M.J. Blehart's Blog, page 52

Giving Empowers Positivity

There is huge positivity in giving tangible and intangible things – giving empowers via a two-way street.

A lot of people think of giving in the material. Giving time, money, donations, and other energetic matter.

But giving is just as powerful – if not, in some ways, more powerful – when it’s immaterial.

You can give immaterial things. This includes smiles, compliments, helpful (solicited) suggestions and advice, and other things that cost you nothing.

But the most powerful thing you can give is gratitude.

All of these and more don’t just empower and increase positivity for other people. Each and every one of these notions come back to you. When you give positive things – in whatever form they take – you get them back.

Let’s break this down and take a close look at examples, ideas, and see how giving empowers positivity.

Giving empowers positivity via material things

There are so very many ways to give in a material, tangible way, that massively empower positivity.

The most obvious are time and money.

Money may take the form of a donation, a loan, buying a meal for someone, purchasing gifts, and so on. You can use money to acquire materials. That lets you build things for people like scarves, needlepoints, etcetera.

When you do this just because – or as a gift with zero expectation – it empowers positivity. Who doesn’t like to get good, thoughtful things from people? Especially people they care about?

This generates gratitude, which is ALWAYS positive. That, in turn, empowers the person you gave to by opening them to gratitude. Then, it further empowers you when you receive gratitude.

Giving time can be a bit more difficult to measure. Some people think that most – or all – of their time must be given away to create good. But that’s not true. When it comes to giving your time, you need to have the energy to give it openly, freely, and without sacrifice. Otherwise, you risk creating resentment because you haven’t anything left for yourself.

Giving time can be great or small. A moment to say “thank you” for something counts. Sending a quick smile via messenger to let someone know you are thinking about them is worthwhile. On the other side, taking someone on a cross-country road trip can empower you both.

Whether it is time, energy, or things you give – doing so from a place of mindfulness is important. That means you are consciously aware, at the moment, of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions. Then you KNOW that your focus is to empower and generate positivity – whatever it is you are giving.

The infinitesimal immaterial things for giving

When it comes to the immaterial, the number of things you can be giving to empower positivity are uncountable.

This includes things like compliments, holding doors open, signaling turns, letting someone with two items get in line ahead of you, and anything else of that nature that takes almost no time and no energy. Unlike the material – these are often discounted and overlooked for just how empowering they are.

You might be having a terrible day. Maybe you missed a work deadline, your kids are making you crazy, and you just feel lost. You go to the store to grab a sandwich. As you walk out, someone – unprompted – holds open the door and says “have a nice day.” Or – when we’re not all wearing masks in the middle of a pandemic – gives you a genuine, pleasant smile.

I don’t know about you – but I always appreciate such simple gestures. That appreciation is a form of gratitude – which is ALWAYS a matter of positivity.

Thus, that small, immaterial thing has empowered positivity. And all the little bits like this that happen frequently add up. So, you build more and greater positivity – which empowers you.

What’s more, when YOU are the giver of these things you empower yourself. You have shared positive energy – which feels good. And for all you know, holding that door made that person feel like they were special on a day they were feeling anything but. Thus, the two-way street of giving immaterial positivity.

Giving empowers – whether you give positivity that’s material or immaterial – tangible or intangible – it tends to generate gratitude.

Gratitude from and for giving empowers positivity

There are no ifs, ands, or buts about this. Gratitude – whether you give it or receive it – empowers. It’s also always a creator of positivity.

To clarify – this is true gratitude. Not sarcastic, not false, not that “thanks a lot” or ironically intoned “thank you”. No, this is actual gratitude. Saying, feeling, and MEANING thanks.

Giving feels good. Especially when you give from a place of no expectation. I’m not giving you the cookie or the smile because I want or expect something in return. I’m giving you what I am giving you because I desire to – and it makes me feel good to do so.

Whatever I might have – tangible or intangible – that I can share – I will. I love to share my ideas (which is why this article is here), my imagination (pay a visit to Amazon and see the novels I have published), and gifts. One of the reasons I desire to have more money is not so I can get myself things – it’s so I can buy more things for other people.

For example – I have, on multiple occasions, given food or drink to someone homeless. I even once went into a Mcdonald’s and bought a meal for a homeless man outside asking if someone would buy him food. All I got in return was a thank you – and I would have still felt good about what I did even if he’d not thanked me.

Gratitude given or received empowers positivity, That’s because gratitude is ALWAYS a generator of positivity. I love giving thanks for things because it feels good to do so. But I also love to be thanked for things because it feels good, too.

Why empower positivity via giving?

We are inundated constantly with messages of people taking rather than giving. Further, there are seemingly unending messages of lack, scarcity, and insufficiency being beamed at us.

Giving is an act of abundance. Tangible or intangible, you give from a place of having more than enough – and that generates gratitude and positivity. In a world where we’re being shown negative on top of negative – all the positivity we can find and/or create matters.

Turning a fear-based society to a reason-based society starts with each of us individually. Thus, to change the world for the better it starts small. It’s a matter of your world versus THE world. The more you work with this the more you can impact and improve THE world.

Using giving to empower positivity is an incredible tool to make the world better. So long as you are mindful about your thoughts and feelings and the positivity of them when you give – you empower yourself and whoever you are giving to. I don’t know about you – but more of that in the world sounds damned good to me.

Giving for empowering positivity isn’t hard

But it requires mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intent.

Knowing that giving empowers positivity – whether what you give is tangible or intangible – opens you to take further actions for generating more positivity. When you give and empower you generate gratitude – both for what you gave and the feeling of the giving – which is very much a two-way street that ultimately empowers you.

When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that gets reflected and can spread to people around you. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity.

You build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That can be the impetus to improve numerous aspects of your life for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of immense positivity. That positivity can generate even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile. You are worthy and deserving of all the good you desire.

This is the three-hundred and sixty-second 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 Giving Empowers Positivity appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

How Do You Stop Tripping Over Self-Made Obstacles?

Tripping over your own two feet along a given path is usually an inside job – and under your control.

I love to overthink.

When it comes to just about anything you can imagine I’m super good at overthinking things.

Thoughts, ideas, concepts, notions – I churn through them lots and lots. I tend to run through a multitude of scenarios and “what ifs” at the speed of the Millennium Falcon making the Kessel Run.

Often, this all happens right at the start. I see the issue or idea, then approach it from multiple angles, consider possibilities and probabilities. Then I guess at outcomes and start plans and plots – all in the span of a few heartbeats.

This, unsurprisingly, causes tripping over myself due to unseen obstacles wholly of my making.

Are you familiar with the saying that it’s difficult to walk and chew gum at the same time? That’s what this is akin to. Walking (literally or figuratively) and deep thinking at the same time can be complicated.

Why? Because thoughts lead to feelings – whether you acknowledge them or not. Thoughts get you in touch with your inner being – your mindset/headspace/psyche. But sometimes your inner being isn’t fully conscious and is relying on subconscious and unconscious beliefs and habits to drive the bus.

When you are, on the one hand, trying to take control – while on the other hand, ceding control – it’s easy to start tripping over things.

This can be impacted by outside influences, inside influence, and whether you’re being mindful or not.

Outside influences and thinking

Things are happening in the world right now that are super distressing.

Let’s see – COVID-19 and people reacting selfishly and idiotically towards dealing with it. Politicians potentially wiping their asses with the US Constitution because their side lost the Presidential election. Parents at their wits end over schooling during the pandemic. And all the uncertainty that these things are producing is maddening.

One of the most annoying things about this is the truth. I can’t do jack shit. Or rather, I can only do my little part – which I am doing – and not much else. I voted, I wear a mask in public and social distance, and try to wake people up about this inanity through my writing.

