6. Don't tolerate disloyalty. If someone in your life is treating you in a disloyal manner, it's your responsibility to let them know. You owe it to yourself.

7. Life is a journey - allow others opportunity to change. Some individuals may act in a disloyal manner and, once educated or confronted, will make every effort to shift their behavior. Don't be too hasty to push someone out of your life. You may be forsaking a great potential relationship.

8. Live in moment. When you live in moment, your awareness sharpens. You will find loyalty in situations that you never expected.

9. Show gratitude. Acknowledge those in your life who are loyal to you. They will appreciate your feedback.

10. Get a pet! Now this is true loyalty!!

© By Monique Rider 2001

This takes a lot of mental practice but challenge yourself. When faced with a threatening, worrisome problem ask yourself following questions. What would happen if I didn’t try to control, correct, fix or stop this thing? What if I just let it run it’s course, accepted it, and tried to learn from it? What if I spend one whole day not thinking about it? What is worse thing this problem can do to me? What is it that I can learn from this? Will I be able to pass my knowledge on to someone else?

Sometimes acceptance begins with simply being grateful. When you become aware of things you are thankful for it fosters positive thinking. Again, this takes a lot of practice – daily practice. Some people use gratitude journals, others just go through a mental exercise each day – reminding themselves of what they are thankful for. It can be done first thing in morning or at night before bed. It can be done individually or as a family. You can be grateful for what has happened that particular day or in your life in general. You can express gratitude for one thing or ten things. It doesn’t matter how it’s done, as long as it’s done daily. Pretty soon your perspective will begin to change and you’ll dump that “victim mentality”. It’s best thing you could ever do for yourself!

It has now become almost a habit that when there is pain in my life (and believe me, there is still pain!) I ask myself what I can learn from it and how I can grow. Then I try (as hard as it is) to be thankful for it. Actually, part of my personal mission statement says: “I am thankful each day for pleasure and pain in my life”. Acceptance doesn’t make pain go away. However, it sure does make journey a little easier when you’re not fighting tooth and nail. Plus you get added benefits of less fatigue and stress, fewer wrinkles (yea!), more energy and better physical condition. You cannot change events of your life; but by changing your perspective of those events they don’t seem so scary – and you can attract more positive things.

© 2001 By Monique Rider