Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Q1: If everyone is a
My! What an impressive array of colorful buttons.
Special thanks to Cool Text.
TNNW - more than a 4
My! What an impressive array of colorful buttons.
Special thanks to Cool Text.
Monday, June 15, 2009
LYNN PATNER'S COLUMN: To Grumble or Not To Grumble, That is the Question...
To Grumble or Not To Grumble , That is the Question… By SrMeetUp! Featured Columnist Lynn Patner
All around me I am hearing grumbling. I hear grumbles from my students, from my clients, while I am standing in a grocery store and at dinners with friends. There are the economic grumbles, the physical grumbles and of course the relationship grumbles. I cannot go anywhere anymore without hearing someone grumble. All this grumbling is affecting me, and even at the dog park, the dogs are getting into the grumbling mood. Fights are breaking out right and left.
Now granted, the world situation is less than perfect. The collapse of the economy, the housing debacle and the loss of jobs, et cetera, only brings around more grumbling, nothing else. It goes like this: one starts to grumble, then another adds their grumbles and soon there are many grumbles. Now grumbling would be fine if it solved something or was of good use, but grumbling does nothing. It’s like sitting in a rocking chair and expecting to go somewhere. It doesn’t even make one feel better.
Do you remember the cartoon character in the Charlie Brown series, Pigpen? Wherever he walked little clouds of dust followed. That is exactly what happens with grumbles; they are like little clouds of dust that follow behind you collecting more grumbles as they go forward. The problem is they keep attracting only negativity.
In 1994 I stepped onto a path and began an amazing journey. I learned that our thoughts, either verbalized or not, create our experiences. That new information took a very long time to penetrate my mind. But then I saw what thoughts and beliefs produced, and it opened an entirely different world of reality. The reality is, I am the producer, the director and the star of my own life. This revelation did not make me happy because I could no longer be the victim in my own life drama. I couldn’t blame my parents, nor the environment and worse yet I couldn’t grumble about any of it anymore. If I was not a victim, then I must be the creator. Creator is definitely a better option.
What I have learned about my thoughts and the power of them, my emotions, and my beliefs is they literally create my reality. And it is now being proven by scientific methods no less. Wow! All you doubting Thomas out there read on.
In 2005 Bruce Lipton Ph.D., a cellular biologist, published “The Biology of Belief.” This book was awarded 2006’s Best Science Book of the Year. In the book he presents scientific evidence showing that genes and DNA do not control our biology. Instead, our genes are turned on and off by signals from outside the cells in our bodies, including the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts. The significance of this shift in belief is vast, in that the original view held for a long time was that we were victims of our own biology. The ‘new’ sciences show that we are actually masters of our biology.
An earlier book, “Timeless Healing: The Power and Biology of Beliefs,” published in 1997 by Dr. Herbert Benson, M.D. tells about a study conducted in 1957 at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. This study found, according to Dr. Benson, that 30 percent of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis benefited from placebos. Their placebo relief lasted at least three months. In 1995 more research was conducted confirming this study. The results were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, where 40 percent of individuals suffering with rheumatoid arthritis had a 50 percent reduction in both swelling and tenderness in their joints by simply taking a placebo. These effects lasted for six months or more.
There continues to be scientific evidence that states that we are powerful creators in our lives and the world in which we live. So, less grumbling is important as our beliefs about ourselves and the world, regardless if they are true or false, positive or negative affect us on a multitude of levels. So, I say, " just say no to grumbling."
A few tools to assist you any time you are in a grumbling space…
• Listen to uplifting music
• Think positive thoughts
• Walk in nature
• Relax in water
• Read an inspirational book
• Play with a child
• Laugh often
• Go shopping
What is important to remember is that our thoughts are creating our reality all the time. Most of the time we are creating these thoughts with our unconscious mind. As a matter of fact, I just recently heard that we are creating our lives around 95 percent from the unconscious mind. That is important information to notice. So you ask, what is the answer. The answer is: become aware of your thoughts and redirect them when you start to grumble.
Do anything that opens your heart and fills you with joy and you are on the path to bring about a life transformation.