It FEELS like I should be doing more. How come I can’t have a bigger influence on these influences? Because they are so far removed from my life that they only impact me as much as I allow them to.

And that’s the problem. I am allowing them to have WAY TOO MUCH impact on my mindset/headspace/psyche. This is why, for the past few days, I’ve restricted myself to only checking Facebook a few times a day – and then, only for 5 minutes at a time.

By not eating the unhealthy potato chips of Facebook constantly – I am consciously striving to lessen how much information I’m absorbing. Five minutes, I’m finding, is enough time to check on groups I’m a part of, see what my friends are up to, and feel that I am still in the loop.

I’m also working on being mindful of where my thoughts ARE – but I will cover this in-depth later in this article.

Outside influences are beyond our control. Thus, we need to focus instead on the inside influences.

Tripping over inside influences

You have three parts to your inner being – that which you call your self. The conscious mind, the subconscious mind, and the unconscious mind.

The unconscious mind is what keeps your heart beating, neurons firing, nerves being nervy, and so forth. It is connected to both the conscious and unconscious mind – but does 98% of its works solely in the background.

The subconscious mind is the bridge between the conscious and unconscious minds. Its work is also about 75% in the background – but almost everything within it can be brought to the foreground. Then it can be examined, explored, changed, and altered.

It is in your subconscious where your beliefs and habits have been rooted. Hence why you do certain things by rote and on autopilot. They are based on ongoing habits and long-held beliefs.

But this gets sticky when your subconscious mind absorbs like a sponge. All the data that you take in on any given day, in your lifetime of experiences, and through your senses, lodges into your subconscious. If you don’t examine it via the conscious mind – it can plant roots and create all kinds of things for you to be tripping over.

A lot of the feelings that are within your subconscious mind may not resonate with you. They can be the product of your reaction to outside influences. They can also be the product of old, outdated beliefs you have held subconsciously since your childhood.

The subconscious mind will unwittingly influence you and cause you to keep tripping over things. That is unless you apply your conscious mind to work on those hazards.

That is where mindfulness comes into play.

Mindfulness and the conscious mind

Your conscious mind is your present mind. It is how you are aware of where you’re at, what you’re doing, and the environment you’re presently within.

Mindfulness is the awareness of your conscious mind. To be in touch with your inner being, your perception of the world around you employs mindfulness. It begins on the surface, via sensory input through your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions. That informs your inner being – your mindset/headspace/psyche – about the here-and-now.

In addition to being a part of the world you inhabit where you are right now, your conscious mind has the power to delve into your subconscious mind. In there, it can explore, examine, find, alter, and change beliefs and habits.

Your subconscious mind is accessed for control via your conscious mind.

That’s the most important part of mindfulness. By practicing being mindful, you become aware of yourself and all you are presently experiencing. Additionally, you can be aware of your inner self and how you are both presently and previously impacted by it all. Then – you can control it.

You are not the plaything of your subconscious mind – unless you allow that to be your reality. YOU have the power to be in control, direct, change, and alter yourself on the subconscious level. Mindfulness – and being in touch with your conscious mind – is how you do that.

When you are not working with your conscious mind and practicing mindfulness, you tend to be tripping over your own two feet. Or, really, misfiring or firing the wrong neurons in your brain.

How to stop tripping over yourself

The other night, after climbing into bed, my brain took off like a runaway train. It chewed on all sorts of garbage that I have ZERO control over. That, in turn, made me upset, got my heart racing, and forced me out of bed. I needed a distraction to redirect my mindset.

That was a conscious choice.

While I had a terrible night’s sleep after this, I also gained some insight as to what my subconscious mind is chewing over. Hence, it’s up to me to stop tripping over myself by using my conscious mind to regain control.

Here is how I work to stop tripping over myself:

Ask mindfulness questions to get into the now. These include:What am I thinking?What am I feeling?How am I feeling?What am I doing and why am I doing it?Write about it. Journal about it. Put it on paper so that you recognize what it is and why you’re tripping over it.Meditate. I spend 20 minutes a day meditating. But even 5 minutes of deep breathing and being present is sufficient.Rinse and repeat. Asking mindfulness questions can and should happen multiple times during the day. If something is bugging you – writing about it can get it out of your head to stop you from tripping over it. Taking 2 minutes to just breathe deeply can refocus you.

Your process might look very different from mine. Knowing that you have the power to stop tripping over yourself – particularly your self-made obstacles and such – you can better control and direct your life – and choose the paths you desire.

Tripping over your own two feet along a given path is usually an inside job – and under your control.

How do you stop from tripping over your self-made obstacles?

This is the four-hundred and seventy-second exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking 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 along the way. Additionally, I desire to empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.

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

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing, both fiction and nonfiction, is available here.

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 How Do You Stop Tripping Over Self-Made Obstacles? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Getting in Touch with Myself

Practicing mindfulness and digging deep to get in touch with me.

I have been writing about conscious reality creation for years, now. Probably the biggest key to this is the use of mindfulness.

Mindfulness is the awareness, here and now, of your conscious inner being. By being aware of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions you open yourself to your inner being – your mindset/headspace/psyche – and learn just where you are at in the now.

When you know where you are in the now – you can more clearly see where you have been and where you are going. This is important because when you fail to see where you have been you open yourself to repeating past mistakes, poor choices, and various other errors you didn’t fully learn from.

On the other side of that coin, by lacking that understanding of the past and not knowing where you are now, getting to the future gets a lot more challenging than it needs to be. If you don’t know where your inner being is in the here-and-now, finding paths to the future is that much more challenging.

One way to get in touch with your inner, mindful being, is to ask questions like:

What am I thinking?What am I feeling?How am I feeling?What am I doing and why?

I need to make a confession here. Frequently, I am finding when I ask this of myself, the answers are mixed and unclear. Getting in touch with myself has proven more difficult – and I want to share my process with you because I doubt that I am alone in this.

Mindfulness requires work

For me, most of these questions produce multiple answers. Or the answers lead to new questions.

For example, this morning I asked myself – what am I thinking? – The initial answer was unclear, and then I realized I was again thinking about the damned election. That led to more thoughts about garbage over which I have ZERO control – but that gets me angry, upset, and thinking about all the things wrong with people and the world right now.

That’s a lot to unpack. What’s more, it’s a lot of thoughts that are akin to junk food. Potato chips with equal lacking nutritional value.

These thoughts and feelings are not entirely mine. They are an amalgam of what I have been absorbing via the internet and conversations and scrolling through social media. I take it all in – and let it seep into me.

Now that I have seen this, I can work to release them – and focus on getting in touch with myself.

HOWEVER – it is important to be aware of the world without. When you ignore the outside world just for what is within you, important matters can be missed that you should be mindfully aware of.

Not to keep harping on the topic – but if you’re not paying attention to the aftermath of the election you are missing seeing a once great political party giving up on our democracy. And that may be something we can do very little about – but being aware of it still empowers us.

Like most things in life, though, the key is finding the sweet spot between information and inundation. When it becomes junk food and upsets your thoughts, feelings, and actions you need to use mindfulness to retake control.

Hence, why I need to work on getting in touch with myself again.

Getting in touch with myself

One of my biggest issues has been my emotions. In my mid-30s, I had probably the best therapist I’ve ever seen. He and I found some tremendous blocks nobody else had identified before.

The biggest of all was that, around age 6, I cut myself off from most of my emotions. While I could logically tell you what the emotions were, HOW they felt was not familiar to me. Particularly positive emotions. As such, I developed some unhealthy emotional blocks that would impact relationships, jobs, and my overall life trajectory for decades.

