Tag Archives: Optimism

Take a few moments out of each day


IMG_1387Take a few moments out of each day to tell those you love how you feel about them, let them know how special and important they are. Take a moment or two each day to be kind to friends and even strangers, be an example for others to follow and be a person you can be proud to be. Find happiness in the joy of others and help bring joy into all whom you meet along the way. When you begin to think negatively just think no over and over till the negative thought subsides and/or try to think or a more positive thought to take its place. Don’t complain about what is wrong, learn how to fix it or at least how to avoid it. Sometimes there are things you can not change, you do not have to accept them, you just have to learn to work around them.

Don’t be afraid to be yourself and embrace that silly child still within you. Do not become cynical and bitter for it will only put a wall between you and happiness.  Do not worry about grey hairs and wrinkles, they are part of aging. We are all unique in how we look, act, think and perceive this world.  To one you may look old, to another you may look young and you are good-looking to some and not to others. It is all superficial and really unimportant in the end. It is who you are inside and how you interact with this world along with how you treat others that counts. Plus to God all of us are beautiful and he loves us all for who and what we are. We should look at each other in that same way, love one another as is and know we are all beautiful and loved.

Inspire others to be kind, accepting and compassionate, teach others to love themselves and others unconditionally. Encourage others to be themselves and not just a carbon copy of the so-called popular or in crowd.

Ray Barbier

Thinking in a positive manner


016 Thinking in a positive manner helps one to keep a positive outlook on life. Too much negative thinking keeps one from finding joy in life and causes physical ailments such as high blood pressure, depression and other problems with your health. Your brain is a bio-chemical computer and when you think negative and/or positive it creates and utilizes certain chemicals. The medical community believes chemical imbalances cause certain mental disorders, but I wonder if the way we think if done over long periods could create imbalances to one way or another. Just a thought, being I am no doctor or anything of the sort it will remain a theory I will ponder on. But I do know certain foods and physical activity does affects the brain and its chemical makeup. Simple things such as endorphins and adrenalin are elevated during physical activity and some foods can help change their levels as well. Even sunbathing and getting a tattoo causes changes in your endorphin levels.

Sun Bathing and getting tattoos is known to be habit-forming due to the endorphin rush one gets from such things. Endorphins are like a happy drug in a way even though they were designed to kill pain in the body.

Check out this article on Positive thinking  at NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/02/health/power-of-positive-thinking-may-have-a-health-benefit-study-says.html

Well Till Next Time God Bless Smile

A flame that consumes all the positivity within you


009 Acceptance of who and what you are is the first step to improving your outlook on life. If you are at war with who and what you are constantly then you will never find happiness or peace in your life. The things that you dislike about yourself can be removed, tamed or changed into something positive or at least acceptable. Those negative thoughts about yourself and others is like a flame that consumes all the positivity within you. There is no reason to hold on to negativity nor is there a reason not to be more positive. Forgive those whom have hurt you, forgive yourself for the hurt you’ve caused both yourself and others. Learn not to repeat the mistakes of the past and avoid those people who cause you pain. Don’t hate them or hold a grudge just be smart enough to avoid them as much as possible. Find those who are supportive, kind and bring light into your life and avoid those who suck the happiness and positivity out of you.

You must learn to be a positive force in life, you can not allow the negativity of others to influence you and you can not allow the negativity within you to gain control. You are the one in charge and you can choose to be happy, positive and content with life or you can choose to be negative and unhappy. Be someone who you would love to be with, be someone who you would be proud of and learn to love yourself and others unconditionally.

You are the master of your emotions, thoughts and actions. No one can make the choice of how you feel, what you think or what action you take but yourself.

Ray Barbier

what I don’t like about myself I try to change and what I like about myself I try to improve.


004Sometimes I let what other people think of me bother me more than it should. If someone likes me or not is something I can not control and knowing that makes me see that they are going to think what they may no matter what I do or say. So do I really care if others lie me or not, well I would be lying if I said no, but it isn’t as important to me as it used to be for sure. All I can do is to try to be someone who I would like and try to be someone I could be proud of being. IF I am neither of those then I have a problem, I may not always love myself but what I don’t like about myself I try to change and what I like about myself I try to improve as well. It is an ever going challenge to improve oneself and to grow emotionally and spiritually.

