Friday, January 31, 2014

YOUR LIFE A-Z EXCELLENCE

IF THIS LITTLE GARDEN MYSTERY HAD A  HAIKU FOR YOU WHAT WOULD IT BE?


Excellence
One definition of excellence is a quality that is unusually good.  When you think about your own excellence, what is it that you are unusually good at?  You cannot escape this word.  In order to live your best life, a rich and meaningful life it is important to own your own excellence.  Name one thing and perhaps write a haiku about it. 
            Here is a sample:
                        Bake one rich muffin
                        Store chocolate chips within
                        Touch, smell, taste, digest
A Haiku does not have to rhyme and does actually read kind of choppy and awkward, but it is the simple math of three sentences of 5-7-5 syllables. 
Play this day with your excellence and quit taking yourself so seriously that you don’t allow your soul to claim its excellence.  Be excellent at something and own it fully.  Yes, it may seem awkward and choppy, not particularly pretty, but it is your and you enjoy creating it.  That is all that matters. I will never make a living as a Haiku artist, but the joy of creating seventeen syllables in three sentences is an expression of my excellence of being willing to try something completely outside of my comfort zone.

You can never obtain excellence if your inner judge stops you before you even start something.  Anyone that has created something of excellence has failed more times than not and each time they try again, correcting what did not work before.  However, the joy of trying and discovering new things is a journey of inner excellence.  Enjoy yours.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

YOUR LIFE A-Z DISCOVER

Never Know What You Will Discover Inside

DISCOVER

By allowing yourself to accept your brilliance and gaining confidence with your new clear focus you will naturally discover properties about yourself and others that you have not allowed your self to see before.  Perhaps you have always been a creative person, but never allowed yourself to accept that your creativity is a talent that you own.  If you own it then you can get it out of your closet, dust it off and do something productive with it.

What parts of yourself have you locked away in the closet?  What were your dreams, desires, and hopes that you banished as being ridiculous, immature, or impossible?  Pull those out of the closet and dust them off.   Discover again the joy of being you and go for what it is that you want in your life today.  Or get out of your way and DISCOVER something brand new.  

Explore and create new ideas discovering things about yourself that you never dreamed existed inside of your soul.  Open the window and look inside.  You will probably be pleasantly surprised with the undiscovered gifts that have been beautifully wrapped inside of you all of your life.  They are just sitting there waiting for you to be curious enough to look inside and discover brand new opportunities to build the future you are wanting


You can never obtain excellence if your inner judge stops you before you even start something.  Anyone that has created something of excellence has failed more times than not and each time they try again, correcting what did not work before.  However, the joy of trying and discovering new things is a journey of inner excellence.  Enjoy yours.

Photo: RBDilley

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

YOUR LIFE A-Z: CLEAR




CLEAR

It seems appropriate that the word "Clear" should follow the word "Brilliant."   If you allow yourself to accept your brilliance and smartness, your ability to move forward in life the way you want then becomes clear; and crystal clear about what you want to different in your life this year.  If you refuse to become clear, either because you are afraid and insecure, or your ability to self-sabotage yourself is so high you continue to let life interfere with your living.  Being clear about what you want requires that you do the hard work of defining who you are.  Reflect back on the word "Value," and ask yourself how clear you are about what you really value?  How clear are you about your health?  How clear are you about what makes you happy?  Mainly, how clear are you about the fact that in order to acquire your heart's desire this year you will need hard work, focus, diligence, and planning.  What is step 1 and, how are you going to get clear about accomplishing it and move on to the next necessary steps?  Let the clouds move out of your brain and let the sunshine in as you train your brain to see the details of what needs to be done.  Let the murky waters from your last distressful situation settle as you calm your thoughts and focus on redirecting yourself. Life is hard, so what?  Use your brilliance to create a clear focus.  You can do it.  Now believe it.   

