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

Listen to episode 136 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Learn Thai Culture: Basic Thailand Travel Guide Podcast. Adapted from the work of Ajarn David. Expat Travel Podcast Excerpt: If you are planning a trip to Thailand, whether it be as a tourist, business person, or English teacher, your success in The Land of Smiles will depend on more than learning a bit of the Thai language. More importantly, it will involve understanding the nuances of Thai culture—especially the complicated but ubiquitous issue of face saving and loss of face. Westerners can understand the concept of face saving when it involves obvious humiliation. But there are hundreds of not so obvious situations where face issues are at play and the foreigner is (more often than not) blissfully ignorant until it’s too late. For example, it is obvious to many foreigners who live in Thailand that we should always be humble in victory, and never (even in good-natured fashion) jokingly rub it in when winning a game or argument. Less obvious though is how our “why” questions cause a Thai person to feel a loss of face. Most Americans, Canadians, and Brits don’t realize how much we abuse why questions. However, if you think about it a little, you will begin to see how frequently we use why questions not because we are seeking the unknown but because we are trying to coerce an apology, or an admission of guilt, forgetfulness, or stupidity. Because nearly all Westerners do this, nobody takes too much offense. However, Thai people do not fancy this manipulative game we foreigners play with why questions. They see it (often rightly) as an attempt to make the other person lose face. So, if you want to maintain good relationships in Thailand, you’ll be wise to scale back your why questions.

Listen to episode 135 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Hints for Lovers on Valentine’s Day. Adapted from the book “Hints for Lovers” by Arnold Haultain. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: It is not well to either confide or to confess too much. A very small rock will wreck a very big ship, and a very small slip will spoil a very long life. The surest test of a waning love is that it begins not to concern itself when it sees its object suffer. The surest test of a dead love is that it forgets how to be jealous. With women, love is a river, ever flowing, from the brook in girlhood to the estuary of womanhood. Like a river, too, a woman's love is fed by all the streams it meets. On the other hand, with man, love is a geyser. The obsession of the male heart by one woman ousts from it all other women. However, to the young woman, men continue to be men. That is to say, a man dives headlong into love. A woman paddles into it. And the woman's hesitation at the brink of the stream exasperates the floundering man. In short, a man's heart is captured wholly and at a stroke. A woman's heart surrenders itself piece by piece. In love, a woman is generally cool enough to calculate pros and cons; a man, in a similar plight, is incapable of anything but folly. In love, as in all things, indecision spells ruination. There is no question too subtle, too delicate, too recondite, or too rash, for human eyes to ask or answer. And he who has not learned the language of the eyes, has yet to learn the alphabet of love. Besides, love speaks two languages: one with the lips; the other with the eyes. The eye tells more than the tongue. If eye and tongue contradict one another, believe the eye. Related Inspirational Podcasts: Love & Marriage Tips Kahlil Gibran on Love & Marriage

Listen to episode 134 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Overcoming Disabilities: Inspirational Stories. Adapted from the book “A Cheerful Philosophy for Thoughtful Invalids” by William Horatio Clarke. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: As the bruising of fragrant flowers causes them to give forth a more ethereal aroma, so in our own lives, the good qualities may be brought forth by means of the afflictions which seem to press the life out of us. The corn is ground to obtain the meal, and the wheat for the flour. The maple-tree is tapped for its sap, and the sugar-cane is crushed for its syrup and saccharine crystals. The quartz is pulverized for the gold and silver, while the ore is purified by fire. Through such processes is the immortal nature in which our real individuality resides often developed and made useful, and it is thus saved from the changes connected to the disorganization of the physical body; for we exist as individuals, independent of the apparently adverse conditions of the earthly frame. The object for which we were created is the development and attainment of a true character in which every virtue shall prevail; and such a character must be ours, notwithstanding our frail physical constitutions. The virtues are developed through trials and temptations. Honesty is proved by not yielding to fraud, deceit, and dishonesty. Purity is developed through the combat when immoral temptations are resisted, and patience is attained through the long endurance of suffering. To those of us who are confined to the boundaries of our rooms, so familiar with every crack in the ceiling overhead and weary of forming faces and new patterns from the outlines of the figured wall-paper, it is impossible to realize that we are journeying through space on a revolving earth at the rate of nearly seventy thousand miles an hour. Yet we are travelling onward daily and yearly toward the object for which we were created, which, through every hindrance, will certainly be accomplished, as surely as the earth revolves on its axis through its orbit, bringing the annual New Year — notwithstanding the many mistakes which we have made. Related Motivational Podcasts: Overcoming Fear, Anxiety & Worry How to Stay Calm & Motivated

