Lift Your Heart and Smile

Raise Your Energy

Maybe you don’t know it; maybe you’re not aware, but there is a lot of crazy going on right now in the lives of so many folks around the world.

Some believe that there is nothing they can do, but I know otherwise.

Those of you who can feel, and see and know must raise your energy/spirit.

We must laugh more, love deeper, smile more often and share a kind word.

Invite someone over to dinner, tweet a message of hope. Use your social media for the power that it was meant to give you.

Pass on the goodness you need to see to someone who needs it even more.

Yesterday, I heard two women laughing. They asked me to forgive their outburst and I told them no. I would not forgive it because I needed it. So I joined in to their joy and I laughed with them.

The world needs you right now to be as positive, as loving as caring, as kind and as gentle as you can possibly be.

It needs you to laugh at nothing, to smile at every child, to open a door for a stranger, to help someone with a heavy load (figuratively and literally.)

You are the critical mass we need.

Be you, be strong, be uplifted.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

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The Difference Between Diversity and Inclusion

 The Difference between Diversity and Inclusion

Okay boys and girls I need to tell you about something that is close to my heart and my head.

Yesterday, while at an event for one of the most diverse companies in the land, a PespiCo employee asked me about how she could assure that her company was more Inclusive.

She explained that the company valued Diversity and it showed, but she wondered how it could be more inclusive.

Many companies and associations are dealing with the same issue. The same thing is happening on college campuses and even in my own neighborhood, where you could stand on the corner and sing “We Are The World,” because we really are.

While diversity is about making sure everyone is at the table, inclusion is about making sure everyone at that table is respected, trusted and valued.

As a sociologist, I am responsible for saying things like macro and micro at least once a day, so here goes.

I have long believed that diversity is a responsibility on the part of the collective; the macro, but inclusion is a micro level responsibility.

You and I must do the work. I must make sure that I value, respect and trust the diversity in my world. If not, I will not evolve. We need diversity to be better, but we need to engage with it for the process to happen.

The more inclusive the work-place, the more engaged the employees.

If I don’t include others and my own self in the discussions of life, the collective we will not become it’s absolute best.

Join the march for inclusion today.

Be you, be well, be included.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

 

 

Changing the World

Make Them Stop

Have you ever wanted to wave a wand and make everything around you better?

You can. You can fix the problems of your neighbors, your friends and colleagues. You can make them behave and act right and you can get everyone who is getting on your nerves to stop right where they are.

You can do all of this by changing you.

The only person you can change is you, and when you do, you illuminate a pathway for others to follow.

Change happens when we change, be the change, are the change and enable others to change free from our judgment.

When I was a child, my mother was a terrible alcoholic (I know,you’re wondering what a good one would be like.)

I lived under the threat of a beating, then a beating, then another beating, then a sloppy, tearful apology.

I spent my Sunday’s, and every day but Monday, at a Pentecostal church begging God to make my mother stop.

I’d pour out my mother’s vodka replacing it with water thinking that she wouldn’t know the difference. This only resulted in another beating and yet another opportunity for me to stand in a prayer line begging God for help.

God told me to help myself, so I did. I helped myself to the love that was offered by teachers. I helped myself to an education and a way away from the chaos.

I loved from a distance and finally got the nerve to tell my mother that I would keep praying, but God needed her to act.

She did and she became one of the most amazing women that have ever lived.

My mother transformed into someone who I loved to be with; someone I wanted to be like.

My world changed because I did.

You can be the change you want to see in the world.

Start with a grand idea; one that seems impossible. Decide to give your life to realizing that idea and live it every day.

Be you, be wonderful, be change.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

Order A Year To Wellness and Start Your Change TODAY

Racism, Sexism, Homophobia and You

Racism, Sexism, Homophobia and You

This week of racist remarks and slurs has been a wake-up call to those who say that everything is fine and we can all just forget and move along.

Today, I’m asking you to look inside yourself. Deal with the stuff you think and say when no one knows you’ve said it.

Deal with the lopsided logic that you apply because something hasn’t gone your way.

Think of the junk that’s in your heart, said only to family and friends or mumbled when no one else is in your car and you sit yelling at that driver who doesn’t look like you.

While you wait for the verification of the voice on that call, verify the words that are coming from your mouth and the thoughts that ping around in your own head.

Pick up your knuckles and walk upright. Whether you believe in evolution or swear by creationism, know this; it’s time to evolve.

