M.J. Blehart's Blog, page 63

When You Look for Fault

When you look for fault you will find it because you expect it.

This weekend, The Rise of Skywalker came out. The 3rd movie of the 3rd Star Wars trilogy had a lot to live up to, and for many of us, it did.

Is it perfect? No. Does it live up to the spirit of the series? Hell yes. Many of my friends have seen it, and the vast majority agree it was a fun movie, worthy of the overall series.

Several people I know, however, have found and pointed to certain faults in the movie. Some, yeah, I can’t really disagree with, per se. But others…well, I think you may be reaching.

I am not denying anyone their point of view here, let me make that clear. But what I am saying is that since I think you were looking to find fault in this, you did.

One of the biggest issues I consider with anything I write is whether or not I may offend someone. I’m sure that nobody agrees with me 100% on any topic upon which I opine. But given the way things are today, and how easily people get offended, I exercise a lot of caution.

No matter the topic I present, I know some will disagree. That’s fine, you have a mind of your own, please make use of it, however it best serves you. I do my best to not give you anything to find fault with, nor to take offense at. But I know that since you are the only one inside your own head, thinking and feeling as you do, you could find something I say, write, or do to be offensive.

A fine line between fault and blame

I have a number of friends who identify within one minority or another. Some of these are racial, some nationality-specific, some religious, some gender-specific, and others.

In a lot of instances, this doesn’t amount to anything in particular. But once in a while, something happens where they find a cause that they feel a deep need to bring justice to.

I cannot, in many cases, judge these. The impact that they have on them is not necessarily something I will feel, nor fully understand. I will do my best to be supportive in whatever way I can.

There are, however, times when the need for social justice that comes out feels like either it was after a quest to find fault or to cast blame on a person, entity, or group. That’s not to say that they are necessarily wrong in the point they are working to make. However, the approach is negative, and that to me feels like a net gain in the negative, too.

I know that the world is imperfect. There are awful people doing and saying awful things. I am not defending anything…but…sometimes it feels like the anger, the indignation, and the social-justice quests are misplaced.

Because perfection is in the eye of the beholder, faults are going to exist. I am not suggesting they should be ignored, but sometimes the focus and attention they get is of no benefit to anyone. If I point out the numerous faults in all the Star Wars movies, books, comics, cartoons, and what-have-you…it will cease to be a source of joy and positivity.

When I blame someone for those faults that takes it even further out. Why? Because blame doesn’t fix a thing. It is evasion. Blame is a deflection from seeking a solution or seeking good.

Choose to seek and see good

When you look for fault you will find it because you expect it. So why not instead look for good?

Finding fault doesn’t do anything but point out flaws, imperfections, errors, and mistakes. So what? Great, you see them, you have pointed them out to us…now what?

Why not instead look for the good? Or if you do find fault, how about offering an alternative or a solution rather than expressing the fault and finding and/or placing blame?

Finding fault and placing blame does nothing but create and spread more negativity in a world with too much negativity already.

How you see the latest Star Wars movie may be different from how I see it. But why not use this cool fantasy world to find and build some positivity, rather than discover and spread more negativity?

Finding positivity isn’t hard, but it does require action

Knowing that you can choose to seek, find, and place blame for fault…or instead seek, find, and express positivity, you get to decide what your actions will be. When you look for fault you will inevitably find it, which helps nobody…but when you look for good and spread more of it that ultimately empowers you. When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that tends to spread to other people around you.

As such, you can build more positive feelings and discover more things to feel positivity and gratitude.

Gratitude leads to happiness. Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude. An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of positivity that begets even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile.

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

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

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

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The post When You Look for Fault appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Do No Harm

Do no harm.

When you are walking whatever path you choose it should have no intentionally negative impact on anyone else.

Whatever paths you walk in life, you need to be mindful to do no harm. Truthfully, this should be easy.

Unfortunately, a lot of the examples of “success” that you see come with a deep, false narrative. This includes notions of shoving people out of the way (literally and figuratively); getting past, around, over, and through other people; “taking” opportunities away from someone else; relentlessness, hurt, and various other actions that likely caused mental and emotional distress in the process.

Anything that intentionally causes harm is not only bad for you and whomever you harm, but also for the state of the world. There are far too many examples of the “have’s” keeping down the “have nots”, people with “I got mine not enough for you” attitudes, and other examples of lack, scarcity, and insufficiency that are simply not the truth.

Whatever path you choose to achieve success for your life, when you do no harm you are coming from and moving to a place of abundance. That is where true success and achievement lie. Satisfaction, contentment, and the drive to do more also are a part of what conscious reality creation can make manifest for you.

Intent matters

I hate to go off on this tangent so early, but I want to get it out of the way. There is a big difference between intentional and unintentional harm.

The former you may believe to be necessary, and the price of whatever actions you are taking. The latter is the product of the thoughts and feelings of others, which you have zero control over.

If what you are doing will be harmful to another in some way, that’s intentional. You know that your action will cause harm to someone else in some form or another.

Yes, you might be making changes to your life that will leave some people behind, cause others to think you have changed in some way they dislike and could change your relationships. Those people may feel you have harmed them. But since that is based solely on how THEY feel, and you had no intention of causing harm, it is not the same. You cannot change how anyone else thinks or feels.

