M.J. Blehart's Blog, page 56

Who Wants to Feel Good?

Clearly, fewer and fewer people want positivity or to feel good.

It is time to accept the truth, and I am going to do that here.

Nobody wants to feel good.

Everywhere you turn its bad news, terrible things, division, hatred, anger, and on and on. Spend 5 minutes on Facebook and you will receive a ton of negative messages.

The negativity only seems to get bigger and bigger. Clearly, I am in the minority with my work to find and/or create positivity. It’s obvious that people prefer not to feel good, and to be negative rather than positive.

Why else would you share negative things? Can you explain the negative campaigns on the part of most politicians any other way? To feel good must not be wanted by more and more people.

Rather than fight it, let’s go with it. I am going to share ways you can feel worse.

A comprehensive list of ways to feel bad

Since it is clear nobody wants to feel good, let’s instead focus on some negativity, and ways to feel bad more and more.

This list is not the end-all-be-all, but a good starting point.

Work the most boring job you canDon’t communicate with peopleNever say I love youFind ways to get bruises, cuts, and burnsTell yourself you suckBelieve that “they” are out to get youSpew hate at other peopleBe rudeDon’t bother to be kind or courteousInterrupt other people and their conversationsBrag, self-aggrandize, and practice acts of narcissismBelieve in Trump and his lies

All of these will make you feel awful. They involve a huge amount of negativity, and they will not just make you miserable – but those around you will feel miserable, too.

As an added bonus, they might avoid you, abandon you, or start finding excuses to be nowhere near you. Congrats – that will make you feel bad.

It’s easier not to feel good, right?

If you spend any time on social media whatsoever, it’s really clear that negativity and feeling bad are more desired than positivity and feeling good.

Why? I am guessing it must just be easier to give in to negativity and feeling bad. Why else would people choose not to be mindful, not to empower themselves, and to keep spreading all the negativity? Must be easier, right?

Why bother feeling good? What does it get you? Obviously, as you look at the world around you, you will be ostracized and kicked off the island for bothering, since everyone else isn’t.

So, you might as well just feel bad and roll with the negativity. That way, you won’t be disappointed as things get shittier, nor will you feel at all responsible for yourself or those you care about – because it’s not your fault the world is an awful, no good, feel bad, negative place.

The effort of trying to be a beacon of light and hope is exhausting. When you are bombarded by all the bad, all the negative, it’s like trying to feel good is just lame. Stupid. Weak.

You only get one shot to live in that meat-popsicle you call your body, so it might as well be terrible, miserable, and unpleasant. Because that’s how it’s supposed to be, right?

Clearly, fewer and fewer people want positivity or to feel good. Why else are negativity and things that make you feel bad dominant?

Resistance is futile – you will be assimilated

The Borg had it right. And they won. How many worlds did they conquer and overrun in Star Trek? They totally got Earth, too.

No, wait – they didn’t. They lost.

In fact, the one race they consistently lost to were humans. Humans from a culture that moved away from being materialistic and fear-based into one that was logic and reason-based.

That’s just sci-fi, not an actual possibility, right? I mean, come on, who wants to live in a world where people stop caring about money, where fear isn’t the dominant way, and abundance overwhelms lack and scarcity? What fever-dream is this?

Truth be told, the notion of feeling good and a reason-based society is utterly made-up. This idea only exists in fiction and never happens in reality.

Look at history. The oligarchs always win. Revolutions never topple authoritarian regimes. The poor are always crushed by the wealthy. Underclasses never get any power.

So why resist the negativity and feeling bad – it never worked before. Why would such a thing work now? Resistance never works. The dominant remains dominant. Empires never fall, totalitarians never pay the price, and we have always lived in a fear-based feel bad society.

Wait a minute. Why do I think most of that is completely wrong? Probably because it’s not the truth.

Who Wants to Feel Good?

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that YOU do. I know that I do. And no, this isn’t about an all-the-time, constant, never-ending feel good. This is feeling good more frequently than feeling bad.

Resistance is NOT futile. The fear-based, feel bad society we live in hasn’t always been like this. THAT is why being a beacon of light in the dark is worthwhile.

I reject the messages of negativity, lack, scarcity, and a world on the verge of collapse. Yes, I know that the world IS changing – and that’s not a bad thing. But rather than let it change into something worse – more negative, less reason to feel good – I am going to continue to preach the power of positivity.

Further, I will continue to practice mindfulness for more conscious reality creation to generate reasons to think good, feel good, and do good.

What if I am wrong? I suspect nothing – though, in time, perhaps packs of wild, unhappy, negative people might tear me to shreds. C’est la vie. In the meantime – I will continue to find and/or create some positivity and reason to feel good.

What about you? Will you join the resistance – or go ahead and accept the lack, scarcity, negativity, world-view, and feel bad?

Finding negativity isn’t hard – just ignore consciousness of thought, feeling, and action

Knowing that you can feel bad and negative with little to no effort, all you have to do is let your subconscious do the driving and “enjoy” soaking in it.

Or – when you join the resistance, stop accepting lack, scarcity, negativity, feeling bad – and instead see the abundance of the Universe and find and/or create positivity and reasons to feel good. This, FYI, ultimately empowers you.

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

As such, you can 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 the current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of immense positivity that can generate even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile.

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

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The post Who Wants to Feel Good? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

You Do You

I can’t tell you what to be, how to be, or what to do. So, you do you.

Every day, I offer different ideas, insights, pieces of advice, and the like.

I write extensive explanations of conscious reality creation, mindfulness, positivity, and other life lessons. Then I share them both because I have a desire to explore them further, and because I believe that you could benefit from that exploration.

No matter what I share, the ideas I present, or anything else of that nature – you alone know what is right for you. Or if you don’t know, you alone can learn what that might be.

One of the biggest issues that come from the self-help world are the ideas of a One Size Fits All, One True Way, Quick-Fix Solution – and the like. All these gurus, best-selling authors, lecturers, teachers, and experts are selling something that will work for some – but not all.

This is because, in truth, nothing works for everybody.

I can’t tell you what to be, how to be, or what to do. Sure, I can share my own beings and doings, but I am not inside your head to work on yours.

And that’s one of the things I think a lot of self-helpery ignores. That every headspace is unique.

The only one in your head is you

There is only one singular person inside of your head. That is YOU.

A lot of the self-help notions neglect that no two headspaces are alike. This is due to several reasons.

How everyone thinks is different. The process of thought and getting from point a to point b is extremely variable. Also, some people are linear while others are more cyclical. So there’s that.

Feelings are incredibly variable. The names may be the same, but the how of the feeling is different for everyone. Anger, for example – for some it’s hot, others it’s cold, and some even get both depending on how angry they are and over what. Love – for some it’s a fluttering like butterflies in their stomach, others feel like a hand is clutching at their chest, and some just become inexplicably giddy. Ergo – the how of feeling is incredibly variable.

