This title is a quote from Henry Kissinger.
Priceless.
I have been feeling a great deal of stress lately, for many reasons.

First, I got an updated bill from my husband’s student loans. It was much greater than I thought it was and the payments are about $300 more than I thought they would be.

Second, a business deal I’ve been very hopeful about (actually I was dancing a Rumba around the house about it much to my 13 year old’s dismay. Don’t know why she was pulling the blinds down…) is now teetering on the edge.

Third, my other websites (TwoPennyCat.com and LacteezeStore.com) are not producing right now and I find myself checking them many times a day feeling upset each time.

Fourth, I’ve had a medication change and this has resulted in an increase in my migraines. I now wake at 3:00 every morning with a hum dinger and have for about three weeks. Blast!

If you’re familiar with the movie Ice Age I have been like the little squirrel with his acorn. I have been jumping here and there, trying one thing and then another, trying to squeeze more money out of this turnip and that one, trying to find new revenue sources…bigstockphoto_lazy_squirrel_111165-1 I’ve been reading debt blogs like crazy and hearing tales of disaster that have weighed me down–more than I realized.

Then at 4:00 in the morning yesterday I picked up Joe Vitale’s book, The Attractor Factor, which is one of my favorite books. Often times when I feel I need a little whisper or nudge from God I will pick up a book and say a quick prayer asking to be shown what I need. I did this and opened to a random page.

It was a story about a man who experienced a sudden increase in his business because he thought an external force (a brochure mailing) had occurred. But the brochure had not gone out. What had changed? The man. He relaxed because he thought this great mailing was out there, working, bringing great results. He became hopeful.

The point of the story is “once you change the way you are inside, the outer world changes.”

We all know this is true. How? When you meet some people can’t you almost immediately tell they are stressed? There’s just something in their voice, their smile, something in their eyes and the words they choose?

When we’re stressed, frustrated, sad, hopeless…it shows up our driving, in how we email, in spending money, in the way our body functions, etc.

I always thought it was interesting that Mother Theresa would pray all morning before she went to the streets to reach out to those suffering so much. She knew she had to take care of the inner world before she could have anything to do with the outer. And her inner world has certainly changed our planet’s outer world.

So, I have now quit reading negative stuff and have, instead, been reading about success, and spirituality, and hope.

Here are four resources I have found that have helped. I hope they will help you, too.

ChristianPF.com
ZenHabits.net
KazanToday.com
Dream This Day.com

NOW HERE IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE FUNNIES:
(Borrowed from GetOutofDebt.org–one of the best sites out there for personalized advice–free! Thanks Steve.)

“Today, as I was walking into CVS, two older men outside said to me ‘Young lady, please consider us on your way out.’ Thinking they were hitting on me, I rolled my eyes and said ‘Screw you.’ When I walked back outside, I realized they were asking for AIDS donations. “

Please comment.