Tanisha's Blog

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“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” ― St. Francis of Assisi

Photo credit: Google images

Thank you so much to everyone who got a copy of my latest book “Fighting the Blues.”  I have been in contact with many over the last year about dealing with depression.  I have been busy doing research, writing and learning about creative ways in dealing with it. 

While many deal with depression often, I find it somewhat sad yet alarming that it isn’t talked about often in the African American community.  This is a black health issue that should be explored in more detail and even I have been thinking about what can be done to get more African Americans into understanding the importance of good mental health and to not feel so ashamed.

As much as I enjoy reading and writing about the topic, I have been coming up with ideas for a dealing with depression video series on YouTube.  I have came across a vast amount of topics and issues on depression.  I would like to discuss different issues about depression, the effects it has on the African American community and other topics in general.

Feel free to contact me through my website with comments, questions or ideas you would like to see be apart of the series.

Photo credit: Google images

As any change must begin somewhere, it is the single individual who will experience it and carry it through. The change must indeed begin with an individual; it might be any one of us. Nobody can afford to look round and to wait for somebody else to do what he is loath to do himself. — Carl G. Jung

Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life.

— Dr. Herbert A. Otto, Author & Leader of Human Potential Movement

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Ever feel like you are the only one who is sad in a world of happy people? Everyone experiences stress, sadness and anxiety from time to time – it’s part of life. These feelings often happen when you a lose a job, children move away from home, during divorce, with a death in the family, or during retirement. But when changes in mood and behavior interfere with one’s ability to work, sleep, eat, and enjoy once pleasurable activities, it could be a sign of depression. National Depression Screening Day (NDSD) gives people the opportunity to take a free, anonymous questionnaire assessing their risk for mood and anxiety disorders and provides referral information for treatment. Visit www.HelpYourSelfHelpOthers.org  to find a local organization offering depression and anxiety screenings or take a screening online today.

Photo: Google images

No doubt, you have been given advice to leave the past behind you. Maybe you have been told you need to release your past. To some extent, both of those things are true – there is a time to let the past go. However, before you release your past, it is important that you learn from yesterday.

You see, the experiences that you have had in the past are some of the best educational tools that you have. If you simply forget your past, you will never learn from those experiences that have so much to teach you. Before releasing your past, here are three things that you definitely need to learn. Learn these things from yesterday and your tomorrows will be more successful.

 1 – Repeat Your Successes

The first thing you need to learn from yesterday before releasing your past is to pay attention to the things that you have done right. Sometimes it’s so easy to focus on the mistakes, but you need to look at the things you have done right. Look back at the things that led you towards success. Look at the steps you took to accomplish those things.

Find out where you took the right steps. When you look at the things you have done right in the past, you learn something important about yourself. You learn the keys to being successful. No doubt you have had many good times in your past, so enjoy looking back at those times, learning from them, and gleaning important information that will help you on your journey towards success in the future.

2 – Learn From Your Mistakes

The next thing to look at before completely releasing your past is the things that you’ve done wrong. After you take a look at the good times and the things you have done right, you also need to look at where things went wrong. Look back and figure out where you made mistakes and where your choices took you the wrong way. It’s not always easy to admit that you were wrong or to relive those mistakes, but there is something to be learned here.

If you simply push away the things you have done wrong in the past, you miss out on a valuable learning opportunity. Then those wrong choices have no worth unless you decide to investigate them and learn from them. It’s time that you take a look at the choices you made and where you went wrong. Take a closer look to find out what steps led you to the wrong choices, think back, and come up with ways that you may have been able to change this path. 

When you learn from yesterday, you are able to see things with more clarity. You may not have realized you were going in the wrong direction at the time. As you reevaluate the past and the mistakes you made, you are now able to realize where you began to make the wrong choices and where you started down the wrong track. Learning from what you have done wrong in the past can help you avoid making the wrong choices in the future. As you see the steps you took in the wrong direction in the past, you can ensure that you don’t make that mistake again. 