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Your Life A-Z BRILLANT


Shades of Light Display Beauty Everywhere


Brilliant

Stop!!! I know you.  Don't skip this day.   You are Brilliant.   What does that mean?  And how are you going to practice it today?  Brilliant is a combination of high light and strong saturation of light.   You are the only person that can be you.  No one else is the universe has the same finger print, thoughts, ideas, prayers, or smile as you do.  You are the person that interferes with how bright your light shines.  It can be sharp and clear if you would get out of your own shadow.   So, today the twenty-minute coach says, play with your light.  Walk through your house and turn on the lights and say, "I am brilliant."  "I am the light, and when I smile at someone, they smile back."   Get a flashlight and go into a dark closet.  Notice what treasures are stuffed away, hiding behind a stack of sweaters or in the corner, forgotten.  Bring out something you have forgotten about and enjoy it today.  As you enjoy it, enjoy yourself.  List five ways you have been sharp and clear helping someone else.  Be thankful that you are uniquely you and no one else but you can be you with your many parts.  Celebrate your brilliance.  Tonight treat yourself to something special and put a candle on it and light it.  Sing a happy song celebrating your brilliance.   

Monday, January 27, 2014

YOUR LIFE A-Z ACTION





LET THE INSIDE OUT. CELEBRATE WHO YOU ARE. 

ACTION  
We have been at the twenty-minute coach for twenty-seven days now.   We are twenty-seven days into the New Year and I know what you are thinking, “What happened to all of those New Year’s resolutions?”    In order for us to accomplish anything, “action” is required.  Take a deep breath.  Now, focus on your breathing and count ten breaths, slowing inhaling and slowly exhaling. Next write down the first action words that comes to your mind that you want to accomplish this year.  Notice how you feel about that action word.  Is it true?  Do you really want to __________________?   If not, chuck the word.  No half-hearted goals for this year.   Choose to focus only on goals in which you have a vested interest.  If you choose something that you should do, you are going to fail, so stop setting yourself up for failure.  Choose an action word that brings you excitement.  Now go and do it.


Photo: Pam Smead

Sunday, January 26, 2014

YOUR LIFE A-Z ZEST


ZEST CAN BE MESSY. BUT WORTH THE EFFORT

ZEST
Finishing our first 26 Days on the Twenty Minute Coach ends with the word ZEST. Zest is that which enhances flavor, adding taste to what already exists.  Part of this year is building on what is already working for you.  What are your resources, strengths, accomplishments?  Take some time today to list them and really enjoy drinking them in.  It is easier to move forward in our lives, using the energy of the positive, rather than listening to the negative chatter that goes on like irritating static in the background.  Positive builds more positive.  Negative builds more negativity and is destructive.  Choose one thing from your positive list that you want to enhance over the next few days.  Add some flavoring to your choice.  What can you do to make it better? 


Zest, such as lemon or orange, creates a more enjoyable, gourmet taste to any of its desirable dishes.  What will help you feel more passionate about what you are already doing?  That in and of itself is the zest of life!  Enjoying more of what we love to do, and doing it better than we can even imagine is part of creating the life we love to live.  This is the year to get past just managing or coping with life.  It is also a year of understanding hope is a very passive energy that lures us into standing still and wanting things to change for us.  Embrace the change by adding some ZEST to your already successful start to the year.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

YOUR LIFE A-Z YES

YES! Opens Possibilities and Options 

YES

Name the first three things that come to mind when you think about what you have always or (even recently) wanted to do but just could not make a plan to do it.  Out of those three things on your list, choose one that you are going to set your mind to go and do.  It doesn't have to meet someone else's criteria, it does not have to be practical.  It only has to be something you have wanted to do or to have. 

Now ask yourself the three questions: 
What do I need to do to make this into a YES?
How do I do those things?
What is the first step? 

Start there. Once you start acting on your YES, you will be surprised at how much energy will begin to flow into your being to make it happen.  Yes, there will be obstacles, perhaps lots of obstacles, but obstacles are also overcome one step at a time.  So when you hit your first obstacle, remember your YES and use the three questions to get around, through or over your obstacle and back into your YES.


 Photo: RBDilley 

Friday, January 24, 2014

YOUR LIFE A-Z XYLEM


Nutrients Can Not Be Viewed by the Naked Eye, But So Necessary



XYLEM
Probably not many of us remember this important word from our biology class, however I was delighted to find a useable "X" word for the TWENTY MINUTE COACH, A-Z.  Xylem transports water and soluble mineral nutrients from their tiny roots up into the rest of the plant.  The tension created between the water and xylem draws the water upward into the plant.  

This raises the important interpersonal question of where are your roots planted and how is your soul getting water in order for it to flourish?  If we do not do something to feed ourselves the necessary nutrients to live a life that is meaningful to us, we will dry up and die.  If we are living only for the next episode of Dancing with the Stars, we might want to check our pulse to see if we are still alive.  Dancing with the Stars is great entertainment and relaxing, but it is not the xylem that pulls the nutrients from the ground into our roots and up into our soul.  

