Monthly Archives: October 2021

21

Balancing

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Balance- a condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions.

balanceOne of the biggest challenges you will face in life is to find your balance. For all things sweet, some things are bitter. Neither is good or bad except for when we define them as such; they are simply things. All experiences are the same, and to find a consistent enjoyment of the experience, balance is a necessary element. It is seeking a balance between body, mind, and spirit in your life on a broad scale. All three of these elements are a part of a well-rounded human being. It is a constant struggle to keep your life in a balance that will allow you to build significant relationships, build a satisfying career, and develop as a human being living on the Earth. It all begins with a consciousness of our thoughts, words, and actions to have balance in your life. (Daily Video)

Elements of a Balanced Life

Symmetry in life is not going to be something that you find. It is something that you create each day in the priorities that you place on your time. We all have expectations of other people in our families, our work, and even our balancefriends. Each day is a new opportunity to weigh the value of our time and see where we are lacking and what is going to allow our lives to be an experience of enjoyable balance. The balance will always be different, depending on the day or where you are in life. Sometimes the most challenging balance to find is the one that allows us to find time to ourselves.

Try to make a plan to balance all of the factors in your life to provide time for yourself. Time is the most delicate balance. There needs to be time to develop your talents and interests to be the best version of yourself. This action is not selfish but a part of achieving the balance of body, mind, and spirit. Spend some time every day doing what you desire to do. That will allow you to have more substance to offer the people that matter in your life. You create this with your choices every day.

Be Well Balanced

Just like riding a bike, the movement allows for balance to be Balanceachieved and maintained. When you stop moving toward balancing your life, you fall. What was once natural now is impossible. The way to keep moving is to be conscious of the balance in your life continually. Is there enough of everything you need? Are you shortchanging yourself in who you are with and what you do? Set daily goals for where you will spend your time, and then make these things happen. It is in the steps we take to achieve anything that the actual enjoyment of life lies. That is true in finding balance or becoming a millionaire. It is the journey that provides value to the experience of reaching the destination.

It is easy to try to stay in a place of enjoyment and recreate that happiness continually, but life doesn’t work like that. There is another day with new challenges and new demands. Life will throw unseen things at you, changes, challenges, and a need for further action will come your way. So when you get a moment that you love, enjoy it fully, then place it aside and enjoy the next experience just as thoroughly. Keep the bicycle of your life moving forward by moving the pedals with your intentions and interests. Life will do its best to put you off balance because we grow in these moments.

Living a Balanced Life

There are things in life we can control and things we can’t. Balance is often achieved most easily when we realize which items fall into each of these categories. The things we can control need our focus and thought for concentrated direction. Because what they turn out to be for us is on us alone. We don’t own things should get very little of our conscious attention because we can’t make any changes there. They are what they are. We, of course, have to deal with them, but wasting effort worrying about them will not allow for balance.

Make your choices count and evaluate every thought today, putting them in the categories of things I can control and things I can’t control. Then move toward them appropriately. The weather is not something any of us can control. We can control how we deal with it. You can change your plans or dress appropriately for what is coming. You will find a balance in focusing on the part of a challenge that you can control.

Seek balance in all that you do today and put your conscious thoughts, words, and actions. Seek to maintain the harmony and rhythm that life naturally gives you through a conscious choice of balance. Please do this in the thoughts you choose, the corresponding emotions, the words we use, and the actions we take. The balance will be the reward.

Balance in Life Quotes

“No person, no place, and nothing have any power over us, for ‘we’ are the only thinkers in our mind. When we create peace and harmony and balance in our minds, we will find it in our lives.”~ Louise L. Hay

 

21

Soul Seek

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It has been one of my basic philosophies of life for me to try to find improvement.

The search within provides answers

every day mentally, physically, and spiritually. In this pursuit, I am only looking for a small increment of growth. We can measure physical gains in workouts, strength, body weight, or any other objective measure. Mentally, we grow as we increase our base of knowledge and experience. Reading new books, being exposed to new ideas are going to allow us to find growth in this area. It is in the spiritual realm things are much more challenging to measure. Our spirits are perhaps the most significant part of who we are and what we feel about the world. We are never encouraged to find the meaning behind our journey. We are born with a mind to develop with thought and intellect, a body to carry us through all our adventures, and a soul to bring appreciation and emotional development to things. This emotion is our essence, which is unique to each of us. Seek the things which resonate with your inner self, and you will find all the things you need in life. Take some time every day to get to know your soul without interfering with the mind and its thought. It is a matter of focus and openness to do it.

Knowing Your Soul

Why do we create things? There are plenty of thoughts, art, and creativity in the world already, but still, all people in some way carry a need to be creative, and it is this force that is one of the expressions of the soul. Our soul came to the world to have this experience and to express itself in a way unique to you or me or anyone else. The process of creation not only provides our voice to the world but also.

Take time to create, and you will meet your soul

helps us get to know who we are inside. Each thought we express in words or images we create on canvas will inevitably be a lesson for us about what makes us happy and what we are here to contribute to the world. And this process is ongoing throughout the experience of life.

Most of us are inundated with information, entertainment, food, conversation, or other distraction, which takes away from knowing your soul. So many other messages come to us, which tell us how we should feel. We rarely take the time to understand what our soul needs or wants. But We will hear our soul. It is the subtle but persistent voice or feeling inside of us that is never wrong. You have to quiet the mind and still the body to hear it and understand how to communicate with this knowledge. Seek to create, and that creativity will guide you toward knowing yourself. Many creative endeavors fall short because the focus is on what others will think of the product rather than what it means to your soul. The positive things you create are the expression of your soul.

