M.J. Blehart's Blog, page 43

You can Always Choose Something – Right, Wrong, Big, Small, or Whatever

There is massive positivity in knowing you can always choose something, no matter the situation.

Photo by Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash

I’ve had many experiences in my life where it felt like I had few to no choices available.

Or worse, there were choices – and they were all bad. Or at least felt bad and less than optimum at the time.

But so long as you are alive, you can always choose something.

It’s easy, however, to lose sight of this.

Many of the leaders of the world place artificial limits on us all. That’s because lack, limitation, and scarcity disempower the masses – while empowering a small few.

That’s part of why our fear-based society is perpetuated as it is. Fear is a great way to keep people in line.

And what better way to do that than by limiting choices? Reduce choices – or make them super narrow – and you have control.

For example – on the scale of American national politics – there are 2 parties. Often, that leaves people with an incredibly divisive choice. Then, both sides bash the other and tell you how much they will make you suffer (real and imagined) if they get power. And we’re so convinced that these are the only two options – that there are exactly 2 independents out of 535 senators and congresspeople.

Who is in power? Who limits us to only 2 choices? Those already in power.

But the truth is – there ARE 2 independents. Which means there ARE more choices available. Thus – the lack and scarcity we’re fed are shown to be a lie.

This example notwithstanding, the point is that you can always choose something. But you must decide to choose.

You alone control you

How many people claim they have no choice? How many barely plausible criminal defenses are made regarding having had “no choice” in the matter?

While it’s true that you and I can’t make anyone else do anything we might bid them to do – we do have the ultimate control of our own lives. Thus, we control what we choose – or not.

So long as you are living and breathing, you have choices available to you. But only you can truly choose for yourself.

If you see lack, scarcity, and insufficiency in the Universe – that’s probably what you experience. When you expect that life’s terrible, and your options are limited – that’s often what you get.

Yet when all is said and done – your life belongs to you. You, and you alone, control you.

I am not denying many people have it hard. For one reason or another, you might be going through some things, having bad experiences, and being stuck in a rut. Things happen we can’t control that will negatively impact us mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and even physically.

However, ultimately, you decide how that will play out.

Attitude goes a long way towards experience. If you have a poor attitude, a negative mindset, and believe in a Universe of lack and scarcity – more often than not, that’ll be your life experience.

This is utterly within your control. That’s because you alone control yourself. Specifically, your conscious awareness. Your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions are under your control alone.

That control is the ultimate control.

You always choose something for you

Every single day you make choices. Big and small, right and wrong, significant and insignificant, you choose.

It’s easy to overlook many because they’re habitual and/or otherwise subconscious. Getting out of bed in the morning, brushing your teeth, eating, taking pills, drinking coffee – each of these are choices you make. Thus, you can choose not to get of bed, not brush your teeth and eat, take no pills, and drink tea instead of coffee. All are things you choose or not.

I decided to sit down at my computer and write this post. Yes, I could have chosen to not bother with it, put it off, or scroll through social media instead. But I chose to write this article.

A lot of the things that we choose don’t seem terribly important or significant. But you still get to choose more frequently than you realize. And that’s why you always choose something for you.

What if you’re unhappy with choices you’ve made? It’s important to recognize that the past has passed, and you can’t do anything about that. Choices made in the past cannot be undone, redone, or otherwise erased.

But with very, very few exceptions – you can make a new choice in the present. You always choose something.

However, because of the instant gratification nature of our world – choices without immediate results often feel powerless. Yet that’s not true. Tomorrow is made of the choices today more than those of yesterday.

Yes, you won’t know the outcome immediately. But even if it’s not what you desire – so long as you’re alive, you can choose again.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on UnsplashPractice mindfulness

The best way to actively change your life experience is via mindfulness. Mindfulness is conscious awareness of the here-and-now.

That awareness, turned inwards, informs you what you’re thinking, what and how you are feeling, and what intentions exist in your action. That, then, empowers you – because you choose something for you via conscious awareness that comes from mindfulness.

What’s more, mindfulness opens the door to your subconscious mind. That’s where values, beliefs, and habits live. Since many of those are based on choices made long ago – access to them now lets you change, remove, replace, and alter them.

All it takes is asking a few simple questions.

What am I thinking?What am I feeling?How am I feeling?What am I doing and what’s the intent behind that?

Each question makes you mindful of yourself. That, in turn, puts you in control of yourself. This shows you how you always choose something for yourself. Now it’s a question of conscious or subconscious choice.

Is it really that simple? Yes – but – it’s an ongoing practice. This can’t be done once and ignored. It needs to be chosen constantly. While that might seem a bit overwhelming – ultimately, it’s empowering.

Right or wrong, big or small, good or bad – you always choose something. That’s a matter of positivity because it means you can choose how you approach life every day.

Deciding to always choose something isn’t hard

It begins with mindfulness of our thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.

Knowing that you make constant, frequent choices all the time – you can choose just what those are, good, bad, positive, negative, etc. When we choose to work with that and approach life from a place of abundance rather than lack or scarcity, that ultimately empowers us all.

When you are empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that gets reflected and spreads to other people. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity – a feedback loop everyone can take part in.

Then, together, we build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That becomes the impetus to improve our lives for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate even more positivity and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of pure positivity. That positivity can generate even greater positive energies – and that is ultimately empowering for all.

Everyone is worthy and deserving of all the good we desire. 

This is the four hundred and seventh entry of my Positivity series. It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.

Please visit here to explore all of my published works – both fiction and non-fiction.

Please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter. Fill in the info and click the submit button to the right and receive a free eBook.

The post You can Always Choose Something – Right, Wrong, Big, Small, or Whatever appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Can Making Choices and Doing What’s Best for You Harm Others?

Doing what’s best for you might harm others – but that’s likely beyond your control.

Photo by Kostiantyn Li on Unsplash

When I was younger, I crowned myself the King of Indecision.

I lived perpetually at a crossroads between two points. So that I wouldn’t make the wrong decision, I frequently made no decision.

No decision, no harm, right? Wrong. By not making choices and deciding for myself how my life should be – I was the plaything of the Universe. Life lived me – save some all-too-brief moments.

Thus, I bounced between jobs, homes, relationships, and spent almost 2 decades unsettled. Rather than choose and choose wrong, out of fear I avoided making choices often. I truly was the King of Indecision.

But as I began to learn how to employ mindfulness and empower conscious reality creation, I began making more choices. I started deciding things and became much less indecisive. In time, I removed and did away with my crown.

Still, from time to time, one of the fears that had driven my indecision reared its ugly head. Choices and decisions that I made caused harm to others.

However – it was not my intent to cause anyone harm. Yet sometimes things we do have unintended consequences.

Cam making choices and doing what’s best for you harm others? Perhaps – but intent matters.