The racism, sexism and homophobia we whisper behind closed doors can be heard, seen and felt.

What you do to others, you are doing yourself.

Be you, be well, be evolved.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

Say Yes To What You Don't KNOW

 When You Don’t Know Say Yes

The past week will go down as one of the most refreshing, exhilarating, inspiring and eye opening weeks of my life.

It was an amazing week. I did new things, met and connected at a deep level with new folks, was affirmed, confirmed and reified all in one week.

But all of that newness came at a cost---I am physically drained.

Now, folks who know me also know that I rarely get tired. I sleep when it’s time to; get up when it’s time to and go back to sleep before I will allow my body to burn out my brain.

This week was deliciously draining, so yesterday, I found myself ready to stop mid-sentence.

I’d shared the day with family and I decided to stop in the middle to let the young folks go do their thing.

They pleaded with me to join them saying all the things a parent loves to hear. Things like, “It won’t be the same without you and come on, we need you.”

Reluctantly, I pushed through and went on the end of day boat ride.

As we rode up the river, I thought of all of the wonderful things I had done that week and how with each new thing, I had been reluctant but then had given in.

I could see that everything I had embraced was something I desperately needed but was afraid to receive.

What goodness are you missing out on because you are tired; afraid, or just green?

Learn to say yes to what you don’t know and let life take you on a beautiful ride.

Be safe, be wise, be yes.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

http://www.ayearto.com

 

Are You Really Living?

Are You Really Living

Research shows that everyone that has lived will eventually die. It’s a fact, as the sun rises, so does it set.

The real question is this; are you truly living?

Life requires that we recognize a few things; our own existence, the presence of others, the beauty of the world around us and that thing/force that connects us all.

It’s time that you stop going through the motions of life; car on, drive to work, move some stuff around until something happens, drive home, car off, act like a family, sleep and then do it all again.

Life is so much more than paying bills, hating work and tolerating the family we created. Life requires that we see beyond the mundane and into the glorious.

Today and every day that follows stop going through the motions and live.

When you drive, don’t talk on the phone and for life’s sake, don’t text. Even when your hands are free, your mind is not. See where you are going and what you have been passing up.

Speak to someone you encounter regularly but barely know. Ask a question and learn something about them.

Share your knowledge with someone who needs it.

Smile at every child you see.

Talk to an elder.

Listen to a child.

Watch the birds and imagine what they may be saying.

Stare at the clouds.

Recycle something.

Give away something you don’t need.

Help someone in need.

Allow someone to give something to you.

Call an old friend and make a new one.

Actually speak with a neighbor.

Spend real loving time with your family.

Read a book.

Sing a song.

Talk to God and never stop loving.

Make a better list than this and do it.

Your life is real and it is now. The past is a lesson, the future is where you can apply it. Don’t wallow in regrets for time gone by. Use the time you have now to live more fully.

Be you, be well, be full.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

Order A Year to Wellness and start LIVING NOW

Calling On the Ancestors

Calling On the Ancestors

Last week I was at a coneference with a group of insurance and financial advisors. The folks from AXA have been around for a very long time. They are already great at what they do but they had come together to become even better.

At that conference, I witnessed something I had never seen done by a corporation.

As everyone stood and music played quietly in the background, the names of each and every one of their co-workers (both past and present,) who had died the previous year leading up to the conference were reverently read out loud.

AXA is a very large company, so there were many, many names. No one moved or spoke.

With the calling of each name, I felt a stirring of emotions, energy and love.

My sister/editor/amazing jewelry designer, Janet Hill Talbert says, “When a person dies, a library closes.” It is our responsibility to keep that library open. (Click here to see Janet's designs.)

As I spoke that morning, I invoked the names and memories of some of my ancestors. I spoke of my mother and of Terry Evenson, the man who helped put me through college and became like a father to me. I spoke of my sister Myrna and my great-grandfather John Henry Freeman, the abolitionist.

I thought of my daughter Mariah and my nephew Christopher and when I did I could see a host of others.

When we call on and remember those who have passed on from this life, we are stirring the memories and lessons we need for our journey on this side.

Being a part of this very spiritual practice in a group of corporate folks enabled me to know that even when we can’t see it, an awakening is already happening.

Call on your loved ones. Share their life and stories with others. When you do, you will come to see and know that dead don’t mean done.

Be you, be well, be connected.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

http://www.quietremembrance.com/