Catching My Breath

Kelly Clarkson Singing at President Obama's Inauguration

Five days a week, I drive to and from work and during that time I usually listen to the radio.  I have five stations that I randomly listen to depending on my mood and the pace of the traffic.

These days the song that currently makes me go directly to the volume button is Kelly Clarkson's "Catch My Breath."

It's a song of strength, a song that gives me a boost of positive energy.

To me, the song has the vibe of someone who has survived some kind of a personal journey and come out on the other side it, more sure of life and the direction they want to go.

The lyrics of "Catch My Breath" remind me of a time in my life when I was trying to keep up with so many changes that were happening so fast that it was hard for me to get a breath of air. 

I've spent most of my life

Riding waves, playing acrobat

Shadowboxing the other half
Learning how to react
I've spent most of my time

But the lyrics also take me to a place of seeing life in a simplier way and realizing that you cannot let worries keep you down.  Focusing on being carefree, laughing and spending time with the ones that I love is really what brings me happiness and that I should grab as much of it as I can.

Making time for the ones that count
I'll spend the rest of my time
Laughing hard with the windows down
Leaving footprints all over town
Keeping faith kinda comes around
I'll spent the rest of my life
 

Please listen to Grammy Award winner Kelly Clarkson sing, "Catch My Breath," a song I currently consider to be my musical Red Bull:

 

The Secret of Life

I find it is important for my inner woman to make quiet time for myself.  The inner woman is all about achieving personal peace and developing emotional resilience.

For me, the road to personal peace is found when I seek to quiet my mind and spirit.  Usually ten to fifteen minutes every day is enough for me to gather my thoughts and try to figure out  my daily goal; or at least try and figure out what direction I think I would like for my day to take.  Sometimes my goal is serious, such as finishing a project at work, and sometimes my goal is silly, such as trying to see if I can go without cursing for one hour.  You may think I'm kidding but I'm not!

Every day we are bombarded with different messages from the internet, television, radio and the telephone and our brains are basically tied up being information traffic cops telling us what to pay attention to and what to ignore.  You can't go from one activity to the next or try to do multiple activies and not begin to feel the effects of that constant switching.

No wonder we feel stressed.  We need to take a break.  We need to take out regular time during the day to soothe our minds.  There's nothing wrong with doing something mindless once in a while, right?  Isn't that what Star and People magazine are for?

Seriously, our inner voices are trying to tell us what we need to do to refresh and restore our inner selves but we need to create quiet to hear it.  How do you tune in to your inner self?

The Secret of Life

Author Unknown

As the Lord God was creating the world

he called upon his archangels.

The Lord asked his archangels to help

him decide where to put the Secret of Life.

"Bury it in the ground," one angel replied.

"Put it on the bottom of the sea," said another.

"Hide it in the mountains," another suggested.

The Lord replied, "If I see to do any of those

only a few will find the Secret of Life.

The Secret of Life must be accessible to

EVERYONE!"

One angel replied, "I know: put it in each

man's heart.

Nobody will think to look there."

"Yes!" said the Lord.  "Within each man's heart."

And so it was --

The SECRET TO LIFE lies within all of us.