That’s because you are unique. And the only person inside of your head. Perception of reality as you experience it is different than how I experience it. And I can explain my experience until I am gasping for breath – and it could remain incomprehensible to you.

Tangible steps in the process

Many of the self-help leaders try to get themselves inside your head – but neglect that they can’t be there for you. So, in my opinion, they give you portions of the way to do a given thing – but neglect how it could work differently for you than them or anyone else.

Take The Secret, for example. The idea of the Law of Attraction, as presented there, is to apply ask, believe, then receive. Ask the Universe for ‘X,’ believe that it’s already yours, and turn it loose to the Universe to be received and made manifest.

The general idea is sound – but it lacks key steps. To ask for something, you need to really THINK it out. If you don’t give it much thought – and you try to create it out of nothing at all – it’s not that simple. The thought behind it must be solid.

Then it requires feeling – belief alone is not sufficient. You have to really FEEL what the manifestation of the thing you are after will be like. And not feel it “down the road” or “at some point,” but right now.

As to receive – this misses an important step. There needs to be intentional action of some sort to drive you to conscious reality creation and manifestation. It need not be a tangible action – but action IS required.

Action can include writing down that which you’d desire to manifest, signing up for a class, hitting send on an email, or putting on shoes and going for a walk.

Yes, you can use consciousness to create nearly any reality you can think of – but it takes more work to be made manifest. Thought, feeling, and action are YOU at your core when all is said and done.

You do you

There is NO One Size Fits All, One True Way, Quick-Fix Solution – and the like.

The ideas out there can be super-useful. They can offer insight and influence that you might not otherwise come across.

But the only one who knows what you need, want, and desire is YOU. But acting on it can be utterly terrifying.

Why? Because if you desire to do, be, or have anything outside of “the norm” you are suspect. People will look upon you as being off, potentially delusional, not quite right – and possibly in need of professional help.

I have made multiple attempts at taking conventional paths in life. As such, I have worked in 9-5 jobs, attempted conventional intimate relationships, and tried things like golf and watching professional sports to be “normal.”

But that’s not who I am.

My biggest issue with this was that, for the longest time, I knew more about what I DID NOT want or desire than what I DID. That made it easy to see what to avoid – but hard to find where to go, and what to do or be.

Even with that, I tried conventional approaches. My first attempt to start my own business was so broad that it went nowhere fast.

Today, I still sometimes feel that way about my writing. Some people buy my books – but not even close to the numbers I need to make a career of it. Many people read these articles – again, not the necessary number to pay the bills. The how of increasing readership and sales eludes me – but I continue to work on it because this is how I do me.

How I do me is not going to be how you do you. And that’s something I wish more people would be okay with.

Be mindful of judgment

Celebrity gossip is, in many respects, the ultimate proof of how judgmental our society can be. Perhaps they are “stars” of one stripe or another – but that doesn’t make them more or less human than you and me.

Yet they get scrutinized, critiqued, analyzed, and judged about any number of deeply personal matters like clothing, relationships, what they drive, where they live, and so on. They are judged for it all.

That carries over to regular people like you and me. We get judged by people intentionally and unintentionally all the time.

And, to be fair, we likely do plenty of our own judging along the way, too

Our culture is a very judgmental one. But you and I have a choice. We can be more mindful and less judgy of everyone else.

While it won’t necessarily help other people to be less judgmental, it will allow you to be clearer about what you desire when you do you. Also, when you act to be less judgmental of others you may additionally be less judgmental of yourself.

I know that I am my own worst critic. I judge me more harshly than anyone else does.

But knowing that, I work on being more mindful. When I am conscious in the now of my thoughts, feelings, and actions, I am better able to choose them or to decide to alter them.

You are similarly empowered. I can’t tell you what to be, how to be, or what to do – but I can offer ideas to help you know how to do you.

How do you do you?

This is the four-hundred and fifty-second journey into my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking along the 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. I further 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 You Do You appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Are You Learning Who You Are Today?

There is ALWAYS something new to be discovered – even about yourself. How are you learning who you are today?

No two days are alike. Similar, certainty – but never alike.

Every single day of your life has potential and possibility. Anything can happen – anything at all.

Though planet Earth itself is relatively small – the Universe is nearly infinite. Hence why it goes to follow that there is always something new to be learned.

On the grand scale of life, the Universe, and everything, this is a broad statement. Science is constantly seeking new information and answers, working out problems, and critically thinking about the why, how, and wherefores of everything.

You are also constantly learning. Some of the things you have learned have been relatively huge – how to walk, how to talk, how to read, how to interact with other people, and so on. Many of the things you learn are also pretty big – how to be in a relationship with another person (platonic, romantic, business partnership, etc), skills to do a certain job, cooking, and the like.

Despite all of these things you can learn, there is one more gargantuan, constantly changing thing that you can learn and relearn again and again: YOU.

Learning who you are

I have observed throughout my life that many, many people haven’t the foggiest idea as to who they are.

I’m not saying they have an identity crisis, per se – but I am saying they do not know themselves.

There are a lot of reasons why this happens. The primary ones I can think of are difficulties in accepting change, insufficient mindfulness, and too much need for outside validation.

Difficulties in accepting change

Change happens whether you like it or not. It is the only constant in the Universe.

Who you are today is not who you were yesterday. Who I was when I was 28 is not even remotely who I am now that I’m almost 48. Hell, for that matter, who I was just five years ago isn’t entirely who I am now. Much more similar than the twenty-year gap – but still quite different.

Why? Because I’ve changed. Some of how I have changed was not intentional – and one thing I learn frequently is new ways to alter that. For example – working on a new lifestyle change to help get my body into better shape.

Some people have a very hard time accepting the inevitability of change. They like how things are and don’t want them different – especially within themselves. That can get particularly discordant when the nostalgia for how things were creates a totally artificial, false reality. When you’re unchanging from a way you were – that never was – this can cause a lot of conflicts.

You change all the time. It’s impossible to stop it – but you can control it and alter it.

Insufficient Mindfulness

It is far too easy to be caught up in your subconscious mind. It certainly doesn’t help that we live in a fear-based society where those in power prefer to disempower everyone else.

Because the collective consciousness tends to be subconscious, being conscious of your own thoughts, feelings, and actions open you to learn who you are.

The thing about this is that who you are today is going to be at least somewhat different tomorrow. Yet being mindful opens you to understanding, rolling with, and even controlling that.

Mindfulness ultimately is awareness of you. That awareness can show you where you might want to change. But most of all it lets you learn who you are.

Much of your subconscious is made up of old matter. Beliefs, ideas, notions learned at past points in your life, mixed with overwhelming information absorbed through experience, sources of information, and other people and their opinions. The subconscious mind is unfiltered. The conscious mind is better organized and arranged.

Mindfulness, it could be argued, is all about learning who you are.

Too much need for outside validation

I have struggled with this all my life. Whether it was my parents, friends, coworkers, peers, or anyone else – I have needed validation.

