Inspiration

weiselcantlin2

The Universe – A Poem

I have been trying to be quiet and listen more often lately, especially at night before I fall asleep.  I used to do this when I was younger and that was my greatest time of inspiration.  Many of my poems came to me quickly and were unstoppable.  I would jump up and write them down and be done in minutes.

Recently, I was somewhere in that in between state where I was not fully asleep but not fully conscious.  I was asking questions.  I know that a part of meditation is putting all thoughts out of your mind but phrases and pictures kept popping into my head.  I tried to quiet them but they were too persistent.  I grabbed my phone and wrote the following within minutes.  I didn’t change it because of the way it came to me.  It came to me as “The Universe” but could have easily have meant “God.”  I do find it quite ironic that I was trying to listen and was being told to do so when I couldn’t quiet my mind.  I hope you enjoy the result…

universe_scenery-wide

The Universe

The universe
Is within us all
It’s the grass, cut short
And the trees grown tall

The voices that echo through
The tall mountain heights
The baby bird
Who attempts his first flight

The seen and unseen
Music’s beautiful sounds
The universe is
The energies that surround

There’s chaos in the Universe
But it is also surreal
It changes
With the moods we feel

Be silent
And quiet your mind
Take deep breaths
And give it some time

Let the universe, as it is
Speak directly to you
Do not question
Accept it’s clues

There’s so much to hear
And so much to learn
Stop talking for a few
It’s the Universes turn

I have some of my other poetry here in this blog as well.  My book of poetry, “Heart Versus Mind – Words That Touch Your Heart” by Missy Bell,  is also now available on Amazon by clicking the above link.  You may also enjoy other posts on this page that offer tips and strategies for increasing your peace and happiness.  I hope you will become one of my newest followers.

Thank you for stopping by The Peace And Happiness Project!

Missy Bell

Advertisement
weiselcantlin2

That’s Inspiring

I have asked this question before through Facebook and seem to get the same answers from a high number of people. They say that their children inspire them.  A friend of mine posed the same question to her friends and received a slightly different set of comments but it brought me back to the answer I received on mine.

I think it’s fantastic that your children inspire you.  Our children keep us young at heart and motivated to stay good people, amongst other things.  But it is important to think about what else inspires you.  What happens when your children are grown and have lives of their own?  You will need to be sure that you have many sources of inspiration to keep you going.  You should be sure that you are close to the top of that list.

When you draw from several sources, your options are wide open.  After giving it thought I came up with my own short list.  It is incomplete at the moment because I know I need to give it further thought.

InspirationI am inspired by challenges in my life that force me to look inside for strength.  I seem to thrive on the personal challenges that I take on, the challenges where I force myself to step outside the box and say, “I’m not really sure that I can do this,” then I do it. I’ve learned to stop looking for outside motivation as often, I turn within.  I find ways to pull my own energy into higher thought and search my spirituality for inspiration and encouragement.  When I need it externally, I read different authors such as, Napoleon Hill, Bob Proctor, Don Miguel Ruiz, Anthony, etc.  I talk with my family, they know me well enough to give me strength in just the right areas when I need it.  I am inspired by dreams of my future, friends, reminding myself of what I’m grateful for, other people’s accomplishments, music, love, hope and happiness. 

I can’t stress enough how important it is to have more than one source of inspiration and to know what know what they are.  It will help you get out of situations when you find you’re having a bad day.  Make your list, include as much as possible.  You can write it or create a collage.  Keep your list with you.  Draw from it on your down days or when you need a pick-me up.  Reading or looking at it will trigger happier thoughts to help you move forward.

If you can create your own inspiration, you have truly won.  Be sure to find ways to be your own hero and inspiration.  There is nothing truly like it.

Thank you for stopping by.  Please check out the list of other inspirational posts in the side bar.

Missy Bell

weiselcantlin2

My Top 3 Most Influential Authors and Lecturers

I wanted to share with you a bit of information about 3 people who have inspired me to be a better person and who’s quotes make me push myself harder, keep going and fuel my desire to continue helping other people.

zig ziglarBOB PROCTOR

Bob was once down and out in the 60’s  He had dropped out of school and was unable to find anything more than dead-end jobs until he came across Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich.”  After following the information outlined in the book, he improved his standing in life and eventually his income topped the $1 Million mark.  He has been conducting lectures based on the book with added inspiration from Earl Nightingale, his real life mentor, for more than 40 years.  He wass the presenter of the book, “The Secret,” a book on The Law of Attraction.  He is the author of 39 books including, “101 Ways to Improve Your Life,” “Be a Magnet to Money” and “You Were Born Rich.”

3 Top Favorite Quotes from Bob Proctor

  1. “The only limits in our life are those we impose on ourselves.”
  2. “Most people are not going after what they want. Even some of the most serious goal seekers and goal setters, they’re going after what they think they can get.”
  3. “Thoughts become things. If you see it in your mind, you will hold it in your hand.”

