Esteem fills our life with life

Posted by Cecilia

It’s always up to us how we live our life.  Nobody else can take responsibility for how we live our life except ourselves.  This life wisdom is essential when it comes to being able to live a fulfilled life.

A fulfilled life is a life filled with life.  This may sound redundant – or overly simple.  Perhaps it was better expressed by Abraham Lincoln, who said: “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count.  It’s the life in your years.”

When we think about how we can create a fulfilled life we inevitably find the important role of esteem.  Esteem enriches our life in a very effective way because it makes us more conscious about ourselves as well as the world around us.  Esteem makes us sensitive toward the sense of human life.

With esteem we stop wasting our life with unkind thoughts or dissatisfaction.  We concentrate on the important things in life such as giving attention toward people and creating happiness with it.

The more consciously we live our life the more we fill it with life.  Esteem helps us to live our life consciously and to fill our life with life.

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Esteem for elephants

Posted by Cecilia

Being asked which animal is your favorite, which one would you choose? I always have problems to decide because there are so many animals that I find fascinating and adorable. One of them is the elephant. I’m just amazed about their highly developed social behavior, their ability to show emotions and their playful approach toward life.

Today I discovered this video made by Elephant Biologist and Conservationist Joyce Poole and her husband Petter Granli, founders of ElephantVoices. They developed an online database of elephants’ signals and gestures. One of these signals is playing.

This video is titled “Elephants communicate while at play”. Did you ever see elephants play like that?

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Esteem to the Grandmas and their cuisine from around the world

Posted by Cecilia

I found this incredible post with even more incredible photos. The post starts with these words:

If grandmothers around the world had a rallying cry, it would probably sound something like “You need to eat!”

Photographer Gabriele Galimberti’s grandmother said something similar to him before one of his many globetrotting work trips. To ensure he had at least one good meal, she prepared for him a dish of ravioli before he departed on one of his adventures.

“In that occasion I said to my grandma ‘You know, Grandma, there are many other grandmas around the world and most of them are really good cooks,” Galimberti wrote via email. “I’m going to meet them and ask them to cook for me so I can show you that you don’t have to be worried for me and the food that I will eat!’ This is the way my project was born!” The project, “Delicatessen With Love”, took Galimberti to 58 countries where he photographed grandmothers with both the ingredients and finished signature dishes.

grandmaCheck these photos out. They are just amazing! Esteem to the Grandmas all around the world!

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Self-esteem consists of three elements

Posted by Cecilia

Self-esteem consists of three elements: unconditional love, unconditional worth and growth This means a deep, quiet inner security that is not easily shaken under duress or after a disappointing performance. Individuals with healthy self-esteem are humble and recognize all people’s worth, according to Glenn R. Schiraldi, Ph.D., author of The Self-Esteem Workbook.

His good news are that there are these successful strategies for strengthening self-esteem:

- Practice healthy habits. This includes feeding your body nutritious foods, participating in physical activities, getting enough sleep and treating medical or psychological conditions.

- Recognize how you’re attacking yourself. Once you can recognize the ways you sabotage yourself, you can work through them.

- Identify and challenge self-critical thoughts. Certain distorted thought patterns enable low self-esteem such as seeing yourself as more involved in negative events than you really are.

Improving self-esteem is not a quick or easy process. It takes time and practice to genuinely enhance self-esteem.

Posted in Education, Health, Philosophy, Science | Tagged , , |

Quote of the day: give esteem to the moment

Posted by Cecilia

“Stick always to the present. Every state, every moment is of infinite value, because it is the representative of a whole eternity.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Quote of the day about esteem!

Posted by Cecilia

“Think rather of what you have, than that what you lack.”

Marcus Aurelius

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Esteem for each step in our life

Posted by Cecilia

We might think that our actions in life are just empty, a failure. We might think that only the goal we have in mind is important and the steps leading us toward this goal are just obstacles to overcome.

Nisargadatta Maharaj (“I Am That“) has an esteemful answer to these concerns: “There is no question of failure, neither in the short run nor in the long. It is like traveling a long and arduous road in an unknown country. Of all the innumerable steps there is only the last which brings you to your destination. Yet you will not consider all previous steps as failures. Each brought you nearer to your goal, even when you had to turn
back to by-pass an obstacle. In reality each step brings you to your goal, because to be always on the move, learning, discovering, unfolding, is your eternal destiny. Living is life’s only purpose.”

Each step in our life is important. It is important for us to give esteem to each one of them.

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The Fresh Air Fund gives esteem to children

Posted by Cecilia

There are many ways to give esteem to children. One of them Fresh Air Fund is living.

The Fresh Air Fund, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Nearly 10,000 New York City children enjoy free Fresh Air Fund programs annually. In 2010, close to 5,000 children visited volunteer host families in suburbs and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada. 3,000 children also attended five Fresh Air camps on a 2,300-acre site in Fishkill, New York. The Fund’s year-round camping program serves an additional 2,000 young people each year.

Fresh Air children are boys and girls, six to 18 years old, who live in New York City. Children on first-time visits are six to 12 years old and stay for either one or two weeks. Youngsters who are re-invited by the same family may continue with The Fund through age 18, and many enjoy longer summertime visits, year after year. A visit to the home of a warm and loving volunteer host family can make all the difference in the world to an inner-city child. All it takes to create lifelong memories is laughing in the sunshine and making new friends.

This program is a real gift for children, but also for host families. If you’re interested in becoming a hosting family for this summer, the Fresh Air Fund is happy to give you all necessary information. What a great gesture of esteem toward children!

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Unconditional esteem – unconditional love

Posted by Cecilia

Honest esteem is as unconditional as love. It can be difficult to write what  unconditional love is about. Sometimes a little story can help to cast light on what unconditional love is such as this short story written by Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī. He is also  known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi, a Sufi mystic, Muslim poet, jurist and theologian (1207-1273):

A man knocked at the door of his lover.
A voice asked: „Who is there?“
He answered: „It’s me.“
The voice said: „There is no place here for me and you.“
The door remained closed.
After one year of loneliness the man knocked at the door again.
A voice asked: „Who is there?“
He answered: „It’s you.“
The door was opened.

Posted in Art and Culture, Story | Tagged , , , , |

Esteem for World Habitat Day

Posted by Cecilia

There are numerous annual World Days designated by the United Nations to raise awareness for different themes and problems in our world. Today we want to give esteem to World Habitat Day which will be held on October 4, the first Monday of the month of October.

On Oct. 4, 2010, in recognition of World Habitat Day, Habitat for Humanity will raise awareness of the need for improved shelter and highlight Habitat’s priorities: the worldwide connection between human health and housing, and, in the United States, neighborhood revitalization. These themes echo the United Nations’ chosen theme for 2010 for events in the host city of Shanghai, China and the rest of the world: “Better City, Better Life.”

Habitat for Humanity hopes that by raising awareness and advocating for universal decent housing we can dismantle and alter the systems that allow for poverty housing and make an affordable, decent place to live a reality for all.

By giving public attention to World Habitat Day we give esteem toward housing generally and in our neighborhood.  We give esteem to the fact that housing improves health, has a positive impact on children and strengthens communities.

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