Roland Yeomans's Blog, page 82

A GIFT OF BEAUTY

HAPPY SUNDAY

LIVING: #AToZChallenge

“Attitude is a choice.  Happiness is a choice.  Optimism is a choice.  Kindness is a choice.  Giving is a choice.  Respect is a choice.  Whatever choice you make  makes you.  Choose wisely.” ― Roy T. Bennett


  “I must be a mermaid, Rango.  I have no fear of depths  and a great fear of shallow living.” ― Anais Nin 


 “What am I living for and  what am I dying for  are the same question.”  ―Margaret Atwood


“Great minds have purposes,  others have wishes.”  ―Washington Irving

WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF LIVING WELL?

How Can We KNOW? #AToZChallenge

“I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. 

They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. 

They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. 

 They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. 

They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. 

They don't teach you anything worth knowing.”
― Neil Gaiman


"The mind is a veritable prisoner bound within the body ...

and instead of investigating reality by itself and with itself, 

the mind is compelled to peer through the bars of its prison." 
 - Plato


It is interesting that we individually tend to think of ourselves as clear thinkers and see those who disagree with us as misguided. 

We imagine that the impressions we have about the world come to us unsullied and unfiltered. 

We think we have the capacity to see things just as they really are, and that it is others who have confused perceptions. 


 Not only are we in the grip of a staggeringly complex array of cognitive biases and dispositions,

 but we are generally ignorant of their role in our thinking and decision making.


TELL ME:
HOW CAN YOU KNOW THAT WHAT YOU KNOW IS TRUE?

JIHAD: #AToZChallenge

It seems the whole world is bent on getting even for something, doesn't it?
“The only people  who you should get even with  are those who have helped you.”
― John Southard 
"The best revenge is to live well."  - Oscar Wilde


 Where is the survival benefit in feeling the need to get even?


 Life isn't a game, and simply getting even doesn't mean you've won the battle; it just means you've lost your self-respect.
  "For every minute you are angry  you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson



Brooding over an injustice only makes the event,which took minutes,possess weeks or years of our lives.

Let it go. 
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THE URGE TO GET EVEN POSSESSES YOU?

IDEA: #AToZChallange

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples, 

then you and I will still each have one apple. 


But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, 

then each of us will have two ideas.”
― George Bernard Shaw 

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0789496097/  (Only $6 in hardcover!)

This copiously illustrated book begins more than 30 millennia ago 
and portrays human history as the product of a series of intellectual and conceptual discoveries. 
The author shows how our ancestors pulled themselves out of prehistory 
by realizing that symbols could be used to express ideas; 
by grasping that what we see is not necessarily what is
by, in short, having the big idea that the world operates according to rules that can be understood.

"Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. 

We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. 

We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
  [Commencement Address at Yale University, June 11 1962]”

― John F. Kennedy

What was the FIRST IDEAthat meant something personally to you?
What IDEA is the most important to you right now?

HATE: #AToZChallenge

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0087OUIM6/
Emotional Vampires will help you cope effectively with the people in your life that confound you, confuse you, and seem to sap every ounce of your energy. 

“I have decided to stick to love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.


 Watch the TV newsand you will see angry protestors.
The Slogans on the signs may varybut one thing remainsconstant on them:
Hate/Anger
Why do you think Hate seems to be sweeping this nation?

GAMES: #AToZChallenge

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671527959/
 The author's brilliant insights and accessible examples
reflect a deep understanding of the dynamics of self sabotage 
And explain why so many of us do ourselves more harm than good:
Procrastination, destructive relationships, job failure, inability to advocate for ourselves, 
these are all examples of what Dr. Brandt calls everyday masochism.
 He offers wise and brilliant advice for changing these destructive patterns.

 “I decry the injustice of my wounds,  only to look down  and see that I am   holding a smoking gun  in one hand  and  a fistful of ammunition  in the other.”  ― Craig D. Lounsbrough
  “One simple thing to destroy  the spirit of self-sabotage
is to admire  the beauty hidden in  your ugly circumstances.”
― Israelmore Ayivor

MOVE OVER, SHAZAM!

BEWARE  EVIL DUST BUNNIES  and  WAYWARD SOCKS EVERYWHERE!
YOUR NEMESIS IS HERE!  

FEAR: #AToZChallenge

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0896961001/
 “Why do you want to  make up horrible things  when there is so much  real horror in the world? 
The answer seems to be  that we make up horrors  to help us cope with the real ones.”
 - Stephen King
 
Fear can be uncomfortable and crippling. 
But eliminating it would be the equivalent of taking down your home alarm system because it makes loud sounds.
 Is fear your ally or enemy? 
The more you understand about fear, the less scared of life you will be.
 "We must travel in the direction of our fear." - John Berryman

“Tell your heart that  the fear of suffering is worse  than the suffering itself." -  Paulo Coelho

EMPATHY: #AToZChallenge

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881623717/
This is a very good book. It makes extensive use of pictures to explain non-verbal communication. 
It's also a cross cultural reference, though most of the emphasis is on the UK and American peoples.
  "One can only understand people after one has noted    the books they've read,   the pictures hung on their walls,   the diversions they seek,   and   the company they keep."    - W. A. Hunt, psychologist

WHAT DOES EMPATHY  MEAN TO YOU?
DO YOU THINK ITS LACK EXPLAINS SOME  OF THE VIOLENCE IN THIS WORLD?