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Self-Confidence and Positive Motivation

by Michael Corthell When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things. To be successful in your life, you must be willing to stand out and stand apart from the rest. You must act and be yourself.  Success is something that is unfortunately currently achieved by only a small number of people. It is my goal that all people live positive and therefore productive and successful lives. Also, in today's world you will discover, as you become successful, that there are many who, out of jealousy or envy, will belittle your achievements. No matter. When you have the courage of your convictions, nothing can keep you from becoming successful. You will develop confidence in your beliefs by doing your own thinking and by constantly being testing and revising your knowledge. Why Confidence Leads to Success: The Drive to Start Things – Confident people start things. They are not shy about striking out on a new idea e

For Your Spiritual Integrity

  The emotion of love is more than a feeling, it is more a state of awareness  —  the realization that all is one .

About That Karma Boomerang

  Not only is there a right and wrong, but what goes around does come around, Karma is real, chickens do come home to roost, and there is always a day of reckoning. The wise understand that every choice we make adds to the strength or weakness of our spirits. Every unkind act diminishes us, and every kind act lifts us. Karma is how the Universe balances itself . And we are all, along with all there is, one with the Universe.     

Understanding Karma

by Michael Corthell 'Karma' is a Sanskrit word meaning 'act', 'action', or 'word'. The law of karma teaches us that all of our thoughts, words and actions begin a chain of cause and effect , and that we will personally experience the effects of everything we cause. We may not experience the effect (the returning karma) right away, but you can count on it happening. Karma is a cosmic, immutable law, which means that it applies to everyone, everywhere, all the time. Ralph Waldo Emerson had much to say about this law, and in fact he describes the law of cause and effect as the law of laws . In a narrower sense, Karma is a theological concept found in the Buddhist and Hindu religions. It is the idea that how you live your life will determine the quality of life you will have after reincarnation. If you are unselfish, kind, and holy during this lifetime, you will be rewarded by being reincarnated (reborn into a new earthly body) into a pleasant l

Enthusiastic Habits

“Enthusiasm is a supernatural serenity.” ― Henry David Thoreau Napoleon Hill, the author of “Think and Grow Rich” said the following: “Enthusiasm is a state of mind that inspires and arouses one to put action into the task at hand . . . Enthusiasm bears the same relationship to a human being that steam does to the locomotive – it is the vital moving force that impels action.”

Your Right to Health (and being at your best)

“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution the time will come when medicine will organize itself into an undercover dictatorship. To restrict the art of healing to doctors and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic.” ― Benjamin Rush , a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and a civic leader in Philadelphia. The American people should be asking why they can't have the same level of healthcare, for the same cost, as other countries that have similar resources. The answer is easy to understand, by the way: it is the absence of the basic public health insurance that citizens of most other countries take for granted.

Veracity: Tell Me More

There is one reason for telling the truth -- it's the right thing to do, but for lying the reasons are infinite, with almost all the reasons self-serving -- that's why lying is a corrupt politician's go-to tactic. “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.” ― Theodore Roosevelt  

Today

We're all learners, all the time. It's just we're a different kind each day. We think, 'I'm not student today. I've learned my lesson. I was a learner yesterday but not this morning'. Then tomorrow we find out that, yes, we were a learner today too. I think the only way we can grow and get on in this world is to accept the fact we're not perfect and live accordingly...don't you? “Yesterday is but a dream, Tomorrow is only a vision.  But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness,  and every tomorrow a vision of hope.” ― Kālidāsa

The Power of a Smile

  The morning that started out as a complete mess was turned around by....a SMILE. We can’t always control what happens to us, but slapping a smile on our mugs can definitely change our internal and external experiences. "Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile,  but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy." — Thich Nhat Hanh

Recognizing Ignorance

Let's try this: If you have  never  changed your mind about some fundamental thing in your belief system, if you have never  questioned  it's basics, and if you have  no wish  to do so, then you are very likely ignorant. How about going out and finding someone who,  in your opinion , believes, assumes, or considers certain things very strongly and very differently from what you believe. Then just have a basic honest conversation. That is how we can all build positive tolerance and unify.  

