Live and Let Live

1. See each day as a fresh start and a new beginning.

2. Don’t be a copy of anybody else. Enjoy discovering and being your true self.

3. Be proactive, take control and look for opportunities. You’ve only got one life so make sure you stay in control.

4. Don’t focus on the obstacles or things you cannot change. Just ask yourself “What next? or else “What can I do instead?”

5. Appreciate your limits and then set clear boundaries. You need to care for yourself to be the best ‘you’ you can be.

6. Decide on your values and what matters most to you. Then live in a way that’s consistent with those values.

7. Don’t put life on hold as the months turn into years … and there’s always the chance that some important doors will close.

8. Set goals for yourself – then plan the steps to take you there.

9. Learn from other people that you value as role models – but ignore the naysayers and the hypercritical.

1. You’re alive.

2. You have a roof over your head, food to eat and clothes to wear.

3. You have access to basic education, and are able to read and write.

4. You have choices, and the freedom to make your own decisions (about what to eat, what to wear, where to live, the kind of career you would like to pursue etc.)

5. You are not being persecuted for your beliefs, and you live in a country that respects your human rights.

6. You have faced and overcome some huge obstacles.

7. You have experienced the warmth and the love of friends.

8. There are people in your life who miss you, and look forward to seeing you again.

9. You can enjoy gorgeous sunrises and sunsets.

1. It allows us to hear, and really listen to, our heart.

2. It helps us to feel – instead of push down - our emotions.

3. It helps us to decide who we really want to be.

4. It allows us to step back from the pressure to fit in.

5. It frees us from the need to please, or seek others’ approval.

6. It helps us to establish more appropriate boundaries.

The following are associated with emotional abuse:

- Withholding love, affection and attention

- Ignoring, or refusing to communicate with, the person

- Threatening the individual

- Abandoning, or threatening abandonment

- Fits of anger and rage

- Engaging in chronic deceit

- Criticizing, belittling, ridiculing or demeaning the individual

- Negatively labelling the person

- Controlling their life and ordering them around

- Minimizing their opinions, and ignoring the person’s wishes, needs and preferences

- Gaslighting, and denying the individual’s reality