Tag Archives: Conscious Choice

22

The Simple Choice You Can Make

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What is your Choice?

Each person makes a simple choice in their lives, ultimately defining the tenor and tone of their life and all the experiences in it. No person is exempt from this decision, and we make it daily in all we do. It is impossible to fake our decision because it is written in big, bold letters on our soul’s billboard. You can try to fool the outside world and pretend for a time about your thoughts, but eventually, the truth of your choice will be revealed to yourself, and of course, to the world. It is such a pervasive choice; you can see the answer in every person you meet and in each interaction you experience throughout your life. Are you ready to think about your choice? The decision is basic and straightforward. Do you choose to be happy? Or do you choose to be unhappy?

Seems Too Simple

I thought this was too simple a choice when I first was exposed to this thought. There are many more powerful decisions than this, but look at each person you know or have ever known, and their lives are a direct display of their answer.

Your happiness is a light to others, and your unhappiness is a pervasive wet blanket of doom.

About personal happiness. I have known people in challenging situations who have found it in their constitution to find a happy thought, even behind the pain. I have also known people who have very fortunate circumstances and manage to find unhappiness in every blessing in life. This is nothing more than a personal choice.

Where do you fit in your pursuit of happiness? Do you look for the positive? It is always there behind the darkness we face. Sometimes the dark seems so pervasive and complete that we also want to allow it to define us. The death of a loved one, the end of a relationship. Or any other thing we can define as unfavorable consumes us and become a part of our story. But it doesn’t have to be, and we determine the value of these things to us. Nobody will be happy about all the suffering in life, but you can suffer, learn lessons, and not let negativity define your life. That is the choice of being happy in life.

Look Around You

If you doubt this simple choice is before everyone in the world, look at all the people you encounter in your path. Not only will you see this choice in people’s actions, but you can also feel it. Most people make a clear essential choice on a subconscious level to live a happy life or not live a happy life. Fear is the factor robbing people of happiness in life. Fear of losing something, not getting something, of the suffering of all kinds, of the past, and course of the future. Fear is toxic to your happiness, and it is virtually impossible to be afraid and happy simultaneously.

You have this choice continually in your life. You can be unhappy with your job, family, current situation, or anything else in your experience. Spend your time worrying about a million things that probably will never happen, and if they did happen, most often, it isn’t the problematic tragedy built up in your mind. You can spend that time being grateful for what you have and enjoying the things that are good and a part of your life. A good joke at work, a kindness showed, something comfortable you have in life right now. The person deciding whether you are happy in your life or not is always going to be you. Could you take responsibility for it?

Not Blind Faith

I can hear the people’s thoughts determined to be unhappy right now. Not everything is going to make you happy. That is true; how can you be pleased about losing something you love? You can’t but how you deal with that loss is your choice. You can let it destroy you and change you into a life of continual unhappiness. When you are suffering, it is hard to maintain a cheerful countenance, which will always be the truth. However, there is always something in your life, a person, hopefully, who can bring out the best in you.

If you don’t want to consider this choice, then you have made your choice already, and the results of your life experience will reflect it. I encourage you to look at your option and take responsibility for how your life unfolds for you today and every day. I choose to have a positive thought process because choosing otherwise is counterproductive and seems like a choice for continual unhappiness. Some people may find wallowing in anger, sadness, jealousy, envy, selfishness, etc. I will choose love, kindness, joy, giving, gratitude, peace, and acceptance.

This is the choice you have been making your entire life; imagine what the world would be like if everyone chose to be happy in their lives. 

“If you want to be happy, be.”-  Leo Tolstoy

“If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more.”- Roy T. Bennett.

“You can only have bliss if you don’t chase it.”-  Henepola Gunaratana

“For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”-   Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We don’t laugh because we’re happy – we’re happy because we laugh.”-   William James

22

Making Choices

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 Conscious Choices 

Please don’t rely on scarecrows with hay in their heads to make choices. Do it consciously.

To make real choices in your life, first, you have to become fully conscious of the thoughts you entertain in your mind. Full consciousness is not easy to accomplish because our brains have been programmed throughout our lives to think a certain way and react almost unconsciously to certain stimuli. If you are responding to things in a patterned manner, then really, there is no choice, just patterned reactionary behavior. Today, one thought is to look at all of your preferences for only one day and ask yourself why you made that decision. Choice implies that we have a consciousness about us, so be aware of the thousands of options we make in a day and the repercussions of these decisions, big and small.