Connections

One human endeavor we all share is a search for links. We are hard-wired to connect with other people and share experiences. If you notice, most of the positive things in life are things shared with other people. What is the sense of doing beautiful things, going to exciting places, or gaining all the things you dream about if you don’t share it with someone else? The meaning, in the end, is that someone else sees us as we are and understands the beauty existing in us. I think each of us is looking for the experience of visiting our unique selves recognized and to do the same for someone else. That is a connection.

We also connect to places in our experience. Nature provides many of these locations where you can go and experience more than what is there on the surface. For example, you can be sitting on a bench on the shore of a lake, but then you start to be aware of the good things around you, water moving, sun shining, and reflecting on the surface of the water. The breeze was gently blowing and bringing the coolness of relaxation. Suddenly you are fully connected to the experience, and you are not at a lake, but you are a part of that thing. It is in these moments your soul is talking to you. Are you wise enough to listen? Are you intrigued enough to try to know your soul and seek its voice and guidance? The wisdom you acquire and the ultimate success you experience in life depends on this. Pure joy resides in your soul.

The True Joy

Life is full of things to take away our awareness. We all have, at one point, had a dream about something we wanted to accomplished, places we wanted to go, or things we wanted to create. People who follow through with these things are those we ultimately see as significant. Most do not follow through, allowing confusion and distraction to take their focus away from the goal. Setting an intention that resonates with you and then taking action will bring movement toward making that thing a reality. No road is smooth and straightforward because we learn nothing that way, and the value of what we create is often paid for in perseverance.

That is the ultimate success and joy in life. To set your mind on something and to pursue it with determination and focus, which can only come from the depths of your soul, which is who you are. Putting aside the mass media messages of what we should look like, where we should live, and how we should feel and embrace our person. In each of us, that person is perfect. The view of that gets skewed and distorted in life. Some turn to drugs, some turn to logic, some roll away and never seek their soul. Pure joy is allowing your soul to grow and express your true self. Seek to know your soul, and you will find this joy. You have to get your mind working well and the world out of the way to do it.

Getting Your Mind Out of the Way

I think that we have been conditioned backward in our experience. All of our development and education focus has been based on what we believe and become more intelligent in our beliefs. With each thought you choose to entertain, we have a corresponding emotional response based on our personal experience and conditioning. We can try to control our thoughts, and that will lead to our emotional experience. However, I think the opposite is true and more productive. Focus on the feelings you want to have, and they will come with automatic thoughts attached to them based on your conditioning and experience.

The power of this is that you can focus on the positive emotions you want to experience in your life, and they will bring with them the bucket of thought, which is related to that positive emotion. Choose the feeling you would like to have and see how the reviews you think are almost involuntarily positive. The sense of belonging, being loved, comfort, happiness, and joy are all in your experience, waiting to be felt and positively charge your life.

One of the benefits of learning to meditate is to get your mind to be quiet, and in that quiet moment, you can feel your soul and the direction it needs you to take. Don’t tryDon’tverthink this, because thought will only get in your way. It is the process of learning to read and trust our instincts, which will be your best and most accurate guide.

Know The Soul

Look to know your soul. I know people of high intellectual capacity who are afraid to look for the soul because they don’t see the value. They tend to be slaves to their emotions and wonder why their feelings are what they are. Take time today, and get to know your soul. I think sometimes I learn more sitting by the ocean in silence for a few moments than I ever learned in years of study in organized educational experiences. When you create, don’t what others will think, how accepted it will be, or if anyone else will understand. Authentic expression is from within and is to speak your truth. That is your soul. That is you.

Create today in some small way, recognize it is to express yourself and share that person with the world. Knowing your soul seems to be the only way to bring the things in your life that will genuinely make you happy. Music is the language of the soul, and the songs we connect with speak to a part of our soul. Please get to know yourself and what resonates with you, and the world will be a better place for it.

“The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good when you are near or with them.” -Charle Bukowski

“The living soul of man, once conscious of its power, cannot be quelled.” Horace Mann

“A beautiful woman delights the eye; a wise woman, the understanding; a pure one, the soul.” Minna Atrim

“If only our eyes saw souls instead of bodies, how different our ideals of beauty would be. Beauty attracts heart, but character attracts soul.” 

21

A Problem

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Sometimes we forget how much control we have in our journey.

When I was growing up, I knew who I was and what I wanted to stand for. There were certain core principles in life I knew were “good,” and I wanted to practice, and there were things that were “bad,” and I wanted to stay away from those. Life changed that boy and clouded his judgment, making the lines of what was “good” and “bad” become cloudy in his mind. The programming I received through experience, peers, society, institutions, and family members made me think my original thoughts were wrong. I naturally valued honesty, kindness, fairness, truth, love, showing courage, and being the best person I could be.

Those things were not always looked at positively and fit in; I pushed much of my best self to the background to lie dormant for years. Until one day, I realized how unhappy I was with how life was going. Through a lot of soul searching, reading, and questioning, I began to realize that my choices were the problem. I had chosen to move from my authentic self to a person who wanted to “fit in.” That compromise cost me much, but it wasn’t too late. I could make conscious decisions about my priorities, which would allow me to return to the person I was as a child. That was a conscious choice and led to raising my consciousness about all aspects of life that will lead to growth. Here are some factors anyone can align themselves with to become their best self.