What are you doing to feed your soul?  What do you do on a daily basis to enrich your life?  If you don't have a daily spiritual or emotional enriching practice, find something.  It can be reading something inspirational.  For instance, I enjoy Pema Chodron's writings.  Or it can be a meditation, prayer practice or yoga.  But before this month is over find something that will be your Xylem, pulling those nutrients and water deep into your soul. 

Photo: Mary Neil



Thursday, January 23, 2014

YOUR LIFE A-Z WORK

Everything takes Work!
WORK

Yes, you are right, life is hard sometimes.  But my question is, "So what?"  Life is hard and no one promised a rose garden.  By the way, rose gardens take a tremendous amount of work. Roses, beautiful ones, do not grow without daily attention to the right nutrients, water, light, and lots of pruning.  Roses need pruning all of the time and they have thrones. You need specialized pruning tools and I think leather gloves to attend appropriately to your rose garden.

Work is required.  Everything requires work. The breakfast you ate this morning required work; such as shopping for it, preparing it, and cleaning up the kitchen afterwards.  Nothing comes without work.  So work your plan step by step.  Once you complete step one, go back through those three questions and work step two.  Work it. What is it I need?  How do I acquire what I need and what is the action I take to make it happen?  Then do it. 


Nike means it when their T-shirts and logo say, "Just do it."  How do you think it is going to happen if you don't do it? The only Santa Claus that exist is the one you create. 

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

YOUR LIFE A-Z USEFUL

If it is useful keep it ...if not recycle it. 

USEFUL
Since we are still in the first month, look around your house, what is useful?  Start spring cleaning early.  Clean out an entire room.  Pretend you are moving.  Do you want to pack it or move it? Is it a dust collector even though it has some positive memory attached to it?

In today's easy photography world, snap an IPHONE pic of the item, sell it on E-bay and make a few bucks.  You can keep the picture and turn the item into productivity for you.  What is useful in your life and what is it that no longer serves a purpose?  What is sitting around and each time you pass by it, you say, "what was I thinking when I bought that?"  Obviously it is no longer useful to you.  Get rid of it.  You do not need junk to sit around for you to dust on Saturday. 


Don't be afraid to let go of what is not useful to you. It is the same for jobs, friendships, relationships and anything else in your life that has become unproductive and/or a burden.  Let it go. Until you do, there will not be room for new art, life, or relationships in your life. You are not forced to continue to stay exactly where you are now.  Is it useful?  If the answer is "no," let it go.  Be useful or let go.  That is the new motto for today.

Monday, January 20, 2014

YOUR LIFE A-Z TIMING





TIMING
Timing is everything.  We can win the lottery at the ripe age of 21 and not have the wisdom to deal with it.  We can have happy and hopeful plans for something big and then end up with something from the outside changing it all.  Timing matters so much, but time also matters.  We often complain about not having enough time, but as we learned in QUICK, we have more time if we learn to do things QUICK. Time is money.  The more we focus on what we want, the more we realize that we must spend our time wisely and efficiently.  What time is it in your life?  Are you using your timing in the best ways possible?  How many times a day do you say, "I don't have enough time to do that?"  It is possible that timing is off and now you have three young kids at home and it is not the time to go back to school, but maybe, you come to realize that no time is better than now.  Now is the time to pay attention to where you are in your life and what you want to do with your time.  Timing can be the make or break deal with what needs to happen right now.  Be clear and do not operate out of pressure.  Remember those high sales deal, that say "for a limited time only or only for today?"  That is someone else's imposed time on you.  What is the right time for you?  You get to decide.  

Sunday, January 19, 2014

YOUR LIFE A-Z SELF -RELIANCE

MAINTAIN YOUR UNIQUENESS IN THE GROUP



Self-Reliance

Ralph Waldo Emerson, taught to us in High School, but not demonstrated to us as high school students. This may have been one of the first lessons of real apathy, where adults teach non-conformity but practice conformity through punishment.  Thus, learning to "trust ourselves," as Emerson spoke about in his essay Self-Reliance, became something that we unlearned through growing up.  Now we must learn to “trust ourselves” as if it is a brand new language as an adult.  How do you follow your heart?  

