Reachout Blogs: 2009

12 Tips to create your own self confidence and happiness.

Tip 1: What you focus on makes a difference. What are you focusing on?

Tip 2: Your attitude towards your life and everything around you makes the difference between contentment and dissatisfaction. Is your attitude negative or positive?

Tip 3: Developing gratitude for what you do have instead of focusing on what you don't have, is a source of great happiness. List 10 things to be thankful for.

Tip 4. Kindness can lead to confidence. When you are kind to someone you can feel good. When you feel good your confidence increases.. Who will you be kind to today?

Tip 5. Look at the problems others have. If you feel miserable or are thinking badly of yourself, ask yourself, "Would you rather be living in Iraq or where you are?" Always keep your own problems in perspective for greater happiness.

Tip 6. Say thank you. Thank the people around you for the kind things they do for you. It doesn't have to be a big thing, they may just have made you a cup of tea or called you. Give thanks. Write down ten things you can thank people for today.

Tip 7. Generosity without expecting anything in return can lead to confidence. When you are generous to someone you can feel good. When you feel good your confidence increases. Who will you be generous to today?

Tip 8. Think kindly of yourself. What you think can knock your confidence or increase it. Write down 5 things you have done well today.

Tip 9. Praise someone. Look at people and find something nice to say about them. Have this as your focus. When you find something good about them tell them. When you bring pleasure to someone else your confidence is being nourished too.

Tip 10. Change your feelings don't just give into them. If you feel down, or discouraged or inadequate shift your feelings. They don't have to control you. Recall and relive some positive happy times so your confidence returns and you feel better.

Tip 11. Giving to people who are less well off than you are can help you appreciate how lucky you really are. When you feel lucky your confidence and happiness grow. Who will you give to today?

Tip 12. Create peace and quiet inside. Find a place to simply sit and be. Stop the rushing. Quit from being busy. Just be. It is only in silence we can truly hear the wisdom that is within each of us.

Create the causes for your own confidence and happiness. Let no-one take them away from you. May joy be in your heart throughout 2010 and may you be confident.

Contributed by: i_asianwoman @ yahoo.com

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THE DIME

Bobby was getting cold sitting out in his back yard in the snow. Bobby didn't wear boots; he didn't like them and anyway he didn't own any. The thin sneakers he wore had a few holes in them and they did a poor job of keeping out the cold. Bobby had been in his backyard for about an hour already. And, try as he might, he could not come up with an idea for his mother's Christmas gift. He shook his head as he thought,"This is useless, even if I do come up with an idea, I don't have any money to spend."

Ever since his father had passed away three years ago, the family of five had struggled. It wasn't because his mother didn't care, or try, there just never seemed to be enough. She worked nights at the hospital, but the small wage that she was earning could only be stretched so far.

What the family lacked in money and material things, they more than made up for in love and family unity. Bobby had two older and one younger sister, who ran the house hold in their mother's absence. All three of his sisters had already made beautiful gifts for their mother. Somehow it just wasn't fair. Here it was Christmas Eve already, and he had nothing.

Wiping a tear from his eye, Bobby kicked the snow and started to walk down to the street where the shops and stores were.

It wasn't easy being six without a father, especially when he needed a man to talk to. Bobby walked from shop to shop, looking into each decorated window. Everything seemed so beautiful and so out of reach.

It was starting to get dark and Bobby reluctantly turned to walk home when suddenly his eyes caught the glimmer of the setting sun's rays reflecting off of something along the curb.

He reached down and discovered a shiny dime. Never before has anyone felt so wealthy as Bobby felt at that moment. As he held his new found treasure, a warmth spread throughout his entire body and he walked into the first store he saw. His excitement quickly turned cold when the salesperson told him that he couldn't buy anything with only a dime.

He saw a flower shop and went inside to wait in line. When the shop owner asked if he could help him, Bobby presented the dime and asked if he could buy one flower for his mother's Christmas gift.

The shop owner looked at Bobby and his ten cent offering. Then he put his hand on Bobby's shoulder and said to him, "You just wait here and I'll see what I can do for you."

As Bobby waited he looked at the beautiful flowers and even though he was a boy, he could see why mothers and girls liked flowers. The sound of the door closing as the last customer left jolted Bobby back to reality. All alone in the shop, Bobby began to feel alone and afraid.

Suddenly the shop owner came out and moved to the counter. There, before Bobby's eyes, lay twelve long stem, red roses, with leaves of green and tiny white flowers all tied together with a big silver bow. Bobby's heart sank as the owner picked them up and placed them gently into a long white box.

"That will be ten cents young man." the shop owner said reaching out his hand for the dime. Slowly, Bobby moved his hand to give the man his dime.

Could this be true?

No one else would give him a thing for his dime!

Sensing the boy's reluctance, the shop owner added, "I just happened to have some roses on sale for ten cents a dozen. Would you like them?" This time Bobby did not hesitate, and when the man placed the long box into his hands, he knew it was true. Walking out the door that the owner was holding for Bobby, he heard the shop keeper say, "Merry Christmas, son."

As he returned inside, the shop keeper's wife walked out. "Who were you talking to back there and where are the roses you were fixing?"

Staring out the window, and blinking the tears from his own eyes, he replied, "A strange thing happened to me this morning. While I was setting up things to open the shop, I thought I heard a voice telling me to set aside a dozen of my best roses for a special gift.

I wasn't sure at the time whether I had lost my mind or what, but I set them aside anyway. Then just a few minutes ago, a little boy came into the shop and wanted to buy a flower for his mother with one small dime. When I looked at him, I saw myself, many years ago. I too, was a poor boy with nothing to buy my mother a Christmas gift. A bearded man, whom I never knew, stopped me on the street and told me that he wanted to give me ten dollars.

When I saw that little boy tonight, I knew who that voice was, and I put together a dozen of my very best roses."

The shop owner and his wife hugged each other tightly, and as they stepped out into the bitter cold air, they somehow didn't feel cold at all.

May this story instill the spirit of Christmas in you enough to pass this act along.

Have a Joyous and Peace-filled season.

-- Author Unknown

Contributed by: i_asianwoman @ yahoo.com

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