M.J. Blehart's Blog, page 83

Crossing the Bridges: Self Talk – What follows I AM

I speak less highly of myself than anyone else.  I am my own worst critic.

Always have been.  Know how that feels?  You always manage to find something to be critical about?  The one person you criticize the most, whom you give the absolute least amount of slack to being you?

I know that this does me no good.  If my plans are not completed or I get distracted or I fail to do as planned, I can count on myself to be completely harsh.  In my head I will berate myself, belittle myself, get mad at myself for any and all failings, mistakes, missteps, and so forth.

The self talk that comes of this is hugely demoralizing.  You’re a big fat failure, which is why you stay fat and out-of-shape; you allow distractions to get in the way of writing and editing, that’s why you’re never going to be a best seller; you will always get that red light at that same intersection, because the Universe enjoys messing with you; you have never established a proper career, that’s why you deserve half-successes at best.

These messages break down at their core to inform me thusly:  Failure.   You will never succeed.  You will always be a victim of circumstance.  You are undeserving.

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This is why it is massively, hugely, unbelievably important that I be more conscious of my self-talk habits.  When I do not reign in my thoughts about myself, and I just let them  take flight of their own accord, it’s astoundingly easy to be down on myself, and that will only lower my vibrational frequency, and, this should come as no surprise, not allow me to manifest what I am seeking.

This harkens back to my Pathwalking this week, and discussing dealing with the squirrels in my brain.  Often, my personal squirrels chasing each other about are negative notions about who I am, criticizing, berating, demoralizing and otherwise providing me poor report of myself.  They make me feel negative, which lowers my vibrational energy, and thus takes me further away from the things I want to manifest.

The power of the words “I AM” is so, so much bigger than we realize.  I AM is a definitive statement, and what follows it describes us in detail.  The Universe hears I AM loudly and clearly.  As such, when I believe that I AM FAT or I AM A FAILURE or I AM UNDERSERVING or I AM UNLOVED or any other negative statement, the Universe hears, and will give me exactly that which I don’t want.

It is not lying to tell yourself that you are thin when you are not.  Of course, if you don’t believe it when you state it, you have no emotional energy available to generate anything.  You have to make statements you can get behind.  I AM GETTING INTO SHAPE and I AM SUCCEEDING and I AM DESERVING and I AM LOVED AND LOVING will raise your vibration, and they are statements you can get behind because they are active statements.

I make plans.  I take actions, but not always enough actions.  Frequently, when I do not accomplish what I have set out to, I will be the first (and frequently the only one, frankly) to tear me down.  This keeps me feeling low, causes me to question everything I am doing, and before I know it I am fighting the same battle over and over and over.

How do I stop being so critical of myself?  This is the question I have been asking for a long time now.  I believe that the answer to this question is how I learn to more frequently manifest what I desire for my life, and will make me happier.

I need to take an action.  This is the only way to develop anything meaningful.  Actions.  Forward motion.

I AM needs to be followed by something positive.  When I find myself feeling low, feeling depressed, feeling unworthy, I have to talk to myself.  I need to make statements such as I am extraordinary.  I am awesome.  I am deserving.  I am worthwhile.

Some days it is easier than others for me to recognize this about myself.  One of the most difficult things for me to do is to think more highly of myself, to really, truly love myself, and to recognize my own worth.  This is not about conceit, this is about recognizing that I deserve every success, and that I am worthy of the abundance of the Universe.

This has been a lifelong struggle for me…but because I deserve to be happy, I will continue.  We all have bad days, we certainly get bombarded by massive negativity from the world without – but that in no way lessens the true abundance of the Universe.  There is more than enough good for us all, we just have to work to find it.

I am deserving of all the good I desire.  So are you.  As always, thank you for crossing the bridges between my worlds with me!

 

GOAL LOG – Week 14:

Diet:  I have continued the lower carb, lower sugar diet overall.

Exercise:  I fenced Tuesday and Thursday, took a good 20+ minute walk Monday.

Writing:  The three blog posts were done.

Meditation:  Only one day last week, for about 6 minutes.

Gratitude:  I have expressed gratitude for 5 things six of seven days last week.

 

This is the twenty-eighth entry of my personal journey, the Crossing the Bridges series.  My collectively published writing can be found here.

Pathwalking 275

The squirrels in my brain can be terribly distracting.

What does that mean?  When I am thinking about something, I frequently see not only the angle I wish to take, but alternative angles, results both good and bad, and all kinds of possibilities.  Because of this, I frequently find it difficult to manifest precisely what I wish to.

I woke up the other morning feeling anxious.  I realized what it was that was causing me to feel anxious, but even knowing that, I found it very hard to let it go and move past it.  It was right there, making my heart pound, causing me to breathe too shallowly, feeling all uncomfortable, and I couldn’t shake it.