Finding Truth

Being truthful is difficult and often painful. The conscious choice to accept your truth will be one of the most freeing things you ever experience. What others will think of you stop many of us from expressing our realities to the world. Express your truth anyway. For me, it is about realizing there is a conscious choice in how we treat others and ourselves, and we make it every day. I like people, but I am uncomfortable in crowds. Unless I make a conscious effort, I am very judgmental of others. I am prone to be harmed by extending help to others. I have made bad relationship choices in my life.

Seeing reality for what it is and not through a lens of what things mean is truth. It will allow you to escape the expectations of others and embrace who you are and who you want to be. Most of us are living a lie created by our programming. To embrace who we are as honest and truthful. Embrace it with both arms.

Create Love in Your Life

Love is one of the healthiest things in the world. It is an emotion, but more importantly, love is a verb that dictates the positivism you bring into your life and the world around you. More than just a romantic feeling with one other, love is built in the way you interact with the world and feel about yourself in each moment. To become comfortable with who you are, where you are in life and where you want to go is the more significant aspect of love.

We live in a world that pushes us to be superficial in our thoughts and actions. Put those things aside and pursue what makes you feel positive about yourself, and others will allow the love inside you to shine out to others. Some will accept it; some are so negative they will run from it. Let them that is their choice; you can only choose to love for yourself. Deeper connections with other people can only happen when both parties are looking for them. Love is a verb, a compilation of your actions in life. Love who you are and be the best person you can be.

You Create Your Life

I think we dismiss the power we each have to create almost anything in our lives. All people can see something they want in their minds, from love to wealth to fame or whatever you might like to create for yourself. Yet, we let the same spirit that can help us make these dreams, push negative thoughts onto us, and stop us from creating anything of value. Test it out. Look at a time when you have an inspiring idea. You have about five minutes of positive excitement before you start the flood of thought, telling you why you can’t do what you dream.

It’s too hard. Too expensive. Unrealistic. Nobody would buy it. You don’t have the talent. Nothing you do ever turns outright. All of these things and worse will rise in your mind, and if not dismissed consciously, they will stop you from pursuing what you want. You have the power to choose the thoughts you want to focus on consciously. You can build the motivation and discipline needed to accomplish anything. It starts with aligning yourself with this power by acting on it every day. Do what you must to chase your dream. Your dream will soon be chasing you.

Pursue Conscious Growth

It is a simple plan to find the principles that resonate with you and be true to them in your life. If they are absolute truth, love, power, unity, robustness, courage, and intelligence, then your life will take off in the direction you choose. If you decide to ignore these things and consciously or unconsciously select selfish, negative thoughts that do not represent your best self, life will be far less enjoyable.

I know because I have allowed the unconscious selfishness of my thought to run my life for too long. When I focus on the truth of my life and what I need to create to find the essential things of value and produce practical actions and show love to myself and the world, my life is a pretty great place to be.

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” Albert Einstein

“Consciousness is the stone that creates the waves in a sea of nothing.” Richard Gerber

“Through consciousness, our minds have the power to change our planet and ourselves. It is time we heed the wisdom of the ancient indigenous people and channel our consciousness and spirit to tend the garden and not destroy it.” Bruce Lipton

“Consciousness is only possible through change; change is only possible through movement.” Aldous Huxley

“There is no birth of consciousness without pain.” Carl Jung

 The Problem

21

Organize

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Organize- arrange into a structured whole; order.

One of the best things a person can do to make your life more functional and smooth is to find a system of organization that works for you. It will be different than anyone else because you are a unique individual, and what you need to have organized is different than others. Finding a system that accentuates your positives and helps you manage the difficulties can make you more efficient and your life more enjoyable. It begins with conscious thought about your life, what you need to organize better, and managing projects. It starts with awareness of your dreams, emotions, words, and actions today.

Organizing Your Physical Space

We live in a world that encourages us to collect things. Most of us are pretty good at managing but not so great at organizing the stuff we have gathered into our lives. When there is no organization in your physical being, then it is hard to have an organization in other areas that are important to your conscious awareness. The material is related to the mental and spiritual parts of your life. So clarifying one place is going to benefit you in other areas as well.

Energy goes with an organization; it is a feeling of being streamlined and efficient. Once space clears, there is room for more to come into your life. Organizing your physical space is a great way to start typing your whole life. Some would say that things are just too messy and have always been that way. I say that the way to tackle any big job is a little bit at a time. Do a little bit every day, and soon you will have a handle on your organization. It is a mentality that we develop the standards we will accept. Organize your physical space, and you will begin to thrive.

Organize your Schedule

We are all given the same number of hours in the day, but some people take better advantage of theirs. Proper use of time is done by focusing on scheduling your activities into a time frame and being disciplined in following it. Once you devote the time you have allotted to the things that will be productive and follow that, those things will start to flourish. Making a proper schedule involves balancing work, thought, fun, and adequate rest.

Each day doesn’t have to be scripted out by the minute, but it does have to be scripted in general if you want to get any consistency out of it. People are natural routine seekers. Get a routine that works, and you will be more likely to follow a schedule and get more of what you want to accomplish done. The discipline of action is more natural if you have a plan to follow every day. Organize your time, and you will get the most out of every day.

