The Rose

by Jim Rohn

Lifestyle is style over amount. And style is an art – the art of living. You can’t buy style with money. You can’t buy good taste with money. You can only buy more with money. Lifestyle is culture – the appreciation of good music, dance, art, sculpture, literature, plays and the art of living well. It’s a taste for the fine, the unique, the beautiful.

Lifestyle also means rewarding excellence wherever you find it by not taking the small things of life for granted. With Valentine’s Day approaching I wanted to illustrate this with a personal anecdote:

Many years ago my lady friend and I were on a trip to Carmel, California, for some shopping and exploring. On the way we stopped at a service station. As soon as we parked our car in front of the pumps, a young man, about eighteen or nineteen, came bouncing out to the car and with a big smile said, “Can I help you?”

“Yes,” I answered. “A full tank of gas, please.” I wasn’t prepared for what followed. In this day and age of self-service and deteriorating customer treatment, this young man checked every tire, washed every window – even the sunroof – singing and whistling the whole time. We couldn’t believe both the quality of service and his upbeat attitude about his work.

When he brought the bill, I said to the young man, “Hey, you really have taken good care of us. I appreciate it.”

He replied, “I really enjoy working. It’s fun for me and I get to meet nice people like you.”

This kid was really something!

I said, “We’re on our way to Carmel and we want to get some milkshakes. Can you tell us where we can find the nearest Baskin-Robbins?”

“Baskin-Robbins is just a few blocks away,” he said as he gave us exact directions. Then he added, “Don’t park out front – park around to the side so your car won’t get sideswiped.”

What a kid!

As we got to the ice cream store we ordered milkshakes, except that instead of two, we ordered three. Then we drove back to the station. Our young friend dashed out to greet us. “Hey, I see you got your milkshakes.”

“Yes, and this one is for you!”

His mouth fell open. “For me?”

“Sure. With all the fantastic service you gave us, I couldn’t leave you out of the milkshake deal.”

“Wow!” was his astonished reply.

As we drove off I could see him in my rear-view mirror just standing there, grinning from ear to ear.

Now, what did this little act of generosity cost me? Only about two dollars – you see, it’s not the money, it’s the style.

Well, I must have been feeling especially creative that day, so upon our arrival in Carmel I drove directly to a flower shop. As we walked inside I said to the florist, “I need a long-stemmed rose for my lady to carry while we go shopping in Carmel.”

The florist, a rather unromantic type, replied, “We sell them by the dozen.”

“I don’t need a dozen,” I said, “just one.”

“Well,” he replied haughtily, “it will cost you two dollars.”

“Wonderful,” I exclaimed. “There’s nothing worse than a cheap rose.”

Selecting the rose with some deliberation, I handed it to my friend. She was so impressed! And the cost? Two dollars. Just two dollars. A bit later she looked up and said, “Jim, I must be the only woman in Carmel today carrying a rose.” And I believe she probably was.

Can you imagine the opportunity to create magic with those around you, and all for the cost of a few dollars, some imagination and care. Remember, it is not the amount that matters but the thought and care that often has the greatest impact upon those you love.

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

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Isn’t It Time To Agree Upon The Important Stuff—Doing What Matters Most?

by William S. Cottrigner, Ph.D.

In making the long, bumpy and winding way home in my own reality repair journey, I have finally discovered answers to the two most important questions I imagine we all have. These are:

• What is my main purpose for being here?
• How is the best way for me to live this purpose?

The simple answer to both these questions is: We all want more genuine, authentic, and long-lasting happiness and this is exactly what we get when we do the few things that are necessary to get more of it. The main mistake I have made in this common pursuit is to confuse illegitimate, short-range painless pleasure for the real McCoy—genuine, authentic, and long-lasting happiness.

Although our common purpose involves getting more of this real happiness, that is where the commonality stops and all the private definitions of it and the endless ways to get it start surfacing in a life of trial and error mistakes.

The path to this genuine happiness, regardless of what else you call it, has already been laid out for us to learn and practice. In case you may have not remembered or practiced these tried and true ways to get more genuine happiness, here is the original list:

1. Discovering, growing, improving and applying your special God-given talents to do the few things known to bring genuine happiness to yourself and others.

2. Searching for the absolute truth of something, always viewing it as temporary and incomplete.

3. Stretching your ability to love others unconditionally past just thinking about it.

4. Increasing your understanding and acceptance of certain realities you can’t do anything about and making your best effort to do something productive about the ones you can make better—especially knowing the difference between the two.

5. Practicing sincere forgiveness of yourself and others for the mistakes you have made and always will make.

6. Growing your sense of “oneness” with everything else by noticing the important connections below the surface.

7. Helping to simplify the overload that is burying us all by focusing on doing what matters most.

8. Having hope and optimism that there is some good, positive benefit even in the worst of “negative” events and circumstances.

