Tis The Season to be Blue

This is the time of year, where many of us feel blue. This is the time of year, where many of us feel depressed. This is the time of year, where many of us feel frustrated. This is the time of year, where many of us feel disappointed.

We are told that we should be happy. We are told that we should feel joy. We are told that we should feel grateful. We are told that we should feel like giving to others. We are told that we should feel excited.

Too often we are tired. Too often we spend too much money. Too often we don't have the energy. Too often we spend too much time, energy and money, in two months, and we spend the next ten months trying to make it up.

I have to ask WHY? What is the reason we do these things. Why don't we make things simpler. I remember my Mom would run herself ragged for the holidays and than feel very disappointed after it was all over.

It is getting so bad that we have Christmas music on the radio now even before Thanksgiving. So what can we do to be less stressed during the holidays. Below is my top ten list.

1. Lower your expectations
2. Keep it simple
3. Laugh
4. Get extra sleep
5. Set a realistic budget and stick to it
6. Laugh
7. Spend more time with family and friends instead or shopping for presents for family and friends
8. Set a limit on what you spend on each gift
9. Laugh
10. Make up your mind to have fun, no matter what

Jana Ruth
Author of Laugh and Live Happier: P.L.A.Y.S. for Life
http://www.janaruth.biz/
http://www.laughandlivehappier.com/
http://www.onewomanslaughter.blogstop.com/

Lessons from the Wizard of Oz



The Wizard of Oz has some wonderful lessons on how to live a happy and productive life. Let me explain. Dorothy and Toto find themselves due to a tornado in a strange land. Dorothy immediately has a long term goal. She wants to get back to Kansas. And because she does not know how to achieve it, she starts asking questions, and for help to get back to Kansas. We all need long term goals for our life, and a life purpose. Once we have that, we need to do as Dorothy did and ask questions and ask for help. By asking the questions she found a solution to her long term goal. The solution became her short term goal and that solution was to see the Wizard of Oz, who she was told, could help her.

So she set out down the "Yellow Brick Road." Almost immediately she meets the Scarecrow, and helped him get off the post he was on. His long term goal was to get a "brain," and Dorothy invited him to join her to see the Wizard. Now they could help each other and they both had the same short term goal to go to the Wizard. In life, we meet people who we can help and in turn they can help us. So Dorothy, Toto, and the Scarecrow, set off to see the Wizard.

They hadn't gone far down the "Yellow Brick Road," when they ran into the Tin Man. They helped oil him so that he could move again, and his long term goal was to get a "heart." His short term goal was the same as Dorothy, and the Scarecrow, to go to the Wizard. Now there support group, and network was increasing.

A little further down the "Yellow Brick Road," they ran into the Cowardly Lion. The Cowardly Lion tried to scare Toto, and Dorothy hit the Cowardly Lion in the nose, and he started to cry. It turns out his long term goal was to have courage, and so he joined the group to obtain his short term goal of going to the Wizard. Now the group was complete.

The group set off to visit the Wizard, who would help them with their goals. But immediately, they ran into an obstacle or barrier. The Wicked Witch caused the poppy field that they were going through to be poisonous, and they fell asleep. Now in life, we will run into barriers, and we will need help in the form of mentors (or femtors) to help us, as Glenda. the Good Witch provided. Glenda, the Good Witch made it snow and therefore woke up Dorothy, Toto, and their friends.

Because of this obstacle or barrier, Dorothy and her friends could have decided to give up, but they didn't. They still wanted to reach their long and short term goals, so they set off down "The Yellow Brick Road."
How many of us give up on our dreams when we ran into a obstacle or barrier?

They reach the Wizard and he tells them that he won't grant them their wishes until they bring back the Wicked Witch's broom. Well, now their goals have changed. They still have their individual long term goals, but their common short term goal has now changed. It is to get the Wicked Witch's broom. They are not really sure how they are going to do this. Dorothy thinks that if they just ask, maybe the Wicked Witch will give it to them. The others think that Dorothy may have smoked some of the poppies they went through. They know the Wicked Witch will not give up her broom without a fight.

After all, the Wicked Witch is not too happy about the fact that Dorothy and her house fell on and killed her sister. And the Wicked Witch wants the Emerald Slippers, which Dorothy stole off her sister's feet. Along the way to the Wicked Witch's castle, the Wicked Witch sends her Winged Monkey's who tear the scarecrow apart, and take Dorothy and Toto to her castle. The Wicked Witch has an hour glass and she warns Dorothy that she will kill her and take the slippers within the hour if Dorothy doesn't give them to her. Toto escapes and runs to find the others and leads them to Dorothy.

In the meantime the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion have put the stuffing back into the Scarecrow and he is all better. About that time Toto finds the three friends and leads them to the castle. The three work together and plan their rescue of Dorothy. They knock off some of the guards that are marching in front of the castle and slip in as guards. The Cowardly Lion has to hide his tail under his uniform.

As a child watching the movie I always thought they took too much time hugging and kissing Dorothy, when they found her. And sure enough in their reunion celebration the Wicked Witch founds them. She is not a happy camper, or even witch, and takes her broom and puts it in a fire and is going to kill the Scarecrow by putting him on fire. Dorothy in an act of courage, grabs some water, and tosses it on the Scarecrow and the Wicked Witch, and she starts to melt, and says very dramatically, "I'm melting, melting." It was very cool.

Now this unlikely group of friends or support group, had accomplished their short term goal of getting the broom. Their individual long term goals are still all in place. Getting the broom back to the Wizard, becomes their short term goal. Since the Wicked Witch is dead that is a easy goal to achieve.

They take the broom back to the Wizard and this is where they find out that the Wizard is a fake. However, from him they learn some important lessons. The Scarecrow is given a diploma from the Wizard, but learns that all along he already had a "brain" and was smart. He just needed someone to believe in him, or tell him so that he could believe in himself. The Tin Man is given a clock, shaped like a "heart," and he discovers that he always had a "heart." He just needed the Wizard to point this out to him. The Cowardly Lion was given a bravery medal from the Wizard, and like the others he always had "courage" within himself, he just needed someone to point it out.

Dorothy then says, "What about me." The Wizard says, "I am an old Kansas man, and now that I am found out, I want to go back to Kansas. And I just happen to have a balloon that will take us there." After all the speeches and crying and hugging, Dorothy and Toto get on the balloon with the Wizard, and right when the balloon starts to go up, Toto runs off the balloon, and of course Dorothy, won't leave her beloved Toto.

The Wizard can't stop the balloon, and he leaves Dorothy and Toto. Dorothy now is very upset and believes that she will never get home. At this time Glenda, the Good Witch, comes to the rescue. She tells Dorothy that she always had the power to get home; she just needed someone to tell her. Glenda, the Good Witch tells her to click her heels together three times and say, "There is no place like home." Dorothy does that and she wakes up in her home with her Auntie Em and Uncle.

So the lessons of the Wizard of Oz are:

• Have short term and long term goals and change them to meet your needs
• Ask questions and for help
• Have a strong support group of people who support you and who you support
• Know that you will encounter barrier or obstacles and still believe in yourself and your goals
• Have mentors and femtors that help you
• Know that all the skills, knowledge, and talent that you need is already inside of you
• Believe in yourself and your dreams
• Have a purpose for your life and write it down

Jana Ruth

Author of Laugh and Live Happier: P.L.A.Y.S. for Life

www.janaruth.biz

www.laughandlivehappier.com

www.onewomanslaughter.blogspot.com