M.J. Blehart's Blog, page 60
April 6, 2020
This Is Good Because…
Finding the good in the middle of the bad.
The current reality in which we are living is distressing, depressing, uncertain, and confusing as all get out. None of us have experienced something like this in our lifetime.
The global pandemic has us taking extreme measures. We are sheltering in place, social distancing, and severely limiting how much time we spend in public, even of necessity. (Or at least – we should be.)
Yes, there are some for whom nothing has changed, really. But for many, many people, life as you knew it and lived it has taken an extreme detour.
No matter how much you seek out positivity in your life; no matter how optimistic you are – you will have bad days. Everyone feels scared, confused, and unsure how to cope with both the present reality and questions of what the other side will look like. Or, for that matter, when we’ll reach that other side.
When you find you are having that bad day, and you are feeling all that negativity, one way to combat that is to create a “This is good because” list.
What is this all about?
Jen Sincero, author of the You Are A Badass books (which I simply cannot recommend enough) talks about reframing a bad situation you may find yourself in with this statement. “This is good because” opens the way to turning a negative experience around.
When you are in a bad position, such as feeling “stuck” at home, dealing with a broken car and awaiting a tow, facing empty shelves at the grocery store, you can let that take you down. It can make you feel bad, and worse if you are already in a poor headspace. Bad things always tend to pile atop one another, and that leads to more negativity, frustration, and so on.
Reframing your situation with “this is good because” allows you to find better. You can shift your mindset and headspace away from the negativity dominating it.
How does this work? First, it puts you into the now.
When you look at your current situation and seek a “this is good because” reasoning, you put yourself in the now. You are asking yourself to look at your present circumstances and change them.
For example, let’s say you are super frustrated at being isolated at home. Rather than seeing yourself as being stuck, trapped, or otherwise in a bad place, you can reframe it with “this is good because I can clean and declutter my space,” or “this is good because I can try that recipe I have been meaning to try” and so on.
“This is good because” is a practice of mindfulness
Mindfulness is being aware of what you are thinking, what and how you are feeling, and the actions – and intent of those actions – that you take. This is about not letting your subconscious mind, the unfiltered sponge that it is, absorb all the negativity flooding over the world right now.
Spend any time on social media and you will be overwhelmed by negativity. Reports about the latest surreal actions of the current administration, increasing Covid-19 infections and deaths, shortages and fear are everywhere.
I am in no way saying to ignore this, nor to deny it for what it is. Some people are doing that and they are making matters worse. What I am saying, however, is to not allow your subconscious mind to make it a bigger problem than it already is.
The fear of the illness may be worse than the illness itself. That’s not to say don’t practice caution – just don’t lose your head in the process of it. Mindfulness allows you to be aware of your headspace, mindset, and overall being.
Looking at a situation and applying “this is good because” makes you more mindful. This opens you to finding and/or creating some much-needed positivity.
It will be alright in the end
Again, I am not denying the gravity of this pandemic, nor lessening the struggles of those sick and dying from this virus. But if you see the world as nothing but doom and gloom that’s all that you will have.
The collective consciousness can be shifted. But that is a matter of each of us. You and I can choose for ourselves how we think, feel, and act at this time.
So, let me finish with this: This is good because it shows cracks in the foundation of our society. And this is good because we can use this to change the overall conversation and work on altering climate change, getting rid of horrid selfish politicians, and alter the model for how society expects a normal life to be.
Yes, I believe that this is good because it can be an opportunity to learn some much-needed lessons about how the current societal “normal” is unsustainable in multiple ways.
Change is inevitable. This is a pretty massive change sweeping over us. We can decide to let it wash over us – or take a swim and redirect the flow of the current around us.
You can find many “this is good because” options. All the power to do so lies within you. See it, believe it, and use it.
This is good because…
Finding a “this is good because” notion is not hard, but it does require action
Knowing that you have the power to be conscious of the here-and-now and can find and create positivity even in a bad situation, expressing “this is good because” is a powerful action. Taking this action opens you up to changing your mindset and headspace, further pulling you out of the extreme world negativity of the current situation. 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, generating 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 twenty-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.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *EmailSubmit
The post This Is Good Because… appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.
April 1, 2020
Why Not Now?
Now is as good a time as any to choose a path for your life.
There is a great Chinese proverb that I strive regularly to take to heart.
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
I had many different choices for my life to be made 20 years ago. I was not so long out of college and was fresh from my studies of theatre, radio/audio production, and art history. Arguably, that was the time to pursue careers in those fields (and maybe make use of my college degree).
I didn’t. For lots of reasons I didn’t dive into professional theatre, nor travel anywhere I could to get into radio, nor use my minor in art history to work at a museum or go back to school for an education degree of some sort.
I say reasons, but the truth is they were excuses. I had a comfort zone that on the one hand I really wanted out of – on the other hand, I was too comfortable to leave.
For years I bounced job to job, doing things that I was generally good at by not thrilled by. Much boredom, and over the years a degree of regret.
Now, 20 years later, I am working on being who I desire most to be and doing what I believe to be the things I am supposed to do in this world. Maybe I got to it late – but there is no such thing as too late.
Now is the time
The great Albert Einstein, one of the most brilliant minds to ever live, is attributed with saying,
“The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
This is relevant when you look at life and start to think you waited too long to do something, or it is too late to make a change, and so on and so forth. Time and our perception of it – like our perception of reality – is illusionary.
There is nobody in your head but you. Since nobody else is in there thinking, feeling, and acting as you do, all of how you perceive the world is unique to you. Your reality may have numerous resemblances to mine – but they are still unique to each of us and not the same.
How do we all share cultures, societies, and so on if we all have different realities? That’s a matter of attunement. Everything is energy and energy vibrates at a frequency. Like attracts like. So you vibrate at like frequencies, come together, and form a collective consciousness.