My fear of failure and fear of success are just manifestations of my greatest fear – fear of abandonment. That gets completely tied into the need for validation.

If I fail will people leave me? If I succeed will I drive people off? Will anybody notice my success or failure? Will somebody give me a medal or a monument? Are you noticing me and what I am doing?

Relying on validation from others in learning who you are kind of defeats the whole point. Why? Because you are not who anyone else thinks you are. While being a good, kind, caring, compassionate, and empathetic person is important – that’s about you, not anyone else.

Recognition for your achievements doesn’t teach you anything when all is said and done. This is because you are not who anyone else thinks you are.

Validation from others is about their opinion of you. That won’t teach you anything. But the mirror reflection of you that other people share can show you how you are perceived. That’s something you can learn from.

But you need to be open to just the impression – and not taking validation from it. Because that’s the problem with validation. It’s not really given – it’s taken.

The best example of what I mean by this is this: let’s say we are exchanging a quarter. Outside validation is you taking the quarter from my palm rather than me dropping it into yours. There is a notably different energy from these two manners of exchange.

Learning who you are scares some people

Finally, some people are afraid to learn who they are. There is an inherent fear that they’ll discover they’re bad. Or selfish. Or narcissistic.

To be fair – you might discover that who you are is not who you desire to be. But in that discovery – in learning who you are – you can take that knowledge and change it.

When you dislike who you are, the knowledge allows you to alter it. Now you have empowered yourself to get control and ultimately learn something new to change what you dislike.

Learning who you are is massively positive when all is said and done. Why? Because when you learn who you are you are now open to potential, possibility, and conscious reality creation for the better. You uncover new options, new pathways, and ultimately the ability to change to be who you would desire most to be.

There is ALWAYS something new to be discovered – even about yourself. How are you learning who you are today?

Learning who you are today isn’t hard – but it does require thought, feeling, and action

Knowing that you can learn who you are every day, you gain the power to discover new and awesome things about yourself, as well as to direct where you are going. When you work on learning who you are, you become more mindful and open to change – and 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 can create a feedback loop of awareness and positivity.

As such, you can 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 the current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of immense positivity that can generate even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile.

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

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

The post Are You Learning Who You Are Today? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Why Do What You Do?

This is a valid question that can be applied to many things. So why do what you do?

I don’t know about you, but the past nearly six months have been insane for me. I kept on working through the pandemic from home but lost fencing practice in the wisdom to close things down. Friends have been furloughed, lost jobs, or are facing sending kids back to school – or returning there themselves to teach – despite the ongoing battle with COVID-19.

Trump continues to undermine our democracy – and doesn’t give a shit about you, me, or anyone else in his quest to remain in power. This certainly isn’t helping with anger, expanding an already too-wide artificial divide, and contributing to uncertainty about tomorrow.

People have run out of cope and patience because of all this, and more. So, they are super-short-tempered, easily flustered, quick to anger, and take offense at the drop of a hat.

All of this impacts me, too. I feel the uncertainty and share it. Also, I fear for the United States amid this insanity.

Further, I worry about the mental, emotional, and physical health of all those I care about because they’re equally or more impacted by these things as I am.

With all of this happening, the fear, the uncertainty, the confusion – why do what you do?

Because what else can you do?

Life continues apace

We are in the middle of a pandemic that is not at all under control in the United States. The leadership vacuum cares far more about themselves and staying in power than stopping the number of people being infected and dying. Chaos dominates the news. Most of the answers to be found lead only to more questions.

Yet life goes on. You still get up in the morning and have a day. It may be largely unchanged from before COVID-19 – or it may be very, very different. But you are still alive, and life continues apace.

Sometimes that may not seem all that important. But it is. You are here. Alive, and experiencing life. What that means for you is different than what it means for anyone and everyone else.

Thus, every single day you are faced with choices. The vast majority are really small and often by rote – get out of bed, shower, get dressed, eat food, and so on. You go about and do them, often with little or no thought.

There are always bigger choices to be made. For example – doing what you do. How do you exist on this planet? Do you simply go about day to day inside a specific routine or process – or – do you choose paths for your life?

This is the essence of Pathwalking. Deciding that rather than let life live you – you will take control and live life. Everybody exists and works to survive. But not everybody seeks to learn, grow, evolve, change, and thrive.

Why you do what you do tends to answer the question of what path you choose to take – or not.

Live life – or let life live you

One of the choices you are always faced with is how to approach life.

Long ago, I observed that there are three primary ways to exist in this world:

Let life live you. Follow the pattern, go with the flow, choose minor bits and pieces along the way – but for the most part you just survive day in, day out.Curl up in a ball and wait for death. You spend this life focused on being done. Maybe your attention is wholly on working for an afterlife. But you are miserable, constantly complain, and see no reason to go do anything but just wait out the end, whenever it comes.Take life for a ride. Like grabbing a bull by the horns and hanging on for dear life, you make choices to experience things. You decide on various paths, and you go about living life and experiencing much of what it has to offer.

There are not the ONLY options, of course – but for the most part, they are the ones I think dominate all others. Also – you will likely, throughout your life, live within each of these for a time. Circumstances, situations, experiences, and outside influences can and will force your hand and push you between these notions.

The choice is always yours when all is said and done. That may seem untrue, and occasionally suspect – but that doesn’t change it. Life is unique to everyone – and everyone gets to decide how to choose what it looks like for them.

Knowing that this choice is always available – the question comes around again.

Why do what you do?

Whatever you have chosen for how to live your life – any actions you take, your job, your day-to-day activities – do you know why you do what you do?

Also – the answer will be different for different things.

Why do I write? Because it makes me feel good. I take joy in sharing my ideas, stories, worlds, concepts, and everything else I write and share. Writing is nearly a compulsion for me. The need to write – self-help, spiritual, inspirational, science-fiction, fantasy, or whatever else – is like the need to breathe. I have to do it – and I love it.

Why do I fence? Because there was never a sport I had any real aptitude for before I took up medieval fencing. The body movement, the hand-eye coordination, the reaction time, and the overall spatial sense I have been developing through fencing for almost 29 years have been amazing. And I love to teach the game to others – especially others like me who are not built athletically. This is the thing I miss the most during this pandemic.

Why do I meditate? Because it centers me. Overall, I find it makes me calmer, and provides a respite during the day to re-center and refocus myself. The way I feel after I meditate helps me decide to do the things I do.

Your answers will be different. Not just because you do not do what I do – but because your why will be unique to you.

When you know why you do what you do it opens you to be more mindful, present, and able to roll with the punches when life goes sideways.

You cannot control outside influences

Nobody 10 years ago saw themselves living through a pandemic. I don’t think any of us thought Trump would be as awful a President as he has been. This world as it is today was not how anyone envisioned it being.

On a more personal level, you cannot control when a friend turns on you, a lover departs, a job is lost, or anything else of that sort that occurs in your life. All you control is you – your mindfulness and the choices and decisions that you make.

Why do what you do? Only you know the answer – and that’s what matters most. What other people think is not important because only you can live for you.