I still maintain that we are able to control our feelings…but this takes a lot of practice.  This can be a pretty daunting task.  I know that what I am feeling is not what I want to be feeling, I am aware of what I am feeling and where it is coming from, so now I should be able to change it.

Of course it is seldom that simple.  This is even more challenging when, for the most part, you have previously just let your emotional states be.  Getting them under your direct control takes a whole bunch of conscious effort, and that can be complicated, too.

It is amazingly easy to just be drawn through patterns.  In particular when you have a relatively established daily routine.  Get up, go to work, work at work, go home, eat dinner, watch TV, read, go to bed, repeat tomorrow – or whatever your typical day looks like.  While you are partaking of your routine your subconscious often has control, and that can lead you precisely where you don’t want to be.

So what?  If, while you are at work, you pause to check into social media, and you start to read about the crazy of the world…or you are chatting with friends or coworkers and start talking about some negative issue…or you really would rather be anywhere other than at your place of work, your subconscious is likely taking you downwards, into a negative space, and that will effect the reality you are creating.

All of the books on The Secret or The Law of Attraction or any other iteration of conscious reality creation say the EXACT SAME THING: Like attracts like.  However, your current reality, as you are experiencing it, is actually a reflection of your past thoughts, feelings and actions.  Get stuck in the present reality, and surprise surprise surprise, you will find yourself with MORE of the same.

Controlling your thoughts and feelings ALL THE TIME is pretty much impossible.  This is why the “squirrels in your brain” chase themselves around as they do.  Past that has created present often feels  to us like present, and so we create the same for future, even though we want different, but if we try ‘x’ maybe this will work, but maybe not, because we tried ‘x’ so now maybe we try ‘y’ and…

Round and round you go.  SO – how do you break the cycle?  How do you stop the squirrels running around in your brain?

I wish I knew.  I am working on this very question right now.

Despite knowing that consciousness creates reality, and that my current reality is just the product of my past thoughts, feelings and actions; despite knowing that I can and have created consciously my reality before, I still get distracted by the squirrels chasing one another around my brain.  How do I deal with them?

First and foremost, this is important to state:  “DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY!”  Yoda had it right, if you try to do the thing, in all probability you are half-assing it.  That, at least, is my tendency.  Rather than trying to do a thing, I need to just DO the thing in question.

What’s the difference between trying and doing?  Trying leaves room for interpretation, for excuses, for procrastination, and ultimately for failure.  Doing, on the other hand, is bolder, more pointed, more direct, and while doing might lead to failing, you took an action.

How do I deal with the squirrels in my brain?  First – I need to BE AWARE of them.  I can’t ignore them, I have to acknowledge them, and see what it is they want.  How do I deal with them if I am disregarding or ignoring them, and I don’t understand what it is they are being so squirrelly about in the first place?

Second – Address them.  Being aware is the first step, addressing them is the next.  Why is my brain being all squirrelly needs to be followed by action to settle matters down.  What is it they are wanting?

Third – Let them go.  I became aware of them, I addressed them, now I need to let them go.  All too often the reason the brain is being squirrelly is because we are mulling something over and over and over again.  We are chewing on regret or the potential results of a decision or choices we made or didn’t make or what-have-you.  If I let go of them, they can go away and stop chasing each other around in my head.

Fourth – Repeat as necessary.  If you are like me, this recurs from time to time.  Knowing that, we can work on improving quieting the damned rodents rather than letting them drive us crazy as often as they do.

A little Pathwalking in Process for you this week.  Now that I have worked through this – all that remains is to DO IT as necessary.

How do you deal with the squirrels in your brain?

 

This is the two-hundred seventy-fifth entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas and my personal experiences in walking along the path of life.  I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way.

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

The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here.

If you enjoy Pathwalking, you may also want to read my Five Easy Steps to Change the World for the Better.

Positivity: Monday Morning Choices

Monday morning.  For most of us, a new work week lies ahead.

How do you face it?  Do you sigh, grumble, gear yourself up to take on challenges, deal with problems, and slog through the next five days?  What do you expect of the coming week?

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Despite our routines, we still get to choose our approach.  I began to write Positivity on Mondays because I am constantly bombarded with negativity in regards to the standard work week.  Here we go again and I hate Mondays and back to the data mines and why can’t the weekend be longer and darker, more negative comments.  I decided that I needed to put something positive here, because positivity is healthy, and we can all put it to good use.

Over the past three-and-a-quarter years, I have expressed Positivity in all kinds of diverse topics, ranging from mindfulness to sunlight to mood changers to laughter.  For the most part I have focused on abstract, intangible but powerful positives, because those can change a broader range of thought and feeling.