You control nobody but you

Every single person on Planet Earth experiences feelings. Some more than others. What and how we feel is massively differential. Even the most unemotional person is not without emotions. (In Star Trek, much as they deny and repress them, even Vulcans have emotions). They are, I am fairly certain, part of the nature of sentient beings.

Things that happen outside of us and beyond our control can have an emotional impact. Thus, even an unintentional slight can cause pain, discomfort, anger, irritation, sadness, and suffering.

When you stop and look at what caused that feeling, you can generally see if it was intentional. It’s pretty obvious when someone slights you (such as inviting all your mutual friends to a party but excluding you – and ignoring you when you ask about it). You can tell when someone is trying to be hurtful, spiteful, and even harmful towards you and/or others.

Often, causing hurt or harm via action was not intended. But it can be unavoidable. Sometimes you need to go somewhere that others cannot join nor follow. Things that you do might be beyond the understanding of certain friends and loved ones.

And what’s more – change is often disconcerting. When you choose what’s best for you and change to do that – you changing causes distress. Ergo, you might cause unintentional hurt or harm.

There is nothing you can do about this. You have no control over anyone but yourself. All that you can do is recognize that hurt or harm has been inflicted – and act from there.

An apology may be best for you and all

A genuine, sincere apology – even for unintended hurt and harm – is often best for both you and the person(s) hurt or harmed. It shows knowledge and recognition of what has occurred and mends divisions that might happen.

What’s more – if you’re like me, learning that something you’ve done (or not done) caused another to feel hurt – you need to apologize. Particularly when this is collateral “damage” and not at all intended.

While doing what’s best for you might involve a lot of change and uncertainty for you – if you hurt or harm others in the process it won’t sit right. Even if you give a preliminary warning – it might not get through. What’s more, how someone viscerally reacts is utterly outside of your control.

Unintended hurt and harm that someone else feels is not within our control. And that can be distressing all on its own.

Doing what’s best for you can have an unintended impact on others. Even though you had no intention of hurting or harming someone else – an apology might make you both feel better.

One reason I spent so much of my life indecisive was this fear. That the choices I would make might cause hurt and harm to others. Ironically, doing this DID hurt/harm someone.

That would be me.

Photo by Olhar Angolano on UnsplashIt’s important to do what’s best for you

Neglecting yourself, sacrificing what’s best for you, or not doing your best to reduce potential hurt and harm to others still causes harm. To you.

The trauma we inflict on ourselves is often brushed off and ignored or downplayed. Yet it’s still there – and still a cause of discomfort and distress.

The longer we avoid this – the greater impact it’s going to have in time.

Avoiding making choices and decisions will bite you in the ass. That’s because the only person who can live your life is you. Thus, making no choices and no decisions will have an impact on you. That’s because you will feel like you are not getting anywhere.

Not being decisive occasionally and letting others choose is not the same as being indecisive. Indecision is disempowering because it takes no action. You make no choices and just stay where you are, not growing or taking control of your reality.

Letting someone else choose is the equivalent of riding in the passenger seat of a car. Indecision is standing outside the car and not even bothering to get into it.

Conscious reality creation and mindfulness require decision and choice. While that can be scary and full of uncertainty – it’s ultimately empowering. That’s because this is how you take control of your life.

You have all the power to decide who, what, where, how, and what YOU are. Choices and decisions as to what’s best for you are how this is done.

Even knowing that unintentional harm might come of your choices and decisions – they’re still worth making.

You are worthy and deserving of making them. Whatever paths you choose to walk in life.

Doing what’s best for you might harm others. While that’s beyond your control, awareness of it opens the channels to fix it.

Do you make choices and decisions to do what’s best for you?

This is the five-hundred and seventeenth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.

Please take a moment to subscribe to my mailing list. Fill in the info and click the sign-up button to the right and receive your free eBook. Thank you!

The post Can Making Choices and Doing What’s Best for You Harm Others? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

How Can Today Be Made into a Notable Special Occasion?

You can choose to treat today as the special occasion you desire for it to be.

Photo by Ambreen Hasan on Unsplash

Our culture has a major love affair with celebrating special occasions.

These include birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, graduations, and many massive achievements like promotions, marriages, births, and so on.

The focus, however, often gets rather narrow when it comes to defining a special occasion versus the everyday. People put so much energy, time, attention, and investment into a given special occasion that they ignore all else.

In other words – today, and most days, are treated as unimportant. Then, they got lost in the shuffle of the rote, routine, and day-to-day approach of our culture.

Even the weekend – two days out of every seven – is treated as a more special occasion. The other five days? Humdrum, passed through, and not in any way special.

Is life supposed to be ho-hum and not terribly worthwhile more often than it’s special? No. Human beings are not simply here to exist and survive – but to thrive.

Thus – why can’t every day be – or at least have within it – a special occasion?

Let go of the lies

Most of us believe a lot of lies about the way life, the universe, and everything works. They include,

There is not enough good to go aroundTo get what you desire you must meet certain indeterminate standardsOnly a few people are worthy and deservingLack, scarcity, and insufficiency dominate the worldLife’s a bitch and then you dieIf you aren’t “X” you are unworthy of “Y”You control nothing“They” control our livesSuffering is more abundant than joy or contentmentWe must do this, that, or the other thing to prove our worth

These are just a few examples of the many lies we swallow regularly. But they are not the truth in any way, shape, or form.

What is the truth?

There is more than enough good to go aroundSo long as it hurts or harms nobody else, you can get what you desireEveryone is worthy and deservingWe live in an abundant UniverseLife is what you consciously create it to beNo matter if you are “X” you are worthy of “Y”You control your life experience“They” don’t control us unless we cede control to themJoy and contentment can be found anywhere you look for itWe are all worthy – and there’s nothing we need to do to prove our worth

Every single lie and artifice we buy into can be countered.

Sometimes that seems extremely hard to believe. Turn on the news, scroll through social media, and you’ll be bombarded by stories and information to confirm that we live in a world going to shit.

Is it any wonder we think special occasions are so occasional?

Make the special occasion less occasional

When we save up our energy for special occasions, the rest of our time – frankly, the majority of our time – gets deemphasized. It gets treated as less important and less worthy and deserving.

Not only do we desire to be treated as worthy and deserving – how life is treated falls into this, too.

Life itself is worthy and deserving. That might seem trite and kind or hacked, but that doesn’t make it untrue.

Consider the words of artist Mary Engelbreit,

“Don’t ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is the special occasion.”

Please take that into consideration. “BEING ALIVE IS THE SPECIAL OCCASION.”

When you look at the science of life – we are a wonder. Despite what some think, human beings are animals. What makes us different from the other animals on this planet is our ability to think abstractly, reason, and create tools that allow us to live anywhere on the globe we choose.

