Carnival of Inspiration and Motivation: 17th edition

This is 17th edition of Carnival of Inspiration and motivation. Following posts are selected for this edition. I hope you will enjoy reading all the articles.

Comments and suggestions are always entertained warmly.

candy presents Is Happiness Is Contagious? One Study Says Yes! posted at Carrie and Danielle.

Kathleen Gaga presents 21 days to a life full of gratitude posted at Daily Awareness, saying, "Is gratitude something we get from what we have or is it something more? Find out where gratitude comes from and how to have more."

Tami Blodgett presents WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY posted at Online Wellness: A Safe Haven, saying, "It’s almost January and you’re planning a weight loss journey. A typical January first: Here you are, totally hating being overweight. You wake up every morning totally uncomfortable. You dread spending another day carrying around this excess body fat! It’s the time of year to begin again and your thoughts turn to self improvement. “That’s it!” you say. “I’ve had it!”

Join Online Wellness Association Member, Kelly LaCost, as she prepares you for your 2009 Weight Loss Journey."

Richard Onebamoi presents Anatomy of Frustration: What is your definition of failure? posted at THE ANATOMY OF FRUSTRATION.

Joshua Seth presents The Importance of Persuasion and Influence posted at Joshua Seth Blog, saying, "The quality of your life is determined by your ability to influence and persuade.

Now think about that sentence for a moment. Where would you be today without your ability to persuade others to your point of view and influence them to take the actions you desire?"

Erin Pavlina presents Choosing Our Emotions posted at Erin Pavlina's Blog, saying, "A short while ago I was tucking my daughter in to bed, and as I was heading out of her room I noticed to my horror that she had used a red ink pen to gouge her full name into her brand new white dresser. Not something you can wash away, the wood was gouged deeply."

Great Management presents How To Make 2009 Your Best Year Ever? posted at The GreatManagement Blog, saying, "How To Make 2009 Your Best Year Ever? Here's how..."

Applying the Law of Attraction presents The Law of Attraction posted at Applying the Law of Attraction Membership Library, saying, "Attraction is the power that is sweeping through eternity, a
living stream of relative action in which the basic principle is
ever active. It embraces the past and..."

Bill Urell presents Relationship Skills: Important Topics For Discussion posted at Addiction Recovery Basics, saying, "Communication is a needed skill for sustaining growth in relationships. How well do you know your partner? 35 topics for discussion: It seems that a shared characteristic of people either in active addictioor early addiction recovery is that their relationships are damaged in certainly in need of repair."

Dr Martin Russell presents The Top 5 New Year Real-Solutions For 2009 posted at Dr Martin W. Russell, saying, "From my own experience in counselling people over the years I would suggest that New Year's Resolutions don't work."

NITHYANANDAM.NETt presents The Attracting And Transformative Power of Gratitude posted at NithyAnandam.net.

Brain Blogger presents Recognizing the Man in the Mirror posted at Brain Blogger, saying, "Three short years ago, the first partial face transplantation was performed in France and recently the first of these procedures to be conducted in the United States was successfully accomplished."

Applying the Law of Attraction presents The Rise of Man posted at Applying the Law of Attraction Membership Library, saying, "THE FALL of man was the fall into consciousness of things as
substance. The evolution of man is the rise into consciousness of the life of things as substance."

Diane Corriette presents What Is Greatness? posted at Personal Growth. Discovering Greatness with Inspirational Guidance, saying, "We all have greatness within us but what does being great mean to you and why is it more than just being positive?"

Erin Pavlina presents Are You Walking Your Own Path? posted at Erin Pavlina's Blog, saying, "I run across people who are fulfilling their parents’ expectations of them instead of doing what they really want to do with their lives. Usually when such people come to me they are feeling the tug of another path but fear telling their parents that they want to switch careers. But expectations are not obligations."

Vanessa Wolf presents If money were no object posted at Wide Awake in Wonderland.