Why does it matter?  Because we live in a world where we are absolutely overwhelmed by negative messages.  Fear, lies, lack, loathing, intolerance, hatred, bigotry, anger and more are all over, in far too many articles and news stories both real and fake.  Add to all of that the idea that you have to work to live, where too many people spend nearly half their day doing jobs that bring them no joy, and it should be unsurprising how we perpetuate that negativity.

So, here we are, another Monday.  You have a choice.  Face it with negativity, derision, disdain or what-have-you….or…take a deep breath, and look at the good you have.  If you have a job, and you have a roof over your head and food in your belly and other possessions, this is a good thing.  It may not be your dream-come-true, it may be imperfect, but rather than see all the negative, we can opt to look for all the positive, starting with gratitude for what we do have.

EVERY day has new possibilities to it.  Despite feeling the same as the day before in many respects, every single day we can build new and different things, if we choose to find ways to do so.  Even when we have to go to work or school or do the laundry or clean the house or whatever other routine makes up our days, we have the option to choose how we will feel about it.

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It is easy to make no choice at all.  While this can be a neutral thing, because we are so inundated by negativity across social media, news venues and the internet overall, it is too easy for our thoughts and feelings to spiral down, in particular when we’ve not chosen for ourselves.

How do you choose to face Monday?  The right approach can mean the difference between a bad week, an ok week, or even a great week.

Finding positivity is not hard, but it does require action.  Knowing that how we choose to approach the week will effect the outcome, we gain more options for good.  When we look to the week for its possibilities rather than with dread and loathing, we empower ourselves.  When we feel empowered, we often spread that feeling to others around us, and as such can build more positive feelings in the collective consciousness.  We can use the positive feelings this generates to dissolve negative feelings.  When we take away negative feelings, we open up space to let in positive feelings, and that is something we can be grateful for.  Gratitude leads to happiness.  Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude.  Positive attitude begets positive energy, and that is always a good thing.

 

This is the one hundred sixty-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.

In relation to Positivity, check out my Five Easy Steps to Change the World for the Better.

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Crossing the Bridges: Taking Action

Time to take action.

I have been a bit stuck in regards to promoting my writing.  I blog thrice a week, sure, and Seeker, Finder and Clouds of Authority are all available on Amazon.  But I have haven’t done much to promote any of these recently, and generate more sales.

Writing the story is one thing.  Editing it is another.  Formatting and publishing it is not the last step, by any stretch of the imagination.  At least, not when you are self-publishing.  In some respects, this is where the hard work truly begins.

I have, upon publication of any of my novels or other works, promoted them via my social media networks.  I spread it across G+, Facebook, and Twitter.  I asked everyone to buy a copy, electronic or physical, then to share with THEIR friends to buy a copy, and so on and so forth.  I asked for reviews, because those help Amazon product placement.

I have considered what options are available to me for marketing, and in the past the only ones I looked to were those that were free.  Meanwhile, Seeker has consistently been ranked between 150,000th and 600,000th in the Paid in Kindle Store, and below 2000th in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery (and also adding Teen & Young Adult among Kindle Books).

The numbers don’t suck, I am deeply grateful for the sales and exposure I have managed to attain thus far.  However…it is my ultimate goal to become a Best Seller.  No punches pulled, no superlatives, THIS is what I want to make of my life.  I want to be a Best Selling Author.

Writing that out, FYI, is VERY freeing.

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Well, the only way to become a best seller is to…wait for it…sell more copies!  So, since this is my intent, and this is my greatest desire, it is time to take some action.

The month of April begins tomorrow.  With this new month, I am going to be taking actions to promote, specifically, Seeker.

Why Seeker?  Because it has already got several favorable reviews; it is approachable to a wide reading audience, covering both Fantasy and Young Adult; it has the best chance currently of generating post-sales income, as Finder is its sequel, and also available for sale, and I am working on editing Harbinger, the 3rd book of The Source Chronicles, for publication.

Yes, I have been working on writing a sci-fi space opera for a while now, and I have only just begun to edit Harbinger; it has been years since I last put any work into Guardians.  Still, this is my strongest work, the deepest series I have created, and I believe this is where my fictional writing career has its best place to launch from.

How am I going to promote Seeker in April?  There will be a combination of actions happening.  I will be sending out messages across social media, of course.  I will quite possibly be offering Seeker for a special sale price at some point.  I am going to research other avenues, and see if there is anything I missed before in my previous marketing attempts.

I am also working to have Seeker available at a local store or two, and perhaps offer a signing and reading.  I am looking to any angle I can think of to get my name and my work out to a broader audience, in order to accomplish my end goal.