How do you find creative avenues to get your needs met?  You do not have to stay a victim to conformity.  This is your year to do something different, to get out of your rut.  DARE to follow the path you so desire to walk.  If you don't know how, don't worry or fret.  Go out and learn how.  You are capable and smart, thus you can learn to do something that you never thought possible. Go for it. 

Self-Reliance is something each of us needs to experience deeply in order for our self-esteem to be intact.  We need to know that we can survive in a crisis.  We need to trust ourselves to do what we need to do in order to provide the basics for our daily lives and the dreams and desires we have for ourselves.  We need to know that when push comes to shove we can take care of ourselves and trust ourselves to succeed. 

Saturday, January 18, 2014

YOUR LIFE A-Z REACH



Reach For It!

REACH

Stop expecting things to be delivered to you. Reach for what you want.  Stretch across the table, the aisles, and the negativity.  If other people can have it so can you.  You are no better or worse than those around you.  Stop being jealous about what others have and reach for what you want.  If you are not reaching, then it clearly is not important to you.  Don't judge yourself for that.  Just let it go and reach for what is really important to you.  Going out for pizza is so much better than having it delivered.  Pizza in a box is soggy.  A pizza that you reach across the table for is so much better.  Life is better if it is not handed to you.  You will appreciate your successes more. You will realize that you put your sweat and maybe even tears in what it is that you want.  It means more to you.  

Reach for the stars.  The stars are so far away and it often seems like we can never get there.  But if we use our bodies to stretch upwards to the stars we become more agile, our leg muscles elongate as we sweep down and touch our toes.  We feel empowered by this simple exercise and we learn to reach as far as we can.  Reach for  the choices you want. Who cares if what you want is across the table rather than instead of right it front of you. Reach for what you want.  Stretch into your differences and be who you are.

Photo: Pam Smead

Friday, January 17, 2014

YOUR LIFE A-Z QUICK




IF A RIVER WAS NOT QUICK, NOTHING NEW WOULD GET CREATED


QUICK

Go fast!  I have observed I move slow when I am doing something I don't really want to do. As a result, it takes me twice as long to do the "dreaded" chore, rather than just busting it out of the way. 
Today, observe your pace and ask yourself what would happen if you picked up your pace.  Usually we are focusing on slowing down because we have so much to do.  Thus this may feel awkward, giving yourself permission to do your list quickly but see how that works for you.  Don't dawdle your time away.  Get on and off of your Facebook and email quickly.  Go through that pile on your desk and get those papers in the circular file and finish loose ends that you have been putting off forever.  Quick, make your grocery list in minutes.  Rush through the aisles at the grocery store and don't waste unnecessary time looking at "stuff" you have never seen before.   You can always take a leisurely walk through the aisles of the grocery store sometime,  but you don't have to do it every time you go shopping.  Watch where you are wasting time in your daily routine and speed up some of those activities.  Maybe the reason you are putting off those necessary daily chores is because you are wasting too much time getting them finished.  Put on some fast music and make it happen.  Set a timer while you are on Face Book or email in order to get a reality check about how much time you are really spending there, cut it in half.  Quick! Quick.  Get things done.   

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Your Life A-Z PURPOSE


BE KIND-BE JOYFUL

PURPOSE

Don’t get hung up on grandiose ideas of what your divine purpose is in life.  Just allow yourself to live your life today with purpose.  What is on your to-do list today?  Can you do those things with joy?  Can you enjoy accomplishing the tasks of daily life, today?  Stuff has to get done, so you can choose to enjoy it or resent it. Which choice do you think will serve you better?  Live with a sense of intent to be kind, happy, and enjoy yourself and others.  That choice of purpose is enough to make your daily grind worth doing.  There are more days of daily grind than days filled with ecstasy.  That is the cold truth.  But the warm truth is if you live each day with the purpose of being kind, then the day goes by and you won’t notice the grind as much.  Dishes that don’t go in the dishwasher are a daily grind.  But think about that.  So many people don’t even have electricity or water, much less a dishwasher.  Think about the nourishment and delightful tastes in the food that you just had for breakfast or dinner.  It would not be possible without that skillet or pan you are washing.  Yes, be kind as you wash that skillet and notice that if you just pay attention to what you are doing and stop worrying about what else needs to be done, the day evolves into a day of PURPOSE.  