Conscious or Unconscious

It all begins when you seperate yourself from your thoughts. Too often, we have been conditioned to believe that we are our thoughts. An idea is only as accurate as we allow it to be. A  mind is a powerful tool, and it can help us solve complex problems and create positive situations, but it is just a tool, not who we are. What your thoughts for some time and notice their value; most are repeated ideas we have been thinking about for many years. But you don’t have to identify with them,

Be conscious and become aware or unconscious and unaware—your choice.

That is the real beginning of choice. You start to understand that you are not the mind, but the person behind the account who uses the tool to create your life.

The choice begins here. Once we realize we are not our thoughts, we become present in the moment. We are no longer compelled to react in a patterned response from a conditioned mind. Think out how often we try to recreate what we are familiar with because the brain likes comfortable. Your conscious is delighted with the known. Whereas the unknown is a hazardous and fearful experience because we feel there is no way to control it.

All real choices are made in the present moment with an understanding of the pros and cons of each moment and making a decision based on how it will affect your life. Not how  he past has gone, or what you imagine may go wrong tomorrow. Make choices based on the day’s feelings, thoughts, and possibilities. The option is not a reaction, and it is a conscious decision to act, not act or create.

Your Choices Define You

No matter if you are operating on a conscious or unconscious level, you will be defined by the choices you make. Are you resented by love or fear? When you make the decisions of love, the resulting feelings will be overwhelmingly good. If your choices are coming from fear, then bad feelings will result. These fundamental decisions are going to define you every moment. Look at your thoughts, which take your focus. Are they anchored in

Your choices will identify you and the kind of person you are in the world.

The past? Or centered on  what might happen in the future? The only moment that matters now.

Pull your thoughts into this moment and what is happening in your life right now. That is the one thing you are guaranteed at this moment. Either you find the joy in it or the pain, which is the natural choice we are making every moment. Life is a short ride, and the only thing you are guaranteed is that it will end at some point. At that moment, how do you want the choices you make today to look? Are you making decisions based on what is favorable for you? Or are you making choices you feel others will accept? Options that are safe and in accord with the programming from your past? Decisions that you can’t second-guess? Or are you making choices based on the present moment and who you are as unlimited potential? Too often, for me, this is not the case.

Today’s Choices

Take time today and be aware of where you are honestly in this life journey. Make choices of w at type of person you want to be, and then choose to take action from that frame of mind. Efforts in this a a will take you to the experiences you need to become the best version of yourself possible. Look at all your c ices and understand what direction they are pushing you. If they don’t make you better, it is time to start making different choices. The incredible thing about life is that it is never too late to take another direction and begin to become a better version of yourself. It will happen one c conscious choice at a time.

 “Your life changes the moment you make a new, congruent, and committed decision.” —Tony Robbins

 “Life presents you with so many decisions. A lot of times, they re right in front of your face, and they’re really difficult, but we must make them.” —Brittany Murphy

“We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.” —Stephen Covey

 “Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.” —Keri Russell

 

22

Things I learned From Meat Loaf

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Things I Learned Listening to Meat Loaf

meat loaf
This sage has taught many valuable life lessons

A few years ago, I was driving down the road with my best friend of forty years when the song “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” y Meat Loaf came on the radio.

We laughed and said how stupid the song was, but then almost without our conscious choice, we were singing along loudly and we both knew all of the words to that song. Two dudes in their mid-forties who obviously had too much time on their hands as adolescents.

As we talked about the song and the message that it sends, I started to realize that there was a reason that some people of our generation (me) have a difficult time with relationships because we spent our adolescence listening to Meat Loaf, building up some quite unreal and pretty unhealthy expectations of ourselves and what we should look for in relationships.

In a different conversation with another friend I realized that I knew the words to every song on Meat Loaf’s Bat out of Hell Album. A fact that I am neither proud or ashamed of, but in awe. As I listened to each song for the first time in years, the lessons from the songs came back. These meatloaf lessons were hard-hitting and impactful. Like I was my seventh grade self again.

This is what I learned from listening to Meat Loaf when it comes to relationships. R ember, I listened to this music as an impressionable teenager and this is the top  things I learned about life from this talented musician.

