Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
— Voltaire
How do we survive adversity? What is the difference between surviving and thriving?
I believe the difference is in how we tell our story. And often, the story we tell is the one we inherited.
My mother grew up in the depression. She was one of those people who remembered the depression as being an awful time. There were four of them, my grandfather and grandmother, my aunt and Mom. To hear her tell the story, life was Continue reading » Appreciate What You Have
I must learn to love the fool in me the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries.
— Theodore Isaac Rubin
Do you believe that you are a learning and growing being? Back in the beginning of the self-esteem movement, many proponents recommended that you repeat an affirmation to help you improve your self-esteem. It went, “Everyday, in every way, I’m getting better and better.” To say that this became the basis of jokes about self-esteem is to understate how much of a Continue reading » Better and Better
“Healing,” Papa would tell me, “is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.”
— W.H. Auden
Pain is a sign that something is wrong – a muscle injured or a loss endured. It has a positive role to play in our survival. But when we are in pain, it doesn’t seem positive. It hurts. It distracts us from the behaviors that we know work. And, because we are distracted, we sometimes don’t make the best choices.
At the beginning of my great adventure, my second day on the job, I fell. I stepped on a seed pod, turned my ankle and ended up on my back like a Continue reading » Healing the Pain
Count the garden by the flowers, never by the leaves that fall. Count your life with smiles and not the tears that roll.
— Anonymous
During our lives we all face adversities. Some of them are “imposed” on us by forces that we can’t control. Some are of our own making. I know it doesn’t always seem like it, but it really doesn’t matter what the source of the adversity is. The only thing that really matters is our ability to respond to adversity.
Here at BouncebackCafe.com our tag line is “Dedicated to finding useful, resilient solutions to life’s adversities.” Because we are always looking for new ways to respond to adversity, Ellie and I do a lot of research. This is something we both enjoy – finding and reading various perspectives on creating a life of accomplishment and joy.
Rediscovering a New Idea
One of the things that often strikes me (like “Duh, I coulda had a V8”) is that I’m always rediscovering something I’ve read or heard before. Today, it was Continue reading » How to Change Your Outlook
Of all the traps and pitfalls in life, self-disesteem is the deadliest, and the hardest to overcome, for it is a pit designed and dug by our own hands, summed up in the phrase, “It’s no use – I can’t do it.”
— Maxwell Maltz
Lately, my friends have been facing some major challenges. One of my friends is struggling with a breakup – which she initiated. She’s now considering getting back together with the guy because she’s lonely – and her biological clock is ticking.
Another friend has both of her grown sons living with her. The older one just lost his job – AGAIN(!!!) – and the younger hasn’t worked in many, many months. She’s heading towards retirement age but still has a house full of kids that she’s supporting.
Both of these people are Continue reading » Get Out of That Pit
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