This causes all of us to share aspects of reality. With nearly 8 billion people on the planet, as much as we are all unique individuals our collective vibrational frequencies will sync-up to a degree.
This is relevant to recognize because you have the power to change yourself. You could have spent all of your life up to this moment just going with the flow and letting it happen as it happened. But that doesn’t mean it will always be like that. You have the power to change it.
When? Now.
Keep in mind that now is the only time that is truly real.
Past, future, and now
There is an excellent quote attributed to Lao Tzu that covers this topic.
“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.”
The past has passed and is done. You can (and should) learn from it but can’t undo, redo, or change it. Plain and simple it has passed. On the other hand, the future is unknown and what you do in the now will help bring you to it. But worry about this, that, or the other thing will only get in your way along any given path to the future.
Most of us have never experienced a time of uncertainty such as we are right now. How long will we need to maintain social distancing and potentially more drastic measures to keep Covid-19 from overwhelming our society? What will it all look like on the other side of this situation? These are questions fraught with uncertainty and they are causing a lot of distress.
The collective consciousness is nervous and fearful overall. The anxiety about the future is dominating on too many levels and causing a lot of problems for people.
But, on the other hand, many people are really living in the now. No trip to the office, or school, and large swaths of time either to yourself or among an isolated, few close (hopefully) people.
If your life before this time of deep uncertainty wasn’t what you desired for it to be, isn’t now the time to change it? Why not now? What are you waiting for?
Never a good time
I know you have bills to pay, responsibilities to work, family, friends, and various other matters you need to take care of. “Reality” dictates that you participate in the routine and do what you have to – even if it isn’t your passion – because that’s what you do.
Why do we accept that our jobs – where we tend to spend the majority of our waking hours – cannot be fun? Or stimulating? Does NOBODY like what they do to earn money?
Of course not. Plenty of people are pursuing their passions and getting paid to do it.
Those “in power” love for you to believe that you have no choice but to work for them.
Let’s be honest – the billionaire business owners are losing money because they have had to shut down to practice social distancing. The US government is giving almost everyone $1200 to cover lost wages – but you know as well as I do that, truly, that covers very little in most parts of the country.
Yet somehow these businesses are getting tens of thousands of dollars. So they are losing money because they don’t have you and you are losing money because you don’t have them. Yet are they hurting (they being the so-called leaders and billionaires who OWN those businesses)? Of course not.
One thing that this situation could teach us – if we are paying attention and open to the lesson – is that the current structure is a great big lie. Like the notion of trickle-down economics – the top doesn’t spread what they have to the bottom. They hoard it.
Most of the billionaire business owners could still pay you and not suffer. And there are examples of those doing just that.
I suspect they like what they do to earn money. Why can’t you?
Can you see why now is as good a time as any to choose a path for your life?
There is no time like the present to be yourself. You are worthy and deserving of living well, being happy, and doing, having, and being all that you can be. If life up to now has been ho-hum, dull, and uninteresting, why not make changes now?
You have more control than you realize. When you practicing being mindful of your thoughts, feelings, and actions, you become aware of where you are on every level. That means that now you can choose new paths for your life and go where you desire to go.
No, this isn’t easy. It is going to take time and patience – you can’t undo in a day the prior years (maybe decades) of thoughts, feelings, actions, and beliefs. But now, at this moment, you can make a new choice.
This uncertain time will pass. Where do you want to be on the other side of it?
If you desire something different for your life, when will you choose that? Why not now?
This is the four-hundred and thirty-second article for 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!
The post Why Not Now? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.
March 30, 2020
Positivity Is the Best Offensive
In difficult times you need to choose the right offensive
This has, thus far, been one of the most bizarre years of my life.
I am not alone, because that which is impacting me is impacting you, too. It began with the always insane election process and the various ugliness that produces, whatever side you take. Of course, the whole climate change issue looms in the background to varying degrees. Then a virus becomes center-stage, and everyone is taking drastic necessary steps to slow it’s spread to try not to overwhelm hospitals.
That’s the big picture of the world we live in right now. In the vast majority of the nation, people are social distancing and practicing self-quarantine. This is producing a vast amount of anxiety, depression, and uncertainty within the collective consciousness like nothing anyone has experienced before.
While, overall, social distancing and like practices are defensive positions – you still need to take the offensive. The best way to do that is by finding and/or creating positivity.
Important positivity notes
Let’s clear the air about misconceptions about this idea before we get into details, okay?
First – The practice of finding and/or creating positivity does not deny, negate, or ignore reality. You cannot and should not ignore what is going on. People who do that are still gathering in large groups and will inevitably extend how long it will take to slow/stop the spread of Covid-19 (and worse, this is what will overwhelm hospitals and medical professionals).
Second – You can’t and won’t be positive ALL THE TIME. That’s impossible, impractical, and frankly counter to reality. You are a human being and you have both good AND bad feelings. That’s normal.
Third – It is okay to NOT feel positive. You will sometimes be painted into a corner and just unable to go on the offensive – and that’s okay. You’re only human, and the unique circumstances you are facing today can and will take a toll on your psyche.
All that being laid out, however, does not lessen the necessity of finding and/or creating positivity. Why? Because of conscious reality creation, the Law of Attraction, and simple mental health. Deep-rooted negativity leads to depression, anxiety, and other problems that – particularly in a time of heightened emotions – needs to be countered.
Sheltering in place, self-quarantine, and social distancing are defenses. Important defenses. But you also can strike back and take the offensive. The best offensive in this situation is positivity.
Going on the offensive
How does this work?
Mindfulness is the opening of the battle plan. All the news and information you absorb daily soaks into your subconscious. That can take ahold of your headspace, mindset, and overall psyche If left unchecked. Practicing mindfulness is how you gain control and influence over this.