-- Lynn
BRIEF COMMENTARY By ELAINE INGIS:
It is amazing how much we accomplish out of sheer vision and the will to make things happen. Lynn Patner offers both a tremendous opportunity and a challenge to every Boomer -- since we have the ability to transform our state of physiological health by out thoughts about life, why do we waste time dwelling on negative possibilities? There may be more to the Law of Attraction (the force behind those "self-fulfilling prophesies" many of us learned about in Psychology 101) than many of us have ever realized. We are blessed and burdened by the obligation to create our own reality by our thinking processes.
Being aware of this, we owe it to ourselves, each of us, to surround ourselves with positive influences and to avoid energy vampires who seem to thrive on complaining, suffering and misery. Carrying this one step further, we can enrich and improve our lives by becoming vitally involved in a social group or community that has a courageous, problem-solving orientation, instead of by sitting alone and talking to some well-intentioned friend on the telephone who reaffirms and prolongs our misery by fueling our outrage or by encouraging us to retreat from what life has brought us. We each have great personal power; this power is multiplied when we combine forces with other positive people.
At the risk of sounding like a shameless self-promoter, SrMeetUp! was created to bring about a positive, supportive and strengthening community environment for our Members. Positive thoughts are contagious -- why not share them? - E.I.
[Douglas Castle, a Director of SrMeetUp! and the Developer of both the Braintenance and Links 4 Life Blogs contributed to this Commentary]
My! What an impressive array of colorful buttons.
Special thanks to Cool Text.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
PLS --> --> Dear Fri
My! What an impressive array of colorful buttons.
Special thanks to Cool Text.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Going Inside
Just as I was getting ready to head west to teach a journal writing workshop, Elaine invited me to write a little blog entry for SrMeetUp! That started my brain going on the difference between journal writing and blogging—two things that many people think are the same thing. In fact, some of my students at the university equate putting their thoughts out there in cyberspace with journal writing. But I am certain that these are two very different endeavors—not mutually exclusive and not necessarily contradictory—but still very different.
If blogging is putting one’s thoughts and ideas “out there” to be visited and read by others, it doesn’t necessarily mean a blogger censors or even edits, but there always exists the idea that you are presenting yourself, in whatever fashion you choose, to the world. Now journal writing is a very different act and it’s not about “out there” but about “in here.” It might indeed be the very first step to a blog post, but journal writing is about self-reflection and not about self-presentation, about getting inside rather than going outside.
The more I think about this, the more important I believe journal writing is for those of us who spend a lot of time “out there.” In order to present ourselves to the world, especially at this point in our lives where we can take pleasure in knowing ourselves, we need to spend more time noticing ourselves . I just learned that scientists speculate that molecules in cells are in constant flux which makes me feel much better about my own mercurial thoughts and ideas. Of course some things stay constant, some values and evaluations, but if we are truly alive to the world, things change within us daily and we need to take the time to be introspective before we go blurting to the world.
So the idea which I offer to all of you “out there” is that we could all benefit from using the old notion of “tithing,” in this case giving 10 percent of our time to ourselves--to notice, to write it down, to go below the surface. Some years ago, I asked participants in a journal writing workshop to make a list of 100 desires. Seems like a lot, doesn’t it? But the trick is to write as fast as you can, and you’re allowed to repeat. Even with this instruction that was guaranteed, I thought, to get below the conscious mind, two of the “senior” women in the group never got around to listing anything for themselves. Their lists were all about their children, grandchildren, church and community. They needed more practice in noticing themselves.
So take a stab at that list of 100 desires—
1. Label the top of the page "I want," or "I desire";
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2. Write as quickly as you can and just let it all hang out. Write whatever comes into your head without censoring and without worrying about grammar or complete sentences;
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3. No need to feel foolish because no one's going to read it since it's in your journal and not out there in a blog post;
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4. Do it for yourself and then review the list and see if you find any patterns.
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Maybe when I get back from my workshop, I'll be ready to put more ideas out there, for example, what to do with that list!
-- Rita Jacobs
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Author Rita D. Jacobs teaches journal writing workshops around the world. Her most recent book is titled, “The Way In: Journal Writing for Self-Discovery”. She is a Professor of English at
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My! What an impressive array of colorful buttons.
Special thanks to Cool Text.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Publishing Guidelines for SrMeetUp!
