Hello! How are you? I would like to share with you a very inspiring story of a friend of mine. Last week, I accidentally met a long-lost friend of mine when I went to the grocery store. At first, I did not recognize her. She was the one who called my name and introduced herself. I was surprised by the huge changes in her physical appearance and lifestyle. By the way, two decades ago my friends and I used to joke on her and call her ugly duckling for her appearance and status in life. She belonged to an impoverished family. Her mom was widowed, and so had to support and take care of her 8 children by herself. The death of the father caused financial crisis in the family. They could not take a decent meal a day. And so, my friend and some of her siblings were not given proper nourishment. They were so thin and looked like malnourished people. Her face was covered with pimples, and her skin with boils, scars and rashes. She could not afford to go to dermatologist due to lack of money. She was overage when she graduated in high school because she started schooling late and needed to stop schooling once in a while to assist her mom in taking care of her siblings. When she was a teenager, she was molested and physically abused by her stepfather. She endured this torture for many years because of fear to be separated from her family, and dread of being killed by her stepfather. But, this is not the end of her suffering. She jumped from one relationship to another relationship for her need of security, love and acceptance. These relationships pierced her heart more due to physical, verbal and sexual abuse by men whom she loved and to whom she entrusted herself. The last thing I knew about her was that she got hooked on drugs and alcohol. And after that, I have not heard anymore from her for years.
After almost 20 years, the person she was then is different what she is now. All the suffering and hardships she experienced then did not crush her, but strengthen her. The trials she faced then did not dampen her spirit, but challenge her. The pain she endured then did not discourage her from pursuing her dreams, but fuel her to fight. She did not consider all problems and sorrows as failures and stumbling blocks, but opportunities for her to grow and mature. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: attitude, happiness, hope, recovery, self help, suffering

From Lisa’s Chair

The journey I have been on over the last five years is something most people, me included, only read about or see in the movies.  It has been a journey of highs, lows, laughter, tears and mostly of survival and self discovery.  A journey of developing into the person I have become today.  From the lows of lying in a Spinal unit to the highs of seeing the sparkling lights of the famous “Las Vegas Strip”.

It all began this time 5 years ago with a slight nagging pain in my upper arm.  I came home from my working day and commented to my partner that my upper arm was sore.  This progressed quite quickly to a pain that affected my daily routine, stopping me from working, sleeping and socialising.  I found myself at the emergency department of our major hospital, to be given the diagnosis of a massive bulging disc on my C5/C6.  After trying so many lotions and potions I was advised  by my doctor that the only option was surgery.  I was then booked to see a “Very well known and experienced” Neurosurgeon.  I was excited to be seeing this person who would take away my pain and give me my life back.  He assured me it was a very simple operation, and I would have more hope of being hit by a bus when he discharged me, than of anything going wrong.  I was so full of hope and could hardly wait until this wonderful person was going to give me my life back, 9th February 2005.  I could never had known how his words would ring in my ears for the rest of my life………3 to 5 days, you will be back home, pain free.  Those words started me on a journey of self development into the stronger person I have become today.

Hope you enjoy my story….

Kind Regards
Lisa Monaghan

Out with the Old In with the New

9^th February, 2005, a day forever in my memory, a day I was so looking forward to. Arriving bright and early keen to get the process going, I could never have imagined how devastated my family and I would feel by late this afternoon. I really don’t think there are any words that could describe my mortal fear when I realized that I could no longer move, I was so happy as I waved to my mother at 10am that morning as they wheeled me away smiling, to the operating theatre.

 Somewhere, somehow during my operation something had happened that would change everything in every aspect of my life. My body, mind and soul were no longer as I had always known them to be. My first realisation that all was not well was saying I felt pain in my arm, I just kept repeating that something was wrong. My family were downstairs unsure of what was going on as I was due out of theatre three hours earlier.

I remember waking seeing my Son, Daughter, Mother and Partner standing there smiling, huge bunches of flowers in hand, happy to see me at last. They had no idea of the horror we were all about to face. I was so sure that this was going away and all was going to be good again. Why wouldn’t it be-I was getting a new car and had a planned holiday to the Reef. Just a day or two should see all of this go away, after all the awful pain I felt was gone. I will be home again in 3 to 5 days, the Surgeon had assured me of that.

Never could I have imaged the journey I was about to undertake, a journey of digging deep and finding survival tactics I never knew existed. It is amazing the inner strength you can find when you are faced with adversity. Look out Lisa, out with the old and in with the new……….

07/02/10

As you can see by the date on my column today it has been some time since I last wrote and things have come to light of which I could never have imagined, but for now back to my hospital stay.  My three day visit lasted for nine long agonizing months, agonizing for me, my children, my parents, family and friends.  To see the pain and helplessness on their face day after day is really hard and sad.  To see their glee is also sad, their glee because you can now hold a pen or a cup or you can brush your hair, they feign excitement but really their heart is just as broken as yours, but they have to be as happy as they can be for your sake.  You do have your happy moments of course when funny things happen and you can even laugh at yourself and as time goes on you learn to do this more and more.  As much as you don’t like being in hospital it almost becomes a safe haven or another family and leaving it, even for just a few hours can be quite traumatic.  

