Tuesday, November 13, 2012

50 amazing quotes

From the streets of San Diego.
From the streets of San Diego.
I love quotes!  These quotes inspire me on my hitchhiking journey around the USA to keep my spirits up and keep going after what I want in life.  If you like these, please pass this along to others.  Or if you have a quote to add, please do so by commenting on this post.  Pass along the goodness of People!
Top 50 Most Inspiring Quotes Ever: 
50.  “If you don’t know your purpose, discover it, now.
The core of your life is your purpose. Everything in your life, from your diet to your career, must be aligned with your purpose if you are to act with coherence and integrity in the world. If you know your purpose, your deepest desire, then the secret of success is to discipline your life so that you support your deepest purpose and minimize distractions and detours.” – David Deida
49.  “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.  The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
48. “There is nothing more genuine than breaking away from the chorus to learn the sound of your own voice. – Po Bronson
47. “With realization of one’s own potential and self-confidence in one’s ability, one can build a better world.” - Dalai Lama
46. “This world is but a canvas to our imagination. Henry David Thoreau
45.  “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank
44. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama
43. “When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.” – Peace Pilgrim
42. “Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.” - Albert Einstein
41. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie
40. “The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.” -Charles Dubois
39. “You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are!” – Eckhart Tolle
38. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” – Harriet Tubman
37. “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.“ – Leo Tolstoy
36. “We are all functioning at a small fraction of our ca pacity to live fully in its total meaning of loving, caring, creating and adventuring. Consequently, the actual izing of our potential can become the most exciting adventure of our lifetime.” – Herbert Ottto
35. “If you don’t like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it You just do it one step at a time.” - Marian Wright Edelman
34.  ”Whoever is happy will make others happy, too. – Mark Twain
33. “You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. – Christopher Columbus
32.  “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.” - Ambrose Redmoon
31. “A genuine odyssey is not about piling up experiences. It is a deeply felt, risky, unpredictable tour of the soul. “ - Thomas Moore
30. “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.“  -Confucius
29. “Find yourself and express yourself in your own particular way. Express your love openly. Life is nothing but a dream, and if you create your life with love, your dream becomes a masterpiece of art.” – Don Miguel Ruiz
28. “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes. – Marcel Proust
27. “Today you are YOU, that is truer than true.  There is no one alive that is Youer than You.”-Dr. Seuss
26. “May you live all the days of your life.” – Jonathan Swift
25.  “Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. That’s why people are so cynical about it. . . . It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.” - Erica Jong
24.  “Use what talents you possess, the woods will be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.” – Henry Van Dyke
23.  “You, as much as anyone in the universe, deserve your love and respect.” – Buddha
22. “Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drowned your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what yo truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. – Steve Jobs
21. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we took so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” - Helen Keller
20.  ”Work like you don’t need money, love like you’ve never been hurt, and dance like no one’s watching.“ – Unknown
19.  ”Love is always bestowed as a gift – freely, willingly, and without expectation.  We don’t love to be loved; we love to love.” - Leo Buscaglia 
18. “The Eskimos had 52 names for snow because it was important to them; there ought to be as many for love.” – Margaret Atwood
17.  “Whenever you do a thing, though it can be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.“ – Thomas Jefferson
16. “You are what you think about all day long. – Dr. Robert Schuller
15. “The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy.” – Malcolm Forbes
14. “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” -Jawaharial Nehru
13. “Once in awhile it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way that they have been told to.” – Alan Keightley
12. “Man often becomes what he believes himself to be.  If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it.  On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” -Mahatma Gandhi
11. “What I am actually saying is that we need to be willing to let our intuition guide us, and then be willing to follow that guidance directly and fearlessly.” -Shakti Gawain 
10. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.“ – Mark Twain
9. “You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” - Zig Ziglar
8. “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who are alive. – Howard Thurman
7. “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.  Happiness never decreases by being shared.” – Buddha
6. “A journey is best measured in friends and not miles.” – Tim Cahill
5. “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.“ – Martin Luther King Jr. 
4. “Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight.  Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward.  Your life will never be the same again.” -Og Mandino 
3. “Spread love everywhere you go.  Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” – Mother Teresa 
2. “Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it’s at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored.” – Earl Nightengale
1. “The most important thing is to be whatever you are without shame.” – Rod Steiger
***
Create Our World.

http://www.createourworld.net/2010/02/15/top-50-most-inspiring-quotes-ever/

Monday, November 12, 2012

5 regrets of the dying...


For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives.

People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learnt never to underestimate someone's capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.

When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:


1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.

It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.


2. I wish I didn't work so hard.

This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.

By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.


3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.

We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.


4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.


5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called 'comfort' of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.

When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.


Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Based on this article, Bronnie has now released a full length book titled The Top Five Regrets of the Dying - A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing. It is a memoir of her own life and how it was transformed through the regrets of the dying people she cared for. This inspiring book is available internationally through Hay House.
http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html