Isaac Yassar presents Do It With Style! posted at Isaac Yassar .com, saying, "If you want to be someone unique and original in your job / business, do it with style!"

Asmoday presents Why You Should Love Yourself posted at The Asmoday Experiment, saying, "There is so much pain in this world because people do not love themselves, and often-times, hate themselves. In this article, I show you why, if you don't simply dance with joy because you are a beautiful miracle, then you are indeed, crazy."

Ariel Bravy presents You Are Unconditionally Loved, But You May Experience Otherwise posted at You Are Truly Loved.

Paul Alexander Wood presents Be Special, don’t be average posted at Create Change in your life, saying, "Article urging people to not settle for second best in their life and to go and make something special happen."

Kate Phillips presents Paying it Forward at a Starbucks Stand posted at The Garden of Plenty, saying, "A Story about Giving and Receiving."

Burak Bilgin presents How to Actualize Yourself? posted at Distiller's Corner, saying, "Discovering your life purpose and actualizing yourself can be a joyful adventure."

jen from windy ridge presents The Chronicles Of Windy Ridge » The Christmas tree posted at The Chronicles Of Windy Ridge, saying, "Hope in a time of need"

Dominic Tay presents The 2 Important Levels Affecting Your Success posted at Personal Development Blog for Winners, saying, "The YES! Man movie is not just another movie. An inspiring movie about an below average guy who constantly says "NO!" to life, it shows how big a difference we could make to our own lives with just one word - "YES!". Certainly, the tagline of the YES! Man movie can't be any righter: "One word can change anything.""

Paul Alexander Wood presents Create Change in your life » Poverty consciousness posted at Create Change in your life, saying, "Article to help people who are looking to have more motivation in their lives."

Kevin Ngo presents Dec 23, How To Make Excuses posted at Motivational Blog, saying, "How to make excuses if you're going to make them anyway."

Kevin Ngo presents Nov 13, Life Is Short posted at Motivational Blog.

Xquisitlife presents Never let go of your dreams! posted at The best is yet to come!, saying, "This blog discusses how to have success when going after your dreams with passion!"

Vickie Sloderbeck presents Establish a Weekly Date Night posted at Joyful Journey Productions.

Martin E. Zulliger presents From Illegal Immigrant to IT Entrepreneur - The beginning posted at Chronicles of a Hacker, saying, "I want to tell my story of how by being positive, never giving up and with the tireless help of my family I could change my life completely (I'm still on it, its not over;)"

Suzie Cheel presents Will You Step Into 2009 Without Fear? posted at The Abundance Highway, saying, "Will you have positive vibes in 2009?
Reading the papers? Watching the news? Listening to family and friends?
Hearing all the doom and gloom?
Right now you might think that 2009 is the time to pull up the covers and hide under pillow for the rest of the year. That’s a choice, although I suspect not the one you will make.
The fact is we can make a choose about what we attract for 2009."

Mike King presents Why Are You Waiting for Happiness? Have it NOW! posted at Learn This.

Chris Edgar presents What To Do When Affirmations "Don't Work" posted at Purpose Power Coaching, saying, "Sometimes, when we say an affirmation, we don’t get the inspired feeling we’re looking for — instead, we feel angry or despondent. This is the kind of experience that often leads people to think that affirmations “don’t work.” In this article, I’m going to talk about the reasons we may find ourselves “rejecting” the affirmations we use, and how we can reframe our affirmations to find the encouragement and empowerment we’re looking for."

Deana presents tedious by nature posted at overcoming loss- death of a loved one, saying, "positive thoughts and self improvement that you can find through loss"

myln presents 12 Quick ways to manage stress at work posted at ManageYourLifeNow.com, saying, "Thinking positive is the key to your success. All successful people have one thing in common: Positive thinking and passion for what they are doing! Watch the great champions with what will and deprivation are fighting for reaching the desired objective. Watch the successful professionals and try to understand their dedication and sacrifices they do in their effort to reach that point that will bring them professional recognition. All the major successes start from a simple idea and if there is a real desire and positive thinking then they become a reality...!"