Photo: Pam Smead

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Your Life A-Z OPEN

OPEN TO ALL POSSIBILITIES

OPEN

Open up to life this year. Do something different than you have ever done before.  Open the door of possibilities.  Everything is possible with a plan.  You can save for the vacation of your dreams once you decide what it is and how much it will cost.  Maybe you will have to get a second job to make it happen, but you can do that for a short period of time.  Open your heart to people who you have closed off.  Do you need to forgive someone?  Always walk in forgiveness to yourself.  Have you closed yourself off from yourself?  Open up to the possibility of change.  Yes, change is scary but just like that vacation of a life-time, any change can happen with a plan.  Have a plan and work the plan and you will get closer to the things you want in life than not ever trying.  Do not be afraid to make positive things happen.  If you are closed off to life out of many doors of fear that live inside of you, open those doors and let the fears dissipate into the light.  Open up and live fully today.  Notice throughout the day how often you pull back and encourage yourself to gently open up to the light like a beautiful flower responding to the sun.  


Photo: RbDilley

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Your Life A-Z MONEY




MONEY

No better time than today to get your financial self in order for the New Year!  Do you have a budget?  If not, stop right now and make a quick list of your monthly expenses.  Include everything from mortgage to groceries and, yes, make sure you do not cheat.  Put those Starbuck coffees in your budget.  You will be shocked how much of your hard earned money goes into their pretty packaging. That is not a criticism!  I think we should treat ourselves, even daily, if we want good quality things that make us feel good and smile.  It is important though when it comes to money that we learn to honor it and trust it.  We need to know where our hard-earned money is going and only then can we make a choice about how we spend it.  Starbucks is a choice.  If you find yourself broke at the end of the month, then it is important to make different choices so that you feel good about how you are choosing to invest your money.  If you don't know where it is going, then you are operating from a place of deprivation and sabotaging your feel good feelings at the end of the month.  Don't be afraid of your money.  Develop a healthy relationship with it and make it work for you - not against you.   



Your Life A-Z NO

BE CAREFUL

NO!

UH-OH.  No?  Are you telling me I can’t have what I think I want?  Are you telling me to use my voice and say “no?”   That is not very nice.  I can’t possibly tell my mother "no" or my child "no" or ____________"no."   I just can’t do that.

Well if that is what you really believe, then please, by all means, go ahead and impulsively get yourself into debt by buying what it is you want right now.  Go ahead and eat that extra brownie and watch your sugar levels increase and decrease while putting extra weight on your body to lug around all day.  Go ahead and take care of everyone else by saying "yes", even when you really want to say "no."  Let those resentful feelings continue to build up inside of you with all of the “yes” answers to those who are accustomed to you doing whatever it is they need when they think they need it.  YES…all of that is happening inside of you while you continue to be miserable with a lack of boundaries in your life.   So, today is a get out of jail free card.  Say “NO” to everyone and everything all day long.  Say “NO,” when you want to say "yes."  Practice today being not nice and just notice what it is like by the end of the evening.  Maybe you will actually enjoy the power of “NO” today.  Maybe today’s practice will help you use the word at least once a day to yourself or to someone else in your life.   Learning to say “NO” is one of the powerful lessons in your life. “NO” is a necessary and very important word.  Don’t ignore it.  Say “Yes” to saying “NO.” 

Photo: Pam Smead

Monday, January 13, 2014

Your Life A-Z KINDLE


BLAZE WITH LIFE!



KINDLE

No,  I am  not speaking of the Amazon Reading App!   Even thought that is a great app and has clearly fed my book addiction,  I am speaking of the old-time word KINDLE.  The word means to ignite. Think about the words we have been using, such as aware, develop, interest.  Now, on this eleventh day of the New Year, how are you doing?  Where in your life do you need to light a fire, ignite an old dream, desire, or idea?  What is it that you have been dreading, putting off?  I invite you to choose one thing you have been procrastinating about and put it on top of your to do list.  Light a fire under it and get it done.  You will feel so much better and it will be out of the way.  Kindle a desire to enjoy getting stuff out of the way.  Retire the procrastinator in you and hire a "to do" manager.  It is only eleven days into the New Year and you can transform this year into a year of action, vitality, and motivation by kindling your actions into success.  After retiring the procrastinator, drag out an old dream or desire that you felt was too big for you and decide to pursue it just for the fun of it.  Kindle the fire within and live with it burning new life into all of your actions this coming year.  When you find yourself feeling bored or overwhelmed, just ask yourself, "what is it that I need to be kindling?"  

