Karen Hoskins 5/1/22 Karen Hoskins 5/1/22

Lifestyles

May 2022 - New Featured Posts!

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OLD School Mother’s Day Shout Out!

In case you didn’t catch this 2021 set, or even if you did, this one’s for all the Super Mom’s out there!

DJ Cassidy’s Mother’s Day Tribute

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Don’t Let Fear Keep You from Living

Your Best Life!

(No Regrets)

NO matter your age, having a grounded sense of confidence in yourself can mean the difference between success and failure. That’s true for every aspect of your life whether it’s professional, or your personal relationships. A lack of confidence is associated with Fear and, as we have previously discussed, fear is a Dream Killer! God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:17).

More times than not we are our own worst enemies. Think of all that you could do, and all that you could become if you operated from a sense of power rather than fear. There is no telling how much you could accomplish! That negative, limiting voice in our heads can be relentless and it must be stopped!!! Not only is it not your friend, but it will do whatever is necessary to prevent you from succeeding.

I’ve struggled with fear all my life. As a young kid, I never wanted to go trick or treating during Halloween because I was afraid of all the people in masks and costumes. In high school I was a good student but was shy and fearful of speaking up. I was referred to as a quiet girl. What eventually began pushing me out of my comfort zone was my dream to be a journalist. In college, I majored in journalism and one of the classes freshman year was on developing interview skills. That class had me approaching random people on campus to get whatever “the story” assignment happened to be that week. It takes courage to walk up to a total stranger and ask their opinion on a topic. While I was afraid, in retrospect, I’m glad I was made to do it. There is a saying that goes “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” I love that! There’s also another one; “If you aren’t afraid, you’re not dreaming big enough.”

One rule I live by is, “No Regrets.” I don’t want regrets about what I wished I had done in my life to haunt me when I reach the end of it. Don’t let fear be the reason further down the road you find yourself consumed with regret. All you think or talk about is what you could or should have done, but didn’t. Don’t let that be your story.

The past is the past and it can’t be changed. What matters is, what you do from this point forward. Be BOLD my friend! Your best life is waiting!

-K-

“Start working on reframing your thoughts to be more positive and optimistic.”

(author unknown)

**Rich Hoskins**, FBI agent (retired), International Instructor, Sci-fi enthusiast, Pop Pop

Self-Care for Men

Part 3

Hello again. If you’ve followed my previous blog entries about mental and physical self-care for everyday guys, you know that I’ve yet to talk about emotional well-being. I think most of us will agree that the focus on the importance of mental health care for everybody is a recent phenomenon. In keeping with my theme of the average guy perspective, I would like to share some things I’ve discovered on my path to better emotional well-being.

Staying Positive

· This is probably my greatest area of growth.

· I have become more aware of the impact negative people can have on my mood. Like many people I have family members, friends and associates who communicate in the negative. Their entire conversation is a litany of complaints about things that are wrong and criticisms about people they know. I’m at a point now that I am comfortable telling them when they are stressing me out with rants about politics, crime, and natural disasters.

· I also try to reduce the toxic content I’m exposed to in media. Karen and I often take two or three days off from watching the news at dinner in favor of light entertainment like a sitcom.

· We have always recognized the therapeutic value of vacation and have instilled it in our kids. We spend a week to ten days at the beach twice a year at a minimum. This may seem obvious to most people, but my family never took a vacation when I was growing up. The closest equivalent occurred when family members from out of town came to stay with us for their vacation. That often resulted in the opposite of a relaxing time for me.

Meditation

· For a lot of mature men this conjures up some very inaccurate images of a bearded guy sitting on top of a mountain contemplating philosophy. I now realize that there are many ways to meditate or to achieve the intended benefits.

· For me that equivalent is devotional prayer time. I have a structured time during which I clear my mind and focus inward as I speak my heart to the Almighty.

· Another method of meditation for me is reading. I try to set aside at least an hour each day to read something pleasant that I thoroughly enjoy. I think this is a great alternative or counterbalance to the uncontrolled content we often expose ourselves to when visiting websites or watching TV.

· Many people don’t consider themselves as readers and have turned themselves off to the idea of it. But it doesn’t have to involve reading “War and Peace”. If you enjoy fishing or Golf, it can be just as relaxing to read magazines dedicated to those topics. The goal is to expose yourself to something that relaxes you instead of a steady diet of negative news stories about political corruption, impending war, or failing economies.

I’ll admit, it is much easier to do these things now that I am retired and I’m much more in control of my schedule. I feel free to separate myself from the things that cause me unnecessary stress. I salute those that find balance early in life and possess a far more enlightened attitude about self-care than our generation did at the same age. It’s fun, however, to sit back and smile when I consider a Millennial Ferris Bueller telling a Gen X boss “the proposal will just have to wait because my mental health day takes priority.”

-Rich-

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Vincent's Parable

by Vincent Pitt

There were once two children. They were young in age. They stood beside each other and turned to face each other. One was black, the other was white. What did they see? They did not see race. They did not see a Democrat or Republican. They did not see a Christian or Muslim or Atheist. Rather they saw another person, another human being, who looked somewhat like them. Then they begin to talk, play, and enjoy the gift of life.

As they grew older, they learned from their environment, their surroundings, from others. With this, they may have noticed, or not, that they moved farther and farther away from each other. They would eventually forget about the innocence. It was still there, but seemingly unreachable. As they became adults, they did not realize that they could obtain all the knowledge, be aware of all of their surroundings and environment, but still keep that innocence and love of life at the core of their being.

All it would take is to hold up that prism and filter out the untruths while filtering in the truths. Tap the refresh button and pull up that innocence from within that we all still have inside. Then and only then would they realize that the only race is the human race. That they could both achieve the rights and dreams of Love expressed in the philosophies and teachings of wise men and women.

WE NEED AN AGE OF INNOCENCE.

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Parting Thoughts - We see you on social media, Family! Here’s some of what’s on your mind…

From : Brio Berry