Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success, Happiness, Motivation, Spiritual Growth, Self-Help & Positive Thinking

Listen to episode 46 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Develop a Powerful Concentration. Adapted from Thought Force in Business & Every Day Life by William Walker Atkinson. Educational Podcast Excerpt: Every person who has succeeded in life has developed the art of concentration. They may not realize it, but they have, just the same. And more, any person who will develop the art of concentration will be successful. The individual who can concentrate has a sure remedy for the "blues." How so? Why, just by shutting off the unpleasant thoughts and concentrating on a brighter subject. Thousands of people have found this plan a specific remedy for the "blues," discouragement, worry, fear, and the rest. Try it, and you will find that life will appear entirely different to you. Try it, and you will begin to feel the thrill of life again, and will thank God that you are alive, instead of cursing the day when you were born. You will do your work better; you will feel better; you will BE better. Is it not worth trying it out?...

Listen to episode 45 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Following Your Dreams & Making Them Come True. Adapted from The Victorious Attitude by Orison Swett Marden. Self-Help Podcast Excerpt: There is no human being who doesn't have some sort of a chance. If your present position cramps you; if it does not give you room to express yourself, you can make room by filling it to overflowing, by doing your work as well as it can be done, by keeping your mind steadfastly fixed on the ladder of your ascent. In your mind you make the stairs by which you ascend or descend. Nobody else can do it for you. The master key which will unlock that cruel door that keeps you back is not in the hand of fate. You are fashioning it by your thoughts.Your next step is right where you are, in the thing you are doing to-day. The door to something better is always in the duty of the moment. The spirit in which you do your work, the energy which you throw into it, the determination with which you back up your ambition—these, no matter what opposes you, are the forces that unlock the door to something better. If you hold to your vision and are honest, earnest, and true, there is nothing that can stand in the way of its realization.

Listen to episode 44 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Overcome Self-Pity. Adapted from the book Health Through Will Power by Dr. James J. Walsh. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: The old Greeks did not hesitate (in spite of their deep appreciation of the beauty of nature and enthusiasm for the joy of living) to emphasize the tragedy in life. They were inclined to think that the sense of contrast produced by tragedy heightened the actual enjoyment of life, and that indeed all pleasure was founded on contrast rather than positive enjoyment. One may not be ready to agree with the saying that the only thing that makes life worthwhile is contrast, but certainly suffering as a background enhances happiness as nothing else can. Aristotle declared that tragedy purges life, that is, that only through the lens of death and misfortune can one see life free from the dross of the sordid and merely material to which it is attached. His meaning was that tragedy lifts us above the selfishness of mere individualism. And by showing us the misfortunes of others, it prepares us to struggle against whatever misfortunes might come, as they almost inevitably will. At the same time, tragedy lifts us above the trifles of daily life into a higher, broader sphere of living, where we better realize our true selves and powers.....

Listen to episode 43 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Spirit of Opulence & Beauty. Adapted from The Hidden Power by Thomas Troward. Spiritual Podcast Excerpt: The spirit of opulence—the opulent mode of thought—consists in cultivating the feeling that we possess all sorts of riches which we can bestow upon others, and which we can bestow liberally because by this very action we open the way for still greater supplies to flow in. Now, you may be saying to yourself, "But I am short of money, I hardly know how to pay for the necessities. What have I to give?" The answer is that we must always start from the point where we are; and if your wealth at the present moment is not abundant on the material plane, you need not trouble to start on that plane. There are other sorts of wealth, still more valuable, on the spiritual and intellectual planes, which you can give. Therefore, you can start from this point and practice the spirit of opulence, even though your balance at the bank may be nil. Then the universal law of attraction will begin to assert itself. You will not only begin to experience an inflow on the spiritual and intellectual planes, but it will extend itself to the material plane also.

