The great divide

The divide is real.

One huge thing I dislike about elections (especially this one) is the way they tend to AMPLIFY our differences and erode our common ground.

I truly believe we should all support who we want to support.

We should back ballot measures that align with our personal philosophies for our lives, our families, our communities and our futures.

What I dislike is the way that people can stand on their “side of the voting line” and cut off the other side completely.

We are entitled to our views and we are allowed to express those views.

It is disheartening that those views can break friendships, end conversations and erode our peace.

No matter where you put your stake into the ground on the issues, realize we all share that ground, even if where I plant my stake is far removed from where you plant yours.

I am hopeful, that regardless of the voting results, we can start focusing on the commonalities we all share and work toward lessening the divide between humanity rather than increasing it.

Regardless,

I hope you have a wonderful day today (as well as the vast majority of days moving forward 🙂

Happy Monday!

-Dr Lindeman

It’s time

I’m sorry but I don’t know the source. A friend posted this on Facebook (without the highlighted part circled).

It’s time.

Love thy self. So that you can love others.

The world needs a bunch of enlightened, loving souls and it’s time that you and I join that front.

It’s time we grow in our compassion and love and open our hearts (to ourselves and to others)

Grow your heart today.

Love on!

Happy Monday

-Dr Lindeman

What you give, you get (in SPADES)

“The more people you inspire, the more people will inspire you.”-Simon Sinek

This goes right along with “what goes around, comes around.”

You can substitute the word inspire for almost any other word.

The more people you love, the more people will love you.

The more people you say hi to, the more people will say hi to you.

The more people you laugh with, the more people will laugh with you.

The more people you are angry at, the more people will be angry at you.

The more people you hate, the more people will hate you.

It really is a “Choose your own adventure” kind of thing (don’t know if you all remember those books, or maybe MadLibs?)

The point is, the best way to improve your mental and emotional state is to provide that to others.

If you want to be happy, put forth some happiness, it always comes back 🙂

Have a wonderful Thursday!

-Dr. Lindeman

“It’s what we know that ain’t so”

“It isn’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so.”-Will Rodgers

It always amazes me that the biggest to key to growth in any area, is more about eliminating other things/feelings/emotions/actions in order to create space for new branches to emerge.

In order to truly learn, we must first unlearn.

Unlearn: to forget and stop doing (something, such as a habit) in a deliberate way because it is false or incorrect (Source: Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary).

If you can think of an area that you desire growth in, a “garden” you want to cultivate. The first piece of advice: explore your current landscape and find weeds that you need to pull to create space for what you truly want to thrive.

If you truly want to grow, to succeed to become a better version of who you are today, you need to be able to search for ways to eliminate in order to create a vacuum. You need to first figure out what could be holding you back. You need to look into barriers that you may have (intentionally/unintentionally) built that have kept you right where you currently are. These thoughts/feelings/activities may have served you well up to this point, but you may need to eliminate them now in order to create space in order for brighter/better things to grow.

Look for these weeds/anchors that limit your potential and get busy tending to your garden.

At any given moment (like right now!), you can start your re-education process. You may not be able to fully pull the weeds out with one tug, but by working on these weeds day by day, you will create room for new beliefs to grow.

You get to decide what to plant there. You are good enough. You are exactly the person for the complicated job of being you. You are whole. You are the only you there is, and it’s time to stop hiding.

The weeds have taken over for far too long.

Unlearn.

Your mind is your garden. Start cultivating.

Happy Monday friends!

-Dr. Lindeman

Cultivate the garden in your mind to create a beautiful landscape in the future

Fulfillment

“Fulfillment is not born of the dream. Fulfillment is born of the journey.”-Simon Sinek

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating.

The journey is more important and more fulfilling than the destination.

Our goals surely matter.

But the processes of achieving them: the “grind”, carries more weight.

If we don’t love the journey (even the hard parts), we will not be fulfilled at the finish line.

The struggle is where progress is born and that progress leads to success.

Do what you love and love doing it with each step.

Don’t make the (all-too-common) mistake of thinking you’ll be happy when you “get there.”

Be happy now.

Enjoy the process.

The goal is but a stepping stone on the journey.

Find your fulfillment in what you do today!

Happy Thursday!

-Dr Lindeman

Fireflies like the dark too

I just started reading: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb (check it out here ) and I like it so far!