Mindfulness is awareness of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Knowing what you are thinking, what and how you are feeling, and the intentions of your actions is a matter of the now. By being in the present moment you take control of yourself.
Once you have that awareness in hand you can seek, find, and/or create some positivity.
These can be brief moments, prolonged actions, or just occasional matters that will make you feel good.
That’s the point. If you are constantly feeling bad it pulls you down and lessens your abilities to cope, to do anything other than withdraw and go into hiding, and frankly experience life.
This situation is not the end. It’s a holding pattern. It can and will pass. And, as I have written previously, I believe some real good may even come out of this.
Taking the offensive with positivity ultimately empowers you. That gives you the ability to overcome the uncertainty and negativity of the collective consciousness.
Matters of positivity
What are some of the strategies, tactics, weapons, and tools of the positivity offensive?
Different things work for different people at different times – but this non-definitive list should be an outstanding starting point for anyone to use.
Cat, dog, or funny animal videos on the internet
Comedy routines
Online conversations with friends and/or family via GoToMeeting, Zoom, Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, etc.
Cooking, baking, etc.
Crafting – writing, painting, sculpting, woodworking, etc.
Cleaning and decluttering
Music – particularly upbeat and encouraging stuff
Gaming – online, on a console, or by yourself to keep you entertained
Masturbation and/or sex (preferably with someone you are already in self-quarantine with)
Take a drive or a walk outdoors
Anything that makes you feel good, even for only a few minutes, is part of the positivity offensive.
It may only be for brief spans of time – but that’s still okay. Any time you can give to the positivity offensive lessens the impact of negativity and will help you find your calm and center in the utter chaos of the collective consciousness today.
Special addenda
To those of you who work in critical industries and for whom life has not changed – save probably become more chaotic – THANK YOU.
This applies to doctors, nurses, grocery store checkout and stock workers, warehouse workers still making Amazon and the like flow, gas station attendants, delivery drivers, maintenance people, cooks and everyone still working at restaurants, and anyone else who is at higher risk because you are still doing a service for everyone else. THANK YOU.
You, too, need the positivity offensive. But gratitude from the rest of us is a good starting point for you.
In times such as these, positivity is the best offensive to light our way through the murkiness of uncertainty and negativity in the collective consciousness.
Finding and/or creating positivity is the best offensive – but it does require action
Knowing that much of what you are experiencing in the current situation is causing you to go on the defensive, having an offensive plan is healthy for your mindset and psyche. A positivity offensive can create moments where you will be able to use mindfulness to feel good, which will help get you through this – and that ultimately empowers you.
When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that tends to 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 any number of aspects of your life for the better, generating 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 twenty-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 *MessageSubmit
The post Positivity Is the Best Offensive appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.
March 25, 2020
Be Your Own Knight in Shining Armor and Save Yourself
You have the power to save yourself from anything and everything.
We live in interesting times. The world is currently in the midst of upheaval like nothing any of us have ever seen in our lifetime.
It’s not a war, nor a great economic crash – it’s a virus. A microscopic invader that is hard to repel, impossible to see, and difficult to resist.
Steps are being taken to keep people as safe as possible. They are, unfortunately, drastic – but necessary.
Still, it’s important to know and acknowledge several things about this distressing situation.
Sheltering in place/social distancing is not the cure. It IS the best way to lessen the spread of this virus.
More people are asymptomatic than they know. Social distancing/self-quarantine protects those with weaker immune systems in many ways – more than everyone else.
Government policy and the economy will not dictate how long this will last. People of science and medicine are who to take your cues from.
You will not be destroyed by a lack of social interaction.
The economy will not be irreparably damaged by this. Changed, yes, destroyed, no.
Life on the other side of this will be changed – but you have the power to determine how that will impact you.
Bottom line – you have the power to save yourself. This is and has always been the case, but I believe this experience could highlight and put a new emphasis on this truth.
I am not disregarding the expertise of assistance from others
When you get sick, really sick, or badly injured, medical professionals can, will, and do help you. When I got hit by the car 20+ years ago it was doctors and nurses that gave me a baseline that allowed me to recover as thoroughly and totally as I did.
I had amazing medical professionals putting me back together again. However, even they were impressed by the speed and totality of my recovery.
The people who are still doing their jobs in the middle of this are not so different from you and me. They are collecting trash; ringing you out at the grocery store and pharmacy; preparing food for delivery and pick-up at restaurants; delivering food, mail, packages and the like; treating the sick and injured, whether it’s Covid-19 or another medical issue; doing tech-support to keep the internet running.
Many of these people know they are doing things that put them at risk, but they do them anyhow. Those of us not in such positions do them a solid by maintaining social-distancing to flatten out the curve and lessen the spread of the virus.
Despite what the narcissist-in-chief wants, if the medical experts say maintain quarantine come Easter weekend – those are the people you should listen to. Save yourself and follow the advice of those in the know.
That is one way in which you empower yourself further to save yourself. And, in the process, may help countless others.
Mindfulness to save yourself is not selfish
Too many people look outside of themselves for help. They allow the influence of demagogues and supposed leaders to dictate the direction of their thoughts and many of their actions.
More often than not, however, nobody else is coming to save you. Help you, maybe, offer assistance, possibly. But to actually do anything to directly impact your existence comes down to you.
Why? Because your reality and your existence are based entirely on your perception of the world in which you live. Your mindset, headspace, and sense of life, the Universe, and everything belong to only you. To get in touch with it and recognize it requires practicing mindfulness.
Mindfulness practice is not complicated – it involves being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. That awareness makes you conscious of the now, this moment, in the here-and-now. That allows you to better recognize where you stand in the world as such.
