Mindful Living – Slanted Spines

Creating Strategic and Empowering New Year’s Resolutions

December 31, 2021December 30, 2021Posted in Blog, Mindful LivingTagged how to make new years resolutions, how to make resolutions and actually stick to them, new year resolutions, new year's resolutions, nye resolutionsLeave a comment

It seems many people are divided on new year’s resolutions—-some people love them, some people hate them. Personally, I love new year’s resolutions, and I’ve been doing them every year since 2009. During this time, I’ve come up with a few ways to refine my resolution process, and I’d like to share it with you today because I feel pretty confident that this technique may help others interested in creating new year’s resolutions.

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The Struggle is Real… Important

March 13, 2020April 16, 2021Posted in Mindful LivingTagged attitude, Blog, buddhism, encouragement, Mark Manson, Mindful Living, mindful thinking, opinion, outlook, perspective, positive thinking, positivity, Self-Help, struggle, sufferingLeave a comment

What is your proudest accomplishment in life? I’m going to stall here for a moment while you think about your answer to this question. Mighty fine weather we’re having, huh? Doo doo doo—oh, I love this song! Yes-sir-ee, looks like a beautiful day. Okay, and… Time! What did you come up with for your proudest accomplishment?

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Reconciling Resentment

January 17, 2020Posted in Mindful LivingTagged anger, Buddha dharma, buddhism, ego, emotions, encouragement, feelings, letting go, Mindful Living, mindful thinking, pride, resentment, Self-HelpLeave a comment

Sometimes, we have to deal with people we just. don’t. like. It’s one of the unfortunate, necessary evils of being a member of a society. Maybe the person who sits next to you in biology makes you roll your eyes every day because she over-shares about her personal life with the whole class. Or, maybe your neighbor lets his dog roam around your yard, and the dog leaves little turd-shaped hidden treasures in your grass for your feet to find in the dark when you’ve got your arms full of groceries. Or, maybe your coworker is incompetent and makes you grind your teeth at how they just can’t grasp a simple task like cleaning up after their own mess. Ugh!!!!

If your blood is beginning to boil at just the thought of this, then hopefully the rest of this article will provide you with some relief. In my measly one year’s worth of restaurant management experience, I’ve encountered some employees who really feel like some Higher Power sent them along to test my character. Fortunately, though, I’ve learned some things, through life and through reading. And I want to share some of these things with you.

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The Subtle Art of Not Giving a “Care”: A Book Review

December 13, 2019April 16, 2021Posted in Book Reviews, Mindful LivingTagged attitude, Blog, book review, Buddha dharma, buddhism, Buddhist, encouragement, gratitude, inspirational, life, Mark Manson, Mindful Living, mindful thinking, review, Self-Help, the subtle art of not giving a fuck, wisdom

This book review is rated “E” for everyone, but the title of the book is rated “PG-13,” or whichever rating using the f-word grants you, because while I have cutely titled this blog post as a book review on a book called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a “Care,” the true title of the book is The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#@%, which you have Mark Manson to thank (or blame) for that.

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The Practice of Gratitude

November 22, 2019Posted in Mindful LivingTagged attitude, Blog, buddhism, depression, encouragement, grateful, gratitude, inspiration, inspirational, Mindful Living, mindful thinking, motivation, positive thinking, positivity, Self-Help, self-love, wisdom, writing1 Comment

Right now, I can feel that my body is coming down with a cold. I’ve been stalling it off for a couple weeks, but I think one of those darn bugs finally broke through and got to me. How do you feel when you’re sick? Other than “lousy,” if you’re like most people when you’re sick, all you want is to return to good health. As we’re blowing our irritated nose for the one-hundredth time this morning, or as we’re launched into a coughing fit in the middle of a conversation, we’re probably thinking, “I just want to be healthy again! Then I will feel so much better!”

The “high” we feel when we return to good health after being sick is pretty significant. A friend once told me it’s one of the greatest feelings he’s experienced——we almost feel like a superhero, being able to breathe through our nose again! But after the initial couple days (if even that long) of being relatively healthy again, we forget about how much better we feel by comparison, and we begin to take our good health for granted again.

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Being There

June 7, 2019June 6, 2019Posted in Mindful LivingTagged friends, interpersonal, interpersonal relations, love, loved ones, Mindful Living, relations, relationships, Self-HelpLeave a comment

Our loved ones are special. They are the people who brighten our days and hold our hands when life gets rough; they are the people who love us for who we are, on our good days and bad days.

How we treat our loved ones matters. How we treat our significant other, our friends, our family, and all the other people who bring beauty and color to our lives–our co-workers, our neighbors, our online friends–matters. Often, simply loving someone is not enough; we must treat them with love, as well.

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Growing the Right Attitude

April 26, 2019April 24, 2019Posted in Mindful LivingTagged attitude, emotional growth, encouragement, inspiration, Mindful Living, mindful thinking, positive thinking, positivity, Restaurant, Self-Help, wisdomLeave a comment

How do you feel when one of your co-workers is in a bad mood? How does that one person’s negative attitude affect the social environment?

Does their attitude feel almost contagious? Continue reading “Growing the Right Attitude” →

A Vision of Self-Love

April 5, 2019April 5, 2019Posted in Mindful LivingTagged attitude, emotional growth, encouragement, good vibes, inspiration, inspirational, love yourself, Mindful Living, mindful thinking, motivation, positive thinking, positivity, Self-Help, self-love, writingLeave a comment

How do you love yourself?

This question might seem familiar. Last year, I wrote an article called For the Love of You, which began with the question, “Do you love yourself?” I wrote about the importance of self-love and how it can change your life to break the internal cycle of self-hatred that we learn to perpetuate. If you haven’t read it, or if you haven’t revisited it since I posted it, I would encourage you to read through it again.

It’s easy to acknowledge, “I should love myself,” but it’s not at all easy to actually start taking the steps towards loving yourself. It’s the how that’s the challenge; when we spend so much of our life forming the habit of self-hatred, it takes a lot of strength and courage to re-route those hard-worn paths in our mind. Continue reading “A Vision of Self-Love” →

Judgment Overruled

March 15, 2019March 15, 2019Posted in Mindful LivingTagged attitude, Blog, encouragement, inspiration, judgement, judgment, Mindful Living, mindful thinking, motivation, opinion, positive thinking, positivity, Self-HelpLeave a comment

Even if you’ve never been in a courtroom, you’ve probably seen it portrayed on TV before. There’s usually an audience, maybe a jury, defendants and plaintiffs, and then there’s the person who sits above everyone else, appointed to decide what happens to people who make mistakes through their supreme ability to judge others. That’s what the judge does—-forms an opinion and decrees this is the right order everyone will obey.

Sounds kind of harsh, but sometimes we can be harsh, like the judge, without realizing it.

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Most Times, Say Sometimes

February 22, 2019February 21, 2019Posted in Mindful LivingTagged attitude, Blog, encouragement, inspiration, Mindful Living, mindful thinking, motivation, positive thinking, positivity, Self-Help4 Comments

How many times have you heard the phrase, “Never say never”? The irony of the saying is not lost, although perhaps the meaning of it is.

I used to hear “never say never” and think that it was a facetious way of conveying that anything is possible. There is no instance where something can never happen. There’s always some sliver of possibility. I do believe this is true.

Now though, I also interpret it a little differently. Rather than understanding it as “Anything is possible,” I understand it also as “Do not speak in absolutes.”

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