Organize your Mind

Now we come down to the actual creation of higher consciousness. It is organizing your thoughts. We all have a brain that is continually producing a non-stop reel of study into our heads. Most of what we think is repetitive and not helpful. Left on its own, our minds would move randomly from one thing to the next. Fortunately, we can watch our thoughts. We are not the mind; a brain is a tool that we control, and with organization and observation, we can think better and achieve more.

By focusing on our thoughts and evaluating the usefulness of each, we can organize our minds into more productive tools. We can hold only one thought in our consciousness at a time, so choosing beliefs that are beneficial to you and your existence will allow more success. If you need to improve your thoughts, then expose your mind to new sources of knowledge. Read books about subjects that interest you, and your thoughts will become more powerful. If you spend your time learning about things that will make you more money or more successful, your thoughts will move in that direction.

Organize for Success

Take some time today and honestly assess where your life can currently use some organization. Then make a plan to organize it. What would it take to become more organized? What actions could you take right now to improve? What great things will happen when you do organize physically, your schedule, or your mind?

The answers to these questions should be intriguing to you and lead your thoughts toward actions that will make you happier and more successful. Once you have an organization in your life, you are not tripping over things all the time, both physically and metaphorically. The key is to start to be conscious of the organizational needs in your life. Then start thinking thoughts of organization, noticing the corresponding emotions, the words you speak, and the actions that become more organized. It all begins by becoming more aware of how you organize your life.

“Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity” ~ Albert Einstein.

“The best way to get something done is to begin.” ~Author Unknown

“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time is to say ‘I don’t want to.’ “~ Lao Tzu

 

21

Balance

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When you break your life down and put all of your activities into a category, all things we do can be placed in the body, mind, or spirit group. Each of these areas makes up the three sides of your person and your life. It is the great challenge of living to learn to develop a balance between these three areas. Taking care of and strengthening your body in physical fitness through some healthy diet and exercise, continually improving your mind through education, and developing your soul through creative activities and the way you treat the world and its people, including yourself. When you look at your life at any point, the times you are close to achieving a balanced life in all three areas are the good times. Of course, life is continually throwing things at you to force you out of balance, so you have to learn more, develop your body differently, or change your perspective on your soul. It is like standing on a skateboard while life is throwing rocks at you. Development is not an easy path but one we are all on, even if we are not consciously aware of it.

Continual Search for Fitness

Fitness is a goal for everyone. Even though we live in a society that seems determined to undermine any of our health-related goals, all people have an inner desire to be in shape. Most wish it would happen magically by taking a pill, but we all know that is not the way it works. Although we all have the desire to be in shape, we see it as stern and distant. When you are overweight, it is straightforward to give up. But don’t! A life of better physical fitness is simple to accomplish, but of course, it is not easy. Put a consistent exercise program in your life and learn to eat a healthier and more proportionally appropriate diet.

Exercise doesn’t have to involve a gym, an expensive online program, or even cost you any money at all. It can be as simple as walking for about 30 minutes a day, five times a week. You can lift weights, do yoga, run, bike, row, paddle, swim, hike, or any other thing getting your body off the couch and moving around. A consistent commitment to physical activity will be the first step in living at a healthy weight. Of course, there are benefits to your entire body. Diet is much the same. To me, portion control is critical. Don’t eat for any other reason than when you are hungry. Eat less food that is processed and more that is natural. It can be as simple as eating more fruits and vegetables. It isn’t complicated; your body will do what you program it to do and be as large or as small as you train it to be. Anyone can do it. A healthy body is a base for a healthy life because this is where your mind and soul reside.

Your Greatest Weapon

The ability to think is the most excellent tool to create any life we choose. Like a computer, the mind creates a program to guide your life. It is estimated we think somewhere around 70,000 thoughts a day. That is amazing until you realize that only between 3-5% of those thoughts are original, and the rest are all repeats, the same thing we think every day. If you look at your life, are there things you do every day without real thought? A routine you follow or a habit you have that you follow almost unconsciously? We all do because routines are great tools to allow us to accomplish many of our daily tasks. I know my workouts would not be possible without routines. Original thought is the key to mental growth, and we are responsible for this.

Changing your thoughts and developing your mind happens by introducing new information into your experience and reading new books, watching educational videos, and having conversations with people allow you to build your brain. It is estimated the bulk of our mental programming took place before we were seven years old as we tried to figure out how the world works and how we fit in it. Too often, limiting beliefs about money, love, and health were developed then and continue to rule our lives now even though they are not valid. We should evaluate the ideas we follow and how they affect our self-esteem and belief in ourselves. All opinions can change with a bit of effort, and the power of this is you can accomplish the things you always dreamed of doing.

Living from Inside Out

Too often, I have looked for happiness and fulfillment from things on the outside. A relationship, a success in my professional life, how someone treated me, or how life’s circumstances were playing out. The problem with this is that when you look to things and people outside of yourself for happiness, you are at the mercy of those things. You have given all of your power away to something you have no control over. The good news is that it is a minor adjustment to start looking inward for the things that will give your life meaning and bring you a life of joy and enjoyment.

Inside each of us is a creator. Bringing something into the realm of the physical world, which once only existed in your mind, is a magical thing. Some write, paint, draw, and create artwork out of scrap metal; whatever it is you feel called to make, do that. Not for recognition or money, but to express the inner light and love you carry inside. Creativity will bring you home to who you are and allow you to understand your soul’s calling, understand yourself, and hopefully find some form of self-love. We are not encouraged to seek our soul song because it often contradicts the script we learn we should be following. Get an education, get a job, have a family, work for 30 years, retire, and then wait to die. Life is more than this, and we are each more than this. Accept who you are and know your inside greatness, and the outside expectations will matter much less.

