So I thought I would talk about Procrastination on Tuesday, but I got busy and then Wednesday, stuff came up, like it always does and by Thursday, I was too anxious to settle down so here it is Saturday. What happened to Friday?
Call them tools, coping skills, tricks or fooling yourself. How do we accomplish stuff we have been putting off so long? Two ways that work for me, though usually not at the same time:
Start with the pile directly left or right of your computer. Do it! Okay, so you just put your coffee mug into the dishwasher? Mission accomplished! Sort through the pens, paper clips and rubber bands that never seem to roost in the right place. Dump them! Two jobs done! And you’re picking up speed!
The dry cleaning receipts, that need to be sorted because you think they lost those great shirts you bought in Venice? Tape them to your front door – in fact anything that needs to go outside should be lined up at the door. But you don’t do those now. You WILL grab one or all when you leave the house the next time.
Ah oh! The books for the paper that’s due on Sunday are way far to the right and you’ll never make it to them on time? Move it in closer, but NOT next. We need to finish more brainless stuff before we tackle the bigger stuff……but we’ve already done so much. Your brain doesn’t really know if a task is long or short. Treat all tasks like short ones.
The other game, coping skill or trick I use is to do the smallest and easiest stuff first. Yes, I know your kitchen was never cleaner when you had homework to do and kept putting off. I’m talking about desk stuff – not cleaning the closets, scrubbing the shower or calling your Aunt who has been missing you. Desk stuff!
Usually what I thought would take days took only hours.
Dealing with the blame and guilt that comes from putting things off? We’ll talk about that later.
Image Courtesy of Google Images
Shawn Nichols
]]>We ignore the warnings and we avoid the confrontation, knowing all the time, it will just get worse. We isolate.
Video, Courtesy of Youtube.com
As our financial situation or our relationships worsen, we cling to old ideas and negative people because the devil we know is better than the one we don’t. We think. We run away.
Image Courtesy of Google Images
In workshops, I ask my clients to become the big brother or sister to themselves. It takes a bit of visual imagery, a lot of practiced thinking but who better to care for ourselves than US!
]]>If you have been reading here for a while, you know I tout great resources and books that I find. Some of those reviews appear on my other site www.ShawnNichols.com.
Someone I just met has been making major waves in others’ lives. In a very positive way. Natasha Zaslove at www.nzaslove.com is an Astrologer with a great sense of Intuition and Understanding. A former high-powered attorney (surprise!), she isn’t a fuzzy tambourine banging desert nymph moaning to herself. Her approach is direct and supportive. She lives and heals among the bold scenery of Sedona, Arizona.
I was introduced to her about two weeks ago. She did my chart, showed it to me for about ten minutes while she explained it, and then talked to me for the next three hours as though she had known me all my life. I know, we have all seen or heard about this before. But she was able to place important events, desires, and obstacles in a real perspective. In terms of my future, yes, not all is rosy. What Natasha did for me was discuss and explore my career, education and dreams in a responsible, strategic and do-able light.
She is on my list of must talk to OFTEN.
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]]>So you think taking drugs is only hurting you!! What do you know!!
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=d_0y4liAZFA[/youtube]
Violence towards friends and partners is rising – and most of it has to do with drug use and abuse. The bad effects can be as simple as physical injuries but includes fear, post-traumatic stress and depression which for a victim can lead to homicide, suicide or a continuation of the violence (Archer, 2000, Hines, Malley-Morrison, 2001).
]]>Loneliness means to feel:
- Excluded from a group.
- Unloved by those around you.
- Alienated from your surroundings.
- There is no one with whom to share your personal concerns and experiences.
- That you are alone and have no other choice. You find it difficult to make friends and go beyond mere acquaintance.
Courtesy of Student Affairs-University of Buffalo. 
FEAR OF BEING ALONE AS FEAR OF NOT BEING ABLE TO CREATE YOUR OWN HAPPINESS ALONE The thought of being all alone in the world is not in itself something to panic about. While some people panic at the thought–others delight at the thought. If you believe that you can take care of your own needs well and be happy even if you are alone, then being alone is nothing to fear. If you believe that you need others to take care of you and “make” you happy, then you are too dependent on others and their absence is something to “panic” about.Courtesy of csulb.edu/~tstevens. [youtube]http://i.ytimg.com/vi/k3tkVoRBSms/default.jpg[/youtube] 
[youtube]http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bL1EiAyYRVw/default.jpg[/youtube]
A religion is a set of beliefs and practices often organized around supernatural and moral claims, and often codified as prayer, ritual, and religious law.
Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and mystic experience. The term “religion” refers to both the personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction.“Organized religion” generally refers to an organization of people supporting the exercise of some religion with a prescribed set of beliefs, often taking the form of a legal entity (see religion-supporting organization). Other religions believe in personal revelation. “Religion” is sometimes used interchangeably with “faith” or “belief system,”[3] but is more socially defined than that of personal convictions.
Courtesy of Wikipedia.com
Courtesy of Google Images. We all have our views and our preachers do not necessarily speak for us. But do they represent the common belief within that religious group.?
Presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) defended his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, on Tuesday, even as he repudiated some of the pastor’s inflammatory sermons. But Wright’s comments likely come as no surprise to those familiar with black liberation theology, a religious philosophy that emerged during the 1960s.
Black liberation theology originated on July 31, 1966, when 51 black pastors bought a full page ad in the New York Times and demanded a more aggressive approach to eradicating racism. They echoed the demands of the black power movement, but the new crusade found its source of inspiration in the Bible.
“God’s presence in the world is best depicted through God’s involvement in the struggle for justice,” says Anthony Pinn, who teaches philosophy and religion at Rice University in Houston. “God is so intimately connected to the community that suffers, that God becomes a part of that community.”Courtesy of NPR.com
]]>In recent years, spirituality in religion often carries connotations of a believer having a faith more personal, less dogmatic, more open to new ideas and myriad influences, and more pluralistic than the doctrinal/dogmatic faiths of mature religions. It also can connote the nature of believers’ personal relationship or “connection” with their god(s) or belief-system(s), as opposed to the general relationship with a Deity as shared by all members of a given faith.
Courtesy of Wikipedia.com
“In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher.” The Dalai Lama.
Courtesy of www.katinkahesselink.net
