M.J. Blehart's Blog, page 8

What Can I Do About This?

What you can do about this is small but still significant.Photo by Zeynep Sümer on Unsplash

If, like me, you see the world going mad and feel like there must be something you can do, it’s all too easy to become discouraged. You look at the lies people accept, believe, and buy into. What seems completely ugly and horrific to you, others are just allowing. You see these so-called leaders tossing out kindness, compassion, empathy, and even just caring in the name of greed, power, and other fleeting bullshit.

What can I do about this? When it comes to the big picture, the so-called leaders and their terrible enablers and allies – there’s nothing you can do directly. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t indirect, local action you can take. But I will get into that in more detail ahead.

First, however, let’s talk about what you can do about this – in general – when it feels like the answer is “nothing”.

Start with small local actions

Nothing in the universe emerged whole and complete at the start. Smaller blocks went into it. Every single thing in the universe breaks down into way smaller constituent parts. The largest star in the cosmos didn’t just emerge from the void, whole. Subatomic particles became atoms, atoms became molecules, molecules became compounds, and as more and more pieces came together, they formed familiar things.

This is how every person, place, or thing breaks down. This is how every intangible idea also works. An idea, an intangible, is made up of thought. Thought, another intangible, meets feeling. Thought and feeling brought together with intent and a choice of positive approach – all intangibles – lead to action. Through action, the intangible becomes tangible.

For example, in the 1960s, Wah Ming Chang designed the first prop communicator on Star Trek. This would inspire the development of a functional version, which emerged into the flip phone of the mid-1990s. That would lead to the smartphone we know today (which you might be using to read this, in fact).

An idea led to a sci-fi prop that led to a functional variation to where we are now. Smartphones didn’t just come into being, they were developed over time from a single, intangible idea. What was once small and seemingly insignificant has had a global impact that I’m pretty sure nobody could have imagined.

While it might feel like there’s nothing you can do about the bullshit happening in the world, the truth is that even the smallest idea is something. And something is better than nothing.

Photo by Corey Young on UnsplashWhat can I do about this?

Nothing anyone does in life springs out fully-formed and complete. Everything begins with one single step.

As one of my favorite Lao Tzu quotes goes,

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

You and I can’t do jack shit about the US Government, Israel, Palestine, Russia, Ukraine, and the like. From where we are, we’re too far removed. That doesn’t mean, however, that there’s nothing we can do. This is the local action I wrote about at the start of this.

You and I can vote in elections, attend protests, choose businesses to boycott, support up-and-coming politicians and leaders, choose to run for office, call/email/write Congresspeople and demand they protect us like they’re supposed to, and donate time/money/effort to worthy causes and organizations.

These might seem insignificant. But the truth is, they aren’t. They are what you and I can do about this. Do you think the current situation just came into being, whole, out of thin air? No. It took a lot of concerted effort on the part of some truly awful, selfish assholes to bring us here.

The pendulum always swings back. Now is the time to do the groundwork to build better. But to get anywhere at all, action is required.

Doing nothing does nothing about this

Obvious, right? Not so much. This is especially important because inaction is what “they” – those who created this fuckery – want. They want you and I to be compliant, complacent, and to go quietly into the night and accept that this is how it is, period, end of story.

When you do something, anything to build better for not just yourself, your action is just one step, one piece of the chain. It’s the subatomic particle that can and will join others to form atoms, which in turn form molecules and eventually become tangible things.

Make that call, send that email, boycott that business, join that protest, give what you can – be it material or immaterial.

More than that, however, don’t put your life on hold and give all your time, focus, and attention to the big picture matters you can’t do fuckall about. It’s so, so easy to fall into that rut, and from there, take a downward spiral to depression, hopelessness, and loss. It’s not selfish to live your life and take the paths you choose. This is empowering.

When you’re empowered, that can inspire empowerment in others. From there, even unintentionally, you find something you can do about this, even if it feels small and insignificant. Because nothing you do for good and with kindness, compassion, and empathy, is truly small or insignificant.

Don’t do nothing; do something. Can you see how that’s what you can do about this?

This is the six-hundred-ninety-second (692) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

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

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.

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

The post What Can I Do About This? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

The Simple Positivity of Being

I’m here, you’re here, and that’s a very good thing.Photo by Mor Shani on Unsplash

If you practice kindness, compassion, and empathy in your life – it’s really challenging right now. The surreal things being done by the US Government, people treating other people as lesser as part of resurgent prejudices, not to mention world affairs – it can feel really hopeless.

When you focus on these things far, far outside of your control it’s hard to feel hope. You can do little to nothing, and if you practice kindness, compassion, and empathy in your life, you dislike that feeling.

I want very much to show the people who are doing so much unnecessary harm what they are doing. But I can’t. It’s infuriating. And also scary because we’re seeing that when you don’t learn from history it can, will, and does repeat itself.

I can go on and on about this. However, that doesn’t do me any good. Every deep dive you do into the nitty-gritty details of the big picture only cause you pain.

It’s good to know what’s going on but unnecessary to be soaking in it. The deeper you go the less and less positivity you can see. That way lies madness.

What can you do? Think globally, sure, but act locally.

Be the best you that you can be

To quote my favorite guru, Yoda,

“Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.”

I have a set of affirmations I use regularly to keep my head screwed on correctly. One of them is this,

I do give my best, I do my best, the thoughts and feelings of others are outside of my control.

These two ideas combined are the key. Be your best. Do your best. Don’t try, do it. Give where and how you can – be it time, money, or whatever. Practice all the kindness, compassion, and empathy you desire to see. Don’t half-ass your life, give it your whole ass. Do your best, be your best, and don’t let worry about the impression you make on others stay your hand.