This practice takes control and influence away from your subconscious mind.
Why is that important? Because unlike your conscious mind, where you can exert influence and control, your subconscious mind is much more reactionary. All of the news and information you are continuously bombarded with embeds itself inside your subconscious mind.
This is why practicing mindfulness is so important. It allows you to take control and influence the change you can and will experience.
Some may think mindfulness practices are selfish. They could seem that way – but the truth is they are not. They allow you to make better choices and more informed decisions along the way.
Selfish acts deny others or take away from them. That is not what mindfulness is.
Be kind, be courteous, be genuine
It is far too easy as this situation goes on to get angry. People will point fingers, try to find someone or something to blame. The continued isolation of social-distancing and self-quarantine goes against most people’s need for interaction with others. That can and will take a toll on your psyche.
It will be worse if you are not practicing mindfulness.
Why? Because your subconscious, under constant attack by information overload and everything that makes that up online, on TV, and similar media doesn’t have filters like your conscious mind does. It just is, and it takes all that in – and if you are allowing it to do the driving it can and will go places you would probably rather not go.
Keep this in mind before you go off on someone, say horrid things about people (even when they are incredibly stupid), and complain about the impact this all has upon you.
It costs you nothing to be kind, courteous, and genuine. In fact, it’s a lot easier to do that than to be rude, unkind, and bombastic.
This also goes towards the work to save yourself in these uncertain times. Why? Because you won’t alienate others who are going through similar (albeit different and unique to them) experiences.
You have the power to save yourself from anything and everything. With mindfulness, you are capable of getting through this crazy world and anything it throws your way. When you work to save yourself it can influence others to do similar work, which will lessen the burden on the people who are still out there keeping things running.
What actions will you/are you taking take to save yourself?
This is the four-hundred and thirty-first article for 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!
The post Be Your Own Knight in Shining Armor and Save Yourself appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.
March 23, 2020
How Bad is This Crisis?
That depends on whether you believe the crisis is all negative – or could have positivity to it.
As I write this, more-or-less the whole of the United States is practicing social distancing. Non-essential businesses are shut down, sporting events and other public gatherings canceled or postponed, and people staying in and maintaining a general self-quarantine.
I don’t think anyone has seen such a thing in their lifetime. It’s like life is utterly on hold, and nobody can say for how long this will need to be the case.
Is this a bad crisis? Is this the end of the world as we know it? That depends on your perspective, frankly.
What IS a crisis?
At dictionary.com, crisis is defined as:
noun
a stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, especially for better or for worse, is determined; turning point.
a condition of instability or danger, as in social, economic, political, or international affairs, leading to a decisive change.
a dramatic emotional or circumstantial upheaval in a person’s life.
So, by the literal definition, we are facing a crisis. But also, by that same literal definition, a crisis is not necessarily positive nor negative. It just is.
We most certainly are at a “stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, especially for better or for worse, is determined.”
What many do not fully fathom is that practicing social distancing won’t stop Covid-19 – but will minimize its impact. It is hoped that this practice will lessen exposure and keep the numbers from becoming overwhelming in all the ways that they could.
While this sucks a whole lot – it could be far, far worse. If the current attempts to establish social distancing were not in place, we would be seeing a much higher number of cases – and from there a lot more deaths.
Ergo, as per the definition, this is a turning point. For good or ill? Only time will answer that.
Certainly, this is also “a condition of instability or danger, as in social, economic, political, or international affairs, leading to a decisive change.” But you get to decide if you view it as instability or danger. The former, though not necessarily positive, is less negative than the latter.
What it all comes down to is how you perceive this situation. Positive or negative? That’s up to you.
Positive does not mean turning a blind eye to the crisis
A lot of people, because of how society expects things to happen, are incapable of seeing any positive in this situation. There is a terrible, life-threatening virus. All our lives are being impacted by it, even if we don’t get it. The stock market is taking a hit. Businesses will close permanently. People are out of work.
All of this is true. It is not a good thing in any way, shape, or form. But if all our focus and attention is put on these negatives, we only create more negatives and give them more power.
Finding positivity does not disregard, make light of, nor pretend negativity doesn’t exist. It does, and it always will. What it is, however, it an approach to shift focus and empower something you might want over something you definitely do not.
This is what brings us to the “turning point” and the “dramatic emotional or circumstantial upheaval in a person’s life” portion of the definition of crisis. There is a LOT to be learned from this situation.
You are seeing examples every single day of amazing leadership – as well as some of the worst examples from so-called leaders. People are being kind and considerate alongside people hoarding ludicrous things like toilet paper. There are people offering to look in on those who live alone and those who are hunkering down and avoiding everything and everyone.
The world on the other side of this crisis will be different from where it began. Because change is inevitable – and this is a time of tremendous change – that is a simple unavoidable fact. But what kind of a change it will be depends on you.
Keep in mind – the Chinese word for crisis includes opportunity within its characters.
Be the change you wish to see
A lot of people right now are scared. Confused. Panicky. Uncertain. Nobody has dealt with a situation like this with so many variables and unknowns. To further complicate matters a lot of those in positions of authority are making too little sense or sending mixed and conflicting signals.
You get to choose how you feel. It is up to you to decide how to act in this time of crisis, and whether you will feed the negativity or offer up some positivity. Change is already happening, and you get to choose how you will go along with that.
So be the change you wish to see. Make the choices and decisions during this crisis to improve your life however you can, and further share that with others. Be a beacon of hope to those you care about and help keep this crisis from going from bad to worse.
Choose how and what you can to find yourself on the other side of this crisis as a positive example. Be the best you that you can be and help guide others to be their best, too.
Do you believe the crisis is all negative – or can you help to seek, find, and create positivity within it?
Turn crisis into an opportunity and do what you can to be the change you wish to see.