Other animals in nature live in specific climates. Humans don’t. We choose to build climate-controlled spaces and live wherever we damned well please. No other animal on Earth can do that so willingly (or in some instances willfully).

Being alive – and a human being with all the potential and possibility we have – is a special occasion.

Photo by Free Walking Tour Salzburg on UnsplashIt doesn’t always feel so special

Life is never perfect for anyone all the time. Everyone has pain, experiences loss and suffering, and has bad days.

We are all going to have times when we are miserable. And it sucks. But that doesn’t mean we are somehow more deserving of suffering and failure than contentment and success.

There will be periods in every life that feel awful. No joy, no contentment, just anger, sadness, depression, and what-have-you. While everyone experiences the what and how of their emotions and thinks differently – everyone experiences the bad just as much as the good.

However, we get to choose – when we reach a bad place – how long we’ll remain there.

I have not been in a good headspace for a week. Various and sundry circumstances and situations have been the cause of this. My work has suffered, I’ve been less attentive to certain things, and moping. I have chosen to use time wasters and stay in this bad place over taking action to move on.

Writing these words and considering how every day and just being alive can be a special occasion has helped me choose differently. I sat down to focus on these words, wrote this, and feel contentment. And I hope that the idea that life itself is a special occasion can help you find the same contentment.

How can today be made into a notable special occasion? By choosing to find a special occasion today – and every day.

Turning today into a special occasion isn’t hard

It begins with mindfulness of our thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.

Knowing that every day we have a choice for how we do anything and everything we do, we can work to make any day a notable special occasion. When we choose to be less stingy with special occasions and make them more common than rare, we give ourselves more outlets for contentment and joy. That ultimately empowers us all.

When you are empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that gets reflected and spreads to other people. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity – a feedback loop everyone can take part in.

Then, together, we build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That becomes the impetus to improve our lives for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate even more positivity and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of pure positivity. That positivity can generate even greater positive energies – and that is ultimately empowering for all.

Everyone is worthy and deserving of all the good we desire. 

This is the four hundred and sixth entry of my Positivity series. It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.

Please visit here to explore all of my published works – both fiction and non-fiction.

Please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter. Fill in the info and click the submit button to the right and receive a free eBook.

PS – Thank you to Mary Engelbreit for the inspiration.

The post How Can Today Be Made into a Notable Special Occasion? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Where’s the Mysterious Line Between Too Much and Not Enough?

How do you identify this mysterious line along any given path?

Photo by Jake Ingle on Unsplash

I sometimes wonder if I am doing too much or not enough. This applies to many of the paths I’m walking in my life.

For example – writing and editing. This year, I’ve written and published 6 novels. Was that too much – or not enough?

How can I question this? Because I know an author who publishes about a book a month. Decent, good books. That’s more than my 6 this year.

For 2022, I have 11 books planned/plotted, plus 1 to edit and publish. Can I/will I produce all of them next year? If not all of them – which of them?

Then – let’s add a wrinkle to this process – my freelance jobs eat up some of my time, now. Despite the daily goal I set for myself – am I writing enough? I have missed my daily 1500 words of fiction writing goal more often than made it.

This is especially apparent as I am attempting to participate in NaNoWriMo with one of the above-mentioned 11 books.

Too much versus not enough is a completely arbitrary line that only I can recognize and negotiate. Even still, it is not always apparent – and before I know it, I’m overwhelmed.

Where is the line between too much and not enough? And how do you identify it along any given path?

The Goldilocks ideal

In theory, there should be a place that’s just right between the extremes. Hence – the Goldilocks Ideal.

Isn’t there an ideal? Depends on the topic. Sometimes yes – sometimes no. Why? Because what makes me feel like I have reached the point of just right versus too much or too little is wildly variable. And sometimes it’s not apparent between those extremes.

For example – I write a blog post around an average of 1000 words 6 days a week. That’s 6000 words a week. Thus, I’m writing 312,000 words per year in blogs.

If an average novel is 75,000 words – I’m writing more than 4 novels worth of blogs per year.

This is in addition to my fiction writing. All 6 novels for 2021 average (I am guessing here) 50,000 words each – which is 300,000 words more.

All told, that’s 612,000 words in a year. For some context, that’s the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy plus The Hobbit – and 35,000 extra words.

And yet – I still question if I am writing enough. This is due, in part, because I spent a lot of my fiction writing time working on outlines, worldbuilding, and plotting over writing the actual stories. But that has provided me with the materials to write 11 new novels.

Still, I am not feeling like I have reached the Goldilocks ideal. The question of the line between too much and not enough remains.

Photo by ActionVance on UnsplashWhy question the mysterious line?

I work non-traditionally.

Despite – on the one hand – not caring how other people think about me and what I do – on the other hand – I do. I’m only human. Though it doesn’t matter to me what others think about my life choices – it does.

This is an annoying dichotomy. Though I am far happier working independently from my home office, I sometimes feel judged. As I work on writing and editing plus freelance gigs – keeping unique hours – I sometimes worry about what impression I am making.

Does anyone really care? No. Perhaps those who love me worry sometimes that I am not taking the traditional route (and in at least one case, all the time). But I know who I am and what is right for ME.

But the only person capable of recognizing the line between too much and not enough is me.

Nobody else is in my head, heart, or soul. Ergo, nobody else knows my thoughts, feelings, and intentions. All they see are my actions.

Sometimes the intent behind the actions is not so visible.

Then there is the question of satisfaction. What I do and how I do it is satisfying. But because the end result has not reached where I desire for it to be, the question of the line and which side of it I am on rears its ugly head.

In other words – the judgiest judge of me is me. But that judgment is a reflection not of the expectations of others as much as what I expect they are expecting of me.

I have no control over anyone other than myself. Hence – I must work to control that which I can.

This is where intent and action become super important.

Identifying the mysterious line

The best place to find where the mysterious line between too much and not enough might be is mindfulness.

Specifically, being consciously aware as well as pausing and reflecting.

Mindfulness is being consciously aware of my thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions. That conscious awareness is in the present moment. This gets me out of my subconscious mind – as well as the egoistic impression I am working to make on others – and into my mindset/headspace/psyche inner being.

All I need to do to activate mindfulness is ask questions like,

What am I thinking?How and what am I feeling?What am I doing and what’s my intent?

Asking each question – and answering it myself, preferably aloud – awakens conscious awareness. That can help clarify where, what, why, who, and how I am – here and now.

Which, in turn, can show me the line between too much and not enough.

Then there is pausing and reflecting. For me, this tends to take one of two forms:

Meditation. I meditate 20 minutes a day. Taking the time to do that puts me in the present and centers me.Deep breathing. Taking just a 2-minute break from whatever else I am doing, setting a timer, I breathe in and out deeply. It’s amazing how much that can calm, center, and balance me.

This is how I identify the mysterious line along any given path I am walking.

