Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Frustration, Irritability, and Anger
Chapter 2: Hope and Perseverance
Chapter 3: Flexibility and Change
Chapter 4: Courageously Brave
Chapter 5: Balance Created in Contrast & Opposites
Chapter 6: Unique yet Stable
Chapter 7: Respect ALL Things
Chapter 8: Success
Chapter 9: Be Quiet – Be Still
Chapter 10: Dreams and the Big Picture
Chapter 11: Be Uplifting

Book Snippet

Each chapter begins with a photograph and poem, then content, followed by Insights to Ponder

The Eagle
Ahh—to be an eagle
soaring to great heights,
never having to explain
the reason for my flights.

Swooping and soaring,
freedoms to know, searching and seeking
with winds that blow

Higher and higher,
there’s no need to stop,
over mountains and rivers
till I’ve reached the top

Ahh—to be an eagle
knowing freedoms so rare,
believing in living
with all fears to dare.

CHAPTER 4
Courageously Brave

Mountains Make Us Courageous and Brave
Extreme mountain climbers often speak to the difficulty of their climbs as being both physically and mentally exhausting. At times, each step reminds them of the fine line between life and death. Keeping focused and mentally overcoming both fear and physical pain is the only way they’ll achieve the climb to the top. The mountain is the challenge, placed in your path to see if you have the stamina to continue. Without it, we’ll never know what we’re capable of doing, knowing, or being. It’s the reason we’re all here today. The fact that you’re reading this says…you’re alive! You’ve overcome whatever was necessary to be here today! I know that there have been difficult times when you’ve wondered if you’d make it through. Sometimes you’ve probably even wondered if you had the desire to do so. But something inside you wasn’t ready to give up. You plodded along your way, one step at a time, until you arrived in a better place. You courageously conquered the mountain. But how were you able to do that?

Your thoughts are the most powerful creator of all. Your thoughts create an emotion, your emotion creates a physical/biological reaction, and then you actually have an action—you do or say something. All of that happens before you even react to the stimuli.

If your thoughts are telling you that you’ll get through this one step at a time, they will create for you whatever you need to accomplish it. Your brain can do nothing more than what it’s told to do. It’s like a computer. What you program in is what you get out. The more you tell
yourself something, the more your brain has to create it into existence. Think of the ramifications of that statement. So, if you’re a victim, your brain has to make you see scenarios where you are continually victimized. It’ll attract to you people who can victimize you, events where you can fail, and decisions you make only through the eyes of a victim, thus limiting your options. Or if you’re telling yourself how content you are, your brain is busy helping you feel and see why you should be content—perhaps through gratitude or appreciation. That’s the simple part.

Sometimes, though, we feel hijacked by our brain…….