That is why deciding to do what you do and choosing whatever forms that take is important. This is a valid question that can be applied to many things. It can offer pathways, direction, intent, and purpose to your life and how you are living it.

The choices and decisions for your life are there for you to learn, find, and/or create. That’s ultimately one of the best things about life in general.

So why do what you do?

This is the four-hundred and fifty-first journey into my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking along the 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. I further 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 availablehere. 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 *CommentSubmit

The post Why Do What You Do? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

The World is NOT Ending

I know that it feels that way – but it really, truly, is NOT ending.

Are you feeling it? That inexplicable stress? The sensation that you are a rubber band wound too tightly and fit to burst? Do your emotions simply overwhelm you with little or no explanation?

If you answered yes to any or all of the above – you are feeling the impact of the current world situation. Between COVID-19, a vacuum of useful leadership in the United States, an ugly, ugly election, and months of extreme uncertainty – it’s hard NOT to be feeling it.

Patience has been worn thinner than ever. Because of poor to no leadership, the end of this crisis is nowhere in sight. What’s more, we keep seeing idiotic moves in the name of commerce. You cannot reopen schools and practice social distancing because kids are kids. There’s plenty of money for tax breaks for the uber-wealthy and funding an oversized military – but no money for the everyday needs of the people.

This feels very much like the end of the world. Social order is in chaos, entitlement and selfishness are overruling reason and logic, and there’s just a general sense of dread overwhelming nearly everyone.

Maybe the way things have been done for a century or so are coming to an end – but I assure you that the world is NOT ending. But it IS changing – and changing faster and more drastically than most can handle.

The way it’s been has failed

I make no apology for this – but it’s the truth. Our society and the way we have been functioning for the past four or five decades is unsustainable. Here in the United States, since Reagan and his Congress massively lowered the taxes on the uber-wealthy in the interest of the completely bullshit notion of trickle-down economics – this model began its collapse. Destroying the middle-class and creating and widening a false divide led us to where we are now.

The world before the pandemic is gone. The way things were will never be how they are again. Yet because people cling to returning to the way it was – they cannot accept that we’re nearly six months gone and not even close to back there.

So yes, the way things have been is over. The “they” among a large swath of our so-called leadership sure as hell don’t want to acknowledge this – because their power ends with it.

But because we cannot yet see what the other side of this looks like – everyone is feeling the stress. With very few exceptions, people are frustrated, confused, and/or scared in some form or other.

We can’t ignore it, deny it, or shunt it away. That’s toxic because it exists but then is not dealt with. If you don’t deal with it then it gets rooted deeper and hits harder, later.

All this negativity is equivalent to an untreated wound. If you don’t wash it out and care for it then it gets infected. As such, it makes you sick. You can’t pretend this isn’t happening and not deal with it for the same reason.

Acknowledge how you feel. Recognize it, experience it – then do what you can to release it.

Then what?

Choose your actions

Every single day you are faced with choices. Most are ignored or lumped into routines and occur by rote. Get out of bed, brush your teeth, get dressed, eat meals, do work, and so on. You may not even think of these as choices – but they are.

You can choose NOT to get out of bed. Skip a meal. Play hooky from work. These are all choices, and all valid.

I know that I currently am unreasonably angry. Between Trump and his cronies destroying the democracy, idiots not wearing masks or practicing social distancing, and people getting too-easily offended over teeny-tiny slights – I’m frustrated.

Overall, I know there is NOTHING I can do for any of this.

Okay, so what can I do? I can choose to take care of myself. Then, I can do things to release my ire, let go of my frustration, and try to help others in the same predicament as I am.

No, we are not all in the same boat, but we are all in the same storm. That’s been said before, but a lot of things complicate it. The false narrative on the part of our so-called leadership has created an “us” versus “them” situation that has been personalized and personified in a way that impacts just about everyone.

Now we see a seedy underbelly of ugliness that is really disheartening. It’s bad enough that there’s blatant racism, sexism, and zealotry impeding progress – but we’re also seeing personal entitlement, opinion, and self-righteousness ignoring logic, fact, and reason.

There’s nothing I can do about any of that. But I can make choices and decisions regarding MY actions to be a good person and do right efforts.

You, too, can make good choices.

That’s more powerful than you may realize.

Really, the world is NOT ending

You have more power to impact change than you realize. How? By making good choices and working to not contribute to all the negativity. If you get caught up in the bad news of the day, complain about it, keep pointing it out, and sharing it with everyone else – you help it grow.

I am not advocating for ignoring what is going on. You cannot do that and change it. What I am recommending is not allowing the negativity to overwhelm you.

Don’t just complain about all the unjustified killings of black people by police – demand justice and accountability. If you need to share with people negative information so they are informed – offer a solution with it (or at least a forum to try and find one).

Belief is a powerful thing. Faith helps people to choose themselves and do new things. It is all too easy to be absorbed into the collective consciousness and to be overwhelmed by negativity.

Recognize what is going on. Acknowledge it. But then choose to do things to release it.

Holding onto the badness in the world won’t change it. You can, however, make good choices to impact it with some positivity.

The collective consciousness is ruled by fear. That’s how “they” maintain their control – and they would love for you to believe that the world is ending and only “they” can save us. But nothing could be further from the truth. The world is NOT ending, and the only one who can save you is you.

What can you do?

Before you fall into your daily routine, take a moment to be mindful. Ask yourself,

What am I thinking?How am I feeling?What am I feeling?Why am I doing this?

By being present and conscious in the moment, you gain insight into the only thing over which you have control – YOU. Most specifically, what is going on inside your head.

Your mindset/headspace/psyche and overall being you can influence and control.

Once you have looked within you are better equipped to look outward. Unless you are in a truly awful, untenable situation – and even, to some degree if you are – there is hope. You have potential and possibilities.

The world is not ending – you have options.

Recognize and acknowledge how you are feeling. Then – forgive yourself.

Why forgive yourself? Because with all the suffering going on, if you are not experiencing the same it can cause you to feel guilty.

Next, make choices to do good, practice mindfulness, and be a light in a dim and darkening world.

Things you can do for yourself and others that are good:

Breathe.Meditate.Hold doors for people.Maintain social distancing.Tell your friends and family that you love them.Be kind to yourself.Pause and reflect before reacting to things.Treat them how you want them to treat you.

All of these are choices you can make. Each shows how the world is not ending because there is always a new resource, another option, and a different way to get from here to there.

You are not alone in feeling uncertain, frustrated, scared, and lost. But you can make choices to deal with it – and help show that, truly, the world is NOT ending.

Finding and/or creating positivity isn’t hard – but it does require thought, feeling, and action

Knowing that the world is not ending – just going through a chaotic shift and a lot of change – you can take actions to calm yourself and others. When you acknowledge and recognize the negativity, you make it easier to find and/or create positivity to release and counter it – and 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 can create a feedback loop of awareness and positivity.