Listen to episode 133 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Inward Life: Courage, Virtue & Emotional Freedom. Adapted from the book “Courage” by Charles Wagner. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: These lines are not written for any particular class of people. I seek to speak of those things which are common to all, being day by day more convinced that the nature of humanity is everywhere identical. However, I have not been able to avoid thinking more especially of those whose morning is gloomy and whose youth was hard. Goethe declares in his history of his life that "what we desire in our youth we possess abundantly in our old age." An astonishing saying, and one which seems inconsistent with truth; but if we look at it more closely, such is not the case. We do, indeed, apply ourselves with ardor to the pursuit of that which we desire; and, whether our ambition be noble or the reverse, it is seldom that we do not end by fulfilling it, in part at least. Our life is eventually stamped by our ideal. No one, therefore, can watch the tendency of their desires too carefully. What we most often lack in youth is the knowledge of what it is wisest to desire. To wish for vain things is to take a will-o'-the-wisp for our guide along the road. How many of us have wandered in this way after these uncertain lanterns of light, which promised happiness but led us into the swamps. I should like to make you desire the things that are real, that are worth being loved and acquired by stress and toil; and among all these things there is nothing to be compared with force. Force is itself a virtue; and by virtue I understand every power that excites in us an intenser life, and joy, and hope. Related Inspirational Podcasts: How to Live True to Yourself How to Create an Ideal Life

Listen to episode 132 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Proverbs, Poetry, Wisdom & Genius. Adapted from “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” by William Blake. Literary Podcast Excerpt: As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius (which to Angels look like torment and insanity), I collected some of their proverbs: thinking that as the sayings used in a nation, mark its character, so the Proverbs of Hell, show the nature of Infernal wisdom better than any description of buildings or garments. How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way, Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five? In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead. The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity. Those who desire but act not, breed pestilence. The cut worm forgives the plow. Dip those in the river who love water. A fool sees not the same tree that a wise person sees. Those whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.... Related Literary Podcasts: How to Drink Wine The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Listen to episode 131 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Stop Judging People & Accepts Others As They Are. Adapted from the book: “Success Through Thought Habit” by Benjamin Johnson. Self-Help Podcast Excerpt: Occasionally, we find people so well trained that they never express blame. No, indeed, they would not be so vulgar. They just feel it and think it and keep it corked up inside, never dreaming that every act and every look is showing their state of mind just as well as any words they might use and is making others quite as uncomfortable. A philosopher, who had mastered many of life’s problems and was noted for his poise, was one day asked why he paid no attention to either flattery or ridicule. "Because," he answered, "a person can neither be praised nor insulted. I know what I am, and do not allow the opinion of others to affect me." When asked how he managed to get so much good out of life, and to find so many fine qualities in others, he said: "I have been trained since early youth to look upon human beings as I would on the animals in the forest. Each may be perfect of its kind though utterly unlike some other animal. Consequently, I do not expect the hare to have the courage of the lion, or the fox to be like the deer, or the bear to be as the marmoset. In the farm yards, I know the cow gives milk and is useful for that reason. The oxen have great strength and do their share by hauling heavy loads, while the horses carry us about in comfort. So among my friends I see each has their sphere of usefulness and each is developing according to their capabilities and not according to what I might think or advise, and I am content." Related Self-Help Podcasts: Sympathy & Understanding Others The Inward Life

Listen to episode 130 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Classic Style: Vintage Lifestyle & Being Well-Dressed. Adapted from the book: “The Man Who Pleases, and the Woman Who Fascinates” by John Albert Cone. Lifestyle Podcast Excerpt: There is an old Spanish proverb that says, ''No woman is ugly who is well dressed." And, of course, Shakespeare has said that “the apparel oft proclaims the man.” I believe in dress. I believe that God delights in beautiful things, and as nothing is more beautiful than the human form, I believe that that mode of dressing the form and face which best harmonizes with our personal beauty is that which pleases best the Divine. What one wears is accepted as an index of one's character. Whether this is as it should be or not, it is true; and we all feel, more or less, that coarseness or refinement finds visible expression in apparel as in no other way. "Surely," says The Boston Journal, "nothing so intensifies the personality as the clothes one wears; through association they become a part of us, help to identify us, even in some peculiar, reactionary way, serve to control our mental states." Related Lifestyle Podcasts: How to Have Style & Grace How to Improve Your Personality