***Bat Out of Hell Notes***

  • The Pyre can be burning, even on the edge of ice field and somewhere there is a tank full of time.
  • Heaven can in fact wait.
  • Long ago and far away was so much better than it is today.
  • There is no paradise by the dashboard light
two out of three aint bad
Math would tell us that two out of three is kind of bad, Unless you play baseball for a living.
  • If you have trouble with an answer, then you should sleep on it before you decide to give an answer in the morning about loving someone forever.
  •  Having promiscuous sex in a car is going to lead to a life time of regret and have you praying for the end of time so that you can escape a bad relationship. On the good side, keeping  your word is important regardless of the consequences.
  •  Being all revved up is no good if you don’t have someplace to go, especially on a Saturday night.
  • Don’tlook for gold on a sandy beach, don’t drill for oil on city streets or a ruby in a mountain of rocks they will lead you to frustration. Just play the lottery.
  • Crying icicles is worse than crying tears
  • There ain’t no Coupe de Ville at the bottom of my Crackerjack box.
  •  If you keep on telling someone you want them, you need them, but there ain’t no way you are ever gonna love them. They will eventually accept it as a pretty good deal.
  • I am in fact glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife
  • It is cold and lonely in the deep dark night, but as long as you listen to baseball you will be OK
  •  Just because it never felt so good or felt so right doesn’t mean it will end up good or right.

**** two out of three is in fact, quite bad, if you only do 66% of your work, you will flunk at school or get fired from your job, you will be seen as a failure, so Meat Loaf was wrong and Jim Steinman was not a math major or very motivated apparently.

Gratitude

Thank you Meat Loaf for all of the great life lessons you taught us on your educational and entertaining album Bat Out Of Hell, I am grateful and I am sure my whole generation is currently dealing with your relationship “advice.”

There are certain things that time will make nostalgic and music from your youth will allow you to travel to a simpler time. List n to Bat out of Hell when you have a moment, and as you uncontrollably sing along,  think about how messed up the lyrics are. You will understand suddenly why you have a problem committing in a relationship today.

THANK YOU, MEAT LOAF

21

Destiny

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Destiny- the hidden power believed to control what will happen in the future; fate.

DestinyThere are always going to be questioned in people’s minds. Why is this happening? Why did that occur? Why this experience? Are there forces at work in our lives that we have little control over?  Do we have a destiny, or is life all about free will?  Or both?  Questions are the tools of all thinking people searching for answers. They guide our minds toward solutions and actions.  Whether you believe every person has a destiny or not is irrelevant to me because we all have a destination. Whether you are fated to get there or not is a matter of semantics because you will get there.  Your life will be full of challenges, changes, and choices you will have to make. Each one is propelling you toward other challenges, transitions, and options. This cycle will continue in a loop until the end of your time.

Each of these decisions you make and experiences you have to change you, your outlook, and the skills others have with you.  So do you control these choices, or does it come from the Universe?  Just contemplating this situation will increase your consciousness. It all starts with you taking a moment and looking at your thoughts, words, and actions today as you determine the extent of your experiences.

 Choices of Destiny

Why does one person become a wild success and another a failure? I think it has very little to do with what is destined to happen and more to do with our reaction to situations and the choices we make.  To believe that only one destiny is available would seem to take away the joy of growth and learning.  Who is to say that there are not two or three or a million different destinies available to us and how we react to the challenges we face determines where we land.  Each day we are faced with the simple choice to accept where we are or to do something different.  To be a positive force in the world we live in or harmful.

You will be responsible for the place you are in right now. Situations are out of our control. How we react to them is our choice always, and the definition of your life is the result.  Losing a job, ending a relationship, a natural disaster, or the sudden death of a loved one are all examples of things happening out of your control.  How you have reacted to these things defines your life today.  Good, bad, or indifferent.  It wasn’t the events that created this destiny, it was your choices and resulting beliefs developed because of them.  You are free to choose something else at any time.

Create Your Destiny

What is it that you want in life? Would you like a more fulfilling relationship? To have more money? To have an exciting career? What is it that interests you?  Knowing that will help guide your choices when facing the challenges life will inevitably present you. Many people have no clear desire or destination in life, so their reactions to challenges are emotional and inconsistent.  In the words of Lewis Carroll, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

Your destiny can be the result of a series of conscious choices, or it can be the result of your unconscious meandering.  Having a clear idea of what you would like to have in your life will allow you to take the right road and take responsibility for those choices. Don’t hide behind the false wall of pity. No hero’s story was ever built with the boards of self-pity and fear.  Be brave, be responsible for your choices, and know where you would like to go. Picture your desired destination and take actions that most likely move you in that direction. That is your true destiny.

