100 Names for Love by Diane Ackerman

I love this book: 100 Names for Love: a Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of Healing.

I was browsing through some quotations when I came across this one by Diane Ackerman.

“Look at your feet. You are standing in the sky. When we think of the sky, we tend to look up, but the sky actually begins at the earth. We walk through it, yell into it, rake leaves, wash the dog, and drive cars in it. We breathe it deep within us. With every breath, we inhale millions of molecules of sky, heat them briefly, and then exhale them back into the world.” 

I went to the library and found this book. I took it home and started reading. It was fascinating. I couldn't put it down! I finished reading it in 3 days.

I recommend it to anyone who has a relative who experiences a stroke. The author's husband had a stroke at age 75 and this book chronicles his 5 year recovery. The famous neurologist, Oliver Sacs, visited them shortly after he returned home from the hospital. Dr. Sacs inquired as to what they were told about the "window of opportunity." The author said 3 months. Dr. Sacs informed her that the brain can continue to heal and learn new skills as long as it is challenged. The author decided to devise her own therapy to encourage her husband to recover his verbal faculties. The book shows how successful they were.

After I finished the book, I purchased a copy and sent it to a friend, whose husband had a stroke 3 weeks ago. Her husband is much younger, but has brain damage in some of the same areas. I encouraged her to read it, because it is optimistic in it's viewpoint, and also has resources in the last chapter.

I think this book deserves 5 stars.

The vocabulary is fantastic and I will write another blog and publish it in my other blog, Philolog's Blog.

What are Affirmations?

What are affirmations and what can they do?

Simply put, affirmations are positive statements. But many believe thay are much more than that. A quick survey reveals that:
affirmations can improve your life,
affirmations help you take control of your life,
affirmations program the subconscious mind to attract success,
and an affirmation is a declaration that something is true.

Many authors advocate the use of affirmations: Louise Hay, Sonia Choquette, Shakti Gawain, Wayne Dyer,and many others.

I was surprised when I read a book by Suze Ormond, who advocated the practice of writing affirmations 20 times each morning. She didn't refer to it as an "affirmation," though, she called it a "Truth."

So affirmations are statements that could be true. They might be true now, or could become fact some time in the future. The important thing is persistence. Suze Ormond urges you to write the affirmation 20 times every day until it IS true without any doubt and then move on to a different one.

So it needs to be stated in a certain way and need to be measurable in some way. But Suze also recommends that if you are using numbers, always be sure not to limit yourself. For example:

I am independently wealthy, earning $10,000 every month.

should be stated

I am independently wealthy, earning $10,000 OR MORE every month.

The use of affirmations helps you become more optimistic. Optimists see life in a certain way. The positive perspective is not just more enjoyable, it seems optimistic individuals are more resilient, more healthy, AND more happy than pessimists. It cannot be dismissed as unrealistic, because looking for the silver lining and focusing on it turns out to be good for you.

Remember:

Every cloud has a silver lining.

--American proverb

Happily Ever After

Happiness is an interesting topic. It seems we are always talking about the "pursuit" of it. That makes it seem very elusive. Or the "journey." But happiness is not a destination. Noone lives Happily ever after. Even the most happy people will experience moments of unhappiness. But I think Happiness is a habit.



I read a book about cultivating the habit of happiness and it is a guide to making the most of every situation, and looking for the good stuff. An optimist can always find something good in any event, and a pessimist can always find something negative in any event. Optimism is also considered a habit by Martin Seligman, in his book Learned Optimism.



But what is happiness? Is it an emotion? If so, all emotions are fleeting. They do not have a long life, unless we keep nourishing them.

Which emotion do you want to nourish in your own life? It is a choice. We have control over our thoughts. We can learn and practice optimism. If you need help with this contact your local hypnotist.

Positive Perspective

Happy Fabulous February!

This is an article from the January/February newsletter, called Verbal Impact.

You may consider this edition late for January, or on-time for February. I prefer the latter. It all depends on how you look at it! Is the glass half-full or half-empty? For the answer to this and many other questions, see the article below. I have decided to make only one edition for January and February. I thought January would be a relief after the frenzy of the holidays, but the frenzy continues…


Life is wonderful. Life is hard. Both are true. How can that be? Good things happen. Bad things happen. That’s life. We all know good and bad are subjectively defined. Take this example:

There was one farmer in the town who had a horse, so he was considered rich by the rest of the people in the town, who were very poor. They told him it was very fortunate that he had a horse. He said, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
Then the horse ran away. They told him that it was terrible the horse ran away. He said, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
The horse came back with two other wild horses. They told him that it was very fortunate. He said, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
His son broke his leg trying to ride one of the wild horses. They told him that it was very unfortunate. He said, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
The army came by to conscript all young males, but his son couldn’t go because he had a broken leg. They told him that it was very fortunate. He said, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
Since he was the only young man in the town who didn’t go with the army, he got to marry the prettiest girl in the town. Everyone said it was fortunate.
Etc. I’m sure you get the idea. It’s all how you look at things.

So, you can be an optimist or a pessimist. It depends on how your perspective. They say every cloud has a silver lining. And isn’t it nice when you find a bit of sunshine in an otherwise gray day? It’s nice, and seems even sweeter, because it’s unexpected. I had a minor car accident 2 months ago. I don’t like to dwell on minor aches and pains, but when I informed my healthcare professional, he ordered some X-rays. He told me he saw a problem on the X-ray that could now be corrected. I was fortunate to have complained because it might have gone undetected otherwise, and could have caused problems later.

Some people are just not happy unless they are miserable. They like to complain. They like to get sympathy. The problem is that attitudes are contagious. I try to avoid these people. Some days it’s difficult to do so. But it can be done.

I saw a show called Ned’s Declassified recently. It is a show for children, which is about 3 students in Middle School. This was the funniest episode I've ever seen, and it’s about positive and negative attitudes. A student named Ned meets the most negative person on the planet, who also happens to be the new kid in his class. Since Ned values a positive attitude he tries to cheer up the new kid, but he ends up with existential angst, himself. His friends ask him how things went. He says “We do live in a barren Universe of Nothingness!” Eventually, Ned introduces the most negative boy in the world, to the most negative girl in the school and he finds out that putting 2 super negative people together, changed their charge to positive, like multiplication (2 negative numbers make a positive when multiplied). These two were so happy to have found one another, they changed each other. And their effect on others was transformed from negative to positive. When previously flowers drooped whenever they came into the room, now they all revived, just like the other student’s attitudes.

This show demonstrates how your attitude affects your life. It’s very funny. Fabio even shows up for a cameo appearance!

Wishing you enlightenment, encouragement and empowerment!