Now it is important to acknowledge that you might know that what you are doing will cause someone to feel hurt. When you change yourself, it is sometimes unavoidable that someone will react poorly to that. Even knowing the possibility of this, it is not the same as intentional harm.

How is it different? Because you are not intending to hurt someone, even knowing they might feel that way. You are not acting to cause them any harm, but you cannot stay the same just to appease them.

Why? Because it is your life, not theirs.

You can only live your own life, not that of anyone else. As such, you can’t help how someone else feels, particularly when you are striving to intentionally to do no harm.

Like attracts like

I have seen too much proof of this notion to disbelieve it. Whether or not you ascribe to the idea of the Law of Attraction, or karma for that matter, like attracts like.

It tends to be true that those who cause harm to others in order to achieve anything at all will fall. No matter how many slaves you take, in time you’ll have a rebellion on your hands. One way or another what you reap you will sow.

To truly do good for yourself you cannot, in the process, harm anyone else. What you give you will get back in return. Even the most powerful will lose their power if they have no gratitude and if they have done a great deal of harm to get where they are now.

Despite current examples, history doesn’t lie. The powerful, particularly those who have disempowered others to empower themselves, will be taken down. Like attracts like, and if you do harm you will be harmed eventually.

Besides, there really is ZERO reason to cause anyone else any hurt to choose and walk any path you may seek. Why? Because this is an abundant Universe.

Abundance is everywhere

The single largest lie in the world today is the artifice of lack and scarcity. These notions are used time and again to knock people down, keep people down, and use fear to empower a select few.

Don’t believe me? Take money as a perfect example. Given the current status of this idea, and I do mean idea, how can it possibly lack? Money is currency, and currency is energy. EVERYTHING is energy, and it can be neither created nor destroyed, just transmuted. Money only lacks if and when you believe it is lacking.

Coin and paper money is becoming increasingly rare. Even cards are being replaced with apps on your phone to send and receive currency. It cannot run out nor run low because it is literally energy being transmuted all the time.

Still, you and I are bombarded by messages of not enough money, witnessing hoarders deny money to other people, and using it as an excuse to take and take. Compare health care costs between the USA and almost any other country and tell me why the same surgery is $2000 in one country and $200,000 in the USA? Don’t tell me we have the best health care in the world – because that’s not true when people are made bankrupt to stay healthy.

Lack and scarcity are artificial. Abundance is the place where new things are found, created, and built, and from a place of abundance, you can do no harm. There is no need to take anything from anyone or deny them anything in order to have what you seek from your path in life.

Do no harm, get no harm

Finally, when you do no harm to any other you draw that to yourself. It may seem trivial, but it’s really not. In an abundant Universe, there is more than enough for everyone. So nothing you do should intentionally harm another just so you can advance.

Yes, unintentional harm may be unavoidable. This is because you have no control over how anyone else thinks or feels. Even knowing that your action may cause another to feel as though you intended to harm them, that’s not the same as intentional harm. This is because you have no control over the mindfulness of any other.

When you are walking whatever path you choose it should have no intentionally negative impact on anyone else. You can choose and walk any path without destroying, hurting, harming, or otherwise wounding anyone else.

How can you know this? Mindfulness. When you are aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions, you can influence, control, direct, and change them. You will know if your actions will intentionally be harmful to any other, and if they are you can choose to alter your path to do no harm.

Can you see why it is so important to do no harm?

This is the four-hundred and sixteenth entry in the Pathwalking series. These weekly posts are ideas for, and my personal experiences with, 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 also 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 some expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing works, 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 *EmailSubmit

The post Do No Harm appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

The Positive Aspects of Nostalgia

The Positive Aspects of Nostalgia: Mindfulness will show you if your feelings are for a real memory or an idealization of the past.

One of my fondest memories of my childhood is Star Wars.

I was five years old the first time my parents took me to see this movie. Though I cannot entirely recall the experience, I do know that as I watched that ship (the Tantive IV, FYI) come soaring across the screen, as if from over our heads, exchanging fire with a Star Destroyer…I was hooked.

Over the course of the next four decades, Star Wars (Episode IV – A New Hope, if you must) and the movies, books, comics, and now TV shows all awakened my imagination and a deep love of science fiction.

In just a few days the 9th movie is coming out – The Rise of Skywalker. Every single time a commercial pops up for it on TV (or online) I get that giddy feeling of excitement deep down in my chest. I am a kid all-over again…in the best possible way.

Nostalgia can be problematic when it causes you to hold onto a past that may not have existed. Yearning for a happier, simpler time with rose-colored glasses for looking to the past gets applied. But nostalgia without yearning can be an intense source of positivity.

I keep many different Star Wars artifacts around me. A Yoda or two, a Han Solo in carbonite lamp, small BB-8 plush, and numerous other bits and baubles. Due to an attic deep-cleaning, all of my classic Star Wars memorabilia and toys are currently in boxes around my home-office, reminding me that some types of nostalgia literally make for clutter.

Still, the feeling of excitement that comes from awaiting the new movie is something important to make note of.

Nostalgia is tied to emotion

Nostalgia is not just a notion or a memory, it comes with feeling, too. The fond memories it tends to be attached to can cause a feeling of wistfulness and affection that can be a source of incredible positivity.

Unfortunately, people often develop nostalgia not for something that is real, but for something that is much more abstract. A thing of the past that, in hindsight, is viewed through a Pollyanna filter, neglecting what may have truly been.