This is not a license to pillage or rape like the ugly forces in the world strive to do. I believe that a life worth living includes kindness, compassion, and empathy given. You are not alone. You’re unique, yes, but you are 1 of 8,000,000,000 people on the planet, and none of us are in competition for anything. Unless it’s a sporting event, spelling bee, cooking show for prize money, or the like – NONE OF US ARE IN COMPETITION WITH EACH OTHER.

Note: Being the best you can be is not selfish because genuine selfishness involves intentional hurt and harm caused.

Photo by Simon Berger on UnsplashThe simple positivity of being

I know that things are challenging. You might be impacted by the awfulness happening in the world today. Yet, there is one positive thing I can guarantee that you have.

You are here. You are being.

The simple positivity of being shouldn’t be disregarded or overlooked. The world needs you. You, being here, right now, matters. Why? I don’t know. I just know that if you weren’t supposed to be here, now, being, you wouldn’t be.

Life can utterly suck sometimes. From the lowest of the low to the highest of the high, this is the truth. Life is perfectly imperfect for everyone, everywhere. The state of being is frequently challenging. Yet, despite this, it’s a giant checkmark on the side of positivity that you are here, being, now.

Being is about experiencing, learning, growing, suffering, and experiencing in general. You are called a human being in part because life means you are being. What you’re being can, will, and does change all the time. But you are here, now, and that’s positive.

You can impact those around you just by being. Some days that feels like total bullshit. Yet it’s still the truth. And the simple positivity of being can sustain you in the darkness of a world gone mad.

Recognize your awesomeness

What have you got to be positive about? You’re breathing. There is air in your lungs. If you’re reading this, you have access to amazing tech. When you give good to the world you get good from the world. Sometimes not right away, sometimes not in a measurable way, but it’s there.

You, being, is a good thing. Even when you feel awful, dejected, and unhappy, it’s still good that you’re here, now. When you can see the positivity in that you are open to virtually unlimited potential and possibility. Remember, even when it all sucks, it will all change, because change is the only constant in the universe.

Thank you for being.

Recognizing the positivity of being isn’t hard

It’s all about practicing mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and approach to direct your actions.

When you recognize and acknowledge that it’s a good thing you are here, being in this world, now, you open the way to incredible amounts of potential and possibility. Knowing that even when it all sucks and feels hopeless, it will all change and you, being here, can positively impact that. You can find things to do in your life experience to be a beacon in the darkness.

This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.

Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. From that broader dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.

Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.

The better aware you are of yourself here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, that can spread to those around you for their empowerment.

Thank you for coming along on this journey.

This is the five-hundred-and-eightieth (580) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that 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 my published fiction and non-fiction.

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

It Will Never Be Perfect

Perfection, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.Photo by Bri Tucker on Unsplash

Lots of people hold off on projects, creations, and other work because they need to make it perfect. Right from the start they seek to have it all flawless with the “t’s” crossed and “i’s” dotted. They do everything they can to make sure they have all the metaphors in a row before doing the art, painting the painting, starting the business, or what have you.

There is one very big, glaring problem with this. It will never be perfect. But that’s because nothing is ever, subjectively, perfect.

That’s because perfection, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Ergo, my perfect is your utterly fucked up, your perfect is my not right, and everyone else has an opinion, too.

This can be especially disheartening if you strive for completeness and perfection in anything and/or everything you do. You might intellectually know that it will never be perfect, but in your heart and soul, you aim for perfection anyway.

Get it done

There is a wonderful quote attributed to Sheryl Sandberg,

“Done is better than perfect.”

This statement can, to some, be a letdown. To others, however, it’s very empowering. The message is clear – getting it done is better than making it perfect.

It doesn’t help that the world holds people to impossible standards. How many people believe that they are less than others because they don’t have the home, car, or wardrobe? It’s all too easy to use comparison and competition to keep people small and dissuade them from doing their thing if it’s imperfect in any way.

Yet the simple act of doing something, taking action, is ginormous. No idea has ever become a reality without action. Even if you combine thought with feeling and intent, without action it never manifests.

All too often, perfecting the concept, lining it all up, and similar notions get in the way of taking the idea and making it happen. Hence, action. Take action, get it done, and you’re on your way.

Photo by Brett Jordan on UnsplashNever perfect and perfectly imperfect

What is perfection? It’s the idea that something has reached the ultimate pinnacle of being. It’s the best, the top, the most impressive. There is nothing to be altered, changed, or modified because it’s absolutely right.

Yet, is it? Nope. Everybody is a critic and that which one person sees as perfect another sees as utterly disastrous.

Sometimes, in the quest for perfection, people go back and redo finished work. A friend was telling me recently about showing his young son the original 1977 Star Wars before any of George Lucas’ multiple modifications and reworkings were done to it.

It can never be perfect because perfect is subjective. Yet people try again and again to make it perfect. That’s why lots of books have never been written or published, art never committed to canvas, songs unsung, and businesses never get off the ground. The quest for perfection overtook getting it done, so it is unfinished to this day.

Do it well

Unfortunately, there is a matter to address here. Maybe you can’t achieve perfection, but done doesn’t mean half-assed.

Lots of people get so frustrated in the quest for perfection that they half-ass the work to get it done. That’s not what this is about. This is about taking action to make something manifest with your energy committed to it. Half-assing and doing a project poorly is almost more unsatisfying than letting the quest for perfection keep you from getting it done.

There are plenty of inferior, half-assed products in the world. Maybe they can make you a quick buck, but how will that make you feel? If you care, and you create for the joy and excitement of creating, you’ll feel empty. That’s why done might be better than perfect, but half-assed is not satisfactorily done (and, arguably, intentionally and maliciously imperfect).

It will never be perfect

That doesn’t mean you can’t do work to start and improve on it. What’s more, every initial idea is just that. The first. Hence, it can and will be followed by something else.

