Tell Yourself You Can, and You Will!

The power of affirmations is amazing. I was studying last year, and was having trouble sticking with the level of study required.

Then I read something about affirmations and was inspired! I began telling myself I was a good student, over and over throughout the day. I did this for nearly a  month, and it became easier for me to keep my head down and get on with doing my assignments.

I got through, and because of the affirmations and my application to doing the work, I now have a qualification in Community Services Work. Since getting that qualification, I feel more capable of doing whatever I set out to do. 

You can find out more here http://www.successconsciousness.com/go.php?wellness28&4

This year I've gained a grant to pay for a mentor to help write a memoir in verse dealing with my new life living with Multiple Sclerosis. I told myself I could do this, and I did. I truly am a believer in the power of Affirmations!

Keeping Busy, Keeping Well

I've been busy lately, connecting with others who have the same chronic illness. I've had Multiple Sclerosis (MS) for more that 2 years, perhaps 7 years. I was diagnosed with MS in February 2010. This could have been a terrible lifestyle destroying thing, if I let it be such a thing.

I didn't let it do that to me. Instead, I let myself explore this new life, by writing about it all. I wrote a list of reasons why MS was a good disease to get, in a humorous way, and then posted that to a website to share my words with a larger audience. 

Having MS and pursuing my favourite creative method go together extremely well. I'm a writer, a poet, and having MS means I sit down a lot. If I do too much in a day, fatigue hits me, and my legs get shaky and standing up becomes difficult. 

So I can keep busy, writing, thinking and discovering new things. I can keep on being creative, despite my illness. And I can help other people to discover ways to be creative too. Keeping busy at what you love to do is a great way to maintain a positive attitude.

And maintaining a positive attitude leads to a better life!

Rate Your Way to a Better Life

I just found this on a list of things - 40 Tips For Getting “Unstuck” In Acceptance & Commitment Therapy.

I received an email from a group ACT Mindfully | Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Training advertising a workshop. I'm not going to the course, I'm pretty sure it's too far away, and too expensive, but they had the list available for people, so I took a look. It's well worth looking at further, and I'm sure I will do that later, but this particular item jumped out at me and I felt I had to share it with you:

11. If you’re not sure where therapy is going, ask client to rate quality of life now on a scale of 0 to 10. Then ask what needs to happen to take it up one level. This leads you directly to goals, values and barriers.

This spoke so loudly to me, both personally, and in relation to other people I know and see. I can apply it to my own life at the moment and apply the quality of life rating to things that aren't going well, like I want them to go. I'm pussy-footing around doing something right now, and if I were to rate how I'm feeling about how that thing is going, I would have to rate it at a 5.

If I ask myself what needs to happen to take it up a level, and to then set goals to achieve that, and to list the values I have that will help it to occur, and the barriers there to stop it from happening, well then I would know what I have to do to hit the rating of 6.

Having written all of this down, I'm thinking about that 6 rating already, and I feel as though I am a tiny bee's breathe away from achieving it now, I've got an idea of what I have to do, and what might stop me from doing it. I also know what I have within me to help me to get it done.

I'm feeling powerful now, and I WILL get this thing done!

I hope you can find your way to get 'Unstuck'. Here is the website where they have lots of information about these things.

This way to get unstuck refers to what a therapist could suggest to a client to help them. I'm not a therapist, but a thinking person who cares about my own happiness and the happiness of others. Writing things down has been a tool I have used many times in my life, it helps me to think things through, and not waste time worrying.

I hope you can find ways to get unstuck in the important things in your life!

Shut up and listen

Sometimes we all may need to shoosh up a bit, and properly listen to others. I, and I'm sure many other people, assume I know what that person sitting near me is going to say next. But that isn't always so. If we never listen properly, we'll never find out whether or not this is true.

If you ask them most people will probably say they listen when others talk. But do they really listen? Do they listen properly?


You can't listen properly with your mouth open!