As such, you can 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 the current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of immense positivity that can generate even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile.

This is the three-hundred and fortieth 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.

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The post The World is NOT Ending appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

What Can You Offer to the World?

The world is full of potential and possibility. But what have you got to offer to it?

For years, I asked myself – what is my purpose in life?

I know I am not the only one who has asked this question.

For a long, long time – the answer was unclear. However, I am pretty sure that this is because I was trying to figure out how to fit inside a box that I was not ever going to fit into.

Society has certain expectations of us. If you have never considered this – the vast majority of people in the world are meant to be cogs in the machine. At least, that’s what “they” want you to be.

“They” are a mysterious entity comprised of – well, truth be told, total bullshit. “They” only exist because of an idea that dominates the reality of the collective consciousness. This notion that there are a few people – the “they” – who dictate how it all works.

But this is not the truth of it. YOU have more power than “they” do. Why? Because “they” are not inside your head.

The only person who is in your head is you. Ergo, only YOU can think, feel, and act for yourself. This allows you to find and/or create the bubble of reality that is your life.

But here is where it can get sticky. The question is not “what can I take from this world,” but rather, “what can I give to this world?” This is important to recognize because it opens you to your fullest potential and possibility.

Givers versus takers

When you look at modern society, it is abundantly clear that many of those “in power” are takers.

Trump. Most of the upper echelon of the Republican party. Uber-wealthy billionaires. Entitled people calling stay-at-home and mask-wearing orders tyranny because they can’t get a haircut. Take, take, take.

These people take from anywhere and everywhere that they can. Clearly, though, they all have a few things in common. They are NEVER satisfied, easily manipulated, and in frequent need of validation. Hence why they take – but work to convince everyone else that they do so for the good of the many. And this, of course, is utter bullshit.

Givers are people who look out for others. They practice kindness, empathy, and compassion. They stand up for the rights of the marginalized, support movements like Black Lives Matter, LGBTQA+ equality, women’s rights, and the like.

You know a lot of people like this. The friend offering a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold, or a loan when you lose your job and unemployment benefits. These are strangers who hold doors, wear masks without complaint, maintain social distancing.

These people give as much as they can. Time, energy, assistance, donations, tangible and intangible acts. They have a few things in common. They get satisfaction from giving to others, consider logic and reason, and compliment and validate others. Many give even beyond their means.

In truth, givers have an easier time choosing to work with potential and possibility in the world to find what it can offer them.

What does the world have to offer you?

Everything. The world is full of opportunity, potential, possibility. For the most part, you can be, do, or have virtually anything you can conceive of.

However, you can’t just create it from a pure vacuum. You have to do some work in order to work with what life, the Universe, and everything has to offer you. That begins with mindfulness.

Being conscious of what you are thinking, what and how you are feeling, makes you aware of the intent behind actions you do. That intent can build or destroy, give or take.

Mindfulness is awareness of what’s in your head. Since you are the only person in there – being mindful of that lets you see what options are available to you.

I recognize that some people have it harder than others. For example, I know I come from a certain level of privilege because of my upbringing, skin color, and being male. While it is more difficult for some to find and/or create what they conceive of – that doesn’t mean they can’t. The work will be different and potentially more challenging.

When you work with mindfulness, you can clearly see what the world has to offer you. And you can make choices and decisions to take action in a given direction. When you know what you desire, and you put your head, heart, and soul into it – you can make use of what the world has to offer to live an awesome life.

The importance of giving over taking

The late JFK famously said,

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Clearly, in 2020, this has been all-but forgotten by many. But the point is utterly valid.

Stretching this out to encompass a broader spectrum of reality, the statement becomes,

Ask not what your life can do for you, ask what you can do for your life.

Too many people think that the opportunities and possibilities out there are meant to be taken at any cost. That’s why there are those who strive to disempower others, deny rights, lie, cheat, and do whatever it takes to better themselves.

I don’t know about you, but I find that undesirable. Why? Because I care about people other than myself.

That’s the main difference between givers and takers. Takers care about themselves. That’s it. Givers care about others – as well as themselves. And that is vitally important to living life however you may choose to live it.

You are not alone on planet Earth. There are almost 8 billion people in the world. Takers see them as competition. But they are not. They are no different from you at their core. Just like you and me, they are beings of light and energy.

Giving empowers not just you – but the recipient as well. This is why giving rather than taking – and the spirit behind it – matters.

What do you offer to them – and them to you?

Taking in the sense of time, opportunity, and control is not separate from giving overall. When you take the time to do a thing, take the opportunity that falls in your lap, or work to take control of your life – that’s not the same energy as being a taker.

Why? Because you are not, in the process, denying another THEIR time, opportunity, or control. Takers in the previously mentioned sense frequently do what they do intent on harm, denial, and a lack of kindness, empathy, and compassion.

Takers only care about what they can grab. They don’t see these things as offerings being given – and that giving is a two-way street to empowerment.

Why? Because takers believe the false narrative of lack and scarcity. They believe that there is an insufficient supply of this, that, or the other thing.

They don’t see a world offering abundance – they see a world lacking and scarce where there’s not enough to go around. So they take.

The Universe is a place of abundance. Even natural resources that seem scarce aren’t – because there is always another option. The Universe is offering you and everyone everything you can think of. But the best way to receive it is not by taking from it – but giving to it.

What you offer you can get back – and more – in return.

A final thought on giving

For years, I asked myself – what is my purpose in life? The answer I have come up with is – to share stories, ideas, hope, empowerment, and inspiration through my writing. Fiction or non-fiction, I am still offering to give something of value to you.

I find deep satisfaction in my work. When I offer you Pathwalking, positivity, a fantasy novel, or any other writing I can share – it feels good. This feels like a pursuit that is worthy and lets me give.

The world is full of potential and possibility. And that is built upon what we give into it. When you give something to the world, to the Universe, you find that it has far, far more to offer than you have ever imagined before.

Mindfulness opens you to make the most of life, the Universe, and everything. Even in uncertain times like we currently live within – you have options. Potential and possibility is utterly abundant.

So – what have you got to offer to the world?

This is the four-hundred and fiftieth journey into my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking along the 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. I further 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!

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The post What Can You Offer to the World? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

The Negativity is Loud

While the negativity is loud, is it NOT more abundant than positivity.

There are a lot of terrible things happening in the world today. The deluge of information makes us feel uncertain, scared, confused, angry, and almost every-other negative emotion you can conjure. It can be hard to believe that there isn’t more negativity than positivity in the world today.

That’s not the truth, however. There are more good/positive things in the world – and in your life – than bad/negative.

The reason this feels untrue, however, is because the negativity is loud. Those who would direct and control the narrative of reality like to use negativity for their gain. Hence why they are shouting so loudly.

When you are in a crowded room and trying to get the attention of everyone there, unless you can create a distracting, explosive noise – you shout loudly. And that is what is currently happening with all the negativity.

Then, because of the active work to create this false narrative, the shouters are plugging their ears as they yell at the rest of us.

