Motivation Quotation: “Nail on your face the smile that won’t come off, and after a bit you will find that it comes there naturally.” –Dorothy Dix

Motivational Thoughts: Once I was in a doctor’s office and the only thing I could find to read was a women’s magazine. I opened it up and began to read an article about a rather strange study done at The University of California Berkeley Medical School.

Researchers put undergraduates individually in a sound proof room. They told them to put a pencil sideways in their mouth and push it back and also to say the long “e” sound for five minutes. Unknown to the undergraduates, this created a fake smile.

After each person finished this rather strange routine, the researchers interviewed him or her. They discovered that as a result of the 5 minute activity, the undergraduates were in a better frame of mind, had a better sense of well being, and laughed more at jokes.

The researchers concluded that a fake smile actually makes people feel happier. That is because the smiling muscles trigger the release of endorphins into the brain.

I tell this story and teach this principle to the men in the rehab where I work. Then I challenge them to put a forced, fake smile on their face the next time they are on the toilet.

For the next week men run up to me with a big, fake smile and say something like, “Steve, you won’t believe this, but I tried what you suggested and it really works. It made me laugh and feel really good.” By then their fake smile has become a genuine one and we laugh and joke together for a few moments. They walk away beaming.

So why not try it for yourself? Nail that smile on your face (for five minutes) and experience for yourself how good it will make you feel.

Alright! Action and attitude are amazing attributes. Always act as an achiever — actualize an achiever’s attitude and abilities. Attempt accordingly and assume achievement and attainment. Acquire, access, and assert awesome abilities. Advance against all adversity. Avoid anxiety. Allow abounding anticipation. Appropriately aid and assist anyone. Adventure abounds all around. Aloha.

Can you imagine having the courage and commitment to be faithful and obedient to a cause when your feelings and emotions are constantly telling you to quit? It appears that Mother Teresa did that for 50 years.

Mother Teresa’s private letters reveal that for the last 50 years of her life she couldn’t feel the presence of God. This lack of awareness of God’s presence greatly troubled and tormented her because she always longed for the closeness that she had felt with God in her earlier years.

Yet, Mother Teresa didn’t surrender to her feelings and she did not allow them to control her behavior. This is what she wrote to Jesus about her tormenting spiritual dryness: “If this brings You glory — if souls are brought to you — with joy I accept all to the end of my life.”

A collection of her private letters is about to be published in a book called Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. It was compiled and edited by Brian Kolodiejchuck, a senior member of her Missionaries of Charity order.

In our day of publicly celebrating the surrender to self-destructive feelings, tendencies, and compulsions, Mother Teresa’s half-century of inner torment brings a strong message: You can show others great love even if you feel empty. You can keep going when everything inside you says give up. You can do the right and moral thing when your feelings are yelling against you. With all the fame, honor, and glory lavished upon Mother Teresa by the world, her inner dryness kept her humble.

Her friend, Brian Kolodiejchuck, said this:

“The tendency in our spiritual life, but also in our more general attitude toward love, is that our feelings are all that is going on. And so to us the totality of love is what we feel. But to really love someone requires commitment, fidelity and vulnerability. Mother Teresa wasn’t ‘feeling’ Christ’s love, and she could have shut down. But she was up at 4:30 every morning for Jesus, and still writing to Him, ‘Your happiness is all I want.’ That’s a powerful example, even if you are not talking in exclusively religious terms.”

It’s not the magnitude of the mess that matters the most, but the mind of the man (or woman) in the middle of the mess matters most!

Is the mind in the midst of the mess:

Complaining? Blaming or accusing? Giving in to compulsive thoughts? Angry? Hopeless? Defeated? Panicked? Worried? Fearful? Pessimistic? Looking for reasons to fail?

Or is the mind in the middle of the mess:

Taking responsibility? Forgiving? Resisting compulsive thoughts? Thankful? Hopeful? Victorious? Peaceful? Courageous? Optimistic? Striving for self-improvement? Searching for ways to succeed?

Even if you can’t mend your mess, you always have the means to mend your mind! So why not make mind-mending your main method to meet a mess? After all, a messed up mind makes a messed up situation even more messy!

What power a heart-felt hug has! Mata Amritandamayi has given 26 million hugs to people around the world. She draws thousands of people everywhere she goes (even in America) who wait in line for hours for a hug from her. A reporter said: “She has mesmerized the world with her potent message of active loving and giving.” People affectionately call her “Amma” which means “mother.”

The response to her hugging shows that there is a huge hidden need to be hugged in our world. But we don’t have to wait for “Amma” to come to our town. We, ourselves, can give a few hugs today.