How is Your Triangle?

Now it is up to you to look at your life and see where your triangle of body, mind, and spirit is today. It is alright if you are not where you ideally want to be because we are all on a journey. Each of us is moving toward something. I have heard it said we are either in a crisis, coming out of trouble, or moving toward crisis all the time. Through all of these journeys lie the opportunities to develop ourselves and learn about the things we love to do and the ideas which make us happy. No two people are the same, and it is in these differences we find the things only we can bring to the world. Yet, we are all connected in our journey as we all seek the same things in life. To enjoy the experience of living aims to balance your body, mind, and spirit. It is a constant journey to find the balance which will bring us fulfillment. No two people are going to have the same ratio of body, mind, and spirit. But we all gain equal value in the pursuit of it. Enjoy the ride.

“The key to keeping your balance is knowing when you’ve lost it.” Anonymous

“You can maintain a work-life balance even while pursuing careers.” Chanda Kochhar

“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” Dolly Parton

“It is better to rise from life as from a banquet – neither thirsty nor drunken.” Aristotle

 

21

Spirit

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How often do you look after your spirit? Most of us focus on our mental capacity and physical prowess, but the third leg of the powerful human triangle of life is the spirit, which people mostly ignore. The soul is the intangible part of your existence, determining a lot about who you are and how you deal with other people and, more importantly, yourself and your world.

This is the part of you that believes or denies a higher power in the universe and determines how you approach each day. Is there a grand plan? Are we just individual organisms, randomly existing and experiencing life? All of this and more is determined by your spirit and sits in that very personal possession called a soul. It is my challenge today to be aware of the choices you make in life and how they affect your soul and, of course, your spirit. Use your thoughts, words, and actions to become more aware of nourishing your confidence and enhancing your energy. Or, conversely, how you can do things to harm it.

Religion vs. Spirituality

Some folks choose to rely on the organization of faith to develop their spirit. This practice requires you to listen to the ideas of others and accept them as your own. Following another’s an interpretation of the world. It also describes what God is and how you should worship. There are all types of religions, and each has its dogma, rules, and history. But in the end, no matter what religion resonates with you, it is still someone else’s interpretation of God you are following, and thus you are not in control of how you view your spirituality. In my view, if an organization preaches separateness, it does not have the best interest of your spirit in mind. They want to control you for some reason. Usually for money.

Spirituality is how you choose to relate to a higher power based on your personal experience and thoughts. It is my view that I don’t need a religion to control my thoughts or my spiritual growth. A relationship with the universe (God) is a personal choice. I choose to be responsible for my own decisions and look for guidance from a higher power. When you look at the world, either you see a whole lot of wonder or a whole lot of mess. The health of your spirit results from this view. One of the things that I am sure of is that we are all connected through a higher power. It is in each of us, and our experiences, intelligence, and openness determine how aware we are of this phenomenon. The health of our spirit is determined by our connection to others and the world around us that we are conscious of the day today.

Enhancing Spirit

There is within us all a version of our being, which is our best self. The part of us does the right thing, helps others, and leaves the world a better place after our time here has passed. Our best self reveals itself when we put the well-being of others in front of our interests—giving of our time and effort more than our money to someone or something. This type of spirit makes the world a better place. Making choices that benefit everyone and everything is seeking your best self. This path is not as easy as it sounds.

Since this is so difficult to do, we get help to find our best selves. Our spirit is either enhanced or limited by the people we choose to associate with in our adventures. Each of us is continually given guides in our lives. They provide thoughts and attitudes, and our choice to listen, follow, or disregard what they say and do will help determine our spiritual health. If they are positive and enhance your existence, you will grow and feel good. If they are on the negative side and limit you, you will have negative emotional feedback. Look for the positive influences of other people to feed your spirit.

The third influence on your healthy spirit is how you choose to view a divine presence. Is there a God? Do they influence your life? How do you see this divine presence in life? Understanding how a divine presence works in your life if at all, will help your spirit. Each of us is naturally going to look at this differently, and that is ok. There is more than one way to see things.

Don’t Limit Your Spirit.

The factors that will limit the development of your spirit are limiting beliefs and the people who try to build them. Each of us has a lifetime of interactions with others. The messages they give us that we accept determine what we believe about the world and ourselves. It is vital to choose beliefs that honor you because these will lead to thoughts that honor you, which will lead to words that keep you and, of course, actions that observe you.

All of us have let beliefs push us in directions that are less than honorable. We have to accept responsibility for this. To develop our spirit and have a healthy emotional journey, we need to evaluate our beliefs and how they honor us continually. If you have limited confidence in your abilities and life, then your experience will be limited. I would never tell you what to believe, but I would urge you to seek the spirit that honors you and all of those you meet. Only you can decide for yourself what that is and how to honor yourself and your life. Remember, Our spirit connects our physical and mental selves; a healthy heart will bring a healthy and happy life.

Creativity lets your spirit run free. Create whenever you can from the soul.

“It is in the balancing of your spirituality with your humanity that you will find immeasurable happiness, success, good health, and love.” ― Steve Maraboli.
Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.― Cicero
“A further sign of health is that we don’t become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it’s time to stop struggling and look directly at what’s threatening us.” ― Pema Chödrön.
“If we are creating ourselves all the time, then it is never too late to begin creating the bodies we want instead of the ones we mistakenly assume we are stuck with.” ― Deepak Chopra.