For example, a lot of people long for a simpler time as you see in the movies of life back in the 1950s and ’60s. A time that, save those movies, didn’t truly exist. But this still makes people yearn to turn back the clock…which has an unfortunate tendency to undo progress and ignore the less-pleasant and frankly ugly aspects of that time period.

This makes nostalgia a slippery slope. Are you nostalgic for a thing that was and taking inspiration and positivity from the emotions it generates now? Or are you nostalgic for an abstract idealization of a thing, and getting a desire to return to what was rather than enjoy the simplicity of the inspiration?

The best way to recognize if your feelings of nostalgia are good or not is tied directly into mindfulness.

Mindfulness of memory

I had a rough childhood in many respects. Yet Star Wars was a frequent bright spot. Even the hours I spent playing in the backyard, alone, with my action figures and vehicles caused me to open my imagination and create new stories in a familiar Universe.

Even as imperfect as the prequels were, I enjoyed the trip back to the familiar landscape. I have loved the new films, and eagerly await The Rise of Skywalker this week. I can still see the good in contrast to the bad of my past in regards to this, and as such, I know that this nostalgia is positive.

Idealizing a non-existent past is no way to build a better today or incredible tomorrow. This is why mindfulness will show you if your feelings are for a real memory or an idealization of the past.

Nostalgia can be a source of positivity. This can be another tool to help make today better and build an amazing tomorrow, too.

Building positivity isn’t hard, but it does require action

Knowing that you can find positivity inside nostalgia with a little mindfulness, you can experience more good for yourself. When your nostalgia feels good and additionally creates a moment of excitement and inspiration within, that ultimately empowers you. When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that tends to spread to other people around you.

As such, you can build more positive feelings and discover more things to feel positivity and gratitude.

Gratitude leads to happiness. Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude. An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of positivity that begets even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile.

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

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

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

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

The post The Positive Aspects of Nostalgia appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Spirituality is Personal

Spirituality is personal. More often than not this is about faith and belief in yourself.

Who I am is unique to me. I am a lot of things, depending on whom I am presenting myself to and what I am doing. But when all is said and done I am the one and only me.

You are unique to you. You are a lot of things, depending on who you are presenting yourself to and what you are doing. But when all is said and done you are the one and only you.

While these are both true, they leave out a key point. Neither you nor I are unchangeable. Both of us can create incredible lives for ourselves.

To do that you need to do work. What work you do is going to be specific to your goals. But this comes down to intentional actions to make change happen.

Being mindful of your thoughts, feelings, and actions in the now will get you from here to there. But there is a deeper, underlying issue that cannot be ignored.

You need to have faith. It’s important that you believe.

This is not specifically about God, the Powers-that-Be, or any other deity or deities, this is about faith and belief in yourself.

Spirituality can involve other-worldly powers, but in the end, it comes down to you.

Clarifying a misconception

All too often spirituality is one of three separate but equal tenets that get lumped into one place. What am I talking about?

Religion
Spirituality
Morality

Each of these are totally separate notions, but they frequently get lumped together under religion. But they are not one-in-the-same, they are separate and unique.

Why? Because of what they are.

Religion is a community of people that come together who share a specific belief in an omnipresent deity. That community holds similar beliefs and religion is an identifier they take upon themselves.

Morality is your personal ethos. It is the lines of right and wrong you hold and includes things like adultery, murder, stealing, and lesser matters like how you treat the people around you.

Spirituality is how you believe and hold faith. It is NOT the same as religion, as it may utterly ignore, disregard, or even deny an omnipresent deity. Spirituality is often about believing not in a higher power, but yourself and all that you can achieve.

The reason these are separate is that you can be any one or a combination of these three. Ergo, someone can be religious but amoral and not spiritual; a person can be moral and spiritual but not religious; you could be spiritual but amoral and not religious; and so on.

All of these tenets are personal. The partial exception is the shared community of religion. But spirituality and morality are personal and unique to every individual.

Because spirituality differs from religion as much as it does, it may not involve the omnipresent. Spirituality can be all about YOU.

What do you believe?

There are two main aspects of spirituality. The first aspect I’m going to explore is belief.

Again, this is more about believing in yourself than in any higher-power or the like. But more than that, spirituality acknowledges a wider world of potential and possibility.

Spirituality ties into abundance. Why? Because it is the belief in there being more. Something greater than just the simplicity of existence. Humans are creators, capable of making amazing structures, unique art, and lives that are as unique as snowflakes.

When all is said and done spirituality comes down to belief in yourself. Who you are, what you are, and all the things you can do – even if you are not presently doing them. You are a creature of infinite potential, largely limited by your own imagination.

No two spiritual beliefs are necessarily alike. Some involve rituals and tools like crystals and pendula. Others eschew materialism and focus time and attention on meditation. Some involve journaling. Still others are about cooking, or hiking, or skiing, or backpacking through Europe, or some other practice that makes you feel peace, contentment, and that connects you with abundance and possibility.

Spirituality IS that simple. It only gets complicated when you believe that is how it needs to be. Real spirituality is deeply personal and doesn’t harm anyone because it is the point of building potential in order to realize a larger and more incredible world.

Faith in spirituality

The word faith tends to make people cringe. Why? Because it has been abused by people who falsely use faith like a hammer. This is also one of the main places where the misunderstanding of how spirituality and morality are actually singular, and not a necessary aspect of religion.