Listen to episode 42 of the Inspirational Living podcast: What Do You Live For? Adapted from the book New Thought Common Sense and What Life Means to Me by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Everything comes when we are fully ready. The law never fails. You may believe yourself worthy of better things than what has fallen to your lot, but there is some reason, some cause in yourself, if you have not what you desire.If you encounter people who are disagreeable, be so agreeable that you force them into a pleasant mood. Bring out the best in everybody by giving them the best that is in yourself. The poet Madeline Bridges put this great truth into the simple words: "Give to the world the best you have, And the best shall come to you."Just so sure as you live these lines, so sure shall be your reward. But to do all this you must be ALIVE: Alive every hour of the day, and all of you (brain, soul and body) must be alive. Once you roll the stone away and come forth, alive, you will vibrate at such a rate that worry, disease, poverty, despondency, gloom, and melancholy will be unable to stay with you.....

Listen to episode 41 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Think & Grow Rich Without Money. Adapted from the work of Orison Swett Marden. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: We assume importance and become a power in the world, just as soon as it is found that we stand for something; that we are not for sale; that we will not lease our ideals for salary, for any amount of money or for any influence or position; that we will not lend our name to anything which we cannot endorse. The trouble with so many people today is that they do not stand for anything outside their vocation. They may be well educated, well up in their specialties, may have a lot of expert knowledge, but they cannot be depended upon. There is some flaw in them which takes the edge off their virtue. They may be fairly honest, but you cannot bank on them...

Listen to episode 40 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Duality & Rhythm of Life. Adapted from the Kybalion, published in 1912 by the Yogi Publication Society. Spiritual Podcast Excerpt: The Principle of Polarity, as taught by the ancient mystics, was that everything is dual. Everything has two poles. Everything has its pair of opposites---and that "opposites" are really only the two extremes of the same thing, with many varying degrees between them. Where does darkness leave off, and light begin? What is the difference between Large and Small? Between Hard and Soft? Between Black and White? Between Sharp and Dull? Between Noise and Quiet? Between High and Low? Between Positive and Negative? The Principle of Polarity explains these paradoxes, and no other Principle can supersede it. The same Principle operates on the Mental Plane. Let us take a radical and extreme example—that of Love and Hate, two mental states apparently totally different. And yet there are degrees of Hate and degrees of Love, and a middle point in which we use the terms “Like” or “Dislike,” which shade into each other so gradually that sometimes we are at a loss to know whether we "like" or "dislike" or "neither" ...

Listen to episode 39 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Change Your Life Around. Adapted from a 1952 lecture by Neville Goddard. Podcast Excerpt: As an individual, you move and live in time, but your true being is in eternity. Think of the vertical line of the cross as the line of being upon which there are unnumbered levels of awareness. Time cannot make you better or wiser. In fact, time cannot do a thing towards changing your level of being, for change is all on the vertical line where you move to higher or lower levels of your own being. Because change is imminent, we speak of it as infinite imminence---as nearer than near and sooner than now. The person you would like to be is imminent: is nearer than near. The ideal you dream of being is sooner than now and is brought into being by a change in your reactions to life...

Listen to episode 38 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Reform Education. Adapted from “Mental Training: A Remedy for Education” by William George Jordan. Podcast Excerpt: Examinations make cramming mandatory, and this process has a most pernicious effect on mind and brain. Tests exercise only the rote memory, the weakest of all memories, especially among the highly intelligent and gifted. They blur the process of memory by paying no attention to the association of memories by principle, classification, and relation. They deaden the mind by putting a premium on acquiring words untranslated into ideas or clear concepts. In mental training, with no examinations and marks, the child would attend school with joy and freedom, prepared to be led to a love of knowledge and wisdom for its own sake, and for the use they could make of it. The absence of formal examinations does not imply that no estimate would be made of the child‘s progress, for students would be under the constant watchful eye of the teacher, studying their progress and development as manifested in their daily activities.....