“So be good with what you’re given
For it’s all you have to give
We are only passing shadows
In the mighty wind.”

 

21

A List

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Each of us has things that purpose is driving us to do. It may be a new job, end a relationship, start a relationship, lose weight, finish a project, or change the world. One of the most challenging things to do to accomplish anything is actually to start the project. Once you start, there is no telling what may happen, but at least at the end of it, you will know. To start is a simple process we develop that makes sense. You may be able to use it for yourself. It sounds so simple to accomplish anything create steps to guide you on the way. Write down what you think the process should look like, step by step. Even if you are not sure, write it down.

The Start: Making the List

Starting to make a list can be the most challenging part of the process for several reasons. First, we all have fear inside us. A voice that tells us things will never work; we are stupid; it will never work out. This voice is your ego, trying to protect you from suffering. Of course, to start anything, these thoughts need to be put to the side, and the fear has to be released. Let each of your situations speak for themselves, allow the lessons they have for you to sink in, and the process begins simply by making a plan of the steps you logically think you will have to take to find success.

Start with the most straightforward part of the process. If you are looking for a new job, then step one is to create a list of possibilities for what you want to do. Not just one or two but ten different things that you might want to do for money. That is step one, putting them down on paper. If losing weight is your goal, create a list of things you can do that involve eating healthier and exercising more. List the steps that you believe you will have to take and then start at the beginning and accept them.

Evaluating the list and readjusting

Of course, you will not know everything right off the bat, and that is OK. That is a part of the learning process and of having a growth mindset. You are not going to know everything, and part of the fun is learning along the way. You can readjust, make changes, find out what works for you, and bring the results you want. Continual evaluation and adjustment will be necessary, and doing this should not be seen as a detriment.

The other type of mindset is a fixed mindset, and that is one where a person needs to know everything or at least pretends to. The person with a fixed mindset would instead continue on the wrong path rather than admit that they didn’t know what they were doing. A fixed mindset believes either you have the talent to do something or don’t, and effort should not be part of the equation. The aim is always a part of the equation. Fear of failure and others’ thoughts stems from possessing a fixed mindset and staying away from the growth mindset.

Start the Process

To begin with, we should always start with the most straightforward steps. Decide what you need and organize it most efficiently. Take action, evaluate, take another action, and then another. Get quiet and write down the logical steps you think you will have to take to do something. Then start taking action. The alternative is someplace I have been. In limbo, afraid to start and afraid to stay where you are. In that situation, you are just going to be scared. An action is a cure for fear always. Start the process and allow what is going to happen to exist.

Enjoy each step along the way and the adventure and learning that they bring you. Grow with them, and don’t be limited by a fixed outlook on yourself or the expectations you have about life. Your ultimate destination is not the value; it is the journey that provides the right stuff for you. The most challenging thing in the whole process is knowing what you want. Once you know that, you can begin to add that to your life through lists. And there is only one way to go, one step at a time, following your list.

“The list is the origin of culture. It’s part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order.”— Umberto Eco, renowned Italian author.

 

21

A Struggle

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Struggle- make aggressive or violent efforts to get free of restraint or constriction.

Life will never be comfortable all the time. If it were, people would never develop the skills they need to give their talents to the world. The struggle exists in all facets of our lives, both personally and professionally. It is human nature to want to avoid these obstacles because it would be more comfortable without them. But easy is not always right, and it is important to be thankful for the struggles we face because all of them bring an opportunity to become a better version of ourselves. There is a choice for us to let the battle we face dictate the action of our lives or to let our lives dictate how we defeat the struggle. It begins with being conscious of your efforts and the opportunity they are providing to you. Our growth starts with the thoughts, words, and actions to overcome these barriers, grow, and develop.

Struggles of Our Minds

Some of the biggest struggles we face in life are the ones we create in our minds. These are thoughts that we choose to believe, which limit our confidence in creating or achieving something. When you look at something that you would like to accomplish or experience, your mind will immediately produce a list of why you can’t do it. Most of these causes exist due to our negative programming from life. Family members, teachers, peers, and society, in general, have been telling us what they would like us to do since we were born. When we listen to these messages, they create a severe obstacle, how to be ourselves and fit into what others believe we should be.

Don’t let your mind limit you and stop you from trying. You may fail at something, but that will not be the end of the world. It is easy to think that an obstacle is too much to handle. It may not be easy and a stretch, but that can be a positive thing. New talents and skills will arise in you as you work to overcome the difficulties you face. These skills are the opportunity, like a blade sharpened against a stone. You become a sharper and more efficient weapon in life. Where going through life unchallenged and comfortable will lead to atrophy and waste. Don’t let your mind tell you that you can’t or you surely won’t.

The Struggle is Real

One of the first things to do is to learn to trust yourself and understand that no matter how big the problem you face, you will find a way to overcome it. These challenges can be complex because we are all so afraid of failing or what others will think of us when we are not perfect. We need to put all of those limiting thoughts aside and start solving the problem at hand. Whatever you are facing, it has entered your life, providing a great opportunity. Please focus on the issue, make a list of proper action steps that you can take, and then start taking them.

There will always be naysayers who don’t believe in you, but when given your free reign, you will find out that you are well on your way to a better version of yourself. These are just obstacles to your personal growth and ultimate success. Many try for a bit but give up and never know what they might have accomplished or what vital lessons they might have learned if they had only persevered through the difficulties.