On top of that, there is also the reality of these “powerful” people having a lot of money to spend to force their message on the rest of us. That’s how the volume of the negativity has been turned up to eleven.

Negativity cannot be eradicated

Let’s just put that out there right now. You can’t live in a world with ZERO negativity. There are a yin and yang, a balance in life that requires the good with the bad, light with dark, positive with the negative.

Of course, these are the extreme ends of the given spectra. Most people, situations, experiences, and the like fall somewhere in the middle of them.

The negativity is not greater, stronger, or more abundant than the positivity of the world. It is, however, louder. Why? Because those who use negativity – mostly fear – for their own power know that to get their message into the reality of the collective consciousness they need to pound on it. Particularly when their message is counter to fact.

For example – COVID-19 is a hoax. They shout this loudly and frequently because it’s not. But if they are loud enough, people will believe their false narrative. That, then, allows them to drive idiotic notions like reopening schools, stay-at-home orders, and mask requirements being tyranny and similar messages that empower only a chosen few.

For the record – COVID-19 and its dangers are NOT a hoax. If you think they are – ask yourself this – do doctors and scientists gain anything from such a hoax? How could this be perpetrated on a WORLDWIDE scale? Apply logic and reason and you will see that this is a real problem – and that the only hoax is being perpetrated by those who care only for their wealth and power.

It’s easy to see negativity as being dominant. But it’s not. It’s just overly-loud because it tends to be counter to logic, reason, and fact.

Is there more bad than good out there?

No.

The bad just happens to be really, really loud. It FEELS like there is more – but there is not.

I recently came across a fantastic quote by Gandhi that speaks to this:

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

Hence why I believe that for all the negativity and terrible people doing awful things, they are not greater in number – just so-called power and monetary strength.

But the truth of it is that they do not represent a world of more bad than good. They are just super loud and obnoxious.

Why do I believe that there is not more bad than good? Simple – are you bad?

How do you define bad? I define it as takers. People who give nothing and only take for themselves. For example – the uber-rich who pay almost nothing in taxes and hoard their wealth; politicians who take from all of us and give only to their benefactors; people who intentionally deny rights or cause hurt to other people.

If you are reading this, I am going to make the presumption that you are a good person. Sure, you screw-up and do bad things on occasion – because you are only human – but overall you are a giver, not a taker.

I am going to presume further that the vast majority of the people you know and associate with are ALSO givers. That’s my reality, at any rate.

I believe that you probably know maybe 1 bad person for every 10 good people in your life. And that is why I believe there is more good than bad.

Turn up the positivity volume

It is all too easy to counter the negativity with negativity. When someone makes you angry, sad, depressed, or otherwise negative, it’s human nature to lash out with the same.

That, in turn, just makes the negativity louder.

So instead, we need to work on turning up the volume of positivity.

How? By shouting as loudly – or louder than – the negative messages. You and I need to express our praise and appreciation for the good.

The best way to do this is via gratitude.

Thank you for wearing a mask when you go out. I want to thank you for not joining unmasked crowds. Thank you for voting. I want to thank you for considering the plight of the marginalized and supporting LGBTQA+ rights, Black Lives Matter, and the like.

But more than that, it’s important to express gratitude for the seemingly little, inconsequential life matters loudly and frequently. That raises the volume of the positivity in the collective consciousness.

What do I mean by that? I am grateful for:

BreathingFood to eatBooks to readIdeas to shareMy friends and familyPotential and possibilityYou

These are just off the top of my head. There are many more I can think of. But when you express gratitude – not just the word but the emotion – you create positivity.

Let’s raise the volume so that positivity becomes louder than negativity.

The negativity is loud, is it NOT more abundant than positivity. You have the power to change the message and help shift the collective consciousness of our fear-based society to a reason-based one.

Finding/creating positivity isn’t hard, but it does require thought, feeling, and action

Knowing that negativity is louder than positivity – but not in greater abundance – you can work to raise the volume of positivity. When you take action, speak up and express your thoughts and feelings of gratitude, you find and/or create more things to feel grateful for – and that ultimately empowers you.

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

As such, you can build more positive feelings and discover more 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 the current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.

This breaks the silence of the majority, and that can then spread to change the world for the better.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of immense positivity that can generate even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile.

This is the three-hundred and thirty-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.

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The post The Negativity is Loud appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

How Do You Adapt to Change?

Change is the only constant in the Universe. How do you adapt when it happens?

The only absolutely certain constant in the Universe is change. Change will happen – sometimes slowly, sometimes instantaneously. Like it or not, change happens.

Much you can do nothing about. The planet is turning, winds come and go, volcanoes erupt, the earth quakes, and yadda-yadda. You can vote, attend protests, give money to worthy causes – and that’s the limit of what you can do on that level of change.

When it comes to your life, and the things that happen to you – how you adapt to them is entirely on you.

Some people are very good at adapting to change when it happens. Others are less good at it. Of course, some people just don’t adapt well or at all.

This is where a great deal of conflict comes from. Because of the inability of some to adapt, they try so hard to maintain their perceived notion of status quo that they resist, fail to adapt and wind up taking a stand that is based on artifices, false realities, and sometimes outright lies.

They hold to an idea that may, for the very briefest moment, have existed – but when gone, their failure to be adaptable causes them to instead be intractable.

When it comes to adapting to change when it affects you personally, you have the power to choose what to do.

Adaptation is a conscious effort

Adapting to change comes easily for very few. In my own experience, the easiest way to do this is via mindfulness.

Mindfulness is practicing being conscious in the here-and-now of what you are thinking, what and how you are feeling, and the intent of any actions you are taking. That awareness puts you inside your head, which lets you have influence and control over your mindset/headspace/psyche.

Hence, when change happens, you are better prepared to do something with it.

The ability to adapt serves many purposes. It makes it a lot easier not just to go with the flow and be less rigid in your approach to life in general. In the process, it makes it easier to shift your consciousness as situations arise that may demand for you to do so.

Being rigid and inflexible may feel like a modicum of control. But the truth is quite the opposite. If you are too rigid and inflexible you are far more prone to breaking.

When change happens, at whatever speed that it does, your reaction to it is a choice. Generally, these are your options:

Ignore it. Self-explanatory.Go with it. Flow down the river of change.Resist it. As in don’t accept it by being rigid and inflexible.Fight it. As in choose a means of resistance to it to create another change.Direct or redirect it. Adapt as needs be, and work to control or alter it.

There are other options, of course. But whatever change you encounter, you get to make the conscious effort to decide and choose what to do with it.

Shit happens over which you have no control. Adaptation can mean the difference between victimhood and opportunity.

Adapt as part of your response

Your car was totaled in an accident. The person you intended to marry unexpectedly dumped you. That perfect job ended. A sudden change has taken your life away from where you thought it was going.

See the choices above for five ways in which you can respond to it. But if you choose any of these, a combination of them, or something else, that’s not the whole story.

