inspiringmax, Author at INSPIRING MAX

Resilience

October 26, 2015October 26, 2015 inspiringmax

What’s your most prized possession?

My most prized possession is my ability to cope with what ever comes my way. My life has been an interesting miss mash of experiences that have helped me developed my personal resilience. At times, I laughing joke that resilience is the one thing that I have achieved a high distinction in. Seriously however—personal resilience is no laughing matter. Although, it is the corner-stone of emotional intelligence. The following acrostic poem describes some of the values my personal resilience has taught me.

Resourcefulness

Encouragement

Sincerity

Intuition

Logic

Integrity

Empowerment

Nurturance

Clarity

Empathy

To help you develop your personal resilience, look into the lessons your tough times have taught you. Moving forward they can turn into powerful tools that you can use to support yourself and others in times of need.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/pride-and-joy/

Weekly Photo Challenge: (Extra)ordinary

October 17, 2015 inspiringmax

I love this clever use for old toilets at the entrance to the local sewerage works at Dorrigo, New South Wales. It brought a smile to my face but I am not sure if it is because of my Australian sense of humour.

Let me know your thoughts and any other unusual ways you have seen old toilets used.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/extraordinary/

Some Say Love, It Is A Razor

October 11, 2015 inspiringmax

Take the third line of the last song you heard, make it your post title, and write for a maximum of 15 minutes. GO!

Bette Midler’s The Rose is my favouirte empowerment song. I love to lie on the floor, in the dark and listen to it played—loud and proud. This song motivates me and reminds me risks are worth taking and growth takes time and nurturing.

As one of the opening lines of The Rose, the third line “some say love, it is a razor” uses vivid powerful imagery. A razor like love can be a positive or a negative experience. It can

Tidy new hair growth
Trim a mustache or beard
Transform faces, legs and other body parts
Terminate a life

The secret is to trust the the person in control of the razor—yourself included.

If you are scared of ever bleeding from a razor cut—you will never know the freedom and beauty that comes from feeling your freshly shaven, clean subtle skin. “Feel my skin, it feels so soft” are words often used by many of us to share our experience with others. This invitation increases the intimacy between us and often leads to love.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/cant-drive-55/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Boundaries

October 5, 2015October 5, 2015 inspiringmax

The most amazing physical boundaries and divides I have explored are high in the Taihang Mountains, China. The Guoliang Tunnel shown in the photos below was carved by hand to allow Guoliang village people access to the outside world. To be even more inspired by this amazing part of China and learn more about the Guoliang Tunnel please visit my previous post https://www.inspiringmax.com/guoliang-tunnel/

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/boundaries/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Change

September 28, 2015 inspiringmax

Change can happen in many ways. As I considered my options for this challenge, nothing was connecting with me. Then I remembered some historical museums my husband and I had found on our recent trip to country New South Wales. What better place to see change, look for inspiration and remember its impact on our lives. One item that grabbed my attention was a 1930’s Drip Safe.

In Australia these were one of the first versions of the modern day refrigerator. The Drip Safe was lined with charcoal and stored on the front or back verandah of the house. The food inside the safe was kept cool by evaporation as water from the rainwater tank above was dripped over the charcoal. I was fascinated as I had never seen one before and I instantly thought about how this item would have changed people’s lives for the better especially over the long hot Australian summers.

Personally I am very grateful for the change refrigerators have made to our lifestyle. I rarely find it difficult to fill two refrigerators, even if one mostly contains drinks.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/change-2015/

Keep Believing

September 27, 2015 inspiringmax

What is the one thing at which you are the most afraid of failing?

In general I look at life through positive thoughts so I don’t think about failing. I believe in myself and my ability to cope with what life throws my way. If something doesn’t work out the way I planned I look for the lesson for it, make a new plan and move forward. I believe focusing on failure and what I can’t do doesn’t help and fogs up my view of my reality.

"Don`t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do" ~ John Wooden #quotes http://t.co/eUMZYCLh0b pic.twitter.com/FtLXPceQDH

— Michael Q Todd (@mqtodd) September 12, 2015

This week many things that I couldn’t control came into my life and I was reminded of the above inspirational tweet. It would have been easy for me to focus on the negative aspects however, as challenging as this was, I continued to focus on the positive and believe everything would work out. I focused on what I could do.

To succeed at not letting what I couldn’t do interfere with what I needed to I acknowledged my fears, feelings and frustrations. These were the basis of the negative things that could happen and because I am a big picture person I made a small plan—just in case. That done with support from those around me I focused on the positive. I kept believing that everything would work out.

Now as I start a new week I am grateful that things are moving forward in the right direction and non of my fears transpired. In hindsight, I am happy my mindfulness and positive thinking worked out and should a similar situation happen again, I will again follow John Wooden’s advice.

If you find yourself focusing on what you can’t do, take a moment believe in what you can do and see where it leads you.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/must-not-fail/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Grid

September 19, 2015September 19, 2015 inspiringmax

Prior to today’s photo challenge, I had never really thought about the use of grids in photos. It surprises me that when I truly looked at them many of my photos had hidden grids. When I mindfully studied each photo I realised that it was often the grids that made the photo pop. Grids come in all shapes and sizes and moving forward I have decided to look for them more often when choosing subjects for my photos. To keep with the theme I have created my gallery in a grid pattern. Did you notice or is it only me that thought that it was a good idea?

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/grid/

Coffee Catch-up

September 18, 2015 inspiringmax

If we were having coffee this afternoon I hope it is at this amazing coffee shop my work colleagues introduced me to yesterday while we were attending training. Alma Bar and Kitchen on Stanley St Darlinghurst coffee was so good that I returned on my home for a second cup. To my surprise and delight as my second cup was as good as the first. Next time I have a day out in Sydney I will take a little walk and visit my new favourite coffee shop again. Next time I might add a yummy cake to my cappuccino.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how I love Sydney in Spring. I love feeling of the sun on my skin for the first time after the layers of winter. The city comes to life by the colours of the flowers starting to bloom and the lifeguards beginning their patrols of our beaches again.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I enjoyed the free tickets my husband won to the movies last weekend. I will be doing a movie review in the upcoming weeks on the film we saw Blinky Bill: the movie. It made me laugh and I carried on smiling all day.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I walked out of a restaurant recently because I was furious with the chef. Apparently it is too hard to sprinkle mushrooms on only one-quarter of the pizza my husband and I wanted to share, so he refused to do it. I wouldn’t have minded if the mushrooms were part of a prepared sauce but I thought the other was ridiculous and left because I couldn’t support such a precious chef.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I have enjoyed returning to daily blogging through my participation in the latest Writing 101 course. I am meeting many new friends, gaining inspiration and visiting many new blogs.

If we were having coffee I would tell how excited I was this afternoon to achieve a year-long goal to de-clutter and remove several in and out trays that took over the bench space in our office for years. Everyone had used them as a dumping ground for odd bits of paper for years. Now I don’t recognise my desk and its awesome, it may have taken all day but it is worth it and I surethe empty space will create better feng-sui.

If we were having coffee I would ask you how your week has been. Let me know in the comments what you have been up to and if you would like us to have regular coffee catch-ups in the future.