Life
Enjoy Your Day, Slow Things Down
The rate of the passage of time is largely based on your perception
Happy Independence Day! On this day, as with all days, the purveyors of news and information, as well as of spin and propaganda, and outright distortions of reality, would prefer to have you ingest their ‘products’ 24/7/365. Fortunately, you have options.
Most of what you experience each day, in terms of the passage of time, is based on your perception. As such, you can ‘slow down’ time if you choose. How? Whenever you feel you’re racing the clock or trying to tackle too much at once, try this exercise:
Close your eyes for a minute and imagine a pleasant scene. You might be surrounded by trees or with a loved one. It could be something from childhood. Let the emotions of that place and time predominate. Get into it! Give yourself more than a New York minute for the visualization to take hold.
Then, open your eyes and return to what you’re doing. Your task now is never quite so bad and whatever pace you were working at is never quite so feverish.
More Reflection
Imagine you’re flying on an airplane. You have a window seat, and it’s a clear day. As you gaze down to the ground below, what do you see? Life passing by. Cars the size of ants. Miniature baseball diamonds. Rivers the size of streams.
There is something about being at great heights that enables you to reflect on your life. The same thing can occur place from the top of a mountain or skyscraper.
As often as possible when things seem to be racing by too fast, get to higher ground for a clear perspective. If you’re among the lucky, perhaps you regularly allocate time for reflection or meditation. If you don’t, no matter.
Change Your Medium
I have long used water to reduce stress. For eleven years, I lived in a high rise condominium in Falls Church, Virginia, complete with its own 25 meter pool. No matter how hard I worked during the day, even if I did a 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. stint, at 6:05 p.m. I was in the pool.
After 30 minutes of laps, I had swum out many of the stresses and strains of the day. So, find the swimming pool nearest you!
Rely On The Animal Kingdom
If you have a dog or cat and do not consider it a drain on your time, here’s a little something about Rover or Mittens that you might not have known. In recent years, as reported by U.S. News & World Report, scientists have found proof for what was only once suspected: that contact with animals has specific and measurable effects on both your body and mind.
The mere presence of animals can increase a sick person’s chances of survival, and has been shown to lower heart rate, calm disturbed children and induce non-communicative people to initiate conversation!
The exact mechanisms that animals exert to affect your health and well-being are still largely mysterious. Scientists suspect that animal companionship is beneficial because, unlike human interaction, it is uncomplicated. Animals are nonjudgmental, accepting and attentive; they don’t talk back, criticize, or give orders. Animals have a unique capacity to draw people out.
Even if you only have goldfish, simply staring at them in their silent world might help deaden your traveling pace.
But Wait, there’s More
Want other ways to make it all “slow down”? After the workday, listen to relaxing music with headphones, and close your eyes. A half hour of your favorite music with no disturbances (and your eyes closed) can seem almost endless. When you re-emerge, the rest of the day takes on a different tenor.
Another effective method for catching up with today is periodically deleting three items from your “to do list” without doing them at all. Before you shriek, consider that much of what makes your list is arbitrary. Often, eliminating three items won’t impact your career or life, except for freeing up a little time for yourself in the present.
Ideas for Catching up with Today
1. Constantly read your list of priorities and goals.
2. Challenge and defeat your own ritual behavior.
3. Consider the outcome of not handling something.
4. Convincingly, but politely, say no.
5. Call rather than visit.
6. Clean off your desk of everything but the task at hand.
7. Clear your files of everything that can be recycled.
8. Cancel something that you had already scheduled.
9. Covet what you already have.
10. Choose to get a good night’s sleep every night.
Ideas for Catching up with this Week
1. Telecommute at least once a week.
2. Consume vital information, not what you think you must know.
3. One day each week, don’t read anything.
4. Get dressed each morning without a radio or TV on.
5. Weekly, do something fun on the way home from work.
6. Select news shows that astutely cover issues.
7. Wed out extra paper entering your “personal kingdom.”
8. Begin thinking about your next vacation.
9. Make a lunch date with a friend, not a co-worker or client.
10. Pause for ten separate minutes throughout each day.
Allow yourself to take breaks. When you consider the ways you add unnecessary pressures to your day, you begin to see many ways to catch up with today, or at least with this week.
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Life
With Representatives Like Kelly Daughtry, We Can Take Back America
Daughtry is a soft-spoken woman who gets things done
When President Trump takes office next January 20th, he’s going to need a cadre of strong-willed Congressional representatives. It’s not enough to simply retake the White House, we need the foot soldiers with the unshakeable resolve to restore America.
In North Carolina’s 13th district, one candidate is firmly rooted in the values that made this country great, and will make it great again. Her name is Kelly Daughtry and, quite frankly, the nation needs many others like her.
Raised in rural North Carolina and the daughter of a U.S. veteran, farmer, lawyer, and entrepreneur, Daughtry has been a practicing lawyer for the past 25 years in Johnston County, where she makes her home. She’s been in the trenches and is not skittish about the slings and arrows that come with taking bold, conservative positions for what is right.
