#QOTD - Win your battles

"The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost.

The true heart can tough the poison of hatred without being harmed.

Since beginningless time darkness thrives in the void but always yields to purifying light."

We often get many things "thrown" our way without being able to control when and how. People can come up with rumors and falsehoods to hurt us, they can use hate as a weapon, basically they can make our lives seem so dark and sad.

And it's not always we can respond equally well when we get thrown bad things against us, we often decide to throw again, or hide away. None of the solutions is obviously the right thing, but we often choose to use them. Not that it makes us equally bad, no, that makes us human, and as humans we aren't perfect. Far from in fact.

We just need to remember that we know what is true, we should not let false people drive us crazy or make us feel inferior.

Darkness tends to enclose us in its embrace and make us unable to see the road ahead, but remember it is only when it is darkest that we can see the stars :) and those stars leads us home. Darkness always yields to light, if we let it. You win if you remember who you are and what is inside you.

Believe in the power inside you :)

New challenges :)

Finally got started on some volunteer jobs, I been keen to do this for so many years but just didn't get around to do something about it until now!

I have been elected to the Board of Ventilen Denmark. This is a volunteer organization which operates venues for quiet and lonely young people between 15-25th. I funded Ventilen with money before, and has a sister-in-law who has been a volunteer there a few years now, so I was familiar to the organization, but was a spontaneous choice that made me take the plunge and become a Board member. Many will probably think it's a bit of a mouthful; I like to think of it as a challenge:) Of course I am not superman/woman, and there's a lot to learn, but I am convinced it will be a very exciting year.

Personally, I think Ventilen is doing a tremendous job and the work they do is super important, and that I have the opportunity to help shape the organization and make my mark, I find super exciting! It is also a bunch of enthusiastic young people who run the organization, double plus:) So all in all, it's a win-win:) So far I have decided to become a part of the education committee, something which I find interesting, while still being close to what I daily work with.

Then I actually started on something else, something I've been part of since July, but which really only just got official. Have signed up as a volunteer writer for an organization in the U.S. called TwitChange! I supported them, and their mission to use social media to spread news about all sorts of good charitable organizations or events, through Twitter.

TwitChange, as their name indicates, is a volunteer organization that wants change the world 'one tweet at a time' through social media. At first they focused a lot on Twitter. Many celebrities, well-known organizations (etc.) have profiles on Twitter, and you can easily "follow" them and see what they "tweet" about on their timeline. TwitChange saw the idea of ​​teaming up with celebrities and using Twitter as a way to get people to donate money to good causes. It has worked extremely well and resulted in many good auctions and collections! Now they have expanded their horizon and want to spread the word about how social media can change the world. Celebrities often use their Twitter or Facebook page to spread messages and get their fans to support a charity they support. Media like YouTube and Google+, also forums where messages can easily spread, have now become one of TwitChange's focus areas. They want small articles that focus on a charity being promoted through social media, and therefore they have asked many of their supporters on Twitter if they would like to be volunteer writer for them.

What this long story was leading up to is that, since July I signed up to be a writer for TwitChange, and now I am! Have never written anything but essays, reports and short stories in school, and now I'm about to write articles. Really exciting and scary, and also, I have to write in English. English has always been my second language, and I already read many books in English, but it's nice to sharpen my grammar as well:) All the while I can help spread good stories about good charity and much more. Have just posted two articles, and will write if/when they are posted on the website.

Are more of you interested to know anything more about these two organizations and perhaps even support them with money or anything, you can read much more about them on the following pages.

http://www.ventilen.dk/

- Join and steadily at 75 kr. (Danish kroner) per year. If you want to give more, you can too!

http://twitchange.com/

- There are no an auctions right now, but there will be sometime soon:) Otherwise, there is a lot of interesting articles to read, or even the possibility to become a writer yourself!!

Looking forward to making a difference:)

Christina

#QOTD - Smile :)

"Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing."

 -Mother Teresa

There is nothing more relieving and fun than smiling!! A smile can make your troubles go away, a smile can light a candle in the darkness, a smile warms the heart, and a smile brings peace of mind. And what does it cost? NOTHING! I smile so much I think I'm going to wrinkle up to early, but I don't care, it is the best feature we have as human beings!! And it spreads so easily, so give someone you don't know a smile today. Smile at someone you meet on the street, at the girl/boy behind the cash register in the store or smile to you colleagues, friends, family, boyfriend or girlfriend. Maybe a smile is all one person needs to save their day, to make it seem easier, more bearable. I absolutely love this quote, and I try to make the best of it each day :)

Christina

#QOTD - Regret

"Regret comes in all shapes and sizes.

Some are small, like when we do a bad thing for a good reason.

Some are bigger, like when we let down a friend.

Some of us escape the pangs of regret by making the right choice.