Over history, far too many atrocities have been committed in the name of faith. The Crusades, the Inquisition, Trump’s MAGA followers are all prime examples of this abuse. But this is not true faith, because true faith is personal.

When it comes to spirituality faith is again in the self. You know what you are capable of, even that which you may not be currently doing. Faith is knowing not only who you are, but who you COULD be. It is the faith that if you work up to your potential you could be virtually anything you desire to be.

Faith is tied to belief, in that it is often a manifestation of the belief in people, places, and things. For example, faith can be attached to friends and family, places that bring you comfort or joy, pets, the lucky coin in your pocket, and so on.

This is another personal matter, and as such is not necessarily something you can or will share with anyone else.

Spirituality is personal

More often than not this is about faith and belief in yourself. This is an underpinning of mindfulness that can open you up to conscious reality creation. When you have faith and belief in yourself you can see all that you are capable of doing and what it can take to get there.

Spirituality is not a bad thing, and it can be utterly private and will be unique to you. Even if you do not call it spirituality as such, that doesn’t mean you don’t possess an aspect of it. Your spiritual self can be another guide upon any paths of your choosing in this life.

Do you acknowledge your spiritual self?

This is the four-hundred and fifteenth entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas for, and my personal experiences with, 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 also 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 some expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing works, 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!

Name *FirstLastEmail *EmailSubmit

The post Spirituality is Personal appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Communication is The Key

Communication is the key. When you have a problem with someone, you ultimately have the ability to address them about the issue.

We human beings are gifted with a myriad of means to communicate. We can talk, text, use hand gestures and body language, and even a combination of most of these to express ourselves to one another.

You can tell people things they did not know, or help them to understand your point of view. Or you can choose not to. But however you decide, the power of communication can be used for all sorts of different things.

You can express your thoughts and feelings. With communication, you can explain, educate, help, hurt, harm, heal…it goes on and on. Communication opens you and me up to be able to get to know one another and share experiences, good, bad, or indifferent.

Even knowing this, it still leads to an important question. Why are people so afraid of direct communication?

How often do you hear things about people from other people? What do you do when you learn from one friend that another friend is displeased with you about something? Why do people find it so very much easier to talk ABOUT people than to talk TO people?

The power of communication can be used to build or destroy, foment positivity or negativity. On the opposite side of this same coin, lack of communication is just as powerful.

So why are so many people so adverse to communicating and potentially creating better understanding?

Everything has consequences

When you say something about someone you will undoubtedly cause upset to somebody, directly or indirectly. It seldom matters if the topic is good or bad. But let’s be honest here – generally when you are speaking about someone, rather than to help someone the topics tend towards the negative.

This is something very hard to avoid. As much as I would rather not talk about people behind their backs, or gossip about their lives, or have conversations about issues, concerns, and whatnot…it happens. It’s almost a subconscious act.

I know that I have done things that have irked, annoyed, and otherwise pissed people off. At the same time, I am aware of things that I have been blamed for that were not my doing – though I can see how the blame would be placed on me.

The truth is that if conversation happened between me and the people who are displeased with me I think we’d have a genuine resolution rather than an unspoken issue. This is, of course, a two-way street – so I also need to do better about having conversations with people with whom I have issues, concerns, gripes, or what-have-you.

Society as a whole has moved further and further from holding conversations over matters both big and small. All you have to do is watch politics in motion and see how people twist one another’s words, cast blame like fishing lines into a trout-filled river, and stand around with their hands over their ears singing off-key tunes while ignoring each other.

Ever wonder how much a direct conversation might ease tension? Change the discussion? Shift from blame to finding/creating solutions?

Communication runs deep

Changing the high-level issues where communication lacks is not impossible, but it has to begin with each of us. You and I are empowered to communicate with one another about anything and everything – if we so choose.

The next time I find myself talking about someone or a thing they did (or maybe didn’t do) or a concern, I am going to pause. Where applicable, I am going to make an effort to communicate with them directly. Yes, that might go poorly and there might be upset caused…but communication may also open everyone up to better accountability, sharing, and treating people as they desire to be treated, too.

Direct communication TO a person may initially not be a good thing, but in the end, the positivity of it outweighs the negativity of talking ABOUT that person. When you have a problem with someone, you ultimately have the ability to address them about it.

Communication isn’t hard, but it does require action

Knowing that you can talk about people or to them, you can see what the impact may or may not be depending on what you choose to do. When you talk to someone, rather than about them, you open the two-way street of communication, which in turn can build better understanding between people. That ultimately empowers you. When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that tends to spread to other people around you.

As such, you can build more positive feelings and discover more things to feel positivity and gratitude.

Gratitude leads to happiness. Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude. An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of positivity that begets even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile.

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

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

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

The post Communication is The Key appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

I’m Not an Expert

I’m not an expert and that’s not a bad thing because it means there is more room to experience, grow, and learn.

I know some things. There are lessons I’ve learned, the experiences I have had, and discoveries I have made through education, life events, and just observing the world around me.

Over time I have developed a certain level of competence and confidence. With that confidence, it came to me to share.

Why share? Because I believe that many of the things I’ve experienced and learned could serve others. Maybe I can be an example, or a cheerleader, or just a tale of caution.