When shit happens, you might feel like you’re a victim. Hell, if you are robbed at gunpoint, assaulted, or injured by a hit and run driver, you are a victim of that happening.

At that moment, yes, you’re a victim. How long you choose to remain a victim is up to you.

No, I am not saying forget that bad thing happened. Nor am I saying forgive the perpetrator – especially if it was malicious in intent. For a nonspecific amount of time, it is perfectly reasonable and expected that you will have trouble coping with whatever happened.

Yet you probably know somebody who is ALWAYS a victim. Something always happens that leaves them victimized. The trauma that impacts them in this way or that is the result of what happened. Again, not saying there isn’t legitimacy to these things – but there is, often, also a choice.

Adapt, overcome, and take a new direction. As a part of your response – maybe not immediately, but along the way – you adapt.

If you can, now you get that new car you were eyeing or find one more suitable than that which was lost. Perhaps not marrying that person prevented long-term trauma and awfulness. As perfect as the job was, now maybe you find better – or even start your own business. How you adapt and move forward is a decision only you can choose.

You adapt as needs be for you

You have, during your life, adapted to things along the way. Going from part-time day-care to kindergarten required adapting. Primary schooling to college, vocational training, or entering the workforce required adaptation. Every relationship will require you to adapt your life accordingly.

This can be easy; and it can be hard. Nobody else can tell you what will be necessary, how it will feel, or what standards may exist – because, frankly, they don’t.

How I adapt to change is not how YOU adapt to change. What I do – how I think and feel is unique to me. My experience is not the same as yours.

I can’t tell you how you should adapt, when adaptation is necessary, and on and on. This is wholly on you. Accepting that change is a constant helps make it easier to adapt. But the shape of that is variable for everyone.

When the path of your life is thrown off-course by change, you can decide how to choose to adapt. Only you know what is right for you. But being flexible, aware, and mindful that change can and will occur – and ultimately prepared to be adaptable – will help your life to flow a lot more freely.

Thus, you’ll be better able to maintain balance and live how you most desire to. Adaptation goes hand-in-hand with conscious reality creation. Recognizing the need to adapt to change gives you a lot more influence and control for yourself, as well as over the reality you live within.

Change is the only constant in the Universe. How do you adapt when it happens?

This is the four-hundred and forty-ninth journey into my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking along the 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. I further 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 availablehere. 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 How Do You Adapt to Change? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Speak Up and Be Heard!

The silent majority CANNOT remain silent. The time to speak up and be heard is NOW.

Speaking up – March for Science April 2017 Washington, DC

I recently read an article that lamented the massive social collapse of the United States. To say it was depressing and disheartening barely covers it.

It did make one very important point to me. The silent majority must no longer be silent.

We can’t keep reacting to what is going on in this country. It is time to be proactive. Before it’s truly too late.

Don’t think you can do anything? Not true. This nation was founded on people throwing off the yolk of tyranny.

Yes, I know there is a romanticizing of the Revolutionary War, that the Founding Fathers were imperfect slave-owners, and blah blah blah. However, the principles of the idea are what I think deserves focus and attention.

The silent majority needs to stand up, speak up, and not let the insanity currently engulfing this nation continue.

How do you speak up?

Let’s address the issues one by one, shall we?

The concentration camps of immigrants and children in cages? Speak up and demand that the press give this attention and that local governments and congress do something about it.

The unmarked police forces deployed by the DHS against the American people? Speak up and demand that this be stopped by Congress and local governments. This way lies ultimate tyranny, and the implications are far too huge to be ignored.

If it’s allowed to go on, what’s to stop them from becoming the same as the Nazi SS?

Police officers remaining free after murdering innocent black people? DEMAND justice. The police are NOT above the law and they cannot be allowed to continue murdering people just because they are black. Black lives matter.

If you don’t think the militarization of police forces is an issue – there is plenty of video evidence from Portland and other communities of cops gleefully attacking the people they should be protecting.

Kids being sent back to schools when COVID-19 is still killing thousands? Just NO. Speak up and let it be known the economy is NOT more important than the lives of teachers, children, and families. Do you realize that this will likely crash the economy HARDER than it already is suffering? This idea is unreasonable.

Insufficient testing, no national policy for masks in public? Stop letting Trump and his administration just get away with trying to ignore reality. It is abominable that there have been so many deaths – and they are STILL on the rise! Stop letting experts be denied instead of speculation and opinion.

Do it now before there is no tomorrow

Can you tell I am angry? Well, I am. I thought better of this nation – and since I still believe the majority stands for better – I am asking people to TAKE A STAND AND SPEAK UP.

I don’t want to be negative – but the truth is that if the silent majority does not break their silence, the insane, unreasonable, illogical, ludicrous minority will destroy this country and the lives of the people within it.

COVID-19 should not have killed 140,000+ people and rising. Immigrants should not be in concentration camps. Unmarked armed federal police shouldn’t exist at all. Individuals need financial aid and healthcare – big business and billionaires don’t need tax cuts. Life is precious – more so than money and possessions that seem to be all the government leadership cares about.

What can you do? Say something. Speak up. Do anything but remain silent. Silence is complacency – and that’s how the Nazis rose to power and how this nation is riding the razor’s edge to collapse.

Any and all changes in the world at large begin at home. With you and me. If we don’t accept or work on change – it certainly won’t come from anywhere else, either. So it’s up to us to change ourselves and use mindfulness to take charge of our lives.

By remaining silent, the majority are not being proactive. That has to change – before it’s too late.

What’s too late? A country under martial law, controlled even more blatantly by a disempowering few while more and more people and their lives are destroyed in the name of corporate greed, the stock market, money, and bullshit power.

We are far too close to this possible reality for comfort – which is why silence is no longer an option.

Speak up and be counted

There is a great line from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton that’s very relevant to the here-and-now:

“If you stand for nothing, Burr, what’ll you fall for?”

If you do not take a stand and speak up – when matters are getting complicated and messy – what will you fall for? How long will you allow for the artificial “status quo” to continue – and to deteriorate?

The silent majority cannot continue to be silent – or else the situation will only worsen for EVERYONE. Maybe you haven’t lost someone to COVID-19; perhaps you have never been the victim of social injustice; maybe you have not been harassed because of your gender or skin color; that does not mean you will not be impacted just as much as those who are speaking up to be heard now down the line.

You are not powerless, no matter what walk of life you come from. If you are reading this, you have a degree of privilege that you shouldn’t take for granted – but that can be used to help those who lack the same. You can do your part to stand up for something important and be counted.

There is no time like the present. If the United States is going to get through this current insanity it will require the silent majority no longer being silent. Don’t just sit back and watch – speak up and be heard. Don’t just think someone else who is more impacted than you will fix the injustices – they can’t do it without you.

Recognize that you have power. Don’t waste it by not doing anything and waiting for something you will have no choice but to react to. Be proactive. Act now. Speak up. Please.