Consciousness Creates Reality.  Thought: I want to be a best-selling author.  Feeling: Seeing people enjoying my books and wanting more, and giving them a cool world to escape to feels amazing.  I feel so fulfilled, so excited about this reality, I can hardly contain my glee.  Action: Whatever I can think of that might increase my sales, whatever promotional ideas I can come up with to reach this goal, all throughout the month of April.

I am not entirely certain how much work this will take, but the important thing is that this is exciting to me.  I am not dreading this action, I am psyched to have the opportunity to take it.  This feels good, this feels right, this feels…inspired.  Intentional, inspired action is the key to conscious reality creation, so I believe that this is going to be a step forward towards achieving the goal I’ve set.

On that note  – have you acquired a copy of Seeker?  If so, did you review it on Amazon?  Did you like it?  Because, hey, if you enjoyed Seeker, did you also read the next book in the series, Finder?  Yup, I’m peddling my wares here – but I also think that you will find them as much fun to read as I found them to write.

Here we go.  As always, thank you for crossing the bridges between my worlds with me!

 

GOAL LOG – Week 13:

Diet:  I have continued working on the new, low-carb high-protein plan.  I think it is going well.

Exercise:  I fenced Tuesday and Thursday, hit the gym Wednesday.

Meditation:  Five days last week, never less than 4 minutes.

Gratitude:  I have expressed gratitude for 7 things a day in a row.

 

This is the twenty-seventh entry of my personal journey, the Crossing the Bridges series.  My collectively published writing can be found here.

Pathwalking 274

Surrendering to the Universe is not easy.

If, like me, you are almost obsessed with the how and why of things, then simply surrendering to the Universe is a particularly loaded concept.  It gets even more complicated if you are a skeptic or cynic.

What does it mean to surrender?  It means you have to have faith.

This, too, can be a really loaded concept.  We are frequently seeing around us people who are allowing their so-called “faith” to dictate any number of unsavory actions.  Intolerance, outright hatred, fear-mongering, terrorism and various other atrocities in the name of “faith” are all over the mediascape of the world.

Even more distressing, at least to me, are those who express so publicly their blind faith.  They deny science, they disregard certain aspects of modern medicine, they strive to force their “faith” into the public sector where it absolutely does not belong.  We are constantly exposed to these forms of so-called “faith”, which manages to cause chaos, discord and all kinds of negativity.

The difference between the faith involved in surrendering to the Universe and that espoused by those I mention above is tremendous.  They share a name, but they do not share the same intent, nor the same positivity and love.  That mentioned above is largely fear and lack based, but the faith of surrendering to the Universe is love and abundance based.

Yes, those who claim the kind of faith that allows them to deny science may think they are coming from a place of love, but in truth they are coming from a place of fear and lack.  Why else would they be so afraid that science may prove that which they believe to be wrong?

How does the faith of surrendering to the Universe work?  As I frequently write, consciousness creates reality.  You have a thought, you put your feelings into it, and then you take intentional actions.  Once you have done this…you let it happen.

This is the complicated part.  You’ve put the notion out there, you’ve felt it, you’ve taken actions…and yet there is still a waiting period.  This is where you have to surrender to the Universe, and this can be particularly challenging.

Surrendering to the Universe is not about just waiting for things to happen.  Yes, it may involve waiting, but it’s not like you are expecting money to rain from the sky or some other surreal, virtually impossible act to occur.  There is intent.  There is expectation.  There is belief and faith that what you have asked for, what you have set in motion will come to pass.

I have written before that there are no limits to the reality which our consciousness can create.  However, while there are no limits, there are our core beliefs, our current reality, and the shadows of our past that can and will affect our ability to work with this.

When I was severely injured, I thought only about being completely healed.  Yes, I knew the doctors were unsure just how completely I would recover, but I thought only about total and complete recovery.  I felt what it would be like to be whole and uninjured.  I took action, in pushing every single therapy session to and beyond my limits.  I knew it would not be instantaneous, so I surrendered to the Universe that it would be so, as quickly as possible, setting no expectation of time but that it would be how I expected it.  And it was.  And it is.

There is reality to this.  I had amazing doctors and therapists.  But even they were impressed by the speed and totality of my recovery.  I have some wicked scars, and my body looks funky in an x-ray…but unless you see that or I tell you about it, you’d never know.

I had unwavering faith that I would be healed in the end.  When I set that in my mind, I surrendered that to the Universe, and it was done.  This was in a dire circumstance.  Surrendering to the Universe does not have to be in response to something extreme.

