10 Ways to Feel Better

Tupelo and Janey are two
Law of Attraction proponents AND folk musicians.

What they put in my mailbox today was too good not to share:

**
Thanks to Iain Legg for these common-sense tips:

1. DON'T give away your power to people. Take responsibility for
your life. If things aren't going as hoped in your life, re examine
your deepest beliefs. Swap limiting beliefs for empowering ones.

2. DO get a pet! According to Power vs. Force, a purring cat
vibrates at 500 (anything over 200 is good..) . . . Janey's cat,
Pooder, must vibrate at least 800 - so fast, it makes his hair fall
out!

3. DON'T watch movies that drag you down. According to Power vs.
Force, this is most films. Watch movies that will make you feel
good. Listen to music that fills you with positive emotions. Read
books that empower you. (Control the input to your brain, and
you'll control your output).

4. DO focus on what you want in your life, not what you don't
want - remember the law of attraction... You have the power to
create the life of your dreams - even if the world around you seems
messed up, don't lose focus...

5. DO imagine that what you dream of is in your life now, and
feel grateful for it now ...and after that think of 10 more things
to be grateful for.

6. DO have fun. Life is about being happy. Don't wait until you
have this, or that... Don't put off happiness. Live now. Enjoy now.

7. DO seek to discover the truth about the meaning of your life.
The answers are there if you look for them. Awareness and peace of
mind are high vibrations.

8. DON'T watch the news on television. It is filled with
negativity which lowers your vibrations. (Why is 95% of all news
all the time focused on bad news? Hint: It's about marketing and
control.) If you want to keep abreast of current affairs search the
internet for independent, unbiased news. Seek the truth. Trust your
intuition. This will also help you give you a much more balanced
view of reality. There's lots of good news
out there if you're looking for it...

9. DO help other people. Forgiveness, compassion
and understanding are good vibrations.

10. DO use tools and strategies to help you achieve higher
levels of consciousness, such as meditation and the free Alpha
audio you can get here . . .

http://www.InspiredOnPurpose.com/appreciates/FreeAlphaAudio

(Hint: The direct link is in the P.S.)

There are lots of other powerful tools available there, so look
around.


Celebrate Life,
Tupelo and Janey
Laughing Bird

Visit my blog for other inspiring articles:
http://www.TupeloKenyon.com

Visit our website for uplifting music:
http://www.LaughingBirdMusic.com

To see Laughing Bird's current tour schedule, go to:
http://www.LaughingBirdMusic.com/Tour.html

Don't reply to this email since it won't be seen.
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http://www.TupeloKenyon.com/contact

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and 7 free bonuses, go to:
http://www.InspiredOnPurpose.com

10 easy lists to create health, wealth, wisdom

List your 10 favorite sports. Do one, by yourself or with a friend!

List your 10 favorite places in your town. Visit one this weekend.

List your 10 favorite qualities of yourself. Then list 10 more.

List your 10 best friends. Do you have their phone numbers? Call one now. No texting!

What 10 things could you do today to SAVE money? Do one now.

Do you have 10 ideas to MAKE money? What is one thing you could do this weekend to put $100 (10 times 10) in your pocket?

What 10 countries will you visit while on this planet?

Make a list of ten things you eat too much of.

Next, make a list of 10 foods you love that will also nourish you.

Write down 10 ways to say, “I love you.”

Top 10 Things I like about My Job

In my efforts to combat the negative tone of "this blasted economy" I probably shouldn't even contribute to the noise that is already out there. But, it's topical, I am feeling grateful, and actually, my job is pretty good. So here are the top 10 reasons I like my job:

1. Got one

2. It allows me tremendous freedom and I am not bound to a desk. Today was a "desk work" day at the freeschool, which means that I am free in the mornings to network, build business, research or surf the web for hours on end. Today, for example I ended up visiting the non-profit support center, dropped by the "movie cafe" to get advice on a movie screening we are hoping to set up, visited with an old I CAN member who dropped by, call a donor, go to the bank, etc, etc.

3. Good psychic rewards. Helping troubled kids is my job. Sounds so much better than "raping the rain forest" or "moving money around" or the ever-popular, "something with computers."

4. Actually, my job is to play around with kids! On its best days, I CAN, our freeschool, is like my own personal cafe, or Cheers. I brew a pot of coffee, kids I like come over to hang out, we play chess, go outside for soccer, play cards, laugh, write, read, hang out, clean up and go home. Cool.

5. My job as an English teacher supports my job at I CAN. That kind of sounds like I'm working so I can go to work, but I prefer to look at it like this: I help out at the English school, and
in exchange, I have the freedom to experiment, take chances, try new business ideas at I CAN. Without the fear of "having everything riding on it," I know that there is a minimum amount of financial support coming in every month from the English School.

6. I also get to work with cool adults. The members of our board are mostly successful businessmen, with a college professor and a prefectural representative as our top man. I have a mastermind at my beck and call, all willing to help I CAN (and me) succeed

7. I like where I live. Joetsu, in Niigata Japan, is very community oriented, and very supportive of non-profit groups. I visit regularly (see #1, above) the NPO support center often, just 5 minutes from my desk (and upstairs from the English school where I work). Whenever you want to start a project, Joetsu is just the right size of town to be not intimidating, yet you can get supporters interested in your vision easily.

8. I learn something everyday. Finances? Balance Sheets? Blogging? Membership Campaigning? Trust Games? Recreation Activities? Cooking Recipes? Communication Skills? Networking? Japanese Language? It's amazing when you count up the things I've learned since I've been here

9. I like my co-workers. Right now there is only me. It gives me peace and solitude and time to think, as well as freedom. I think I work best alone....However, I am under no illusions that we need to be staffed to be effective. I need to like MORE co-workers, too.

10. We get great support. From old friends and new, even from strangers. This job has taught me a lot about gratitude, because we rely on donations for about one-seventh of our income. I know the services we provide are needed and valuable, but because we are supported by our community, we can continue to serve.

Yup. Not a bad place at all. Swing on by?

10 ways to fight off a cold

In the interest of fairness, and with flu epidemic scares on the news, and under the "I already knew that" column, I present the following Powerful 10:

10 Ways to Fight Off, Prevent, Cure a Cold or Flu

1. Go to sleep. Sleep more. Get more rest. Duh.

2. Eat your veggies. Mom's advice, and hard to take when you are exhausted and a trip to the drive thru could fill your gut simply enough. Suggestion: Make a huge batch of vegetable soup which will last you the duration of the cold. Just warm and serve!

3. Garlic cloves! When I feel a cold coming on, I roast a whole garlic root (many cloves together) in the oven or even toaster oven. Then, when the cloves are softened, I squeeze them out of their "shell" directly onto toast, or even directly into my mouth. Tastes good, and usually my cold is gone by the next day. Kisses not so pleasant for the receiver, but with a cold or flu, you shouldn't be kissing, anyway.

4. Hot Bath. Really hot and steamy, for as long as you can stand it, or as long as the water stays really hot. Upon exiting, dry quickly, put on sweats, go to sleep (see #1)

5. Take a sick day off from work (see #1)

6. Breathe!! Breathe deeply as you can, slowly and with consciousness. When I get sick, it is always because I haven't done the things we humans must do to survive: breathe, drink water, sleep, eat good food. Once these four are in balance, so usually is your health.

7. Drink! Water is best. Hot or Cold.

8. (for in-Japan cold sufferers) Drink a bottle of Zena, the energy drink, before bed right after your hot bath. I swear this and a garlic treatment will usually do the trick. Unfortunately, those tiny bottles of Zena are about 20 dollars a pop. Try to buy them in four-packs, or even a less expensive brand.

9. (for in Japan cold sufferers...or not) Tamago-zake. This is a raw egg broken into a glass of tall, hot Japanese Sake. This, too, has stopped a cold in its tracks more than once for me. Medically, it seems more like a folk remedy, but a tasty one at that.

10. Think healthy thoughts. Really. Once you say to yourself, "I feel like I'm getting sick," guess what happens? When I feel a sniffle or sore throat coming on, I tell myself, in a hot steaming shower, breathing deeply, "I am healthy! I am whole! I feel good!" Yes, it's possible to talk yourself out of a cold.

**No, not professional medical advice, and no intent is made as such. Just friendly advice. But you already knew that.

10 ways to Catch a Cold

Best in combination, this is a sure fire recipe for some down time:

1. Have a good, emotional blow up with your spouse/intimate

2. Stay up way too late, aim for 3 am or later, 3 or more times in a week.

3. Eat crappy food.

4. Enjoy unseasonally stormy and cold weather

5. Breathe as shallow as you can, quickly.

6. Cold showers.

7. Wet blankets.

8. Rub your eyes a lot, especially after touching preschool door handles

9. Visit children's hospitals

10. Complain a lot about your health

...and that should do it. To get rid of a cold, do the opposite...or read the next post.

April 22 2009 Best 10

Sometimes the best work in Powering up your Tens is had just by reviewing the best parts of your day. There are probably 10 reasons for doing so, but for me it helps me feel gratitude, it helps me reflect and review the day, and it is a nice closing bookend of one unit of living.

As I have written before, the real work comes towards the end, but the Power of Tens is in the work at the end. What little successes did I enjoy today? What little things were good? A lot of littles make a big big.