I’m preparing to publish my 16th fictional novel soon. It’s a far cry from my first published work, because I’ve learned, grown, and developed as an author. No, it’s not perfect, but it’s done. Now I am working with the edits I got back from my editor to make it as good as I can before you can buy it.

It will never be perfect but it will still be out there. You have the power to choose to make your art, book, business, or whatever other venture a reality. It’s okay that it will never be perfect because perfection is utterly subjective.

Can you see that it’s both normal and okay that it will never be perfect?

This is the six-hundred-ninety-first (691) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

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

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.

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

The post It Will Never Be Perfect appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

I’m On The Lookout For My Sanity

You’re the only one who can look out for your sanity.Photo by Toni Reed on Unsplash

I’m fairly certain that I lost my sanity around my freshman year of college. In fact, I spent an afternoon looking all over the campus for it. This included opening my mailbox and asking if my sanity was there, walking around calling for it like a lost dog, and then a friend said she saw it run off…with her sanity.

All kidding aside, it’s increasingly difficult to maintain sanity in the world. Between the never-ending comparison inherent in our culture, ludicrous narcissists running the government, and the massive decrease in overall kindness, compassion, and empathy – it’s not that surprising, really.

Then, to add insult to injury, we’re in the middle of a largely ignored, massive mental health crisis. When the COVID-19 pandemic led to lockdowns, it shifted the world in ways that we have neither fully addressed nor acknowledged. Instead, too many of the influencers and businesspeople of the world tried to return us to how it was before – while utterly ignoring the deep impact it had.

My sanity has taken quite a beating from all of this, and more. And the stark truth is that only I can look out for my sanity. And, likewise, only you can look out for your sanity.

Gaining insight into yourself with mindfulness

The only person in my head, heart, and soul is me. Nobody else is in here thinking these thoughts, feeling these feelings, intending, approaching, and acting for me but me. This is also the truth about you and your head, heart, and soul.

Yet lots of those in power, in leadership roles, or in any way taking a role of influence, really want you to ignore that. Instead, they want you to look to and turn to them for how to be. Never mind that none of them are or can be inside of you and your mindset/headspace/psyche self. Yet they cajole you to do it like them or face ridicule, shame, mocking, and worse.

It’s on you alone to recognize and acknowledge your state of being. To do that, you need to begin by checking in with yourself here and now. This is something that can only be done in the present because only the present moment is wholly literal and actual.

To check in with yourself here and now you just need to ask questions like:

What am I thinking?What am I feeling?How am I feeling?What is my intent?Am I approaching things from a place of positivity or negativity?What actions am I taking?

Each of these shows you who, what, where, how, and why you are, right here and now. This is where you gain insight into yourself and, ultimately, can see your sanity.

Photo by Clay Banks on UnsplashLooking out for my sanity

Please, allow me to acknowledge that this is not the traditional, medical definition of sanity, per se. In this instance, I’m generalizing that sense of being, wellbeing, self-awareness, self-care, balance, and centering all rolled into one neat package. Ergo, sanity.

For the sake of all the above, I’ve been spending less and less time on social media. Watching the ongoing awfulness of my home country being torn apart in the name of a small minority of, frankly, scared man-children, is super disheartening and depressing. While I recognize the necessity of being aware of what’s going on, I also acknowledge that I don’t need every nuanced detail – for the sake of my sanity.

Lots of my friends share every little terrible happening they come across. I get why you do that, but frankly, unless you can offer a plan of action to go with it, all you’re doing is creating more reasons to be afraid, angry, and uncertain.

For the sake of my sanity, I’m making choices to limit my intake. For the sake of your sanity, you can choose for yourself how to approach that.

It’s on you alone, but not necessarily alone

You are by no stretch of the imagination alone in trying to find and maintain your sanity in these wacky, unprecedented, confounding times. While it’s on you and you alone to be mindful and consciously aware, here and now, of who-what-where-how-why you are – you needn’t do so alone.

Stay in touch with like-minded people. Follow those who show paths out of this quagmire. Choose where to boycott. Be mindful of what and when you consume. Get help via therapy, counseling, like-minded groups, and so on.

Most of all, practice kindness, compassion, and empathy. Start with giving them to yourself to find your balance and your sanity. Know that you are worthy and deserving of experiencing mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical wellness and wellbeing.

Looking out for your sanity isn’t hard

It’s all about practicing mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and approach to direct your actions.

When you recognize and acknowledge that you’re the only one in your head, heart, and soul, you can practice active conscious awareness – mindfulness – to find and maintain balance and your sanity. Knowing that you can control who, what, where, how, and why you are helps you be better centered, find and maintain balance, and mind your sanity for your ultimate health, wellness, and wellbeing.

This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.

Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. From that broader dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.

Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.

The better aware you are of yourself here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, that can spread to those around you for their empowerment.

Thank you for coming along on this journey.

This is the five-hundred-and-seventy-ninth (579) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that 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 my published fiction and non-fiction.

The post I’m On The Lookout For My Sanity appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

They Don’t Care About You

Why do you care about them?Photo by Marco Oriolesi on Unsplash

I’m not talking about your family or friends. Though I can make an argument that when you aren’t present with one another, they likely aren’t thinking about you. But that’s not the same, because they still care about you.

Who I am talking about is “them.” Those included in “them” is every police officer, clergyman, business mogul, politician, celebrity, and similar people nearly always distant from you and yours. When all is said and done, they don’t care about you.

No, you might think, but it’s their job to care about me. Sure, you can make an argument that the police are here to “serve and protect” and the like. But in the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t mean they care about you as an individual person. Not unless you are directly involved with them in some way.

The same is true of all the others mentioned above. Clergy care more for the souls of the individuals than the individuals, business moguls only care about what makes them more money, politicians only care about what gives them more power, celebrities only care about what gets them more noticed. You? They do not care about you in the slightest.

Why does this matter?