Let’s say I want to acquire more money.  I need to think about abundance, and money coming to me.  I need to feel what it will feel like to have that money, and to do things with it that make me feel good.  Then I need to take intentional, inspired actions to set this in motion.  Surrendering to the Universe is not about expecting it to rain hundred-dollar bills, it is having that unwavering faith that your thoughts, feelings and actions will consciously create your desired reality.

If you are requesting creating a reality you do not believe to be realistic for you, surrendering to the Universe will do nothing.  You have to be conscious of your beliefs, and if you don’t believe that this can be done, well congrats, you are correct.  Skeptical about the conscious creation process?  Cynical that you can have what you desire?  No amount of surrendering will let this work.  You have the car, you have the key, but the battery is dead.  It may click, it may wheeze, but it won’t start.

Surrendering to the Universe is turning the key and knowing the car will start.  No hesitation, just power-up.  Yes, it is as easy as that…and at the same time, it’s not.  Until we gain real consciousness about the Universe being joyful, abundant and positive, surrender will be ineffective.  But when we do see the world in this way, when we do come to know at our core that this is how it works, we can build anything we want to.

My last thought on the topic of surrendering to the Universe is this: Why not?  I don’t want to live in a reality of lack, of intolerance, of fear and division and anger.  Despite happenings in the world at large, I believe, because I have made this happen many times before, that consciousness can create a better reality.  When my reality is better, I can help others to find a better reality for themselves.  I would rather believe that we can improve the world each individually than that we are trapped by our circumstances.  Silence the inner critic and surrender to the Universe.

What do you believe in strongly enough to surrender it to the Universe?

 

This is the two-hundred seventy-fourth entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas and my personal experiences in walking along the path of life.  I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way.

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

The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here.

If you enjoy Pathwalking, you may also want to read my Five Easy Steps to Change the World for the Better.

Positivity: Community

Community is about finding belonging.

We all want to belong.  We all want to find a place where we can have our people, surround ourselves with the like-minded to share experiences.  That is how you form a community.

Some communities are wide-ranging and spread out over a broader spectrum of interest, like a specific city or town.  Some are more specific, like a religious institution.  Some are particularly specialized, like a club or volunteer organization.

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It’s certainly possible to be a part of multiple communities.  But finding community helps us to find others who share interests with us, and help overcome the sense of loneliness most people feel along the way.

Though not every community is for everyone, it’s important to remember that just because you don’t share the same religion or nationality or hobby, that doesn’t make anyone else lesser than you.  What gives me a sense of belonging may feel utterly alien to you, and vice versa.  It’s important to keep this in mind, because sometimes our sense of community goes from simply exclusionary to intolerant, and from that intolerance we develop misunderstandings that frequently get exploited by others to divide and conquer us.

Having a community we can call our own, however, allows us to share any number of thoughts, feelings, and even actions between one another.  We get to express ourselves in a similar manner, and share our belonging with people who have at least this much in common with us.

Why do we need so much to belong? I think it’s a matter of human nature.  We can only think for ourselves, we are all unique individuals; but we are social creatures, to a lesser or greater degree.  We like to have somewhere comfortable where we feel as though we can be ourselves, but in a similar way to other people, and share the sense of belonging that creates.  Despite all of us being the same in our human nature, the size and variable geography of this world frequently feels too big, too impersonal for most.  So we find more manageable communities to be a part of, some by choice and some by time and place and largely random circumstance.

There is incredible positivity in finding a community you can call your own.  Feeling as though you belong somewhere feels good, and the positivity that comes of feeling good allows us to build bigger and better things for ourselves.  When we individually feel good, it’s easier to do things that help others out there feel good, too.

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Having communities we feel a part of gives us strength when we need to remember that we are not truly alone.

Finding positivity is not hard, but it does require action.  Knowing that there are numerous communities with different attributes which we can become a part of, we have an amazing tool to create belonging.  When we belong to a community, we create a shared space in which we can build more good, and when we feel good we empower ourselves.  When we feel empowered, we often spread that feeling to others around us, and as such can build more positive feelings in the collective consciousness.  We can use the positive feelings this generates to dissolve negative feelings.  When we take away negative feelings, we open up space to let in positive feelings, and that is something we can be grateful for.  Gratitude leads to happiness.  Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude.  Positive attitude begets positive energy, and that is always a good thing.

 

This is the one hundred sixty-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.

In relation to Positivity, check out my Five Easy Steps to Change the World for the Better.

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Crossing the Bridges: Best Laid Plans…

Do you beat yourself up when you fail to follow-through on something?

Do you spend time berating yourself, getting upset over mistakes and failures to launch?  Do you start to feel bad, to spiral negatively when you had all the right intentions but then don’t complete your plan?

Most people do.  I know I do.  I get annoyed with myself, and start to feel bad when I make a plan and then I don’t move on it.