But this is never one-and-done. Every day is a new day. Hence – every day there are new questions and debates about finding the Goldilocks ideal and/or identifying the line between too much and not enough.

Thus – the line moves. Still, finding it is a matter of intent and action. And when you find it you can better work to create the Goldilocks ideal – where all is juuuuuuuuuust right.

Do you straddle the mysterious line between too much and not enough from time to time?

This is the five-hundred and sixteenth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.

Please take a moment to subscribe to my mailing list. Fill in the info and click the sign-up button to the right and receive your free eBook. Thank you!

The post Where’s the Mysterious Line Between Too Much and Not Enough? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Today What Interesting Things Are We Going to do, Brain?

Today we do the same thing we do every day – make choices for our life experiences.

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

Welcome to Monday. For many people, Monday is the true start of their week – back to work, back to school, back to rote, and routine.

Lots of people come down from the weekend – and time off away from the 5-day repetitive cycle – and start the new week with trepidation, discord, and not the most positive or helpful approach.

Because of how our society works, this is the picture for most. But what if we have another choice? What if today can be just a day full of potential and possibility?

Today is a new day

For the sake of argument, please let me make it clear that I am majorly generalizing, here. I know there are plenty of people who have non-standard and alternative lives they lead. But overall, societal expectations and norms are a 5-day work week and a two-day weekend.

How is today, a Monday, different from yesterday, Sunday? Literally, the sun set and arose anew and the calendar has changed day/date. Let’s just leave that there. If you have a weekend away from work and school – that’s an obvious difference.

For many, Sunday represents a day of rest, few to no obligations, and a dynamic that’s less fixed than Monday.

In western society, we are positively obsessed with the calendar. Dates of significance change what we do, how we do it, and create things to look forward to and things to dread. Christmas on December 25, New Year’s Day on January 1, the date of your birth, anniversaries, and numerous other secular and spiritual holidays.

Because of this date-oriented focus and constant sense of rush and hurry from one to the next – individual days get lost and shunted to a place of insignificance. Spend any time watching TV right now and you will see all the holiday ads reminding you Christmas is less than 2 months away – buy now, dammit!

But every single day is a new day. Why don’t we treat today as special and as significant as New Year’s Day or any other event?

Why would that matter? Because then we are more awake and aware. Which, in turn, gives us more control over our life experiences.

Mindfulness and control

With a few exceptions, most of our so-called leaders prefer we remain disempowered. Tote that barge, lift that bail, fall in line, march to our drums. Don’t think – just do it.

There are times and places to live by rote and routine. However, spending the majority of our time doing that keeps us asleep at the wheel – or in the passenger seat of life, taking no control of our experiences.

I recently wrote that there are only 4 things we truly control in our lives:

Our thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentionsOur mindset/headspace/psyche conscious selfThe color/cut/style of our hair (all body hair)Muscle mass/body shape (to a limited extent)

While this might seem like a short list – truth be told, it’s a lot. As the only person living inside of our heads, the first two dictate the other two.

Conscious awareness of our thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions puts us in touch with our mindset/headspace/psyche self – our conscious self. From there, we can see our ego and how we project ourselves to the world – and our subconscious, where our beliefs, values, and habits live.

Conscious awareness happens here and now. Looking back to what already was can be super-mixed and tell you very little. Looking forward is speculative at best.

Thus – today can be whatever you choose for it to be – big or small, positive or negative, good or bad, long or short. When you work to be mindful you empower this.

Mindfulness is empowering – because it puts you behind life’s wheel and lets you take control of today and every day.

Photo by Tyler Nix on UnsplashChoose your own adventure

How you approach any given day is a choice.

When you have a routine – go to work, go to class, move the children from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’, and the like – it’s easy to lose yourself in your routine.

The more we let the routine of any aspect of our life drive us – the less we tend to assume control over it. Before long, we’re letting life live us rather than choosing to live life.

To be fair – there are days where rote and routine are a source of comfort. Everyone needs that from time to time. Sometimes we need the reset that comes with that.

But life is not just meant to be survived. We are meant to thrive. Each and every one of us has potential and possibilities for new adventures – big and small – all the time.

How you approach today is a choice you make. Hence, you can choose your own adventure – or not.

Positivity in its true form is a matter of attitude and approach. If you start today feeling blue, thinking it’ll be a slog, and otherwise negative – odds are good that’s what you will experience.

But if you choose instead to look for potential, possibilities, new things to learn and experience – even if they seem super-insignificant – the positive approach helps you experience more positivity.

We are so much more powerful than we tend to think that we are. When more people wake up to this and make use of it – their today can be unique, within their control, and potentially amazing.

Since you are the only one inside your head, this is a fair question to ask: Today, what ARE we going to do, brain?

Choosing how today will be isn’t hard

It begins with mindfulness of our thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.

Knowing that every day we have a choice for how our today will look, we can choose to approach it from a place of positivity or negativity. When we choose to be mindful of what we do for ourselves and not just go by rote and routine – that ultimately empowers us all.

When you are empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that gets reflected and spreads to other people. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity – a feedback loop everyone can take part in.

Then, together, we build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That becomes the impetus to improve our lives for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate even more positivity and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of pure positivity. That positivity can generate even greater positive energies – and that is ultimately empowering for all.

Everyone is worthy and deserving of all the good we desire. 

This is the four hundred and fifth entry of my Positivity series. It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.

Please visit here to explore all of my published works – both fiction and non-fiction.

Please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter. Fill in the info and click the submit button to the right and receive a free eBook.

The post Today What Interesting Things Are We Going to do, Brain? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

One Path in Life Always Leads to Another Unique Path

So long as you’re alive – at the end of this path you will have another.

Photo by Feri & Tasos on Unsplash

Conscious reality creation is an ongoing action.

Along this line, choosing a path for your life experience is not a singular act. There are multiple paths for our lives – some of which intersect while others run parallel or even perpendicular.

Career paths, relationship paths, creativity paths, recreational paths – all are options and choices before each of us. Some are made more consciously than others.

Even when you don’t consciously choose a path – you’re on one anyhow. Subconsciously, you are moving from here to there – literally or metaphorically.

Consciously or subconsciously, we walk paths all of our lives. And we will continue to do so for as long as we live.

For some people, that’s really daunting. There are people overwhelmed by the idea of having so many choices, options, and decisions to make.

I find this exciting. Why? Because it means there is ALWAYS a new option, new opportunity, and different, unique path to traverse.

To best recognize and work with this – we need to employ mindfulness.

Mindfulness within and without

It’s good to know the world without. That way, you can interact better with other people, and be informed about important matters so that you are protected from disease, weather, horrific politicians, and the like.

But to truly understand and make use of the data we get from the outside – we need to know what is going on within ourselves.