Consciousness creates reality. Thus, when your focus is on things way, way outside of your control, your subconscious does all the reality creation. To all intents and purposes, you’re ceding reality creation to people who don’t care about you.

When you care about what they do, how they act, and give it a large amount of your time and attention, you disempower yourself. If you spend as little as 5 minutes scrolling through social media, reading a newspaper, or watching the news, how does that make you feel? I’m going to hazard a guess and say angry, upset, confused, scared, uncertain, concerned, and/or a wild combination of some or all of the above.

When you feel like that, it’s very hard to focus on anything good or on those you care about and who care about you. No, I’m not suggesting you ignore those way-outside people completely. But they do not need your admiration, loathing, or attention.

Especially because for the most part, there’s not a damned thing you can do about them.

When you put your focus on people, things, and situations far outside your actual life, you lose sight of what you can and do have. That’s disempowering. And that, really, is the point, of course.

They don’t care about you

Part of why they don’t care about you is because they don’t know you. Unless you happen to be a close personal friend or relative of celebrity “X”, politician “Y”, or business mogul “Z”, all you are to them – if anything at all – is an abstract. A concept. A blip on a radar screen, a line on a chart, and so on.

Yet people get all bent out of shape over these far-away people and ideas like they’ll lose it all if they lose them. But, the truth is, they never had them in the first place.

They don’t care about you because they don’t know you, nor do they want to know you. So, living your life to appease and please them makes about as much sense as living your life for any random stranger you meet on the streets.

Photo by Andy Feliciotti on UnsplashWhy do you care about them?

They want you to care about them because that’s how they have any sway, power, or control. Ever notice how most politicians, celebrities, business moguls, and the like are all about image? They put themselves out in the world in specific ways so that you care about them, who they are, what they do, and more.

If you focus on these people, things, and ideas way outside of your life experience, you start to believe that they feel about you how you feel about them. The truth is that they don’t care about you, so why should you care about them?

Does caring about them do anything for you, right here and now, where you are? Nope. Does caring about them make them care about you? Not at all. If you show them you care, will they give you the kindness, compassion, and empathy you crave? The answer is usually no.

One caveat

Let’s clear up one important thing here. Not caring and not giving a fuck are very different animals. The former is impersonal and largely harmless. The latter is malicious and unfortunate. Not caring is just recognizing that someone doesn’t know you to care about you. Meanwhile, not giving a fuck means actively doing harmful things to you and others like removing protections, rights, freedoms, and whatever else in the name of **insert your given bullshit reason/person/deity here**.

Since they don’t care about you…

Maybe it serves you better to care about people, things, and connections you can impact and that, similarly, can impact you.

Family, friends, neighbors, and the people you encounter every day. You can care about them and impact their lives. Family, friends, and neighbors should be obvious. The people you encounter every day? Say hi, open and hold doors, let the person with 2 items get in front of you and your 12 items in line, and so on.

All of these are empowering. Empowerment is never bad because it means you are awake, aware, and choosing for yourself the things in your life. When you empower yourself, you can inspire empowerment in others, too.

Be mindful and aware of whom you care about. If your focus, attention, intent, and energy are on abstract people and things well outside your life, change it. Dial it back down and into who and what you can influence, impact, and share kindness, compassion, and empathy with. It might not seem like much, but every little bit counts.

When you see that the abstract “they” don’t care about you, why should you care about them?

This is the six-hundred-ninetieth (690) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

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

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.

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

The post They Don’t Care About You appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

You Win in Life by Living Life, No Matter What

You are worthy and deserving of getting the win.Photo by Heshan Chamikara on Unsplash

A lot of the narrative in the world today is all about the win. You’re a winner or a loser. Take this side, you’re a winner; take that side, you’re a loser. Be like that guy you will win; be like that guy you will lose.

This comes with a huge number of false equivalences, outright lies, and distractions. Then, a lot of impressions get made that create unnecessary competition, division, nastiness, and worse.

The truth is that nobody but you knows what you need/desire for your life. What gets me going might be of no interest to you at all and vice versa. The other big truth is that life is not a competition.

For those sitting in the back, I repeat:   LIFE IS NOT A COMPETITION. Baseball, a wrestling match, a spelling bee – these are competitions. The job market, finding lovers, grocery shopping, education, and most other everyday life experiences are not competitions.

The only way to lose is to not live. What does that look like? You let life beat you down, accept you have zero control or power, and choose to be a victim and/or a punching bag.

When you live, you win. You win in life by living life, no matter what.

It’s true even when shit happens

Life is never all good. Not for anyone. Everyone, everywhere, has bad days, suffers loss, has shit happen. Everyone. No amount of money, power, or good karma will guarantee you a pain-free life. There is no such thing. Sorry.

Pain and suffering, however, are not always purely bad. You can learn a lot from a painful experience – mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, some or all the above – and you can learn a lot from suffering – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, some or all the above.

Everything that happens can teach you something. Failure has led to many an amazing discovery and innovation. Fucking up has saved people from dying or becoming permanently disabled. Pain and suffering have led to adaptations, ideas, growth, and positive change in the aftermath.

Because shit happens, no matter who you are, the choice to grow and change from it is not a given. Some people let it destroy them. Lots of victims experienced pain and suffering and allow that to define them in numerous ways afterward. Many people see themselves as losers and experience more loss than victory from shit happening.

When you give up, let yourself be the punching bag or doormat for everyone and everything around you, you’ve made a choice. Nobody is that way unless they allow themselves to be. You only lose in life when you choose to take the loss.

I’m in no way saying you can or should ignore that shit happens. Far from it. What I am suggesting is that you can choose how to move forward after shit happens.

Photo by Randy Fath on UnsplashYou win in life by living life

I believe that the meaning of life is to live. Nothing more, nothing less. Live it.

