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

Listen to episode 121 of the Inspirational Living podcast: New Year’s Resolutions: Living Your Ideal Life. Adapted from the book Joy Philosophy by Elizabeth Towne. Self-Help Podcast Excerpt: Whenever you achieve any ideal (small or great), don’t stagnate. Look within and find another Ideal to work for. Your Ideals are inspired for your use. Look eagerly upon them and know that they are Life itself. You do not make your Ideals. They make you—if you keep mentally in touch with them. Now, perhaps you feel that you are too old; or that your burdens are too great; that you have no time or energy to pursue your Ideals. I say that it is never too late to drop your burdens and use your energy to some joyful purpose. All one has to do is to declare “I have no burdens. Life is a play-ground!“ and stick to it. You have no burdens—they are all a hallucination. Life is a play-ground of circumstances and situations. Not burdens. That is the TRUTH. Just tell it to yourself until it works its way into your semi-paralyzed mind and makes itself felt. Relax physically and mentally. Lie idly under an apple tree and look up to the blue sky and let your fancy play with the world. You will find a new and happy TRUTH in common things, just as Isaac Newton did. Related Self-Help Podcasts: The Ideal Made Real How to Create an Ideal Life

Listen to episode 120 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Christmas Gifts & Giving (The Spirit of Christmas). Adapted from the book The Spirit of Christmas by Henry Van Dyke. Christmas Podcast Excerpt: The custom of exchanging presents on a certain day in the year is very much older than Christmas, and means very much less. Gift giving has been a custom in almost all ages of the world, and among many different nations. It is a fine thing or a foolish thing, as the case may be; an encouragement to friendliness, or a tribute to fashion; an expression of good nature, or a bid for favor; an outgoing of generosity, or a disguise of greed; a cheerful old custom, or a futile old farce, according to the spirit which animates it and the form which it takes. But when this ancient and variously interpreted tradition of a day of gifts was transferred to the Christmas season, it was brought into vital contact with an idea which must transform it, and with an example which must lift it up to a higher plane. The example is the life of Jesus. And the idea is unselfish interest in the happiness of others. The great gift of Jesus to the world was himself. He lived with and for humanity. He kept back nothing. In every particular and personal gift that he made to certain people there was something of himself that made it precious. Related Inspirational Podcasts: Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus The Spirit of Opulence

Listen to episode 119 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Spirituality and The Art of Living. Adapted from the book Method of New Thought by Abel Allen. Spirituality Podcast Excerpt: Let us realize that the constructive is the only life; that to create is a joy; that to build is life’s purpose and humanity’s function. Let us each remember that the latent possibilities of a divine soul are inherent within us, slumbering perhaps, but only waiting to be called into development and expression. Let us remember that we can create, that we can build, that we can be a positive force in the world, that we can lift the burden from some struggling life, that we can radiate joy and kindness, gratitude and love from our lives, that we can leave the world a little brighter and humankind a little better than we found it. Let us not forget that we hear the sweet symphonies of life only as we listen to the voice of our own soul; that we walk in the paths of peace only as we are illumined by the light within; that we see the facts of life aright only as we trust our own inner vision; that these are the true pilots to guide us safely over the turbulent seas of life. Let us build to these ideals and the world will move forward, some life will be made a little happier, some pathway will be strewn with roses, and we shall feel the glow of a heart at peace with itself. Related Spirituality Podcasts: How to Change Your Life Around Self-Development of the Soul

Listen to episode 118 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Become Enlightened (Cosmic Consciousness). Adapted from a book The Rhythm of Life by Charles Brodie Patterson. Spirituality Podcast Excerpt: Life is a state of consciousness. The visible world is a mirror of what humanity has felt and thought and done; but it is not a prophecy of what you shall be, for what you shall be is written into the soul of you, and only as you learn to express your own soul-life can you enrich the world in which you live and prepare yourself to receive new mysteries from the kingdom that lives within you. Without consciousness, there would be no meaning to human existence. Our objective consciousness consists largely of material things, and our thoughts and emotions in relation to them. Consciousness consists, then, of what we feel and what we think, and from such feeling and thinking there comes the outward expression of ourselves in what we do; for our work is a natural expression of both thought and feeling. At times, we seem dominated by thought, and again by feeling. In our happiest states we use both. The force of our life is in what we feel, while the form which our work takes comes largely through what we think. Our best work is accomplished when head and heart work together in unison. This holds good regarding all planes of consciousness, and this union makes not only for our highest good, but also for the truest expression of our work. Related Spirituality Podcasts: Spirituality & The Art of Living A New Thought Philosophy of Life  