Rich Vosler presents It Takes A Lifetime To Master Time posted at Sales Training Tips.

Chase Stowers presents Limiting Options posted at Super Duper Blog-O-Rama!, saying, "Have you ever been in a situation where you do not know what step to take next? Do what Chinese general Xiang Yu did - limit your options."

Kingsley Tagbo presents How to Enjoy Every Moment? posted at Personal Hack, saying, "Most of the times we don’t do things the way we want because of numerous reasons, mainly because of social restrictions. Of course, we are social beings, hence we have to follow certain rules and rhythm to live in the society. But, unfortunately we tend to bind ourselves with these social restrictions and forget the beauty of spontaneous life."

Azhagiya Tamilmagan presents Like Attracts Like posted at Your Guidance.

Brian Terry presents Create Your Elevator Speech posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.

Clara Myers presents Reflection and Journaling posted at Mind Mart, saying, "Journaling is a great for bringing clarity to your thoughts."

Kathleen Tipton presents Dynamic Stillness posted at livesensible.com, saying, "By tuning in to the body's dynamic stillness you are acknowledging one of the most incredibly and fascinating traits imaginable-HOMEOSTASIS."

Isaac Yassar presents 2 Requirements Of Definite Success posted at Isaac Yassar .com, saying, "Fulfill these two requirements and I guarantee your success in every field you want."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Inspiration and Motivation using our carnival submission form.

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Bye-bye 2008! New Year and New domain

First of all Happy New Year 2009!

Image by *嘟*

I started blogging as my passion, interest thing is late 2007 on blogspot and blogged continuously throughout 2008 almost regularly. This is one thing among many others that made my 2008 special and I am grateful for meeting some wonderful bloggers/people from around the world. In fact blogging was new experience for me.

I will be blogging on my own domain cultivatepositivity.com from now on and this is my first post on this new domain. That's great. New Year with new domain! One thing to start 2009 happily. I am also thankful to all my blogging friends especially Wakish regarding this domain and at the same time to all those who helped me to do do better with blogging in different ways.

Most popular posts of 2008

5 ways to always stay motivated positively

How to be positive in negative situations?

HOW to make someone’s day?

7 ways to keep your friendship forever and always strong

Role of parent in their child's depression fight

5 hinderers of good personal development and how to avoid them?

Do not let your mood control you

And one more post from my another blog Coffee Gozzip, Meaning of different Roses

Hey, how was your your 2008 and what are popular post from your blog? what are your plans for 2009?

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Do not let your mood control you

You might have heard someone saying or yourself might have said I am not in mood today. I can’t do this or that thing. Good mood is always sure to be productive and at the same time, bad mood can have serious personal, social and social problem if continued for long time.

Image by lumkness

Changing moods are reflected in our internal chemistry. Say you hear you won’t getting an expected raise this year: you brain starts pumping more of the stimulants dopamine and norepinephrine. Result: you’re wired as your body gears up for “fight, or flight.”

5 ways to uplift or master your mood

1. Find the cause: Problem creates more problems if appropriate action is not taken in time. Without worrying more about the state you are in, search and try to find out what is the main cause behind your condition. There may be many such causes like wrong things happened to us, food we eat, our thinking habit, health status etc.
   



2. Relax and take rest: Suppose you are working with all those HTML things to build your website and suddenly something went wrong and you can’t find out what happened. Then, the more you try to find out the cause, the more thing may get complicated. If this continued for some more time, neither you may find the cause nor complete the work in time. So, leave what you are doing. Go out in the fresh environment, drink coffee. Main idea is to do what you enjoy doing the most. Forget what happened sometime before totally. Definitely you will be back in your mood. Return again to what you were doing. See what went wrong again. If you still can’t figure out, get help from those who you think can support you.