Opening myself to my missing emotions was huge. And it resulted in some incredible improvements in my life. Yet, I still have challenges with this because my emotional maturity is so varied.

On the one hand, I have a good handle on myself. But on the other hand, I sometimes must dig deep to find what and how I’m feeling – and what I am truly thinking about.

When I finally got to the root of the answer to the question – what am I thinking? – I saw that I was thinking I was not doing what I should be doing. My thoughts were scattered, and unclear. Mostly, they were simply unfocused and unclear.

This also confused my feelings. I was feeling perturbed, distressed, and annoyed with myself. For someone who preaches this mindfulness stuff, I seem to be rather terrible at it.

Then I stopped and I meditated on it. And by meditated, I mean that I closed my eyes and started looking around inside my head. Why am I here? How come I’m thinking unclearly and feeling lost?

This began a necessary dive into my inner being.

The depths of mindfulness

Once you get inside your own head – to your inner being i.e. your mindset/headspace/psyche – that opens the door to your subconscious.

Which is one of the best reasons to be mindful. Because mindfulness is an all-access pass to your conscious mind – which opens you to gain more insight into your subconscious and unconscious mind.

Diving into my inner being, I started to look back. There’s a pattern from my past when it comes to feeling lost and not thinking clearly. It’s always that fear of abandonment and the need for validation I have a hard time shaking. All of it ties into my deep-seated fear of abandonment.

Important note – while I feel irked and annoyed at this – I am ALSO validating it. Even after all this time, I’m allowed to have this struggle. That doesn’t mean I’m allowed to leave it be and not fix it – just that it’s there, and now it’s my place to fix it.

What it means is that getting in touch with myself, though scary, lets me be who I desire to be. When I am discontent with who I am – this is how I reconcile that. Becoming aware and conscious of my inner being opens me to face head-on the things holding me back.

Important note – this may not be a solo journey. It may be time for me to find a new therapist to get some more help with this. Also, it might be a good idea to start journaling FOR MYSELF again. While there is catharsis in sharing my journey with you, there are aspects that might need exploration that are not yet ready for primetime.

This is an ongoing practice. The end result is the ultimate control of where I am and where I desire to go.

Getting in touch with myself isn’t hard

It requires mindfulness of my thoughts, feelings, actions, and intent.

I am practicing mindfulness and digging deep to get in touch with myself. And that is a matter of positivity because self-knowledge is positive and empowering. Knowing that mindfulness lets me be present and reconcile where I have been with where I am, I open myself to better choices and decisions to get me to where I desire to be in the future.

When you work on getting in touch with your conscious self and becoming more aware through mindfulness – that ultimately empowers you.

When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that gets reflected and can spread to people around you. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity.

You build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That can be the impetus to improve numerous aspects of your life for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of immense positivity. That positivity can generate even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile. You are worthy and deserving of all the good you desire.

This is the three-hundred and sixty-first 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 Getting in Touch with Myself appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Balance for Yourself and Those You Love

Nobody is truly alone in this life. There needs to be balance for yourself and for those you love.

The paths I have chosen to take for my life are mine alone. They have similarities to the paths others take – but they are still unique to me.

However – I am not a single solitary figure. I have a wife, friends, and family I love deeply, and various people and responsibilities I have taken on. So, while living my life by my own design is important – I can’t neglect the people who hold pieces of my heart along the way.

Probably the single biggest mistake made by people who take their approach to the Law of Attraction from The Secret – ask, believe, receive – is that while your path is for you alone – you’re not alone in the world. In the process of conscious reality creation, you cannot force others your way.

Trying to force people to your way of thinking and into accepting your reality will make you miserable. I give you, unfortunately again, Exhibit A: Donald Trump. Do you think if he managed to get the election somehow overturned in his favor, he’d be happy? Not a chance – he’s a bitter, selfish, entitled, angry man and his ire will always get turned somewhere. But I digress.

Your path is important when you desire to take control of your life and consciously create your reality. But unless you have nobody with whom you share pieces of yourself– there is a need to create balance.

This can be super tricky, for a lot of reasons.

What you want versus the “shoulds”

A lot of the ideas of the things you “should” do are based on the expectations of others, society, traditions, and long-held beliefs. However, when they keep you small and stifle your growth and happiness – they need to be reevaluated.

My wife and I come from VERY different familial backgrounds. My family is not terribly close overall. I talk to my mom once a week, sometimes twice – my dad like once a month and my sister once a month. I have very little communication with my aunts, uncles, or cousins.

Her family is VERY close. She talks to her mom several times a day. My wife and her sister speak a few times a week. She is always aware of the doings of her aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Because of the nature of the culture of her family, there is a certain amount of guilt that exists when she feels she’s not doing all that she should be for her family. Admittedly, the culture of my family has the same guilt – but I am less close to them than she is to hers – and it impacts me less.

For me, what I “should” do tends to be wholly focused on how it impacts her and me.

But when it comes to the people I love, I do not desire to ignore them or leave them in the cold. I recognize my obligations to those who hold pieces of my heart. But since I can live for nobody but me, it’s important to balance this.

Balance, however, may not be equal. It will probably be greater than 50% in your favor.

Striking balance with mindfulness

Mindfulness is your conscious awareness – in the now – of your thoughts, feelings, actions, intentions, and overall inner being. This is where you know what you are thinking, what and how you are feeling, the intent and why of your actions, and your overall headspace/mindset/psyche.

When you practice mindfulness, you can see how anything you do will impact the other people in your life. If you are moving against one of the “shoulds” you’ll be able to see if the guilt you feel is internal or external.

Further, once you know where the thoughts and feelings of guilt are coming from, you can evaluate them. Are you having a true, potentially permanent negative impact on those you love – or – a temporary one that will let you love them more?

How does that work? When someone holds you back from growth and becoming it builds resentment. Resentment is how relationships crumble. What’s more, it removes balance within as you second-guess and self-sabotage what you do to attempt to preempt guilt and resentment.

Yes, it is a vicious circle.

When you are mindful you are conscious of the now. At this moment, you’re aware of yourself. That will open you to creating the necessary balance if it’s lacking.

This leads to the inevitable question about selfishness.

Defining selfishness

Self-care – in the sense of being genuine, practicing mindfulness, and living your life for you – is never selfish. You have one chance in your present meat-suit to experience all this life has to offer. Your potential and the possibilities are only limited by your beliefs. Which can be altered, changed, and evolved.

Treating yourself well by caring for your mind, body, and spirit is not selfish. You cannot live for anyone else. This body is the only one you have. Self-care is not selfish.

Selfish is doing something that knowingly causes harm. It’s acting with intent and malice of forethought. While some acts of self-care can cause harm – in making those you love feel bad – that’s not on you. It feels like it is – but it’s not.

I was in a situation recently where I knew that someone I loved would be hurt by something I did. However, I didn’t intend to hurt them – but the way they process their thoughts and feelings – and my knowledge of that – told me they’d be hurt. But it was a necessary thing for my wellbeing – and I did what I needed to do.

This was not selfish. I have no control over how they feel, and it would have been unfair to ignore my own needs – both to them and me.

This would have been selfish had I not considered their feelings. Or if, In the process, I denied them something. But that was not the case.

An act of selfishness gives no thought to anyone else, knowingly causes harm, and creates lack and/or insufficiency for another. Being selfish involves taking more than your fair share and not caring about how that impacts anyone else.

Hence, an unequal balance between yourself and those you love is not selfish.

Consider the balance

The important thing about finding balance for yourself and those you love is a consideration. Recognizing that you are not alone and that what you do impacts those who share pieces of your heart, you consider them as you choose your paths.

I think, for the most part, my family does not understand the paths I am on. The choices I have made and continue to make for my life tend to confuse some of them. While I care about and love my family – I can’t live my life by their design. It is, after all, MY life.