Today's List of Ten came easily:



(in chronological order)
1. Morning call from Kota’s mom. Could he start coming back to I CAN? Seems his grandmother is stressing him out again these days, and everyone agrees he needs to get out of the house! Great to have Kota back with us!
2. New Zealand buddy Simon stops by I CAN with his McLunch for a visit. He helps us set up our youtube inspired “Mentos in Pepsi” experiement. Result? not as impressive as online.
3. Playing “the Game of Life” (literally, you know, the board game) with these guys. Funny how the “winner” is decided by how much money you have at the end.
4. Neighborhood 5th graders stop by I CAN after school to play. This reminds me that I have a(n unimplemented) plan to open up for after school visitors! We played a charades-inspired guessing game using red, yellow, green and blue Play-doh.
5. After kids go home, I run to the cable TV station to try to borrow a projector for our homestay slideshow, and also try to get some local, cable news coverage. I got 2 yeses.
6. Then I got on the phone to try to confirm attendees for the homestay success party itself, and to round up more photos for the slide show I will try to put on DVD for them by Sunday. Still, the sixth (newly 7th) graders are not quite on the ball with deadlines.
7. As almost an afterthought I called our chairman and asked him to attend. He was delighted with stories of the trip and will attend.
8. I took the rest of the night off to attend what I thought would be a koto (Japanese harp) concert. In fact it was one of the strangest meetings I have ever attended. While I used to get myself into these situations a lot when I first arrived in Japan, it had been a while. I walked into the 300 year old restaurant, expecting a room full of classical music fans. Instead, 15 chairs around a table, mostly filled with company presidents, cultural leaders, and other town “elites.” Each place was set with a meeting agenda, other official looking documents.
Turns out that the meeting I was asked by a Rotary acquaintance to attend was in order to commission a “support group” (fan club?) for a local, distinguished koto artist. Unfortunately, the man who invited me hadn’t done his homework. There was a near revolt when it became known that the woman for whom the group was being commisioned hadn’t asked for support, and that furthermore, she was not in attendance, though she said she might stop by later that night.
I received a lesson in Japanese politics, as each member politely declined being an officer, and then had their name written in anyway when the room’s ranking leader cajoled them into (forced) volunteer service. I resigned myself to eating and drinking as much as my $80 addendance fee would allow.
Strange.
9. Best part of the surreal meeting was introducing myself to a doctor Kawamuro, a woman director of two hospitals which specialize in mental health. We talked a bit about school -outs and society -outs, and she and I seemed to be on the same page regarding how best to support such members/patients/citizens. Will drop her a thank you tomorrow.
10. Got back home in time for reading in bed with Emiko, Yuto and Eli. Did my son just say “I love you, Dad.” before nodding off?

Ten People from High School

A strange excercise, inspired in part by classmates.com and facebook.
1. Steve Martin
2. Tommy Mucciaro
3. Brad Gill
4. Gail Becker
5. Ruthie Haas
6. Harold Levy
7. Teri McGill
8. Gigi Best
9. Bill Patterson
10. Mike Craven

Like with all of these best 10's, the good work starts coming around 7,8,9,10, just a tad of a stretch. In the last 5 minutes I have reviewed the drama club, the cross country club, friends, enemies, more-than-friends and never-to-be's.
Amazing, memory is.

10 things to be Thankful for...

1. Waking up one more day
2. This noisy, cluttered, loud loving family
3. All of the financial support received for work (non-profit received more than $10,000 in pure doanations last year(!)
4.This adventure called Japan
5. Mom, Dad, extended family
6. Healthy body and spirit
7. This noisy, cluttered loud loving apartment
8. Music!
9. Books!
10. Rest!

The First Ten

What follows will be 10 lists of 10, for you to work on, post here if you like, or keep in a journal. I will be posting my personal “Lists of 10” for each of these categories, in coming days. It’s like President Obama’s first 100 days. (10 x 10 days).

Let’s see how much we can get done in the next 3 1/3 months.

So here’s your homework, to be taken on one list a day. DO THIS, and you will be surprised at the new you whom you meet next summer!Let’s get started:

List 10 things you are grateful for.

List 10 people you remember from high school. Can you reach them? Will you try?

List your 10 favorite songs. Burn them onto a disc.

List your 10 favorite colors. Find them right now and smile.

List your 10 favorite books. Will you read them this year?

List 10 things you wish your friend would say to you. Ask them to say them!

List 10 memories from high school.

List your 10 favorite animals. Go see them at the zoo, or get a DVD and watch them!

List 10 difficult things to do. Break them down into 10 steps each. Take one first step.

List the 10 Best Things of today.