Zig Ziglar 2ZIG ZIGLAR

Hilary Hinton, “Zig” was born in 1926 and passed recently in 2012.  He was a very accomplished motivational speaker who focused on corporate training and personal development.  His program, “I CAN” is taught in more than 3,000 schools, and hundreds of businesses use his training and motivational materials. He was a top notch salesman earning one of the highest incomes in his field when he left to improve the lives of others by giving back his knowledge to help improve people’s personal and professional lives.

Mr. Ziglar has authored 26 books with titles such as, “Born To WIn – Find Your Success Code,” Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World,” and “Ziglar on Selling – the Ultimate Handbook for the Complete Sales Professional.”

3 Top Favorite Quotes from Zig Ziglar

    1. “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
    2. “Don’t be distracted by criticism.  Remember, the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.”
    3. “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

Don Miguel RuizDON MIGUEL RUIZ

Don Miguel Ruiz was born into a family of healers. His mother was a healer and his grandfather was a shaman.  He went to school to become a surgeon but after a near death experience, he started down the path of personal introspect.  After studying the art of ancient ancestral wisdom he became an nagual, a teacher who guides an individual to personal freedom.  His writings focus on ancient Toltec Wisdom.  I have read two of his books and I am now on a third.  They have been very instrumental in my life.  He has written 8 books so far.  My favorites are, “The Four Agreements – The Practical Guide to Personal Freedom,” “The Fifth Agreement – A Practical Guide to Self Mastery,” and “The Four Agreements Companion Book – Using the Four Agreements to Master The Dream of Your Life.”

3 Top Favorite Quotes by Don Miguel Ruiz:

  1. “When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.”
  2. “Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama.”
  3. “Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.”

It was difficult to only choose 3 of each of their quotes that are favorites.  I have so many more.  There are a great number of inspirational authors and speakers out there.  I could go on and on.  The first two I just happened to have had the fortune of attending their seminars and lectures several times over a few years and their work has made a huge difference to who I am and the works of Don Miguel Ruiz have been my most recent influences.  I am grateful to all 3 of these men.

Who has inspired you lately?  What is your favorite quote that pushes you through your toughest times?  Please leave a comment below.

Based on their teachings, I have started writing quotes of my own.  If you’d like additional inspiration, click this link to read the list I compiled of my own 10 Quotes That Will Truly Inspire You ~ Missy Bell.

 

SOURCES:

weiselcantlin2

Taking Things for Granted

1378540_10151694935438456_596636773_nI was traveling down the highway today when I realized that this is the first year in many that I can actually recall enjoying the fall foliage.  I have been living here in New England since I was 5.  I suppose when you spend so much time around something that you become immune to it.  The realization makes me feel like I have been asleep for years, unconscious to my surroundings.

My mother loves to tell the story of when I was very young, most likely around 6, when we were in the car one October day and I said to her, in all my innocence, “Someone should tell God that he does a really nice job painting the leaves.”

I’m not sure what the cause was to heighten my awareness this year but I am grateful.  Perhaps it’s because I have been out in nature more or that I’ve been taking so many pictures.  Maybe It’s a part of my recent awareness in the here and now.

I started noticing the changes early on.  It started out as a few leaves and became gradual as the more healthy trees seem to stay green longer.  The colors vary and each tree is unique and magnificent in its own way.  It reminds me of us. How we go through phases in our lives where we feel like we are dying inside but everyone else still seems to see our beauty.  It’s still there.  The leaves may completely fall and the trees may seem bare, but it is not long before the flakes of winter arrive here in New England and the trees show their beauty as they stand tall, holding snow on each branch as if to say, “I caught this for your to admire.”  A sign of strength.  The spring comes and life returns as with us, the cycle of the things we go through in our lives.

Take time to notice the beauty in, not only your surroundings, but in others in your life as well.  Don’t take the beauty of others for granted, just because you see them all the time.

1379474_10151680609873456_869095687_n  1390516_10151680609163456_1243432630_n    1383512_10151694935688456_1120127549_n  1385040_10151684538348456_1884857015_n

