As I write this I am sitting in a small cafe in Istanbul, Turkey. Having arrived here only 3 days ago it is a world away from home as I know it. My eldest daughter is now 26 and when she was at Pre-School I was lucky enough to meet up with and get to know another Mum, whose little boy attended the same pre-school.

26 years later here we are….She is Australian and when in her own country we see each other about once a year! She travelled through Europe last year and stumbled upon Istanbul and loved it, so decided to stay! She has now been here almost a year on her own, living life and loving every wondrous moment it bestows upon her.

So many of her friends and family are bewildered and perplexed at what she doing! How could she leave her husband at home, her adult children and extended family, and why?

Because she found somewhere she loved and she made a decision to act on it. So often in life we don’t heed the warning signs, and trust me there are many along life’s journey, its just that we dont always see them. The difference is she did and what a wonderfully enriched life she is living.

It’s sometimes very challenging, living where you cannot speak the language, a woman on her own, learning to live her life in a foreign country without knowing anyone here. I am sure she has days where she wants to give it all up and go home, but the passion she feels for Istanbul and her craving for adventure keeps her here.

I envy and admire her courage and tenancy for as I write this she is struggling through a university class trying to learn turkish. She will come home frustrated yet elated having risen to yet another challenge of the day. While the rest of us go blindly through our lives, not knowing what we are potentially missing.

Cheers
Mary-Ann Roche.

Tags: courage, happiness, inspiration, motivation, overcoming fear, passion, positive attitude

7 Ways to a Happy & Stress Free Home

If what I am about to explain sounds like a typical evening at your place, then read on. The baby is on your hip, whilst you hurriedly put the Take Away out for dinner, the cat is throwing up on the bathroom mat, the hubby’s feet are up and TV on full-blast, and your teenager just angrily slammed his bedroom door because his washing is still on the line….

Sadly, this is not an exclusive club. However, the good news is that we don’t necessarily have to live this way. There are, in fact, things you can do to ease this stress and create a more harmonious home life so that you and your family can look forward to and enjoy being all home together.

A certain degree of stress is inherent as you deal with the varying phases of your precious-yes they are precious, family members. You must strive to uphold a core set of values and go with the flow to a degree. This ensures you can maintain a happy and healthy home.

There are some specific ways though that you can reduce stress, in turn creating harmony at home:

1. Be organized. Life can quickly become chaotic when you do not maintain organization. An organized home just flows, but disorganization will be full of ebbs and very little flow.

* A good tip is to start small, trying to organize the whole house at once becomes overwhelmingly difficult to achieve. Start small, one room at a time, and see how pleasing the task becomes.

2. Communicate. Your family will find it extremely beneficial to be actively working on communication skills. When you fail to do this effectively, you may not get what you want and may even lead to upsetting misunderstandings. Working on communication skills will in turn, allow all family members to feel loved and appreciated, create harmony and allow the household to run efficiently.

3. Always have your evening meal together. Everyone in your family likely has a full agenda of their own. You may even start to realize that you have no idea what’s going on with your spouse or child. When you make the time to have dinner together, you really start to relax and open up to each other, despite all having a busy lifestyle.

4. Enjoy each other’s company. It is important to schedule time to have fun together as a family, even starting with one night a week. This will take some advance planning, choosing an activity. You need to allow each family member a chance to pick an activity to their liking.

5. Show unconditional love, fill each other’s cup of love to the brim! Be sure to encourage unconditional love with your family. This leads to secure attachments and will in turn keep all of your family happy and stress-free.

* We all need to know that, when we make mistakes,which we all do at times,we have a loving family who will back us up and forgive us, no matter what.

6. Show support and go out of your way for your family members. It might not be your idea on a Friday night to go to your daughter’s ballet concert but just think of how she will feel when she sees your smiling face, knowing that she has your love and support. Express your love and support by really being there , no matter what or how difficult it seems. They can not read your mind, so just thinking about how much you love them is not enough!

7.Every family needs rules. Having a set of family rules will help with keeping organization, letting everyone know what is expected of them to create harmony for all.

* You will need to plan a family meeting to establish the house rules. Let everyone have a chance to participate and share his or her concerns. You will more than likely find a compromise that allows everyone a chance to feel happy and satisfied.

A home that is built on love will be happy and stress free. Don’t be too hard on yourself and others, and you will have the foundations for creating an excellent home life.

By MaryAnn Roche.

Tags: happiness, positive attitude, Relationships, respect, stress

How To Have A Happy and Healthy Marriage

A healthy marriage can form the foundation or building blocks to stable family environment. Having a strong partnership with your loved one can well lead to many years of happiness. However marriage is definately something that requires daily effort.  It is not a set and forget arrangement.  To work together and build a successful marriage takes love, devotion, respect amongst other things.

