react to situations. It is just a matter of posing for a while and checking if it will do any good if I do this or do the other way.

If you have hot buttons which "set you off" work out a mental strategy ahead of time for how to maintain calmness when one of those buttons is pushed.

One of my hot buttons is CRITICISM. I don't take criticism positively. It sets me off so much that I react negatively in an instant! But I am doing a mental strategy now wherein I pose... then reassure myself that such criticism will not make me less of a person I am now. That I should treat those words as a way for me to identify things that I should be working on within me that will make me a better person.

Bottomline is, we can choose our ATTITUDE. And with it comes our action to know what is a good attitude and what is a bad attitude.

:-)

Deeper Meaning of Success

No outside success can compensate for failure in the home.

- David O. McKay

I always thought success is climbing up the corporate ladder. And I can't blame myself of thinking so because I was raised with the belief that for me to be successful, I needed to study hard and graduate from college and then get employed by a good company and work my way up. And I did just that. Only to find out that life on career top is never as glorious and satisfying as I thought it would be. The title and the pay can never compensate the stress and sacrifices you have to make.

I became frustrated. I had no way out. What had broke my heart more is the fact that the sacrifice included the time with my then barely one year old son and my husband. My work became a priority... the sad thing is it was a choice I made... involuntarily. As much as I want to enjoy the money, the power and the glory - I was not happy nor satisfied at all. I longed more to become a better mother to my son and a better wife to my husband. I knew i was looking for a deeper meaning of success.. a deeper purpose.

An opportunity came. It was a blessing. And I realized I already have a choice.

I chose to become the best mom and wife. And many questioned the decision I made.

It was the right decision. Soon they will understand.

:-)

Share the wisdom

Eversince, I am really into reading- whether it be books, magazines, flyers etc. You can call me a geek, nerd or whatever but I really believe it is in reading where you grow on thoughts and wisdom. Many successful people give credit on reading good books and features as part of their success habits.

That is why when we learned of the education system being part of the business we are currently growing- I was hooked! The recommended books are really really great and associating ourselves with successful people had grown us, and had helped us develop the same way thinking as they are.

And so I vowed today to share a part, if not the whole, of the knowledge, principles and wisdom I got from all those books I've read. It may or may not help each one of you, but the SHARING of it will mean a lot to me.

And it will also be a great journey to me, having to emphasize such gift of wisdom and knowledge, applying them to my everyday life and activities.

“The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them” - Mark Twain

:-)

Recent Week

Got this allergy attack for 6 days already but I am feeling better now. This is what I hate the most when June is kicking in coz this is also the time when my most hated allergic rhinitis starts to pay a visit. Antihistamines surely kills my day.

So what happened over the weekend?

**Almost every one I know has gone crazy over Hayden Kho's sex videos. Ask if they have a copy and they surely have- in their PSP's, cellphones, laptops and USB. Then they talked about who's really the victim over the whole mess. Here's my thought: Hayden Kho doing a video of his sexcapades is not really abnormal. Coz if it is then I think a lot of our male population are abnormals, right? Cut the crap of claiming saint. The wrong thing about it, though, is its release to the whole populace. That was supposed to be for personal viewing of the owner. But nonetheless, I pity the women (Katrina Halili, Maricar Reyes and the unnamed Brazilian model) in the movie clip. I am sure they are soooo embarassed and traumatized by its release.

**I presented the business plan Saturday night at our business partner's place. Almost all his guest were his co-borders in the second floor. Watching them kidding around and throwing funny comments on each other reminded me of my "ladies dorm days" during college. I remember wishing I had my own place then, but the fun, nightly girl talk and gossip and the many shoulders to cry on, made me think otherwise. It was a good 4 years stay- I learned a lot.

**I am getting hooked with Twitter! I surely love following updates from people I am interested in- Ryan Seacrest, Brian Gorrell, Jordin Sparks, Larry King and many others. I just wish though that friends will start twitting too. It would be lots of fun!! To all my friends: register now and follow me - http://twitter.com/m_gracebel :-)

**Read in the net about Hayden Kho's mother accusing Katrina of luring his son to use drugs. Now the PDEA is already in picture. This sure is getting uglier every second!

**Hope I'd be able to update often. Been busy with work and our business. Will post some thoughts soon.

:-)

Busy

I have not uploaded the part 2 of Ilocos trip yet. I was so busy. Last May 1, we were off again to Tarlac for Miggy's bday party at our in-laws house the next day. We left few minutes after the party coz I needed to do some work in the office the following day.

And I became really busy....

You see, when Miguel came to us, my perspective, my priority changed. I knew I was not after a career anymore. What I really wanted was to take care of my husband and son and still have the lifestyle I want and the money to spent.

And deep inside me, I was looking for options. Glad to have found it though.

I can't imagine myself being this busy at work until age 65 when I have the choice to spend such time taking care of my loved ones.

I am smiling now... I can see the future ahead of me. And it's gonna be one hell of an exciting life!

Attitude Kicker

1. FEED YOUR MIND WITH POSITIVE MATERIALS.

2. FLUSH OFF NEGATIVE STUFF THAT COMES INTO YOUR MIND.

3. USE UPLIFTING, EMPOWERING WORDS WHEN TALKING TO YOUR SELF.

4. SING LIKE A ROCKSTAR.

5. EXERCISE, EAT HEALTHY AND RIGHT, REST UP.

6. BEWARE OF TOXIC ATTITUDES (NEGATIVE PEOPLE)

7. GET REAL.


Got the these again from Sam Glenn's A Kick in the Attitude. I already typed and printed this in a small paper and it is now conveniently posted in my monitor. Well this is such a good guide for me on checking if am doing things that would improve my attitude.

Thermostat or Thermometer?

Are you a thermostat or a thermometer?

I'm currently reading Sam Glenn's A KICK IN THE ATTITUDE and this line really caught me. This book is part of our Continuing Education Program (CEP) in Network 21 for January. The book is a great read! It talks about why, when everyone knows that the right attitude can bring you success in life, and yet not everyone is successful?

So, am I a thermostat or a thermometer?

As we all know, thermostat controls the temperature of a room, while a thermometer goes with the temperature. In life, we have freedom to choose if we are going to take control of our life or just let anyone or anything control us. I must admit that there are times when I have so many excuses. You see, I have so many things I want in life, especially those for my son, husband and my family. So many dreams that there was a time when I already gave up thinking about them because I thought I was not born privileged enough to get such. I was allowing my present circumstances to control me, kill my dreams and dictate my life.

I was a thermometer once.

But I am glad I met special people who taught me how to be a thermostat. I am blessed to be part of an environment who encourages people to dream big and make it happen. I am now on my way to the realization of my dreams. And I am happy Vergil and I chose to follow the road less travelled.