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Your Life A-Z LISTEN




Shh! I 'm Listening

LISTEN

To pay attention to something.  There is so much to listen to today; you really need to have a filter to help you focus on what is important.  For instance, if your partner is speaking to you, it might be important to put Facebook down.  If you are driving, it might be important not to have the music so loud that you can’t hear an emergency vehicle’s siren.  Listening attentively is what I do for a living. I am paying attention not only to the words that are coming out of a client’s mouth, but to the tone, the volume, and the body language. If a client is answering yes to something but is shaking his/her head no, then there is incongruence between what is being said and what is really being said.  In psychotherapy, most of us believe that the body does not lie.  As a result, using the body as a source of wisdom and intuition is very important. 

Today pay attention to inside of your body.  What does your body say to you about ___________________?  What is it your body thinks about what is going on in your life? Is your body relaxed in your relationship or uptight?  Is your body happy at work or frustrated?  What is the tension in your shoulders trying to let you know?  What is the knot in your stomach  screaming at you?  Practice your breathing and tune in to your body and listen.  Pay attention and take action toward releasing the negativity in your life.

Photo: RbDilleytwenty minute coachTwenty Minute Coach

Friday, January 10, 2014

Your Life A-Z JOY

THE SNOW LION IS ALWAYS FULL OF JOY


JOY

Joy is a feeling of great pleasure and delight.  Joy follows the word interest because we have only nine innate affects (that means we have hard-wiring in our biology that generates anger, distress, sadness, dissmell, shame, disgust, interest, joy and surprise).  As I alluded to in yesterday’s word, interest, without interest there is no real joy. We do not experience joy in our relationships, work, family, friends, hobbies, or chores unless we have some interest in them.  Some people hate to clean house and if they have no real interest in having a clean house, they usually don’t clean house. However, if they have a vested interested in a clean house, even though they may hate housework, they feel a sense of joy and accomplishment when it is done!  Learning how to cultivate interest will lead naturally to more joy in your days and weeks ahead. 

Today, what do you imagine will bring you great joy and delight?  Cultivate it as if you were making a special cake for your birthday.  List the ingredients you will need to experience a delicious sensation of joy and then go out and accomplish making a joyful event in your life. 

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Your Life A-Z INTEREST

Don't Let the Sun Set on Your Dreams


INTEREST

What really flips your switch?  What is it that you love to do?  If you had one day to spend doing anything you wanted, what would it be?  Don’t be flip about this.  Think about it. How do you spend your time and do you enjoy spending it that way?  If we do not develop interest in what we spend most of our time doing, then we get bored and boredom leads to depression, anxiety, and a multitude of other negative activities in our life. 

What draws your attention is one way to think about interest.  If you are in a room with different people, how do you choose which one to strike up a conversation with?  Or a very practical level, check your closets and garage, how many unfinished projects have you stuffed away somewhere?  The real reasons they are stuffed away is not because you ran out of time, but you did run out of interest and as a result choose other activities over completing whatever that is stuffed in your closet.  Without interest there is no motivation.  No one dates anyone that they are not interested in for very long unless perhaps the non-interested person becomes interested in changing the person they are dating.  That is not interest in the date; it is a clear invested interest in changing someone else into your own image.  So, be careful, interest is tricky.  But certainly by the end of today, be able to list three different things that interest you.  For instance, hiking, cooking, or your favorite football team. 

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Your Life A-Z HUMOR








HUMOR

Humor is something that produces laughter, thus it is paradoxical.  What you find laughable, I may find offensive.  What sorts of events, words, pictures do you find humorous?   We know now scientifically what we have known for years - that it is important to focus on things that make us laugh.   If we can discover the humor in any event that is happening, then it is like good medicine; something that makes us laugh in such a way to forget what has been hurting us, even if it is for only a moment.  

Today, find some humor in your life.  Think about what it is that makes you laugh and invite it into your life today.  Go rent a movie that you find humorous.  Check out the comedy clubs in your geographical locations.  Comedy clubs exist for a reason, a very good reason:  to make us stop taking ourselves so seriously and enjoy a cognitive interruption that relaxes our synapses.