How many people do you know living their lives to meet someone else’s expectations who are miserable? I know quite a few. Why do they do this? From my experience, it tends to be a combination of guilt, ease, and being in a comfort zone. Ironically, they’re uncomfortable in their comfort zone – but it’s a comfort zone nonetheless because it’s familiar and “safe”.

You’re an amazing conscious reality creator. The path you desire is worthy and deserving of you and you are worthy and deserving of it. Consider the impact of the things you do on the people you love – but balance that against your need to live for you.

Recognize that when you are more content with your life you’re happier and more joyful overall. When you are happier overall you connect better to the world around you. Since you have little to no control over the world around you – all control is vested within you.

Taking that and choosing paths for your life makes you stronger on numerous levels. That strength stretches to your connections – such as the people you share your heart with.

Consider the balance and what that looks like for you and the people you love.

Do you know where your balance points between your life and those you love are?

This is the four-hundred and seventy-first exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking 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 along the way. Additionally, I desire to empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.

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

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing, both fiction and non-fiction, are available here.

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

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *WebsiteSubmit

The post Balance for Yourself and Those You Love appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

The Positivity of Understanding

Now more than ever, there is a tremendous positivity in understanding.

Unfortunately, 2020 has shown that people are frighteningly good at being unreasonable.

For example – those who consider mandatory mask orders and social distancing to be violations of civil liberties. What they are telling me is that efforts to keep more people safe in the middle of an incurable pandemic are unimportant? Do they have some form of immunity so that they can walk around without a mask or practicing social distancing?

Then there’s the election. The incumbent lost. But he is such a sore loser that he can’t accept it. So, he makes up a false narrative, when asked for proof says I AM the proof, and gets people behind him. No proof, no evidence, just a big lie to maintain control – never mind the tremendous damage being done to the democracy.

People are showing themselves to be not just unreasonable, but to have a complete and utter lack of understanding. Things that should be logical and sensible aren’t. People are far too willing to follow demagogues and opinions over science, reason, and understanding.

It is impossible to make anyone practice understanding. Reason and logic seem self-explanatory – yet people refuse them.

And there isn’t a damned thing you or I can do about it.

But we have a choice. You and I get to practice understanding.

That is more powerful than you might realize.

Empowering yourself

It is far, far too easy to get caught up in the bullshit of the world around you. Just spend 10 minutes scrolling through Facebook and/or Twitter and you will be bombarded. Opinions, memes, smart people sharing things idiots shared. Idiots wearing signs so that you know just who they are. And opinions? They’re not like assholes anymore because everyone has way more than one.

Let’s face some sad truths, shall we? Some people legitimately believe, here on the cusp of 2021, that the Earth is flat. Not a joke, they legit believe it. I could offer someone who buys this every single scientific fact to prove that the Earth is round – and they will tell me I am wrong.

When asked to present evidence of the widespread voter fraud Trump and his allies keep screaming about – they have none. None whatsoever. Not a sausage. And yet, people think that they are not getting a fair shake, are being ignored and the election was fraudulent. Despite every piece of reliable proof that it was legit – and Trump simply lost.

What can you do in the face of that? Nothing. You can dig and dig for all the truth you can find to present these people – and you will have wasted time and effort. You can’t get through to them.

What can you do? Take care of yourself. Stop trying to help people unwilling to employ logic, reason, science, and empirical evidence. Just keep learning all that you can.

Knowledge is power. But the only person over whom you have any control is you. That’s why you should focus on empowering yourself.

Learn everything you can. As you learn you gain more and more understanding of more and more things.

The power of understanding

What IS understanding? It’s not the simplicity of a definition, such as Dictionary.com offers here:

noun

mental process of a person who comprehends; comprehension; personal interpretationintellectual faculties; intelligencesuperior power of discernment; enlightened intelligenceknowledge of or familiarity with a particular thing; skill in dealing with or handling somethinga state of cooperative or mutually tolerant relations between people

adjective

characterized by understanding; prompted by, based on, or demonstrating comprehension, intelligence, discernment, empathy, or the like

Comprehension, discernment, empathy with an idea, person, place, or thing. The ability to see something not just for itself, but in-depth. It’s the difference between seeing a noisy hunk of metal and glass on top of round rubber orbs – and seeing a car.

Understanding is not just related to the material world. The immaterial can also be understood. That’s why you can accept the laws of gravity and its ability to hold you to the surface of the planet even though it’s unseen.

Everything you think and feel comes with understanding. You can be met by a thought or feeling that, initially, you don’t understand. The first time you fall in love. When you first get an idea for something you could create. These things are not understood immediately – understanding is, as above, comprehension and discernment.

This is tremendously powerful because the more you have an understanding of things, the more you can alter your frequency and make use of conscious reality creation. Understanding is when you change energy from one form to another.

Understanding is knowledge in your bones. It’s awareness and mindfulness.

The positivity of being in the know

I don’t know about you, but I love being in the know.

There have been times I’ve explored something to one degree or another simply to have some knowledge. I love knowing things. Learning things is exciting. There are so many possibilities in this world and so much potential.

And even things that we are pretty sure about and that we KNOW can change. Some five hundred years ago, everybody KNEW the Earth was the center of the Universe. Then we accepted that not only is the Earth not the center of the Universe, but it’s also not even the center of the galaxy.

Seems silly now, right?

There is a difference between knowing and understanding. I know, intellectually, how a car works and how an airplane flies. But my understanding of these in all their intricacies lacks.

But that’s okay. I am neither a mechanic nor a pilot. Hence, I might need to know, but I don’t need to understand. But you know what I DO need to understand?

Me.

Understanding yourself is the one thing that you can and should practice understanding. Knowledge and comprehension – and yes, empathy – of yourself is important. Why? Because all other knowledge you can gain comes far easier when you know who you are, at the source.

The positivity of this is incalculable. That’s because mindfulness of your conscious self, and understanding what you are thinking, what and how you are feeling, and your overall mindset/headspace/psyche opens you to everything. Knowing who, what, why, and where you are opens the door to finding and/or creating more understanding.

We live in a Universe of infinite abundance. When you shift your attention to your own understanding, that reflects outwards and will let other people see what’s possible for themselves.

Gaining understanding isn’t hard

It requires mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intent.

Knowing that you have a tremendous capacity to build more and more understanding, you can turn your focus inwards rather than wasting time trying to change others. When you work on learning more things and gaining greater understanding of yourself and the world around you, that ultimately empowers you.

When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that gets reflected and can spread to people around you. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity.

You build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That can be the impetus to improve numerous aspects of your life for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of immense positivity. That positivity can generate even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile. You are worthy and deserving of all the good you desire.

This is the three-hundred and sixtieth 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 below and receive a free eBook.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *NameSubmit

The post The Positivity of Understanding appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

This is Your Permission Slip

Because the Universe ultimately gives you permission to choose any path.

There is an unfortunate undercurrent in our society that keeps people down. And it’s made up of some of the most convoluted mixed messages you can imagine.

We are constantly shown how people should “stand up for themselves” and “stand on their own two feet” and “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and the like. Be tough, and strong, and firm. Go to it, go at it, go for it, and be awesome.

BUT – be careful, there is danger everywhere you turn. Also, the number of obstacles you need to overcome are probably totally insurmountable, anyhow. Oh, and if you get too big in the process, you’ll be rejected by the people you care about. And if that’s not enough to discourage you, who the hell are you? Because if you’re not somebody you’re nobody.

Is it any wonder so many people suffer depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues? I’m kind of amazed more people are completely schizophrenic.

