I have talked myself out of things that I am capable of doing. I am not the only one who has done so, and more people will do the same. In contrast, I have talked myself into doing things that at first wasn’t a natural habit, skill or talent of mine.

Whatever you tell yourself about yourself on a regular basis will eventually become your inner voice.

You don’t know when you may get an opportunity to do something that you have no experience in, but that doesn’t mean you should talk yourself out of the opportunity. In fact, as you may already know that we are sometimes our worst enemy, our biggest critique, of which we can talk ourselves out of doing what we are capable of doing.

Before you say you can’t, try. 

You have the power to start creating a new blueprint for your life, and it doesn’t matter…

Commas, Periods (full stops), and semicolons: ellipses, dots and dashes.

The Comma

I’m sure you all know that a comma denotes a pause in a sentence and most of you have read the anonymous talker’s post on comma splice, so I will not go over that ground again.

Serial commas appear between items in a list, for example.

“I leave my entire estate to my daughters, Karen, Katie, and Kathleen.”

If you read the above sentence aloud, you will know where to put the commas from the pauses required. Karen, Katie, and Kathleen, having been given equal importance, will share the estate equally. Some people have been taught that “and” should not be used after a comma. This is not incorrect: it is a matter of style and usage. It is more common today to place a comma after “and” in a list, especially in legal documents, because it makes…

I used to feel ashamed of my mental health condition, but now I refuse to let stigma and stereotypes dictate how I feel about myself. If you stigmatize me, that’s your ignorance, not my truth. Cool people, who are educated about mental illness and confident in their own mental health, don’t stigmatize. Stigma is dated, cruel and just plain wrong. Get educated about mental illness and come over to the cool side.

People with mental illnesses are not less-than. They are not damaged. They are not what you see on TV, the news or in movies. They are people; brothers, mothers, fathers, daughters… People. They are valuable, vibrant, brilliant members of your community. They are 1 in 4 people, not some freaky monster you’ve never met.

I have an awesome, successful, happy life… and a mental health condition. Big deal. Get over it. Just because I’m different, doesn’t mean I’m

Dropping to life’s lowest valleys in our darkest moments we must shift,

Our focus to see the light that will otherwise go adrift.

Change beyond terrifying when suddenly appearing out of the blue,

Leading us to grasp tightly to the past instead of embracing the new.

In those moments leaps of faith become critical despite the miles,

Allowing perfect imperfections to galvanize infinite smiles.

Maybe challenges help us shift our focus from all of the wrong distractions to exactly where it is meant to be.   With that thought, we smile on this Wednesday…

“When you’re upside down, then you see it all
Everything’s the wrong way around but clearer than before
When you’re upside down, then you see it all
That you spend all your time pushing on a pull door

I will shake you
I will make your shattered dreams unwind
Because it’s only when it comes to pieces

The Pope speaks to all people.
Why not you?
Can you speak to all people?
Can you imagine a world where all of us speak to all people?