Who, what, where, how, when, and why I am is known – truly known – by me alone. It’s both literal and metaphorical knowledge. To access it and be consciously aware of it takes 3 steps.

One: Be present here and now.Two: Be consciously aware of the input from all 6 of your senses.Three: Be consciously aware of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions

Being consciously aware of your sensory input, thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions – in the present – provides the knowledge of your inner being. This is what opens you to access your mindset/headspace/psyche self.

That mindfulness tells you about you and all within you – which then gives you necessary data points to work with the world without.

Hence, you can see more clearly what paths you are on – whether you’re on them consciously or subconsciously – and where they are taking you.

If they are not paths you desire to be on – mindful conscious awareness is how you can alter and change them.

If the information from the outside world is having too much influence on your life experience – this is how you can recognize that.

All of this takes us to an important truth. No path is set in unchangeable stone.

There is no One True Path in life

What lights you up, makes you happy, excites you, and brings you joy isn’t necessarily going to have a similar effect on me. And vice versa.

Yet we are constantly bombarded and overwhelmed by messages that we must follow a One True Path to ultimately succeed with life, the Universe, and everything.

But this is not true. There are far, far more paths than one alone.

If every individual person on Planet Earth has their unique perception of reality – and I assure you that they do – that means that there are 7.8 BILLION variations on how reality is perceived. This means that there are at least 7.8 BILLION paths to traverse in life.

How many religions are there? Thousands. Is any one of them the One True Path? No.

What’s more, I guarantee that you have taken more than one path in your life – literally and figuratively. For example, I know at least 6 routes – 6 paths – to get from my home to the nearest airport. Further, I have made attempts at multiple figurative life paths, such as relationships and careers.

Ergo, there simply cannot be one and only one path, let alone a One True Path. For anyone. And for everyone.

So long as we are alive, we have choices for paths to take. Thus, if you are on one path now that you chose subconsciously – but desire to consciously choose another – you are empowered to do so.

Photo by Caleb Woods on UnsplashWhat happens when I reach the end of my path?

There is always another path to choose. And just because you’ve reached the end of one path, you likely are still on others.

So long as we are alive, we are on various paths. Conscious or subconscious, living is traveling paths. That involves having unique experiences, learning new things, meeting new people, finding and/or creating new things, growing, changing, and everything else that goes into life.

No two life experiences are precisely alike. They might be similar, and super-close – but they are still different and unique.

One path always leads to another. That’s because life is all about finding, choosing, and/or creating paths. Some we walk so slowly that it barely feels like anything moves or changes at all. Others go by so swiftly it feels like we missed them in the process.

This is why achieving a goal is not necessarily the end-all-be-all. Nobody reaches that one goal and then simply stops (okay, almost nobody).

You get married, get hired, start the business, become a bestseller, paint the painting, make your mark, or achieve whatever goal it is that you set out to achieve. And then? Then you enjoy the fruits of your labor – but make new choices.

Once married, there is a life together full of activities and things. When you get hired, now you have work to do. Start the business – make the product or sell the service. The point is that every achievement is followed by something more – another unique path.

Some people find this daunting. But this is why enjoying the path itself can be empowering. Life is only a complicated, miserable thing if that is what you choose.

Where I am going now isn’t where I was going then

Finally – we change. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like this is true – but it always is. Change is the only constant in the Universe.

Hence, what got us going in our youth is likely different than what lights us up in our 20s. Then, the goals we had in our 20s change with experience to new goals we set in our 40s.

When one path ends there is always another to be chosen. But this is what makes life in this day and age so incredible. Despite living in a fear-based society trying to keep us small – we’re empowered to have, do, and be amazing things.

There has never been a time before where so many could be so empowered. But here we are – and all the paths laid out before us represent potential and possibilities that can make our lives incredible.

There are days this feels like a lie. And sometimes the paths we are on don’t look like they will end – or will end poorly if they do.

When we see that one path always leads to another – we are empowered to choose how life will be. Yes, that’s easier for some than for others – but it is still possible for EVERYONE.

So long as you’re alive – at the end of this path you will have another.

What new path did you choose when one you were on ended?

This is the five-hundred and fifteenth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.

Please take a moment to subscribe to my mailing list. Fill in the info and click the sign-up button to the right and receive your free eBook. Thank you!

The post One Path in Life Always Leads to Another Unique Path appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

See Incredible Potential and Possibilities for Life as Much as I Do?

Incredible potential and possibilities are not pie-in-the-sky idealism, but part of an abundance mindset.

Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash

I know that life has been extra hard for people since the pandemic hit us.

The world has been forever changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the best efforts of its deniers to pretend that nothing has happened – that’s just not true.

Much of what came out of this experience has been unpleasant and ugly. Some of the very worst has been brought out in certain people, and many of the hidden but dark realities of the American economy and its abuses have come to light – among other things.

Yet, additionally, some of the very best has been brought out in people, too. We’ve seen kindness and compassion on display as people have done their best to help others, as well as wear masks and follow social-distancing mandates for mutual protection.

Still, it’s been all too easy to see lack, scarcity, and insufficiency on many levels. Much of the news and social media has gotten focused on these – almost to the exclusion of all else.

It doesn’t take too close a look, however, to see the artifice in most of the messages of lack, scarcity, and insufficiency. Most of those screaming loudest about this have an abundance of things. So how is the lack they claim anything but a lie?

How you and I see and approach life, the Universe, and everything is a personal choice. We get to choose if we see life as full of improbability and insufficiency or potential and possibilities.

I strive to see life as full of potential and possibilities.

I am not wearing rose-colored glasses

Too many examples of positivity are toxic. They ignore the truth of the existence of negativity and its necessity. People see positivity as overwrought, ludicrous, and Pollyanna.

But that’s not true positivity. Positivity, in its real form, is a choice of attitude and approach. It’s deciding that you seek out potential and possibilities and positives in and for your life experience.

I have plenty of bad days. There are lots of times I get flustered because it feels like I’m struggling. Bad things happen and put me in a lousy mood.

I’m only human, after all. This is common. But I strive to practice mindfulness – and as such, I work to see the world as full of potential and possibilities.

Each of us is but one of 7.8 billion people on Planet Earth. All of us have a unique perception of reality, and individual life experiences. Even with that many people in the world – there is more than enough abundance and positivity to go around.

How very Pollyanna of me, right? Here’s the thing – every single one of us gets to choose our life approach. Our thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions can be shifted, altered, changed, and controlled by each of us alone. Thus, how we take on the world is up to each of us individually.

We get to choose if we see the world as full of potential and possibilities – or improbability and insufficiencies. Approach it all as abundant or lacking. That’s regularly up to each of us.

I know that for all the experiences I have had, everything I’ve seen and learned – there is way more potential and possibilities for me.

What are the potentials and possibilities I see?

While on the one hand, it’s a small world – on the other, it’s utterly vast.