This line is great and bears repeating: “It’s not as if we’re going to peer in those darker corners, flip on the light, and find a bunch of cockroaches. Fireflies love the dark too. There’s beauty in those places. But we have to look in there to see it.”

So true!

I truly wish the stigma of mental health could be washed away.

Especially now, with all the craziness of the pandemic, disconnection, solitude, political and social turmoil…we need others to help keep our lives sane.

We need to talk to somebody.

I have gone to counselors and therapists numerous times.

It’s not because I am “crazy.”

It’s because I finally realized that with my drive to improve my life, my family’s life and to improve the world, sometimes I need different people riding shotgun, helping me navigate through my past, present and future.

Sometimes we need professionals to help guide us through the muck and mire.

And I, for one, am so thankful they are there and I have access to these people.

So please, if you are feeling stressed, depressed, low…know there are truly wonderful people out there that will help you see the fireflies in the darkness.

Don’t ever suffer alone.

The world needs you and holding it al in yourself isn’t helping anyone.

And again, sometimes it’s great to talk to someone just about your big dreams and aspirations and they can help you balance them all so ambition doesn’t drive you wild.

Know this: you are loved and needed.

Happy Wednesday!

-Dr Lindeman

Hope for the future

I’m gonna drop 2 quotes on you this morning:

“The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.”-L.P. Hartley

“But plant your hope with good seeds, don’t cover yourself with thistle and weeds,”-Mumford and Sons, (Thistle and weeds song title)

In the book: Grit by Angela Duckworth, she discusses one of the main differences between people who have a growth mindset vs people with a fixed mindset is that those with a fixed mindset (feeling that achievements have a lower ceiling than others) carry around a feeling of hopelessness for change.

Most of the time this hopelessness comes from a negative past.

As L.P. Hartley eloquently put it, when we travel to the future, we leave the past behind. We cannot let the anchors of our past weigh us down from taking flight toward our future.

By all means, consider your current situation.

But also realize, that with hope, the future will look vastly brighter.

Dream big, plant seeds and sprout forth to a more meaningful and positive future.

Happy Tuesday!

-Dr Lindeman

Check out the song HERE

Growing or fixed?

The picture above was taken from the book: Grit by Angela Duckworth.

It is a really good book.

In one chapter she discusses the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. She discusses the that key to cultivating a growth mindset (which has been connected to higher learning, more successful careers, larger more positive impacts, etc) is realizing that there is hope in your situation. When you can attach hope to any time of adversity, you realize you can decide to improve your current life. If you believe that you are hopeless than growth cannot occur.

The great news is that there is always hope.

So today, when faced with adversity, grab on to a hopeful future, realize you have options for a better tomorrow and GROW 🙂

Happy Monday!

-Dr Lindeman

Count the seeds? Or the apples?

Too often, we are concerned with the results.

We measure our days, quarters, years in numbers.

We count the apples, so to speak.

Sometimes we forget that there would be no harvest without tending to the seeds, the efforts, the process, the journey.

The numbers are important. They are a way to see where we are at that moment in time. But they don’t tell the whole story.

Unless, we are hoping the story ends there (boring and finite).

No we forget that our efforts, our imaginations, our work ethic, our vision for the future and the connections we have and create with others will determine the bounty of future harvests.

It is impossible to precisely tell what the yield we be from our efforts.

But the key is to keep tending to the seeds, and to enjoy the journey.

Count the fruit, sure, but then get busy tending to the process :-).

Have a bountiful seed-planting Tuesday!

-Dr Lindeman

Act as if…

I know many times, we human beings can be complacent.

Sometimes it’s sheer laziness.

Sometimes, it’s because we believe that since we are only 1/7,800,000,000th of the world’s population, what we do is too small to matter.

Maybe we feel that our actions/thoughts are just drops in a gigantic bucket.

Here’s the thing though: that bucket is so full because of the other 7.8 billion thoughts/actions put their drops in there!

One small action may seem infinitesimal, but without a whole heckuva lot of them, nothing gets accomplished and the “bucket” remains empty.

Also, your actions are more-than-likely going to cause others to act as well, and that butterfly effect can create huge consequences.

So, if you are holding back on writing your book, your blog, starting your business, saying what you feel, donating what you can, etc, because you feel your impact will be too small… rethink and realize, the world NEEDS your positive input.

WE (MYSELF INCLUDED) NEED what you can give!

Your “drop” matters SO much more than you know, and you are vastly more powerful that you can imagine!

William James - Act as if what you do makes a difference....