I will start my day with mindfulness. Renew my license to dream.

Refocus. I will not call my problem a problem. I will call it a challenge.   Read more...

Motivation will not magically happen. Your motivation will change from day to day. You have to recommit to your goals each day, tweak them to fit changes in your lifestyle and attitude and find new ways to motivate yourself over the course of your life.

If you're sitting on the couch watching Oprah's Best Life episodes while eating Kashi cookies dipped in melted Hershey's kisses from Halloween (don't even laugh - it happens) and waiting to feel "motivated" to head to the gym, you are fooling yourself.   Read more...

The Sunday after the dawn of 2009, Beliefnet.com ran this wonderful gallery called Inner Peace on Earth. I loved the idea of the earth itself creating inner peace. I have often thought that the drastic weather phenomena we are experiencing all over the planet are Her attempts at reestablishing Her own balance, and what is balance but another name for inner peace?

Ruth Fishel is the marvelously inspired author of Peace in Our Hearts, Peace in the World: Meditations of Hope and Healing. On the eight screens of her gallery, she shares the affirmations below. Any one of them is a window into the magical house of peace within.   Read more...

I often wonder how we can solve the social upheaval we are seeing all over the world. As an individual I feel a sense of helplessness. Yet I see so many good things happening too driven by wonderful people based on love, compassion and sound values. These people seem well balanced emotionally and spiritually. So, how do we reconcile these with those who espouse hatred, who are emotionally volatile and violent ?

It appears that we have to go back to basics – ‘the mother - child connection’.   Read more...

Okay, it’s time, I have to write. Since I have been asked to be a blogger for Ode when the magazine went online I sent in a staggering two entries. Being too busy while setting up The Hub in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, being my main excuse. But now I feel the urge to do something, because I have to, because I’m done feeling like I am a bystander with no influence. I’m talking about getting involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I am an Israeli by birth, and have lived there until I was seven years old. My education and field of work is, perhaps not entirely incidentally, in peace-building. My mission is to prove that we are better together, we know more, we can do more, and we can come up with more holistic and sustainable solutions.   Read more...

To my sincere delight, I received an email last week from The Peace Alliance saying that we, the change.org voters, had done it! The establishment of a U. S. Department of Peace was a whopping number two on the top ten list of recommendations that will be presented to President Obama on Inauguration Day.

I whooped when I saw it but probably not for the reason you think. Yes, I’m glad that Peace will have a front seat at the presentation, but the thing that really blew my skirt up is that I am not alone in dreaming peace into reality for our Earth. Thousands of people heard about the opportunity to vote for peace on change.org, and those same thousands took that opportunity, ran with it, and told their peeps.   Read more...

There is an interesting medical company here in Japan. It is called Fujiyaki, which means Fuji Medicines. It was started after World War II by a man named Mr. Takayanagi. He realized that many people still were undernourished after the near starvation levels they had to maintain during the war. He knew they desperately needed vitamins and minerals. He also realized transport was minimal at best, especially in the rural areas. Of course, poor transportation added to the problem of proper nutrition. But he was a man of ingenuity. So, for him the difficult situation was a challenge that he eagerly embraced.

He collected a few people to help him and sent them out into the surrounding areas on foot. They carried their supplies on their backs and went from town to town, village to village, farm house to farm house selling their wares. All the ingredients were natural and affordable. At that time, they all came from Japan.   Read more...

"Happiness does not come from success, success comes from happiness" - Buddha

I do that. I have a concept of success in my mind: business man, spiritual, no negative thoughts and feelings, no fear or complaining, confident, loving, beautiful and strong. I believe that if I have that I'll be happy. I'm regularly not happy because of it.   Read more...

Stop wasting your time following someone else's plan for you. Make your own plan based on realistic changes because if you can't follow your chosen diet for the rest of your life, you're wasting precious time.

Most people who go on diets gain back any of the weight that they've lost. This is because it is very difficult to maintain a strict eating regiment and because dieting often disrupts our bodies' natural metabolism.   Read more...

Willpower is fine for short-term progress, but long-term success requires planning and finding ways to feel motivated daily.

In the past, a lack of willpower has been blamed for causing us to fall off the diet wagon, but new research indicates that trying to will your way to long-term success rarely gets the job done. Willpower is finite, and when you're stressed, tired or even bored, you can easily hit the limit in terms of "I will not eat that brownie. I will NOT eat that brownie. I WILL not eat that brownie..."-type thinking.   Read more...

We already have all the proof, all the info and all the resources. When will we do it? We don’t need to learn anything extra to accomplish it. When will we, collectively, stand up and say YES, TODAY WE WILL CHANGE THE WORLD FOR GOOD AND FOR ALL!

There are so many examples around to show that it can be done. That all our problems are self invented and self undoable. We don’t need BMW’s, iPods and Armani jeans. We need cheap green cars (only a matter of scaling), more people playing the guitar and singing on the streets and hemp trousers. These are all sustainable, higher in “enjoyability” and cheaper. We need decent education where children are not condemned based on their grades, but stimulated to discover, create and be bold. We need natural and healthy foods, sports, meditation and a holistic health care system for all. It would mean a happier planet, with about a fifth of the medical costs.   Read more...

Every choice for peace is really a vote for peace whether anyone is tallying the votes or not. I was so pleased to be able to cast my vote for peace where the results would be tallied. Change.org is the sponsor of this vote; its results allegedly go straight to President-Elect Obama.

The Campaign to establish a U. S. Department of Peace sent me this in an email:   Read more...

“Life doesn’t give you the people you want; instead it gives you the ones you need: to teach you, to hurt you, to love you- to make you exactly the way you should be ”

When we find someone we feel we can connect to in some ways, we are filled with indefinable, rather vague expectations regarding that person. These expectations remain deep inside our sub consciousness, despite our apparent denial.   Read more...

All throughout Japanese history, and up until recently, most people here lived in flimsy wooden houses that were packed closely together. Small fires were used for heating and cooking. Times have changed, of course, but even now most homes have kerosene heaters, which allow one room at a time to glow with precious warmth. The other rooms remain icy cold. In fact, in the region where I live most people sleep with no heat. In this day and age that is quite remarkable considering how cold Japan becomes in winter.

Since Japan is a country that trembles readily with frequent earthquakes, this heating arrangement of kerosene heaters is extremely dangerous. To keep vigilant watch, small fire trucks roam the streets on a regular basis, clanging their reassuring bell as they pass.   Read more...

I have gathered all my peace posts from Ode’s Readers Blog, and put them in a small PDF book, Dr. Susan Corso’s Peace Posts from Ode Magazine’s Readers Blog downloadable for free from my website..

Below you will read a list of people and organizations who influenced my thoughts, words and deeds toward peace since I started writing for Ode a year and a half ago. First, I was shocked at how many. 444! Then I realized—of course! I can’t be the only one thinking this way. We’re all connected.   Read more...

The New Year has arrived. It's time to snuggle and cuddle. To make new wishes; to renew, recharge, refresh and revise. It's that time of the year once again, when every one of us look forward to at least some changes in our lives. We make resolutions that we will lose weight, learn at least one new skill, worry less, exercise more, control our anger and kiss fewer frogs...

With the advent of a new year, new hopes are born, and we secretly wish that this year magic would happen; our life would improve, we will have more money, more success, better career, new house.   Read more...