I have never crossed an ocean. Sure, I’ve been to 43/50 states and seen multiple parts of Canada and Mexico. But I have not visited another continent – and know that the potential and possibilities for that to inspire me are incredible.

I got my first personal computer in 1985 – an Apple IIe. It had 128k of memory. My iPhone is maybe 1/64th the size of my first computer, but exponentially more powerful. My first car didn’t have adaptive cruise control, a backup camera, or forward collision alert. Only the most skilled professional chefs had immersion circulators for precise cooking 10 years ago.

How can you not wonder at the potential and possibilities for technologies in the future? While for centuries there was nary a change – now it shifts almost too fast to be kept up with.

I read every single morning – fiction and nonfiction. Everything that I read presents a new experience, learning opportunity, and a chance to gain knowledge and understanding I may never have considered before. That’s endless potential and possibilities.

Every new person I meet will be in and out of my life in one way or another. Some will be simply passing by while others will impact me greatly. That’s just incredible when you think about it.

The things I share – fiction and nonfiction alike – can impact other people in positive ways. I have the potential and possibility to be a force for good in the empowerment, inspiration, and imagination of others. Can that be anything but representative of potential and possibilities?

That’s what I see. I don’t know about you – but that excites me and inspires me to no end. That excitement and inspiration are empowering.

Photo by Uriel Soberanes on UnsplashPositivity empowers

Excitement and inspiration are tools of positivity. They are great representatives of potential and possibilities, too.

When you approach life, the Universe, and everything from a place of negativity, lack, scarcity, and the like – you disempower yourself. Those downer sensations drain all the energy within us and are disheartening.

Positivity, on the other hand, empowers. Seeing the potential and possibilities and abundance of the Universe – and all it has to offer – raises us up. It makes us feel like there are lots of things good to be found, discovered, and experienced for all.

If you believe that there is not enough of this, that, or the other thing to go around – you feel terrible. It feels as if everything is a struggle and upsetting.

It’s very hard to get over this mindset. And because we live in a fear-based society – the ideas of lack and scarcity dominate the collective consciousness. Because most people choose not to be consciously aware and practice mindfulness – they fall in line with the collective and see the bad way easier than potential and possibilities.

But we are not here to struggle. Humankind is not on this Earth to toil, shrink, and be otherwise controlled by others. We are each capable of almost anything we put our minds to.

The only reason this is not the dominant thought in the collective consciousness is that many of those “in power” fear losing their power by empowering others. So, they keep up the narrative and fear-base to keep the rest of us towing their line.

I see potential and possibilities for everyone. That’s not without knowledge or acknowledgment that bad things do happen. It’s a choice to focus on finding and/or creating better and working from the bad to have and experience good.

Recognizing incredible potential and possibilities isn’t hard

It begins with mindfulness of our thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.

Knowing that it is our fear-based society and its collective consciousness that’s the lie, we can see the artifice of the lack, scarcity, and insufficiency. When we choose for ourselves an abundance mentality – and seek to find and/or create incredible potential and possibilities – that ultimately empowers us all.

When you are empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that gets reflected and spreads to other people. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity – a feedback loop everyone can take part in.

Then, together, we build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That becomes the impetus to improve our lives for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate even more positivity and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of pure positivity. That positivity can generate even greater positive energies – and that is ultimately empowering for all.

Everyone is worthy and deserving of all the good we desire. 

This is the four hundred and fourth entry of my Positivity series. It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.

Please visit here to explore all of my published works – both fiction and non-fiction.

Please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter. Fill in the info and click the submit button to the right and receive a free eBook.

The post See Incredible Potential and Possibilities for Life as Much as I Do? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Fear on My Path – Walk Right Into it or Run Away?

You choose if fear controls you or you control it.

Photo by Patrick Mueller on Unsplash

I am about to do something slightly terrifying.

What is it? I’m going to take a step into the unknown. I’m doing something that is financially risky – but has the potential to be incredible.

This is really scary. It’s bringing up a lot of my deep-seated fears, which can be dangerous when I allow them to control me.

Like every other thought and feeling – fear is under my control. It’s my decision if I allow it to rule me or not.

Fear is not just a feeling – it’s much broader than that. It’s an inexplicable sensation that – despite being intangible – feels tangible. I think that’s because it isn’t just in heart, head, or spirit – it’s in all three at the same time.

What that means is that your mind, body, and spirit all encounter and cope with fear – or not. That’s how it goes beyond just a thought and feeling – and into a deeper attitude and approach to life, the Universe, and everything.

Tangible fear is easy to understand and work with. A direct threat to your life – an oncoming car, rushing wild animal, active shooter – is an obvious threat. I don’t know about you, but just reading those three different threats is disconcerting.

Intangible fear is hard to understand and work with. Its origin is frequently mysterious, its impact variable, and unlike direct threats to your health and wellbeing, the result of an intangible fear realized is uncertain and unknown.

As we walk our paths in life – we will encounter fear. The question is – walk into it or run away?

Do you know what you’re afraid of?

I am loath to share why the thing I am about to do is terrifying me. Why? Because it’s one of those things I recently wrote about maintaining my mindset for. Talking about it, writing about it, and putting it out there empowers this fear. I would rather not give it that power.

Worrying about lack, scarcity, and insufficiency can turn into conscious creation. And I have no desire to manifest what I am afraid of. It’s another way I set myself up for self-sabotage.

Truth be told, this is not something that will end my life. More than anything, what I am fearing here is not the thing itself – but the potential for suffering should the worst happen.

In the very wise words of Paulo Coelho from The Alchemist,

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.”

What he leaves out is this isn’t a message for the heart alone. The mind and spirit need to acknowledge it, too.

I know the suffering I am afraid of here. And I also know that so long as I empower it – and run away from it – I’ll suffer. Just thinking about suffering is a cause of suffering that we often don’t recognize for what it is.

Thus, aware and mindful, I am going to walk right into my fear and take the leap.

As naturalist John Burrows said (also known as a Zen saying),

“Leap and the net will appear.”

When you know what you’re afraid of – you become empowered to walk into it or run away from it.

Confronting fear

I majorly dislike being afraid. Because it impacts heart, mind, and soul, it’s exceptionally distressing. If it were just a thought or feeling, I believe it would be much easier to cope with. But since fear is much more – it can be seriously infuriating.

What’s more – we live in a fear-based society. Everywhere you go – online, in-person, or wherever – it engulfs you. Some is nuanced and not obvious (advertising), while some is often literally shouting at you (politics). Fear dominates the narrative and the collective consciousness as such.

Because of this – recognizing and acknowledging fear is a challenge. Since it’s largely intangible, often it appears as something else. Messages of lack, scarcity, missing out, insufficiency, not measuring up, and the like don’t look like messages of fear – but that’s what they play on.