Listen to episode 129 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Secret of Life. Adapted from work by Elbert Hubbard that appears in The American Bible by Alice Hubbard. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Be a creator, not merely a creature and a consumer. Nature is the best guide of which we know, and the love of simple pleasures is next, if not superior, to religion. A wise person does not need advice, and a fool will not take it. We flatter only those we fear — the highest applause is silence. We are brothers and sisters to all who have trod the earth. We want to do what is best for ourselves, and we have discovered that what is best for ourselves is best for others. No one is damned eternally as long as they try. Inaction is only a gathering together of forces for the coming leap: the fallow years are just as natural, just as necessary, as the years of plenty. To know the worst is peace — it is uncertainty that kills. The secret, which I am about to tell you, is the most valuable and far-reaching of any known to human kind. It is the key to health, happiness, wealth, power, success. It is the open sesame to Paradise, here and now. A secret is something known only to a few. But often the best way to retain a secret is to let others help you to keep it. Just as the only way to retain love is to give it away — art and religion the same. This secret, which I am about to impart, will cause no thrill, save in the hearts of those who already know it. And all I can do for you, anyway, is to tell you the things you know, but which possibly you do not know you know until I tell you.... Related Success Podcasts: What is Your Ambition? The Key to Success Depends on You

Listen to episode 128 of the Inspirational Living podcast: What’s Wrong with Schools & Education in America. Adapted from the essay “What’s the Matter with Education?” by William George Jordan. Educational Podcast Excerpt: Sometime in the years of the future, we shall look back on the education system of the 20th and early 21st century with the same feeling of revulsion as we now regard the superstitions of the Middle Ages. These are hard words, but they are calmly and deliberately chosen. Such words would be insanely foolish and wantonly unjust if not substantiated by proof. They would be incendiary, useless and dangerously unsettling were no better way provided. But there is a better way, there is a new model. The failure of education is not limited to America; it extends over the whole civilized world. The most vital problem before humanity today is a true system of education, for it is only as we train individuals and peoples to think, to use their minds and all their other powers to their highest efficiency that we shall find any adequate solutions to our other problems: be they mental, moral, social, political, economic, or industrial. We are failing miserably to solve them today because we have not been able to bring the trained minds of a trained people to bear upon them. We have been relying on the trained minds of a few leaders to carry and control the masses. This is a deeply personal question to every individual. It determines the character of the world in which you live, and that of your children and all those dear to you. We are all going through life on but a small percentage of the mental powers that should be ours. Even our senses, through which all the raw material of thought enters the mind, are actually weak, dull, drugged, and deadened. Related Educational Podcasts: College vs. The School of Life How to Reform Education

Listen to episode 127 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Success Mindset: Grit, Courage, Determination, Self-Esteem. Edited and adapted from The Power of Mental Demand, and Other Essays by Herbert Edward Law. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: In every walk of life, it is so vital to have courage for duties, for achievements — for living — that, lacking it, there is no depth of failure in which we might not descend. There is no heritage of infamy so black as the taunt of cowardice — for courage is will power; it is determination that is unflinching. It is the power that achieves. Cowardice, on the other hand, is predetermined failure. Courage, even physical courage, is not merely the absence of fear of bodily harm or suffering. Courage is a positive quality, a continuing force. The effort which attempts and fails, and makes no second attempt, is not a display of courage, but of its opposite. Courage is never conquered; it never gives up; it never admits defeat; it never apologizes; it never puts the blame of failure on something else. Courage is persistence; courage is pluck. Courage is luck, because with courage, success and the achievements we desire are brought into existence — wrung as it were from fate or chance. Courage surrounds itself with successful forces in the same way that a resolute and skillful commander brings to bear all of their intelligence, skill, and effort for the protection and strengthening of their position. Courage implies thoroughness, forethought, deliberation, tact. Courage is identified with actions rather than words. Related Motivational Podcasts: How to Overcome Fear & Anxiety How to Be Bold & Courageous

Listen to episode 126 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Artists, Writers & The Power of the Work Habit. Adapted from the book “Work” by Hugh Black. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Careless slovenly work is responsible for more failures in art than any other cause. Blindly trusting what they call their genius, many a gifted artist has never come to success because they have never learned to toil. It is one of the subtlest temptations in all productive work, whether it be painting pictures, or writing books, or pursuing any subject of study, to simply rely on happy inspirations, with the result that casual efforts alternate with long spells of indolence. There is no finer lesson from the lives of many scientific workers than that of the patient investigation and tireless labor with which they pursue their branch of truth. Darwin refers to this as a necessity if we are to advance any science at all. To accept our work as part of our duty, to cultivate it as a habit, is to safeguard our lives from many a mistake and error, and even from many a sin. Every individual must bring themselves into discipline before they become a perfect instrument for their work. No great work of art is possible without previous training in the art of work. When the habit of industry is ingrained in your nature, you have mastered the art, although your methods of working may be peculiar to yourself. Related Inspirational Podcasts: Self Made Men & Women Living a Purpose Driven Life