It has been almost 8 years since I began Pathwalking. What began as the result of a New Years’ Action has evolved into the underpinnings of a philosophy that I enjoy sharing with the world.

I have a lot of knowledge when it comes to positivity, conscious reality creation, the Law of Attraction, mindfulness, and self-improvement/self-help. There are numerous books I have read or listened to on these topics, and more and more I have been working on using the tools they provide to live my life as I would desire for it to be.

As I work to expand my “brand,” one thing has often struck me. I am not an expert. Why, as such, would anyone buy my books, hire me to speak, or otherwise pay for this stuff from me?

This is one of those insidious questions that is, in fact, the by-product of brain weasels. Because the truth is, expertise does not equal exceptionalism nor wisdom or knowledge of the truth.

An expert is not an expert

The idea of expertise is all well-and-good, but it often gets placed upon a pedestal. The “expert” is supposed to be uber-knowledgeable, and one of the best. They are far wiser than those who are not experts.

Yet I can point to a number of so-called “experts” who are totally full of shit. All you have to do is look at the US Congress. There are so, so many blowhards who are “experts” at this, that, or the other thing…when in truth they know nothing.

Any number of “experts” leading various religions miss many of the core truths upon which any given religion was founded. If the man truly existed, Jesus Christ rejected NOBODY, loved EVERYBODY, no matter their station, gender, sexual orientation, and so on. When the “experts” preach hatred and intolerance they are showing their lack of expertise right there.

I have watched people who were an “expert” on a topic flounder when the matter of their expertise evaporated, changed, or went away.

That’s the thing about being an expert. That which you know beyond a doubt, where you hold specific expertise, can and probably will change.

Even the philosophy I expound upon weekly has changed over the last eight years. The idea of conscious reality creation has been tied more closely to mindfulness and positivity, and the approach to any given path has been shifted and changed.

Thus, the expert of today is the novice of tomorrow.

Experience is the best teacher

When you live your life just letting patterns and paths carry you along, it’s really easy to miss out on what is around you.

Part of the reason why the path itself is of equal or sometimes greater importance than the end goal is because of all it can show you. I’m not an expert, per se, but this is what I have learned and experienced.

When you drive a car from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’ you may or may not notice what else is on the road. In particular, a road you’ve traveled many times. Yet there is still a really good chance that you will encounter something new and different.

Perhaps there’s a shop that you never realized was there. When you decide to pay that shop a visit you discover something that sets your heart aflutter, opens up new channels in your mindset, and all of a sudden your path shifts.

Or not. You might just drive past as you always have, acknowledging it but paying it no mind.

Every experience can teach you something new. But you need to be open to that.

How do you open yourself to it? Mindfulness, of course.

When you practice mindfulness you are actively being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. That awareness puts you in the now, which allows you to better interact with the world around you.

This, in turn, helps you learn more things.

At least, that’s my experience with it. I may not be an expert on this topic, but that doesn’t mean I can’t share it, spread its message, and work to help other people with their lives in whatever way I can.

Practice makes more practice

Long ago I read Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. This lesson from that book (which I am about to listen to as an audiobook) has always stuck out to me:

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”

I have noticed on multiple occasions that so-called “experts” tend to be closed-minded. They have figured out the thing they know, and it is locked. They are not open to alternatives because they are an expert.

But in reality, nobody is an expert. Why? Because there is ALWAYS something to be learned. Further, EVERYTHING changes over time.

I am not an expert, but that doesn’t mean am I not knowledgeable. But I am not an expert because I am always learning new things, having new experiences, and encountering new people and places constantly.

No path you travel will be entirely straight or straightforward. You will experience twists and turns, obstacles, and various other unexpected matters along the way. This can be seen as an impediment to getting from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’ – or an opportunity to have new experiences and learn new things.

The choice is mine to make. You also are capable of choosing how to approach things for yourself.

No, I am not an expert. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be a guide or help you learn from my experience. That’s what I most desire to do with my life. Thanks for coming along on this path with me.

Do you believe yourself to be an expert at something?

This is the four-hundred and fourteenth entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas for, and my personal experiences with, 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 also 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 some expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing works, 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!

Name *FirstLastEmail *MessageSubmit

The post I’m Not an Expert            appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Choose Amazing Traveling Companions

The quality of the traveling companions you choose can impact your life in many positive ways.

This weekend I embarked on an absolutely epic roadtrip. I and three of my companions drove over 14 hours to Nova Scotia, Canada – and back.

There was music, conversation, laughter, and a generally fun atmosphere throughout the long drive, and it was totally amazing.

The traveling companions you choose can make all the difference between an okay time and one that is incredibly memorable. In the moments that make up your life, it is never a bad idea to spend it with people who bring you joy.

The world is bizarre, crazy, frustrating, scary, and frequently infuriating. Things can and will occur far outside of your control.

While the only thing over which you have true control is your own thoughts, feelings, and actions, along that line you also can choose whom you spend your precious time on this planet.

There are people in your life who will be there throughout most of it, and others who will be by your side for a relatively limited amount of time. No matter the span, being with traveling companions that delight you and make you feel good is not just a good idea, but your choice to be made.

Misery loves company

When your traveling companions are sad, miserable, depressed, and constantly draining you it will draw more negativity to your life. However, when your companions make you happy, cheerful, satisfied, and constantly energizing you it will draw more positivity into your life.