Do you have an area of expertise, experience or passion that you would like to share with our Boomer audience?... If you do, and if you would be truly interested in becoming either a Featured Columnist or a Guest Columnist, click on the button above in order to instantly download our SrMeetUp! Publishing Guidelines. These positions offer no cash compensation, but think of the taxes that you won't have to pay!
Featured Columnists get to write regular columns either once or twice monthly, while Guest Columnists write when they see fit. Many excellent Featured Columnists have started their brilliant careers as freelancers and guests. The material contained in the articles is geared to the interests and needs of Baby Boomers -- social, emotional, business, financial and investment, entertainment, travel, hobbies, events, education...you name it!
Our articles are not promotional -- they are entertaining and/or educational -- but they do provide fine writers with a chance to promote themselves and their products, services and organizations through well-constructed article by-lines, where they have an opportunity to describe their services, add live website or blogsite links and to display their contact information.
Irregardlessly (as Bob and Ray were inclined to say), content is critical, and that is what we are looking for from any of our contributors.
If you truly have an interest, click on http://www.mediafire.com/?zefmwnhg5go , download and review the Guidelines, and then send us your first article.
Before you do any of this, be certain that you've reviewed some of the posts on http://SrMeetUp.blogspot.com to get into the Boomer spirit. You are also welcome to follow us on Twitter. Just go to http://twitter.com/SrMeetUp .
--We hope to be hearing from you soon.
My! What an impressive array of colorful buttons.
Special thanks to Cool Text.
Monday, May 25, 2009
DO OVERS
Do OversHey guys, you may not recall, but Do Overs usually don’t count. Unless you are one of the very lucky ones that not only get a second chance but realize that you ARE getting this second chance – This Is It!
Another futile word is Rationalization. I still don’t understand the purpose of justifying. Having acquired either a formal and/or streetwise education, you choose to do or react to something; consequences usually occur and you move on, hopefully learning by these experiences. Funny, we only rationalize when something doesn’t work out as we planned. When we are uncomfortable with the outcome or make a mistake (heaven forbid!), we rationalize why the outcome was less than perfect –- in other words “It’s not my fault-he made me do it”. Really doesn’t matter WHY you acted as you did – you simply did. Now stop whining and do something about it.
Essie’s Fable (with attribution to Aesop):
A friend, who will obviously remain anonymous, (hereinafter called the "unkind friend"), took financial advantage of another friend (the "kind friend"). Instead of coming right out and accusing the unkind friend, the kind friend sent an email suggesting that there might have been an error due to miscommunication, etc. The unkind friend’s response was full of nonsensical fantasies and justifications so numerous that it really didn’t even matter what the initial infraction was. What I was truly amazed at was how the unkind friend put all of that creativity and energy into rationalizing and not taking responsibility to remedy the issue – all those creative juices working for evil instead of good. He brought a new meaning to the word rationalization. – Moral of the story – if it ain’t in the Sunday comics, I’m not interested in unkind evil doers.
However, today is your lucky day. We now have a chance to Do Over, to reconnect and network with the best and brightest Baby Boomer 60+ -- To revitalize, reinvent, and reinforce all that we are. Maybe even to figure out WHO (whom?) we are. But one thing is certain; we are still kicking up a storm. If only we lived in Kansas it would be more apparent. But SrMeetUp is the next best place to kick up our heels and get back in the game (so many clichés, so little time). No need to rationalize why you can’t find the time, or why an internet “thing” is not for you – you have plenty of time – retired or not – and the internet is for everyone, that is, unless you never want to communicate with your kids and family again. You can’t rationalize not becoming a member of our Boomer Community because you already are THE community... you have involuntarily turned 60 and you should be loving it. SrMeetUp is here to help get your creative juices back on track and to put an address to our neighborhood.
This is not my site; it is our site, our space to be heard, to strike a chord. Not to repeat, but to continue with the energy and enthusiasm that we’ve always brought to our social and professional lives. I challenge anyone of you to rationalize why you cannot join us – double dare you!
--Elaine
p.s. In the upper right-hand corner of this article, there is a photograph of a Nok Hockey tournament, where Do Overs happen all of the time, as do "hamburger shots" and other exciting innovations to make the game (and life, in general) much more interesting, and far more fun. "Once, twice, three --shoot!" And then the puck is in motion.
My! What an impressive array of colorful buttons.
Special thanks to Cool Text.
