volunteer

Time to Take Out the Garbage

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

Over our lifetimes, we can accumulate a landfill of garbage in our heads. This is garbage that has taken a lifetime to gather. However, it is now time to empty the trash, let’s go learn how!

Let me share the same advice with you that my mother bestowed upon me. “It took you a lifetime to break your life, have the patience to allow change to occur.”

Christian, Faith, Self Improvement

She is right; it has taken a lifetime to accumulate so much trash, it may take a garbage bag or a hundred to empty out our noodle. The good news is a lot of the garbage can be taken out never to return simply because you are ready for change. You are right?

What exactly are we talking about, garbage?

  • Negativity
  • Fear
  • Hopelessness
  • Self-Loathing
  • Depression
  • Addiction

You get the idea!

Let’s plot out an action plan for change:

  1. Make the decision you want to change your life. Whatever it is you feel you need to change, decide that today forward no more. The new you is at hand.
  2. Organize your life so that you can feel like you are achieving something every day.
  3. Learn how to quiet your mind. This will take some practice but will be the most fantastic thing you can do for yourself. Use headphones, find some relaxing meditation music, sounds, rain, etc. Turn off anything that will disturb you and on get somewhere no interruptions! Cannot stress that enough. Learn to relax and quiet your mind. This will open your mind and allow you to just relax.
  4. Let God know what you desire and ask for the wisdom to find what you seek.
  5. Get healthy. Walk to relieve tension in your body. When you’re healthy, you will be less fatigued. Your body will respond better to change.
  6. Find something that is NOT about you. Volunteer and help others. Doing something that benefits others has an incredible cathartic result.
  7. Learn to be thankful right where you are. Let God know every day you love what you have. When you are okay where you are. God will see that you can have more than you are ready for more in your life. Gratitude is a wonderfully blissful peace in your mind.

Don’t overload yourself. Pick a couple of things and do them consistently. We stop change because we overwhelm our brains. Believing we must do all this stuff to get a replacement now. Slow down, and change will come more quickly.

Someone shared with me, “the state of my house is in direct correlation with the state of my mind.” Look around for clutter. Get the clutter out of your life. No, it’s not organized its confusion. Desk, car, home, or office. Organize!

When deciding what your life should look like take the following OUT of the equation:

  • Don’t have the money.
  • Don’t have the time.
  • Don’t have the resources.
  • Don’t have enough education.
  • Too old or too young.

When framing a new life. Do it from the world is your oyster. You have NO obstacles in the way. I can hear some of you, I don’t have money, I don’t have time!

Learn quickly that in life, you can throw up an obstacle to stifle yourself. If you believe in something enough, PUT FORTH THE WORK TO ATTAIN IT. What you need will come to you someway somehow, even when you see NO idea at all.

Give this to God. Let him see you working diligently, stay in faith. You don’t know how, but you know God will make a way.

Hebrews 11:1-6 King James Version (KJV)

11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Do everything you can to make your dreams come true. Cannot sit on your duff and expect God to just Miracle a million dollars in your bank. That is called the lottery!

You must condition yourself to release negative thoughts as they enter your mind. This is a pass you need to fumble. Drop the ball, let it go, don’t even try to catch the negative thoughts. Easier said than done, I get it. However, you can acknowledge the idea with a resounding “Delete.”

happy, woman, life

Meditation helps with this. See yourself happy, loved, and doing the life you want. The big difference in having the experience you wish to versus having a life you are stuck with. None of us are stuck, oh, you might think you are, but you are not! That much I am 100% on.

Question or help:

Robert Bruton Author of Ten Christian Self Improvement Books available at Amazon

Life Change to Bring Full Circle, Get outside yourself!

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

“No matter what has happened to you in the past or what is going on in your life right now, it has no power to keep you from having an amazingly good future if you will walk by faith in God. God loves you! He wants you to live with victory over sin so you can possess His promises for your life today!”–Joyce Meyer

Bringing our change full-circle requires us to get outside ourselves. I can hear you screaming. I am trying to change me! Ask yourself a question. If you’re in a relationship and everything is always about you how long will that last?

Well, short answer not too long. Also, how fair would that be? Not fair at all.