That’s not to say that the people you travel with are nor should be great big balls of sunshine and light and laughter all the time. Everyone is going to feel down, unhappy, frustrated, and otherwise be faced with unwanted, difficult, and complicated situations at times. The question is one of whether you can uplift and support one another or if you take down and hinder each other.

Amazing traveling companions will work together to help one another through difficult times. They will work with one another’s issues of negativity and be supportive and empathetic rather than enabling and sympathetic.

My companions and I spent those hours together talking about things both deep and shallow, happy and sad, great and small. It was not time wasted nor just spent getting from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’. It was a time of connection and conversation where we came together and made one another better, stronger, and more encouraged.

I would take any epic roadtrip anywhere with these people again. Further, I will always remember this long weekend fondly, not just for an incredible time at a wonderful destination, but for the travel there and back again with equal fondness.

What sort of traveling companion are you?

Life is all about the choices that you make. While you get to choose what sort of companions you desire to travel with, more importantly, you can choose what sort of traveling companion to be.

You will experience every emotion you can think of in life because that is a part of human nature. You get to decide, however, if you will travel through life as a person seeking fortune or misfortune. It is up to you to decide if life is a bummer or boon.

When you choose traveling companions, what sort of companion YOU are is of equal importance. Thus, you should recognize how worthy and deserving of having incredible companions on your paths in life you are.

Life is full of wonder and possibility, and the companions you travel with are yours to choose. You get to decide if the journey of your life will be taken with people who bring you up or people who make you feel down.

I want to say thank you to the great companions on my journey.

Choosing your traveling companions isn’t hard – but it does require action

Knowing that you can choose the people you travel with in your life, you get to decide who they are and how you allow them to impact you. When you choose great traveling companions they can and will positivity impact you and your life journey in numerous positive ways, and that ultimately empowers you. When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that tends to spread to other people around you.

As such, you can build more positive feelings and discover more things to feel positivity and gratitude.

Gratitude leads to happiness. Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude. An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of positivity that begets even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile.

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

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

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

Name *FirstLastEmail *NameSubmit

The post Choose Amazing Traveling Companions appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Why Choose Any Path at All?

Why choose any path at all?

You always get to decide things, whether consciously or subconsciously. Doing so consciously gives you influence and control.

There is no reason that you need to choose a path in life.

You can simply go about your day-to-day activities, and let life happen.

This might make you perfectly content. You may enjoy what life has to offer, and the adventure of your life may be ongoing and already acceptable to you. If that’s how it is, more power to you. You go with your bad self.

If, however, you are not content, desire to have more influence and control over your life, then you might want to seek and find paths to take.

This means different things to different people. No two paths are alike, though they can be similar. Further, how you traverse a given path is going to differ with each experience.

But why? Why not just let “life live you,” as I call it? Isn’t it easier to just go with the flow and not be specific about a path to anywhere in particular?

Why choose any path at all? Short answer – because there is more to life than just living.

For the longer explanation, please keep reading.

Why not let life live you?

For some people, this is a no brainer. All you have to do is exist.

I guess for some people that’s enough. Just exist. Get up in the morning, go to work. Do your job. Go home. Watch some TV. Relax over the weekend. Repeat on Monday.

But most people, as far as I can tell, seem to still be wanting something along the way. Very few people I have ever encountered are completely satisfied to just let life live them.

What does that even mean? You have, as far as I can tell, three options for how to exist in this lifetime. It is entirely possible to hop between these. It is also possible to exist in spaces between them. But overall they are the primary means by which more-or-less everyone lives.

Let life live you. Just go with the flow, let the day-to-day pattern draw you along.
Curl up in a ball and await death. Be miserable, look only to the end of this existence with scorn and displeasure. This is the least pleasant outlook on life.
Grab life like a bull by the horns and go for a ride. Take charge. Do cool things. Experience all this life has to offer.

The primary issue is whether you seek out the various and sundry adventures of life and the paths you can take, or just follow along as it happens. Live within the daily patterns. Accept your lot in life and don’t push for anything else or something better.

Letting life live you means you probably find certain things wanting. Sure, this is totally an option you can take…but odds are you won’t be much satisfied with it.

No path is permanent

Nothing in this life is written in stone. Your destiny is not an absolute notion that is utterly inescapable. There are always choices, always options, and you get to decide upon them.

Even if you allow life to live you, and just go with the flow of things, there are going to be decisions to be made. You will have choices. Many of these are pretty insignificant, like what you are going to wear today, what you will eat for lunch, which road to drive down to get to work, what to watch on TV, and so on.

Even the insignificant take you down certain paths.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you zig when you should have zagged unexpected shit might happen. Even when you zag the unexpected could crop up. My point is that you always make choices and those choices always take you somewhere or other.

Some of the paths you will take are extremely short. A few of them may be nothing more than the equivalent of walking from your front door to the sidewalk. Each and every path is impermanent and can be changed.

You get to choose this. Even when you don’t choose you have, as such, made a choice. If not choosing leaves you content – then go for it. But if you are discontent and wishing for something different, the ball is now in your court.

Making conscious choices

A great many of the choices you will make in this life will be subconscious. This is because the world today is a place that can be extremely intimidating. Further, much of what is put out there for you to encounter are messages of fear, lack, scarcity, and other negativity.

