be mindful, grateful, optimistic, compassionate and constructive

Well a regular PDR (performance and development review) would be the best template to follow. There is little struture to this!

Another one for the give up list.

The following list was composed by Dale McGowan for her article ‘Teaching Kids to Yawn at Counterfeit Wonder’ and is taken from page 220 of “Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion”. A book I recommend highly.

1. If you condense the history of the universe to a single year, humans would appear on December 31st at 10:30PM – 99.98 percent of the history of the universe happened before humans even existed.

2. Look at a gold ring. As the core collapsed in a dying star, a gravity wave collapsed inward with it. As it did so, it slammed into the thundering sound wave heading out of the collapse. In that moment, as a star died, the gold in that ring was formed.

3. We are star material that knows it exists.

4. Our planet is spinning at 900 miles an hour beneath our feet while coursing through space at 68,400 miles per hour.

5. The continents are moving under our feet at 3 to 6 inches a year. But a snail’s pace for a million millennia has been enough to remake the face of the world several times over, build the Himalayas, and create the oceans.

6. Through the wonder of DNA, you are literally half your mom and half your dad.

7. A complete blueprint to build you exists in each and every cell of your body. [Except for red blood cells which don’t have any DNA at all, and sperms and eggs which have half the DNA of all the other cells.]

8. The faster you go, the slower time moves.

9. Your memories, your knowledge, even your identity and sense of self exist entirely in the form of a constantly recomposed electrochemical symphony playing in your head.

10. Al life on Earth is directly related by descent. You are a cousin not just of apes, but of the sequoia and the amoeba, of mosses and butterflies and blue whales.

This may sound like a masochistic thing to be grateful for but I honestly don’t enjoy being in pain. The reasons I am saying that I am grateful for pain are as follows:

1. Pain indicates that something is wrong.
2. Pain lets us appreciate the absence of pain.

I have been in a lot of pain since early September 2008 yet I didn’t take even a day off sick. I continue to be in pain despite pain-killers. I have been to the doctor but no solution so far.

BE MINDFUL: Focus on your experience of the present. Don’t judge it. Don’t compare it. Don’t try to change it. Just experience it. Just be.

BE GRATEFUL: Be grateful that life is not worse than it is. Be grateful for the present.

BE OPTIMISTIC: Be optimistic that you can continue to be mindful and grateful. Be optimistic that you can also be compassionate and constructive.

BE COMPASSIONATE: Be compassionate towards yourself. Be compassionate towards others. Don’t judge yourself. Don’t judge others. Don’t compare yourself with others. Judge words, actions and omissions but not the person.

BE CONSTRUCTIVE: Begin now. Do something positive and helpful. It can be anything that helps you and others to live and to enjoy being alive.

BE BALANCED: Life works best when everything is in optimum balance. Happiness comes from matching your activities with your abilities. There must be balance between activities and rest, between doing and being. Only you can find your optimum balance. Find your balance and sustain it. Your life is your responsibility.

1. For having just read the following five excellent books:

“Smart Love: The Compassionate Alternative to Discipline That Will Make You A Better Parent And Your Child A Better Person” by Martha Pieper and William Pieper

“Addicted to Unhappiness” by Martha Pieper and William Pieper

“My Stroke of Insight” by Jill Bolte Taylor

You can view and listen to her TEDtalk:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

“Dreams From My Father” by Barack Obama

“Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion” Edited By Dale McGowan

2. For loving my job as a mental health support worker and for being promoted at work on 3 December 2008.

3. For our son enjoying his pre-school.

4. For the new friends I have made since moving back to Aberdeen on 7 September 2008.

1. For being able to post this entry. I apologise for being absent from this website for so long and for not having returned cheers. I have been missing you my friends but life has been very busy and I have been unable to post until now.

2. For having begun a child sponsorship. I am sponsoring a girl in Bangladesh. I hope to sponsor many more children in need everywhere on the planet. I hope to be able to adopt one or more children within the next two years.

3. For my new year’s resolutions. My favourite resolution is loving people and other living things unconditionally and never judging people and other living things.

4. For having made a lot of progress in my attempt to be always mindful, grateful, optimistic, compassionate and constructive.

5. For having made some progress in my attempt to consume less and reuse and recycle more.

6. For having lived a life of great suffering and great joy.

1. For still being able to work despite my various pains. Things could be a lot worse.

2. For being able to be mindful, grateful, optimistic, compassionate and constructive despite my past, present and future suffering.

1. For having the opportunity and ability to post this entry!

2. For my wife and son moving to Aberdeen on 14 September 2008 instead of 19 September or later. Although, my wife wants to move from this flat to another flat in Aberdeen. So, we have paid the deposit on another flat and will be moving there if the landlord is happy to accept us. Likely moving date 24 October 2008.

3. For loving my job as a Mental Health Support Worker which I have been doing since 8 September 2008.

4. For our son loving his time at the pre-school.

5. For mobile broadband technology which is now letting me get online and post this entry. It’s great having internet with you all the time. Although it is slower than cable broadband and the signal strength varies.

1. For getting, keeping and loving my job as a Mental Health Support Worker with Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH).

2. For speaking on the mobile phone with my wife and son every day. Don’t have a fixed line telephone connection in the Aberdeen flat so it’s great to have mobiles.

3. For coming down to Dundee on Friday night and seeing my wife and son. They came to meet me at the station and it was great to see them.

4. For the messages of support and kind wishes I have received on 43 things.

5. For having learned to face my fears.

1. For suffering from bipolar disorder. I was diagnosed in March 1998 but I have had it even longer. I have learned much about myself, reality and others thanks to my suffering. For this I am grateful. Although, I do wish that the education was not so traumatic.

2. For getting the start date for my full-time job as a mental health support worker in Aberdeen. I start on 8 September 2008.

3. For today being the first day of September 2008. I will be moving back to Aberdeen on 7 September 2008. I am really looking forward to that. 11 years ago, on 29 September 1997 I had moved from Aberdeen to Dundee to study medicine. I failed to complete my studies due to bipolar but have become skilfull in being able to handle anything and everything about life. I am much more mindful, grateful, optimistic, compassionate and constructive now than I was 11 years ago.

4. For watching our son sleep. I love listening to the sound of air going in and out of his frequently open mouth. I love the way he moves around in his sleep and travels all over the bed!

5. For getting better at being mindful, grateful, optimistic, compassionate and constructive.

6. For having learned to love those who do not love me, as well as loving those who do love me.

7. For receiving and giving cheers on 43 things.