Most intangible fears come down to fear of suffering. If X, Y, or Z comes to pass, you’ll suffer. And the idea of suffering is – at its root – fear.

To confront any fear, we need to recognize it. When we do – we can confront it.

Nearly all intangible fears – the vast majority of what we’re afraid of – won’t result in anything permanent like death and disfigurement. A broken heart sucks a lot – but you can and will survive it, no matter how awful it is.

I recognize that seems a bit cold and calculating. Maybe it is. But because of how fear soaks into our core and impacts head, heart, and soul – reason and logic are the best means to combat it.

These are the ultimate tools to combat fear.

Photo by Eugene Triguba on UnsplashReason and logic overcome fear

One of the key factors of intangible fear is that it tends to be illogical, sometimes going so far as to be irrational.

When you choose to be mindful and work with conscious reality creation, you will inadvertently encounter fear on any chosen path. This will happen no matter what plans you make. It’s a natural part of everyone’s life experience.

Thus, you face a choice. Walk into fear or run away from it?

We all know how to run away. That’s instinctual. But when the fear is intangible – and not right there before you, threatening your life – you have far more options.

One of the best ideas I’ve encountered for this comes from Frank Herbert’s Dune. I present, the Litany Against Fear:

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

This litany is reasonable and logical – which is why it’s a perfect tool to overcome what we’re afraid of.

Tangible fear manifests very differently from the intangible. The tangible is a threat to your life and wellbeing. The intangible tends to be about being afraid of the suffering you might experience.

You choose if fear controls you or you control it. I am facing mine in this present situation by walking into it and taking control over it.

The more we face our fears, the easier they become to overcome. This is not easy. But I believe it’s utterly worthwhile.

Do you apply logic and reason in the face of your intangible fears?

This is the five-hundred and fourteenth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.

Please take a moment to subscribe to my mailing list. Fill in the info and click the sign-up button to the right and receive your free eBook. Thank you!

The post Fear on My Path – Walk Right Into it or Run Away? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Is Positivity More Than a Feeling – But Rather, an Attitude?

Positivity is more broadly defined than just a feeling – it is a whole attitude and approach.

Photo by Japheth Mast on Unsplash

How we experience life is a matter of attitude and approach.

This is a choice every single one of us gets to make every day. Hence why it can be utterly subjective and highly variable.

Trouble is, people often don’t see that their overall approach isn’t neutral – but tends to be positive OR negative.

And often – because of how we’re inundated by downer news and information – negative dominates our subconscious thought processes.

However – we have the power to take control of this. We can choose to work with mindfulness to be empowered to decide if we prefer to be approaching life through positivity or negativity.

First, though, we need to recognize that we have the power.

You control your approach and attitude

Though it often feels like this is not true – you, ultimately, control your overall approach and attitude in your daily life.

I know that it regularly seems like that’s total bullshit. But it IS the truth.

How can that be? Because when all is said and done, YOU are the only one in control of you.

What does that mean? It means that when it comes to how you approach life and your chosen overall attitude – you are in control.

How do you take that control? Mindfulness.

In the simplest terms – you’re the only one inside your head.

What that means is that you’re the only one thinking your thoughts, feeling your feelings, intending and acting as you do. Nobody else can do any of this for you. It’s all on you alone.

Mindfulness is your conscious awareness, here and now, of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.

That conscious awareness will tell you if you are in a positive or negative headspace/mindset/attitude.

However, please note this: It is never one-and-done. Moods change and shift, the unexpected will change your attitude and approach, and various situations and experiences will impact you regularly.

And – it is impossible to be positive ALL THE TIME.

True positivity isn’t toxic

Many things happen over which we have ZERO control. We get fired, dumped, blamed, disparaged, and otherwise treated poorly. People disappoint us, betray us, make mistakes, and even die. And there isn’t a damned thing we can do about this.

That’s why it’s impossible to be positive all the time. Because bad things WILL happen that we cannot control. But after those things happen – how long we hold onto them and allow them to dominate our mindset/headspace/psyche is wholly up to us.

However, this requires mindfulness. Because when we’re not mindful, it’s our subconscious that does the driving.

What does that mean?

It means that when we’re inundated by negatives and don’t work to be consciously aware of them – they can dominate our subconscious. Before you know it, you’re thinking about negativity and feeling bad about life, the Universe, and everything.

It takes very little time on social media to encounter negativity. Upsetting memes are everywhere, people are constantly sharing terrible political happenings, stories of scary world occurrences, and so on. What’s more, lots of people innocuously share their lousy experiences and doings – not realizing that they are contributing to the negative collective consciousness.

This is why I choose not to share minor bad things that I experience, spend less and less time on social media, and focus on positivity, conscious reality creation, and mindfulness. Because doing so is a choice on my part to not be an added source of negativity in this world.

I know bad things happen. And I do feel negativity plenty. But I choose not to focus on that – lest I use it as my conscious reality creator. Or worse – a subconscious creator.

Photo by Brittani Burns on UnsplashYou create your reality – consciously or subconsciously

I know that it can be super hard to believe – but like it or not, you create your own reality.

Every single person on Earth has their own perspective on reality. It’s colored by who, what, where, how, and all other elements that make us up. Hence why some people appear to live in a reality wickedly different (and seemingly surreal) from our own.

Yet you are the master and creator of your life experience. You have more power than you realize to control what life is like for you. Often, that gets lost because it seems simultaneously both too simple and too complicated to believe.

But we are all empowered to create reality. Specifically, our own, personal life experience.

When we don’t do that consciously, we do it subconsciously.

What does that mean? It means that when you don’t work with mindfulness to be consciously aware – here and now – you let your subconscious mind take the wheel. Life lives you – and you experience its happenings from the passenger seat.

If you are not mindful of the info you’re taking in – and you’re overwhelmed with negativity – you wind up in a negative place.

This is why positivity is more than a feeling. It’s an entire experience that dominates our wellness and wellbeing – if we choose to be cognizant of it. When we don’t – unless we are being careful about what we consume – odds are that negativity is dominating our experience.

It’s good to be aware of the bad things in the world. We need negativity to recognize and appreciate positivity. But it needn’t be our primary, overarching life experience.

We choose if life is all doom and gloom – or instead, potential and possibility. I know which I prefer. What about you?

Recognizing an attitude of positivity isn’t hard

It begins with mindfulness of our thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.

Knowing that positivity is not just a feeling, but a whole attitude and approach, we can see how that impacts our life experience. When we work to take a more positive approach, be consciously aware and mindful of this – we open ourselves to greater potential and possibility. And that ultimately empowers us all.

When you are empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that gets reflected and spreads to other people. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity – a feedback loop everyone can take part in.

Then, together, we build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That becomes the impetus to improve our lives for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate even more positivity and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of pure positivity. That positivity can generate even greater positive energies – and that is ultimately empowering for all.