Listen to episode 117 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Feast of St. Friend. Adapted from a book by the same title by Arnold Bennett. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: ..... Then on Christmas day itself one will feel that one really has something to celebrate. The festival becomes a public culmination of your daily practice of sympathizing with others. You will not be reminded by Christmas of goodwill, because the enterprise of imaginative sympathy has been your daily affair throughout the year. Christmas provides you with an opportunity to take satisfaction in the success of your enterprise and renew your enthusiasm to correct its failures. The symbolism of Christmas, at the turn of the year, thus will develop added meaning for you, and all the Christmas customs, some of which produce annoyance among the unsentimental, will be accepted with indulgence, even with eagerness, because their symbolism is now shown in a clearer light. Christmas becomes as personal as a birthday. One eats and drinks to excess, not because it is the custom to eat and drink to excess, but from sheer effervescent faith in an idea. As we sit with our friends or family, embracing them in the privacy of our heart, permeated by a sympathetic understanding of our shared adventure on this planet hurling through space, and feeling reassured that companionship and mutual understanding alone make the adventure worthwhile—we see in a flash that Christmas, whatever else it may be, is and must be the Feast of St. Friend, a day that stands supreme among the days of the year. Related Inspirational Podcasts: The Spirit of Christmas Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Listen to episode 116 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Science of Being Great. Adapted from a book by the same title by Wallace D. Wattles. New Thought Podcast Excerpt: There is no possibility in any person that is not in every individual; but if they proceed naturally, no two people will grow into the same thing, or be alike. Every person comes into the world with a predisposition to grow along certain lines, and growth is easier along those lines than in any other way. This is a wise provision, for it gives endless variety. It is as if a gardener should throw all their bulbs into one basket; to the superficial observer they would look alike, but growth reveals a tremendous difference. So of men and women, they are like a basket of bulbs. One may be a rose and add brightness and color to some dark corner of the world; one may be a lily and teach a lesson of love and purity to every eye that sees; one may be a climbing vine and hide the rugged outlines of some dark rock; one may be a great oak among whose boughs the birds shall nest and sing, and beneath whose shade the flocks shall rest at noon, but everyone will be something worthwhile, something rare, something perfect. There are undreamed of possibilities in the common lives all around us in a large sense; there are no “common” people. In times of national stress and peril the slack-dressed loafer at the corner store and the town drunkard become heroes and statesmen through the quickening of the Principle of Power within them. There is a genius in every man and woman, waiting to be brought forth. Related New Thought Podcasts: How to Be Successful in Life Seeing God in Nature

Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Listen to episode 115 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance. Adapted from the famous essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Life is now. Power exists not in repose, but in that moment of transition from the past to a new state of being. This is the one fact that the world hates, that the soul becomes; for this knowledge forever degrades the past, turns all riches to poverty, all reputation to shame, and shoves the saint and sinner equally aside. The soul requires self-reliance. Because self-reliance is power. And power is in nature the essential measure of life. We are in desperate need of greater self-reliance throughout our society: in our religions; in our schools and universities; in our work and ways of living; in our governments, and more. Remember to always follow your inner genius and never imitate. Your own unique talents are something that you can offer others at every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation. But if you try to imitate the talents of another, you will only ever succeed by half. That which you can do best, none but your Maker can teach. And no person yet knows what your gifts are, nor can they, until you have shown them. This adapted essay is included in our new hardcover book Evergreen: 50 Inspirational Life Lessons. Learn more at: InspirationalLifeLessons.com.

Listen to episode 114 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Choose Your Friends Wisely. Adapted from the book Friendship by Hugh Black. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Our choice of friends is one of the most serious affairs in life, because we become molded into the likeness of what we love in our friends. From a purely selfish standard, every fresh bond we form means giving a new hostage to fortune, and adding a new risk to our happiness.Apart from any moral hazard, every intimacy is a danger of another blow to the heart. But if we desire fullness of life, we cannot help ourselves. We may make many a friendship that ends in hurt, but the isolated life is a greater danger still. Every relationship means risk, but we must take the risk; for while nearly all our sorrows come from our connection with others, nearly all our joys have the same source. We cannot help ourselves; for it is part of the great curriculum of life. We need knowledge, and care, and forethought to enable us to make the best use of the necessities of our nature. And foremost of these in importance is our choice of friends. We may err on the one side by being too cautious, and too exclusive in our attachments. We may be supercilious, and disdainful in our estimate of others. Contempt always blinds the eyes. Every person is vulnerable somewhere, if only like Achilles in the heel. The true secret of insight is not contempt, but sympathy. Related Inspirational Podcasts: The Limits of Friendship Words of Wisdom for Young Adults