Be who you are and make who you are someone you could respect and love.

Ray Barbier

We do not always see the opportunities that surround us


IMG_1077The power of thought be it positive or negative  can affect the body as well as the mind. If you go around with a negative attitude it attracts more of the same. There is no guarantee if you are a positive person that you wont have to deal with some negativity, but you will not face as much as someone with a negative attitude. With so many books out there claiming they have secrets that will lead  you to better life and all that your heart desires, the only one getting what they want most of the time with those books is the author and the publisher. Not saying the don’t have some kind of truth to what they are saying, usually its all common sense or plain positive thinking along with visualization. Now I am not saying don’t buy those books or that they don’t work, I am just saying a lot of what they teach is out there for free if you look hard enough.

One easy way to be happy and have all you desire is to be more realistic in what you desire and expect of yourself and others. Though most of us would not be happy with that scenario so that leaves us wanting for a shortcut or easy way to reach our goals and find happiness in life. Reality is, there is no real shortcuts out there unless you have some rich uncle or you are a con artists or something along those lines. Hard work is always needed to achieve your goals, saving and investing wisely also helps. The one thing I have learned it is hard to get rich owning your own business bit its next to impossible to get rich working for someone else.

But is it really money, possessions and or social status we are needing or wanting? Will they really bring that happiness we think they will or will they just temporarily give us a happy high and then we find ourselves back where we started or worse? Financial stability always helps but to be rich is only having way more than we need. Sure I would love to have enough right now to retire and live like I do for the rest of my life. I am happy being a lower middle-class person and I don’t see any real need for me to be a millionaire. Give me a roof over my head a good vehicle, bills paid and 3 square meals a day with maybe a bit left over in the bank and I am one happy man. But that is me and I know there are those that want the moon and everything else they can get in their lifetime.

So does visualization and positive thinking work? Yes, but to the magnitude that some claim, probably not as often as we all would like. Sure you can attract things through positivity and visualization,  you can also get a lot of things through faith and prayer as well. Sometimes it is just the matter of opening your eyes to the opportunities around you. For most of us we do not always see the opportunities that surround us nor the gifts God has laid by our feet because we are too focused on the stress and worry of life to see them.

Positive thinking, visualization, faith and prayer all can bring you some happiness and even some wealth. but if you forget where your blessings and help comes  from (GOD) they can always be taken away just as fast.

Ray Barbier

Just some random thoughts to ponder on.


003Sometimes we go through our day without telling those who we care about how important they are to us or how much they impact our lives. We throw the word love around so much we tend to forget how to show love to others, both those we like and those who are strangers. Taking anyone or anything in life for granted tends to lead to the loss of those people and things. We get so hung up on our daily routine and sometimes even our own problems we forget those people and things that are important to us. We need to slow down and smell the roses as well as share a positive thought or a caring action with others as we go through our daily lives.  Compassion does not mean to have pity, it means to have concern and love towards all living things. Charity does not mean throwing money at a problem, it means helping those in need with not only physical needs but to educate them in ways to help themselves as well. It may be natural to focus upon yourself and those close to you, but it is supernatural to care about everyone and everything in this big world. We tend to get hung up on one thing or another to the point we can not see the whole picture. We either become self-centered or apathetic to the problems in our world around us. We need to wake up from our foggy self-centered apathetic dream state and see that as a world community we can overcome and achieve almost anything. Only if we can set our differences aside along with finding tolerance for each others cultural differences. In the end we all want the eradication of starvation, the end of all homelessness and a brighter future for our children.

This world needs a change of direction as well as a change in heart, we can not take anyone or thing for granted nor can we go on being in a foggy state of denial. We must find compassion, tolerance and love for one another as well as a less self-centered view of the world around us. We need to see that every living creäture big or small is an important part of our world and its ecosystem. No one person is greater or lesser than the other, they are equal though different. The differences between each and every one of us is what makes humanity a wondrous species and an unstoppable force when we work together. We should strive towards a world of love, equality and peace as we rid ourselves of the greed and hatred that plagues us as a species.

Just some random thoughts to ponder on. Right or wrong they are here for all to see.

Raymond Barbier