This IS a matter of positivity

How does this qualify as a matter of positivity? Because you HAVE the power to speak up. You are free and able to do so.

This is not just an issue regarding freedoms you enjoy as an American – it’s also a fact that you, and only you, get to choose how your life will look. What you do, when, how, and where you do it is entirely up to you.

When you decide to speak up, stand up, and no longer be silent, that is a positive action. Why? Because you cease to be motionless and complacent. You open yourself up to have influence and control over how change impacts YOU. That is enormously positive.

There is tremendous positivity when members of the silent majority speak up and become supporters. But it doesn’t come from your continued silence. Utilize the power you have and empower yourself to be a part of addressing and fixing matters – before they get any further out of control.

The silent majority CANNOT remain silent. The time to speak up and be heard is NOW.

Speaking up – March for Science April 2017 Washington, DC







Speaking up isn’t hard, but it does require thought, feeling, and action

Knowing that the silent majority only adds complacency from their silence, you have a choice to impact and change that – by speaking up and being heard. When you speak up and take part in being proactive instead of reactive, you gain influence and control over change, and that ultimately empowers you.

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

As such, you can build more positive feelings and discover more 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 the current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.

This breaks the silence of the majority, and that can then spread to change the world for the better.

An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of immense positivity that can generate even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile.

This is the three-hundred and thirty-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.

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The post Speak Up and Be Heard! appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Everybody Will Stumble Along Their Path

It is unavoidable that you will stumble as you make your way. This may be due to both external AND internal influences.

When it comes to choosing paths in life, I’ve made it fairly clear that they are seldom a straight line.

Nope. Every path is going to have detours, obstacles, unexpected twists and turns. They can be quite an adventure.

When I explained how it’s important to flow like water, I also added the notion that a given life path is often more of a stream than a road.

Whatever metaphor you go with, there will be challenges, complications, and difficulties along the way. Much of this is due to external matters and influences over which you have ZERO control.

However – sometimes these occur because you stumble. To be sure, this can be literal and physical. But more often than not they’re mental and emotional issues.

Tripping yourself up

There are many ways to stumble along your path. While it’s easy to point to the external influences that trip you up, looking at those that come from within is much more complicated.

For me, this has been a matter of self-sabotage on more than one occasion.

What is self-sabotage? It is when you subconsciously do something that sabotages your work. For example, you start to be less diligent about your work and make stupid mistakes. Even when you redouble your efforts to find and correct them, they continue.

This can impact relationships, jobs, friendships, and everything else in your life and along your path.

No matter how good things are going or how much the path you are on is making you content, you find something that causes you to stumble. Something inside of you trips you up and takes you off your plotted course.

As infuriating as having an outside influence cause you to stumble along your path may be, it’s even more annoying when you do it to yourself.

Whatever the issue, it will impact your path. You will need to either correct whatever error was made and continue on; check to see if you need to alter the path and course-correct; completely leave the path you are on to choose another.

To be fair, yes, you can ignore what you stumble over. However, doing so often means it will recur. When that happens it’s usually worse on the second go around.

The other issue that often comes alongside ignoring the situation that causes you to stumble is blame.

Blame doesn’t do any good for anyone

American society in particular is obsessed with blame. Trump blames everyone who doesn’t agree with him for his failings – to the point that it’s way far beyond logic or reason. Business owners blame the economy for their inability to pay decent wages or health benefits. People blame their parents for screwing them up during their childhood.

Taking responsibility and being accountable for an action is far too rare. No, people would much rather point the finger and blame someone or something for the issues. It’s like blame removes the responsibility and makes a given issue another’s problem.

This, of course, is total bullshit. Nope, blame fixes nothing. Does blaming someone for something bad fix it? Not in my experience.

Things happen in your life that are way outside of your control or influence. When that idiot on his mobile phone rear-ends you on the road; the unexpected break-up happens; you leave work one evening to praise and return the next morning and get inexplicably fired; you had ZERO control over these.

Sure, you can blame that guy for hitting you, blame your lover for dumping you, blame your boss for canning you. And what does that get you? Nothing.

So maybe, instead, you should look to your culpability in the situation. What did you miss that might have helped you avoid this? Or, more importantly, what can you learn from this?

When you are the cause of your stumble, blaming someone or something else for it is beyond logic. Not only won’t that fix the issue, but it will also most likely make it more likely to be recurrent.

If I self-sabotage and cause myself to stumble, blame gets me nowhere. Instead, I need to be accountable for my sabotage, figure out why, and then do something about it.

Stumble and recovery

When you inevitably stumble along your path, ignoring it tends to worsen the issue. Instead, you have, as mentioned prior, three primary options along your path:

Correct the problem. Fix whatever the matter is – big or small – and continue along the path you were traveling.Alter your course. It is possible, when you stumble, that you see something about the path you were on isn’t right. As such, you might need to change your course and redirect yourself along your way.Take a new path. You stumbled due to something inside of yourself. As you analyze it, you realize that the problem was the path all along. So now you have the option to choose a new one.

I have no doubt there are other options, but these three are the best simple ones I’ve encountered. Every experience you have in your life teaches you something. However, the lesson may not be obvious right away. It may take time to learn from what happened.

Examples of a stumble in my life

I have faced all three of these choices in my life. To help you better understand what I mean by stumbling due to internal influences, please allow me to share my experiences.

Correcting the problem

I had an agent for my first fantasy novel. For two or three years he made efforts to sell my book, but with no success. A friend, who was a professional editor, suggested my work could use a thorough edit.

Rather than blame the agent for his inability to sell my book, I took her advice and had it edited. What I learned from that experience both made me a much, much better writer – and taught ME how to be an editor, too.

Altering the course

After losing a job due to self-sabotage, I chose to focus on writing full-time. I got a lot of work done and started to blog daily. But the bills still needed to be paid.

I didn’t desire to go back to a full-time job but applied for one anyhow. They interviewed me – but not for the job I applied for. They read my resume, saw that I was an experienced writer, and hired me to rewrite their website content and other materials.

Presently I am still working this contract gig. It is extremely fulfilling, helps me pay the bills – and it lets me continue writing full-time.

Taking a new path

In college, I majored in theatre. It was my desire not to be an actor – but to be a director. Outside of the theatre department itself, I ran the drama club and directed (and produced) a half-dozen plays. In the department, funny enough, I was something of an outcast.

I really thought having my own theatre company and directing plays would be great. Wasn’t long outside of college I realized I didn’t desire to be on that path.

Granted, it took me more than a decade to choose a path to walk. But I have – and Pathwalking changed my life for the better.

In all of the above cases, it wasn’t outside influences that made me stumble – it was me. I caused myself to stumble – and learned from the experience.

There isn’t a doubt in my mind that I will stumble again – but I will eagerly anticipate what lesson I might learn from that experience.

It is unavoidable that you will stumble as you make your way. This may be due to both external AND internal influences.

What do you do when you stumble along your path?

This is the four-hundred and forty-eighth journey into my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking along the 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. I further 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.

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