Joy

Don't let the devil steal your joy. That's one of the cornerstones of Joyce Meyer's teachings. I know some people get weirded out when the devil is referred to, because it seems so hard-core. But I've come to realize that if we acknowledge his presence, we become aware of him and thus become better able to fight and suppress him and his works.

I wanted to remind myself of everything that makes me happy so I created my own lists events, occasions, people and memories in my life because through this i can see how truly blessed I am.

Sanctuary: Rise Above Adversity

I watch and I pray. I value what I have rather than mourn over what I Lose. Moreover, I go out about life not expecting, demanding or judging because all these lead to suffering. As a comic strip once said: Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed. It may sound humorous but there is so much wisdom in it. I've experienced losing EVERYTHING, or so it seems, but because if what I practice, I know that whatever I have-my life, friends, love-are all God-given and therefore this tells me that I am "covered". No need to recover.

We have a choice: to live a life of never-ending suffering or a life of true joy and genuine peace. It's all in the attitude. It's all in the choices you make. And you are never too young or too old to start..

Everything Has It's Time

For everything there is a season, and a time

for every matter under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die:

A time to plant, and a time to puck what is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn, and a time to gather stones together;

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to seek, and a time to lose;

A time to keep, and a time to throw away;

A time to tear, and a time to sew;

A time to keep silent, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

A time for war, and a time for peace.

During your high school years, you may have been able to catch a few hours of sleep nightly and maintain high energy levels and a healthy appearance. But the years have a funny way of changing this. You may have developed bags under your eyes from the lack of sleep that can result from a busy work and family schedule, and that's not the only side effect of inadequate sleep. A 2004 University of Chicago study concluded that sleeping less than the suggested eight hours nightly can cause weight gain. If you're not getting sufficient sleep, your body may not be producing enough of a hormone that limits hunger.

Love

1 Corinthians 13:4–8a 

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails ...

17 Months of Togetherness

Happy and inlove

Thought I would write this just to tell you again and remind you how much you mean to me, and how much I LOVE YOU. annoying as that is to you ;)

To be perfectly honest YOU MEAN EVERYTHING TO ME. I don’t know where I would be without you, or what I would do without you for that matter. You make me the happiest girl in the world, and can always make me laugh or smile whatever you do. You could probably make me cry as well, but I hope that wont happen. Another point is that I am so, so lucky to have you, beautiful, because I don’t know when or why you started liking me but I cant think of anyone more perfect to do so. I wouldn’t change it for absolutely anything. whenever I think of you, that is never far from my mind. I will always be there for you whenever you need me or anything. Nothing means more to me than seeing you happy and whatever that takes, I will ensure you are happy. I never forget that I am lucky to even know you, and I love everything about you and who you are, and that isn’t going to change. You stole my heart and it is TOTALLY YOURS, for however long you want it.

I love you so much, and I am yours forever..

THE BEAUTY OF A WOMAN

God said:

"When I made the woman she had to be special.

I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world,yet gentle enough to give comfort.

I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth

and the rejection that many times comes from her children.

I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining.

I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances,even when her child has hurt her very badly.

I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults

and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart.

I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife,but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly.

And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed."

"You see my son," said God, "the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes,

because that is the doorway to her heart

- the place where love resides."

What I Love About You

I love the way you look at me,

Your eyes so bright and blue.

I love the way you kiss me,

Your lips so soft and smooth.

I love the way you make me so happy,

And the ways you show you care.

I love the way you say, "I Love You,"

And the way you're always there.

I love the way you touch me,

Always sending chills down my spine.

I love that you are with me,

And glad that you are mine.

Why does a charge disrupt the varying mystic?

Why does a charge disrupt the varying mystic?

How Much Exercise Do I Really Need?

Most healthy people should aim for at least 30 minutes, five times a week, of moderately intense activity such as brisk walking, plus 10 to 15 minutes or so of strength-training (digging in your garden counts) 2 or 3 days a week. This is enough exercise to help you lower your risk for health conditions like high blood pressure, stroke, coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, colon cancer, and osteoporosis, and to prevent the natural loss of muscle mass that slows metabolism and contributes to weight gain in your thirties, forties, fifties, and beyond.

If you’re trying to lose weight, more activity is better. An hour or even 90 minutes of moderate exercise, or 1/2 hour of vigorous activity such as jogging, strenuous aerobics, or fast-paced cycling, is ideal. Of course, anything you do is better than nothing, and consistency counts. Fitting in 30 minutes most days of the week, even in 10-minute bursts, is better than playing the weekend warrior by overdoing it once or twice a week.