It doesn’t help that our so-called leaders don’t care about us – unless we keep them in power. Hence, why people who don’t need it to survive get tax breaks and other handouts but we, the people, get a pittance. Because the forthcoming $600 stimulus is nothing in comparison and rather laughable. But I digress.

Despite the mixed messages, you can be, do, and have anything you desire. Getting clear on just what that is, using mindfulness to get on track to go after it, and then acknowledging that you are worthy and deserving will give you all the tools you need to get there.

But first – you might need permission to make such choices.

This is your permission slip

When you were a kid, your parents had to sign a permission slip so that you could join your classmates on a field trip. Sometimes, to get out of school early for an appointment, again, you needed a permission slip.

Throughout your education, permission slips to step outside of the regularly scheduled program were a requirement. Once you left school, they largely – but not entirely – went away.

To take a vacation, in corporate America, you need permission. Some jobs, due to their nature, blackout times for vacations. Without permission, you can’t have that day off.

So, when you strike out on your own, and you are the only authority in your life – who gives you the permission slips? Where do you get permission to start the business, the relationship, and/or the new venture you want to undertake?

The answer is that permission comes from two places. The Universe. And You.

The Universe

The Universe is mind-bogglingly huge. Like, it’s so huge that humankind still only has discovered 4 percent of the visible Universe. All the best minds have only discovered that teeny, tiny amount of the vastness of the cosmos.

It is a place of abundance, more than enough, and anything and everything you can conceive of. And the Universe IS a living entity. Why? Because, just like every single subatomic aspect of you, the Universe is made of energy.

From the visible to the invisible, the tangible to the intangible, the material to the immaterial, ALL IS ENERGY. Hence, it can be (and has been) manipulated to create anything you can imagine.

Just fifty years ago, cellular telephones didn’t exist. Today, they’ve been replaced by mobile computers exponentially more powerful than a mere voice communication system. People dreamt them up, figured out the how, and now most of us can’t imagine our lives without them.

This is why the Universe has given you permission to walk a path of your choosing. The Universe is abundant and wants to share that abundance with you. It’s just a matter of aligning your energy with what you seek.

The Universe will give you any permission slip you ask of it, no questions asked, no stipulations – just match your energy with it.

You

This is the most difficult person to get permission from. You are your harshest critic, largest skeptic, and most difficult person to convince of your worth and deserving. When it comes to allowing steps outside of your comfort zone and new and bold choices, you are the toughest person to get them by.

But you may be asking, isn’t this my idea to start this relationship, open this business, or take the bold step I intend? Yes – but it’s a new, different, and frankly scary request. It will pull you out of your comfort zone – and you, at your core, like to be in comfort.

You need to remember this. Because you need to give yourself permission to do this.

If it helps – and I am not kidding here – write up an actual, factual, permission slip. Hell, it can be as simple as this:

I, *insert your name here*, give you permission to *insert the desired goal here*

                                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                                                *sign here*

Silly? Maybe – but it does no harm to actually, factually, give yourself permission to walk whatever path you would desire to.

Now that you have permission from the Universe and YOU, the next steps are as follows:

Get clear on what you want

You think you know what you want. So, you ask for it. But is it REALLY what you want?

For example – I want a million dollars! Great. Sure, very useful. But let’s take a closer look at this.

If you currently earn $40,000.00 a year, $1,000,000.00 is 25 times as much money. That’s exponentially more. It’s huge. And you simply may not be able to conceive of it.

Because you cannot conceive of 25 times more money in your life than you have now, this is too abstract. Also, to be honest, it’s equally too limiting. You need to get clear on what you truly want this for.

For example, I want to owe money on nothing. Debt-free! I’d like to have enough money to pay for things outright that I desire to have. But more than that, I desire to give generously to causes I believe in and buy gifts for the people I love. So – what I desire is to have enough money to live comfortably, abundantly, and generously.

THAT is a lot more realistic and attainable than an amount so vastly huge compared to what I already know. And that’s the kind of clarity required to manifest the things you desire and choose the paths to take to get there.

This next requires mindfulness.

Mindfulness of permission

Mindfulness is your conscious awareness in the here-and-now of what’s in your head. This occurs on three levels.

First Level: On the surface, the easiest to access, it’s your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions. Knowing what you are thinking, what and how you are feeling, what you are doing, and why, tells you what you can and will attract. Conscious reality creation starts here.

Second Level: The next level is how the tangibles of the first level impact your perception of the Universe. Thus, it’s your mindset/headspace/psyche and overall sense of being. Who you are, looking out of your eyes at the world, is made up of this.

Third Level: Deeper down, you find the beliefs and habits that form how you experience life. When you can reach this, you can see habits and beliefs that don’t serve you – and make choices and decisions to change/alter them.

Mindfulness is where you give yourself permission to choose any path you desire to walk for your life.

You are worthy and deserving

Who the hell are you? What makes you worthy and deserving of choosing and walking some path?

The answer is YOU. You are you. And you have the permission of both the Universe and YOU to make these choices.

The reason you are on this planet is to experience all the things life has to offer. But, let’s face it – nobody can experience ALL of them. Because they are just as diverse and numerous as stars in the sky. What’s more, not everyone has desires for the same experiences, tangibles, and intangibles available.

But you are worthy and deserving of being the best you that you can be – because that’s why you’re here. Human beings have the capability to create incredible tools and thrive so that we might USE them to do so. That’s why we have this technology, and why we continue to investigate the unknown and seek more.

Not only do you have permission to choose a given path – you are worthy and deserving of it because it IS your birthright.

When you accept the permission slip from the Universe, and the permission slip from YOU, you can use mindfulness to overcome the messages of lack and scarcity; to overcome the fear inherent in our society; get clear on what you TRULY desire to gain from this path, and; to go for it.

You are worthy and deserving of an incredible life lived on your terms.

Will you sign the permission slip to start on the path of your choosing?

This is the four-hundred and seventieth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking 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 along the way. Additionally, I desire to empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.

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

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing, both fiction and non-fiction, are available here.

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

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *MessageSubmit

The post This is Your Permission Slip appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

To Not Get Together with Family This Year is Good

To not get together with family this year increases the odds of doing so next year.

This is an ugly truth. But, as a result of people choosing to get together at Thanksgiving, the numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths have been ramping up.

This week ends with Christmas, which for many people represents the biggest of family gatherings. However, the pandemic is NOT over. Yes, there is a vaccine – but it’s important to recognize a vaccine is NOT a cure.

Vaccination is going to take time. What’s more, social-distancing and mask-wearing practices need to continue. There is NO quick fix to this situation. What’s more, the failure to take adequate precautions over the last 9 months is why it’s not improving. But what-iffing the past doesn’t take us anywhere useful now.

The point here is that as much as not getting together with family sucks, we need to view it as a matter of positivity. It’s a good thing. Why? So that we can get together next year.

I suspect a lot of families that just HAD to get together at Thanksgiving will regret it. Why? Because of loved ones that needlessly were lost because of it.

See, that’s the most infuriating thing about this pandemic. This death toll should never have been what it is. Due to selfishness, ludicrous politics, and uncaring, unkind people, here we are. Again, we can’t unring this bell.

What we can do is choose wisely NOW to impact the future.

Be smart

I miss my people. Apart from a teeny, tiny circle of people, I have not seen a wide swath of my friends or family. Last weekend, I saw my dad and stepmother for the first time in probably 10 months – and we only got about 20 feet from each other. There have been no fencing practices or events for 9 months where I see my friends.

It sucks a lot. However, by not seeing them now – I WILL see them again. Every precaution that we take increases the probability that we will – on the other side of this – be together again.

I would rather have that than see people now and lose them for the rest of my life. How about you?