I like our quote says no matter what we’ve done, where we are God loves us. If we want to bring this full circle, the changes we’re making to bring happiness. We have to learn to give something of ourselves. You cannot always be me, me, me!

having a heart

Here are some ideas to quickly get outside yourself:

  1. Give a smile. A genuine smile to someone today. It’s free.
  2. If you’re standing in line at a coffee shop, buy the person behind you a coffee. Make a new friend.
  3. Grocery store, leave $5 or $10 with the cashier towards the person behind you to help pay the next person in line part of their grocery bill.
  4. If you know someone is having a hard time financially give them a gift card from a grocery store. Put some gas in their car. Let them know it’s not about the money, it’s that you want to help. Someday, they may help you back.
  5. If you know someone that is heading out for a job interview, pay for a new haircut, offer to take a woman to the nail salon, take interview clothes to dry cleaners and pay, give them a ride, pay the bus fare, see you can find tons of ways to show someone you care.
  6. Volunteer. Church, hospital, Goodwill, Community Center.
  7. Visit someone in a nursing facility. Plenty of retirees who sit lonely in nursing homes with no visitors.
  8. Go to the hospital, visit the chapel, and pray for the patients and family. If there is power in prayer, you can give that! If possible, pray with someone in the chapel.
  9. Pick up a pound of trash. Trust me, you can find a pound of waste. One garbage bag of trash off the street, may not seem like much. A step is always a step, size does not matter. A pound of waste!
  10. Plant a tree. Check with your community to see where you can plant a tree. My thought, if you can plant a fruit tree where you know folks can benefit. Maybe a piece of fruit of a tree you planted kept someone from going hungry that day.

You can always pray to God to help you. Continue to work on you to change for the better. Before you can break through, you will have to learn to look back not to view your past but to grab the hand of someone that needs help.

Learning to Live Outside Ourself, Being a Blessing

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

With all the political venom, with nothing but negative news filling our social media feeds, our news programs. It’s not a wonder we may struggle with depression or just WTF!

Life Research Project is my movement to find reasons to be a blessing on this earth. Many ways we can give back even in small ways that require no financial investment when family budgets are stretched beyond limits.

volunteer, hope, change

Becoming a blessing to those around us, to the environment has immeasurable grace. Giving in the face of adversity will change your state-of-mind. We all want to feel better, have fun, make a difference. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  1. Pick up a pound of trash. We can all find a pound of litter to police up.
  2. Plant a tree. Preferably a fruit tree that folks could freely pick fruit from. Perhaps in an area where homeless people could get a piece of fruit.
  3. Start a Garden in an area where homeless folks are nearby. Allow anyone to pick from the garden.
  4. Visit a nursing home. Be company to someone lonely.
  5. Go to a hospital and merely pray in the Chapel for healing. Perhaps even pray with someone that is begging for a loved one.
  6. Volunteer, food pantry, Goodwill, Hospital, Nursing home, Boy’s & Girls Club, Animal Rescue Shelter, community center,  as you can see plenty to choose.
  7. Offer a bottle of water to a soul that is panhandling. Keep some bottled water in your vehicle. Instead of money offer a bottle of water. Say a prayer for God to protect the person you gave water.

Part of living life needs to be living outside our own needs. Even when you’re screaming, “what about me,” make it about helping someone. Stop! Listen to these words, being a blessing to others in the face of adversity.

When we can give even when we feel we have nothing to offer. Believe me when I say if you do this with an open heart. Sewing this seed can only bring a harvest beyond anything you imagined.

Feeling good helping others allows us to realize more can be achieved when we work together. If you planted a fruit tree that feeds hungry souls that may be hurting. How would you feel knowing that people did not go hungry at the moment they picked a piece of fruit from a tree you planted.

Doing good things, sewing seeds of peace, hope, love, and prosperity. You can’t help but feel love for yourself. Sometimes seeing more than just ourselves will actually heal our soul.

Pick one thing you can do this week to be a blessing to the world. I showed seven possible ways, you may have something else in mind. Do not do this and say to God okay; it’s your turn. Look beyond you!!!

Learn to be selfless, and in doing so, life will open up for you in ways never dreamt.

Questions or comments: