It was an overcast Sunday afternoon, when five ladies decided to embark on a journey to the burbs. We were going to Ravinia in Highland Park to hear Catfish Haven and Poi Dog Pondering. We headed out laughing and looking forward to hearing George and Catfish Haven. Little did we know, we needed a CD in the car to hear them.

A little misguided directions, a side trip to Six Flags (which is when I asked if Ravinia was in Wisconsin LOL), and a stop for directions, we were back on track. We missed hearing Catfish Haven and the beginning of Poi Dog, but had a great time anyway. And besides, it was raining until we got there.

Valerie, her parents, Joann, Dawn, Steffani, Carol

Valerie, George (Catfish Haven), and Val’s parents

With the weather getting hotter, we decided to hug it out in the morning from 10 am until noon. A few less huggers and a few less huggees than previous afternoon hug outs, yet it was still amazing, fun, and another gorgeous day.

Although I missed the photo op, someone on this trolley held their arms out the window for a hug and Michael obliged as he ran up and quickly hugged her before the trolley turned the corner.

Life is all about perspective and so is hugging. This is a view of the huggers from the third floor of Borders.

You would be amazed on how many people stop and take our picture along with video coverage. Who knows where our pictures turn up at? A couple about to get married had their pictures taken with us and we’re told we’ll be part of the wedding! (picture not shown here, but Rossi captured it).

It was simply another beautiful day in paradise. Come join us at our July Hug Out, Sunday, July 27th - 10 am - noon.

 Hugs,

Carol

For more June Free Hug pictures: http://www.positive-focus.com/wpg2?g2_itemId=1539

Free Hug montage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9HnbPm1VNE

As I recognize the power and beauty of the oneness of the universe, I am in awe. I am in awe that this life force enters my body in every inhale I take and is shared with the universe with every exhale. I am grateful knowing this life force is in me, around me, and a part of the ALL. As I know that all is good, love, whole, and complete with the universe, I claim that perfection within me. As I drift into a restful sleep I claim that each breath brings in calmness, relaxation, and peace. All tension, fear, and worry leave me with each exhale. I release this claim of my inner and outer peace here and now, knowing that it is already done in the eyes of the universe. And I give thanks knowing that as I allow peace to flow, it comes to me in great abundance.And So It Is.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Positive Focus Announces YOU  are Living Life Fulfilled

- Loving Self, Loving Life, and Loving Others -

           
Chicago, IL - June 25, 2008 - Positive Focus, a business focused on inspiring and uplifting people to live life fulfilled, is excited to announce that ‘Buddy - insert your name here’ is living the life of his dreams.  
 
‘Buddy’ consciously chose to shift his thinking to a positive space in all aspects of his life and now lives life to the fullest. How you ask? Keys to living life fulfilled are: focusing on the positive, shifting from judgment to gratitude, breathing through contrasting experiences, taking 100% responsibility for your experience, knowing the connection to ALL, and loving self, loving life, and loving others.  
 
“When I started to ask myself ‘What would love do’ in any situation, life started to become easier and I was empowered,” states Buddy. “I no longer wanted to lash out at anyone for hurting me as I realized I’m not a victim. I have complete choice in my reactions to anything. I began to claim myself and see all situations as an opportunity to thrive and grow. Sure there were times that I went back to my old patterns, but the more I practiced gratitude, the less and less I thought life was hard. Are there challenges, disappointments, or sadness in my life still? Sure, life continues to change, but I now change with it in a positive frame of mind. Challenges, disappointment and sadness still visit, they just don’t move in.”
 
“I am always so excited to see people step into their innate greatness,” said Carol Miller, President of Positive Focus. “Buddy became aware of his inner greatness and let it shine through. Everyone is exactly where they need to be at any given moment. Life is about choices, and when you choose different choices, you get different results. Buddy chose to experience life with positive choices. Positive Focus isn’t about changing anyone, but rather giving people the opportunity to see their true potential and thrive. I am so grateful that I get to experience so many people becoming aware of their inner power and beauty. I truly love and commend Buddy on living his best self as that is what makes the world an even better place.”
 
About Positive Focus
Positive Focus (www.positive-focus.com), grounded in love, is a global nonprofit organization holding the intention of living life fulfilled through personal demonstration, inspiration, support, inspired action, and lots of fun and laughter in both virtual and physical connections. Look for a Positive Focus facility coming to a city near year.

 Quotes of the day:

“Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Love more, and all good things will be yours” ~ Swedish Proverb 

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”  ~ Winston Churchill

“There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.”   ~ W. Clement Stone

“People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong…Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom.”  ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

For the next week I invite you to live your best self by living with:
 
Gratitude: Each morning as you wake, think of five things you are grateful for. Fill yourself with gratitude before your feet hit the floor. As you go through the day, be grateful for each experience. If you find yourself moving towards a negative thought, replace it with gratitude. And when you close your eyes for a restful sleep, enter sleep with grateful thoughts of the wonderful day you just had.
 
Intention: Each morning as you wake, set up the day on how you intend it to be the best day ever. Breathe in the knowledge that you get to choose how you experience life, so intend for amazing experiences. And when you close your eyes at the end of the day, set your intentions for a peaceful sleep to energize you for the next day.
 
Love: Each morning as you wake, think about all that you love. Fill yourself in love before your feet hit the floor. Go through your day knowing you are loved. Finish your day off with thoughts of love before you fall into a restful sleep.
 
Joy: Each morning as you wake, feel joyful. Smile before your feet hit the floor knowing that you will have joy and laughter in your world today. Finish your day off with a smile and perhaps a little giggle as you close your eyes and bring joy into your dreams.
 
Mostly, I invite you to reach deep inside and see how you are a unique individual. Only you have those exact qualities in the world. So dream big, love big, and live big.
 
Until next time, love yourself, love life, and love others.
 
 ~Carol 
 
Looking for a way to stay focused on Living Life Fulfilled? Make sure to surround yourself with people who lift you up, inspire you, support you, and simply love to laugh and have fun.

How are you today? Are you living the life of your dreams? Or is your life filled with hardship? Do you wake up each day eager to see what the day holds? Or do you wake up each day saying, ‘it’s just another day’? Do you face challenges as an opportunity to grow and expand? Or do you face challenges as ‘here we go again’?
 
Life is about choices. We each face challenges, sadness, and fears in our lives. The difference between living a life fulfilled and simply living is choosing to face life with love and see life as an opportunity to grow, expand, love, laugh, and simply be grateful for every experience. When you face adversity, face it will love. When you face sadness, face it with love. When you face hatred, face it with love. When you face victimhood, face it with love. When you face peace, embrace it with love. When you face joy, embrace it with love. When you face beauty, embrace it with love. When you face love, embrace it with even more love.

 Quotes of the day:

“We are always getting ready to live but never living.”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 

“Only a life lived for others is worth living.”  ~ Albert Einstein 

“Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.”   ~ Kahlil Gibran

“People living deeply have no fear of death.”  ~ Anais Nin

“Why, when we are challenged to survive, do we give ourselves permission to truly live?”  ~ Kris Carr

 
For the next week I invite you to face life with love by choosing
 
To be happy regardless of the current situation.
 
To be kind to yourself and others
 
To be loving to yourself and others
 
To be gentle to yourself and others
 
Mostly, I invite you to choose to live a life you deserve. When you live your life with kindness, appreciation, love, and gratitude, you get back all of those qualities and you will live a life of love.
 
Until next time, face life with love.
 
 ~Carol 
 

Looking for a way to stay focused on Living Life Fulfilled? Make sure to surround yourself with people who lift you up, inspire you, support you, and simply love to laugh and have fun.

Did you know 9 of 10 dentists recommend a certain tooth paste? Or how about 3 out of 4 surveyed like (fill in the blank)? It’s interesting to me how we rely on odds for a lot of facets in our life from buying tooth paste to health, and to love. And we always want the odds in our favor. But if you look at all aspects of your life in a positive manner, the odds will be in your favor as you bring positive energy to every situation.
 
Play the odds. Bet on a sure thing. The deck is stacked against us. There are so many more that I can think of regarding how we interact with odds in life and get fearful if they aren’t in our favor. I invite you to look at odds through the eyes of professional baseball players. They get paid handsomely and even the great ones aren’t hitting 50% of the time. A great hitter bats over .300. They aren’t worried that the ‘odds’ are against them. 
 

 Quotes of the day:

“The odds of hitting your target go up dramatically when you aim for it.” 

~ Mal Pancoast

“Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them.” 

~ Robert Jarvik

“I’ve always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win.”   

~ Arnold Palmer

“Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds.”   

~ Gandhi

For the next week, I invite you to examine the odds that are IN your favor and live your life fulfilled regardless of your surroundings by:
 
If you’re current job situation is tenuous of being let go or perhaps you are currently unemployed due to the poor economy? Guess what - there are companies out there that are thriving. People are getting hired everyday, promoted everyday. Be one of those people and bring positivity to your career path.
 
Are you trying to sell your home and listening to the news about a poor housing market? Shine positivity into your home and see it sell quicker than the average turn around. Houses are selling every day, why can’t it be yours?
 
In a relationship and worried about it lasting as the divorce rate is 50%? Be the person who sees marriages as 50% successes and bring positivity to your relationship.
 
Have you been diagnosed with a serious illness and wondering about your odds of recovery? Regardless if the number is 90%, 50%, or 20%, those percentages represent those who recover. One year it might be 20% recovery and then next it’s up to 35% — be one of those who bring the odds up. Bring positivity into your health.
 
Mostly, I invite you to live your life like a baseball player and not to worry about the odds. Get up there and take your best swing at an amazing life - I am sure it will be a grand slam if you put your heart into it. 

 
Until next time, simply defy the odds.
 
 ~Carol

Looking for a way to stay focused on Living Life Fulfilled? Make sure to surround yourself with people who lift you up, inspire you, support you, and simply love to laugh and have fun.

 Tonight seven of us gathered to discuss our favorite quotes and why they were favorites. I wondered if we would have duplicates, but we didn’t. Gandhi was quoted most, but all of them were great - especially when you heard the story as to why they were chosen. I’ve listed the quotes below by everyone’s first favorite etc.

First Quotes:

“God’s wealth is circulating in my life. His wealth flows to me in avalanches of abundance. All my needs desires and goals are met instantaneously because, I am one with God, and God is everything.” ~ Tony Robbins

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“All that we are is a result of what we have thought.” ~ Buddha

“You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”

“I will not should on myself today.” ~ Anonymous

“As Human Beings our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves.” ~ Gandhi

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” ~ Gandhi

Second Quotes:

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

“Where there is love, there is life.” ~ Gandhi

“It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die.” ~ Sam Cooke

“It’s never crowded along the extra mile.” ~ Wayne Dyer

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” ~ Aristotle

“It’s now what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” ~ David Henry Thoreau

Third Quotes:

“I see now that the emotion we call fear is really a huge source of energy. So whenever I tingle with that vibration, I know that I’m on the precipice of something significant.” ~ Renee Marie

“If we really love ourselves, everything in our life works.” ~ Louise Hays

“Love conquers all”

“Learning to let go begins with understanding why you’ve been hanging on.” ~ Terri Trespicio

“Activity and sadness are incompatible.” ~ Christian Bouer

“The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.” ~ Heda Bejar

Fourth Quotes:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ~ Marianne Williamson

“It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.” ~ Hippocrates

“You can’t bs a bs’er”

“If grass can grow through cement, love can find you at every time in your life.” ~ Cher

“You are what you think about all day long.” ~ Robert Shuller

“Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~ Howard Thurman

Fifth Quotes:

“I’m thankful for every moment.” ~ Al Green

“Live and let live”

“Don’t look for your dreams to come true; look to become true to your dreams.” ~ Dr. Michael Beckwith

“When you are through changing, you are through.” Bruce Barton

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” ~ Dr. Seuss

Sixth Quotes:

“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” ~ Nelson Mandela

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” ~ Wayne Dyer

Seventh Quote:

“Tie tells tales” ~ Tara Barnett

Eighth Quote:

“Things may come to those who wait, but only things left by those who hustle.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

 Happy Wednesday!

Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination. Imagine that - a world of pure imagination. Do you imagine possibilities or impossibilities? Do you imagine your business meeting being successful and everyone is on board to move forward? Or do you imagine a power struggle of ego and little accomplishment. Do you imagine your romantic relationship in the very best light showering it with love? Or do you imagine conflict and discontent? Do you imagine yourself as an amazing person who always does their best in life? Or do you imagine yourself as not worthy, not loveable?
 
As in the movie, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I am giving you a golden ticket to imagine your greatest life. Imagination whether used for possibilities or impossibilities is a powerful tool, so imagine greatness rather than unworthiness. When you start to imagine your life in a positive light filled with love, joy, and peace, your outer world will evolve to match your inner reality. So start imagining all the love, peace, happiness, laughter, joy, and abundance, you could possibly ever imagine. 

 Quotes of the day:

“Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” 

~ Jamie Paolinetti

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” 

~ Albert Einstein

“The world is but a canvas to our imaginations.”   

~ Henry David Thoreau

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”   

~ Mark Twain

For the next week, I invite you to use your golden ticket to imagine the unimaginable.

Imagine that TODAY is the best day of your life. Celebrate that you are healthy, loving, and alive.
 
Imagine that your dream job is here NOW. You are a valued, successful, productive person who works with a great team of wonderful people.
 
Imagine that your dream relationship is here NOW. You and your partner are the perfect blend as you treat each other with utmost respect, compassion, silliness, hopefulness, humility, love, by allowing each other to be individuals who blend well together.
 
Imagine that your health is perfect TODAY. You nourish mind, body, and spirit daily.
 
Mostly, I invite you to imagine the unimaginable. To be the change you want to see in the world by being loving to yourself, to life, and to others. Stay within yourself as one person making a difference. Your change will filter out to those you love, and then to their friends and family, and then to their friends and family, and so on and so on. Imagine change one person at a time.
 
Until next time, simply imagine greatness.
 ~Carol

Looking for a way to stay focused on Living Life Fulfilled? Make sure to surround yourself with people who lift you up, inspire you, support you, and simply love to laugh and have fun.