The Elephant in the Living Room

I saw a fascinating documentary last evening called "The Elephant in the Living Room." The film takes its viewers deep into the American subculture of raising some of the world's most dangerous animals as household pets, focusing in particular on Terry Brumfield, a kindhearted man who is struggling to raise two African lions he bought …

Continue reading The Elephant in the Living Room

Mental Blocks

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face...do the thing you think you cannot do." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt While there is a world of difference between your actual limitations and limitations you've accepted for yourself that don't really exist, the two are identical …

Continue reading Mental Blocks

A Greater Person

"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by …

Continue reading A Greater Person

The Consciousness of Right

"It takes courage to choose the harder road and to walk bravely in it, simply, steadfastly and uncomplaining. If you are right and know you are right it matters not what the world thinks or what it says. You can fight your way through the smoke of doubt, the choking atmosphere of misrepresentation, the blinding …

Continue reading The Consciousness of Right

The Power of Renewal

"Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength is not used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory. He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own." ~ Henry Ward …

Continue reading The Power of Renewal

The Kingship of Self-Control II

"Every step in the progress of the world has been a new “control.” It has been escaping from the tyranny of a fact, to the understanding and mastery of that fact. For ages man looked in terror at the lightning flash; today he has begun to understand it as electricity, a force he has mastered …

Continue reading The Kingship of Self-Control II

Flexibility and Control

My Pilates instructor shared an interesting video with me after attending the recent Atlanta MANIA fitness tradeshow. The video featured Chuck Wolf, M.S., an exercise physiologist who developed an interesting fitness training modality called "Flexibility Highways," who expanded on the basic point that: "Mobilizing muscles and joints without incorporating a stabilizing movement pattern can actually …

Continue reading Flexibility and Control

The Decision to Act

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward." ~ Amelia Earhart What, if anything, do you fear? Change? …

Continue reading The Decision to Act

Inner Strength and The Spirit of Victory

"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength." ~ Marcus Aurelius My eighteen year old cousin, Savannah Leigh Burns, was recently diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Its onset was rather sudden and took Savannah and her family completely by surprise. The first two weeks in …

Continue reading Inner Strength and The Spirit of Victory

Nobility without Pride

Where in this wide world can man find nobility without pride, Friendship without envy, Or beauty without vanity? Here, where grace is served with muscle And strength by gentleness confined He serves without servility; he has fought without enmity. There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent. There is nothing so quick, nothing more patient. …

Continue reading Nobility without Pride