Tag Archives: Separations

22

Some Brainy Thoughts

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Getting to Know Your Brain

It is an irony of life that we spend so much time thinking but very little time examining the mechanism which allows these thoughts to enter our existence.

The brain has been your constant companion throughout life, and its abilities to allow you to comprehend the good or bad in a situation dictate your moods, words, and actions in all cases you are facing. The brain is in continual production of thought, and there are some things we can look at to understand how the brain’s function occurs for us. Our evolution as humans has left us with thought patterns that have encouraged survival but not happiness over thousands of years. Those two things do not have to be mutually exclusive. Evaluating your brain and the thoughts it creates about your life and its situations will lead to greater happiness. Look for the ideas of separations, stabilizing environments, and the practice of approaching opportunities and avoiding threats.

Separations

People look to maintain separation from the world and others because of the appearance of safety. To be reliant on only yourself leaves no room for another person to cause you any harm. We see ourselves as unique individuals separated from all others, but is that true? There is a multitude of ways that we are obviously.

There are lots of ways we separate ourselves and our identities. Sometimes we need fences, and sometimes we need our thoughts.

Connected to the world and dependent upon it for social interaction, food sources, more significant learning, growth, understanding, and goods/services. When you see this apparent contradiction, you may feel isolated, alienated, overwhelmed, or as if you are in a struggle against everything.

Accepting that we are indeed dependent and interconnected with the world around us and other people in the world is a frightening concept. Still, you live in a delusion when you deny this or choose not to think about it. From the simple dependency on oxygen to breathe, we are connected. Many of these types of connections exist, and they are honest and vital. To see separation as reality is the mind playing an uncomfortable and untruthful trick on you. It is the work of an out-of-control ego seeking to maintain your identity.

Seeking Stability

When you become unstable in your body, mind, or relationships, your brain will produce signals of threat and impending pain. Your mind works to bring you back to stability.   This happens whenever we experience any change because differences get the unknown. It may be better, but it may be worse. That is uncomfortable for the survival instinct and people because life is continual.

Seeking stability in a world that is constantly changing is a difficult challenge.

Changing and will be until the day it ends. Learning to see your connections to the world and reliance upon others will allow you to look at your thoughts and notice what they are causing you to feel. You can then start to understand your emotions and have a chance to control them rather than the other way around.

The balancing act is tricky to accomplish because all of the factors in our lives are constantly experiencing change. So nothing is ever the same for long. Physically, mentally, spiritually, economically, and intellectually we are changing. With each new experience, we have to adjust our previous thoughts and beliefs to the further information coming to us. This uncomfortable feeling of constant evaluation feels like a threat. Even though, in the long run, the changes may prove good for us.

Opportunities and Threats

All of us naturally look for areas of opportunity to embrace and threats to avoid. Neutral things we just let drift away. Your brain is responsible for your feelings for every experience and how it is painted, opportunity, threat, or neutral. Many believe the human mind has a negativity bias and pays far greater attention to the negative experience than they deserve. This will

Avoiding real threats is a smart move, but often we give too much power to threats that don’t deserve it.

Create apprehension and cynicism about the things we face in life.

Often it seems the brain builds up both pleasant and unpleasant experiences so that we are chasing very hard after things that bring minimal pleasure and hide away from painful things that are exaggerated in danger or not even real. Most worry is this way. Strict attachments to outcomes are examples of building things up on the positive, and worry results from building up the negative. Each will cause pain, and both are created inside your brain.

Your brain is your constant companion throughout life, and it is a powerful tool that can help you solve problems and even help create things in your life. But you have to understand that your brain, as powerful as it is, is not you. You are the person behind the brain. You can watch your thoughts like an old-fashioned stock ticker. Many believe that their brain is their identity when it is not. It is just a means to an end. Think about that for a minute.

I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.—Arthur Conan Doyle

That’s your best friend and your worst enemy – your brain.–Fred Durst

Don’t let your brain interfere with your heart.    —Albert Einstein

The human brain is probably one of the most complex single objects on the face of the earth; I think it is, quite honestly. —Bill Viola

The emotional brain responds to an event more quickly than the thinking brain.-  Daniel Goleman

The brain is the organ of destiny. It holds within its humming mechanism secrets that will determine the future of the human race. —-Wilder Penfield

 

22

Our Shadow Selves

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education from dark to lightHow often do you look at yourself in the mirror? Not just how your hair looks, or to shave or do some other grooming habit, but look yourself in the eye and see who is looking back. This is a daunting thing to do because you may see something you didn’t expect, darkness. Each person born into existence has been taken with two choices, dark or light. You may argue against this simplistic idea, but look at yourself honestly, and you will see it reflected in you, the potential for both darkness and light. What ultimately wins in your life is totally up to you and the choices you pursue.

Equal Parts Exist In You

All people contain the ability to love deeply, show compassion, help their mlkfellow man, and give entirely to virtual strangers. There is also the capacity to be petty, mean-spirited, selfish, and discriminatory without too much coaxing. I watch this each day in the faces of others and some days in my reflection.