9. Showing compassion with others who have less happiness, mainly by being graciously and generously giving and being humble by not imposing your pride and “bragging” about your full bucket.

10. Celebrating differences between people, instead of allowing these differences and fears about them annoy and upset you into destructive thoughts and actions, and then building upon the commonalities we all have, mainly this purpose for living and the right way to live it.

11. Making difficult but morally right and responsible choices by willingly sacrificing painless, short-term pleasures for more genuine, longer-lasting, true happiness.

12. Unselfishly serving others in any way that matters most, without needing anything in return.

13. Avoiding all the tempting and distracting sources of unhappiness, you learn along the way; actively searching out new experiences that are likely to bring happiness.

14. Openly expressing generous appreciation for what happiness we currently have, knowing this is the key to getting more.

15. Worshipping a higher power in ways that bring you more genuine happiness to give to others.

16. Exploring your natural creativity to see important truths in ordinary things and then communicating them to others in new and unusual ways.

17. Committing to a lifetime of learning, growing and improving in doing all these other things to get more happiness for yourself and others.

18. Practicing more patience than you want to during this whole process.

19. Expanding your mindfulness and awareness of all that is going on around you to become more of a proactive participant in life than a passive, reacting observer, gradually abandoning the “safe space” in between.

20. Pausing frequently to notice the connection between what you are doing, how you are doing it, and what you get from it.

Engage in any of these activities and enjoy your mind, heart, body and spirit getting more of what you really want, on your way to an eternal now moment of happiness.

Author’s Bio
William Cottringer, Ph.D. is President of Puget Sound Security in Bellevue, WA and also a business and personal success coach, sport psychologist, photographer and writer living in the mountains of North Bend. He is author of several business and self-development books, including, The Prosperity Zone, Getting More By Doing Less, You Can Have Your Cheese & Eat It Too, The Bow-Wow Secrets, Do What Matters Most, “P” Point Management, and Reality Repair Rx coming shortly. He can be contacted with comments or questions at 425 454-5011 or bcottringer@pssp.net

The Power of Music to Heal Your Stress

by Quinlan Murray

Everyone suffers from stress at some point in their lives. It may range from easygoing stress to severe ones. If you allow your stress to enhance without doing something to relax, your health may get affected to a large extent. You may start suffering from several diseases such as gastric problems, diarrhea and headaches as a result of stress and anxiety. If it continues for an elongated period of time, you may also put your health in danger.

One effective way to fight stress and anxiety is to use the power of music. Music can be therapeutic and may prove beneficial for your wellbeing in several ways. A soothing music enhances your mental functioning, increases healing and further helps you to feel relaxed and calm. It is the comforting beat of the music which has a healing effect to relieve you from your stress and worries.

How Music Therapy helps to Heal Stress

Music helps to relax your tense muscles, and as you feel relaxed and calm, your worries and tensions float away into the background. Listening to affirming lyrics help you to feed your brain with positive thoughts. It will also provide you with more positive energy and will help to reduce the level of your stress. Music soothes your nerves and affects your mood in various situations.

Listening to music at the start of the day makes your day run smother. After a hard day’s work, the only thing you may feel like doing is to make the evening meal. Put on a soothing music while you cook, it will offer you complete tranquility and relaxation and will banish all your mild depression. The serene chirping of birds, the splashing of waves and the rippling of stream may also help more and more positive energies to flow within you.

How Music helps to Overcome Stress

Music has a tremendous power to help in the process of healing stress and emotional trauma; it has been lauded by psychiatrists and doctors alike. Today, calm and soothing music are used in mainstream medical environs as an addition to promote relaxation and relieve pain. It is found in neonatal units, nursing homes and operating rooms and you may learn to use the healing technique of music at your own home.

• Keep good collection of different genres of music. Categorize each type according to the emotion. If you are feeling sorry for yourself try sillier golden oldies. In case you are depressed, you can also try out roll and upbeat rocks.

• Spend few minutes everyday playing your favorite instrumentals, such as acoustic guitar or classics. It will minimize your distraction and stress and will allow you to get carried off with the harmonious melody.

• Stop thinking about those feelings of irritation that enters your mind. A strong, cheerful song can help you in this process. Music can help to blow-off all your anxieties and stress and may offer you a great and healthy life.

Author’s Bio
EnhancedHealing.com is committed to providing our visitors with the finest quality in relaxation music & relaxation videos, holistic vitamins and aromatherapy products. We are also dedicated to delivering holistic lifestyle information through our Health & Wellness articles.