Finding and creating positivity isn’t hard – but it does require action
Knowing the definition of crisis, you are empowered to choose whether to view this turning point in the world for good or for ill. When you decide to work on finding and creating good and positivity, it can turn crisis into opportunity, and that ultimately empowers you. When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that tends to 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 any number of aspects of your life for the better, generating 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-twentieth 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.
The post How Bad is This Crisis? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.
March 18, 2020
What Makes You Leave Your path?
What makes you leave your path? If you are working on living a life you most desire what makes you choose differently?
In the Chinese language, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters, one of which represents danger while the other represents opportunity. If that is not a quintessential definition of life in this moment, I don’t know what is.
Outside of ourselves, the world may be going mad. There is a LOT of crazy random stuff going on out there, from politics to climate change to economic madness to coronavirus and more.
All of these things can influence and impact your life and the path that you are taking for it. If you choose to let them.
Of course, there are things way beyond your control that will have an impact on you. For example, nobody chose to maintain social-distancing (to this degree) and self-quarantine that I know of. But the degree with which it impacts you is up to you to decide.
This matter created by things outside of your control impacts you only as far as you allow it to. It may not let you practice your chosen vocation, for example. But maybe instead of that being a danger, it could be an opportunity.
What do you do in the face of uncertainty?
Life is constantly in a state of flux. Change is happening ALL THE TIME, no matter if you seek it out or not.
Even when you are on a path of your own choosing in life, things can and will happen to throw you off it. Some will be mere obstacles while others could require major detours. Then, still others could make you choose to leave the path. But we’ll get into that ahead.
Uncertainty is a certainty. Why? Because apart from your own mindset and headspace you control NOTHING.
Sorry, that’s just how it is. You have ZERO control over other people, your environment, the weather, the economy, or the collective consciousness. Nope, the only thing you can control is yourself.
When it comes to your mind, body, and soul they are wholly yours to control – to a point. Yet even given that, there are numerous uncertainties to be navigated when they crop up.
What if you contract Covid-19? What if a car hits you when you cross the street? How would you handle losing a limb or losing your sight or hearing? Any of these could happen to you no matter what precautions you take – short of barricading yourself under a blanket-fort.
Even that would not prevent all risk of uncertainty.
When you recognize that you will always have uncertainty along the way, you get to decide how to react to it. Cede control to whatever happens or be ready to take action? Shy away from it or face it head-on? The choice and the decision are yours.
What if the best choice is to leave your path?
As mentioned earlier, things can and will happen that will throw you off your path. Some will be mere obstacles while others could require major detours. Then, still others could make you choose to leave the path.
What makes you leave your path? This is all going to come down to what you choose to allow to impact you, or not, along the way.
For example, let’s say you run a personal coaching business featuring in-person coaching. Now, with the need for social distancing and the danger of spreading the coronavirus, you can’t visit anyone and do your work.
You have a choice. Abandon it entirely or adapt it? You don’t need to leave this path – you just need to alter it. Maybe you provide the same service by taking it online. Now your clients meet with you virtually.
This, in turn, could expand your business well outside of local travel. Clients around the globe can meet with you online.
However, maybe during this period of social distancing, you create webinars, articles, and other things that take you away from client contact. Maybe now you are sharing ideas sans contact. Instead of being available from 9-5 every day you can set this all up remotely and be available virtually whenever – and prerecord or prewrite all of it.
Rather than remain on the path you were on before with alterations, you now leave that path for a new one. Face-to-face coaching is a whole other animal from downloadable content creation. Thus, you leave your path. But you have already started down another.
What if the choice isn’t yours?
The choice is ALWAYS yours. However, there is no denying that unwanted things can force you to leave a beloved path.
For example, let’s say you’re a professional athlete. This is who you are and what you do, and it is the path you have been working on for DECADES. Then, you suffer a crippling injury, and just like that, it’s over. The path is gone.
What choice is there now? All of it. So long as you are alive you have the power to choose paths. Crisis or opportunity? It’s up to you.
No, maybe you didn’t choose to have to leave the path, but since you have left it you CAN choose what to do next. You get to decide if you will be lost, devastated, destroyed – or – seize the opportunity to take a new path for your life.
When I was hit by a car crossing a street 20 years ago, I made a choice. I would recover completely. That was the only option I could see ahead of me.
Yes, being injured could have forced me off my path. Truth is, it was the beginning of the path I am on now.
Given how many things in this life are beyond your control, it’s important to acknowledge and recognize how much is. All of it, however, is directly about YOU. Mindfulness and all related elements of mind, body, and soul make up the greater whole that is you.
When life turns to shit you get to decide if you will bury yourself in it or dig out. When you leave any given path, by choice or due to circumstance, you decide what happens next for you.
You are empowered to choose how to live your life.
What will you do with that power?
This is the four-hundred and thirtieth entry to my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly articles 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 Makes You Leave Your path? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.
March 16, 2020
Mindfulness to Create Positivity is NOT Selfish
It is not selfish to use mindfulness to create positivity.
Being aware of yourself makes you more aware of everyone and everything else, too.
I do not doubt that many people see the idea of mindfulness practice as selfish. Putting your self-awareness ahead of others is counterintuitive nowadays to how good people approach life.
I would argue that mindfulness is certainly not selfish because it helps you to be even MORE aware of others. Why? Because mindfulness starts at you and expands outwards from there.
If you are not aware of your own thoughts, feelings, and actions in the here-and-now, odds are you are living subconsciously. What does that mean? It means that rather than being fully conscious of your mindset and headspace you are allowing your subconscious to do the driving.
How does that work? When you are just going about your day-to-day routine and not working to be mindful, your subconscious absorbs an unbelievable amount of data. All sorts of things that you might consciously avoid or filter out embed themselves in your subconscious, coming from the internet, the people around you, your environment, TV, radio, and so on.
