Essays & Quotes
for the mind and spirit

"I think maybe needy people are just people who don't feel needed.  Well, I say to you:  Feel needed.  Feel needed because you are."  Daniel Quinn

WORDS TO SUCCEED BY:

"To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends:
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded."

Written by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ten Laws of Well-Being

1. WELCOME
2. ENGAGE
3. LEARN
4. LAUGH
5. BE
6. EXPRESS
7. INVENT
8. NURTURE
9. GIVE AND
10. LOVE

1. Welcome

Welcome every day that you possibly can as a gift. Take time to appreciate the vast and varied pleasures which make up your life – warm drinks, sunshine, music, the face of a loved one, flowers, inviting scents, a loving touch, a gentle breeze… Take a few moments to breathe deeply and to experience gratitude. Acknowledge the lessons in even painful experiences - for they are often our most powerful teachers.

2. Engage

Engage in activities that foster emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. Too often we allow ourselves to get so caught up in the details that we fail to provide ourselves with the necessary ingredients that make up a balanced and meaningful life. When we deprive ourselves of what we truly need, it’s easy to begin to perceive life as a struggle rather than a precious journey.

Engage in meaningful contact with others, engage in the moment, and engage all your senses. To engage is to promise, promise yourself the gift of your life.

3. Learn

Life consists of one lesson after another. Pay attention to them when they present themselves, even when it hurts. When we learn - we deepen and empower ourselves, and we expand our horizons. Learning diminishes limits and widens our trail. In general, those who live to learn - live longest.

4. Laugh

Laugh often and loudly. Laughter improves the immune system, relieves stress and lightens burdens.

5. Be

Be where you are this minute, not lost in tomorrow or yesterday. While plans and goals can be important; and reflection may offer wisdom, it’s the now that guarantees - only the now that pledges itself to you. The past has left you, the future eludes you, yet the now enfolds you. Embrace it. You’re already in its arms, allow it to cradle you.

6. Express

Express yourself. You’re unique, imperfect, wonderful, complicated, and evolving. Allow yourself to be who you are even as you work to grow and change. Don’t hide yourself away. Share your feelings and dreams with those who are trustworthy. There’s so much of you – plenty to go around, and like all that exists in abundance, if it’s not shared, it wastes away.

7. Invent

Life is perhaps the most magical when we choose to create. Create as many meaningful experiences as possible, look at the world with your own unique eyes, recognize and accept your ability and responsibility to shape moments, days - your life. Invent and reinvent your life story – it belongs solely to you, enliven it with spirit.

8. Nurture

Nurture your body, your mind, and your soul. Don’t starve them or pollute them. Acknowledge that inside of you there exists an unimaginable world, filled with mystery and magic, one that’s vast and complex, magnificent and yet vulnerable. You are truly a work of art, a miracle, honor the world which is you.

9. Give

Give to those that share your world - both the inner and outer inhabitants. Give your body what it requires, give your emotional life what it needs, give your spiritual self what it must have, and give to others what they too deserve.

Care for and share with all of your brothers and sisters. Remind yourself that just as the earth is round and can’t be seen from both sides unless you’re standing above it, there’s also much about the world of others which eludes you, thus making it difficult for you to completely understand, and impossible to judge.

Give freely. Give without expectations. Give to yourself.

10. Love

Love well and love long. While Love can wound it also heals. Love requires much and offers more.

Written by Tammie Byram Fowles

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