Clear Positions on Vital Issues
Daughtry is exceedingly clear on where she stands and on what will improve the lives of American citizens. She is a vigorous supporter of law enforcement and decries ‘de-fund the police’ movements wherever they arise. She understands that, by and large, the men and women in law enforcement are dedicated, hardworking individuals who, in many instances, put their lives on the line.
Similarly, Daughtry supports the U.S. military and our veterans. She knows that nations around the world with rogue leadership wish to do us great harm, and that we must maintain a strong military at all times. Not coincidentally, a strong military is the best prescription for peace.
On the border issue, Daughtry recognizes that the Biden Administration is firmly committed to swamping our country with illegal aliens. Why? Because the U.S. Census count doesn’t focus on U.S. citizenship, only the number of residents per county and state.
Hence, Democrats can gain a 20-seat advantage in the U.S. House of Representatives by continuing to flood our nation. This ploy is precisely why Biden and company have brought lawsuits against border states seeking to protect themselves.
The drugs, the crime — the murders — and the bursting budgets of towns and states trying to cope with the onslaught of illegals should never have happened in the first place. Daughtry knows what needs to be done, and done immediately.
Reversing Biden’s Reckless Agenda
Daughtry will go to work on restoring our nation, dismantling Joe Biden’s reckless agenda for America. She understands that Biden’s policies towards China in particular, and the bribes he has taken, have been nothing less than devastating for hard-working Americans and for our national security.
Most notably, she is firmly opposed to the Chinese Communist Party and their representatives who are seeking to buy farmland throughout North Carolina as well as every other place in the United States.
Biden’s out-of-control spending has particularly hurt North Carolinians. Farmers have taken the brunt of the punishment. The unending inflation that we’ve faced for 38 months also has dealt a crushing blow to North Carolina small business owners and families in general. One of Daughtry’s first agenda items will be to help steer our country back towards fiscal sanity, which in turn will have a direct impact on the cost of groceries and gasoline.
Americans First
Like President Trump, Daughtry understands the importance of putting Americans first and of safeguarding or voting procedures, elections, and indeed what it means to be an American citizen. Of note, she has no misconceptions about the differences between men and women and will work to stop the malarkey that the Left imposes on us every day, with their “56” types of genders.
Daughtry is a soft-spoken woman and in her quiet way, gets things done. If Donald Trump had an army of Kelly Daughtrys, the country would be on firm footing in relatively short order. She knows what hard-working Americans want and need, and is exactly the type of politician that North Carolina must send to Washington D.C.
It is not an exaggeration to say that in Wake, Harnett, Johnson, and Wayne counties in North Carolina, as well as the entire state and entire country, the 2024 election will be the most important in our lifetimes. This has been said about other elections at other times, but considering the damage that the Democrats have wrought on America, the time is now to reclaim our great nation and, with the likes of Kelly Daughtry, we can.
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Life
Provocative Questions to Get You Moving
What would make you pause and think about what’s really important?
Suppose I asked you four questions to make you pause, think about what’s really important, perhaps take some action steps, and get you moving in a positive direction. What might I ask?
Here are four such questions:
* What would you do if you truly only had six months to live?
* What would you read if you could only pick six books for the rest of your life?
* If you could return to any age what would it be?
* If you could live anywhere other than here, where would it be?
By way of example, here is each question with my own answers to help stimulate your thinking:
What would I do if I truly only had six months to live? I would visit everyone who ever mattered to me one more time; visit all my childhood haunts; visit three or four tourist destinations in the world that I’ve wanted to see; eat like an incredible pig; parcel out my assets carefully and accordingly, safeguard my daughter’s financial future and well-being to the best of my abilities; and donate many items to charity.
If I could only read six books for the rest of my life, they would probably be The Timetables of History, Childhood’s End, The Call of the Wild, The One Hundred, From Dawn to Decadence, and The Culture of Celebrity. Runners-up would be The Demon-Haunted World, Crime and Punishment, Moby Dick, MacBeth, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and The World of Our Fathers
If I could be any age what would I be: 38, because at that age I had the optimal mix of capabilities and faculties, unbounded potential, and unbridled enthusiasm. My career as an author was beginning to bloom and amazingly I hadn’t yet been on my first of 45 cruises.
If I could live anywhere other than here, where would it be and why aren’t I there? The places I could settle include Asheville, NC; Austin, TX; Monterrey, CA; Sausalito, CA; Tucson, AZ; Las Vegas, NV; Vancouver, British Columbia; London, England; Paris, France; Vevey, Switzerland; Montreux, Switzerland; Bruges, Belgium; Helsinki, Finland; Gothenburg, Sweden; Stockholm, Sweden, and any place where it is spring, birds are chirping, and large lakes invite you to swim.
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America No More…
Biden wants to tie Israel’s hands
Prepare for the Worst: Domestic Sabotage and Violence on the Horizon
America’s Unjust Justice System
With Representatives Like Kelly Daughtry, We Can Take Back America
Why East Coast Workers are Blurry Eyed on Monday Morning
The Rise of Mark Robinson and the Benefit to North Carolina
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