weiselcantlin2

Our First Miracle Child – Daniel Jacob

I remember laying wide awake with dark circles under my eyes, in deep silence, listening to the thunder crashing in the distance.  I was extremely sleepy but I rolled out of bed anyway, feeling like a drunkard.  It had been weeks since I slept well.  It was the last week in a very hot July and I was 42 weeks pregnant with my first baby and my anxiety was through the roof.  I had tried everything from going off-roading, taking long walks, castor oil, and so many other old wives tails to try to start my labor.  Nothing worked.  The day had finally arrived when the doctor had agreed to induce the labor with medication.  I spent that next night in the hospital while the medication was trying to take effect.  Even though I was given oxytocin, I was still not progressing on my own.
I was scheduled for more labor-inducing drugs at 7:30am then admitted to a labor and delivery room and hooked up to fetal monitors that produced a reading of my contractions and the baby’s heart rate.
In between what were finally becoming more steady contractions, I let my mind wander and recalled a less stressful moment in time, just a few weeks prior, We still hadn’t settled on a name and he was due to be born within weeks.  I remember exactly where we were.   We were in the car and I was driving with my husband in the passenger’s seat.  We had a bible in the car with us.  We had originally chosen so many different names that we couldn’t decide on one that we liked the best.  I thought it would be fun to open the bible and point to a name and try it on for size.  Mike happened to open to the story of the Prophet, Daniel in the Lion’s Den.  Daniel was not a name we had considered in the past but I loved it. The next name he landed on was Jacob.  Daniel Jacob.  We immediately fell in love with how it sounded with our last name.  “This trumps all the other names we had come up with,” we thought.  It had such a nice ring to it.  We agreed that would be the name of our son.
Baby Daniel must have been comfortable where he was because he hung on, seeming to not want to brave the world just yet. We expected him to have been in our arms two weeks ago.  We were more than ready to welcome him into our home that was well prepared for him.
His birth was rough on the three of us.  It wasn’t just tough for his father and I, but for him as well.  My mother had lost a child moments after he was born two years before me so when we lost Daniel’s heartbeat during labor, I couldn’t keep calm, which is what he needed me to do.  He had gone into distress and I was right there with him.  As I was screaming and crying, not knowing a thing that was going on because no one was talking to me, I longed to see my mother’s face.  Unfortunately, she was 2,000 miles away sitting by the phone waiting to hear the news of his birth.  I pictured having to tell her this birth was a repeat of her own tragedy.  I couldn’t face losing him.
I remember that our friends had been there visiting when this happened and they never left the room.  I was so conscious of this fact and was very uncomfortable.  I felt like this was such a private moment and I just wanted it to be the three of us.  My husband was there as well but he was pushed to the side by the swarm of medical professionals that were working on both of us and trying to discern their next move.  He was too big to travel through the birth canal and became stuck.  Panic set in even further of course when I was quickly forced to the edge of the bed so they could break my water to evaluate him.  They took a sample of blood from his head and read the heart rate again.  HIs heart was beating again but it was very weak.  I remember that they rushed me over to surgery and everything was such a whirlwind.  I don’t remember much after that until I awoke in a panic and realized there was no baby crying next to me and I couldn’t remember having held him.
A nurse was right by my side, thankfully.  She eased my fears.  Daniel Jacob was fine.  He was just in the nursery being monitored and waiting for me to recover.  He had a few issues after the C-section.  Due to his length of stay at the Inn, he had matured too much and swallowed meconium, making it hard for him to catch his first breath. After 30 hours of labor and delivery, he was born at 10 pounds, 4 ounces and was 23 1/4 inches long.  He was the biggest baby in that New Mexico hospital, where the average birth weight was under 6 pounds.  They had to have someone go out and buy a larger size package of diapers just for him.  It is the truth when I say that he was holding his head up in the nursery before we left.  The nurses in the maternity ward had a running joke that, “This one is ready for college!”
1377497_10151689053328456_247823193_n
1385941_10151689032093456_992148362_n
It seems like a lifetime has passed and that’s exactly where he is now, in college.  We are so very grateful for the nurses, midwives and surgical team that ensured his safe delivery.  Life would not be the same without him in it.  His love binds us all together and mends all things.  He believes he has found the love of his life and is studying to be a mechanic.
Thank you to the staff of the University of New Mexico Hospital Maternity Ward for bringing this man to us safely, so many years ago.
The Sunday Whirl is a Facebook site that inspires you to write something that includes 12 words that they assign for the given week. This week’s are edge, trumps, drunkard, world, mends, binds, prophet, born, expected, circles, sleepy and thunder.  I am pleased to not only bring you this story but to share it with Daniel himself as well as the hospital who made it possible to do so.
Thank you for reading this.  I hope you will check out more stories from The Peace And Happiness Project for inspirations. tips and tools to reduce your stress and ways to increase your peace and happiness.  (See the side bar to the right for more articles.)  Feel free to share anything on this site as well as my other blog, Where the Ghosts Live ~ Missy Bell.
weiselcantlin2

Photos of the Fall Foliage in Vermont and the Killington Ski Resort

My family and I live in Massachusetts.  This weekend we got to travel and spend the weekend in Vermont.  Since many of my readers are from around the world, I wanted to share some photos with you of the beauty of New England in the fall.  This week is the perfect week for trees to be at the height of their beauty.