Creating the Future

  If you are positive, positive things will find you.  I submit to you again that all futures are created by thoughts. And that the foundation of all happiness is faith. A happy life is also a healthy life. None of us will ever be perfectly healthy, but we can seek our personal  optimal level of health.  If we can accept the premise that our minds can create illness, it would naturally follow that we can also create wellness. And therein lies a most powerful truth about healing.  Have faith, be positive about your future and create it.

The World Sustained

We can't escape the idea that, in general, people commonly use false moral standards judge their own behavior. Most people seek success and wealth for themselves and admire them in others, but at the same time,  to be wealthy and honored in an unjust society is a moral disgrace.

How to Motivate? Inspire

Yearning to do good, to do better starts with an inspired vision.  When people can see it in their mind’s eye and hold a vision before them of what is possible for the future, it inspires them to take action. It gives them a goal to work towards. It gives meaning to their daily actions. It helps them stay the course, especially when they need it most.  Inspiring a shared vision requires our leaders to be thoughtful visionaries who engage others in creating a shared future. 

About Great Leaders

Book except from Madeleine K. Albright's Fascism: A Warning We cannot, of course, expect every leader to possess the wisdom of Lincoln or Mandela’s largeness of soul. But when we think about what questions might be most useful to ask, perhaps we should begin by discerning what our prospective leaders believe it worthwhile for us to hear. Do they cater to our prejudices by suggesting that we treat people outside our ethnicity, race, creed or party as unworthy of dignity and respect? Do they want us to nurture our anger toward those who we believe have done us wrong, rub raw our grievances and set our sights on revenge? Do they encourage us to have contempt for our governing institutions and the electoral process? Do they seek to destroy our faith in essential contributors to democracy, such as an independent press, and a professional judiciary? Do they exploit the symbols of patriotism, the flag, the pledge in a conscious effort to turn us against one another? If defeated at the pol

Don't Look Back America You're Not Going That Way

All of us need just three things in life to be truly happy:  Someone to love Something to do  Something to hope for.... let's just do this, shall we?

Regarding Goal Achievement

If you want to achieve your dreams and take steps to achieve your life goals, then commitment is the key to help you get there. If you believe you can reach your goals and have the commitment and self-confidence to expand that belief, anything is possible.

Life in Series

So, you don't like the way your life is going, or you love it so far? Our lives seem to be a series of events and accidents. But if you look back you will see a pattern. Find out what that pattern is, and you can change your future hopefully for the better [or maintain it].

The Mark of a Monster

  When considering the question of whether or not someone is an autocrat, dictator wannabe, it would be good to remember that Joseph Stalin , Benito Mussolini , and Adolf Hitler all took great care in always saying the opposite of what they did, and do the opposite of what they said. This is the mark of a psychopath who becomes head of a nation (or an organization). History is full of tales and stories to narrate how powerful men exploited their authority and power to inflict misery and suffering on others. While some leaders used ruthless ways to capture cities and gain control over states, others simply derived sadistic satisfaction in torturing and abusing people. As you read the accounts of the following people who abused their authority by abusing humankind, it might dawn on you why we must never accept a lying psychopath as head of state. Here's a list of psychopathic leaders who used the most dreaded and brutal methods in history to torture their people: Full Article  

The Pain of Silence

We know that our enemies will mistreat us, acting in unkind ways. We guard against being disrespected and shield ourselves against hateful words that are thrown at us like rocks — that’s what our enemies do, they try to hurt us. We are sometimes caught off guard by the actions of our enemies, but these actions are never unexpected. Our enemies wouldn’t be enemies if they were nice and supportive...right? Friends on the other hand, and by friends I mean all good people, are a different story all together. We expect them to do right, to have our backs. Otherwise good people often enable bullies and even seditionists to thrive by remaining silent in the face of the bad person's actions. It's either fear or apathy but the result is the same — silence is consent. Never forget that or this: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer * *  Dietrich Bonhoeffer   was arrested in Apri