This can all-too-easily put you into a negative headspace. Between the coronavirus and how it’s impacted the world, politics both in the United States and abroad, climate change and so forth, fear, uncertainty, and distress become front-and-center.
When you are feeling negative you disempower yourself. When you are disempowered you can’t do much for yourself, let alone for anyone else. This is why mindfulness and finding or creating positivity is NOT Selfish.
Selfish is a matter of intent
Want a perfect example of selfishness? I give you Donald Trump. Here is a man who is in a job frequently referenced as “leader of the free world.” Yet all he cares about is lining his own pockets, making himself look good, and his sense of power. Mounting evidence shows he doesn’t care for anyone other than himself, with the possible exception of his family and business associates.
That is selfishness. You take and take, give nothing back, and don’t give a damn who you hurt in the process. You know your action is going to cause harm but you don’t care. And you know full well that your thoughts, feelings, and resulting actions are going to be bad for others. That is what selfishness is.
Eating a decent meal, doing something that is an act of self-care, and practicing mindfulness is not selfish of you. Why? Because they harm nobody else. You are not denying the rights and privileges of others for your own needs.
Selfishness comes from a lack mentality. You take what you believe to be yours and leave nothing for anyone else because you believe that there is not enough, or you don’t care.
Finding and/or creating positivity is not a selfish act. Why? Because to do more for others you need to come from a good place. When you yourself are empowered, not afraid, and mindful of your conscious self you are better positioned to give more.
How does that work? Look, you can’t get a car very far at all on an empty tank of gas, can you? Without fuel, you get nowhere. You work the same way.
Your fuel, however, is not a single substance. It is made up of physical, mental, and spiritual components.
Self-awareness opens you to a broader awareness
When you practice mindfulness you are practicing being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and the intent of your actions. That awareness makes you conscious in the here-and-now, taking control from your subconscious, unthinking mind.
This opens you to see if your headspace is positive or negative. Since like attracts like, consciousness creates reality, if you are feeling low and negative then you will not draw heartening and positive things to you.
This is why being mindful of your headspace matters. This, too, is why positivity matters. When you feel bad you are not going to be able to do anything to help anyone else. But when you are a beacon of positivity in a sea of negativity you can help others find their way, too.
It is absolutely not possible to ALWAYS be in a good and positive place. Bad things happen outside of your control. Nobody is deserving of contracting Covid-19 or being denied basic human rights because of the color of their skin, sexual preference, gender, or other unimportant distinction. How much you let these things depress you or how much you fear them, however, is a choice.
Being aware of yourself makes you more aware of everyone and everything else, too. Creating positivity to pull yourself out of the dark is not selfish, because it allows you to pull others to the light, too. How can that be in any way selfish?
Creating positivity isn’t hard, but it does require action
Knowing that it is not selfish of you to find and/or create positivity to overcome negativity and dark times, you make it so you can do so for others, too. When you work to help other people to use mindfulness and find their way from negativity that ultimately empowers you. When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that tends to 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 any number of aspects of your life for the better, generating 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-nineteenth 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 Mindfulness to Create Positivity is NOT Selfish appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.
March 11, 2020
There is Never a Reason to Panic
As The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy says – Don’t Panic!
It feels like the world is going mad, doesn’t it?
Let’s face it, there is some pretty scary stuff happening right now. Great Britain and Brexit and the impact of that, the elections in the United States, and of course, you can’t ignore the coronavirus threat (nor pray it away or pretend it’s not a thing.)
People are panicking. Fear has been elevated to new and utterly distressing levels. So how, in the face of that, can I still work on my own life and practice my philosophy?
The better question is how could I not?
There is absolutely ZERO that I can do about many of the issues out there. At least, none that will be of use to anyone but me anyhow. I live in the United States, so I am only peripherally impacted by Brexit anyhow. I will exercise my right to vote in both the primary and general elections. As to the coronavirus – I will continue to wash my hands like I always do, and if I am feeling ill I will stay away from other people.
Panic does me no good at all. Stockpiling drugs, toilet paper, canned goods and the like does nothing more than feed the frenzy, elevate the fear, and give in to the general sense of doom and gloom.
There is a choice. Join the mob and huddle into the dark and unknown of fear – or – stand out as a beacon and do something hopeful.
It feels like it’s everywhere you turn
The news media LOVES to create headlines that stir you. There is an entire industry built on this – clickbait. Sensationalism and extremism seem to have completely overtaken logic, reason, consideration, investigation, and clear thinking.
Except that it hasn’t. Sensationalism, extremism, and clickbait are just super loud. Like the volume control that normally only goes to 10 – these all go to 11. Maybe 12, even. Great way to stir panic, right?
What’s more, between the internet, TV, radio, billboards, the sides of cars and busses, and so on, you are constantly bombarded by messages. And I use the word “messages” rather than “information” because when you examine it all more closely you see that very little of it is truly informative.
But it does get your attention. And that’s the whole point.
Why? Because when “they” have your attention they have impacted your subconscious psyche. That, in turn, puts you into their sphere of influence. In-as-much as they can, they gain control of you.
Until you become aware of it, that is.
Light dawns on marble head
In books, TV, films and the like, the main character often has an epiphany of some sort or other.
There is a moment where clarity that was lacking, like a bolt of lightning, strikes them suddenly and dramatically. Now they see the best friend is actually the optimum lover, or they realize who the villain really is, or they discover the power that was always in them in the first place.
While this is a frequent and regular vehicle in fiction it also tends to happen in real life, too. Often, however, it’s a lot less dramatic. Most, if not all of the time, it involves you becoming aware of something you were not aware of before.