The big picture matters can be all-encompassing, and they can make you feel really small. Your life might seem unimportant and you could be made to feel insignificant. These messages of disempowerment are like waves in the ocean, constantly washing over you. Just keeping atop them can be a challenge.

What if, rather than just floating, you choose to swim?

This is where seeing the path or paths before you becomes a matter of consciousness. Rather than just allowing your subconscious to lead you along, you actively make the choices and decisions on which paths you desire to take in your life.

Consciousness creates reality. This is done when you are mindful. Mindfulness is awareness of your thoughts, feelings, and actions in the now. Awareness is consciousness. Recognizing this will open you up to being able to see a path and choose if it is a place you desire to go.

Even when you make a conscious choice you are not trapped within it. You can change it. You can leave it for another. That’s one of the best things about this philosophy. Nothing is written in stone.

Why Choose Any Path at All?

This world is full of wonders. The various natural landscapes you can explore, incredible structures the human race has created, the potential to live in any environment – from the harshest desert to the deepest ocean to the iciest mountaintop – all of this can be experienced by you.

You are made of potential. There is infinite possibility within you. It doesn’t matter what you have done up to now, it is possible to do, be, or have something different. If you are unsatisfied with your life you can seek to change that.

Recognizing any path is a matter of being conscious of your mindset. This allows you to choose for yourself. It opens you up to using your vast empowerment to find and/or create a life that excites and thrills you.

THAT is why. It is the unrealized possibility that is why to choose any path at all. You always get to decide things, whether consciously or subconsciously. Doing so consciously gives you influence and control. Ergo, you get to not just live, but experience so much more life.

One the one hand this can be scary. But on the other hand, this is oh-so-exciting. The choice is yours to make.

I see the paths I am taking for my life…are you consciously choosing paths for yourself?

This is the four-hundred and thirteenth entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas for, and my personal experiences with, 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 also 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 some expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing works, 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!

Name *FirstLastEmail *MessageSubmit

The post Why Choose Any Path at All? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

One Thing Every Day

Doing just one thing, every day, for yourself, is unselfish.

Today will hold many things. Some will be expected and predictable while others will be unplanned and variable. Today will be a day.

You have the ability to make certain choices that will direct your day, influence it, and could change your experience in any number of ways. Practicing mindfulness and being aware, in the moment, of your thoughts, feelings, and actions can take any given day and alter its course.

For some people this is complicated. Either they are full of doubt and uncertainty, unaware of their own empowerment, or they feel that they have no control over what happens to them.

This can be true in many ways. You can’t control what other people do and you have no control over most external factors like weather, traffic, lines, and so on.

When living in a fear-based society, too-often focusing on lack, scarcity, and just not enough, finding positivity can be challenging. What’s more, it can also feel selfish to do anything positive in the face of all the negativity you are probably seeing online, on TV, and across other media.

When you accept this as your reality, unfortunately, it will be your reality. Like attracts like and consciousness creates reality. It doesn’t matter if you believe in any hooky-spooky new-agey concepts like the Law of Attraction, this will be your reality.

What you can have total control over is mindfulness. You are capable of the practice of influencing, altering, changing, and controlling what you are thinking, what and how you are feeling, and actions you take.

As such, I suggest practicing doing one thing every day that feels good.

Choose any one thing

There is no reason, whatsoever, that you cannot choose one thing, every day, to do for yourself.

Look, you only have so much time in this life. Your soul may be eternal but your body is only good for maybe a century or so. Thus, there is no reason why you are not entitled to doing one thing for yourself every day.

It doesn’t have to be something big. You could meditate, take a walk, watch a show on Netflix, take a nap, talk to a friend, eat ice cream, or anything you can think of. This is not for anyone but you, and it should be something that makes you feel good and/or brings you joy.

I know that life can be complicated. Yes, we all have responsibilities and expectations and stuff that needs to be done. Even still, there is no reason at all why you can’t do one thing every day for your own good.

Self-care is too easily bulldozed by a sense of selfishness. You might feel like it is more responsible to do for other people regularly and put yourself last. While that’s ok sometimes, it shouldn’t be forcing you to make unnecessary sacrifices.

FYI, sacrifice is a buy-in to a lack mentality. As in “since there is not enough I will go without.” Sacrifice inevitably leads to resentment, which helps nobody wins when all is said and done.

This is not selfish

The one thing you do for yourself every day is not a selfish act. This is not an all-day, close everyone else out situation. One thing, maybe as little as 5-10 minutes of your time, specifically for YOU.

Selfishness does not involve taking time for yourself. Being selfish is more specific, and involves intentionally taking from someone else and/or denying them something. You tell someone there is not enough of the tangible or intangible thing, when in fact there is plenty. However, you have no interest in sharing it and keep it entirely for you. Selfishness is a conscious choice.

When you do one thing every day, for you, it helps you build up empowerment. When you become more empowered you gain strength to be mindful, which gives you more control over your life.

You are worthy and deserving of doing at least one thing every day for you yourself.

Doing one thing every day isn’t hard – but it does require action

Knowing that you have every right to take time for yourself for at least one thing, every day, find a thing to do, for yourself, daily. When you take time for yourself you allow yourself to feel good and positive, and that ultimately empowers you. When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that tends to spread to other people around you.

As such, you can build more positive feelings and discover more things to feel positivity and gratitude.

Gratitude leads to happiness. Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude. An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of positivity that begets even more good energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile.