Listen to episode 37 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Words of Wisdom for Young Adults. Adapted from “If I Were Twenty-One” by Dr. Frank Crane. Podcast Excerpt: Remember that half of your problem is you; the other half is circumstance. Your task is to bring results out of the combination of the two. Life is not a science, to be learned; it is an art, to be practiced. Ability comes by doing. Wisdom comes not from others; it is born of experience. Life is not like a problem in arithmetic, to be solved by learning the rules. It is more like a puzzle of blocks, or wire rings—you just keep trying one way after another, until finally you succeed…maybe. In the Game of Life, as in a game of cards, we have to play the cards dealt to us; and the good player is not the one who always wins, but the one who plays a poor hand well.

Listen to episode 36 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Be Happy: Getting Things Done (Productivity Mindset). Adapted from Essays on the Meaning of Life by Carl Hilty. Podcast Excerpt: We say that time is money, yet people who have plenty of money seem to have no time. Thus the modern world seems pitiless in its exhortation to work. Human beings are driven like horses until they drop. Many lives are ruined by the pace, but there are always more lives ready like horses to be driven. Yet the results of this restless haste are generally not convincing. There have been periods in history when people (without the restlessness and fatigue that now prevail), accomplished far more in many forms of human activity than people achieve today. Where are we now to find the scholars whose works fill thousands of volumes, or the artists like Michelangelo and Raphael, who could be at once painters, architects, sculptors and poets?

Listen to episode 35 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Power of Spiritual Meditation. Edited & adapted from The Way of Peace by James Allen. Podcast Excerpt: Spiritual meditation is the pathway to Divinity. It is the mystic ladder which reaches from earth to heaven, from error to Truth, from pain to peace. Without its aid, you cannot grow into the divine state, and the fadeless glories and joys of Truth will remain hidden from you. Tell me that which you most frequently and intensely think about (that to which, in your silent hours, your soul most naturally turns), and I will tell you to what place of pain or peace you are traveling, and whether you are growing into the likeness of the divine or the mundane...

Listen to episode 34 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Cheerfulness: The Benefits of Smiling and Laughing. Adapted from The Optimistic Life by Orison Swett Marden. Podcast Excerpt: No matter what your work may be, learn to find happiness everywhere. The love of cheerfulness can be cultivated like any other faculty — and in practical life, it will be worth more to you than a college education with-out it. This is wealth that all can accumulate — the wealth of joy. No matter how hard your lot, how dark the day may seem, if you work a little good humor into it, it will lift your life above a humdrum existence. If you manage to get in a good laugh during the day, your work will not seem nearly as hard. It will relieve the grind and dreariness. A dull, serious mood all day will not only make you very uninteresting to others, but it makes your own load heavier. A good laugh does away with cares, worries, doubts, and relieves the great strain of modern life....

Listen to episode 33 of the Inspirational Living podcast: When To Compromise & When Not To Compromise. Adapted from “Some Needed Notes on American Character” by Robert E. Speer. Podcast Excerpt: Compromise is when we surrender our principles to the degree that others do not understand what those principles ARE, or when we hold back something that is vital, or cover over deceptively or misleadingly something essential. When we take a position that is inconsistent with the position that we hold in our hearts, that is compromise, and that is wrong. It is better to bear the burden of impracticality, than to stifle conviction and to pare away principle until it becomes mere triviality. Our resolution to search for the highest verities, to give up all and follow them, must become the supreme part of ourselves. Otherwise, the loss by compromise to ourselves and others is certain.

Listen to episode 32 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Art of Empathy: Sympathy & Understanding Others. Adapted from the book Seeing and Being by H. Clay Trumbull. Podcast Excerpt: The common belief is that, in order to come into sympathy with someone, and to like them deeply, you must first know them thoroughly and understand them as they are; but the truer truth is that, in many cases, the sympathy and liking must PRECEDE the understanding; and that the worthier one is of being loved and admired, the more difficulty there is of understanding them until you DO love them, or until in some way you come to have a feeling of kinship with them.