How do you handle negative people?

You arrive at work cheerful after getting up early enough to get in your workout, share a cup of coffee with your husband and deal with a little unexpected traffic before getting to work to be welcomed by the bad attitude of your coworker. What do you do?  Do you lash back, worry that you have offended her in some way, let your own mood go south? This all depends on where you are in your own life.  At the highest point of self maturity you would completely know that this has NOTHING to do with you AND truly try and empathize with what is going on in THEIR life.  Is this out of character for this person?  We all have our own stuff that we're dealing with and usually when we encounter a bad mood, negativity from another person it has nothing to do with us.  Since I've been working daily on my own personal development this gets so much easier to understand. Getting beyond my own ego, insecurity and sometimes paranoia I offer them a smile, some space, a compliment or a direct "is everything ok? you seem really upset.  Do you need someone to listen?" Many times this is enough to actually improve their mood too and offer them a safe, kind heart when something in their life may be upside down. You'd be surprised how much this can help and alleviate yourself from a lot of undo stress and taking on of someone else's stuff.  Even the next time that girl at Dunkin is miserable, offer her the biggest smile, say Thank you and tell them to have a great day.

Tools for happiness

We all want to be happy right?  Did you realize there are things you can be doing, very simple things on a daily basis that are guaranteed to increase your level of happiness. Happiness is not something that happens when you achieve a certain goal, weight, level of success, relationship status..... it is a state of being that leads to higher levels of satisfaction and success. What? You mean I can be happy NOW? YES! The problem is most people only wish for happiness and get discouraged when they don't experience it as they feel they should. Here are some things you can start doing right now to increase your level of happiness.
1.  Every day, write down 3 things you are grateful for
2. Journal daily about something good that has happened in the past 24 hours
3. Meditate daily (be completely still for even 2 minutes
4. Perform a random act of kindness for someone
5. Exercise for 15 minutes (walk, stretch, yoga, job.....just move)

Even if you chose just one of these and began incorporating it into your daily routine, you'd enhance your level of happiness/contentment.

Be the change

Welcome back! Life has derailed my journey a bit, but with the help of my own inspiring people I have gotten back on track on my own journey toward whole health. During a 5:30 am yoga class (which I highly recommend as there is no better way to start your day than to center the mind and awaken the body while watching the sun come up) I was completely drawn to Mahatma Ghandi's quote on the wall "Be the change you want to see in the world". This one simple but powerful sentence got me right back on my journey. Life gets crazy and we start to dwell and focus on what is wrong, what we don't have, how we wish our children would behave, how fit we aren't! How would things be different if we focused on what we were grateful for and began to "Be the change"?
If you want people to be kinder.....be kind
If you want your children to respect you.....respect them and let them see you respecting others and yourself.
We can easily become overwhelmed with negativity, I challenge you to find something every day as you wake to be thankful for and "be the change".

The health benefits of a solid marriage/relationship cannot be underestimated. I have been married to the same amazing man for over 15 years and I am still just as in love with him, actually scratch that, so much more in love with him than the day we got married. You see on that day we were very caught up in the moment, promising each other that we'd be committed through good and bad, faithful, patient, loving, fair, honest........ But hadn't had any experiences that test those promises. Since that day we've had our share of tests but it seems with every one, those promises are more real and apparent and bring us closer. It seems like every year we see those close to us ending their marriages or choosing to stick it out for the kids but yet they are so distant and truly can't stand to be in the same room. This blog is about achieving whole health and the quality of our relationships is an enormous factor in achieving that goal. Are you inspired, supported, safe and enriched in your relationships?