Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Jennifer Snelling

Most people make ambitious plans for the New Year including the old standards like getting healthy, organized, or improving themselves as a person.  As the New Year comes in and we’re focusing on our enthusiastic new goals for our lives, it’s easy to forget about the little things that could immediately make our days go smoothly and, in turn, make it more convenient to attain even our loftiest aspirations. 

It’s the one thing that could help us all – goals or not – more time.

Here are ten easy time-saving tips I’ve picked up that bring more convenience and ease to life. Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Blake Cothron

This time of year is seen as a time for new beginnings, a fresh start.  It’s seen often as a time to wipe clean the slate of last year’s stuff and start anew.  Personally, I don’t get wrapped up in any festivities or making New Year’s resolutions.  I think they’re mostly short-lived and overly hyped. 

How often have any of us really kept any resolution in the long-term?  Instead, let’s embrace change in our lives, letting go of the realities that aren’t in harmony.

Go Beyond the Hype

I know it’s happened to most of us.  The New Year comes along and we join in the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions.  It’s commercialized by … Read More »

Article by Make The Day Count Contributor Marie Monroe

The Latin words humilis and humus have caught my attention in this season of introspection.  Low to the ground, of the ground, of the dirt … I consider them in my meditations about what it means to be human, to be part of humanity and what type of human I want to be in this New Year that fast approaches.  Old school exercises of finding root words echo around as I try on more words that fit:  humiliation, humble, humility …

Personal Revolution

I find myself reviewing recovery literature from 12 Step programs and growing in my understanding that true humility can not only be a saving grace, but a personal revolution.  True humility, I am reminded as I read, brings a sense of clarity about one’s self, deflating false pride and fantasy.  It brings us back home to who and what we truly are and there, we can celebrate our own humanity.

These are large and abstract ponderings, but important ones as I search for what growth I want to cultivate in this coming year. 

Listening to where my mind and intuition goes is how I am keeping my eye on my personal star so I may travel with it to my new self. Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Judy Mosley

You would think it would be easy.

Standing up for truth.  Making the right choice.  Taking full responsibility for what has been given to us.  It should be easy, right?  And yet when we’ve done the right thing, we might end up disappointed because the effects of those choices aren’t at all what we had expected.

We lose weight and then come face to face with the issues that have been plaguing us our entire lives.  We quit smoking and have to deal with the discomfort of breaking the addictions that our bodies had formed with the cigarettes.  We speak the truth in a toxic relationship, hoping for healing, yet having the relationship end while we are left feeling a loneliness we hadn’t anticipated.

Growing up, I had believed that if I really did the right thing I would be enveloped with some mystical feeling of love or joy - triumphant music playing in the background - which would keep me from feeling anything negative.

It doesn’t happen.  It’s just not that easy.  And I don’t want anyone to lose heart, but to be prepared for the road ahead. Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Blake Cothron

“It is time to speak your Truth … banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.  All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.”

These words spoken by an unnamed Hopi Elder summarize the heart of this article – that our words create our future.  In this excerpt, the Hopi Elder is urging for us all to become conscious of our words and attitudes.

How much thought and care do you put into the words you use? Read More »