What does it mean to live? It means experiencing life for all its ups and downs. Perhaps you see life as a roller coaster. Some people are afraid of roller coasters and won’t ride them, no matter what. Some relish in that fear. Others see them as a ride worth taking, so they do.

That’s life and the meaning of life. You get one shot in that body, inside your head, heart, and soul, to experience living. The meaning of life is to live by having experiences.

They will be both good and bad. Much of that will be utterly, completely out of your control. If you allow the economy, the government, your parents, your teachers, or anyone else to live your life for you, chances are you will see a no-win situation. When you expect negativity of random happenstance, shit going down, and pain and suffering, you set up obstacles to win in life.

Your mileage may vary. What makes you happy might not make anyone else happy. Who and what you love might be misunderstood by others. So long as you are living life on your terms and being the best you that you can be, you win in life by living life. No matter what.

There is, however, one important caveat to be mindful of.

Nobody lives in a vacuum

You are one of 8 billion people on this planet. Every single one of us has our own unique perspective on life, the universe, and everything. You can’t get along with and agree with everyone. That’s just not human nature.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but everyone loses when you deny, withhold, or otherwise ignore kindness, compassion, and empathy. Selfish is what selfish does, and if you take more than your fair share and don’t give a rat’s ass about hurting others that way, you lose. You do not win when you live life knowingly causing harm to others.

There is no lack, scarcity, shortage, or insufficiency of kindness, compassion, and empathy in the universe. Also, there is not a single human being that doesn’t want kindness, compassion, and empathy (no matter how shitty they are towards others). Giving kindness, compassion, and empathy gets them returned and is never negative or bad. Neither does it in any way, shape, or form make you a loser (despite what Musk and Trump say). It’s empowering and strengthening to be kind, compassionate, and empathetic, and not in any way weak or a weakness.

You win in life by living life, unless you knowingly, with full malice of forethought, do unkind, uncompassionate, unempathetic, hurtful things to others while emboldening yourself. You don’t win in life by making others lose because it’s not a competition, and others are as deserving of living a full, healthy, happy life as you are.

Recognizing that you win in life by living life isn’t hard

It’s all about practicing mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and approach to direct your actions.

When you recognize and acknowledge that to live, to experience life in all its ups and downs, is the meaning of life – and you alone get to experience that – you can do, be, and have things to win in life. Knowing that you only lose by being terrible to others or not acting to live life in your own way, you can win in life by living life, no matter what.

This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.

Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. From that broader dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.

Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.

The better aware you are of yourself here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, that can spread to those around you for their empowerment.

Thank you for coming along on this journey.

This is the five-hundred-and-seventy-eighth (578) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that 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 my published fiction and non-fiction.

The post You Win in Life by Living Life, No Matter What appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Pick Your Battles and Know Your Allies

What can you do in the face of this madness?Photo by Piotr Makowski on Unsplash

How the fuck did we get here? Why do they think starting a trade war will do anyone any good at all? Oh, right, because they only care about what lines their pockets and fuck the rest of us.

I’m scared. I can’t deny that. Watching the nation that I call home being ripped apart by this ludicrous, unconscionable excuse for a human being and his sycophants is depressing, horrifying, upsetting, and infuriating. Why those with the ability to put this madman in check refuse to act is beyond comprehension.

The biggest, most maddening thing about this is that there isn’t a damned thing I can do. I voted in the election, I can make calls, send emails, attend protests, and boycott many of the offensive companies supporting this shitshow. And that’s about it.

Accepting that there is nothing more I can do about this is distressing. People I care about are being impacted, and there is nothing I can do.

Chances are, you feel this, too. If you have any kindness, compassion, and empathy in your soul, I presume you’re feeling this. Hence, like me, you probably feel a bit hopeless, afraid, uncertain, stressed, and lost – or some combination therein.

What can you do? Pick your battles and know your allies.

Pick your battles

At this point, the only thing you and I can do is stay strong, not let them eradicate our hope, and remain vigilant and vocal to keep them from overwhelming and overcoming us.

Pick your battles. What that looks like for you is likely not the same as what it looks like for me, but I imagine there are similarities.

For example, reading all about it, watching the news like it’s your job, diving deep into every awful decision, post, and message from the madhouse will only expand the negatives. Knowing every single move Trump, Musk, and the rest of the nightmare fuelers make does nothing but disempower us.

There is no reason for me to be that deeply aware and inundated with these happenings. Knowing the basics, unless it’s having an immediate, direct impact on me, is enough. I don’t need the elaborate, detailed, minute-by-minute news and information.

When you pick your battles, this is a part of that. I voted in the election and will vote in the next. I’ll attend protests if they speak to me.

One place, however, where I can pick my battles is to boycott many of the businesses that support this awfulness. I will choose to avoid and give no money to people and companies willfully supporting this administration. Also, I’ll participate in no-shopping mass-boycott events.

The problem is that I cannot boycott and avoid them all. For example, my ISP is the only option I have in my area, so I must use them or lose my livelihood and platform. If there is a future alternative (that I can select without going bankrupt), I’ll choose anew.

This is why you both pick your battles and know your allies.

Photo by Cody West on UnsplashKnow your allies

The dominant narrative of society’s current collective consciousness leans towards being against. Everywhere you turn, they tell you to stand against this, form resistance against that, and so on.

This has the unfortunate side effect of lowering our collective frequency because it’s a matter of negativity. It’s subtle and seemingly innocuous. But it’s not. Look at the most terrible people and organizations in the world today. Every single one of them is exclusively taking a stand against this, that, or the other thing.

To shift this, we need to be more proactive. That is a matter of taking a stand FOR rather than AGAINST. Be FOR this, that, or the other thing. Stand up for kindness, compassion, and empathy rather than against the lack of them.