That awareness may involve something outside of yourself – but it is an internal matter. You wakeup from allowing your subconscious to be in control and take it back for yourself.
What does that mean? It means that you become mindful. Mindfulness is awareness of yourself. It is awareness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and overall mental, emotional, and spiritual state.
Now you can see that the message you absorbed was not true. You gain the ability to be in control over your destiny.
I experienced something like this recently. My favorite candidate in the Presidential election withdrew. As such, I was not overly thrilled with who remained. But then I ignored the bombardment of messages and thought about it – really thought about it. No, I may not be thrilled by my choices – but – they are still an improvement over the current collective reality.
That made me feel better. And I realized that as much as I was attempting to not get overwhelmed by the election and all the news around it, I still had been.
This is how panic is made manifest
Most of the time there are many, small, frequent messages all around you. They tend to be indirect, and simply draw your attention to the thing, whatever it is. You may be actively avoiding or ignoring it, or you may be seeking out more and more of it.
Either way, it starts to embed itself into your subconscious mind. Faster if you are seeking more information than not, but it gets in there overall. Since the subconscious works well below your mindfulness, it turns into things like deep skepticism, cynicism, brain weasels, doubts, and subtle fears.
It may or may not bloom into full-on panic. It might nag at you, or otherwise impact how you live and what you do. Before you know it, there it is, having snuck-up behind you, the huge dark monster of terror is now all around you.
Your heart races, your chest compresses, you get that sinking feeling in your gut. Maybe your breathing gets shallow. You lose your ability to reason, and all you experience is the fear.
Now you’re panicking. Congrats.
Does this do you any good whatsoever? Of course not.
And this is why, in the face of that, I can and should still work on my own life and practice my philosophy.
How to get back control
Mindfulness stops panic.
How? The first step is to breathe. Just breathe. Take deep breaths. Slow your heart, slow your mind, practice deep breathing for 30 seconds to several minutes. Meditation in one of its simplest forms is all about focusing on breathing.
Deep breathing calms you. Once calm, the next step is to ask simple, poignant questions to become aware of your thoughts and feelings, as well as your general mindset.
What am I thinking?
What am I feeling?
How am I feeling?
What am I doing?
Do I believe this is true?
There are more questions, of course, but these are an excellent starting point. They bring you into the moment and allow you to see if you are on your chosen path or stepping far away from it.
When you are aware of your mindset you gain the ability to take control over yourself. And that is the only thing over which you have true control in this life.
Is this selfish? No. How does being in a panic do anyone any good at all? How does being focused outside of yourself help you help anyone else? It doesn’t.
I am not suggesting ignoring the world at large. That’s ludicrous. I am saying you need to take charge of your psyche, your headspace, and mindset. Be the rock in the middle of the fast-moving river that does not budge no matter the forces constantly battering at it.
Yes, it feels like the world is going mad, doesn’t it? Practicing mindfulness, Pathwalking, or whatever your personal philosophy may be will make you better able to resist the madness and be a point of calm and reason.
Will you practice mindfulness and take charge of your subconscious?
This is the four-hundred and twenty-ninth entry to my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly articles 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!
The post There is Never a Reason to Panic appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.
March 9, 2020
Every Instance is Unique
Every instance in your life is unique, and you get to decide to take advantage of that or not.
The Japanese and the Germans tend to have words and super-short phrases that cover a wide swath of unique situations. These can be translated into English, albeit imperfectly, to convey their message. For example, schadenfreude from the German – pleasure/satisfaction/joy in learning of another’s failure or humiliation.
One particular Japanese phrase brought to my attention in an audiobook of the same name is Ichigo Ichie. This phrase translates, more or less, to mean “only this one time” or “once in a lifetime.” It is very much rooted in the notion that a given encounter is a matter of the moment, and that it will never occur in the same way again.
Ichigo Ichie is all about recognition of the moment. You will never encounter precisely the same circumstance ever again. It occurs but one time and one time only. Similar and like situations may occur, but they will still be different from this one specific moment.
This is the recognition that every instance in your life is totally unique. Moments come and go. Acknowledging this is a major source of positivity.
Why? Because when you are having a bad day you will know that it’s just a moment in time. As such, it will pass and will never occur again.
One instance to the next
Life is in a constant state of motion. No matter how much you hold onto any given thing, good or bad, it’s going to shift and change.
I used to have a lot of issues wrapping my head around change. When things were good I wanted to hold onto that forever. On the other hand, when things were bad I frequently didn’t see how to let them go.
Practicing mindfulness has helped with this a lot. Ichigo Ichie is a phrase completely rooted in this idea, as both are all about the now.
This moment, this instance is unique. It will never happen in the exact same way ever again. This is good because if this moment happens to be less-than-stellar it will pass and be gone.
Keep in mind that it is impossible NOT to experience bad things. Negative occurrences will happen. That’s because of several things.
Firstly, everything outside of your headspace is beyond your control. Other people, weather, random happenings are beyond your control. Period. Because of this, things will happen you can only react to and not plan for.
Secondly, life ebbs and flows. You will experience good and bad because of this. Things will make you happy and sad and every emotion in-between. There is never one singular straight-forward life experience for anyone.
Thirdly, to know positive you need to know negative. Most things happen between the extremes of life, but they exist in balance to one another. Up/down, short/tall, black/white, good/bad, and so on. But the vast majority of the world occurs somewhere between these.
You only ever get stuck in one place when you choose to be stuck there. And yes, the initial occurrence that takes you somewhere negative may be outside your control – but staying there is on you.
Choose your life’s course
This is why finding and creating positivity is a choice. You are going to have negative things happen, like it or not. As such, you get to decide if your overall approach to life and mindfulness is from a place of positivity or negativity.