Michael Web (a guest of Oprah) recently wrote an interesting book on the secret to having a happy and blissful relationship.  To get your copy click here!
Certainly when you look at the statistics for modern day marriages, things are not encouraging, however there is a lot you can do to ensure you do not become one of these statistics. To be married to another individual firstly in my opinion, takes incredible courage.  You stand there and pledge your undivided love and complete devotion to this person for the rest of your days! Do we really know when we make this vow what marriage is going to entail?  If not, is it better that way?

Marriage over the years seems to unfold and develop and change and grow along the way.  There will undoubtedly be many many conflicts and differing of opinions. How one deals with those conflicts and how much they respect the other really is an integral part of the solving process.  Always being right, or having the last word really does not work in a marriage as marriage is full of comprimise and not assigning blame and coming to something that is workable.

In a past life I spent quite a lot of time interviewing for new staff and one of my questions was; “What do you think is the single most important factor in clear effective communication”?”  You would not believe the number of people who went on about honesty, being clear in what they say etc, when really it all begins with LISTENING.  If we do not listen to the other person, our conversation can be fraught with all sorts of problems!

Marriages seem full of decisions.  There are always the small ones such as choosing the centerpiece for the wedding table or big decisions such as where you will both live.  A good marriage will require that you know how to effectively communicate your thoughts and feelings with one another and be prepared to understand that input is required from both parties when it comes to decision making.  It takes two to arrive at a suitable effective decision. Try to understand why your partner wants to make a certain decision and remember if it is not something you agree with, do not react rashly but rather take your time to really hear what they are saying before determining your own feelings on the subject. How important is it to you.

I have a few rules in life but one is that we all have what I call our non-negotiables and these are our core values, the ones that we simply cannot move on.  There are generally about 5 of these.  Then there are our secondary values if you like, those ones that when coming together with another individual in a relationship, are able to be massaged into something workable for both people.

I think at the end of the day, and there will be the most challenging of days when you really will ask yourself what you are doing, and these are the days where you must reflect on the feelings you felt when you met your partner, what they said, what attracted you to them in the first instance.  Reflecting upon this is what carries you through.

Lastly remember saying I love you costs nothing.  It is funny that something that is free is so often overlooked yet undervalued and so often forgotten after a marriage.

By MaryAnn Roche.

Tags: find a loving relationship, happiness, love yourself, loving relationship, marriage, Nurture a Positive Relationship, positive attitude, respect, self respect

Applying the Law of Attraction

I guess it’s a topic everyone has all heard about by now.  How could you not, remember what a splash “The Secret” made a few years ago?  I don’t know that anyone living and breathing didnt hear about it!  The funny thing is, is was all about the Law of Attraction, which really is nothing new right?  Well, if its nothing new then why do so many of us either ignore it, or just fail to incorporate it into our daily lives?

I suppose to do so would mean that we must firstly understand what the Law of Attraction is and how we can utilize it. It really is a simple and easy concept – negative attracts negative and positive attracts positive.  How difficult is that to understand?  Easy isnt it. Well perhaps it is a little more involved -in that the universe knows our subconscious mind and delivers things according to our thoughts. If we are wanting good things in our lives such as peace, happiness, success etc, then we simply need to give thanks for all the good things we currently have. We must be truly grateful for what we have right now and profess our thanks for this on a daily basis. To do so begets more of  the same.

Of course we all have times when its difficult to escape those negative thoughts and feelings, and often times when we are overworked, tired and stressed, it really is too easy to allow those negative thoughts to permeate.  However its moments such as these when it is even more important to focus on the positive and give thanks for all the little things we take for granted. According to the principles of the Law of Attraction, redirecting these feelings immediately attracts more of the positive into our lives.

Imagine you are standing in line at the supermaket, you have had a long and taxing day and this really is the last thing you want to be doing, before you have to go home and face the kids and actually cook dinner!  Difficult to see the positive in that situation isnt it?  Not really.  Give thanks for the fact that your work allows you to buy the food for your children, and imagine how happy they will be when you walk through the front door.

Lastly and the single most important lesson in the Law of Attraction:  Ask for what you want. Honestly it is that simple that we forget.  We actually have to voice what it is we actually want.  We all waste so much time talking about what we dont want, and of course in doing so, we simply attract more of the same. If you want a great relationship or you want happy children, a well paid job etc, you can actually have all that you want but you must ask for it and give thanks for all that you currently have.  If you would like to learn more about applying the law of attraction,Click Here!

When asking for what you want, you have to visualize yourself having it already.  Although its difficult to do and does take practice you have to actually live as though you already have whatever it is you want, taste the tastes or smell the smells etc as this will feed through to your subconscious. If love is what you want in your life, you must visualize yourself experiencing it. Laughing and smiling, enjoying things with someone special etc.

The funny thing about the Law of Attraction is you just can’t fake it, our subconcious is a very powerful tool that can provide us with all that we want in our lives if we just use it correctly.  Imagine how happy you are, the smiles on your faces, and enjoying things together.

* Just remember that you must request this sincerely.

By MaryAnn Roche.

Tags: happiness, Law Of Attraction, peace, positive attitude, Success

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