Getting to know your allies is not just a metaphor. It’s recognition of those in similar circumstances, seeing the same shit that you are, and being for the same things. Be for peace, kindness, compassion, inclusivity, diversity, and all similar good things.

What’s more, when you know your allies, you see that you’re not alone. You can see that there are others of the same mindset, looking for similar means to shift to something better than the bullshit we’re facing now.

However – and this is super important – accept that your allies are imperfect. For example, I am a white, middle-aged, straight, cis-gendered male. Hence, I cannot fully understand or experience the plight of the LGBTQA+ community, people of color, women, immigrants, and so on. I am an imperfect ally, but I am still an ally.

We are stronger together, even imperfectly. When you pick your battles, you are more empowered when you take imperfect allies into the field with you.

Pick your battles and know your allies

There is little to nothing you and I can do about all the terrible government, business, religious, and other so-called leaders. You can allow yourself to be overwhelmed by the news of every little awful thing they do – or you can pick your battles in a more empowering way.

Alongside your allies, you can pick your battles to attend protests, boycott people and greedy corporate entities, and take local steps to stand for better, kinder, more compassionate entities. It might not seem like much, but when you pick your battles with greater care and consideration, you become more empowered. More empowered people take back the world from the forces that strive to disempower and control through lies, deceit, false scarcity, lack, and insufficiency.

I know that in reality, there are more of us who give a fuck about not just ourselves, but other people we know and don’t know. Together, if we pick our battles and know our allies, we can stay strong and prevail in the face of this madness.

Do you see how much more you’re empowered and what you can do when you pick your battles and know your allies?

This is the six-hundred-eighty-ninth (689) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

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

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.

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

The post Pick Your Battles and Know Your Allies appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

It’s Okay to Get it Wrong and F*ck it Up

The surprising positivity in being imperfect.Photo by Sangga Rima Roman Selia on Unsplash

You have screwed up before. You chose the wrong toothpaste, an inconsiderate lover, the wrong time to take a trip, the wrong job, and tons of other things both big and small.

Congratulations, you are a human being. Well done. Yet you are constantly being bombarded by messages about perfection, buying “X” to look good, doing “Y” to feel good, and the like, in a way that makes getting it wrong and fucking it up look inexcusable.

Over the past few decades, extremes have gained a lot of traction. The opposite ends are where all the focus goes, even though most things fall somewhere between said extremes. Then, tons of false equivalences get tied to these opposites. If you are this and believe that, you must also be this and that other thing – which have no true connection. A perfect example is how religion, morality, and spirituality are constantly tied together, and people wave their religion like a flag that provides them morality and spirituality – when they couldn’t be more blatantly amoral and materialistic/profane.

It’s easy to lose yourself in the morass of this bullshit. This also makes it seem like you’re imperfect, a fuck-up, unworthy, underserving, and just a bad person when you fail to meet these unreal expectations.

This, however, couldn’t be further from the truth.

You will get it wrong and fuck it up

That’s because you’re only human. And absolutely every single human being – all 8 billion of us – will get it wrong and fuck up from time to time.

The problem is when you get it wrong and fuck it up and think that’s all. The end. Nothing more to do. Move along. Are you still here? Still alive? Then it is not the end and not over.

You get to do it again. Will you do it the same? Do something different? Something new? Will you try something you have done before (successfully or unsuccessfully) or try something completely new and different? Maybe a little from column A and a little from column B?

Or will you give up, give in, roll over, and play dead? Guess what? The choice is yours.

There are lots of forces in the world today that want you to choose their way. Be it politicians, clothing brands, religious/cult/spiritual leaders, or the like – they want you dependent. These forces want you to turn to them to save you – and presently, that tends to cost you all of your money (now or down the line).

But the reality is that the material tends to be unimportant when the day is done. If you have to get from point “A” to point “B”, and you have a reliable, fuel-efficient, fun to drive car, does it really matter if it’s a Hyundai or a BMW and if it’s a new model or an older one?? In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t. It’s about getting from here to there, isn’t it?

Most of the things people truly desire for their lives aren’t material. Everyone I have ever met has desired kindness, compassion, empathy, connection, and genuine love above all else.

Photo by Francisco De Legarreta C. on UnsplashThe surprising positivity of being imperfect

You are one of 8 billion people on Planet Earth. All 8,000,000,000 people have their own unique perspective of life, the universe, and everything. And – every single one of them, all of us, will get it wrong and fuck it up along the way.

One day, 25 years ago, I decided to walk to the post office to mail out my bills. I thought the exercise would do me good. Yet I have no memory of that day – because I got hit by a car crossing the street a quarter mile from my apartment. I got it wrong – walking wasn’t good for me that day. I fucked up (yeah, I know I didn’t use the crosswalk) and am now made of titanium and have some really wicked scars.

Yup, you can get it wrong and fuck it up in all kinds of ways. And that’s just because you’re imperfect. Perfectly imperfect. And so is everyone else. All 8 billion people, as well as all who came before and all who will follow, are, were, and will be perfectly imperfect.

Imperfection leads to learning things. How do I overcome “X”, learn “Y”, and do “Z”? That’s where the surprising positivity of being imperfect comes into play. Because you have a chance to learn something new and do something different.

Then, what you learn or do could impact someone else for the better. You might help someone else improve their life via your example. And that is huge positivity. Genuine, non-toxic positivity, because it wouldn’t have come into being without negativity, imperfection, and so on.

It’s okay to get it wrong and fuck it up because that can be the key to something new and better. You are empowered to choose to alter your perspective to this approach – or not.

Understanding that it’s okay to get it wrong and fuck it up isn’t hard

It’s all about practicing mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and approach to direct your actions.

When you recognize and acknowledge that you’re only human, and everyone gets is wrong and fucks it up along the way, you can make choices and decisions to take new steps and approaches to do it again, move past it, do something new, and the like. Knowing that everyone everywhere is perfectly imperfect, and that the immaterial things you most desire – like kindness, compassion, empathy, connection, and genuine love – are in unending abundance, you can see getting it wrong and fucking it up aren’t the end, but might instead can be a whole new and potential-filled, exciting beginning.