3 – Go Easy on Yourself

It is definitely important that you look at your past and learn from yesterday, both the good and the bad. One of the most important things you need to learn is to avoid beating yourself up over the past mistakes you have made. The mistakes have already been made – there is nothing you can do to change them now. No matter how much you beat yourself up, you won’t be able to make the past different. You are merely punishing yourself for nothing.

However, while you should not be beating yourself over those mistakes, you should be learning from them. Don’t berate yourself for the mistake. You’ll actually find that mistakes from the past teach a lot of important lessons. It is those mistakes that have made you the person you are today. They shape you and your destiny.

What you need to do is learn from yesterday and accept the mistakes, look at the good points and the bad from the past, and then use what you have learned to become a success in the future. Instead of allowing your self confidence to be ruined by the mistakes from your past, use them to build your character and your confidence.

After doing three things, you are ready to release your past. Once you have learned the important lessons that the past holds for you, it is time to move on. As a whole, you can look at your life and realize how much you really have accomplished.

Sure, there have been good things and a few mistakes, but in the end, there is so much that you have done. Don’t just push the past away. Learn from it – both the good parts and the bad. Take mistakes and make them a learning experience instead of beating yourself up over them. Remember to learn from yesterday and then you are ready to move on, to release the past, and to look forward to a future full of hope.

Source: Herb Ammons (idealmarketers.com) Author’s URL: http://www.herbammons.com

Positive attitude helps to cope more easily with the daily affairs of life. It brings optimism into your life, and makes it easier to avoid worry and negative thinking. If you adopt it as a way of life, it will bring constructive changes into your life, and makes them happier, brighter and more successful. With a positive attitude you see the bright side of life, become optimistic and expect the best to happen. It is certainly a state of mind that is well worth developing and strengthening.

Positive attitude manifests in the following ways:

Positive thinking.

Constructive thinking.

Creative thinking.

Expecting success.

Optimism.

Motivation to accomplish your goals.

Being inspired.

Choosing happiness.

Not giving up.

Looking at failure and problems as blessings in disguise.

Believing in yourself and in your abilities.

Displaying self-esteem and confidence.

Looking for solutions.

Seeing opportunities.

A positive attitude leads to happiness and success and can change your whole life. If you look at the bright side of life, your whole life becomes filled with light. This light affects not only you and the way you look at the world, but also your whole environment and the people around you. If it is strong enough, it becomes contagious.

The benefits of a positive attitude:

Helps achieving goals and attaining success.

Success achieved faster and more easily.

More happiness.

More energy.

Greater inner power and strength.

The ability to inspire and motivate yourself and others.

Fewer difficulties encountered along the way.

The ability to surmount any difficulty.

Life smiles at you.

People respect you.

Negative attitude says: you cannot achieve success.

Positive attitude says: You can achieve success.

If you have been exhibiting a negative attitude and expecting failure and difficulties, it is now the time to change the way you think. It is time to get rid of negative thoughts and behavior and lead a happy and successful life. Why not start today? If you have tried and failed, it only means that you have not tried enough.

Developing a positive attitude that will lead you to happiness and success:

- Choose to be happy.

- Look at the bright side of life.

- Choose to be and stay optimistic.

- Find reasons to smile more often.

- Have faith in yourself and in the Power of the Universe.

- Contemplate upon the futility of negative thinking and worries.

- Associate yourself with happy people.

- Read inspiring stories.

- Read inspiring quotes.

- Repeat affirmations that inspire and motivate you.

- Visualize only what you want to happen.

- Learn to master your thoughts.

- Learn concentration and meditation.

Following even only one of the above suggestions, will bring more light into your life!

Article source: Remez Sasson/success consciousness.com

Want more inspiration? Visit Author Tanisha Herrin’s website Inspire Creations.

It’s easy to be positive when times are good. But when it seems that everything in life is not going well and you truly run into difficult times and situations, keeping a positive attitude is tough. The best way to keep a positive attitude during difficult times is to understand that tough times don’t last forever. It is easier said than done, but here are a few steps you can take to stay positive even when everything else seems to be negative.