This dichotomy exists in all of us; at some point, the dark side has shown its face. Looking at yourself, you have seen and felt this before if you are honest. We are doomed to spend our lives with these two elements fighting for our attention, thoughts, emotions, and behavior dictating. If you fail to see this is true, you will be subject to some rude awakening. They will often be brought on by people who are choosing the darkness, and these experiences will hurt you and change your life path. Sometimes we need the hard slap of coldness to move us in a direction we need to go. Even though darkness exists, golden rules all and, in the end, destroy the dark.

Favorite Dark Side Activities

Separation is the place where one’s dark side can take control of their behaviors. Any time you put yourself on one side and somebody else on the other, you are in danger of dark side activity.

This is because when you label someone like them, or different from you,  or not like you, subconsciously, you permit yourself to discriminate, take advantage, and even commit violence against another human being. Notice this in society as people are labeled immigrants, Muslims, terrorists, illegals, or any other category. This happens to justify behavior, attitude, or action.

This is the real power that many government officials and the national media use to justify many policies that can’t be classified as any other thing but dark. Separation leads to the justification of dislike and even hatred and can also influence the seemingly most beautiful people to accept others’ poor actions.

Separation of race, religion, economics, sexual orientation, or region of the world one comes from is nothing but a pretext for discrimination. All you have to do is look around you and see separations. Recently economic divides have been convenient dividers.

Justifying cutting benefits to people with few resources. The dark side explains this quickly, “They should get a job.” “Why are we paying for them to sit around all day and do nothing.” We are all in this together, but we forget this very quickly.

As a rule, when you talk about people like us, those, or we, you are probably separating and ready to perpetrate or accept others’ poor treatment. Or, at the very least, become taking of the discrimination of others.

Love Is the Answer

Thank Albert, I agree.
Thank you, Albert. I agree.

Of course, the light is love, which is always good and right. The solution to dark side behaviors is the use of love, and the best part is that you have one hundred percent control over how much love you share daily. With every interaction you have and every thought that you entertain.

Every time you see someone, you have the opportunity to treat them with love or indifference and separation. Treating someone with passion does not mean that you have to give away all of your money or do anything complicated; in fact, it is the easiest. Just be present and appreciate that every person is a valuable, beautiful soul with unlimited potential.

This can be directly talking to one person or sharing a friendly smile with another, but it mostly means avoiding separations. If you divide every belief with others, you won’t, and you can’t. It is just impossible.

You can recognize their humanity and accept them for their changes. We are all human beings living on this planet, just trying to do the best we can with the gifts and circumstances that life has given us. That is it.

Doing this and being aware of it will change the lives of the people you come in contact with and your life. You are on the right track when you think thoughts like, “We are all in this together.” “Our existence on this planet is better together.”

Putting everyone into the same category, including yourself, avoids separation and removes the unwritten right people feel to discriminate or hate because someone is just a little bit different.

Embrace Your Light, Understand your Darkness

In All Of Us
In All Of Us

So the next time you look at yourself in the mirror, look deep inside yourself and recognize these two distinct characters. There is equal ability to love and hate; everyone has it, and understanding the darkness in ourselves won’t let it win over your actions but will give you the power to choose the light.

It is important to remember that everyone matters in the trip we call life. From people who love and support you to those you have felt have wronged you in any way, if you neglect to see how your love and acceptance of everyone, you are participating in separation, closing in on hate, and preparing the way for discrimination or violence.

Love is always the answer; if you can embrace this practice, your life will inevitably change for the better.

“Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.” Mark Twain

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” Plato

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything, but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first and is waiting for it.” Terry Pratchett

“Look at how a single candle can defy and define the darkness.” Anne Frank

“When you light a candle, you also cast a shadow.” Ursula K. Le Guin

“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.” Og Mandino

 

 

21

Peace

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“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” – Abraham Lincoln.

133622396_80_80This famous quote by Abraham Lincoln was given well over a hundred years ago, and I believe that We can directly apply it today to why we do not have peace in the world. When it comes to war, hatred, and discrimination of any kind, there first has to exist a feeling of separation in one’s mind.  A cognitive judgment that a person places on another to exclude them from themselves and their lives.

I was trying to decide if I had ever experienced peace in my lifetime, and I concluded that I had not.  There are several definitions of peace, but the one I am talking about is a state of harmony between people or groups; freedom from strife.  Perhaps for a short time, these afflictions exist all around us, and only the implementation of love and understanding can provide any other experience.

It’s Easy to Build Walls A Monkey Can Do it.

monkeyI was having a conversation with a friend who continually separates people into different groups and stereotypes them.  When I point this out, his retort is OK because his stereotypes are positively meant to him. There is no such thing as a positive stereotype because once you separate yourself from someone, you have set the stage for you to perpetrate violence or discrimination against them.

If you honestly look at your own life and feelings toward others, you will see that the groups and people who you don’t care for are the ones you have separated from yourself. Either because of race, religion, economic status, ethnic background, or nationality.  These separations perpetuate fear and lead to acceptance of violence toward others.