Be a Hammer, Not a Nail

I was once taught there are two choices in life, and at different times we are the experiencers of both: Be a hammer or a nail.  That means you are either the provider of forces influencing the events around you. Or you are the instrument being influenced by the power of situations, other people, or whatever else you allow to control you.  You have the choice in most cases where you fall into this relationship.

Sometimes, we will be the nail no matter what we do.  Accept the situation, be responsible for your part, and look for ways to influence the direction of things from that point. You will face challenges in life, and they are opportunities for growth, accomplishment, and finding your destiny.  Accept the challenge with courage and character, and you will find the lesson in the problem more quickly.

It all starts with a more engaged consciousness, a thought, and focused action. Look at your thoughts, and they determine the words you speak and result in your efforts.  It is your destiny; take control of it today.

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves. It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.”

“Love is our true destiny. I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny is no matter of chance.”

 

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

Questions

The Time Is Right for Right

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When is it time to stop calculating risk and rewards and just do what you know is right?

by Jonathan Hilton  Day 25

when_is_it_time_to_stop_calculating_risk_and_rewards_and_judt_do_what_you_know_is_rightIt seems that everybody in the world operates on a risk and reward model on which they base their actions on the chance of being rewarded or punished for the outcome of their actions.

Yet I say that the time is always right to act regardless of the risk or reward and this is why.

Right Makes Now The Right Time

All people make mistakes and have to regroup and learn lessons from those mishaps. Yet when it comes to right behavior, it is the responsibility of each individual to make a choice, and that choice is going to color your experience.

Martin-Luther-King-Jr-The-time-is-always-right-to-do-what-is-right-Framed-Quote-709 If you know something to be right and refuse to act still, the hesitation can only be defined as wrong.  What repercussion could be more devastating than making a conscious choice to not do the right thing.

There may be a price to pay when this happens but the price that you pay by not acting is much worse because it will affect your life in a negative way.

Many people believe that the energy that you emanate is created by the choices you make.  I tend to believe that in my own experience there is no wrong time to tell the truth or to do the right thing.

Any time I have failed to do these things, and I have failed often, the results were not favorable. Now is the time to stop calculating the cost and do what you know is right.

This Is What Lying Is

Isn’t this question the reason anybody ever lies? The risk and reward of truth vs a lie is the careful scale that every thought and statement is weighed on before we speak or record it to share with someone else.

I was once told that it is nearly impossible to go through a day without telling a lie of some tumblr_m4rh91ieDR1qch7b8o1_1280kind.  I didn’t believe it, but started to pay attention to all of my thoughts and actions.   I found that I was telling several lies without even realizing it.

In one situation, a friend called to do something and I didn’t want to hurt their feelings so I said I had to work late.  A lie, but one that I didn’t have to tell.  It was my perception that the reward of a bit of time to myself was worth the risk of telling a lie to a good friend.

 The truth would have been just as effective yet I still let that lie flow with no initial regret at all.  So what’s the harm, it is just to keep the peace.  Why hurt someone’s feelings unnecessarily?  That is what I questioned at the time.

As time goes by I think that one lie will inevitably lead to another, and maybe the next time you will use another rationale to justify it.  Even if it is bigger and maybe a little harmless.  Often this seems to be the path people start to travel as they justify not only lies but downright meanness.  By justifying it based on some arbitrary factor.

 I heard one person justifying treating someone badly because “they were rich”, also for “Being on Welfare”  Although this person obviously had some problems and blocks around finances, once you start to justify poor behavior for any reason, the reasons for acting poorly increase.

Why is This Important

The main reason why all of this doing the right thing is important is that in a world where imageswe are bombarded with the misdeeds of many in the mainstream media, the fact is that our honesty and good decision-making is something the we each have a personal choice in each and every day.

In everything that I have ever experienced there is never a wrong time to make decisions based on love and those decisions always move your life and the world in a positive direction.  Any other decision is made out of fear, and those choices will move your life in a negative direction and make the world seem bleak.

Only you can decide for yourself when it is the time to throw worry of the consequences out the window and do the right thing.

 

When is it time to stop calculating risk and rewards and just do what you know is right?

I am living and Dying with the choices I made.  Classic message, classic song.