Listen to episode 113 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Majesty of Calmness. Adapted from a book of the same name by William George Jordan. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Hurry is the deathblow to calmness, to dignity, to poise. Hurry means the breakdown of the nerves. It is the royal road to perpetual worry. Everything that is great in life is the product of slow growth; the newer, and greater, and higher, and nobler the work, the slower is its growth, the surer is its lasting success. Mushrooms attain their full power in a night; oaks require decades. A fad lives its life in a few weeks; a philosophy lives through generations and centuries. If you are sure you are right, do not let the voice of the world, or of friends, or of family swerve you for a moment from your purpose. Accept slow growth if it must be slow, and know the results must come, as you would accept the long, lonely hours of the night — with absolute assurance that the heavy-leaded moments must bring the morning. Let us as individuals banish the word "Hurry" from our lives. Let us care for nothing so much that we would pay honor and self-respect as the price of hurrying it. Let us cultivate calmness, restfulness, poise, kindness — doing our best, bearing all things as bravely as we can; living our life undisturbed by the prosperity of the dishonest or the malice of the envious. Let us not be impatient, chafing at delay, fretting over failure, wearying over results, and weakening under opposition.... Related Motivational Podcasts: How to be Calm, Cool & Collected How to Stay Calm & Motivated

Listen to episode 112 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Thoughts on Nature, Art, Beauty, Lifestyle & Interior Design. Adapted from Practical Ethics by William De Witt Hyde. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: The love of nature, like all love, cannot be forced. It is not directly under the control of our will. We cannot set about it in deliberate fashion, like we set about earning a living. Still it can be cultivated. We can place ourselves in contact with Nature's more impressive aspects. We can go away by ourselves; stroll through the woods; watch the clouds; bask in the sunshine; brave the storm; listen to the notes of birds; find out the haunts of living creatures; learn the times and places in which to find the flowers, gaze upon the glowing sunset, and look up into the starry skies. If we thus keep close to Nature, she will draw us to herself, and whisper to us more and more of her hidden meaning. The eye — it cannot choose but see; we cannot bid the year be still: our bodies feel, wherever they be: against or with our will. Nor less I deem that there are powers which of themselves our minds impress; that we can feed these minds of ours in a wise receptiveness. The more we feel of the beauty and significance of Nature, the more we become capable of feeling. And this capacity to feel the influences which Nature is constantly throwing around us is an indispensable element in noble and elevated character. Related Inspirational Podcasts: Seeing God In Nature The Importance of Wanderlust

Listen to episode 111 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Personal Mission Statements (Designing Your Life). Edited & adapted from The Aim of Life by Philip Stafford Moxom. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: The definite trend of your life discovers your real aim; you cannot disguise it except transiently. It is not something outside of you, compelling you this way or that; it is you — the complex of your generic choices and volitions. I dwell on this because it is one of those trite yet tremendous truths which so many forget or ignore, and which has such vital consequences in the destiny of the soul. Always you are moving somewhere, always you are becoming somewhat; and the direction which you are now taking, the character which you are now forming, the success or failure of your life, is unchangeably determined. The most critical moment in your experience is when you consciously and deliberately ask: "Where am I going; what am I becoming in thought and feeling and character?" Then (if ever) is the choice made, the purpose formed, which henceforth makes your life-story easy to read. When we step upon the threshold of adulthood, we often ask questions, such as: “How can I best earn a living? What trade or profession shall I learn? What business shall I follow? How can I get an education? How can I make a fortune?" But deeper than all these is the one question that gives meaning to all the rest: “What am I living for? What shall be the supreme purpose and result of my life?" Related Motivational Podcasts: How to Live a Purpose Driven Life How to Be Successful & Influence Others