Mindfulness is how you determine this. Being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions is a product of the moment. The now. Ichigo Ichie recognizes this and gives it a label. This singular moment can be celebrated and acknowledged for what it is – or it can be forgotten and declined.
Either way, you move on from this moment to the next. But the choice of moving to a good place or bad is a matter of a negative or positive outlook and approach. You get to decide which you will choose, and nobody else can choose for you.
Every instance of your life is unique, and where you go from there is your choice. Seeking, finding, and creating positivity is an option you can choose – or not.
Thank you for reading. Ichigo Ichie.
Experiencing positivity isn’t hard, but it does require action
Knowing that every instance of your life is unique, you can choose how to experience it, and recognize the power of it only happening one time – Ichigo Ichie. When you let the moment just be, good or bad, acknowledge and move on from that it, that ultimately empowers you. When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that tends to spread to people around you.
As such, you can build more positive feelings and discover more reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That can be the impetus to improve any number of aspects of your life for the better, generating even 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-eighteenth 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.
The post Every Instance is Unique appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.
March 4, 2020
Choice is an Everyday Activity
Even making no choice at all is still a choice.
Every single day that you are here on this planet you are making choices.
The vast majority of the things you choose are relatively mindless and mundane. When to get out of bed, what to wear, what to eat, where to go and when, and so on. Simple, frequent, daily choices you make that can, ultimately, impact your day quite a lot.
How? Because maybe what you ate made you sick. Perhaps what you are wearing someone else is wearing and you feel uncomfortable around them. Maybe you’d be more awake and better able to make decisions at work had you gotten out of bed earlier. Cause and effect.
Every action causes a reaction. If I start to scroll through posts on Facebook that means I am not doing something else. I am choosing to spend time on this thing.
When you do something subconsciously, with little or no thought, you still work from a choice you have made. The more frequently you do something the more readily it becomes a habit.
Both good and bad habits are made in this way. Scrolling across social media rather than reading something for inspiration or entertainment (even fiction is better for you than social media, frankly). Talking when you should be listening. Interrupting other people rather than letting them finish.
Every single day you make choices great and small. Yet it’s really easy to neglect this, ignore it, and even fail to recognize the importance of mindfulness in choice.
You are more empowered than you realize
A lot of things happen to me on any given day. They range from unimportant to semi-important to REALLY important. The same, I have no doubt, can be said for you, too.
These things can include getting stuck in traffic, yelled at by a boss or coworker at work, disappointing another person’s expectations, tripping over a crack in the sidewalk, cutting yourself on a knife, and all sorts of potential things that you have more-or-less ZERO control over.
I know how frustrated I can get when things happen to me. But that’s the thing about it. Happen to me. Not because of me. Not due to anything within my control.
In other words, any choice I make will not control these things. It can’t.
All the choices you make are only going to work on one person. You. Sure, some of your choices will have an impact or even influence on other people – but what that is you cannot predict or plan for.
If I choose not to do a job that I am to be paid for, I won’t be paid. If I don’t get paid that impacts both myself and my wife since it lessens our ability to cover bills and buy food and such. She can’t make me do a job no matter how much she asks, demands, cajoles, promises, threatens, or whatever.
So yes, my choice will have an impact on someone else. But what that will be I can’t predict.
That goes for things that happen to you along the way. They happen because other than yourself you control nothing. Plain and simple, you control nothing and nobody but yourself.
This is, however, an amazing and empowering thing. Why? Because the choices that you make when you take control of your life are everything.
Taking control over choice is control of your life
When all is said and done there is nobody who can control your life except you. This is done through the choices and decisions you make every day. Big or small, those choices will determine how you will feel, how you approach and handle the day and the things that occur, and where your mindset and headspace live.
This may seem to disempower, but the opposite is true. It’s far too easy to yield control of your mindset and headspace to your subconscious. When you do that you often become distraught, unhappy, depressed, hopeless, and otherwise negative.
Your subconscious mind does not clearly see anything because it is often the result of distorted notions. Those outside influences that happen directly or indirectly then dig into your psyche, plant seeds, and grow brain weasels, self-doubt, deep skepticism, cynicism, pessimism and the like. This can lead you to decide not to decide and/or avoiding certain choices along the way.
When you take control over the choices available to you that opens you up to practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness allows you to become conscious and aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions in the here-and-now.
Ultimately, that awareness allows you to see the difference between what you can and cannot control or influence. This empowers you to make use of that control to choose and decide the best courses to take your life on.
You are going to be both right and wrong
I have made some really good choices along the way. But I have also made some totally crappy choices, too. This is why my past dating history is all kinds of funky, my weight fluctuates constantly, I have an amazing wife, wonderful friends, and numerous other things good and bad.
That’s life. It cannot be, nor should it be, completely awesome or completely terrible. It is a rollercoaster, ups and downs, highs and lows. When you choose you decide on the direction it is taking – which ride you intend to be on at the time. That can be really empowering.
Not making a choice is still a choice. The problem is that it allows you to travel on the current without a paddle, rudder, or sail. In short, you haven’t taken control.
There are times when this is not a bad thing. But if you frequently decide to make no choices you allow yourself to be at the mercy of the world at large. And frankly, the world at large tends to be merciless.
Sometimes your choice will be the wrong choice. I know how scary that can be – but it is still better than not choosing at all. Why? Because you are not at the mercy of whimsy, other people, and things totally outside of your control.
For the most part, even wrong choices can be remade. You can choose anew when you don’t like the results from a given choice.
This is your superpower. Choice. When you are discontent or otherwise displeased with the direction your life is going you can choose to take it on a new journey. The paths before you are only as limited as your imagination.
What new choices will you be making today?
This is the four-hundred and twenty-eighth entry to my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly articles 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 *WebsiteSubmit
The post Choice is an Everyday Activity appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.