So many people only listen long enough to catch their breathe before speaking again. These people are not listening properly. Waiting until you can say your next thing isn't listening. To listen properly entails giving your full attention to the person speaking.


To listen properly, giving someone else the respect of paying attention to what they're saying is a gift, sadly a rare gift. The next time someone you know speaks to you, try listening to them properly listening to them. They, and you, may be surprised at what you hear.


Do you listen properly?

My symptoms caused by Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

My life has changed a lot since I became ill with MS, but I’m working hard at keeping positive. Stress makes MS symptoms worse, and I certainly don’t want to make myself sicker. Life is still good.

Weakness in the arms or legs

Loss of balance

Tendency to drag one foot

Loss of coordination

Extreme fatigue

Continence problems

Loss of mobility

Problems with or changes in memory functioning

Muscle spasms

I began putting this list together using information from this website http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Multiple_sclerosis_explained

Different people have different symptoms caused by MS. It depends on which part of their Central Nervous System (CNS) is damaged. That’s what MS is, damage caused to the myelin that coats and protects the nerve fibres of the CNS.

So I’m dealing with the symptoms as listed above. Some of my symptoms are dealt with using medicines, some are being dealt with by having a healthy lifestyle and diet.

Some of my symptoms though aren’t being helped at all, and I’m still affected in some way by most of the symptoms. There is no cure for MS yet, though lots of people are trying to find one. The problem in finding a cure is that the scientists and medical people don’t really know what causes MS.

There are some theories, but none of them have been properly proven to be true. There are also some treatments that are supposed to cure a person with MS, but again, none of these have been proven to work, not sufficiently anyway.

Most people with MS use treatments that can help to reduce the effects of the disease. The treatments tend to be injections, given daily, every other day or weekly, depending on which treatment is used. Up until now, there hasn’t been a tablet that helps fix the symptoms. Now there is one. It’s been available overseas for about five years, now it’s available on the PBS in Australia.

The idea of taking a daily tablet instead of giving having an injection appeals to a lot of people with MS, as you can imagine. The new treatment comes with some risks though, as do many treatments for many diseases. Some people have received excellent effects from this treatment, so others are happy to take the risk of using the tablet.

I’m going to begin taking this new tablet, Gilenya on Wednesday next week. I hope it will work as well for me as it has for other people. 

How To Live a Good Life

The past has been, but it's gone, the future isn't here yet and I can't know what will actually happen.

The present is right here, right now, and that's the only part I'm living in.

If your past is still troubling you, have you considered trying to ignore it? I realise that can be difficult for many people, but what I wrote at the beginning here is true.

The past is gone. Think perhaps about why the past is causing you so much pain. Are you trying to live with decisions made before that no longer fit into your life? That can be painful. 

Write down what troubles you, and then look at each item in your list, one item at a time. Can you think of ways to help with that particular item. If not, go to the next item. Again, think of ways to help. 

Work through your list, and if you can't think of anything you could change that are in your list, it might be time to speak to someone who is trained to help people deal with the issues that are causing them pain.

If you've managed to find a way to change one of your items, so that it no longer causes you trouble, well done. If you've solved one problem, maybe you can solve more. 

It may not always be possible to solve your problems, but working and winning at this can bring you hope for better things in the future.

If you can find ways to look at the good things happening in your life right now, sometimes the bad things don't look so bad. If you wake up in the morning, and can get out of bed, that's the first good thing that's happened in your life. 

Enjoy yourself!

What is Good Luck? What is Bad?

Luck is neither good nor bad. Things happen, we deal with them. It’s the way we deal with our luck that can be either good or bad.

The answer may be a long time coming, and good or bad, there are always choices and decisions to be made. 

Until the end, who can really tell which it was, good or bad luck? What seems to be good luck to one, may seem bad luck to another. 

After luck is decided on, there are always more things that can occur to change the way one looks on life's events. 

Book review John Birmingham's Angels of Vengeance

I've recently read the final book in John Birmingham's most recent trilogy. Here'e my thoughts on it:

There aren’t many authors who grab the reader by the scruff of the neck, threaten them with extreme violence and then keep them racing along with them at top speed.

