Read articles and books with entirely different points of view from your own and try to learn something

Have you ever noticed that practically everything you read justifies and reinforces your own opinions and views on life? The same is true with our radio and television listening and viewing choices as well. In fact, on America's most popular radio talk show, callers often identify themselves as "ditto heads", meaning "I already agree with everything you say. Tell me more". Liberals, Conservatives - we're all the same. We form opinions and then spend our entire lifetimes validating what we believe to be true. This rigidity is sad, because there is so much we can learn from points of view that are different from our own. It's also sad because the stubbornness it takes to keep our heart and mind closed to everything other than our point of view creates a great deal of inner stress. A closed mind is always fighting to keep everything else at arm's length.

We forget that we're all equally convinced that our way of looking at the world is the only correct way. We forget that two people who disagree with one another can often use the identical examples to prove their own points of view-and both sides can be articulate and convincing.

Knowing this, we can either buckle down and get even more stubborn-or we can lighten up and try to learn something new! For just a few minutes a day-whatever your slant on life-try making a gentle effort to read articles and/or books with different points of view. You dont need to change your core beliefs or your deepest held positions. All you're doing is expanding your mind and opening your heart to new ideas. This new openness will reduce the stress it takes to keep other points if view away. In addition to being very interesting, this practice helps you see the innocence in others as well as helping you become more patient. You'll become a more relaxed, philosophic person, because you'll begin to sense the logic in other points of view.

Change Channels

"The next time your family watches TV together, notice how someone changes the channels whenever a show comes on they don't want to watch. Teach your children how to change channels in their mind when they are experiencing or thinking about something that causes them stress, worry, or fear. Here's how it works. Whenever the unpleasant thought or experience happens, tell them to close their eyes and see in their mind something that will calm them down or make them feel better: playing with a friend, sitting in the forest, reading a good book, etc. They might even want to develop different channels, like a good mood channel, a courage channel, or a patience channel, to which they can return whenever the need arises."

Self-Motivation

"Self motivation is that impulse to soar. It is the little kernel of hope inside each one of us that allows us to set goals - that moves us to reach higher. It is the reason a person goes on, even when they want to quit. It is the belief that something can be done, even when the odds are against it. When a person is motivated, nobody can take away their power to move forward, and when that motivation comes from inside a person's heart they become unbeatable."
"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar" - Helen Keller

Self-Esteem

"A child's self esteem begins to be formed very early, and continues being created day by day. Self-esteem comes from learning to accept who we are by seeing the insufficiencies and still choosing to like ourselves. Every child's self-esteem grows with each experience of successful interaction, a job well done, a goal met, as well as through the positive words of the ones we love. Self-esteem doesn't depend on huge accomplishments. It depends on the small daily tasks that build a child's belief that they can handle it well."
"We are the hero of our own story" - Mary McCarthy

Don't sweat the small stuff - Introduction

"Whenever we're dealing with bad news, a difficult person, or a disappointment of some kind, most of get into certain habits, ways of reacting to life-particularly adversity-that don't serve us very well. We overreact, blow things out of proportion, hold on too tightly, and focus on the negative aspects of life. When we are immobilized by little things-when we are irritated, annoyed, and easily bothered-our (over-) reactions not only make us frustrated but actually get in the way of getting what we want. We lose sight of the bigger picture, focus on the negative, and annoy other people who might otherwise help us. In short, we live our lives as if they were one great big emergency! We often rush around looking busy, trying to solve problems, but in reality, we are often compounding them. Because everything seems like such a big deal, we emd up spending our lives dealing with one drama after another.

After a while, we begin to believe that everything really is a big deal. We fail to recognize that the way we relate to our problems has a lot to do with how quickly and efficiently we solve them. As I hope you will soon discover, when you learn the habit of responding to life with more ease, problems that seemed 'insurmountable' will begin to seem more manageable. And even the 'biggies' things that are truly stressful, won't throw you off track as much as they once did.

Happily, there is another way to relate to life-a softer, more graceful path that makes life seem easier and the people in it more compatible. This 'other way' of living involves replacing old habits of 'reaction' with new habits of perspective. These new habots enable us to have richer, more satisfying lives."

365 ways to raise great kids - Introduction

Parents spend their lives growing their children, guiding decisions, giving ideas, working through problems and modeling behaviors, hoping that someday their child would have gained the skills necessary to shine brightly out in the world on their own. We walk hand in hand down life's path teaching what we know, passing on what we believe, and communicating life's challenges until our children are ready to walk alone. Our love guides and encourages our children to find their most creative spirit, a spirit that it believes it can soar.

Everything you do, everything you think, everything you believe and every action you take has an effect on how child grows. It is not possible for a child to be better than the example you are setting. So as parents we have the most wonderful job on earth, that of shaping another human being simply by living each day. It is not about doing everything right, or knowing every listening skill, or using the right form of discipline, or having all the knowledge - it is about wanting to. Just having the desire and making the effort to do the best you can is enough for your child to grow. Your child will feel your attitude. They will know that the person they become matters to you.

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The day a child enters our lives, our feet are placed upon the path that leads us on an enormous journey - one where there is no stopping, no turning back, and no bailing out. This journey lasts a lifetime. Every day we take a step forward in some direction.
Along the journey, when you least expect it, you will have moments when your heart beats with joy as you realize your child "got it". You will feel invincible in these moments, like all your dedication, love, and understanding meant something immeasurably valuable. And you'll be right.

The way we see things - Excerpt from Re-Think

Book: Re-think How to think differently
Author: Nigel May Barlow

"Most of the time, for comfort's sake, we are trying to fit the world into our own map. While this works quite well in a literal sense for finding our way to the cinema or restaurant, in more complex areas of our lives, it's about as accurate as old maps that say "There be dragons here" or "Large amounts of ocean omitted".

Of course just becoming aware of and changing our inner map doesn't necessarily amend the laws of physics in the outer world. Nor am I saying there is no such thing as objectivity. There is an apocryphal story about a group of Chinese philosophers who sat down on the banks of Yangtze to discuss whether or not the river really existed. During their seminar the river flooded and drowned them.

The three most important things we need to remember about the way we see things are:

• we see the world selectively; seeing what we expect to see and hearing what we expect to hear;
• our perceptions are based largely on past experience and conditioning; and
• we often mistake our perceptions, our map of the world, for the world, and assume that others are working from the same map."