Yes, people, it IS that serious. I know about a dozen people who have had and survived COVID-19. And I lost 3 friends and know at least another half-dozen people who have been lost because of this pandemic. It is NOT the flu, it’s much, much worse.

Zoom meetings, Google Hangouts, Skype, GoToMeeting, and all the other online face-to-face options are not the same as in-person gatherings. But right now, unless you take extreme precautions, it’s not safe to get together.

So be smart. Even if it may cause hurt feelings, don’t get together with the people you love. Not this year. And if they are making plans and you KNOW they are unwise – try to convince them to change.

How is this good and positive?

Because as much as this hurts and sucks in the now – it allows us to keep those we love in our lives longer.

Let’s spell this out, okay?

Before you gather with anyone who’s not inside your immediate surroundings, you need to isolate yourself for 2 weeks. That applies to anyone you care to get together with. That means no going to stores or interacting with anyone inside of six feet. (Studies have shown that, yes, you can go outside and take a walk – but maintain at LEAST 6 feet from other people – more if you can help it).

Paranoid? No. Politicians and church leaders are NOT doctors nor scientists. Science tells us how viruses work – and how they spread. This is not a hoax, it’s not being “blown up” for anyone’s political gain. It IS being denied and neglected in the name of politics – not the other way around.

And let’s be perfectly blunt here. Even if it WAS being over-hyped – in what way do precautions hurt anyone? With very few exceptions, EVERYONE can wear a mask in public. Maintaining 6 feet of distance isn’t terribly inconvenient. And washing your hands with soap and water is something you should have learned in pre-school.

Kindness, compassion, and empathy cost NOTHING. Why they have become viewed by some as a weakness is beyond me. But these precautions won’t just slow the spread of COVID-19. They will also slow the spread of colds, the flu, and other airborne pathogens. Tell me how that’s not a good thing?

This is good and positive because it shows you care. Self-care also includes caring about others. Because when you care about yourself it’s much easier to share and give that to other people, too.

We will get together again

The world post-COVID-19 will not look like it did before. To some people, this is horrifying. They’re scared of what it will be. The uncertainty is so thick you can almost cut it with a knife.

However, change is inevitable. It’s the one and only constant in the Universe. That being the case, rather than lament what is lost, we have an opportunity here.

The pre-COVID world needed help. We were being pulled apart by our technology designed to bring us together. But I think we’ve all seen that we need to be together for our mental health. Maybe, on the other side of this, that will build new bridges of kindness.

The pandemic has shown the current work/life balance is unsustainable. So is the healthcare-for-profit model. On the other side, we have an opportunity to take steps for change.

It won’t be easy, and there will be resistance. The comfort zone of pre-COVID can’t be restored. New comfort zones will need to be made. But as they are built up, and as the numbers decrease and vaccinations slow the spread, we will get together again.

Right now, today, we need to stay apart. That’s the only way to slow the spread, keep the hospitals and medical professionals from being more overwhelmed, and get to the other side of this. Yes, it sucks right now – but for the greater good and the end result – this is necessary.

What about living in the now?

Living in the now is important. Why? Because now is the only time that truly exists. But one of the biggest misunderstandings of this notion involves disregarding others and disregarding safety.

Living in the now does not mean taking unnecessary risks. It doesn’t mean disregarding safety protocols. Yes, sometimes you take risks – but that is part of being mindful. It’s when you are aware of what you are thinking and what and how you are feeling, here and now, that you can decide with clarity.

Living in the now is about living for yourself, in this moment – but not without consideration for others. There is a big difference between hurting someone because you chose a path they didn’t understand – and hurting someone because you got them sick with a virus that might kill them.

Logic and reason are important here. Logic and reason will show you what we’re facing, how it can impact others, and when a choice to live in the now might have negative consequences that could and should be avoided.

Be smart. Be kind. To not get together with family this year increases the odds of doing so next year. And that, in my opinion, is a huge source of positivity.

Seeing the good from not getting together this year isn’t hard

But it requires mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intent.

Knowing that when you choose to not get together with friends and family for the holidays this year – you are giving them kindness and compassion. That can and likely will counter the discomfort it causes. When you take action to give kindness, compassion, love, and understanding to the people you care about, that ultimately empowers you.

When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that can spread to people around you. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity.

You build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That can be the impetus to improve numerous aspects of your life for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of immense positivity. That positivity can generate even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile. You are worthy and deserving of all the good you desire.

This is the three-hundred and fifty-ninth 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 below and receive a free eBook.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *EmailSubmit

The post To Not Get Together with Family This Year is Good appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Why is Forgiving Yourself so Important?

Because forgiving yourself changes your energy and opens you to conscious reality creation.

The number of times I have fucked things up in my life is pretty impressive. I mean, when it comes to doing it wrong, choosing poorly, and generally screwing up in some way or other – I am a pro.

How many of you can make the same statement? Do you also believe yourself to be a professional fuck-up? Or maybe you haven’t reached the level of fuck-up, but are a professional screw-up?

Here’s the thing – this is true of EVERYONE. Every. Single. Person. On. Earth. Screws-up or fucks-up stuff. Everyone.

Some people cannot admit this to anyone, themselves included. I give you exhibit ‘A’ – Donald Trump. As far as he is concerned, he is always right and certainly never screws-up or fucks-up in the least. Unless you are part of his cult followers – you know that nothing could be farther from the truth.

But this is not the point of this article – so let’s move on.

You are going to get it wrong, mess up, fail, screw-up, unintentionally cause hurt, and fuck-up from time to time. Likely, you already have. No matter what you do, odds are you’ll do so again.

Recognizing this, you have a choice. Hold onto the idea that you ARE a fuck-up when you get it wrong – or that you fucked-up but are still just a person trying to live your life. The difference is huge – because when you personify that negativity it will interfere with your life on many levels.

On the other hand, when you see it for what it is – a human error – you can let it go and move forward. And that’s where forgiveness comes in.

Congrats, you’re a human being

Unless you are, in fact, an alien posing as a human – or one of the legendary lizard people – you’re a human being. As such, you are perfectly imperfect and prone to any and all emotional states you can conceive of.

It never ceases to amaze me how many ways we strive to move past human nature. It’s almost like we are ashamed of who and what we are. Thus, we build technologies that give us abilities no other animal has. That you are reading this is a perfect example.

Rather than embrace our human animal, though, we try to surpass it. While I am all for the medical technologies that let us replace joints and heal bones (hey, I am here and whole after receiving a skin graft, a bone graft, and titanium plates), other augmentations people take on might be unnecessary.

Reconstructive surgery is an outstanding thing to have after trauma. But some people take it to the point where they look plastic and unnatural. The whole idea of cyberpunk is augmenting the human body to expands its capabilities into super-human.

Hey, to each their own – but what’s wrong with just being human?

All these notions can be used to deny your humanity. But instead of denying it or trying to overcome it – we should embrace it.

That means embracing the good, the bad, the perfect, the imperfect, and everything in between.

But more than this, one of the things we tend most to avoid about being human is our inner selves. Our thoughts, feelings, mindset/headspace/psyche. But the truth is that THIS is who you are.

More human than human

The bodies we occupy, and all their constituent parts therein, are how we interact with the world at large. But they are not who we are. We are who we are within.

Your perception of yourself and the world around you – and your reality – are what make you the most human. Who you are is not the body you present to the world – it’s the intangible things you think, feel, and act upon that create your reality, and make you who you are.

As Albert Einstein told us,

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

How you perceive the world around you – your take on reality – is of your own making. You build it from your experiences, interactions, environments, growth, change, good and bad things inside and outside of your control, and more. Your beliefs, your habits, the choices and decisions you make and don’t make are your reality.