3. Listen music: When you feel you are not in mood, best idea is to opt for music. Music can be powerful mood lifter. Choose the song you like best that may be slow or fast, classic or modern. You should feel pleasant while listening that song.



4. Have positive outlook: Except in few cases, generally things remain in normal condition. Whether something is positive or negative depends on how you look at that thing. If you see glass as half filled, your mind and body will react positively which we know sure will help us to be in good mood and happy.



5. Laugh and smile: Laughter is the best medicine which none of us need to buy and suppose even if you have to buy, don’t worry, it isn’t that much expensive. More correctly, the more you don’t laugh, the more your laughter will be expensive even for you. So, watch your favorite comedy show on TV or buy a DVD of your favorite comedian or your favorite comedy movie and enjoy. Similarly, without disturbing, get together with your friends and crack jokes, tell interesting stories etc. You will not know what you returned in your mood. That’s…OMG!

Some more ways…

• If you don’t have enough sleep(not more than 8-9 hours and less than 4-5 hours for average adult), there is chance that you may not concentrate on what you are doing and thing may turn bad. So, have enough (6-7 hours) sleep everyday.

• You eating habit, what kind of food you eat also affect your mood. It is better to eat little and balanced food time to time rather than eating full meal a time.

•  Get up early in the morning and do exercise meditation or yoga etc. This will help you to be cool and in controlled mood throughout the day.

• Enjoy what you are doing and do with full concentration. If you diverted your mind on other different things while doing one thing, then you can’t concentrate and thing may turn bad.

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Here is HOW to make someone’s day?

It was very cold that day. Let me tell you it’s winter here. I wish I shouldn’t have to get up before 9 am in the morning! But I have my class in the morning. So as usual, I was walking alone on the road on my way to the institute where I am taking preparation class these days. To my surprise, someone who I admire came over me and said,”Hey, when did you buy that jacket. You are looking very nice!” Oh my God, I myself didn’t know whether I was looking that much nice or not!

Image credit: yel02

What a great start of that day. I was extra happy that day because she never used to compliment me in that way before. More correctly, she used to just answer only what I asked. That was total surprise for me. There are so many this kind of incidents before as well. I am talking this here being the recent one. I thanked her that day as well and don’t know if she will read this post or not. But, if by chance you read this post, I again want to thank you! You made my day that day!!!

Isn’t this great? You may think this as a simple thing. But, you may have lost something or lived less entertaining and happy life by avoiding this kind of SIMPLE thing. No? Just saying hello or hi to the stranger you shared your seat in bus or train may help them to feel that there is someone who can or want to speak with them or simply they are not alone for some people. By thanking someone who helped you at the supermarket like salesgirl/boy or cashier, you can help them be more energetic and fresh.

What these bloggers says about making someone’s day

Wakish from Wakish Wonderz : Making someone's day is something very humble and great to do, especially if you care for him/her. Before trying to make his/her day, you should first make a quick brainstorming session about the person, what he/she likes, does he have any present problem, stress or any situation which he is facing. What is his passion.

Now, let's try to see different points:
1) If that person is a jovial person or is your good friend, the best thing you could do is spend a day with him to "live his passion". Because sharing the passion with someone who understands you, is something which gives rise to so much happiness inside that person. No one likes to do something alone, sharing brings happiness.

2) If that someone is your love, spend a day with him/her to do something different from daily stuffs. Like go to a rare place, spend time with her, show her that you really care for her. In fact, treat her like a princess, do everything for her without her spending any effort, make her day so comfortable and relaxed. You could even invite her for a trip, or anything creative and uncommon, the key thing here is to do a different thing with simplicity but with affection and care!

