10 Exercises To Help You Recognize The Blessings In Your Life

“There is so much blessing and beauty near us that is destined for us, and yet it cannot enter our lives because we are not ready to receive it. The handle is on the inside of the door, only we can open it.”

- John O’ Donahue 

On Monday I announced that this week would be a week of blessings on Courage 2 Create.

I explained what I meant by “blessings” and gave you an exercise to help you practice recognizing your blessings—a practice that I knew would radically transform the way you look at your writing and your life.

Today, I want to give you some more exercises that can help you recognize your many blessings.

10 Exercises To Help You Recognize The Blessings In Your Life

1. Turn The Mundane Into A Blessing

Take the most mundane and uninteresting part of your day, and bring it into focus and awareness.

The Transformational Power of Recognizing Your Blessings + The “Blessings Week” Reader Challenge

“Many of us have made our world so familiar that we do not see it anymore.”

- John O’ Donahue

“I understand something I didn’t see before: every blessing ignored becomes a curse.”

- from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

It was only until about a year ago, when I read Anam Cara by the late Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donahue, that I finally understood the importance of recognizing the blessings in my life.

I learned from John O’ Donahue that the indigenous people of Ireland, the Celtics, held the notion of blessings very highly. In Gaelic, the ancient language of the Celtics, every greeting and parting was infused with a blessing. I found this cultural practice wonderful and very moving.

Rebuilding This Wall Together

Editor’s note: Read Part 1 and Part 2.

At the end of the month, I rebuild the wall.

And at the end of that same month, a tornado comes and wipes away all my progress.

At the end of the next month, I rebuild the wall again.

And at the end of that same month, a tsunami comes and wipes away all my progress.

At the end of the third month, I rebuild the wall again.

And at the end of the third month, an earthquake rumbles and wipes away all my progress.

And it’s been going on like this. On like this.

Every month I begin a winner, and I end a failure.

And now I’m tired. I am exhausted. I am worn-out and weakened.

My eyes are fuzzy, I fall back from exhaustion. Sit down on the floor.

I’m covered in dust and grime and filth. My arms are sore beyond measure.

The Secret To A More Romantic Writing Life

Editor’s note: this is a guest post by Robin Covington of Romance University.

Ollin asked me to write about how I bring romance into my life so that I can write romantically.

I almost fell out of my chair with hysterical laughter. I have a full-time job, a wonderful husband, two active children under the age of ten and a ginormous puppy who likes to steal our underwear.

Romance is not an everyday occurrence in my life.

Most days, I’m lucky to stay awake long enough to meet my daily word count.

But, when I thought about the question a little longer, I remembered the jingle from an old perfume commercial:

How To Prioritize Your Dreams So You Can Finally Make REAL Progress On Them

Do you have so many dreams that the overwhelming immensity and diversity of those dreams makes it hard for you to make any real progress on them?

Are “too many dreams” getting in the way of you fulfilling that “one dream that matters”?

If this is a problem you are struggling with, then don’t worry. You’re not alone.

The One Dream That Matters

If you struggle with having “so many dreams” that you don’t know where to start, then you must know this:

Among all your many dreams, there is one dream that matters the most.

Many different people have called The One Dream That Matters many different things throughout the ages. Some have refered to The One Dream That Matters as your “purpose.” Others say it is your “calling.” The Bhagavad Gita calls it your “dharma.” The Tao Te Ching calls it your “true nature.”

Whatever you choose to call it, it doesn’t matter.

But what you do need to know is that the one dream that matters is what should take priority over all your other dreams.

The Shortcut To Mastering ANY Lesson You’re Struggling With

If you’re struggling to learn a lesson, there’s an excellent way to master it very quickly: teach it.

That’s right. If you really want to feel like you’ve mastered a lesson, then there’s no quicker way to do so than to teach the lesson to someone else.

As you may know, I’m an eager student of life and the writing process. And, as a student, whenever I find myself struggling with a lesson, I make myself teach it to others.  I have found that teaching a lesson I’m trying to learn accelerates the learning process for me and, in no time, I’m able to master the lesson.

Why?

Well, when I take on the role of a teacher I feel obligated to know the lesson backwards and forwards. I need to know more about the lesson than the student does. If I don’t, my student can tell, and after one lesson, he won’t be coming back.

And that’s just a huge waste of time for both the student and me.

The Trick To Keeping The Big Picture In Mind While Working Out All The Details

Editor’s note: this is a guest post by Stephen Watkins of The Undiscovered Author.

Whether it’s because you have kids, or a day job, or family crises, or you’re looking for work, or you’ve got a heavy class schedule at school–whatever it is, many of us have a lot of demands on our time, and those demands compete with the need to write.

A lot of the time, writing has to take the back seat to all those demands.

And that’s okay.

It’s easy to get hard on yourself when you’re not writing as much as you’d like. I do it all the time. If I go too long without writing, I start to feel uneasy and unhappy.

Writing is just a part of who I am. I know I’m not alone in feeling that way. But when life gets in the way of your writing, sometimes you have to let it go.

An important tool I’ve developed to help me cope with this reality is “taking the long view:”

The Unexpected Benefits of Being Worn-Out And Weakened

“I have come to believe that we are destined to be opened by the living of our days, and whether we like it or not, whether we choose to participate or not, we will, in time, every one of us, wear the deeper part of who we are as a new skin.”

- Mark Nepo

It’s surprising, isn’t it, how often we can feel worn out and weakened by life?

These days, it seems like that’s the default emotion of Americans: consistently worn-out and weakened.

Those who are unemployed are worn-out and weakened by the job search, and the Herculean effort it takes to get by on so little these days.

Those who are employed are worn-out and weakened by the demands of full-time employment, working overtime, and on weekends, sacrificing time with family and friends, just to keep the job, or advance in their career, or just to make the mortgage payment every month.

Help Make C2C Better By Taking This Super Quick And Easy Survey

Hey readers,

I’m always looking for more ways to help you solve your writing and life problems.

To help me in that endevour, I’d appreciate it if you could take this quick survey to help me learn a little bit more about you. (It shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes.):

UPDATE: This survey is now closed. Thank you for all your responses!

Thank you!

much love,

Ollin

How Embracing Your Own Ignorance Can Bring You Peace of Mind

“When my pockets are empty and I’ve dumped all I know, I often end up shrugging, admitting my ignorance of what to do. Humbly, it is then that the real work of love beings.”

- Mark Nepo

“To know that you do not know is highest; To not know but think you know is flawed.”

- The Tao Te Ching

Not to long ago I found myself in a little snag:  I was dealing with a problem I felt I needed an answer to.

I was caught up for days in debating and investigating and studying and wondering about an answer to the problem I was struggling with it. I re-read the books written by my favorite teachers and guides, looking for answers there. I literally poured over my journals and analyzed the past few years of my life. I sat down and mapped my life all out, attempting to look for patterns, clues—answers.

No, in truth, I wasn’t looking for just “answers.” I was looking for The Answer.