John Birmingham in his recent trilogy does all of these things and more. He creates action, places and people you truly believe in. Reading the first two books in the trilogy was a gut wrenching race to the end of each book, and then an agonising wait for the final book to arrive.

The unspoken question was always there – could John Birmingham pull this whole thing off? Really, think about it – some mysterious thing goes wrong in the world, and suddenly the whole world gets turned upside down. Mankind remains the same, some good people, some bad. The stakes are high – who will be the ultimate ruler? And the pressure mounts and mounts and mounts.

There is a broad range of characters here – fuelled by religion, hunger for power, people seeking revenge. And revenge is there in plenty, the ending gives visceral knowledge that revenge sought and gained is a sweet thing indeed.

Another great read from Mr Birmingham, a man who gives his readers what they want, blood, guts and plenty of things that go BANG! in a big way.

Life Isn't Always Going to be Great

I'm the kind of person who always tries to find the good in all things in my life. I have some health issues, I don't have a paid job and don't know if I'll ever get another one. I've suffered some awful things in my early life.

This is true for many people, I'm well aware of that, many people have much worse than I have to deal with. I have a lovely family, and some dear friends who care deeply for me. I am a truly lucky person.

One of those dear friends though is suffering at the moment. Their spouse has a mental illness, and isn't doing well with it at the moment. This means my spouse is having a terrible time in their life. I've been keeping in contact with this friend, through emails and txt messages.

I let them know I care, and I hope they can find a way to find a way to live a better life. At the moment though, my friend only seems to be able to focus on the bad things. They go over the bad things over and over, with no thought of anything else.

I'm catching up with my friend tomorrow for coffee and a chat prior to our writing group meeting. My friends says they feel the need to talk to someone who at least in part understands what they're going through. I'm not sure that I do in fact have a big understanding of the extent of their issue, but I am more then happy to be there and listen to them as they talk through it all.

That's what my role in this friendship, I'm there to listen with empathy, and try to help them find some good in their life. That's what good friends do. That's what I will do.

We've shared good times and sad times. This is one of the sad times. My friend thinks I have some special gift that keeps me happy and positive in my troubled life. I don't have a special gift though. What I have is knowledge that no matter how bad life seems, there are ways to see happier times. Being alive is what helps a person to see those happier times.

Life isn't always going to be great, but if you wake up and can get up to face the day, you have the potential to live a good life. Positive feelings help me through, they can help us all.

Thoughts for the New Year

Many people write New Year Resolutions. Many people fail to accomplish the things they'd planned to do. This year, 2012, feels somehow special. Some of my friends have said the same thing. We all feel that this year, we can achieve great things.

I have stated elsewhere that I want to do more with my writing in 2012. I intend writing a new poem on every day in January. I will work toward another writing project when January is over. And perhaps the most important thing is this: I will work toward increasing my physical fitness.

Everybody should work toward having a healthy and fit body. This has become even more important for me over the past year. In February last year I became ill, and was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). MS can cause physical  weakness, fatigued and a variety of things.

In the latter part of 2011 I began an exercise program. I strongly most strongly to continue this program. I currently have an issue with my health caused by a trip and fall accident, but I am doing my best to continue doing physical things, being careful not to overstrain my sore ankle. So far it's going well.

After two days of January, my poem a day is going well too. I wrote a new poem early in the morning and posted it online. I don't expect to write 31 perfect poems for the month of January. What I want to do is to get into the habit of writing on command.

If I can become accustomed to doing that, I'm expecting it to become easier, with an improvement in my creative efforts. Some people claim they can't write unless their 'muse' is there. I plan to write when I need to write, and the muse can catch up with me later!

For me, the important thing will be physically writing. The quality of the writing can be tweaked and polished after, but first I must have the words written.

I will be posting some of my poems to this site, feel free to have a look, and let me know what you think about my poem!