Perhaps this is one of the keys to happiness, especially if we think about how we can make another being’s quality of the day a little better — paying a small compliment, feeding the birds, holding the door, picking up trash that missed the can, walking your dog. The list of little things we can do for each other is endless. The bonus is that each random act of kindness to another improves the quality of our day as well. It’s an interesting paradox of life, when you help someone else you automatically help yourself by feeling better, which improves the quality of your day.

Last year 43,000 participants joined this Series. This year offers all new teachers who build on the wisdom shared last year (which you can still download).

For more information and free registration, click here:

https://shiftnetwork.infusionsoft.com/go/sas2011LP/a994/

Please join any part of this series. It is free and available online. Perhaps best of all, you don’t have to leave your home or office to participate.

Yours in loving kindness,
Larry

I’ve experienced fear about writing a newsletter. I’ve been afraid to come out of the closet of not writing. I’ve doubted that I have something worthwhile to say, especially on a regular basis. I short-changed myself, not giving myself credit for my education, training and life experience.

We all have self-limiting beliefs, self-secret beliefs we carry around in our minds that keep us from acting in our own and the world’s best interest. While wrestling with my self-doubt about having something to say in a newsletter, I remembered another event in my life that required me to “come out” wherever I was and stop hiding in my own self-imposed closet.

I grew up in a house where children were “seen but preferably not heard.” I liked to sing but didn’t believe I had any talent. I wasn’t supported or encouraged to sing let alone speak up as a child, so I believed I didn’t have the right to speak up, let alone sing. I was also very shy so I wasn’t inclined to stick my neck out and be noticed. As an adult I joined a church choir and had a good time. Somebody told me about a voice class. Timidly and with a lot of fear I signed up for it. The class was a real struggle, an emotional, spiritual and physical struggle. My self-imposed belief about not being able to sing was so strong that I could not shape my mouth and vocal chords the way the teacher showed me. I wasn’t able to make a good vocal sound and improve my singing.

This struggle brought up a strong emotional reaction in me and I took this struggle to my own therapist and worked hard on it. Over the course of the year I was able to change my self-limiting belief and eventually I found my voice! And when I found my voice I could no longer be kept quiet. I claimed a little more of my power thus coming a little farther out of my self-imposed closet.

What I learned from that experience was that I have a voice and I have the right to use it. Having a voice doesn’t mean that I yell at people or bully them with my words. It means that when I have something I believe is worth saying, I say it. I say it as skillfully and compassionately as possible. Sometimes I lack skillfulness in how I express myself and I apologize for my clumsiness. No longer do I sell my authenticity down the river of being quiet in order to not make waves.

As the gay community knows from so much painful experience, when you cannot or will not be the person you are born to be, and live life with pride and joy, the price you pay for your self-betrayal is your mental, spiritual and physical well-being. Each time we come out of another self-imposed closet it is the next step of our journey of awakening, the evolution of consciousness. It’s a deep ownership of authentic self and the beginning of the journey towards enlightenment.

Children say Olly olly, oxen free when their game of hide and seek is over, asking all of the children still hidden to come out and be seen. How often do you sacrifice your voice in order to not be noticed? Do you keep quiet so your partner, your parents, your friends, your co-workers and bosses don’t notice your individuality? Does keeping quiet leave you feeling “less than?” Where have you stayed in the closet of your own limiting beliefs, perhaps to not make waves and draw attention to yourself. It’s time. Give yourself an Olly olly, oxen free and to thine own self be true!

This video was directed and choreographed in Portland last week as a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness. When the video gets 1 million hits, Medline will be making a huge contribution to the hospital, as well as offering free mammograms for the community.

Please check it out. It’s an easy and great way to donate to a wonderful cause, and who hasn’t been touched by breast cancer?     Pink Glove Dance

1. a lack of excessive nervousness (neuroticism)
2. the ability to be sociable and connect with other people (extroversion)
3. the ability to cooperate with and get along with others pleasantly (agreeableness)
4. the ability to be mindful and aware of others needs without care-taking them (conscientiousness)
5. the ability to be open and speak about how you feel without shame or embarrassment (openness)

Depressed and anxious people typically have a deficit in one or more of the big 5. Until this study came out researchers believed that these personality traits got set fairly early in life and only changed slowly through working on yourself in psychotherapy and other self-improvement activities. People make definite progress in psychotherapy but the complaint has always been that it is a slow process. Good psychotherapy typically takes years to reverse the effects of depression and anxiety in adults caused by childhood issues.

What this study suggests is that antidepressants may also help alter the big 5 for the better. Prior to this study researchers believed that the drugs just altered mood but had no effect on the Big 5. This study suggests that by altering brain chemistry of the depressed or anxious person, they are able to make improvements in the “Big 5” areas that are permanent. This is good news for trauma survivors who have struggled with the depression and anxiety for much of their adult life in spite of their hard work in psychotherapy.

You can read more of about this study in the Denver Post at:

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_13948924