[AffirmationstoDe-Stress] \MORNING COFFEE

"Your intuition is your friend for life." Intuition is the bridge between the known and the unknown. Yet because we cannot see it or measure it on any instrument, we often disregard that inner voice. "Don't drive down that road," "Call Jen now," "Take that finance course," it whispers, but often we disregard it as an aberration of the mind. But that soft, pervasive voice is your inner self speaking. Learning to listen for it and act on it is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. That voice is the speed dial to your own truths. You instinctively know this, but your civilized, educated brain will often redirect the call and put it hold, sometimes to your detriment. Make a decision today to listen for that inner knowledge and make a pact with yourself to act on it. Trusting your intuition is the hardest step, but once you make friends with your own inner knowing, your own truth, there is no greater friendship. ©Jane Powell     THE SMILING GAME It's been said that a smile is the lighting system of the face, the cooling system of the head and the heating system of the heart. But a smile is also a powerful weapon against toxic attitudes of all kinds. Lisa Gurnsey, of Portland, Oregon, wrote to me about a man whose smile quite literally changed her life: "I was having a horrible day -- hating my job, tired of the weather, tired of trying to keep up on bills, and just completely stressed out. I stopped at the post office in the morning and, as I was entering, an older business man commented to me that it was going to be a good day and life shouldn't be as bad as I make it look. I glared at him and simply said, 'I wish it was Friday.' "I felt better about my day when I left the post office...that man's smile and comment, although irritating at first, made me think. "The second time I ran into the man I went out of my way to say 'Happy Friday' to him and to smile. I saw him a few more times and always he was cheery and 'made my day.' "I looked for him around Christmastime to give him a card and explain how his kind words and smile that very first day made me regroup my thinking and realize I didn't have it so bad. But I have not seen him at the post office since then. I look every morning...I go at different times to see if I can catch him. Maybe he retired, maybe he is ill. I think to myself, 'I wish I had thanked him for being a kind person.' I can honestly say this man changed my life. I will work to spread that same feeling to those I see in need of a smile." We can never know the impact a simple smile has on another. Smiling is one of the easiest things we can do. Is there a simpler, more effortless way to give everyone you meet a moment of joy, even a sense of worth? Speaker Josh Hinds makes this suggestion: "Play the smiling game in your daily life. See how many people you can get to smile back at you. Keep score and tally the results at the end of each day." That sounds like a game we can all play. The rules are simple. There are lots of winners. And who knows? You just might "make" someone's day -- even if that someone is you. Steve Goodier     Your time to choose You can always live the life you choose. Because you can always choose, in each and every moment, how to be. Sure, life in this world sends all sorts of seemingly random and often disturbing occurrences your way. Yet the choice of how to think and feel about them, and what to do with them, is yours. It is through the use of that choice that your life is fashioned. From the perspective you select comes the world you experience, in this hour, this month, this decade, this lifetime. Whatever comes, will come and go. What you choose to do with it, is what makes your life the way it is. It is never too late, and you are never too far off track to live the way you wish to live. For in this very next moment, no matter what it may contain, you can choose how, and why, to proceed. You never have to resign yourself to less than the best. For now is always your time to choose. Ralph Marston

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