Lots of people seek ways to escape this. But we should be embracing it. When we do, we gain control over ourselves, where we are, and where we’re going.

This also gives us control over change. At the least, the ability to resist it, direct it, redirect it, and so on.

But that means you need to be able to look within. For many people, this is challenging because of all the past fuck-ups, mistakes, errors, failures, and other ways in which you hurt yourself and/or others. But since absolutely everything you desire in life – tangible or intangible – comes from within – you need to forgive yourself for the wrongs.

The outside things are all manifested from within. ALL of them began as a thought, got blended with feeling, action, and intent – then were created.

Forgiving yourself changes your energy and opens you to conscious reality creation.

Forgiving yourself takes time and effort

I am not going to sugar coat this because I can’t. Forgiveness tends to be challenging in general. When someone wrongs you, hurts you, makes a mess of your plans – forgiving them can be hard.

When that someone is YOU it’s often even harder.

It takes time and effort, but it is the key to controlling how your life is and where it’s going. Forgiving yourself matters.

How do you do this? There is no one-size-fits-all quick fix for this, but in my experience, you need to work with the following:

Acknowledge the error. Straight to the point, recognize that screw-up, and don’t avoid seeing that you did it.Be accountable. We live in a society that delights in placing blame. Don’t do that. You need to be accountable for the error/mistake/fuck-up. Even if it’s something that you shared with someone – you must be accountable for your part in it.Apologize. You need to apologize to yourself. I’m sorry I screwed-up is the first step in opening the door to forgiveness.Release the hurt. Whatever negative feelings come up because of your error, YES, you need to feel them. But you don’t need to define yourself by them (i.e. I am a fuck-up). No good comes from holding onto negativity regarding mistakes. Release it like a pressure cooker releasing steam.Take new action. When you fall off a bicycle or a horse the best thing to do is get right back on. When you fuck-up, it’s tempting to avoid a new decision. But the best thing to do is to make one.

Acknowledge, be accountable, apologize to yourself, release the hurt, and go for it again. Often, you learn from the mistakes/errors/screw-ups/fuck-ups in your life. Hence why forgiveness is necessary.

Forgiving yourself is a conscious reality creator

You are always creating your reality. That’s part of human nature. Often, we do this subconsciously. That’s a societal matter – because the world we live in is fear-based and discourages critical thinking and reasoning.

The mixed messages can be super confusing, too. Be incredible – but within this box. Show your best – but don’t rock the boat. Kick-ass and take names – but mostly, keep it to yourself. Is it any wonder we have so many people suffering from depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues? Especially now, in the middle of a pandemic?

Because you are human, and you are going to get things wrong along the way – forgiving yourself is essential to living the fullest, most connected, contented life possible. To get the most out of your life experience, you need to let go of the hurt and negativity that you experience – especially that which you cause yourself.

Forgiving yourself is not forgetting the issue. In fact, it’s acknowledging it – which then allows you to work with it and/or alter or change it. Forgiveness raises your vibrational frequency so that you have better energy – which, in turn, empowers you to be a better creator.

Everything you experience in life is a lesson. Some are more subtle than others. But we humans can shape our worlds unlike any other beings on this planet – for good or ill. But we WILL get it wrong sometimes.

Forgiving yourself lets you move forward and, from the here-and-now, use mindfulness for conscious reality creation. That, in turn, will open you to be, do, or have just about anything you truly desire.

Can you see how important forgiving yourself is?

This is the four-hundred and sixty-ninth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking 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 along the way. Additionally, I desire to empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.

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

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing, both fiction and non-fiction, are available here.

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

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *WebsiteSubmit

The post Why is Forgiving Yourself so Important? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

The Past, Present, and Future are all One

Past, present, and future exist at the same time – and the positivity inherent in that is amazing.

It’s taken me a long time to come to grips with this truth. But time, as we perceive it, is an utter and total illusion.

The late, great, Albert Einstein had some definitive thoughts on this matter.

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”

Yes, there is a progression of the passage of time in the right-now, at this moment sense of it. The sun rises and sets. The seasons change. But all other measures of time are a construct of our own devising.

No other animals on the planet have this sort of time perception. Day, night, seasons, that’s about it. Simple, existing.

We can create incredible tools no other animal on this planet can. As such, humans have the power to build reality howsoever we desire for it to be.

If this wasn’t the truth – you wouldn’t be reading these words. The mobile computers we carry with us everywhere we go wouldn’t be here (and weren’t just 30 years ago or so). The service economy in which the majority of us live would not be the dominant model.

The point is that past, present, and future are one – what you had, have, and desire are one as well.

Having tangibles and intangibles here-and-now

Everybody desires things both tangible and intangible. Money, love, people, connections, etc. Even the most introverted people have desires for things material and immaterial that they want.

These desires fall into other categories, such as necessities versus extras. These can also be broken down between necessities, modern necessities, extras, and extravagances.

Let’s start with the tangibles. For example, food, clothing, and shelter are necessities. Nowadays, mobile phones, internet connections, cars, and the like are modern necessities.

Extras include things like art, designer clothes, enormous TVs, and pets. Nice to have – and they may improve your overall life experience – but not wholly necessary.

Then you hit extravagances. Boats, vacation homes, the best of the best of everything you buy, and enough money to practically buy and sell other people. Things you can do without – but it’s still nice to have.

The necessities are required to be able to exist here-and-now. They’re simply necessary for life. The extras and extravagances, on the other hand, tend to get tied into the intangibles.

Things, we think, will make us feel good. So, when you have the oversized TV, the boat, and gorgeous art decorating your home – you believe it will make you feel joy and other positive emotions.

Ironically, it’s mostly the other way around. You feel the joy first, and then the thing – the tangible – gives it more emphasis and an expression of manifestation.

Oftentimes, we place things we desire into then, now, and later. But this can keep you from growth and development because it ignores the reality of time.

People get so focused on the past and rose-colored recollection of its greatness – or the future, and possibilities not yet developed or realized – that the here-and-now is neglected, and you get stuck like a car in neutral – and go nowhere.

Past, present, and future together

Again, when it comes to time, Albert Einstein had tremendous insights.

“The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

The idea of conservativism is to keep things how they have “always” been. Preserve the happier, better time of yesterday. Keep change to a very slow, glacial pace or as minimized as possible.

This, however, tends to work counter to reality.

Change is inevitable. You can’t stop, avoid it, or exist without it. EVERYTHING changes because change is the one and only constant in the Universe. That’s why you are not a two-foot-tall toddler in your 20s. You grew and changed. And it didn’t stop there – it is a constant.

Hence, why the things you may have desired for your life in your 20s are not what you desire in your 30s, 40s, and so on. Because change is constant – you change with it.

So – what’s this got to do with past, present, and future? If you are not content with your life as it is – you have the power in the present to change it.

This requires, in part, a shift of focus. Rather than looking back to what was or ahead to what may be – you can be present in the now and make what IS what you desire.

How? Consciousness creates reality. By learning lessons from past experiences, you know what you’ve had. Often, we turn our focus forward to the future to what may be – but ignore our present selves.  You desire something but see it ahead of you.

But as now is the only true time that is, there needs to be some reconciling of this.

Reconciling time and desire

To some degree, it’s important to have goals to be reached. But if you see them as always ahead of you – they tend to remain out of reach. To make them more attainable you need to see them in the present.

Because they are. Past, present, and future are all one.

As Einstein said, time exists so that you can measure and experience it. That’s how you grow, and evolve, and learn. But the reality is that everything that was, is, as is everything that will be.

Yes, this can be super-distressing if you allow it to overwhelm you. But it can also be uber-positive and exciting. Why? Because it means that whatever it is you desire to create or have – you can.