Conspiracy's Blind Faith

Conspiracy theories resist falsification and are reinforced by circular reasoning: both evidence against the conspiracy and an absence of evidence for it are re-interpreted as evidence of its truth, whereby the conspiracy becomes a matter of faith rather than something that can be proved or disproved.  Research suggests that conspiracist ideation—belief in conspiracy theories—can be psychologically harmful or pathological and that it is correlated with psychological projection , paranoia and Machiavellianism .  Psychologists attribute finding a conspiracy where there is none to a mental illness called illusory pattern perception .Conspiracy theories once limited to fringe audiences have become commonplace in mass media , emerging as a cultural phenomenon of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Regarding the False Equivalence Argument

False equivalence is a logical fallacy (a propaganda technique and a favorite of conmen/women) in which an equivalence is drawn between two subjects based on flawed or false reasoning. This fallacy is categorized as a fallacy of inconsistency. In common speak, a false equivalence is often called "comparing apples and oranges". Thomas Patterson of the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University wrote about the false equivalency used by the media during the 2016 United States presidential election : ''False equivalencies are developing on a grand scale as a result of relentlessly negative news. If everything and everyone is portrayed negatively, there’s a leveling effect that opens the door to charlatans. The press historically has helped citizens recognize the difference between the earnest politician and the pretender. Today’s news coverage blurs the distinction.''

About Voter Mistakes

There is a real danger in democracy. It is the risk of the electorate being wrong about a candidate, and until now it wasn't an obvious risk (to many that is).  This mindset has been too prevalent in our era, ''My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge,'' and that has to change.

''I've never understood America, said the King'' by John Steinbeck

  “I've never understood America," said the king. "Neither do we, sir. You might say we have two governments, kind of overlapping. First we have the elected government. It's Democratic or Republican, doesn't make much difference, and then there's corporation government." "They get along together, these governments?" "Sometimes," said Tod. "I don't understand it myself. You see, the elected government pretends to be democratic, and actually it is autocratic. The corporation governments pretend to be autocratic and they're all the time accusing the others of socialism. They hate socialism." "So I have heard," said Pippin. "Well, here's the funny thing, sir. You take a big corporation in America, say like General Motors or Du Pont or U.S. Steel. The thing they're most afraid of is socialism, and at the same time they themselves are socialist states." The king sat bolt upright. "Please?&qu

Out with the Old

Healthcare must shift to a prevention model.  The focus must be on positive diet and lifestyle changes. Healthcare systems must adopt a more preventative health approach based on the developing science behind the health benefits of plant-rich, nutrient-dense diets( 100% whole food plant based diet ) plus other lifestyle changes such as regular exercise and limiting stress.  After the pandemic, consumers will be more aware of the importance of their underlying health, and will increasingly understand that healthier food is needed to help support their natural defenses. With a much deeper understanding of nutrition , the global food industry must change immediately by offering a plant-based range of product options to support optimal human health. The healthcare industry can respond to this by promoting disease prevention. And, by the way, a healthy plant-based diet is good for the planet's health as well.

How to Deal with Change

Seasons Change and So Do We by Michael Corthell Our first reaction to the unexpected change is usually quite negative. Feeling vulnerable and maybe even threatened, we can react badly.  In fact, we go through stages: Surprise (shock, wondering why this is happening to us.), Panic (how the changes will impact us and if we'll be able to handle them), and even Blame (we try to find safety and reassurance by shifting the blame to someone else). Bottom line ? We all need to know how to handle Change . ''Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.'' — Arnold Bennett What is the worst that can happen? Ask this question, then decide just how likely it is to happen. The next question is, ''How likely is it to happen?'' How much and what part of this change can you control? When change happens, figure out how if it's something you can control over, and just how much control you do ha