1. The old saying that “misery loves company” can sometimes be true. However, when you get in bad situations and tough times, avoid being around negative people or miserable people who can only end up making you feel worse.
2. Use mind over matter. This means that although things may look bad, look inside yourself and channel your thoughts to focus on positive images, visions and positive mental self talk. Instead of focusing on the problem or difficulty tell yourself that there is a solution that will overcome the problem and that solution is within me. Vision and see yourself doing what needs to be done to stay positive. Using Yoga or meditation usually helps.
3. Make up a “feel good” list. This list is a personal listing of everything in your life that actually makes you feel good. For example, a walk in the park on a sunny day, smiles on your children’s faces, the time you graduated from school, the promotion you received on the job or moms homemade cooking. Look through the feel good list and do something on the list that brings a smile to your face and a positive thought to your mind.
4. Say powerful affirmations to keep your self esteem built up. Many times it is easy to get into negative self talk and feelings when everything is going wrong in our lives. This can cause our damage to our self esteem. Look in the mirror and tell yourself “Although this is a tough time, I am a survivor, I am strong, I will get through this; I will get past this situation in my life.”
5. What we listen to and hear every day can affect our attitude. To keep a positive attitude, listen to upbeat music or music that is calming, like jazz or classical music. Or listen to music with positive messages and words. Take time to listen to a motivational speaker or read a book with a motivational theme message. Watch movies based on true stories that show the main character overcoming difficult times and situations.
6. When you look good, you feel good. Get a makeover or put on your best outfit and do something fun and exciting. You’ll be surprised how a spruce up in your wardrobe and appearance can generate a positive attitude.

It’s always good to be around uplifting family and friends for support.  If you don’t have family and friends around, join support groups in order to keep a positive attitude. Use spiritual guidance or look to a higher power or your religion for guidance in helping to keep a positive outlook. Understand that every one has some sad times. Don’t feel bad if you can’t be positive at all times.

Source: eHow/By braniac, eHow User. Read more: How to Keep Positive Attitude During Difficult Times | eHow.com

Tanisha Herrin is a self-published author of numerous publications featuring creative writing, self-help and poetry. Tanisha is creator of Inspire Creations which features inspirational books, products, health information and creative writing projects.

Love and concern for all are not things some of us are born with and others are not. Rather, they are results of what we do with our minds: We can choose to transform our minds so that they embody love, or we can allow them to develop habits and false concepts of separation. -Sharon Salzbert

Thank you God for letting me see another year! RIP mom, I wouldn’t be here without you and dad, well, I don’t know who you are but I guess I can thank you too (It’s not often you can thank a complete stranger for knocking up your mother, right?).

I guess I should try and take the “getting older part” in stride.  Years from now, I may not be able to laugh about it but I can think back to when I did.  I know many people often dread getting older and may not want to share how old they really are, but since people face challenges more often than others, you really do have something to be thankful for rather than be ashamed or depressed about.

With so much going on in the world, waking up to see another day is a blessing but to see another year is a blessing multiplied.

Since I lost my mother, my birthdays don’t seem to be the same since I always spent them with her. Although her spirit is alive around me, the fact that a part of me isn’t physically living, doesn’t sit well still.   I don’t know who my father is but I have learned not to be so angry and frustrated about it, yet that doesn’t mean I still don’t wonder about who he is and wonder if he and my mother ever had any real love for each other.

After getting busy with so many things, I can’t believe how fast this day got here!  Seems like every year goes by faster than the one before.  I know I should be thankful for what I have and what I had, but not having a complete understanding of why life happens the way it does will always puzzle me.

Yes, people say life is what you make it but if you believe in God, His plan is what will make it.  Not knowing his agenda can make things complicated but you know things work out for the best in the end.

Here’s to 29 years and many more!  (Cheers! Clinking glasses of wine…) Happy Birthday to Me!

Inspire Creations / Tanisha Herrin @ www.therrinpoetry.com