This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.

Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. From that broader dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.

Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.

The better aware you are of yourself here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, that can spread to those around you for their empowerment.

Thank you for coming along on this journey.

This is the five-hundred-and-seventy-seventh (577) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that 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 my published fiction and non-fiction.

The post It’s Okay to Get it Wrong and F*ck it Up appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

It Helps to Be Able to Improvise

Sometimes, the best way through is to make it up as you go along.Photo by Michael Prewett on Unsplash

When I began to learn melee combat in medieval fencing, a key phrase always stuck with me. No plan survives contact with the enemy. And it’s true. The “enemy”, be it a physical opponent or an intangible like Resistance, is unpredictable. You can’t and don’t know what they’ll do, how they’ll do it, or much of anything, really.

Part of this is because you are the only one inside your head, heart, and soul. But guess what? This is true for everyone. He’s the only one in his head, heart, and soul; she’s the only one in her head, heart, and soul; they’re the only one in their head, heart, and soul; and so on.

Just because the “enemy” has done the same thing 9 times in a row, the tenth time might be different. You expect a zag, they zig, and your plan goes straight to hell.

This can, will, and does happen all the time. That’s because, apart from what’s happening in your head, heart, and soul, you can do nothing for anyone or anything else. The weather, air pressure, attitude, and intent of this, that, or the other thing is unknown.

This truth makes some people crazy. Especially people who are thorough planners. What do you do? What can you do?

Enter improvisation. But I need to digress a moment.

Tactics versus strategy

Years of fencing in medieval melee has taught me a lot of important life lessons. One of the key lessons I’ve been quantifying over the last few years is the difference between strategy and tactic.

They’re frequently blended together, which makes sense because they tend to occur together. However, they are very different.

A strategy is the overarching plan. In combat, it’s looking at the enemy, what you know of their forces, how you expect them to act, and making a plan for how to take them on and win.

A tactic is what you apply in the field. As you carry out the strategic plan dialed down to the unit or the individual, you move in a way to meet what you are presented with. Hence, tactics tend to involve improvisation.

For example, during a fencing battle, my unit was assigned to meet the opposition and punch through. When we got to them, however, another ally was in the process of getting behind them. I changed my tactic, and my unit held the opposition in place to allow my ally to take care of them.

Since my unit survived this, I chose a new tactic within our overall strategy and found new opponents to face.

This is wholly applicable to intangibles as well as tangibles. When you have an idea to do “X”, and you strategize the plan to make it happen, as you begin to act on it, you might realize a different tactic will help you reach “X” more easily.

But how do you do that? This is where you improvise.

[image error]Photo by Becca Tapert on UnsplashLearning to improvise is learning flexibility

The first important step is to recognize and acknowledge that no plan survives contact with the enemy. (Okay, yes, once in a while, your plan works as planned. But a complete, 100% success without at least some alteration is very, very rare in my experience.)

Once you accept this, you can improvise your tactics to meet the goals of your strategies. This can be done in a few different ways, featuring greater and lesser degrees of improvisation.

Have multiple plans. You’ve probably heard of having a Plan A and a Plan B. Why not have a Plan C and a Plan D? Multiple plans leave you multiple options.Have multiple tactics. For the most part, there’s more than one way to get from here to there. The tactics for executing your plan can be many and varied. As the saying goes, there’s more than one way to skin a cat (but please don’t. Cats are great.)Have multiple contingencies. This can be considered the plan within the plan. If you meet “A”, you do “X”. If you meet “B”, you do “Y”. And if you meet “C”, you do “Z”. There’s usually more than one way to do virtually anything and everything you can think of.Make it up as you go along. This is true improvisation. It requires flexibility, as you open yourself to do more than one thing and think it up, in the moment, on the spot.

Making it up as you go along is (I’ll bet this comes as no surprise) a matter of mindfulness.

Mindfulness to improvise

To improvise, you must be in the moment. Right here, right now. This requires a combination of situational awareness (knowing what’s going on around you) and self-awareness (knowing what’s going on in your head, heart, and soul). Full situational awareness requires self-awareness.

Back to a fencing analogy. Sometimes, in single combat, one-on-one fights, you have ropes to mark off your lists. Other times, you don’t. Either way, situational awareness is your mindfulness of the space around you and keeps you from running into the ropes or spectators. But that starts with awareness of who, what, where, how, and why you are. That’s self-awareness.

When you’re consciously aware of what you’re thinking, what and how you’re feeling, your intentions, and the positivity or negativity of your approach, you can take actions mindfully. That’s how you do anything whatsoever with intent.

From this place of mindfulness – which only works in the present moment – you can assess your situation and make choices and decisions here and now. And that’s where and how you improvise.

This can be challenging because improvising is often spontaneous and unplanned. If you’re a planner, this is anathema to your way. However, the flexibility you gain when you learn to improvise affords you more choices and decisions, as well as means and ways out of difficult situations.

This takes practice, of course. The first step is accepting that you cannot plan for everything because you don’t control everything. Then, you need to work on letting go of the rigidity of making plans and embracing self-awareness and self-trust.

I should, however, mention an important caveat to all of this.

You will screw this up sometimes

When you improvise, it can be brilliant. It can also go spectacularly wrong. However, the same can be said of any and all plans, strategies, and tactics.

Nobody’s perfect. The truth is, everyone everywhere is perfectly imperfect. However, because of this, there’s no One True Way ever. And unless your fuck up gets you killed or imprisoned (ergo, a really big fuck up), you can make a new plan, try new strategies and tactics, and/or improvise something else.