Let’s not get completely carried away – we need to consider several things. What you TRULY desire is often much more realistic than you think. For example, I would like to be wealthy. BUT – and this is where this gets important – wealth is a relative measure.

I do not need to have the level of income of Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates. Billionaire is not my true goal for being wealthy. Wealthy, in my definition, is enough money to pay all my bills on time and in full, have no outstanding payments for things like cars and mortgages, and buy gifts for the people I love and donate to causes I believe in.

Desiring to be a billionaire is not my real goal. The desire to be wealthy is – particularly based on the above definition. All too often we think what we want are the big, hard-to-measure things. But really – it tends to be much more based in reality, the now, and possibility than that.

Positivity of the past, present, and future as one

This is a matter of positivity because it empowers you to consciously create with more drive and more understanding of what is possible.

It’s important to see the past as lessons and experiences that shaped you into who you are today. The future matters for goals, tangibles, and intangibles that are not currently part of your reality. But only in the now do you truly exist. Only here and now is time real.

Hence, you have the power to make this life something amazing if it’s not already. You are worthy and deserving of attaining what is possible and reaching your potential.

Where you were before, in the past, helped you shape who you are now, and seeing the future tells you how to direct your energies now. That means you can do anything you realistically desire to do. And that, ultimately, is positive.

The world needs all the positivity it can get right now. Change your focus to positivity and you put more of that out there for others as well.

Go out there and be awesome and amazing.

Seeing the past, present, and future as one isn’t hard

But it requires mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intent.

Knowing that time is an illusion and more within your control than the other way around – you can work to consciously create the reality in which you most desire to exist. When you work with conscious reality creation to manifest the life and things – tangible or intangible – that you desire, that ultimately empowers you.

When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that can spread to people around you. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity.

You build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That can be the impetus to improve numerous aspects of your life for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of immense positivity. That positivity can generate even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile. You are worthy and deserving of all the good you desire.

This is the three-hundred and fifty-eighth 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 below and receive a free eBook.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *MessageSubmit

The post The Past, Present, and Future are all One appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

The Challenge of Prioritizing

Multiple paths can’t be traveled all at once. Prioritizing is the key to choosing their order.

I love to have a lot to do. Frankly, when I have nothing to do, I get restless.

Hence, there is more than one path I am on at this time. Each path takes me to an overall end goal of feeling more connected between myself and the world.

But I am just one man. I can’t be in two places at once (okay, truth is, I CAN sort of be in 2 places at once. Thank you, technology – I can be in my home office and online at the same time. However – this is still an absurd digression). Nobody can walk two or more paths at a time – except when they become one-in-the-same. For example – I-80 and I-90 are the same interstate highway for a while from Ohio to Indiana.

I am on the following paths right now:

Increasing book sales to earn more moneyGetting into better shape and meeting my goal weightDaily writing and editing to produce sufficient material to earn my livingHelping other people with mindfulness, conscious reality creations, et al

That’s four different paths. While they sometimes intersect with one another and even blend into one, they are still different.

How do I travel them all? This requires prioritizing

Prioritizing is an ongoing matter

There are numerous resources for creating to-do lists and tracking the things you need to get done. These get broken down to daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and onwards. Plans can be made and changed as you work on the things you need/want/desire to do.

But then, just because you have the list, doesn’t mean you have it ordered.

Plus, today’s order may differ from tomorrow’s order. How do you adjust for that?

Prioritizing.

Prioritizing is taking your to-do list and determining when each item needs to be done. There are always time-sensitive matters (contests, deadlines, business hours, etcetera), resource-sensitive matters (the availability of necessary materials – tangible or intangible), and anytime matters (no deadline, no issues acquiring resources, self-employment, and so on).

When it comes to your path, however, more often than not the trip is an anytime matter. For example, increasing book sales to earn more money is super important to me – but there is no set deadline for making this happen – except for any I self-impose. Getting into better shape and helping other people also fall into anytime matters.

Daily writing and editing are time-sensitive, so easier to set and forget, so to speak.

Thus, it’s up to me to prioritize when I choose to work on a given path. Sure, I can attempt to work on it all at once – but that’s just going to create gridlock.

I may be a talented multitasker – but – all the studies show that multitasking tends to get less done than unitasking. The key is to prioritize each task rather than shift too frequently around them.

To do this, I need to work on prioritizing my paths.

Little steps add up

To quote Lau Tzu,

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

The only way to walk a given path is to take one step at a time. When you have more than one path in front of you, the choice of which to traverse is on you and you alone.

Thus, it’s up to me to prioritize which path to take when.

This has never been one of my strong suits. Like my overall writing practice, I tend to go by the seat of my pants.

Up until very recently, I would sit at my computer and write. Little to no plan, I just went with it. While I still do this for articles like this one – I have the topic set as I begin – I just began planning my fiction.

As part of my path to write and edit daily to increase productivity, I took an idea for my next sci-fi epic and planned it out. I wrote out background information, then plotted an outline for each chapter. In about 10 days, I had in front of me the outline for 4 new novels.

With that, I sat down to start writing those novels. In just over 2 months I had written 2 new sci-fi novels.

Writing every single day produces articles and fiction at an astounding rate. But now I need to get to editing daily, too.

To increase book sales, I hired someone. Working with her and her company, I think we can make this go. This required a step outside of my comfort zone.

These articles help people. I have recently been quoted and thanked for something I wrote by complete strangers. That feels amazing.

Every. Single. Step. Counts. When to take them is a matter of prioritizing.

How do you practice prioritizing?

Both creating a to-do list and prioritizing are practices of mindfulness.

Yes, of course, this all comes down to mindfulness. Does that surprise you in the least?

Mindfulness is the conscious awareness of your mindset/headspace/psyche and overall being. It’s acknowledging who you are, where you are, and what you are to yourself. Since nobody is in your head but you, this is all about you. But not in a selfish needy way.

On the surface, practicing mindfulness is about being aware and conscious, right now, of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions. When you have that awareness underway you gain control of your overall mindset/headspace/psyche.

Mindfulness is also how you determine what path – if any – you’re on. And if it’s the path that is right for you.

What paths are the right paths for you? The ones that excite you. The paths that feel good, right, and true to you. For some people, that comes down to their standard routines. If that provides you with connection and contentedness – more power to you.

For some, however, they desire greater connection, and thus they choose less conventional paths. If you are anything like me, you see a lot of options in front of you. Potential and possibility and experiences you desire to have.

You can work to have them all. BUT – this often requires prioritizing. Multiple paths can’t be traveled all at once. Prioritizing is the key to choosing their order.

One important caveat

No matter what you desire to do with your life, just remember that you are worthy and deserving of it. Don’t let our fear-based society overwhelm you and keep you from getting where you desire to be. You have it here and now, even when you can’t see it.

Just remember that any and all paths you choose are about you, and you alone. You cannot make anyone else do anything. This is both a combination of the inherent free will of the human race and the fact that you are the only one inside your head. You can’t get into anyone else’s. Maybe you can offer them lessons, ideas, and information – but as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it take a drink.

Being present and mindful lets you know what you desire. Then, you can prioritize the steps along the path to get to it. But your path is all about you, and you can’t make others take it with you. For an example of someone trying to do this and failing utterly – look at Trump’s attempts to change the election in his favor.

Do no harm. Be the awesomest you that you can be. Prioritize the things you are doing as you traverse whatever paths you are in this life. Kick ass, take names and enjoy the ride.

How are you prioritizing your paths?

This is the four-hundred and sixty-eighth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking 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 along the way. Additionally, I desire to empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.

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

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing, both fiction and non-fiction, are available here.

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

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *PhoneSubmit

The post The Challenge of Prioritizing appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.