The reason the leaves change to such beautiful colors is sadly, because they are dying.  The cold nights mixed with the warmer days contributes to the acceleration of the process of the photosynthesis.  As the leaves start to fall, our back roads will be as slippery as they are with the winter snow if these leaves get wet.

Here’s some of the beauty we captured on the way to Vermont’s Killington Mountain Ski Resort from where we were staying in the town of Quechee.

   960026_3516182480458_894800753_n1377236_3516182760465_828186875_n1380735_3516183520484_1845727134_n1381526_3516180800416_1453554911_n 1380280_3516182960470_1412085208_n 1379474_10151680609873456_869095687_n

My absolute favorite picture is of a random driveway on the way.  I think I may have this one framed with one of my original quotes written below it.

1384302_10151680609588456_86415627_n

This next one is of a plant that decorated a street light on the main street in the cutest little town of Woodstock.  Every light post in the town had one just like it.  The streets were lined with unique shops and eateries and filled with tourists both times we passed through.

1383914_10151680609993456_1023003669_n

Here are the shots we took when we arrived.  And to think, none of these compared to the black diamond we had to climb two weekends before.  These looked like bunny hills in comparison.   That trail was not visible from where we were is was to the left of these:

1379430_10151680609398456_1514213926_n 1379514_10151680608928456_1389421223_n 1380009_10151680609323456_2105080739_n 1381643_10151680609243456_1354604049_n 1390516_10151680609163456_1243432630_n 1390631_10151680609033456_2118451294_n

I had sprained my knee a week before the trip so, we went with the intention of riding the gondola round trip to the top of the mountain and back.  As we ascended the mountain, high above the ground, we could see the gravel trail in the distance that we originally intended to take.  We had been to Killington Mountain two weeks prior and participated in the Spartan Race.

1375824_10151680608003456_1875683672_n1383154_10151680610068456_1736898541_n

Since we were unable to take our phones with us (there are obstacles where you are submerged in mud,) we were unable to get pictures of the incredible view the mountain supplied so we vowed to come back and take pictures.  The crest was foggy and misty as you will see and it was difficult to get pictures so I decided I would brave the climb down, injury and all.

72677_3516179760390_825080865_n - Copy

I was so grateful I made that decision (as well as my husband’s assistance in areas where I really needed to watch my footing.)  Are you ready to see why? Look at the beauty we got to witness on our hike back down the mountain:

1377037_3516179560385_466750793_n946026_3516179120374_436838608_n - Copy  1375096_3516177040322_326196491_n  1377279_10151680607653456_1011748317_n 1378505_10151680608128456_896703323_n 1378588_10151680608288456_1717926686_n 1378750_10151680608658456_684405322_n1374874_3516178920369_830552413_n 1380510_3516177720339_4056074_n 1385261_3516175200276_960167585_n 1381840_10151680608558456_1909346221_n 1383555_10151680607913456_505526984_n 1384001_10151680608398456_695422595_n1380625_10151680608988456_152290765_n 1385082_3516174720264_924776744_n  1385527_3516174920269_1773233104_n 1385621_3516175440282_2062940749_n 1385891_3516175920294_2125219640_n

As we returned after the long day, my husband pointed out a hot air balloon in the distance.  I have had a special place in my heart for them since we lived in Albuquerque, NM, home of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.  I worked the event when we were first married and fell in love with their beauty and unique designs.  As we drove toward the one he could see in the distance, he spotted this one hanging not far above us.  We turned around and found a few perfect spots to take some really great pictures.  It was a perfect way to end a perfect day.  We never were able to catch a shot of the other one but we believe it passed right over the house we were staying in.

1380215_10151680607448456_345759943_n1385074_10151680607518456_824457085_n

I hope you have enjoyed the beauty and the pictures brought you a bit of peace to your day.  The view and hike certainly did for me.

I hope you will visit other posts on this site.  I focus on tips, motivations, and inspirations that will decrease your stress and increase your peace and happiness.  I hope you will stay a while.  I also have another site.  If you are interested in the paranormal, you should really check it out.  You can find it at Where The Ghosts Live ~ The Haunted United States by Missy Bell.

Thank you for stopping by today!

Missy Bell

weiselcantlin2

God Winked

As I was entering the highway after a brief stop at a rest area, I began to pick up speed so I would be able to keep the pace as I entered traffic.
I was going about 40 when I had to abruptly hit my breaks. I realized there was something blocking the end of the on ramp and if I didn’t slow down quickly I wouldn’t be able to merge properly.
I quickly realized it was a house!  There were 2 trucks parked on the side of the road each hauling half of a house.
I thought for a brief moment how funny this sounds; I almost hit a house on the highway.
I then became extremely grateful to have been paying attention.
No sooner did I feel the gratitude, a car with New Hampshire plates passed me in the middle lane. His license plate read, “GODWINK.”