Some of us have little time for regret because we're looking forward to the future.

Sometimes we have to fight to come to terms with the past.

And sometimes we bury our regret by promising to change our ways.

But our biggest regrets are not for the things we did, but for the things we didn't do, things we didn't say that could have saved someone we care about.

Especially when we can see the dark storm that's headed their way."

If only I could take credit for those words, it pretty much sums up what regret is and the regrets we often have in life. The questions is how do we get past the regret? How do we not let it take us down?

Regret is the negative version of reflection in my opinion. It's healthy to reflect over the this we have been through, the decisions we make or don't make. But when we think too much about our mistakes, or something we did or how we reacted, it tends to be in a negative way, and that leads to regret.

Learn to reflect instead of regret the things you do, it takes practice, and you will not be perfect:) But the sooner you learn to let go, the sooner you will find that life doesn't have to be so damn hard :)

Have a great weekend!

Christina

#QOTD - Within you

"You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body."

-C.S. Lewis

I believe in these words!!! They are so true; at least to me they are :) We all have different beliefs, and it doesn't matter what we believe in, it matters only how we treat each other!! Still, I hope you find this quote inspirational, or maybe it makes you think twice about what life is all about. Please feel free to comment if you want to discuss it; I'm open to all kinds of discussions :)

Hope you are all enjoying your Thursday!! I am, todays my brother's birthday, congrats bro:) So proud of the man you have become, I know the future has so much good in store for you. The weather is so beautiful, the last breath of summer before autumn begins, so nice. Have a great afternoon peeps!

Christina

"The Dark Times are Coming"....hmmm

So we are heading into what all call "the dark times". Why call it that? That is, besides the obvious fact that it gets darker! Why voluntarily choose to put negative energy into something? For is it not a fact that when we say: "Now we're facing darker times" we actually think: "It becomes harder to get up in the morning because it's dark, it gets colder, sadder weather conditions, snow will result in traffic chaos, it's dark when we get home, etc.". Conclusion: In one small sentence, we place a thousand negative thoughts and feelings. Is it any wonder we always feel less positive and excited about the autumn/winter?

Don't misunderstand me, I don't think we should go around constantly being positive; this is not possible with the way the world is today (though it is definitely something to wish for the future). But is it also not true that we have the power to shape our lives as we wish to see it unfold? That we alone hold the power over our own lives and can write our history as we want?

YES outside factors can influence our choices and in some cases result in that fact that we cannot get nor do what we want, but again we have the ability to choose our response! :)

Will we always choose the correct path or reaction, N.O.!! Of course not, we are not perfect we are humans. But the beauty of life is also that we can change things if we want to! Remember the quote i wrote a while back?:

"Any new attempt justifies all past mistakes!"

What I'm really trying to say is that I believe we can make the "dark time" into something positive. We can still call it the same, because it's true the days becomes darker, but we need to change the energy we put into it. Because there are also positive things about this season. Hot chocolate, snowball fights, the heat from a fireplace, the sun shining on beautiful white scenery, fresh air and cold cheeks, and my favorites: CHRISTMAS and what we in Denmark call "hygge" :) If nothing of the above is something you like or find positive, then find your own, this is just things I find positive and love about "the dark times".

We can put negative energy in everything, even though spring comes and cast away the darkness, we suddenly find other things to put negative energy in. That's just how it always is, but there's no reason to stick with the usual OR to make our lives more challenging than it is. I don't always think positive, far from it, I'm human like everyone else. But I've always believed that we choose whether we want to see the positive rather than the negative. Yes we have our challenges in life and they are not always easy and fun, but we choose how we will look at them. And it's more fun to choose the positive view over the negative. And I have the past several years, 5 to be exact, made big changes in my life and I can see how a positive outlook have made things so much easier than a negative view on things. Is it always easy to think like this? No, you will "fall", but then you can choose to stop being negative before it gets too hard. The beauty of life is of course that we can learn from our mistakes :)

Remember, this is how I am, these are my thoughts, and that's how I feel. I hope it can inspire some new thoughts inside you guys and that maybe you will try to find the positive in the negative, calling problems challenges and fun, it makes it so much easier!

"Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it."

- Ernest Holmes

So enjoy the autumn, see the beautiful and lovely in something so easily seen as dark and dreary.

Christina

#QOTD - LIVE LOVE LAUGH

 "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain."

-Vivian Greene

This one I absolutely LOVE :) When we were kids we always put on old sweats and ran outside whenever the rain started to pour down!! It was SO much fun, and afterwards we would take a warm bath and watch a movie or play a game wile we drank hot chocolate/tea. Those moments I remember so clearly, and in those moment life was so easy and fun, and more importantly I felt extremely loved!! So don't se rain as something negative and dark, see it as something fun, something that can wash all your troubles away and make you feel completely new :)