Everyone is worthy and deserving of all the good we desire. 

This is the four hundred and third entry of my Positivity series. It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.

Please visit here to explore all of my published works – both fiction and non-fiction.

Please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter. Fill in the info and click the submit button to the right and receive a free eBook.

The post Is Positivity More Than a Feeling – But Rather, an Attitude? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Can We Make Choices to Work with and Through Negative Emotions?

Negative emotions are unavoidable. But we can choose to work with and through them.Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Negative emotions: everyone has them, feels them, and experiences them. How that manifests for me is not how it manifests for you. But in our own way, we each experience this.

I started my day with enthusiasm and positive anticipation for what was coming. My morning reading ritual started got underway – but then, noting the time, I had to end it early to post my blog and prep myself for a Zoom call.

Got that done. Great. Forced myself to take my morning walk. This was largely good – but autumn is here, and I was chilled for most of it.

Got home, had breakfast, and considered my next move. This blog needed to be written. Meditate, see if a topic comes to me.

I chose to sit on the deck in the sun. It was warm enough, now. But my YouTube meditation vid began with a political commercial – which angered me. Then, the landscapers started all their mowers and blowers at the same time. I tried to stay with my meditation – but then a bee landed on my skin, causing me to snap back to the moment to shake it off.

Bothered, I couldn’t return to my meditative state. I decided to get back to my office and get to work.

I responded to some emails, then contemplated multiple distractions. But no matter what I did, I couldn’t shake the negativity.

Still without a topic for this article, I pondered the feeling of despair I had. Then, a quote from Paulo Coelho’s Brida came to mind,

“When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.”

That restored missing clarity.

How?

Recognize that any path has challenges

For years, I’ve been working on my life philosophy. Pathwalking – choosing and walking the path that feels the most genuine and right to and for me.

As my philosophy has gained more and more definition over the years, I’ve been working to better recognize and understand the underlying tenets of it.

MindfulnessPositivityConscious reality creation

All three of these tenets are essential to choosing to live life on my terms. Without them and their practice, I might as well stop working to live life and instead just let life live me.

Though each of these ideas is mutually exclusive – like the more common tenets of religion, morality, and spirituality – together, they offer the clearest paths for our lives.

Yet as the Coelho quote points out – disappointment, defeat, and despair all will be found on the paths we traverse.

Today, for example, negative emotions related to multiple factors are eating at me. Seeing that political ad got me thinking about all the things way, way outside of my control that bothers me. This brings on a feeling of despair.

As I prepare my next novel for publishing next week, I looked at my sales totals for this year. Despite my efforts – they are disappointing.

Together, combined with other factors I’d rather not manifest by sharing – I am feeling a bit defeated.

But I know that I have found my path. And I must not be afraid. Mistakes are an everyday part of life – and all the factors the Coelho quote shares are not telling me to stop. Quite the opposite.

The message here is to accept what we cannot control, bad is unavoidable – but we can choose to walk through it time and again.

Negative emotions are not bad

I’ve written a couple of times about the matter of toxic positivity. The main issue is that – while positivity is good because it offers a positive perspective – toxic positivity tries to negate the negative.

We must have negative emotions to truly experience good ones. The Universe is full of paradoxes – yin and yang, black and white, up and down, and so on. We need both equally.

Negative emotions are a part of life. And they are not bad because they can serve to empower us further.

Sometimes, when I feel bad – after the initial visceral feeling – I am fueled to take action. Maybe I get it into my head to say, “That’s enough of this bullshit. I’m going to act for my own good!”

For those who don’t choose to wake up and live life to the fullest – people who merely exist day to day and follow the herd, letting life live them – it appears an easier path. And maybe, for some, it truly is.

But if it was the easier path – how come so many on it find nothing but things to complain about? How come they all seek a way off that path without truly looking for another?

A perfect example of this comes from a political issue. “Obamacare.” Some want it gone. But do they offer anything to replace it with? No. And that’s the equivalent of removing a path but not offering another in its place. How does that do anyone any good at all?

This is why Coelho says, “When you find your path, you must not be afraid.” Because choosing for yourself is not easy.

But even on the worst day – this path I have chosen is better than all prior attempts I made to follow the herd.

Photo by Samuel Clara on UnsplashHow the tenets of Pathwalking handle negative emotions

The underlying tenets of my Pathwalking philosophy recognize that shit happens. Life is never just a path of awesomeness. There will be bad times, lousy experiences, and situations we’d seriously prefer to avoid.

This is where the tenets of my philosophy come into play.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is conscious awareness. It is knowing, here and now, where, what, why, how, who, and when you are. It’s engaging your conscious mind, which opens you to recognize and acknowledge yourself in the only time that’s real – the present.

When you are mindful, you are consciously aware of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions. That informs you of your conscious mindset/headspace/psyche self. That, in turn, lets you see your ego – which is in many respects how you project yourself to the outside world – and your subconscious mind.

Mindfulness lets you see your values, beliefs, and habits – which all live in your subconscious.

That informs you of who, what, where, why, how, and when you are.

Positivity

Once you are working with the conscious awareness of mindfulness, you can see your approach to life. Do you come at it from a place of negativity or positivity?

If your life is dominated by negative emotions – and you feel you’re not good enough, are lacking, are unworthy, undeserving, and the like – that’s a negative perspective and approach. Mindfulness is the open door for you to walk through to change it.

Choosing to take a positive approach means you seek, find, and/or create ways to deal with the negatives to build positives. See opportunity in a crisis. Hope in despair. Possibility and potential rather than impossibility and failure.

Choosing positivity over negativity via mindfulness ultimately empowers.

Conscious reality creation

We create our realities. And if we are not conscious of this – we do so subconsciously.

This is why if you’re not mindful – nor working with positivity – you can easily find yourself in a position you’d rather not be. Negative emotions, bad happenings, lousy situations, and a sense of overall doom and gloom will draw that to you.

Believe it or not, the Law of Attraction is a law of nature. And it’s as impartial as the Law of Motion, Law of Gravity, and so forth. When you are conscious of this – you can work with it to draw to your life what you seek.

When we don’t work with conscious reality creation – we create subconsciously. And that means things that happen to and around us impact us sometimes more than they should.

This in no way, shape, or form denies that negative emotions and bad things happen. Of course, they do. That’s life. But once they occur – this is how we move past them. It’s the decision to walk our chosen path and get through all the obstacles, challenges, obstructions, and other fear-inducing matters that will arise.

Negative emotions are unavoidable. But we can choose how long they hold onto us, and how to work with and through them. There are innumerable paths with amazing possibilities and potential beyond our wildest imaginations when we have the courage to walk them.

Are you choosing to live life or let life live you?

This is the five-hundred and thirteenth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.

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The post Can We Make Choices to Work with and Through Negative Emotions? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.