Last week I had an excellent vacation.  I was away from my life, and got to know some folks better whom I’d known only peripherally, and made some new friends, too.

I also fully intended to use last week’s vacation as a rallying point to start some new habits this week.  Yup, I was going to live large, to move forward on a number of ideas and plans I had, and to really shift some habits in my life.

Reality met my plans.  It began honestly enough – I did not get home until almost 5am Monday morning, following nearly 20 hours on the road.  I was productive Monday night, and got some sleep.  Tuesday morning, I was still wiped.  But, hey, fencing on Tuesday night…which I attended.  Wednesday morning…still sleepy, my motivation was pretty much non-existent.  Thursday morning I was distracted by my cat, the one who rarely comes out of hiding, and failed to get out the door in time.  This morning…overslept, and failed to get out the door once more.

So much for my morning trips to the gym.  This week is now done.

I could get really annoyed with myself over this.  I have no real excuses, I could have acted on this, I simply chose not to.  Failure to launch, lack of motiviation…doesn’t matter what I call it, the point is that I got as far as planning, again, but did no actions.

Except, I DID take several new actions this week.  I have not played my usual Facebook games in the am, and have actually gotten stuff done, like paying bills.  I have turned off the TV when the wife goes to bed, and made attempts at, if I didn’t succeed at, working on writing, editing and SCA stuff.  I started a new dietary regime, and have been really good about it.  I have been getting decent sleep.  I have successfully meditated now for 4 days in a row.  I have been more keenly aware of what I am thinking and feeling, asking and answering questions of myself daily.

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Partial success on new habits.  Is this exactly all I had planned to do for myself?  No.  But rather than get mad at myself and get upset about what I have not done, I am instead going to look at what I HAVE accomplished.

Society is obsessed with looking at failure.  Everywhere we turn all we see is failing this and unsuccessful that and such.  The American government is so obsessed with things that are supposedly failing that they want to institute “fixes” that will likely be far worse than what they see as wrong.

The constant bombardment with messages of failure is disheartening, distressing, upsetting, and downright uncomfortable.  Everywhere we turn the message is more and more negative, so much so that when we DO see something about success we comment immediately about the nice change of scenery.

If I choose to focus on what I have failed to do, there is a much higher chance that I will continue to fail at it.  That’s how the Law of Attraction works.  Consciousness Creates Reality, so if I give my focus to what I DO NOT WANT, it’s pretty probable that that is what I will manifest.

If, like me, you tend to beat yourself up when you fail, this can be particularly challenging.  This takes a great deal of conscious, focused thought to change your tone, change your normal reactions.  But I firmly believe that this is a worthwhile act, so I am going to work with that, and do my best to create better.

I do not know anybody who gets every plan right every time.  We all make mistakes, but mistakes should be learning opportunities.  Nobody is perfect.

Last but not least…just because I didn’t follow-through this week, that doesn’t mean I am giving this plan up.  I will continue, every day, to struggle to make this happen, and to have the life I want to be the person I most want to be.  Change takes effort, and I will continue to expend the necessary effort to be whom I want to be.

Can only be here and now, and go forward.  So…onwards and forwards.  As always, thank you for crossing the bridges between my worlds with me!

 

GOAL LOG – Week 12:

Diet:  I have been working on a new, low-carb high-protein plan.  Not a diet – a lifestyle shift.

Exercise:  I fenced Tuesday.  I did a ton of walking Wednesday, so that should count.

Meditation:  Four days in a row, never less than 5 minutes.

Gratitude:  I have expressed gratitude for 5 things a day, four days in a row.

 

This is the twenty-sixth entry of my personal journey, the Crossing the Bridges series.  My collectively published writing can be found here.

Pathwalking 273

Change is complicated.

First, it is imperative to acknowledge this statement:  CHANGE IS INEVITABLE.  Things change, because that is the nature of the Universe.

Because time is an illusion, how we perceive change varies.  Some change is quick and hard to miss.  Some is so glacially slow that we don’t realize that change is happening at all.  But everything changes, whether animal, vegetable or mineral.  Everything evolves, shifts, and transforms.

The desert was once a sea.  Seeds grow into plants.  Caterpillars become butterflies.  Children become adults.  Change is inevitable.

For many, this is not a good thing.  They get comfortable with how things are, the life they know, the people they keep around themselves and so on.  Change means that the familiar can be replaced by the unfamiliar, and the unfamiliar represents uncertainty.  Uncertainty leads to concern, to distress, to fear and even worse.

I have written about this many times before.  One of the reasons for this is because Pathwalking is about finding and claiming your own destiny, about making your own way in this world rather than letting it be made for you.  But even when you succeed, change will continue, and you will find yourself needing to change and adapt as well.