3) If that someone is currently in pain, stress or a difficult situation - go and support him. Make him feel he is not alone, make him feel you are standing by him, in fact spend that day on his side to fight his challenges. It's like a football or cricket match, be on his side to make him win. Make his courage, faith and strength rise higher with your spirit to achieve the best ;)

4) If that someone is your father, mother, grandparent..etc, - spend the whole day with them, talk, engage a conversation, take part in their kitchen activities, watch a movie with them..etc - the point is to show affection, love and support. These people in their old age need a lot of affection and support. Cook for them, go fishing..etc

Now, from a general point of view, I would conclude that the key points in makig someone's day are:

1) Share their passion

2) Share their pain / difficult moments

3) Give a lot of attention

4) Give a lot of love

5) Give a lot of care

6) Do everything for them just like you do for a guest in your house

7) Show and make them feel your support

Abi  from I'm Abi : Making someone's day is a very personal thing... I would never say 'I made x's day' unless I was joking or being sarcastic, because there's no way you can tell!

When something 'makes my day' it can be a tiny gesture, or a huge one - a hug and a smile from my husband when he gets home often makes my day. Even though he hugs me when he gets home every evening, if I've had a particularly awful day then it really makes me feel better... sometimes it can be something as trivial as one person remembering how hard it is to push a double pram and opening a door for me... but if I was having a fabulous day already then it takes something like flowers to 'make' it. It's all relative... for me anyway

Theresa Hall  from Sleeping Kitten - Dancing Dog! : Letting other people know that their existence really matters to you and in passing along good will and kindness the light within us all burns that much brighter. You cannot place a price tag on this.

Nina from Nature Remains : I think it's easiest to understand if I imagine someone having made MY day.
It would be the last positive thought remembered as I recapped the day at day's end. A kind remark perhaps or simply a "thank you" from someone--an honest gesture of friendship, as small as the look in an other's eye. Without pretense or calculation. A pure deed.

7 ways to make someone’s day

1. Make a compliment: This I think is the best way. But be careful that your compliment should be genuine, sincere. When your compliment is for right purpose, it will sure work. Otherwise, your compliment may harm both of you. You can say, “Nice new hairstyle.” to someone in new haircut or “You are really amazing. How well you sang that song!” or “I am happy with the progress you are making with your job”



2. Help: If you think someone is having any problem that you know you have idea to solve then offer him/her to help how small your help may be without any intention of return. This is not actually about helping but as fastasleep has put, simply by opening the door for someone may make their day.



3. Wonderful Smile: Smile makes my day. Smile is one of the best expressions which really help to feel me happy and uplift my day. Do not waste your time by frowning. Remember, it takes only 17 muscles to smile, but 43 to frown. Smile is considered as universal language to express your happiness.



4. Be grateful: If you have been missing someone, make them know. Thank anyone for even small support they made or help. Simply hugging can makes their day for some people. Tell your love that you love them.



5. Spend time together: Separate a day from your daily work and spend that day with whom you think you were unable to give more time. Go shopping together. Buy a movie ticket for him/her as well and go to theater. Go to your someone’s favorite restaurant or park or beach and eat together, talk together, laugh, tell jokes…



6. Do something different than usual: Today you get up early in the morning and do all the things that someone used to do. Welcome him/her with hot bed tea/coffee that you made yourself. Iron your children’s clothes. Cook meal and serve the whole family. It doesn’t matter whether you are good cook or not!If you know your colleague or friend is not busy, call them to say just hi. Send gifts like flower for no any special reason.



7. Be generous! : Suppose you are good chef who works in top star hotel and you charge heavy money for cooking tips. I mean suppose you are specialist of some field. You are very expensive person in terms of your knowledge and skills you have. But, you’re doing thing differently. Go to the restaurant. Eat or drink of something $100 but you leave a tip which will charge $1000 other days.

More ways to make someone’s day

• Share your umbrella on rainy day.



• Tell someone that he/she is very special for you.



• Leave your seat for someone in train or bus.



• Rather than always sending email, try sending a handwritten message in paper. Same is in case of Birthday cards, thank you notes.



• I have seen many people sending SMSes directly copied from internet. But, try writing your own and send. See how things become interesting.

Now, do you have any other ideas. Please share in comments.

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