My first trip out of the hospital was amazing and I almost felt like an alien!  Allan, my partner at the time, had asked me to marry him and he wanted to take me for a champagne to celebrate.  I had been practicing for a few weeks with my physiotherapist, Josh, how to transfer in and out of a car, so here was my opportunity.  It was slow, difficult and painful, but with the help of my Physio’s and Allan I was in the front seat of the car, the same car that had dropped me off a few months ago to start this painful journey.  Oh how excited I felt, it felt so weird to be in a car, yet I had been driving since I was 17.  We drove off leaving the hospital behind, so excited at something so seemingly small, I immediately called my mother and said excitedly “You will never guess where I am Mum, I am in the car with Allan”, such a big moment, we were so happy.  We stopped and picked up some piccolos of champagne and went and parked down by the river and drank to our excitement, to getting engaged, to being alone together, to being back in the real world, sitting in the car like a ‘Normal’ person, life just didn’t get any better.

Unfortunately, reality has a way of biting you when you least expect it, after we had finished drinking our champagne, it was time for me to remember that I had to go back to the Spinal Unit, Allan had told me something that had broken my heart and the Physios gave us a scolding as in our haste to get away from the hospital we had forgotten to take my wheelchair.  It seems my spinal injury was going to be with me wherever I went for the rest of my life……..how could I deal with that?

Kind Regards

Lisa Monaghan

Tags: anxiety, attitude, change, coping with change, fear, happiness, inspiration, Love, personal development, sadness, Self Esteem and Confidence, self improvement

Get On the Winning Team by Creating a Winning Attitude

Do you have a Winning Attitude? If not, you need to get one fast, so that you can join the Winning Team in Life – read on….

A vivid and defining difference between people who are successful and those who aren’t is the way they think. Successful people visualize their goals and take action to make them happen.

Unsuccessful people dwell on the negative, spend their time and energy complaining, and worry about things that are unimportant. This negativity wastes time and energy that could be harnessed toward achieving your goals.

Having a positive mental attitude helps you cope with challenges. When you’re put to the test, you’re more likely to find your inner strengths to overcome adversity, and that strength just might be your winning attitude. Whether or not you have the tools, skills, knowledge, or resources, your attitude can get you through tough times and come out on top.

On the other hand, an attitude filled with negative overtones makes everything much harder. You can’t win when you go into the contest prepared to lose! If you expect to do well, your attitude will create positive, winning thoughts that help you succeed.

Practice your Winning Attitude! – Practice Makes Perfect

If you hone your positive thinking skills and develop the mental attitudes of a winner, you’ll be able to overcome challenges without giving up. No matter how discouraging things may get or how intently others may try to dissuade you, with your winning attitude, you will be unstoppable!

A positive outlook enables you to focus on your goals with a tunnel vision that eliminates negative distractions and keeps you on a chartered course to success.

* Train your mind to focus on the good. Develop a positive mantra or affirmation to help you overlook the negative and realize the power of optimism.


Attitude Cause and Effect

It’s important to realize that for every effect in our lives, there’s a specific cause. Through positive thoughts, we can control these causes and change effects or outcomes. For every positive seed you plant, your thoughts will grow and reward you with a positive harvest. Negative seeds have the opposite effect. They’ll grow, but result in a spoiled and fruitless crop. You can’t plant negative seeds in your mind and expect positive results. It just doesn’t work that way. * In order to change your future for the better, you must first alter your thoughts in the present.

Train Your Attitude

An effective way to train your mind is to look at challenges as opportunities instead of obstacles. A problem is only a problem if you allow it to be one. With each challenge comes an opportunity to learn and improve. So if you search for solutions, you’ll find them. When you internalize this mindset, you’re sure to develop a winning attitude for a lifetime and reap the rewards of true success and happiness. Your attitude can make or break you. It’s virtually indisputable that your attitude determines how far you’ll go in life and a positive mental outlook can help you achieve optimal success. We often worry about our physical fitness, but do we think much about the fitness of our minds? Just as we train our bodies for peak performance, we must also train our minds by coaching ourselves to think winning thoughts and have a winning attitude!

Get on the Winning Team Now!…and have a great day

Tags: attitude, Winning Attitude, Winning Team

How You Can Boost Your Income by Boosting Your Attitude

A positive attitude has all sorts of benefits and one of them is more money for you! Here are some tips on how you can boost your income by boosting your attitude!

What would things be like if we transformed negative thoughts into positive ones? Changing how we feel about ourselves can truly change our direction in life!

Far too often, we allow our actions to be ruled by our emotions. It’s a fact: negative thoughts or a pesimistic attitude have a detrimental effect on every aspect of our lives, from family to our work and social lives and everything in between.

Having a brighter outlook on life can open our eyes to more possibilities and encourage us to move in new and exciting directions.

Living in the present and having a positive attitude about our future can help us reach goals we once thought were impossible.