If you’re the type that just doesn’t enjoy going to the gym or using a treadmill, choose an activity you enjoy that you can do for 10 to 30 minutes or longer and that raises your heart rate. This could be dancing, playing tennis, chopping enough wood to heat your house for the winter, or lining up strenuous yard work or housework that feels like a workout.

happiness

how we define happiness?Happiness is the undying quest of life, the unquenchable thirst and the insatiable hunger of all human kind. Happiness is what we all seek for, what we long for. But can such bliss be nothing but an elusive state of mind, which is here one moment and gone the next, or is such a positive outlook attainable for a lifetime? Perhaps it is, it just is. Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. 

How to Find Happiness: Here are 7 Timeless Tips to find happiness...

What do you want?

A great job?

A fulfilling relationship?

Go sailing around the Pacific for a few years in your very own luxurious boat?

Or just to get along better with yourself?

Perhaps you want one of more of those things. But beneath those and many common wishes, if you take it a step further, often lies a wish to find happiness.

One good way to find a few useful, life-improving and time-tested tips is to look back. To look way back through history. To find ideas that have arisen in minds over and over the last few thousand years. Here are seven such ideas about how you can find happiness. Maybe you´ll find them helpful.

1. You choose.

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Abraham Lincoln

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

The world of those who are happy is different from the world of those who are not.
Ludwig Wittgenstein

How your view yourself and your world are conscious choices and habits. The lens you choose to view everything through determines how you will interpret what is happening. And from your interpretation you act. And all of this becomes your life.

You can choose to find happiness in small, everyday things. You can choose to interpret what happens in a positive way. Or in a negative way.

And your choices controls much of how much happiness your will find and create in your life.

2. Focus on the present, not yesterday or tomorrow.

When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
Helen Keller

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.James Oppenheim

You only have now. And now. And now. Yesterday is a memory and you cannot change it. Tomorrow is just a fantasy in your mind right now. So live more in the now, focus on the present moment and today. Think and worry less about yesterday and tomorrow. Otherwise you might miss a great deal of happiness that is available to you right now.

3. Don’t forget to be grateful.

Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.
Fyodor Dostoevsky

We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.
Frederick Keonig

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust

One of the simplest and quickest ways to turn a negative and sour mood into a more positive one is to be grateful.

A few things you can feel gratitude for are for instance: The sunshine and the weather. Your roof. Your health. A good TV-show, a movie or a song. Your friends, family, co-workers and just about anyone walking down the street.

Just try if for a minute and see how it changes how you feel. And it’s a win/win solution. You feel great because you are grateful about your world and the people you are grateful for feel great too because they feel appreciated. So don´t forget about gratitude or you may forget about the happiness that is already in your life.

4. Help someone else find happiness.

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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

If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day — go fishing.
If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else.
Chinese Proverb

Happiness is like a kiss. You must share it to enjoy it.
Bernard Meltzer

This is certainly one of the most popular ideas I’ve found about happiness. And it might sound clichéd and empty. But it works very well. When you make someone else happy – by, for example, helping them with something – you can sense, see, feel and hear it. And that happy feeling flows back to you. And then, if you’d like, you can boost you own ego by thinking something like: ”Wow, I really made him/her happy!”.

And since the Law of Reciprocity is strong there is another upside. People will feel like giving back to you. Or they might feel like helping/sharing it with someone else. And so the two – or more – of you keep spreading the happiness.

5. Get rid of a couple of your less valuable desires.

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
Epicurus

You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.
Eric Hoffer

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.
Henry David Thoreau

If you want less instead of more, more, more then your desires are more likely to be fulfilled. And if you throw away a few of those desires that you may not really want or need that much anyway you’ll probably start to feel less stressed and worried. This is a calmer and better place to be to enjoy your day (tip #2) and to take the time discover the happiness that is already in your life (tip #3).

6. Do what you like to do.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Albert Schweitzer

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

A pretty obvious one. But it’s still easy to trap yourself into doing what you don’t want to for many, many hours. And seldom do what you really love to do. And I guess this one ties into tip #1. You may not be able to choose to do what you want to do right now. Or for many hours each day or week. But you almost always have a choice to do more of what you really want to do. There is always time. Or time you can free up. You have a choice.

7. Or at least do something.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
Benjamin Disraeli

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

One of the best ways to not find happiness is just to hold yourself back and do nothing. Seldom show up. Paralyze yourself through over analysis. It’s not always easy to take action, it can be scary and hard and difficult. But if you don’t take action you’ll be missing out on a lot. Including many moments, people and experiences that can bring you a lot of happiness.

We may encounter lots of problems, heartaches, painful experiences but in the end let's not forget to be happy once in a while...