 Divide and Conquer

stereo types to
Labeling anyone and generalizing their humanity immediately makes them less than human in your mind.

My simple premise is that once you accept a label and separation, you have justified any poor behavior toward those that have been separated. This can be done individually, as looking down on your neighbor or en mass as relating to races, religions, or nationalities.

If that were where my thought ended, then it might seem a rather dim view of the world without any hope of peace ever breaking out, but I do not think this is so. The solution to the problem of separation lies within each of us in our ability to love.

Peace Starts Within You

The first place for peace to start is within yourself and in your daily life. Look for the separations that you create between yourself and others. Rich or poor. Old or young. Married or single. Any of these are separation devices.  In my state, there is a lot of discrimination against the poor. All people who need help from the state are labeled as unsuccessful, lazy, drains on the economy.  It is then easy for these people who already.

Why we Build Walls

wallsWhen it comes to experiencing peace in our world, the biggest barrier is the walls we build to separate us. This can be a physical, mental, or spiritual separation. Still, when you hold something apart from yourself, you have subconsciously allowed yourself to exclude others, discriminate against them, and in the end, perpetuate hate.  When separations are removed for whatever reason, the opposite happens. Understanding flows because we are all the same.

Walls are built because of fear, and fear is the root of all evil in the world. Hate, anger, jealousy, and conformity all stem from the tree of fear.

Expanding circles is the Answer.

The simple response to building walls is not tearing them down but refusing to build them cop bannerin the first place. In your mind, your heart, or your soul.  We need to expand the circle of who we include under our definition and allow more people in. The more you include in the group of “us,” the less fear there will be of the group of “them.”

Instead of excluding someone and labeling them, include them and accept them. People are all the same. We are equal members of the human race, and that membership should rise above one’s nationality, religion, or skin color.  Draw a big circle around yourself and include everyone on your side, then there will be no opposition.

Love is the answer to fear, and love involves understanding and acceptance. For every branch that exists on the tree of fear, there is a corresponding and more powerful counterpart on the tree of love.  Love over fear.

One day I may experience peace.

21

What If

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What If…….

what-ifThere are questions we ask ourselves all of our lives that can haunt us if we let them. What if that decision was wrong? What if I shouldn’t have done that? What if I had tried out for the chess team in high school? What if I said yes?

There are a million of these questions that can consume your time. Still, they don’t add up to anything in the end because the fact is whatever you are “what if-ing” about didn’t happen, will never happen, and so should concern you about as much as what the weather was in Borneo in the year 1656.

There are many other what-ifs you can worry about that could make a difference in the world, and I think I would instead focus on those.

What if ………..

kind wordsOne kind word from you could make someone else’s day or even save their life. You never know the storm that is brewing underneath the surface of anyone.

Their surface smile could be hiding a storm of emotions below.  One kind word or gesture could be the human contact they needed to keep moving forward. There are many words we let slide with no thought or regard for their destination and potential impact. Speak as if your words could save a life. What if that were so?

What if………….

gratefulInstead of thinking about the things we don’t have, we spent time being grateful for the things we do have. I have seen people make gratitude lists, and it changes the way they look at the world. Gratitude has the power to transform the way you feel about things.

They do not have to be monumental, giant things, be thankful for the little things.  Being alive, a peanut butter sandwich, coffee, or whatever little things bring you comfort and joy throughout your day.  In most philosophies, gratitude is the key to abundance. What if we all were a bit more grateful?

What if………….

Bring down the barriers that enslave us all freedom is priceless to all creaturesThere were no separations between people. That means that nobody grouped anybody. Instead of being sectioned off because of your age, nationality, economic status, or color of your skin, recognize we are all members of one group, human beings.

When you look for differences among people, you find separation. Separation is the first step toward discrimination because it creates us vs. them mentality. The smaller the circle of us becomes, the more likely we are to have a problem.

This is true for any conflict of every size, including the race riots of the 1960s to economic conflicts of today. What if there were no separations between people, just people?

What if………….

governmentThe people who were elected to represent the people represented the well-being of the people.  In the United States, the government and big business have become synonymous in a definition.

What if that wasn’t the case, and they were focused on helping people who live here as much as they are concerned about helping themselves.

Should any person in our country be hungry? Should any person have to fear suffering from domestic violence? Is there any good reason that the educational system is broken beyond repair? Children treated with kindness and hope would change the world.   What if we had a representative government that represented the people and not big business?

What if………..

urlPeople spent more time using the most potent force in the universe, love. Instead of choosing to participate in activities like gossip, discrimination, judgments of others, or worrying about what is in it for me?  Imagine spending their time focusing on understanding, kindness, acceptance, and what they can do for others.

How different would the lives of every person be if they spent all of their effort on spreading loving-kindness? Hatred can only be defeated by love, not more hate. What if people spent more time thinking and acting with respect?

What if it is a question that we can ask all of the time? Some inquiries can be used to hold us back or be used as a catalyst to find the best in ourselves and others.