How can you attain a better outlook on life and a more positive attitude?

Get a Great Attitude and Unstoppable Confidence – Click Here!

It all has to do with the way you see yourself. Having a positive and outgoing attitude is the key to changing your self-concept, boosting your income, and improving your life.

Here are some techniques you can use to get a better attitude:

1. Be your own cheerleader.

You’re your own best cheering section. So many times in life, the things we do go unrecognized by others, whether it’s at home or work. When this happens, step in and praise yourself!

* By actively projecting a positive outlook of yourself, you will push yourself further to do better the next time. Doing so will also bring you the confidence to explore more areas in life.

* Private affirmations can make you feel better about yourself when others fail to verbalize their gratitude.


2. Get control.

Figure out the things that make you unhappy and find ways to change them for the better. A positive outlook can change everything in your life – you just need to believe in yourself first.

* You have the power to work on ways to make yourself happy. Avoid doing something for the sole purpose of making someone else happy. It must be about you. This isn’t about being selfish; it’s about being true to you.

* Loving yourself is the only way you’re going to allow others to see you in a positive light as well. If you project negativity, you’ll be viewed as a negative person.

* Realizing you can’t control how others think and feel about you is critical to getting control of yourself.

3. Change the way you think.

Negative thoughts produce negative actions. Make a conscious effort to change the way you react and deal with situations. Look for the silver lining instead of focusing on the negative attributes of situations and people.

* If you think positively, you’ll act positively. Those positive thoughts and actions will keep many anxieties at bay. Through positive thoughts and actions, anything can become a reality.

4. Dream it into reality.

Misery loves company, and if you believe you’ll never achieve anything, you can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Dream big and dream often!

* Figure out what you want in life, and set your dreams into motion. Want a better job? Take the necessary steps to make it happen. You’re the biggest obstacle holding you back.

Boost your Attitude by Developing Unstoppable Confidence – Click Here!

If you believe in yourself, you can continue to accomplish bigger and better things. Whether you’re working to advance yourself in your present job or starting an entirely new career, your self-confidence and positive attitude will increase your income.

A positive attitude can change your job situation, relationships, and life. If you feel better about yourself, other people will feel the good vibrations you’re giving off. You’ll appear more confident and have a better chance of taking on whatever life throws at you.

Your fresh outlook will energize your work and stimulate your creativity. As you continue to boost your attitude on a daily basis, you’ll see that your optimism will soon lead you to bigger and better income opportunities as well!

How good would that be? Great! Not only can a positive attitude benefit your health, but your wealth as well as many other area’s in your life!

Use these tips on how to boost your income by boosting your attitude and you will see the benefits very soon

Tags: attitude, Boost Your Income, Boosting Your Attitude, positive attitude

Change Your Mind and get a Positive Attitude Now!

Attitude is very important when it comes to having a quality life. The things you focus on in life, you bring into your own life. Sometimes this is by choice, sometimes it’s not. Do you know someone who has a terrible attitude, and they are always complaining about everything and they can find something wrong with just about everything? It’s really draining and not fun at all to be in the company of people like this. In fact, most people try to avoid people like this.

If you have a bad attitude, not only will it hurt you, but it will have a bad effect on people around you too.

The opposite of this is a positive attitude. It turns you into the kind of person people enjoy being around. A person with a positive attitude looks on the positive side of things and makes the most out of life. If you want to be this type of person, you can. Here are some steps to help you:

1) Do things you love- Do hobbies that you love, do fun things you love, but most of all, try to find work you love. Do you like or job or do you have a job that you hate and you dread getting out of bed in the morning because you know you have to go to a job you hate? If you hate your job, then focus on finding a job in an area that you care about. If you are doing something you enjoy and feel useful, you will develop a much better attitude.

2) Always hope for the best- We are constantly getting news full of doom and gloom, so it’s easy to be negative. However, instead of focusing on all the negative things, make a choice to look for the best, hope for the best, and expect the best. Tell yourself that great things will happen. Affirm yourself as often as you can and ignore anything negative. The more you tell yourself these positive things, the more you’ll believe it and see it.

3) Lift yourself up- Everyday, think positive thoughts and say positive things. Don’t talk down to yourself and stop putting yourself down. That just leaves you with bad feelings such as feeling hopeless and frustrated. Instead, start lifting yourself up and tell yourself positive things. Everyday, give yourself affirmations. Remind yourself of all of your positive traits and don’t obsess over your negative ones.

4) Lift others up- Don’t just lift yourself up, but lift others up too. This really helps with their self esteem and makes them feel good about you and around you. Offer them support, encourage them, and give them compliments. Lift others up regularly. Encouraging and supporting others makes you are very likable person and will also raise your own self esteem.

5) Be strong- Instead of worrying about your weaknesses, focus on your strengths. Affirm your strengths and positive qualities. This will empower you and give your attitude a major improvement.

These are just a few ways that you can change your mind and get a positive attitude!
Have a great day!
Kym

Tags: attitude, change your mind, positive attitude