Beat the Struggle

Having a plan makes accomplishing anything more realistic, and this general plan is an excellent place to start for you. First, you have to set a goal about what you want to accomplish by overcoming the struggle of life. Second, set up a clear and concise step by a step action plan for you to follow. Third, make sure you take consistent action every day. The move is the key to understanding how theories work and using them to overcome our challenges. Without taking action, nothing can happen. Once a person decides to take action, there is no limit to creating and accomplishing it.

It is time for you to stop being ashamed of the struggles and challenges you face or have faced in your life. The battle to overcome outside influences is real and challenging. However, defeating the fight inside our private world of thought provides the valuable life experience people need to become successful. Embrace all of the struggles and see it for what it is, relevant learning experiences applied realistically to your life.

Take a moment every day to be conscious of the struggles you face through your thoughts, words, and actions. What we see in our problems, either limits or opportunities, will determine our mindset and potential for success.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”- Frederick Douglass

“Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.”- Napoleon Hill

 

 

21

Allowing

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Positive Thought Project-

They are allowing– Permitting for things to move without resistance and evolving and growing naturally.

Life is a journey, and that is not just a cliche. It is a fact we live with every day of our experience in life. One of the human problems is that people always feel they have the best answers to issues and feel we must do something to achieve all of our goals in the most efficient manner possible. People obsess over the minute details of life and often don’t allow the natural path of growth to occur. Having a good work ethic can be a detriment because we learn that doing nothing is lazy and wrong. But sometimes, nothing is the exact right thing to do. Allow things to grow and develop into what they should be. Allowing is difficult because you have to trust that things will move as they should. It all starts with a conscious awareness of your thoughts surrounding a situation, the words you use to express the case, and the actions resulting from the problem.

You Can’t Force Things.

To see how allowing works, look at nature all around you. Trees, animals, plants, flowers, or anything that lives and grows all manage quite nicely without outside influence. No matter how intelligent you are or how much money you have, there is no way you can make a plant thrive. Each entity goes through its life cycle of development naturally, and all we can do is help where we can and allow it all to take its course. It makes you wonder where we should adopt this attitude in our own lives and allow for things to develop naturally in the best way possible.

People are very good at creating situations where there is a perception of control. But that control is only on the surface, and chaos is always only a second away. A loved one dies, an accident happens, you lose a job, a relationship ends, a relationship begins, or any other of the million things you can’t control or plan for happens. You realize you were never in control of anything in the first place. This experience is a scary realization, but also it is empowering when you realize all things are working, even without your input. Events are moving toward their inevitable conclusion and will grow or stop in how they were meant to occur. You are just a part of the plan, not the creator of that plan. That is a harsh realization for many people.

Lose the Grip of Control

As you look to take control of every situation in your life, realize that you have never been able to or will never be about to control the outcomes of life’s circumstances and manipulate them in the way you think benefits you. Things will all take place without the control and guidance of stuff they have no chance of working out as we wish them to, helping us. But do we have the vision to know what is in our best interest?

Often it seems that the tighter your grip on trying to control things stops them from progressing and growing as they naturally would for the benefit of all. We have a vision based on our beliefs and ideas of how things should go. But, if we let things play out as they should, we could receive benefits and great experiences we never thought of or imagined. It is hard for people to let things be and develop independently, but that is the only way to get a harvest. Please do what you can to help but allow the seeds to grow and produce as they are best capable.

Do You Know The Best Possible Outcome

It doesn’t matter if it is in business or personal relationships; you do not know the best possible outcome for any situation. You may think you know, but one thing I know for sure is that you don’t. Things may turn out exactly as you planned, but you will never know how much better they would have been had you allowed them to develop in their manner. A minor success could have been a home run, a life-changing event. The ultimate answer to a challenge you face could have materialized—all by allowing the solution to come rather than forcing it by having to be correct.

There are many different paths for a trip to reach its destination that no matter how much we plan, we will not be able to see them all. You have to develop trust with the Universe, God, the force, or whatever you choose to call the power behind life. Please make a choice you think is best, take action and let it grow in the best way it naturally can. We don’t have enough information to understand the best possible outcome of the battles we are fighting.

Acceptance is The Answer

Learn to develop patience with yourself that you don’t always have the best answer, and you are improving continually in life. Lessons will be available to you, and learning them is the growth that makes being an experience of value. Control is only an illusion that we can never attain, we can fool ourselves into thinking we can, but it is not real. Be open to what may be coming your way because it is what you need to experience at this moment.

Let go of the need to control and allow life and its things to develop around you. This is patience that wise people I have met seem to work with if not master. Things fall into place without much effort at all because that is their natural state. Don’t let fear and the worry it provides stop you from allowing things to happen. This journey is the flow of life, and letting go of the fear of not being in control is often the only thing you need to allow the best-case scenario to happen to you.

“You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.” ~ Brian Tracy
“The power is not in wanting but in allowing things to happen.”

 

 

21

Rebel

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I’m a Rule Breaker

As a human being living on the Earth, you are constantly bombarded with warnings from the time you are born until the time your life here ends. People tell you the rules and the tiny gray area, acceptable behavior and what is not. Some were designed to keep you physically safe, but many were designed to keep you from being original or standing out in any way.

Looking at all of those rules I have had stated, explained, written, and spelled out for me, I am here to urge you to do something dangerous. Please ignore all of the stuff you have been warned away from and break the rules because, in the end, that may be the only way you can find your true identity and create something great.