Pathwalking, therefore, seeks to effect change.  When you make choices for your own life, you choose how things will change, rather than simply having them be sprung upon you.

Yes, I know that some changes are not desirable.  Nobody likes to lose a job, a relationship, a financial investment and so forth.  Aging can be disturbing and scary; and don’t even get me started on our society and some of the madness going on out there.  But we still have the ability to be in control of our own lives, and our own journeys along our given paths.

One issue a lot of us face is the ease of complaint.  It is so very easy to complain about this, bitch about that, whine and snark with our friends about other people, places and things.  It’s particularly insidious when we are not directly complaining about our own lives and situations, but rather about other people and instances we’re experiencing.

I know that I can get caught up easily in a good snark fest.  Talking about those guys and the things they are doing that are annoying, infuriation, or simply foolish among your friends can make you feel like you’re getting it off your chest…but in truth we are perpetuating it, and taking it to new heights.

What has complaint got to do with change?  Simple – Consciousness Creates Reality.  The Law of Attraction doesn’t care what you are focused on, it will simply take that information and work to give you what you are telling it that you want.

A lot of what we complain about in other people is change.  We see them behaving badly, or otherwise contrary to what we thought we knew of them.  We may be disappointed, we may be confused, or we may simply be amazed by the change we see.  But the thing of it is, this is change which we cannot control.

I can only change things about myself.  I can change my style, my body, my job, my friends, my location, my choices.  All of these things will change, no matter what happens, sometimes subtly and other times abruptly.  I can choose whether to foster changes, or let them sneak up on me and just happen.

Change is complicated, but largely due to our beliefs that we can do very little about it.  In truth, we can create our own changes as we desire, on many different levels, and we can use that to our advantage on any path we walk.

Unhappy with your weight?  Change it.  Displeased about your hair color?  Change it.  Miserable at your job?  Change it.  Finished with your partner?  Change it.  You have the power, but only you can choose to wield it.

I am working on making changes that I feel will help me to not only walk the paths of my choosing, but also to leave me a happier, healthier, better prepared and capable person.  I have decided to not let change just happen as it will, but to consciously take control and effect those changes to get the outcome I desire.  Since change is inevitable, I might as well use that to my advantage.

We all evolve.  You can disbelieve the science all you want, that doesn’t make it any less true.  Evolution is change.  Humans have more power to choose how they change than any other creatures we are presently aware of on this planet.  I believe that if more people realized this, rather than allow the undue influence of certain parties, we would all be happier, more complete and certain that the Universe isn’t out to get us, but does in fact love us.

Change is complicated, but largely because we make it so.  What change do you most want to control?

 

This is the two-hundred seventy-third entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas and my personal experiences in walking along the path of life.  I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way.

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

The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here.

If you enjoy Pathwalking, you may also want to read my Five Easy Steps to Change the World for the Better.

Positivity: Never Too Late

It is never too late.

You are only too old, too poor, too uneducated, too uninformed, too fat, too short, too little or too much if you believe it to be true.  So, too, is the concept of being too late untrue.

Time is only an illusion.  Our perception of time is frequently shifting, changing, and though we look to clocks and calendars, we see and feel it to be fluid and unexpected.

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Ever notice how there are times when it feel s like you’ve covered a distance in far fewer minutes than should have been the case?  Ever completely lose track of time and find that you have been going at something for either far longer or far shorter than you thought?

This is why it is never too late.  Hey, normally I post Positivity in the morning.  Today it is in the evening.  Yes, it took me all day to come up with what I was going to write about, because I have been on vacation and I am back at work and not fully recovered…but it is not too late to get this out there, and to share it with you.

We are masters of excuses about why we have “missed an opportunity” or “run out of time” or are “too late”.  I can’t go back to school, I have a job and thus no time; I am too old to find a soul mate now; I will never have the money I need to travel; I could have done that while I was young, but now it is too late.

These things are only true if we believe them to be.  If, however, we focus on what we WANT, rather than what we DON’T WANT, we can build better, more positive, more amazing things for our lives.  It is only too late when we convince ourselves that that’s the way it is.

We frequently read about the 90 year old who runs her first marathon; couples getting together in their sixties; people starting singing or acting careers twenty years after high school.  How are they different from you or I?  Because they didn’t believe that it was too late, and they went ahead and did the thing they wanted, desired, and intended to do.

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This requires only a little thought.  If you catch yourself discussing how it is too late for you in whatever way, shape or form has come to mind, change it.   Believe in the power of it never being too late, of there being potential, endless possibility, and feel the positivity that this can create for you and those around you.