Listen to episode 110 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to De-Hypnotize Yourself & Become Intellectually Self-Reliant. Edited & adapted from The Philosophy of Self-Help, An Application of Practical Psychology to Daily Life, by Stanton Davis Kirkham. Self-Help Podcast Excerpt: While there has been much discussion regarding self-help via hypnosis, apparently no one has recognized the fact that we are all hypnotized, more or less, by the group-think of the world around us. As this is one of the factors which militates against our freedom, there is something to be said of the necessity for de-hypnotization. The important question is not — can we be hypnotized or not; but being already in a state of hypnosis, how are we to be de-hypnotized and freed from the tyranny of false world-beliefs? Some are in a profound hypnotic sleep and their acts are purely automatic, their opinions wholly reflected. Others are merely in a drowsy state and are obedient only to the hypnosis of certain ideas from which they have never been free. This hypnosis, begun by their parents and by a corrupt education system, has been fostered ever since by the verbose nonsense of the news media and by the pressure of the group-think itself. There is only one remedy for ignorance and that is enlightenment. But if you do not know you are in slavery, you will not seek freedom. The most hopeless class intellectually are the half-educated who think they are wise. And in this day of the mass distribution of cheap knowledge and half-truths, when everyone has a smattering of information, and people learn from the news media a thousand things which are not true, this class is growing rapidly. Related Self-Help Podcasts: Ralph Waldo Emerson & Self-Reliance How to Change Your Limiting Beliefs

Listen to episode 109 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Challenge of Being Kind (The Power of Kindness). Edited and adapted from “The Secret of Success; or, Finger Posts on the Highway of Life,” by John Dale. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Who can estimate the influence of a kind act? It may affect an entire life, or save a soul. Someone once truly said, “Blessed are we when we give joy even, for we do not know where it will end." Who can tell how often the memory of a simple act of kindness will cheer and soften the heart for many years hence? One of our primary duties while here on Earth is to cultivate a kindly spirit, and seek opportunities to do good and scatter blessings. Be kind to the young, for the trials of life are before them, and in their hours of struggle and discouragement, how much they will be cheered by the bright memories of past kindnesses. Be kind to the middle-aged, who are carrying the burdens of life in the heat of the day, for sore is their need of the soothing influences that will lessen the friction of their ceaseless work and anxiety. Above all, be kind to the aged — those who have struggled on amid the storms of life until they have grown weary, as they approach the haven of repose; let them feel that calm skies are above them, and the sunshine of kindly natures about them. Related Inspirational Podcasts: How to Have Sympathy for Others How to Stop Judging People

Listen to episode 108 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Tao Te Ching. Edited and adapted from Dwight Goddard’s translation of the Lao Tzu’s classic book Tao Te Ching. Spirituality Podcast Excerpt: The Tao has three treasures which it guards and cherishes. The first is called compassion; the second is called economy; the third is called humility. A person who is compassionate can 'be truly brave; a person who is economical can be truly generous; a person who is humble can become a useful servant. If we discard compassion and are still brave, abandon economy and are still generous, forsake humility and still seek to be serviceable, our days are numbered. On the other hand, if we are truly compassionate, in battle we will be a conqueror and in defense we will be secure. When even Heaven helps people it is because of compassion that she does so. My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet in all the world no one appears to understand them or to practice them. Words have an ancestor (a preceding idea), deeds have a master (a preceding purpose), and just as these are often not understood, so I am not understood. Related Spirituality Podcasts: The Wisdom of Confucius The Kybalion

Listen to episode 107 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Secrets of Staying Young & Beautiful While Aging. Edited and adapted from “The Road to Seventy Years Young or The Unhabitual Way” by Emily Bishop. Self-Development Podcast Excerpt: "Sow a thought, reap an act; Sow an act, reap a habit; Sow a habit, reap a destiny." Dreading decrepitude, infirmity, senility, we hasten their advance by this "thought-act-habit-destiny" process. William James says that it is the old fogyism element that tends to keep ideas unchanged. This old fogyism tendency, which according to his estimate begins to gain mastery over the majority of people by the time they are twenty-five years old, resents the new — the new fact, the new idea, the new methods — while genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving things in unhabitual, unexpected ways. Unless we offer self-protective resistance to the neural tendencies of our beings, we shall become with the passing years tiresome repetitions of our former selves; each repetition being less vigorous, capable, and attractive than the previous one. Our bodies and our minds will become less buoyant and mobile, less capable of responding to new stimuli; we shall yield more and more to inertia. We shall become "set in our ways" — in a word, unquestionably, old. Related Self-Development Podcasts: Inspirational Life Lessons for Adults How to Look Younger