The Beginning of the Problem

When you are a child, the adults in your life are most often going to warn you about all of the “bad” things that could happen to you if you are not careful. Warnings about touching the stove, playing with fire, jumping out the window, or any other common-sense activity are more than likely going to fall on deaf ears anyway.

How many children have taken the warnings of imminent danger as a call for adventure? I know that many of my most lasting learning experiences resulted from just this type of situation. My parents always warned me about burning myself on the cigarette lighter in the car. That only led me to touch the cigarette lighter in the car when it was orange; you know what I learned? Please don’t do that. It hurts, and I never did it again. Experience is the most excellent teacher.

As I grew up, though, it seemed that other people wanted the adventurous spirit to leave me, and I started to take people’s word for things and started doing exactly what society expected of me because I wanted to fit in.

To hell with what you feel, go to school, get a job, buy a house, retire, then die. That is the appropriate life path we are taught. I was the right person, but I never had adventures and never did anything outside of my expectations. Things were safe, but they were not very interesting. I was more concerned with what other people thought of me than what I felt about myself. That is an equation that can’t exist forever.

Wake up before it’s too late

Much like being trapped in a dream, where you are falling, and you know you will wake up before you hit the ground, and even though your heart is beating fast, you know it wasn’t real. That is how life happens sometimes; a traumatic experience occurs, a death in the family, a loss of a job, divorce, or poverty. It causes you to experience a shift in your paradigm that changes you in profound and often beautiful ways. You, in effect, wake up and look at yourself and see that not only are you not living your dreams, but you have also forgotten what they were! This will lead you to realize that there must be changes.

Looking at the path, you have been following; you suddenly see that you are not yourself; you are not what you were born to be. You wake up and need answers. I think some look for help in unhealthy relationships, and some look for a chemical solution, but no matter your reaction, you know that just like when you left childhood things behind, you can’t go back to the way things were before. It would be like going back to the dream and completing the fall to your death. Not acceptable.

Why Are You Here?

You are not just here to fill up the space you are in. That would be a meaningless existence, and you are not just here to sleepwalk through your life. You are here to inspire, to teach, to change, to be an example. Life shouldn’t be taken as an opportunity to tell others the rules, what they should do, what they should not do. Life is an opportunity to be an example of what is true to you. Some will accept your life and get your message, while others will likely think you are crazy. There is someone out there that needs your unique personality and talents. Be that person!

You weren’t born to make a difference to everybody, but you are here to make a difference to somebody. Whoever that is, right now, is looking for your example of change, and it is up to you to provide it. You may never know just how many lives you touch, but that doesn’t make your impact any less critical. The rules of life will tell you where to work, how you should look, and what it is appropriate to say.

Most of the most significant accomplishments in the history of man were achieved by people who didn’t follow these types of constrained expectations. You are here for a purpose, find it, and then pursue it. If you are not sure, be yourself and see what happens.

Dare To Dream

I was once asked if I were to pursue anything that I wanted, what would that be? I realized that I was in deep trouble at that point because I didn’t have a dream. In my past, I was an empty vessel, like a marionette with someone else pulling my strings, a facade of a person. There was no burning desire, no call to greatness, and there was a loud and ominous……………nothing.

That was the beginning of my awakening because I believed life had to have more of a point than exist, spend money, and acquire things. I began to dream.

At first, just little dreams that I almost felt guilty about. Then as I continued to see the power that dreams possess and the strength that you can take from them, I started to have bigger plans. These dreams have become fuel. To search, share my thoughts, to search for a purpose to be a better person.

Many people are lucky enough to realize this power early in life, but some do not become aware until much later. Dare to dream. Whether you achieve your dreams or not should be a part of the adventure of life. The pursuit of a goal is often the real thrill anyway.

I was once told that if you never try, you will never know, and that is the case in following your dreams. The rules will tell you where you should go and what you should do. Your dreams will tell you where you want to go and what you want to do.

The One Person You Can Believe In

When it is all said and done, there is going to be one person that either always came through for you or ultimately let you down. That person is you. Believe in yourself, that you can do whatever it is you set out to do. There will be struggles and times of doubt that are part of being human. That doesn’t mean that you should stop trying to achieve or stop trying to reach for the greatness you dream about.

You have a light inside of you that is unique to you, and nobody else can touch it or take it away from you. Life often makes people forget their strength, as they allow bad experiences and bad luck to dictate their behavior. All of the should haves, would haves, could haves of life force people to doubt themselves and forget how great they are.

You can rediscover who you are, and your passion by not living up to a stereotype thrust upon you by others and creating a life that makes you happy. Ignore the so-called conventional, and follow your inner voice that knows exactly where you should be and what you should be doing. The rules will tell you to make as much money as possible, and you will be happy. The truth tells you to be as comfortable as possible, and it won’t matter how much money you have. Many wealthy people are depressed because it doesn’t fill your heart or nourish your soul no matter how much money you collect.

No matter what you decide to do in the end, if you at least consider breaking the rules of convention and following the path you should be on all along, the world will be a better place for it.

“Once you have your basics down, you can start breaking the rules. “- Author: Tom Colicchio

“I like breaking the rules.” – Author: Lexa Doig

“Breaking rules is indeed an important part of creativity. Innovation needs a level of guidance.” – Author: Pearl Zhu

“You don’t become a success by breaking the rules. You don’t become a success by obeying the rules. You become a success by inventing the rules.” – Author: Chloe Thurlow