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

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

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

The post One Thing Every Day appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

There Is No One Philosophy for All

There is no one philosophy for all. It doesn’t matter what you do or do not believe, there is more than one philosophy out there.

When I began to write about the notion of Pathwalking for conscious reality creation it did not start out as my personal philosophy of life, the Universe, and everything. But over time, that’s what it has become.

Yet my philosophy has taken much of its tenets and ideals from the philosophies and life ideas of others. Things I have read and listened to from various writers, gurus, modern and not-so-modern philosophers to form my own.

As Shakespeare’s Hamlet said,

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Whatever philosophy you ascribe to – or not – it is not the only one that exists. This is for several reasons, but the largest is simply this:

There is no One True Way.

Many people, many paths

There are more than 7 billion people on this planet. That means that there are more than 7 billion perceptions of reality.

As Einstein said,

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

You and I are both capable of thinking, feeling, and doing. The thoughts, feelings, and actions that you and I have and do belong to only us. Nobody else can think or feel or do for you.

Sometimes that doesn’t seem to be the case. You see people who appear to be under the sway of someone else. There are innumerable stories of fiction where, under the power of another, a person thought, felt, or acted in a way contrary to their nature.

These are merely stories. Nobody can make you think, feel, or act any certain way. Only you do that.

The thing is, how you perceive the world is entirely up to you.

That’s what Einstein meant about the illusion of reality. We have created a collective consciousness of the world at large, but inside of that, perception of the individual is different for everyone.

Trouble is, many people fail to see the trees for the forest (yes, I know the adage goes the other way around, but bear with me).

The forest, in this instance, takes many forms. Every community is a forest, and people get lost within that community because they are not truly aware of themselves. As such, their subconscious has control.

This is where mob mentality, religious zealotry, and strident nationalism are born. The trees of the forest do not see themselves and their individual paths because their subconscious is doing most of the work.

This is why there is more than one philosophy in the world. Everyone is capable of forming their own.

One philosophy, fate, and destiny

The amount of power that this represents can be staggering. Human beings, all 7 billion-plus of us, each have the power to find and/or create our own philosophy.

Human beings are social creatures. This is why our ancestors, going far back into times past, formed into communities. As humans evolved from hunter-gatherers to an agrarian society new types of communities were formed. Tribes and clans became villages and towns. These, too, evolved and turned into cities and countries.

Then there are the matters to which we have no true answers. Everybody lives and everybody dies. Because humans can think and create on a level very different from the rest of the animal kingdom, we do not merely survive. Humans began to seek purpose and meaning for a life that has endless potential and possibility.

When you move past just the basics of survival you start to ask deep questions. Thus, the ideas of the answers that lie in philosophy, fate, and destiny come about over time.

You live, and you have potential and possibility. Yet there must be a reason you are here with the abilities you possess. That reason is your destiny. That’s your purpose in life.

Along this line, you have a finite time to achieve that destiny. You are fated to die. The other things that happen in your life are a part of fate – marriage, divorce, injury, and so forth.

Philosophy ties these together. The communities that formed over time found philosophical notions to agree upon together, and to adopt together. Thus you get religions, political parties, and nationalism.

Rather than coexist, unfortunately, conflict about which is the one philosophy ensues. Today we identify ourselves by these community codes and often fail to see our own power.

You are empowered to choose

There is a line from Terminator 2: Judgment Day that speaks to this:

“No fate but what we make.”

The notions of fate and destiny are self-imposed by the human race. They are born of philosophical underpinnings that have been accepted by communities of people.

But each and every one of us is capable of choosing our own life. Thus, you have the ability to make your own path. There is no One True Way. There is no one philosophy.

That much power scares a lot of people. It scared me when I first began to understand it. To be able to make a life that is as you desire it feels like too much strength and a giant responsibility to not be abused.

Which is the crux of one of the bigger lies people exist with. Individuals, recognizing exactly this, have abused the empowerment as power. They also believe that this power is for them alone, so they do all that they can to disempower others and deny them the chance to be empowered. This is where you get dictators and tyrants like Hitler, Idi Amin, and Joseph Stalin.

By the same token, some see that as an opportunity to empower their fellow humans. That’s where you get Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Whether you see it for yourself, or not, you do have a personal philosophy. It is made up of the things you believe about how the Universe works. You get to choose what that looks like, and you can change it if you don’t like it.

When you practice mindfulness you gain awareness of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. These are the only things over which you have total control. But that is a choice for you to make.

My philosophy – Pathwalking

I share my philosophy not because I desire to gain followers or to create a cult or new religion or practice. I share this because I want to help empower people.

Pathwalking is about recognizing how you have all the power within you to find or create a life that thrills you. It needn’t be some grand adventure, it is mostly just seeing how abundant the Universe is and all that you can do within it.

It is my belief that the more you become empowered the more capable you become of changing the world for the better. When more people recognize their empowerment they can take back control from these broader communities and combative philosophies for themselves.

There is no one philosophy as there is no one path in life nor One True Way. Pathwalking will be different for everyone that practices it because all paths are different. It doesn’t matter what you do or do not believe, there is more than one philosophy.

Can you see how you are empowered to choose and change your own philosophy?

This is the four-hundred and twelfth entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas for, and my personal experiences with, 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 also 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 some expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing works, 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 No One Philosophy for All appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.