Grateful, No Matter What

Finding similarities with other people helps us live happy and healthy lives. Your life may feel ordinary to you, but it might seem extraordinary to someone else. Every story shared is a chance to make someone feel less alone.

Sharing your story with others invites others to connect with you. Whether the experiences you talk about are positive or negative — it doesn’t matter. The fact that you are share anything with others in a society that is either all-or-nothing is impactful in itself. It causes everyone who is listening to reflect on our words.

Telling your story will enhance your personal growth and maturity. Being confronted with the unfortunate realities that come with having difficult conversations or sharing negative or triggering experiences can be worth the growth. Growing not only for yourself but also for those who choose to be actively engaged in this journey of learning alongside you

Nothing is stronger than habit. Simply put, a habit is a behavior that starts as a choice, and then becomes a nearly unconscious pattern. Every habit, no matter how simple or complex, has the same structure, which we call the "habit loop." There is a cue or a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode. Then there is the routine, which can be physical or mental or emotional behavior. Finally, there is a reward. Once you understand how habit loops work, you can start changing them.

“No” is a word most of us use too infrequently. And, what’s worse, when we say “No” we usually add on all sorts of lengthly and unecessary explanations. But “No” can be a complete sentence, and to be honest, "No" is a complete sentence.

Often, no is a difficult thing to say. This resistance to the word is directly linked to the need and desire to seek approval from other people. This need has rooted itself deep into todays society of instant gratification and impatience. But, don't worry! Practice makes perfect. More and more you will become comfortable with the idea that no is not negative and hopefully begin to see how it impacts your life, your relationships, and your overall mindset.

“No” is a word most of us use too infrequently. And, what’s worse, when we say “No” we usually add on all sorts of lengthly and unecessary explanations. But “No” can be a complete sentence, and to be honest, "No" is a complete sentence.

Often, no is a difficult thing to say. This resistance to the word is directly linked to the need and desire to seek approval from other people. This need has rooted itself deep into todays society of instant gratification and impatience. But, don't worry! Practice makes perfect. More and more you will become comfortable with the idea that no is not negative and hopefully begin to see how it impacts your life, your relationships, and your overall mindset.

“No” is a word most of us use too infrequently. And, what’s worse, when we say “No” we usually add on all sorts of lengthly and unecessary explanations. But “No” can be a complete sentence, and to be honest, "No" is a complete sentence.

Often, no is a difficult thing to say. This resistance to the word is directly linked to the need and desire to seek approval from other people. This need has rooted itself deep into todays society of instant gratification and impatience. But, don't worry! Practice makes perfect. More and more you will become comfortable with the idea that no is not negative and hopefully begin to see how it impacts your life, your relationships, and your overall mindset.

I’ll admit I’m a creature of habit in many ways. I tend to settle into routines that feel good, and I get pretty invested in them at times. A routine is a series of habits. If you've got a good routine set up, say a morning routine of breakfast-exercise-shower-dress-commute, you've freed yourself from a lot of small decisions that could slow you down or capture valuable brain-space that you'd prefer to use for something else. You can now go on autopilot and still accomplish your. In this way, paradoxically, a good routine can be freeing. No need for constant decision-making about what's coming next or what you should do. You're gonna brush your teeth before you leave the house, and that's that!

Routine can create positive habits, but too much routine creates some inflexibility, as well as other challenges that can do more harm than good for you and your overall growth and evolution. Is there a healthy balance? 

The external, as well as the internal are forever changing, no matter what we do, say, or try to actively control on a daily basis. Nothing is static, everything is in constant motion, fluctuating, growing, evolving, dying; turning into something that it was not just months, weeks, days, seconds, or even moments before. This constant change, that nothing lasts forever, is the law of impermanence, which is defined as the state or fact of lasting for only a limited period of time.

Even if you’ve never heard of this concept, I’m sure the word “impermanence” seems somewhat familiar. If you take a closer look at it, you should see the root word permanent, which comes from the Latin permanere, "endure, continue, or stay to the end." This means that nothing every changes, it always stays the same, no matter what. Think of a permanent marker. If you write on a wall or someone’s clothing, there’s no way of washing it off; it’s there forever, you can’t change it or erase it. On the other hand, you have impermanence, which is the exact opposite of permanent. It means nothing lasts forever, nothing stays exactly the same, and to understand the impermanent nature of everything in life is to understand the inevitability of change.