Finding positivity is not hard, but it does require action.  Knowing that it is never too late, you can still do things that you might think you have somehow run of out the ability to do.  When we feel that it is never too late, and we see we can still create nearly anything we desire, we empower ourselves.  When we feel empowered, we often spread that feeling to others around us, and as such can build more positive feelings in the collective consciousness.  We can use the positive feelings this generates to dissolve negative feelings.  When we take away negative feelings, we open up space to let in positive feelings, and that is something we can be grateful for.  Gratitude leads to happiness.  Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude.  Positive attitude begets positive energy, and that is always a good thing.

 

This is the one hundred sixty-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.

In relation to Positivity, check out my Five Easy Steps to Change the World for the Better.

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Crossing the Bridges: Planning into Action

Planning is all well-and-good.  It’s the actions that I find frequently challenging.

The purpose of this particular blog is to share personal accountability as I do the things I do to live the life I most desire to live.  Positivity is specifically sharing positive things to combat negativity while Pathwalking is more specifically about the mechanics of my conscious reality creation process.  Crossing the Bridges is my personal journey, and the challenges as I take it.

I have written about challenges in the process of crossing the bridges, figuratively getting stuck, literally self-sabotaging and such.  One of the other challenges I face with this is taking the inspired actions in order to complete the manifestation process.

I have written before about my great skill in planning.  I can make plans ‘til the cows come home.  Yet when it comes to acting on plans, I frequently find myself coming up short, and then getting distressed because of that.

Conscious Reality Creation involves thought, feeling and action.  For the longest time I was really, really good at the thought process.  This is where the planning comes in.  I thought my way through what I wanted, plotted things out…and then stopped.  Some of this was the self-sabotage, and some was my past inability to FEEL what I needed to feel for manifestation.  To this day, feeling is still a challenge, but I am beginning to see that with difficulty in feeling, I am also having difficulty in acting.

I have currently placed several plans on the table, some more than once.  For example, I have been keeping my Goal Log for more than a year in an effort to be better accountable for what I am eating, exercise, meditation and gratitude.   I specifically set goals with the use of that log – daily gratitude, daily meditation, and either fencing or a trek to the gym 3-5 days a week.

It was a great plan.  The execution of the plan?  There has been some movement on this, but it has still been less than intended, and so the desired goal has not been achieved.

What do I want from these things?  Tracking my diet makes me accountable to myself for what I am putting in my body.  In theory, this should have me examining what I am eating for trends and habits, so that I might make changes to improve my health.  In practice?  I write down what I consume, but don’t make use of my own tool I have created.

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Meditation?  I intend to meditate daily.  Why?  To improve my mental health.  For a while I was a champion at this…and then it just sort of fell to the wayside.  Maybe once a week I practice.

Exercise?  I am fencing at my usual practice once a week at least.  Other than that, I might get to the gym once or twice.  The grand and glorious plan to get up in the morning, change my habits and go workout?   So far, that’s not happened.  Why?  Partially laziness, partially a long list of excuses, and in part because while I want to improve my health, I am loathe to change my wake-up routine and pursue this action.  I believe this may also be a form of self-sabotage.

Gratitude?  I have probably done best writing out at least 5 things I am grateful for most days of the week.  Yet they might get written out, but I do not necessarily take sufficient time to FEEL them, and to really EXPRESS my gratitude.  I half-ass the process, paying it lip-service, but not really applying it as I should be.

It is important that I state here that this is not about pity, self-deprecation, self-loathing or any such negativity.  This is simply an honest look at how I have made plans without adequate follow-through.  This is not about getting mad at myself for perceived failure, this is about an analysis of what I have already done, and consideration of what I need to do to improve upon it.

How do I follow-up my plans with more actions?  That’s the challenge I am facing right now.  I am, as you are reading this, on vacation.  I am away from my usual routines in many different ways while on this trip, and because there is a lack of familiarity in many aspects of this, I am living very much in the now.   I am hoping I can use the energy of that in-the-nowness of this to reset my mindset, and restart.

Because I can’t fully plan for this trip I am on, I will be totally living in the moment.  There will be almost no time to build a routine, so this can serve as a perfect conduit to step outside of my regular activities, and create some new habits afterwards.

I have been writing for some time about needing to change my habits.  Taking a week away from my usual routines is the perfect opportunity to break from them, and when I return home start something new, rather than fall back into the old habits.

When I am back to my regular activities, will I be able to use this reset to create new habits?  That is the plan…now I need to give it the actions.

As always, thank you for crossing the bridges between my worlds with me!

 

GOAL LOG – Week 11:

This week’s log has not been maintained due to vacation.

 

This is the twenty-fifth entry of my personal journey, the Crossing the Bridges series.  My collectively published writing can be found here.