While being able to improvise gives you added flexibility, it’s not a cure-all. But then, truth be told, there are no cure-alls. No magic pill exists to fix anything. Even scientifically designed medicines help your system do the work to fix things (and are not the actual fix).

Being able to improvise gives you a flexible tool you can use for both tangible and intangible matters. It helps to improvise because that can alleviate stress, help you be calmer and more centered, and open more ways to handle various planned or unplanned situations.

Finally, you are worthy and deserving of this most excellent tool. It takes practice, and even then, you might not succeed. But I, for one, love having the extra tools that improvisation on many levels allows me to employ.

Do you see how being able to improvise opens more paths in your life?

This is the six-hundred-eighty-eighth (688) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

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

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.

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

The post It Helps to Be Able to Improvise appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.

Finding Positivity In All of This is NOT Selfish

It is one of the best ways to handle the insanity of the world.Photo by Zoe Richardson on Unsplash

Given the current state of the world and the craziness therein, the topic of positivity looks incredibly disingenuous.

People are suffering needlessly. Protections for the environment and other safeties are being removed for no good reason. Those who are supposed to protect us are increasingly joining or siding with those intent on harming us. None of it makes sense. It’s scary, uncertain, frustrating, frightening, and totally fucked up.

I am in no way, shape, or form dismissing or discounting this. The current state of the world is pretty fucked up. So how can I possibly explore positivity in the midst of all the negativity, ongoing awfulness, and uncertainty?

Because consciousness creates reality. If all we do is focus on the bad stuff, the awful things, the fear and uncertainty, we grow it bigger. It becomes overwhelming to the point where it impacts your mental, emotional, spiritual, and even physical health.

Positivity is often treated as a big, overarching, exclusive narrative. That’s where toxic positivity comes in. Genuine, non-toxic positivity is not huge, it’s frankly very tiny and easily overlooked. More than that, it’s in no way, shape, or form selfish.

What counts as genuine positivity?

There are many little things in life that are aspects of positivity. Yet in the grand scheme of things, in our interconnected yet disconnected world, they’re easy to ignore.

Positivity also is the extreme opposite negativity. Most things in life fall somewhere on the flexible cylinder between these extremes. You exist mostly somewhere on that cylinder between them and get to choose which way to face. And it’s a flexible cylinder because today’s positive is tomorrow’s negative and vice versa.

What counts as genuine positivity, then? Here’s a partial list from my life.

There is air in my lungsI have the means to write these wordsI’m aliveMy cats want my attentionI have coffeeI’m wearing a warm hoodieThe sun is shiningThe sky is clearI have love and am loved

When you look at these things they’re innocuous. Yet they are matters of genuine positivity I can grasp and take comfort in. Especially in the face of all the things I can’t do jack shit about.

When you recognize and acknowledge the small matters of genuine positivity around you, you become empowered. When you’re empowered you can make more choices and decisions to live as best you can.

But doesn’t that lead to selfishness?

Finding positivity in all of this is not selfish

Consciousness creates reality. If you focus on all the shit happening; if you allow yourself to be overwhelmed by the constant stream of terrible, harmful, hateful, fear-inducing news and information – you are disempowered.

Hence why finding, recognizing, and acknowledging the little matters of positivity, becoming empowered, and seeking/finding and/or creating positivity is not selfish.

Being selfish is a very specific matter. Genuine selfishness means intentionally taking action and knowing it causes hurt and harm to others. The people removing environmental protections to make more money are fucking selfish. Those who remove equality for others are doing something selfish for themselves in the name of false lack, scarcity, and insufficiency. Willfully taking more than your fair share of anything – intending to leave less or nothing for others (tangible or intangible) – is selfish.

Self-care and doing things to help your own mental, emotional, spiritual, and/or physical health is NOT in any way, shape, or form, selfish. Period. That’s because you are the only you that there is, and you are worthy and deserving of good health, wellness, wellbeing, and empowerment.

Finding positivity to keep yourself from falling into depression or giving in to the madness is NOT SELFISH. Seeking people and things to be for rather than against is a matter of positivity that’s not selfish.

Yet there’s one other uncomfortable truth in all of this.

Photo by Jon Tyson on UnsplashPeople always have and always will suffer

Human beings are complicated. We’re capable of creating incredible, amazing things and doing vast, horrific destruction in equal measure. Sometimes people do things and accept narratives counter to their greater good due to fear, disempowerment, false beliefs, skewed values, and other malicious and non-malicious matters.

Suffering can be tangible and intangible. And it’s utterly unavoidable. People always have and always will suffer emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and/or physically. However, almost nobody is always suffering all the time.

It’s also often a choice. People can’t see new ways, alternatives, and/or allow fear to keep them in uncomfortable, familiar comfort zones. Worse than that, certain so-called leaders will exploit the hell out of that to embolden themselves selfishly.

Do you want to choose suffering? I don’t. And I don’t know anyone who truly does. That’s why finding positivity in all of this is not selfish. It’s a matter of empowerment and making choices and decisions for your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health, wellness, and wellbeing. When you’re empowered you can change your life’s narrative. That can inspire and empower others to do so for themselves, too.

Understanding that finding positivity in all of this is not selfish isn’t hard

It’s all about practicing mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and approach to direct your actions.

When you recognize and acknowledge that you have the power to choose and decide to focus on the negative or the positive, and that you’re only selfish if you do intentional harm, you can seek the little, non-toxic positive things to give attention to. Knowing that this is not selfish, you can use this to improve your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health, wellness, and wellbeing to better handle the craziness of the world.

This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.

Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. From that broader dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.

Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.

The better aware you are of yourself here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, that can spread to those around you for their empowerment.

Thank you for coming along on this journey.

This is the five-hundred-and-seventy-sixth (576) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that 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 my published fiction and non-fiction.

The post Finding Positivity In All of This is NOT Selfish appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.