Listen to episode 125 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Overcoming Fear, Anxiety, and Worry. Adapted from the book Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: The monster of worry dogs us from the cradle to the grave. There is no occasion so sacred but it is there. Unbidden it comes to the wedding and the funeral alike. It is at every reception, every banquet; it occupies a seat at every table. No human mind can estimate the havoc and ruin wrought by worry. It has ever forced genius to do the work of mediocrity; it has caused more failures, more broken hearts, more blasted hopes, than any other one cause since the dawn of the world. Did you ever hear of any good coming to any human being from worry? Did it ever help anybody to better their condition? Does it not always--everywhere--do just the opposite by impairing the health, exhausting the vitality, lessening efficiency? Think of the homes which it has broken up; the ambitions it has ruined; the hopes and prospects it has blighted! If there is any devil in existence, is it not worry, with all its attendant progeny of evils? Yet, in spite of all the tragic evils that follow in its wake, a visitor from another world would get the impression that worry is one of our dearest, most helpful friends, so closely do we hug it to ourselves and so loath are we to part from it.

Listen to episode 124 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Rewiring Your Brain for Optimism & Positive Thinking. Adapted from the book Success is For You by Dorothy Quigley. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: If the optimist is a fool who would be wise? If you are a miserable, despondent, unsuccessful individual, get hold of yourself this instant. First get yourself into the condition for success. If possible have a room of your own into which you can go and preserve the sacred and uninterrupted seclusion that would be granted you, if you were meditating or saying your prayers. If you cannot have a place, choose an hour at night or early in the morning when you may be sure of being undisturbed. If you are despondent, train your mind to be hopeful. If you have no pleasant experiences in your life to recall, imagine the pleasantest things you would like to have happen to you or you would like to do. Picture yourself in a commanding attitude, full of courage and brightness. See your face as radiant with cheerfulness as you can imagine it. Look in the glass and catch your expression. Recall these thoughts, quicken the emotions and sensations of hope and courage. Go over and over them with the steady persistency of a student bent upon learning a difficult foreign language. Soon your brain cells, nerved with new thoughts, energized with an inspiriting inflow of positive thought-force, will work for themselves, and your Will will will you to think in currents of hopeful and courageous thoughts, and you will view life from a newer and higher plane, and see opportunities you never saw before. Related Motivational Podcasts: The Bright Side of Life Overcoming Adversity of Optimism

Listen to episode 123 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Aspirations, Inspirations & Positive Thinking. Adapted from the book Your Forces and How to Use Them by Christian D. Larson. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: Life is growth and the object of right thinking is to promote that growth. Give less time trying to change the opinions of others, and more time trying to improve your own life. Life becomes the way it is lived; and we may live the way we want to live when we learn to think what we want to think. Create your own thought and you become what you want to become because your thought creates you. We all know that we are as we think. Then we must think only such thoughts as tend to make us what we wish to be. The secret of right thinking is found in always keeping the mind's eye fixed upon the greater and the better in all things. Scientific research in the metaphysical field has demonstrated the fact we are what we think, that we become what we think, and that what we think in the present, determines what we are to become in the future; and also that since we can change our thoughts for the better along any line, we can therefore completely change ourselves along any line. But the majority of us who try to apply this law do not succeed to a great degree, the reason being that instead of working entirely upon the principle that we are as we think, we proceed in the belief that we are what we think we are. At first sight there may seem to be no difference between the principle that we are as we think and the belief that we are what we think we are, but close study will reveal the fact that the latter is absolutely untrue. You are not what you think you are, because personality, mentality, and character are not determined by personal opinions.... Related Inspirational Podcasts: Autosuggestion & Self-Mastery Thought Power - Being Successful

Listen to episode 122 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Autosuggestion & Self-Mastery. Adapted from the book Self-Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion by Emile Coué. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Suggestion, or rather Autosuggestion, is quite a new subject, and yet at the same time it is as old as the world. It is new in the sense that until now it has been wrongly studied and in consequence wrongly understood; it is old because it dates from the appearance of human beings on earth. In fact, autosuggestion is an instrument that we possess at birth, and in this instrument, or rather in this force, resides a marvelous and incalculable power, which according to circumstances produces the best or the worst results. Knowledge of this force is useful to each one of us, but it is especially indispensable to doctors, judges, lawyers, and to those engaged in the work of education. By knowing how to practice autosuggestion consciously it is possible, in the first place, to avoid provoking in others bad autosuggestions which may have disastrous consequences, and secondly, consciously to provoke good ones instead, thus bringing physical health to the sick, and moral health to the neurotic and the erring, the unconscious victims of earlier autosuggestions, and to guide into the right path those who had a tendency to take the wrong one. Related Motivational Podcasts: Positive Affirmations The Power of Spiritual Meditation